The air was thickened in the room for all of them until bartender Lucas entered the room, breaking that silence between them. He held a glass of water in his hand and came near to Henry, who was sitting on a chair, legs spread and eyes fixed on the room's cobblestone ceiling.
He offered water to Henry while smiling and staring into his eyes. He speaks up with a pleasant tone, "Sir, your water."
Henry looked up to him while resting his neck on the edge of the chair's top and nodded. He pointed his hand toward the table and hinted to him to put down the glass of water. He did the same as what Henry had hinted to him to do, and after that, he left the room with a smile on his face.
Princess Louise remained silent while staring at Henry with empty, meaningless eyes. Her eyes show a little tear falling from her left eye and dropping on her dress. Éloïse Moreau remains silent while fully observing the situation, putting her drink down in her hands.
Henry sits properly on the chair and grabs the glass of water that bartender Lucas left on the table. He saw the tear falling from Louise's eye and spoke up with a calm but respectful tone, "Sorry, princess, I wasn't meant to make you cry."
She brushed her finger across her cheek, feeling the tear before wiping it away with a piece of cloth, and spoke up with a hurtful tone, like something was hurting her from inside, "I… I'm not crying—" She stood up and changed her tone to serious and commanding while changing the subject. She added, "How are you sure that my mother was killed?"
Henry drank the glass of water in three sips and let out a sigh, then put down the glass on the table. "How do I know? Hmm, yeah, how do I know?" He put the fingers of his right hand to his left hand's finger, rested his elbows on the table, stared at her with a serious face, and whispered, "Let me ask you this, Princess. Who chose me as Amelia's guard?"
Éloïse Moreau looked at both of them, then she sipped from her wine glass, which was almost at the end. She didn't bother them but remained listening to them.
Princess Louise dropped into deep thinking, and then, after some time of silence, she replied with a tone of confusion, "My father's third wife, Queen Clara. Mother of Princess Amelia, my younger sister."
Henry smiled and looked into her light blue eyes and remained silent for a moment before speaking, "Wrong." As he spoke this word, Louise, who was standing in her place, came near to Henry and spoke up while holding his shoulder a bit harder, "What the hell are you saying? Clear it; don't play puzzles with me."
Henry freed his shoulder. He stood up, grabbed Louise by both arms, and gently guided her to the bed near Éloïse. He lowered the grip after he forced her to sit on the bed, then he took one chair and turned it toward her while sitting on it.
He looked her in the eyes and spoke up with a respectful tone, "Please calm yourself, princess. I don't remember seeing you act without using your brain." He stopped for a moment and then added with a humble tone, "I will tell you everything when the right time comes, but until then, just know this: that your mother, Queen Victoria, died because of poison, and it was given by Queen Clara and Helena. They did this out of fear and jealousy. That's enough, I think, for you to know right now."
His hands trembled slightly, and his gaze dropped for a moment—he had seen it all firsthand. She got shocked and kept staring at him, her face telling that she had many questions she wanted to ask, but then again, it wasn't the right time to ask those questions.
Henry looks at Louise while standing up. He leans in close and then speaks with a confident, "That's the reason you will help me out; you will get your revenge, Princess." Then he stands up and goes close to the cobblestone wall and touches it while continuing, "Now you should go and think about it. Madame Éloïse Moreau will help us too. Will you not?"
Éloïse Moreau's face shocked up, which gave a chill to her spine, and she spoke up with an interesting tone, "Well, I think so. But don't think I'll do it for your sake or her sake; I have my ambition to rest." She smiled while sipping the last drink of her wine from a glass.
Henry didn't turn toward her and didn't speak for some time, but then, with his left hand touching the cobblestone, he leaned it back and opened his palm, and then, in the blink of an eye, in his hand came the empty glass, the one he used to drink water with. He whispered in the air, which could barely be heard, "Well, it'll not be easy to start a rebellion against the whole noble family system in Lunévare." Henry turns toward Éloïse and gives her a stare, then adds, "Your ambition seems to be similar to mine, but you don't want the throne; you just want to end the monarchy in Lunévare, right?"
He keeps staring at Éloïse with a smile, while Éloïse, shocked by his words, is now silent, like someone holding her soul in their hand. Louise didn't bother them but stood up and spoke up while leaving the room, "I don't care about your ambitions; you both are psychos with crazy ambitions. Explaining things to you is useless. While I believe both of you, keep going."
She set her dress before opening the door and looked in Henry's eyes, and then opened the door with a sound born from it, and she left the room. As she leaves, the room door gets closed, leaving Henry and Éloïse alone in the room.
Éloïse stands up from her place and leans in close to Henry, speaking up with a deep tone. "You know more than you show… I didn't even tell anyone about my ambition, and you find out." She didn't bother herself to sit on a chair, and then she let out a whisper, "You can join Ordre du Miroir Noir. But remember, I will not force you to work under me. But you still have to work as a member of the order; if not, then you aren't a member of Ordre du Miroir Noir."
Henry started laughing as he heard these words from her while putting his hand on his face, then whispered playfully, "Thanks, Madame Éloïse Moreau. It's an honor to be in the most secret order of Caelvara."
Éloïse Moreau smiled and held her hat, put it down on the bed, and took out a bottle of perfume and threw it toward Henry and whispered with a serious tone, "Keep it to yourself, no matter what happens; don't lose it."
Henry nodded and didn't bother to answer what it was about, then Éloïse Moreau spoke up again, clearing the silence of the room, "Now would you bother to tell me, how did you know about my secrets?"
Henry looked straight into her eyes and didn't bother to answer right away; he remained silent for a long moment, turning toward the door, then closed his fist and put his knuckles on the door. He whispered with a smile, "I can manipulate sound, so it was easy to get your beautiful sound from underground and your shop. If I'm not wrong, I knew about you and your order a year ago."
Éloïse Moreau turned toward the door while looking back with her golden eyes; she gripped the door's handle to open it and whispered before opening it, "Try to avoid trouble for me and my order, and be normal with upper people; they have nothing to do with underground. But more importantly, everyone isn't innocent, so be on your guard."
She opened the door and stepped halfway outside, then again hurriedly turned back toward him and whispered with a calm tone, "One more thing, to go to the underground area of Caelvara, just come to Lucas and say—" Before she could speak, Henry spoke up with a playful tone, "I want XIII Récif in the 1st room of the black mirror. That's it, isn't it?"
Éloïse Moreau smiled without any shock, as if she knew this would happen, and then whispered with interest, "I don't think you need to know about anything; you already know everything." She stooped for a moment, then came in and held the glass from his hand and added, "Okay, so follow me. I need to see our base underground, and I have work for you."
Henry nodded but didn't answer; instead, he followed her the way until she reached Lucas. The bartender, Lucas, whispered with a tone, "Madame, so do you need anything from me?"
Éloïse nodded, and Lucas, without letting her speak, whispered, "Then follow me." They both follow Lucas. He goes toward the opposite room of the 3rd room of the mirror. The door was locked, but he unlocked it with the key, which he took out of his bartender's suit pocket; the door was simple and made of oak wood, and on it was a big flower design that was crafted fully on the right side of the door.
He cracked open the door, producing a sound like the hoot of an owl. Before entering, Éloïse, grab an apple from near the fruit basket and bite into it. Then continue to follow him in the room. The room was the same, made of the same cobblestones and wood, but it wasn't a bedroom like the 3rd room of the mirror; it was more like a storage room filled with barrels and bottles of wine. The room was dimly lit, and they could barely see deeper in the room.
Lucas opened his palm, and a candle-type fire ignited on all five of his fingers and lit up the room like candles. He goes deep into the room and stands in the center while facing toward the east side of the wall. When light from his palm falls on the wall, the black mirror, which was fixed on the wall, gets clear, and it reflects light in it like the black color on the ceiling. The ceiling was simply made of stones.
Henry and Éloïse kept standing behind him and observing what he was doing. Lucas sat on his left knee and whispered with a calm tone, "The order of the black mirror, hear me, I offer you all the light of the world; open the door of darkness this land holds, for the good sake of humanity."
As he finished speaking those words, the fire in his hand got absorbed by the black mirror, and the room felt dim again, and silence covered the room. Then, after a short time, the fire got absorbed by the black mirror; it released the same fire but in a dark color on his hand, and then that mirror broke without any sound and opened like a door, showing stairs going down.
Lucas leaned back and whispered while staring at the door, which was going down with stairs, "Madame, now you can go."
Éloïse nodded while biting on the apple once again. Henry was shocked a little but didn't ask or say anything; he just followed Éloïse down the stairs until they reached the end of the stairs. Henry looks back at the mirror door they came from; he stares at Lucas's black eyes and thinks in his mind,
This man doesn't feel like a normal human, though to me, he is not even a human… He is more than normal. Henry's thoughts got stopped the moment he saw Lucas close the mirror door with a smile.
Éloïse, without turning toward him, spoke while swallowing the apple she bit, "Don't worry, he is like this, a little mysterious." Henry ran a little to stand in front of her and then stared into her eyes while moving backward. He speaks with a tone that sends chills up Éloïse's spine.
"Be on your guard in front of him; he isn't normal. I can feel the same energy I feel from King Augustus. They both aren't human." He completes his lines and turns to the way they are moving and starts examining the place.
Éloïse spoke in a little, calm voice while walking beside him, "What do you mean they aren't human?" Henry remained silent for a moment before speaking with a deep tone while staring at the ceiling of that long way, which was made of black stone: "Just don't drop your guard while dealing with him; when the time comes, you will see the things I see from Augustus Griffith."
Éloïse didn't answer, just looked a little bit shocked, and then kept moving forward. Henry keeps examining the place they are walking through; he saw the wall, ceiling, and everything was made of black stone, and on it were fixed many fire torches along the way, and the color of the fire wasn't orange but black, but it was lit up the way orange fire does.
And after, like, 10 minutes of walking a long way, they both reach a big black wooden door, and before they touch it to open it, the door opens by itself, revealing the other side of the door. Henry was a little shocked because he had never seen something like this happen before. He knew this kind of thing usually happens around people like King Augustus, but it was way more complex to take than the things King Augustus does.
They both entered the other side of the door, which was lit up with steam lamps that were fixed on the walls. Then Éloïse Moreau leans in front of him, opening both of her hands and bowing a little, then speaking up with a smile, "Welcome to Ordre du Miroir Noir's base."
Henry remained silent, just observing the room he had just entered. Because to control the whole board of the game, he needed a place, and this is the place. Here, he will do those works that will affect his ambition to move forward.