Tetsu no Sosuke had studied the Mechanism Arts to some extent, but that was clearly nowhere near enough to open this box.
This thing... was even harder to crack than a Luban Lock.
Tetsu no Sosuke tapped lightly along every part of it, listening. He could indeed hear something unusual. Sometimes the sound was crisp, sometimes dull; sometimes it went thump, thump, and sometimes it rang with a metallic ding, ding...
For a wooden box to make a metallic ringing sound was downright strange.
Even by the time Yuichiro returned, Tetsu no Sosuke had made no headway. At last, he sighed helplessly.
"I suspect the different sounds this box makes might be the key to opening it," Tetsu no Sosuke said. "Combining them in different ways might use vibrations to unlock its secret."
Yuichiro nodded. He actually preferred the Mechanism Arts to forging.
"But there are so many different sounds. How are we supposed to combine them?" Yuichiro asked.
Tetsu no Sosuke shook his head. For one thing, it was only a guess. He had no evidence to back it up.
And even if his guess was right, he was like someone with a computer but no password to turn it on.
"I keep feeling that the secret to opening this box is on that door." Tetsu no Sosuke glanced at Yuichiro. "Do you think that's possible?"
Yuichiro set two large rolls of white cloth on the table. "Teacher, when are we going back?"
"After some sleep. We leave tomorrow."
Tetsu no Sosuke was eager to get started.
This was more interesting than he had expected. There was no real danger involved; it was more a matter of solving a mystery.
There wasn't a single trap in that place, yet getting what lay inside was harder than facing any deadly