Adro walked along the corridor and found many doors facing each other. When he reached a small lobby, he saw two people sitting on the long waiting room chairs, which were quite crowded during the day.
Now, Adro was no longer met with strange stares. It seemed that his current clothes were not unusual for them.
"Excuse me, sir. Do you need something?"
Adro turned to the source of the voice. A middle-aged woman stood behind a semi-circular desk, looking at him with a friendly smile.
"Are you talking to me?" Adro asked.
The nurse nodded. "You seem confused. Are you looking for something?"
"Oh, I am." Adro approached the desk. "If you could help me, do you know where I can find a door that can take me to places?"
The nurse furrowed her brow upon hearing Adro's question. She tilted her head slightly and asked, "I'm sorry, but can you provide more details about the door you mean?"
Adro paused to think. He recalled Grace's advice not to speak too much because he was a stranger in this place. He might be considered insane and end up confined.
"Well... it's a door that … takes me from the lower level to the higher level of the building … I guess?" Adro explained, uncertain about the best way to describe the peculiar door he meant.
"Oh, do you mean an elevator?" The woman chuckled.
Adro awkwardly smiled. "I think ... that's what it's called here."
"It looks like you're a foreigner, aren't you?" She asked, thinking that Adro came from another country and was not yet fluent in the local language.
Adro nodded as calmly as possible.
"You can find the elevator by walking straight that way, then turning right. The elevator is on the left," the nurse pointed in the direction she meant.
"I understand. Thank you," Adro said, even though he wasn't sure if the door the woman meant was the same as the one in his mind. But he would check it now.
Following the nurse's directions, Adro arrived at the elevator. He smiled in relief because it was indeed the door he had in mind. From the first time he saw the door called the Elevator, he had been curious but hadn't had the chance to ask Grace about it because they had more important things to discuss.
Now, he would try to examine how the magical door worked, which should be impossible to move without magic. Nevertheless, even though he had said he trusted Grace, he wasn't so reckless as to fully trust a stranger in a bizarre world like this.
Staring at the metal door, Adro took a step back to look at it from bottom to top and repeated it. 'This is strange. How do I open it? Those people brought Grace to the room too quickly earlier, so I didn't have a chance to observe more how they used this door.
He touched the door and clucked because there were no knobs on its surface. The door was made of metal, like the doors to the treasure rooms in the castle. However, there were two doors, and in the middle of them was a box with two round buttons glowing yellow.
'This world is too strange. My common sense is struggling to understand how it works. It's impossible that all the incredible and strange things here aren't moved by magic. Are all the people here actually witches, and Grace is one of them?' Adro thought while rubbing his chin.
Suddenly, the door in front of Adro slid open, making him step back. His hand reflexively moved to his hip because he was too accustomed to having a sword there. Unfortunately, he was unarmed now.
A man and a woman inside the elevator looked at Adro in confusion as they stepped out. Of course, that face would make others consider him strange. There was a mixture of surprise, confusion, and wariness in his expression. Adro stared at them as if they were ghosts. He was lucky the couple didn't mind his offensive gaze.
Suddenly, a young boy passed by Adro and entered the currently-empty elevator. He stood behind the door and pressed the open button while looking at Adro.
"Are you getting in?" the boy, who seemed to be about seven years old, asked.
Adro snapped out of his surprise and stepped into the elevator. "Where will this door take us?"
"I'm going to the hospital cafeteria. What floor do you want? Can I press the button for you?" The boy asked.
Adro looked at the blonde-haired boy with a furrowed brow. Then he was somewhat surprised when the door in front of him closed.
"Can you hear me?" The boy said, staring at Adro with his big eyes.
Adro cleared his throat and adjusted his expression. "Frankly, I just wanted to take a walk. I don't have a specific destination."
"Is that so? How about joining me for a meal in the cafeteria? It's on the first floor." The boy asked.
"That sounds good, and it would be even better if you could explain what that Cafeteria is," Adro replied.
While pressing the button to go to the first floor, the boy answered, "The cafeteria is a place where merchants sell various foods. I get hungry at night, and my mom said it's because I'm approaching my teenage years," he said as he folded his arms across his chest.
"Well. Thank you for the explanation. It helps me a lot, young man," Adro winked.
"You're welcome," the boy replied with his chin up.
"By the way, why are you wandering around alone in such a big building? Did your mother allow it?" Adro asked. Then his brow furrowed as he felt the strange sensation again in his body as the elevator started to descend.
"Of course. I've memorized the way from my brother's room to the cafeteria, the exit, the yard, and the toilet. My mom said I can do all those because I'm growing up."
A faint smile appeared on Adro's lips. He remembered someone who looked like this. It was himself. When he was a child, he always wanted to be an adult so he could go on adventures and fight. It indeed felt great when he could do things that adults typically do.
"You sound amazing," Adro said to boost the boy's ego. "Then, may I know what your name is?"
"My name is Peter Stemon. I'm seven years and two months old. How about you?" The boy extended his hand to Adro with an adult-like gesture.
"My name is Adro Groendez. Nice to meet you, young man," Adro said.
Adro's formality made Peter smile even wider. He looked at him with sparkling eyes because he was a tall man with a sturdy body and a handsome face. It made Peter feel like he was speaking to his favorite superhero character.