Hotel Selten

Chapter Nine

"What was that?!"

A lot of them panicked, some went into their houses, especially those who have panic attacks and easily shocked. The others who are relaxing in the public bath back out.

"Calm down everyone." While the others make the panicking children and people calm, Ophelia looks around. 'That wasn't an explosion by something from me, I never encountered that.' She started to walk around and investigating what exploded.

"Was that you, Ophelia?" She shook her head in response, "Most explosions that I create, or at least 'I' created, if it's really me, don't really have that resounding boom, mostly they are clanks of tin cracking or glass breaking." Miss Eve went silent, she was thinking where and who created the explosion or at least, the sound.

"The sound isn't too loud here... And nothing really happened." The lady looked at a teenage boy, "Armond, investigate the ones who were here." "Roger that, Miss Eve." He jokingly saluted the lady who just giggled to her antics. "Come, Ophelia. Let us investigate in the training ground, there is a huge chance it came from there." The teenage girl with her nods and they went on their way to the training ground which is just a few walks away.

"Have you heard the sound?" Miss Eve asks the ones who trained just earlier. They all agreed, "Yet, there's no one of us that created an explosion." A mid-20s looking male said. "And, it is a bit loud and shook the ground we are standing on." "Nice observation, Lucrece, do you guys have a clue where it came from?"

"Miss... I might have a clue where it came from... Judging how strong it is, is just near here, and the force came from the underground, since I felt it was moving upwards, it may be at the center of the hotel." A female with short blond hair explained, who seems the one who been throwing sharp-pointed rocks earlier at a dummy.

"Center... Center..." Miss Eve's face lighten up and went to a bush. She crouched and lifts something, Ophelia followed.

It was the entrance of the place that they called the underground hall, where Ophelia came from. The dark and creepy hallway underground.

Miss Eve goes down the hallway, she twisted something in the wall and the place went bright. 'Jeez, there was a light there? The torch goes in vain.' The lady looked at her nods, inviting her to enter. She enters, the lights were produced by rocks looking like bulbs. 'What a technology.'

They continued farther down the hallway. They passed by the path she took earlier morning. Just near her room's trapdoor, approximately 5 meters away, there was a door there. The scent of smoke can be smelled by both of them, which made them cough. Miss Eve knocked on the door. It opened and it revealed another teenager that looks like the same age as Ophelia. He has blonde hair with safety goggles resting, a bit chubby freckly face and body, with his brown eyes looking at them. He is all sweaty and seemed to pant.

"Yes." He said while panting, the boy in front of them seems to know why they are here. He wipes his sweat on his forehead. "It was the project I am working on, I..." He huffed, "I am sorry if I scared anyone or..."

Miss Eve smiled. "I knew it. How was your project anyway, Blaise?" They went inside his little—scratch that, big underground machine lab. "I am experimenting a lot, Miss. The one today is a failure, yet a big step for me."

Ophelia wanders around, looking at the gears and the little projects that are displayed on a long counter. Some of them exist in the outside world, just like the amplifier. 'Why would he display this or even uh... Invent this?'

"The explosion earlier was from this machine, it creates an alternative cloaking barrier for the hotel. Since I observed that most of the breaches that we had were because of the cloaking barrier suddenly disappearing or fading away since it uses the power and energy of the leader or the one who currently leads the hotel of some sort. Just an example for Mister Augustus, he became ill and, you know what happened."