"Waiting," Dai said. "There's nothing we can do in this sealed room."
Colin looked up. "There are ventilation shafts above." The brothers followed his gaze but quickly realized the shafts were too small—barely enough for rats. "I told you it's pointless," Dai said. "This room is a cell without bars."
Matteo gestured with his head. "There's a door."
Colin corrected him, "A locked door."
"You once told me you could pick locks, right, Sai?" Matteo asked.
Sai examined the lock. "I can, but I need special, sharp tools."
Matteo reached into his pocket and found his knife still there. Perfect. He pulled it out. "Will this do?" Sai tilted his head slightly. Knives weren't ideal lockpicks, but this one was sharp—it might work.
The five moved toward the door. "Even if Sai picks the lock," Dai said, watching as Sai inserted the knife's tip into the lock, "what can we do if there are guards outside? What if they drug us again?"
Matteo grinned, watching Sai intently. "We'll figure that out after the lock's open. I won't sit here politely waiting for that pervert. By the way, Dai—nice hair tie." Dai stiffened as Colin and Matteo chuckled. Even Sai wore a faint smile.
Ren crossed her arms. "Don't like it, Matteo? It was the only way to save his hair."
"N-no, of course I like it." He laughed as Dai muttered behind him. In truth, Dai didn't mind the tie—his hair was neatly gathered now, no longer irritating his neck or making him sweat as much.
Sai pulled the knife from the lock. "No good. The knife's too big—I can't reach deep enough. I need something smaller and sharper." Disappointment washed over their faces. Ren placed her hands on Sai's shoulders. Sitting in this terrifying room for three hours, waiting anxiously for Matteo to wake, had drained their energy. They were thirsty, hungry, and had no idea when Abrahams would appear—or what he'd do to them. But she was certain they wouldn't let him tear them apart.
She lifted her hands, fiddling with one of the curls in her hair. Her fingers brushed against the butterfly hairpin—the gift from that noblewoman three years ago. She'd kept it all this time. Suddenly, she realized something. "Will this work?" she asked, quickly pulling the pin from her hair.
Sai took it, inspecting the pointed end. "If I break off one of the prongs, I might be able to pick the lock. But isn't this precious to you?"
"It's fine. I can still wear it with one missing prong. Besides, getting out of here is more important." Sai hesitated, but Ren gave him the go-ahead. He snapped off one of the pin's gold-plated copper prongs—easier than expected. Inserting the broken prong into the lock, he worked carefully. After a while, he muttered, barely audible, "This thing could be a weapon..." Ren heard him and touched the pin's sharp end. It was the most beautiful thing she owned—she'd never thought of it as a weapon.
Finally, they heard a click. Sai's face lit up as he twisted the pin. He gave his brothers a triumphant look and reached for the door—but Dai grabbed his wrist. "Don't rush. We need to plan for whatever's waiting outside."
Colin agreed. "Right. All your effort will be wasted if they catch us again."
Matteo was about to speak when the doorknob suddenly turned. They jumped back as the door slowly creaked open. "Damn it!" Matteo hissed. "We took too long."
A bald, pale giant of a man stepped in, holding black iron shackles. Matteo turned to Colin. "It's just one guy. We can take him." Before the words fully left his mouth, four more equally massive men filed in behind the first. "Never mind," Colin said. "We can't take *five* of them."
The lead man gave them a sharp—or rather, threatening—look. He grabbed Matteo, who stood at the front, by the head and slammed him against the wall, forcing shackles onto his wrists. "You bastard!" Matteo choked out, his face pressed into the stone. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
Dai stepped forward. "Don't bother, Matteo. This guy probably can't even talk." Matteo knew resistance was futile, but he hated seeing shackles forced onto his brothers, who submitted without struggle.
The giant dragged them from the stone room into a narrow, windowless corridor. At its end, they emerged into a sight they never expected. Their eyes strained to take it in—their minds struggled to comprehend. Their ears rang with the same raucous noise they'd always heard in the city above, but now it came from underground. "Where the hell are we?!" Colin whispered.
The small family advanced along a high walkway, flanked by a railing on one side and a wall on the other. Below sprawled a vast square where people—who looked like slaves, chained and hauling massive sacks—were whipped into working. Others, dressed elegantly, strolled among them, entering and exiting doors around the square. The square itself seemed endless, with branching paths leading into the labyrinth of multi-leveled walls. One path drew rowdy, muscular men in leather outfits that exposed their arms and legs. Children darted between doors, and the echoes of women's laughter came from every corner. But what shocked them most were the carts carrying cages—some held strange animals they'd never seen, others held men, women, and children in tattered, near-transparent clothing.
The square was a chaotic mix of races—white, black, red, yellow—with even a group of Easterners in some walkways. This bizarre diversity surpassed even the port, which had always welcomed ships from across the continent. The noise was deafening, worse than the capital above. How had the stone room's walls muffled all this?
"We're in an underground city!" Dai said as they walked behind Ren. Their eyes met uneasily. They'd stumbled into something far bigger than they'd imagined.