By now we know what happened to Kris but what about the others in the castle?

Lay was taken to his quarters and locked there. As we know he could leave from there at any moment he liked. But he chose not to. Why? There were guards behind his door. They could have marched in whenever they got another emotions derived order from Lucras. Lay couldn't risk with that.

Of course the doctor was worried how others were treated but instead of finding out now he decided to wait and see what happens. He made himself useful while waiting and checked over his supplies of medicine and other essentials – you may never know when he's needed and it's better to know which items he's lacking of and which ones he has plenty in stock.

As for others: they – D.O, Luhan, Sehun, Xiumin, Suho, Chen – were free to move around the castle. Lucras did give an order for them to be watched by Royal Guards, but those dweebs were too lazy to do so.

***

It was somewhere 9.30 in the morning. Kris had sent the seven youngsters away and just now he watched how Luhan and Sunhi rode out from the castle's grounds.

Chen was in the library and still went through piles and piles of old documents and books. They contained birth and marriage certificates, old laws, family trees, censuses, accountings, and other matters regarding the life in the castle and in the kingdom. But where is that pact?

At first this work seemed really dull and fruitless because it didn't seem to lead him anywhere but by now he just couldn't stop himself from grabbing another book or turning another page. Chen didn't even attend the ball because of this. He had found a lead to the old law some days ago – it should be in the First Constitution and as much as he knows about laws that one hasn't been changed since it was first written.

That law, however, isn't the only thing he's searching for. As he has gone through countless papers he has come across something called The Blinder's Pact. There have been many hints and even straight references to it in documents and two or three times in some birth certificates but he hasn't found the pact itself yet.

Whenever it's mentioned it doesn't seem to be related to the document, which contains the phrase, at all. The reference is just written there as a side-note, as nothing particular. Maybe someone's trying to leave a message? If so then they should have been more specific. To be honest Chen has no idea what that pact contains. Its name doesn't give anything off either. And considering the weird occurrence of the name of the pact he has come to question if the pact actually exists.

But for now... where is that first constitution? Chen thought he had seen the thick and heavy book somewhere before. Come to think of it he could have just been seeing things because the book piles before him proved that he has pretty much lived in the library for the last few weeks and seeing a book somewhere wasn't an unusual sight to his eyes and mind. I'm probably on the retarded side a bit...

But there was one other thing bothering him. When the girls – HyunAe, Haeran, Chinsun – came here he could clearly hear, with his highly trained ears, that some spots of the floor sounded slightly hollow under the maidens' heels. He knew that there were tunnels in the walls and where they laid but what if there are tunnels under this library? There must be.

“Chen?”

The mentioned man jumped in his seat. “Kris! Dammit! I just pissed my pants...”

“Sorry,” Kris chuckled. He sat down next Chen. “Here – a morning tea from D.O.”

“Excellent, thank you.” Chen smiled and took a sip of the warm drink.

“Have you reached somewhere?”

“Yes, I have. Quite far actually. I have to find the First Constitution and then things will solve themselves.... probably... hopefully... but there's one thing I'd like to ask you.” Chen said turning to Kris and the other gave him his full attention. “Are there tunnels under this library?”

Kris thought for a moment. “It's possible. I mean there's a whole other castle down there... But I don't think you can get there from the wall-tunnels. I've been in passages in these walls and I haven't found any doors which should lead under the floor.”

Chen furrowed his brows. “Funny. I clearly heard that the floor was hollow.”

“You may have been hearing things.” Kris shrugged.

“I couldn't have been hearing things.” Chen was sure of what he knew. He stood up and went a few steps farther from the table. “Hear this,” he said knocking on the floor, “Do you hear this? - It's hollow.”

Kris perked up. “You're right...” He looked around the library observing the book shelves closely. “There must be a door or a hatch or something somewhere in the library then.”

“That's what I thought... I suppose it's well-hidden 'cause all the bookcases look the same. As you may probably see.”

“So you've searched for it?”

“Erm... no. I've just sat here thinking that I should search for it,” Chen said sarcastically. “Of course I've tried to find it...”

“Have you thought of removing the books from the shelves?”

“Yes I-... No, no I haven't. What does it have to do with the hatch?”

“Wow, Chen. Too much book-dust makes you lose your intelligence.” Kris was genuinely surprised, “Where did you find the lead to the law?”

“Huh?”

“The book. Do you remember where it was? On which shelf?”

“Oh, that. Here, this book. It was over there. On the third shelf.” Chen said pointing at the right bookcase.

“OK. Let's see.” Kris said and wasted no time removing the remaining books from the shelf. Just to be sure that this bookcase was different he picked the books off from the neighboring shelves on either side of the bookcase as well. No doubt – this bookcase's backboard was clearly darker than the other ones.

“Let's get these books out of the way, shall we?” Kris turned to Chen.

“Right. Right away.” Chen got next to the other in a blink.

Together they cleared the shelves in seconds.

“Do you think the door's behind here?”

“I don't know. Let's hope it is...”

Just when they were about to move the bookcase the pager in Kris's pocket peeped.

“Ah, damn it! What is it now?” Kris got irritated. He looked what the message was. “I gotta go. Sorry. It's Lucras.”

“Lucras? Shouldn't they be out of order 'till noon?” Chen got surprised. How come?! They're heavy drinkers and they have never been up so early after a ball...!

The butler stepped away from the shelf taking his leave. “I don't know... - I'll get someone to help you.”

“Be careful!” Chen called after his friend. “Something's not right.” He said to himself looking at the empty bookshelf before him.

***

As Kris speed-walked down the hall to get to the Council Room he ran into Suho.

“Suho! Just the person I needed.”

“What's up? Where are you going?”

“To Rotten's nuthouse.” Kris informed the other. Seeing that Suho was about to say something he shook his head and went on: “No time to explain. I need you to go to the library and help Chen.” Then Kris took off again.

“With what? Kris! Kris, wait!” Suho called after the other.

Kris did stop and turned around.

Suho stood where he was and looked at Kris. He walked up to the butler. The latter knew what his friend was going to say.

But Suho didn't say anything. He looked away.

“I'll be fine, Suho.” Kris said softly.

“Do believe that yourself?”

“No... but…” Kris sighed, “If anything goes wrong...”

The butler paused. He didn't want to think about it but this outcome was unavoidable one way or the other. Either I'll take the punch or someone else will... and it can't it be someone else.

“...If anything goes wrong I want you to take charge. I know you can do it.”

And with that Kris turned around and walked away as quickly as he could. He didn't want to hear what the other had to say. He didn't want to hear another one of those talks from Suho. The ones he knew where true. Every single word of them.

What Kris didn't know was that Suho actually didn't have anything to say. He didn't want to say a thing. He had given up on changing Kris's mind on matters like this. He knew it was just a waste of words. The other wouldn't listen to him anyway. You're not going to be fine... Lucras isn't that stupid. He knows that something's going on...

There's no way back now. We either do this or die trying.

***

Chen had filled his time by organizing the books on other shelves and putting the ones on the table back to where they belonged. He had kept this place quite tidy so that by the time Suho reached the library the only books waiting to be put back where the ones of the special bookcase.

Chen finished his tea and gulping it down quickly he said: “Excellent! Come here. Help me move this bookcase.”

“What do you have behind there? A door?” Suho asked stepping closer.

“Let’s hope so. It would be a lot easier if it would be just a hole in the wall so that I wouldn’t have to find a key… or a crowbar. – Anyway get this side I’ll get this one. Ready? On three. One, two, th-ree…”

The bookcase was lighter than it looked but judging by the sound the floor it made when the two men pulled the shelves it must have been weighing twice as much as it looked. But who cares how much this pile of wood weighed! What’s behind it is important.

And that was what Chen was dying for to find out.

When the bookcase was pulled away far enough that one could peek behind it Chen told Suho to stop for a moment and they both had a look.

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. A brick wall like any other was smiling its stony smile at them.

“What the…?” Chen didn’t understand.

“Let’s get this out of the way and have a better look.” Suho suggested.

“Fine by me.” What did I expect? That secret doors just lie around the walls being all obvious?

And so they moved the bookcase farther away. Gosh, this wall was dusty!

Chen pretty much jumped up to the wall.

“There must be a door here.” The library-boy said putting his hands on the wall and tracing the edges of the bricks.

“How can you be so sure.”

“This bookcase’s backboard was much darker than other ones’.” Chen said pointing over his shoulder at the bookcase behind him.

Suho turned around and looked at the bookcase. “I see your problem, Chen. – You missed the first step.”

“What first step?” Chen asked turning around, “Oh… snap…”

Hey, pumpkins! I know I've been bad... not updating for two weeks, but I've been sick (I'm fine now... obviously) so I took a little break. I hope you'll understand :)

Enjoy!