To Be King (4)

Edited by: Kuro and Lille

I would like to thank 917brat and the other ko-fi supporter (anon), especially 917brat (who gave a whooping 60 dollars) for completing the ko-fi goal. TWICE. Please enjoy this chapter and the next after this! Thank you once again for supporting me and my work! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When night fell, Grey, Noah, Abner, and Hartley went into groups of two and split up at Ameer's small mansion.

Grey and Hartley quickly moved through the shadows, bypassed any guards, knocked out any that got too close, and somehow slipped through a window that was slightly left open. It took about 30 minutes for them to infiltrate the central castle.

Hartley followed closely behind Grey as she knew that he was better at hiding his presence. Plus, she was just a commoner, she didn't have the chance to enter the central castle, nonetheless, the castle district, until she met Ameer. She could only try to memorize where they were going and who was patrolling the halls.

Luckily for them, most of the servants were asleep. The only ones awake were the knights who had night shifts. Even then, they weren't as diligent because the Royal Family's residence had never been breached. Well, that was until today.

The first place they were going to infiltrate was Consort Ceanna's quarters. Lately, she was attending to King Maverick in his room, as he was sick and wanted to be with his favorite wife, so her room was empty. It was the best place to go on their first night.

They were only scouting. If they found something, they would have to mark it on the map that Grey and Abner were creating while moving through the castles. Then they will come back together and discuss how they want to tackle the area.

The central castle was split into three sections. The first section had the audience room, the ballroom/dining room, and the King's study room. The second section had the different ministry offices, the library, as well as the reception rooms for meetings that had nothing to do with the King. Lastly, the third section had King Maverick's quarters, Consort Ceanna's quarters, and the princes' and princesses' quarters.

Grey and Hartley slowly made their way to the living quarters where the Royal family lived. The princes and princesses lived on the third floor, Consort Ceanna on the second floor, and King Maverick on the first floor.

They passed the first floor as it wasn't needed for them to search through.

When they arrived on the second floor, there wasn't anyone patrolling the halls. The knights saw it was unnecessary to guard empty rooms when Consort Ceanna lived with King Maverick. This was advantageous for Grey and Hartley.

They slowly crept down the hall and stopped halfway. The door was significantly luxurious compared to the rest of the hall, so they knew this was Consort Ceanna's personal room.

Grey put his ear to the door and didn't hear any movement. Still, he cautiously opened the door and peeked inside. No one was in there.

They quickly went inside and softly shut the door.

They were looking for any suspicious items or a hidden door. He felt a hidden door made more sense though.

Grey whispered, "Hartley, you look over there at that side of the room. I will look this way."

"Understood," She replied and got to work. She was doing her best to be as careful as possible so she was a bit slow.

He had Hartley check the areas by the dressers and closets. He felt it would be rude to open things and stumble upon her lingerie.

Grey checked all other areas and found nothing. He didn't see any hidden doors or compartments. He opened all the books and they were all normal. He even checked under the bed and the wall behind the frame.

"Well, if it isn't in her room, let's check her office."

"Good plan."

The two didn't waste time and they backtracked a couple of doors to the office. This office was pretty small but it had a lot of books and documents. The walls were filled with shelves that were stuffed to the brim. Her desk was neat with all her documents organized in specific piles.

"You take the right side and I will take the left side."

The left side was in the direction of the staircase and the right side was in the direction of Consort Ceanna's room.

Grey went through the bookshelves, moving each book ever so slightly. They couldn't rule out any hidden doors. As he went through the third bookshelf, halfway through, a strange book made a click sound. The book was slightly bigger than all the other books, didn't have a title on the spine of the book, and it was an odd green color. All the other books were either brown, black, or gray. The green color was closer to black, so the person would have to look closely to see the difference.

He tipped the book all the way and the hidden door opened.

"Well, would you look at that? Predictable." Grey looked over at Hartley with a grin on his face. "Since we found the secret entrance, let's discuss it with Noah and Abner."

"Alright, let's get out of here. I want to go to sleep." Hartley gave a thumbs-up while she yawned.

Grey closed the hidden door and they sneaked out of the central castle. It took less time as Grey had already memorized the layout of the castle. The two went back to their rooms to wait for Noah and Abner.

However, it was a night full of pain for Grey.

Meanwhile, Noah and Abner were sneaking through Queen Meredith's residence. It didn't have a lot of security, so it was a lot easier to get through than the central castle.

They were a bit slower than Grey and Hartley because they were trying to be more careful. Fortunately, they were able to get in without any incident.

They slowly made their way to Queen Meredith's room. It wasn't hard to find. There were only two stories and her room was on the second floor toward the middle of the residence.

When they got there, Abner put his ear up to the door to see if she was awake. He regretted everything. He quickly covered Noah's ears and urged him to go away from the area.

When they were far enough from the room, Noah finally got to ask his question, "What happened back there?"

"Children should stay pure and not be tainted by the pleasures of humans."

This time, Noah was even more confused. He was a certified musclehead who only thought about his weapon, swords, war, and his comrades. The thought of sex never crossed his mind, nonetheless doing the act.

Abner wanted to curse. The day he and Noah decided to sneak into the Queen's castle, he heard her and her lovers having sex in the room. It wasn't just one or two people, but there were three other men in there! There could be more! He didn't even want to know what was going on and how it worked.

Also, as a parent, there was no way he would let his children or people he saw as his children witness this at a young age! He was just too overprotective…

He felt it was lucky that Noah didn't hear it. Noah was the baby of the group. He was only 19. He came to the army when he was only a young boy. He practically grew up on the battlefield.

He felt it was best to protect his innocence…

"I'm not a child." Noah pouted.

Even Ameer treated him like a child when it came to everything but fighting. People became adults at the age of 18. Technically, he was an adult. Why did everyone still see him as a child?

"Child or not, this is not how I want you to learn about this…"

He felt it was best to start slow when talking about sex between two consenting adults. Later on, they could talk about how to have sex with more than one other person if that was even brought up…

Abner shook his head and decided to bring up the topic later, especially with Ameer's presence. If Ameer found out that he gave sex education to his little brother, he would probably try to stab him.

He dragged Noah to their next location, which was Queen Meredith's study room. It was actually close to her bedroom, so they had to go back to that area. He made sure that Noah was distracted and not focusing on what Queen Meredith was doing in her room and almost dragged him into the office.

Noah didn't seem to mind it and followed along.

The Queen's study was much smaller than they thought. It also looked like a place she didn't want to step foot into. There wasn't a lot there. It had a desk, a chair, some couches, a table, and a singular bookshelf.

They didn't find anything in there, no hidden doors, no trap doors, nothing. Abner couldn't even imagine what she used the place for. Consort Ceanna did most of the work when it came to regulating the affairs of the castle.

"Noah, are there any other places you can think of that could have a hidden door or something?"

"Well, she has a private library and a greenhouse right next to it. From what I remember, she spends a great deal of her day there."

"Alright, let's go to the library first and then the garden."

These two places were on the first floor. They didn't think to go there first because, usually, people keep their important items and belongings in their rooms. If they couldn't find anything in the library and garden… well, they would have to figure out how to get into her room when she's sleeping and not having sex.

The two went to the first floor and went to the west side of the building where the library and garden were. It was quite easy to find as the place wasn't that large. They did bypass a few guards but most didn't notice them. The ones that did notice them were immediately taken out. They didn't kill them, just helped them sleep on the job.

The library was smaller than the central castle's library, but they could see that the books there were all of the interests of the owner. There was a couch and a table; the rest were bookshelves. She also had a window cushion for when she wanted to sunbathe by the window while reading.

"Try not to move anything. If she notices a book has been moved, she may strengthen the security in this area… and try to find the person who moved her stuff so she can kill them." Noah said to Abner.

He knew the importance of this library. When he was living with Queen Meredith, she refused to let him inside even though she adopted him. One time, a maid accidentally moved a book and she was beheaded by the Queen herself.

Abner wanted to vomit. How could they search if they can't touch anything? And she was crazy enough to notice a small move? Who let this woman be the Queen???

They looked through all the bookshelves, but they couldn't find any books that stood out. Sometimes, hidden doors would be slightly more obvious, but they didn't see anything.

In the end, because they couldn't move the books, they didn't find anything noteworthy. None of the books were about curses and none of the books looked like they had their covers replaced.

"Let's go to the garden." Abner sighed.

They didn't have much time left. According to their pocket watch, they had an hour before they had to go back to Ameer's castle.

The two made their way to the garden next to the library. Queen Meredith used this garden when she wanted fresh air while reading a book.

"Noah, you go right and I will go left."

"Got it."

They stepped on every tile and moved every rock, stone, and statue they could find. Finally, in a secluded right corner of the garden, Noah found the secret passage they were looking for. All they had to do was move the statue and a set of stairs appeared underneath it.

"Good job on finding it, Noah. Let's head back."

Abner and Noah quickly put the statue back and made their way back to Ameer's mansion.

To Abner's relief, at least the secret passage wasn't in Queen Meredith's room…