The castle was large and remarkably large. Seven people could only cover the entire area if they got caught or caused a drama of some kind,
The assassins knew for a fact that this was not an easy task. More than 100 rooms and 1000 or more soldiers covered them. Without killing a single one, they had to find the queen and finish the job in one night.
The five crew got out of the rendezvous room and ran into the shady area to reach the northwest corner of the building. It was the only part of the castle left unlit for the entire time. None of the soldiers ever preferred to enter this part. Which made it a perfect area to infiltrate the castle.
The five claim a broken window and go inside the dark hallway. They didn't light a torch or lamp because burning anything that gives light could destroy their cover to any patrolling soldiers.
But through the light from the outside, they could see a dark, burned hallway filled with scorched doors and mats.
The team walked ahead in the hallway seeing the destroyed hallway,
"I don't like seeing this! It is messing with my head. Why does a royal palace look like this? Isn't a royal building more clean and good-looking?"
Near spoke for the first time. He was getting strained by just seeing the environment around him.
"You don't know the myth of his side of the castle, do you? "
Rage remarked on Near question, which everybody had a disappointed face on. They were upset about Near for not knowing a famous Legend of their own nation.
Seeing this, Asuka began to speak,
"You are the youngest here, I'll tell you. It is said that the King's youngest daughter was burned alive by an attacking mob and now her ghost roams around this area of the palace."
"..."
"Honestly! people do not have their minds in the right place. What was the girl's fault in this? She did nothing wrong."
Asuka has her genuine opinion on such a brutal and unforgiving act. Meanwhile,
"Near, are you ok?"
Near started to breathe heavily as he remembered an old memory,
a short and small memory was a burning woman crying and begging a man to stop. Still, he didn't and kept spilling oil on her and then burned her. Her cries and shouts began to echo in his mind.
His senses became lost for a second, but he recovered quickly too.
"Yes, I am alright keep moving."
The assassin moves through the hallway, going left to right on different hallways until they finally reach the stairs.
"We need to move the stairs but it will be too much of a risk directly going up from here, so we need to back of the building to climb to the top of the building and start researching from there."
"Then why did we come here in the first place? It was of no use."
Arthur complained about how they wasted their time searching an empty area.
"I know, Arthur, but I need you and Rage to search for something for me here."
"Search something? What is buried here now?"
"I don't know but Master told me that the day the festival was held in the capital. He came to see it secretly and he said that something important was hidden in the scorched doors. He heard from the queen jail keeper himself."
"Do you think that old lady would have said anything to her jailkeeper? That's madness."
"In their last moments, people show their true self-"
"..."
"-and it is an order directly from the master, so try to do your best here."
Arthur said nothing against that. He would never disobey his Master's command. Something ingrained in the very souls of the assassins.
The team split apart as Levi and Rage roamed the hallway looking into different rooms and trying things like finding a lever or special button to open a gate.
Nothing came their way. They searched room after room, looking for any hints. They were disappointed until they entered the room with no door.
"It seems this room is the last hope for us."
"No, there are few still left after this."
Arthur gave Rage a squinted look and, with a large smile, tried to mock Rage, but he ignored it and moved inside.
"There is a bookshelf here."
"Yes, there must be something here."
They looked at a burned book shed. They looked through most of the books, all of them utterly.
"There is nothing here!"
Arthur got angry after searching through burned books and threw one on the floor while Rage kept opening more.
"Don't spread too much noise, calm down. I'll find something."
Arthur tried to calm his nerves and moved to the edge of the wall. He stood there, taking deep breaths and looked at the room light shined upon one part of the room.
"Oye, where are you going?"
Arthur went to that corner of the room and saw an irregularity in the walls,
"This part of the wall is too bulged."
"What?! I fail to see the difference."
Arthur passed his hand into the wall pressing hard against the nearly none visible bugle, and suddenly something came to his hand.
"It's a key!"
"A key but for what?"
"I don't know but having it feels so good. It feels like I have a lot of power now."
"Wait this matches the keyhole of the chest I was sitting in the room."
"Yeah! Let's go."
The two moved to form the building and returned to the rendezvous room.
"This one."
Arthur inserted the key into a chest, opening the cupboard to find a piece of paper with something written on it.
Arthur grabbed the paper in haste and started to read it in the little light of the lamp but his expression turned from happy to disbelief in an instant.
"What does it say?!"
"The King and Queen of the Royal family are still alive, they successfully escaped the country instead of getting executed."
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