Chapter 10: Crimson Tears

"A… A secret compartment?" He glanced at Ali. "How did you know there was one in here?"

Ali shook his head as if to say he didn't know.

Instead, he pointed at the symbols and saw its pattern – the sun-like icons had different numbers of rays and were pushed accordingly.

Haru ruffled the little boy's hair and chuckled, "You did a great job there. I didn't even notice that! You're brilliant, aren't you?"

A trail of silence went off when Ali just looked down, making Haru conscious in an instant.

He took his hand back, "Oh, I'm sorry. You didn't like being touched, did you? I got carried away."

Ali remained quiet.

Averting his attention back to the wall's secret compartment, he noticed the item that was sitting on it.

There was a pentagon stone that had at least around 15 cm radius from its center to one of its sides.

There were 5 tear-shaped spaces carved on its thickness.

In the middle of it is a circle chiseled perfectly.

It's as if the stone was meant to be a container or a chest for five special tear-shaped items with its crate-like space.

Lost in his own thoughts, Haru snapped back when Ali was pointing at the stone.

"Red stones," He said. "Treasure box."

Haru slightly tilted his head, confused, "Huh? What do you mean?"

"Red stones," Ali kept pointing at the tear-shaped crate in the pentagon stone.

Haru stared at it intently until he came to a realization, finally understanding what the boy wanted to say.

"Oh! That's right! Something like that is probably in there and it would fit perfectly!"

Haru, excited with his eureka, bolted through the hallways.

Ali followed him, catching his breath with his little body.

When they finally reached the treasure box room, they immediately ransacked the room for an item without a hitch.

Soon, they obtained the bright bloody-colored ruby that was molded into a frame of a tear.

They returned to the pentagon stone and Haru carefully placed the gem into one of its spaces.

As soon as the tear-shaped ruby touched the grey asphalt stone, the outline it was shaped glowed in pure white for a second and instantly disappeared.

Haru was fascinated with the magical mechanism.

He glanced back at Ali, "Do you think something interesting would happen if we fill this stone up?"

Ali nodded and gave a thumbs up, showing he completely agreed.

"Then, let's try looking for some more of this gem, shall we?"

Thrilled with the newfound discovery in the castle, Haru enthusiastically went back to the treasure box room to find a similar shaped gem to put into the pentagon stone.

They scoured the whole room for about an hour, only to be left disappointed.

Their search was in vain, not obtaining another teardrop gem from the room.

Most of them were raw, diamond-shaped, or square-shaped with cut edges.

Haru laid down on the floor, tired and exasperated.

"This is odd," He thought. "Just how limited would a tear-shaped gem be?"

Haru wondered if there would be other places the gem would be.

He pulled out a heavy sigh and sat up.

"Ali, let's search in another room for—Ali?"

When Haru looked around, Ali wasn't in the room anymore and he was left there alone.