They pretended to take a walk while Nick was looking for opportunities. In a way Zia was right – if some people knew what they have done and they have not been punished, it meant that the king was still in the dark and theoretically it would be possible to put the book back before he noticed. Neither of them knew if the book was important and whether the king will look for it. If the real investigation was launched, they definitely would be prime suspects and Nick would be the one to be punished in the end.
There was no way for them to get through the door – this time the guards were attentively watching them already when they got closer. Thus there were no other entrances, except … the windows!
Nick whispered something to Zia and they went out to continue their walk outside. The day was nice and it was not their first time pretending to play around. When there were no guards nearby, Nick carefully checked the windows to the study. Few were the regular type, big and transparent, but most were made of the same colorful mosaic he had already seen in many other places.
There was no way to take a closer look, because of the risk of someone being inside, therefore they decided to come back early morning the next day.
After the most research was done, they parted to continue their practice tomorrow.
After Nick returned home, there was a man waiting at the door. He looked like a scuffed government official, maybe a messenger of some sorts.
"Are you Nick?" The man addressed him.
"Yes, how can I help you?" Previously Nick was afraid that the Holy Order could find him, but now, after he got a healthy bright skin, the old most eye catching trait, the dark brown skin, was lost. And people from the sect would simply grab him without asking any questions, thus most likely this man posed no threat.
"I would like to talk to you. Is there some place where we can sit?"
"Sorry, I am busy. Maybe another day." Nick politely refused.
"It won't take long. You see, Bruno told me that the commotion the other day was caused by you and I would like to know more about the new ingredient you were using. You will not regret, I'll pay you generously."
Nick already predicted that people will try to pester Bruno about what happened, but they agreed that the baker will tell everyone the ingredient was bought from an overseas merchant and there was no more left. If this man came to him, it meant he was representing some influential party that Bruno couldn't simply chase away. All the Ben's friends, including the baker, were former army buddies and would not care about a random person.
"I bought that thing from a weird merchant and there is no more left. I'm sorry, I can't help you." Nick politely replied. Basically this was a foolproof answer. No one could prove he was lying, except Ben, of course, but there was no way Ben would sell him out.
The man nodded as he was expecting this answer already, "I'm from the Meyer family. We think there might be more to it …"
"Sorry, I am busy. Say 'hello' to mister Meyer from me. Goodbye!" Nick interrupted, went in and closed the door.
He felt that it might take several days to get rid of this person now. If the Meyers were involved, they definitely knew he sent pizza to the palace and that the king himself liked the exotic and unique dish. At the same time Nick didn't want to bother with these questions and wanted to be let alone. The fact that someone from an influential family was looking for him, definitely didn't mean the head of the family was involved.
Most likely it was some 'manager' type person who was researching business opportunities. And even in the unlikely scenario this was an order from upstairs, Nick didn't really care – he had the grand elder's wristband and was super rich and didn't need any money.
The next day, as usual, he met Zia in the kitchen. On this occasion there was no time for breakfast, thus they grabbed some nuts to snack on and went to 'play' outside. Zia was not allowed to leave the palace, but she still could move freely around within the palace complex. Lately her old servant lady was not following her anymore – probably because of the her mother's orders. Zia was not that small and Ling was watching over her anyway.
They quickly neared the building that had her father's study in it. When no guards were patrolling around, according to their prior plan, Zia helped Nick to get on the windowsill. The latter quickly took some measurements, jumped down and they left.
The rest of the day went by as usual.
During one of the breaks, Nick looked at Zia who was reading a book, "I think you need to wear something else. The dresses are nice, but how are you going to train like this?"
Lately in the courtyard he started to take a few steps by walking upside down to strengthen his hands and the thought of Zia practicing a similar exercise in her current attire felt funny.
"Do you want me to dress like you?" Zia made a wry face.
"Hahaha, no! Such ugly clothes don't suit you. Why don't we ask your tailor to make something practical for you, but still pretty?"
Nick didn't even manage to blink, when he found himself being pulled through the palace's corridors at the speed of light once again.
Soon they entered a room that was stacked full with cloth rolls and mannequins. A short and thin man was currently sewing buttons to a white dress and a couple of younger people, probably his assistants or apprentices, were behind him busy cutting and sewing something.
When the man saw Zia, he sighed and to Nick it looked like he was giving up in helplessness.
This time it didn't turn out to be so bad. Although Nick was not an artist and couldn't really draw, this tailor knew his stuff. He quickly grasped idea of the outfit Nick had in mind, noted few things down and shooed them away. Although he had to make clothes every day, as a master of his craft he loved new things and what Nick suggested was an interesting innovation. Tailor himself wanted to see how it will turn out.
Zia, on the other hand, barely listened to him. She wanted to get her new attire as fast as possible.
In the end they still finished their practice and agreed to meet the same time and place the following morning. After all tomorrow they will sneak in the royal study for the second time!
On the way back Nick had to buy few things. The first thing he got was a small black bag that was meant to be carried on a shoulder. Nick decided to order a 21st century style backpack later at Stefan's place. Although he had the grand elder's wristband, or rather, his new wristband, in order to hide it from the others, for the time being he was still wearing it on his thigh. He could grab a coin or two from there, but even if he wore it on his forearm, it was not ideal to summon larger objects from a thin air.
After getting the shoulder bag, in an alchemy shop he bought a piece of thick, soft paper and a good glue and then spent a lot of time until he found a glassmith. He asked to cut a piece of a thin glass according to his measurements, and, although the glassmith looked a bit strangely at his young customer, he quickly produced the piece Nick wanted.
Near the home Nick was once again greeted by the guy from the Meyer family. This time the businessman tried to entice him with sweets, but got stupefied, when the young child with a loud sarcastic laughter went in and slapped the door in his face. Nick really did find it hilarious – imagine enticing a student with a candy!
The rest of the evening he spent practicing and going over his plan for tomorrow.
When the next morning Nick met Zia, he experienced a light shock, "How did he complete it this fast?"
Princess was wearing a pitch black pantsuit, with a little wider sleeves and pants – it was quite similar to the pantsuits girls wore back in San Francisco. She also had a beautiful crimson red belt that went nicely together with her headscarf of the same color. Those were either her own or tailor's additions – Nick didn't think of that yesterday. Then Zia elegantly turned around and on her back Nick saw an embroidered red dragon.
"He did even manage to make something like that in such a short period of time?" Nick's shock increased.
"I look great, don't I!" Zia was smiling proudly.
This was not a typical outfit for a child, much less for a girl – females here usually wore dresses and sometimes robes. Nick tried to suggest something like karate-style kimono for her training to be more convenient, but the tailor actually created a really fashionable product.
"The scarf?" Nick pointed at her head.
"That was my idea! I liked how it looked on you, although at that time I thought you were a girl, hahaha!"
"Is it at least comfortable? Can you move freely?"
"Look!" Zia shouted and suddenly kicked Ben's shoulder who was standing right next to Nick, also looking stupefied and didn't even manage to dodge.
"Hahaha! You could've just said yes, you don't need to kick people. Let's go." Nick pulled her away with an awkward laugh and apologetic look on his face.
Both would have loved to chat more and have some breakfast, but today they had a grand plan to execute.
While trying to evade all patrols, they proceeded towards the royal study. The sun was already up and people were moving about the palace corridors.
The two young criminals didn't have much time. When they were certain no one was around, Zia quickly helped Nick to get up on the windowsill like yesterday and he pulled her up right after that. Then he opened his bag, took out glue and fully covered one part of the yellow glass mosaic. Then took the thick paper and carefully pressed on that mosaic part.
After verifying that no one was around, Nick hit the middle of the paper with his elbow. The glass did break with a thud, but didn't scatter almost at all – the big pieces were still glued to the paper.
For the next part Nick carefully pushed the broken mosaic piece inside and a small opening was created – exactly enough for their small bodies to pass through. They didn't say anything, Nick just pointed at the opening and Zia nimbly got in. Then Nick checked the surroundings again and followed her. After he got in, he pulled out a small brush and a paper slip, passed them to Zia and pointed at the floor.
Princess jumped down like a cat and quickly brushed all the small glass pieces from the floor on the paper. Then crumpled it in a ball and threw back to Nick. He put that in the bag together with the one he just made himself – while Zia was cleaning the floor, he already cleaned windowsill as well. Then he took out a yellow glass piece and put it at the spot where previously was the piece of glass mosaic he broke a moment ago. Of course, he could not make it look like nothing happened, but the changes were not too obvious, at least from outside. When their job was finished, they would still need to get out and install the new piece so this had to do for now.
So far everything went perfectly according to the plan.
They both quickly proceeded towards the bookshelves, when they heard voices nearing and the guards greeting someone right outside the study. Then the door opened.