Edited by: Kuro and Lille
The next two chapters were sponsored by: 917brat and the other ko-fi supporter (anon)! Please enjoy this chapter and the one I will be posting right after this one! Please thank them again for donating to complete the goal (twice)! :D <3 thank you so much for your support of me and my story.
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Queen Meredith and Consort Ceanna were sitting in a room in the secret passageway that linked their two castles. The place was built just before they decided to act against Prince Ameer's mother, Consort Fiona Blythe.
Queen Meredith was in charge of finding the "cursed potion", while Consort Ceanna was in charge of administering it to Consort Fiona. They had made a magic contract. If anyone violated the terms of the contract, they would die the next day.
This kept the two of them in a tight hold, bound to one another even if they hated each other. Even so, they had a good relationship, frequently using the space together.
In the secret passageway, a main pathway led from one hidden door to another. Then three minor hallways branched out from the main one. They were slightly smaller in size and blocked by a door.
In each smaller hallway, there was only one room. It was like a maze though, with many dead ends and open areas that led to nowhere. In total, there were three rooms. The first room, the one closest to the main castle, was the one where they held secret meetings. It had a wooden table surrounded by four wooden chairs. The second room was where they had hidden the forbidden alchemy book that held the recipe for the "cursed potion" as well as the antidote for it. It was locked in a chest in the middle of the room. It had a special lock on it. There were also other items in the room like the contract, letters that could not be burned, and things of that nature. Everything in that room could incriminate them. They planned to get rid of everything in there the moment Ameer died.
As for the last room, it was an empty room that was used to torture people. Currently, there was no one being tortured so it was spotless.
Currently, Queen Meredith, her most trusted servant, a maid who had followed her from childhood to her present position, and Consort Ceanna along with her own trusted servant, were in the meeting room.
The two maids were not sitting. They were standing behind their respective masters, pretending they didn't exist.
"Do you think he's bluffing?" Consort Ceanna asked, grinding her teeth in anger.
Every time she saw Ameer, she wanted to rip his head off so that he could join his mother in the afterlife.
Queen Meredith sighed while rubbing her temples. Her aura felt completely different from her innocent look. Her face was twisted in anger. "He might be, but knowing him, he may be acting on information he was given. Even though we killed most of the people involved, there were a couple that got away…"
"Those bastards." Consort Ceanna sneered thinking about the two maids who disappeared without a trace.
"If we increase the guards around the hidden entrance, it's just giving it away that there's something hidden in the area. Let's keep some people hidden in the shadows."
"I agree, Your Majesty… Next time, I will be sure to kill those two rats polluting the Royal family."
The two women looked at each other in agreement and didn't speak anymore. They nodded to one another and went back to their residences.
In a world where men saw women as their property, they could only come and band together, even if it meant killing innocent people to secure their safety.
They lived in a cruel world, but they had to be cruel to survive as the weak would die if they couldn't put up a fight.
*****
After a few days of scouting around the two hidden entrances, they finally figured out the schedule of the normal and hidden guards. The hidden guards weren't as good as the Shadow Guards that Grey was once affiliated with, but they were a bit stronger than the average Royal Knight.
According to Abner's intel (which he had been really suited for so Grey made him in charge of it), these hidden guards were deployed by Queen Meredith's father, Duke Ross. These guards were all trained by him. He gave these guards to Queen Meredith to protect her because he knew how messy it was to live in the Royal family.
For Grey and his fellow men who had been on the battlefield for years, these guards were nothing.
So on the day they decided to go grab the book and any related documents, these guards were easy to deal with even if they were in hidden spots. He made sure none of these guards could even smell them nonetheless see them.
The four of them were wearing all-black outfits that covered most of their faces and bodies. Leaving only their noses and eyes exposed.
Grey, Noah, Abner, and Hartley made their way into the hidden entrance in the main castle. It had the most hidden guards, so it was better to get rid of them first and make their escape easier at Queen Meredith's residence.
When they got into the hidden tunnel, Grey opened up the system map that he asked Arisa and System 505 to make. It was a mess. It was a huge maze. The main hallway had three branching hallways. Each of these smaller hallways eventually, if one didn't get lost, brought them to a door. Grey had Noah, Abner, and Hartley split up and check the other rooms.
The first room was checked by Noah. It was the one closest to the main castle and it had nothing but a table and a few chairs. The second room, which was checked by Abner, was locked. Hartley checked the third room and found it was almost empty. It had a few torture devices in there but they were clean.
"It seems the second room is where it must be hidden…" Grey looked at the maps that his three trusted aides made on their way to the room. This was for appearance's sake.
It was a very simple map. They didn't have to note any traps or monsters, and there were no important landmarks or any complicated areas. This made it easy and quick to draw.
They still had plenty of time, so the four of them quickly ran through the hallway to the second door.
Grey, the one who had the best lock-picking skills, knelt to take a look at the keyhole. It was relatively simple and there wasn't any magic to lock it, so he opened it with no problems.
When he opened the door, the first thing he noticed was the chest, sitting on the floor, in the middle of the room. It had a glowing magic circle where the keyhole should be.
The chest was pretty small, about the size of an adult man's shoe box. It was made out of an unknown metal, so even if he wanted to break through it with brute force, Grey felt like he probably wouldn't be able to.
Grey took the bag off his back and looked over at Noah and them. "I will grab the chest, while you all scan the documents in this room."
The three nodded their heads and headed for the bookshelves. There were three bookshelves up against the same wall. They weren't very tall seeing as how the women who needed to use the shelves were on the shorter side. The shelves also weren't full, so it didn't take very long for Noah, Abner, and Hartley to look through them.
Noah and Hartley weren't the sharpest tools in the shed, but they understood how dangerous and incriminating these documents were. Any one of these documents could prove those two guilty. Some could directly execute them under the law of their Kingdom.
"These two are disgusting…" Noah spat out like he drank something nasty.
"To think they even have documentation stating who will get the poison and who will administer it to the King. No wonder he is suddenly ill when he used to be so healthy." Even though Abner didn't like King Maverick, he still felt it was immoral to slowly torture and kill people like this.
In all the documents, Queen Meredith was the one who got the poison and Consort Ceanna was the one who administered it. Each time too. King Maverick was not the only victim of their schemes, Ameer's mother, Fiona Blythe, and Noah's mother, Gianna Lynn, were also murdered through despicable means. Concubine Fiona Blythe was executed for giving birth to a "cursed" child, while Concubine Gianna Lynn was killed using poison right after Noah was born, making it seem like she had died giving birth.
Abner was the one who found the document about Noah's mother. He wanted to hide it from Noah, but he knew the young man had the right to know the truth.
"Noah, look at this document while Hartley and I look through the rest," Abner said drearily, handing the document to Noah.
Noah was a little confused at first, but he still took the document from Abner. The document was imbued with magic. He knew magic contracts had consequences if they were violated. This proved their authenticity.
He held his breath when he read most of the contents. He felt like he couldn't breathe and if he did, something bad would happen. He didn't want to let the anger take over him, so he gripped the contract in his hands. It could not be destroyed or even wrinkled unless the contract was either completed or violated. Still, he felt like his whole world was spinning and nothing made sense to him.
Meanwhile, Grey was looking around the chest, checking for traps. His intuition told him it was safe, so he picked up the chest. He felt it was a little on the heavier side, indicating that there was something there.
He couldn't peer into the keyhole, nor could he open it through lock-picking.
Grey knew there wasn't much he could do, so he put the chest in his bag.
He saw Noah standing at the bookshelf, holding on to one document for a really long time.
Grey could already guess what the contents were, so he went up to Noah and patted him on his back. "Little brother, all we can do now is avenge our mothers."
Noah, who was finally out of his trance, looked at Grey. Grey had a solemn expression on his face. It was serious. There was no pity, no sympathy, but for some reason, he knew that Grey could understand how he was feeling. Actually, he knew Grey could do more than just empathize. Their mothers went through similar treatment.
"You are right. For our mothers… We will give them justice." Noah didn't let go of the document and held it close. It was the only evidence he had for his mother's case.
Abner and Hartley looked through everything and found it was all worth taking.
"How are we going to take all of this?" Abner rubbed his chin while looking at the bookshelves.
"Don't worry, I got this." Grey also didn't want to leave any of these behind and he didn't want to make a second trip to this place, so he decided to use his system space and cover it up as magic.
Once all the documents disappeared, everyone else was shocked.
"How… Did you use magic?" Noah asked, his mouth still hanging open.
"Yeah, one day, I was suddenly able to use magic. This is the only thing I can do though…"
After living in this world, he knew that magic was so niche. Even the general public didn't know how it was used or what kinds of magic there were. He felt it wouldn't hurt him to expose his system space to his most trusted aides. Plus, the Gods were not as active as they were in other worlds.
"This makes everything a hell of a lot easier! How much space have you got?" Hartley laughed as she patted Grey on the back. Quite hard at that.
"I got enough to hold our supplies for a year."
Judging by the size of the army, that was a lot.
"Damn… That's a lot of room… How convenient though." Abner felt like his eyes were going to pop out of his socket as he thought about it.
"Alright, enough talking. Let's get out of here." Grey shooed everyone out the door while he put the chest into his system space. He replaced it with another box just in case someone caught up to him and knew what he had.
For now, all he could think about doing was finding a mage to open the chest up and then an alchemist to cure him.
He didn't have much time to spare…