Carpeted Halls

"We're getting dispatched this late at night?" A knight spoke as he walked together with another as they conversed while they headed out. "Huge explosion over at the north-east sector. You think we might be under attack?" The knight proposes but the previous knight disagrees as they shook their head to the side. "Probably not. If it was then lots of people would be rushing to the castle right about now." The knight says which reassures the other as they continue walking. Once they passed by a big vase with all kinds of flowers in it and we're now out of sight. Derrick peeked from behind the vase and sighed in relief. Glad that they didn't notice him at all considering how simple his hiding was. He moves away from the vase and continues to walk down the carpeted halls of the castle. After infiltrating through the side walls, he had quickly snuck inside of the castle in an attempt to find the Royal Advisers office for the sword.

As he carefully walked through the halls, he couldn't help but look around the place and admire the decor. The castle definitely didn't shirk out on its expenses for scenery as flower vases, golden side tables, and a lot more lined the sides while in the middle was a long red carpet that went straight down the hall like one big road. "Wow... So much stuff. And it seems a lot bigger on the inside than the out." Derrick comments on the castle. But before he could say anything more, he heard more footsteps coming from around the left side corner of the hall in front of him. "Uh oh!-" in a hurry, Derrick looked around frantically for any place to hide. Luckily, he was in front of a door with an inside that looked empty enough to hide in. Without any more time to spare, he quickly slipped inside and hid away as he carefully closed the door. The knights turned the corner and continued to march on part the door. Successfully avoiding detection... At least, that's what he thought was happening. Suddenly from behind, the sound of a metal platter was heard from behind him. Alerting Derrick as he quickly looks behind him to see a maid who was shocked to see him.

"Hello there." Derrick tried to politely wave at her to keep her from freaking out but it failed to do anything as she does a big inhale as she tries to ready herself for a yell. "I- Intruder! There's a mpfhh!-" she yells out but Derrick quickly ran over and covered her mouth before taking her behind a counter to hide as suddenly the doors were opened by a knight who peeked inside to check out the commotion. "I heard screaming. Did someone scream In here?" The knight spoke into the seemingly empty room to receive no response. "I'm sorry. I don't usually do this to people but this is a matter of life or death to me and my partner..." Derrick whispers to the maid as he keeps his hand on her mouth while constricting her movements from making any noise or fuss that would snuff them out to the knight. "Hmm... Odd. Guess I was hearing things. Or maybe the castle's haunted, I don't know." The k ight remarks before leaving the room and closing the door behind him.

Derrick peeks from behind the counter to check if the coast was clear. After confirming that it was, he sighs in relief. Bit that little action of relaxing was enough for the maid to slip away from Derricks' grasp. "Woah!" The maid acted quickly after escaping as she proceeds to grab a metal pan for protection. "Wait! I'm not going to hurt-" Derrick tried to diffuse the situation but was then met with a metal pan to the face. "Ough!" Derrick grunts as he watches himself on the counter. "Stay back intruder! I know how to use this frying pan!" The maid yells defensively at him as they back away to create some distance. "Look, miss. I'm really not here to hurt anyone. I'm being hunted by a hunter sent by the royal adviser here and there's an item I need to find so I can save me and my friend from this hunter." Derrick tried to explain to her his apparent situation but it only served to make her more apprehensive as she still kept her distance.

".... Okay. How about we start over." Deciding that was a bad approach. Derrick decides to restart and introduce himself. "Hello. My name is Derrick. Derrick Barnes. I'm an alchemist by trade and live in the outskirts of the city." Derrick says as softly as he could as to not raise tensions even higher before reaching out his hand to her to shake. She looked him up and down. Assessing his character properly now that she had collected herself a little bit. "H- hands behind your head first. So I know you won't do anything sneaky!" The maid says to which he follows. "Okay. Hands are behind my head." He says as he turns himself around for her to see that it actually was before turning back over to face her. "... Elaine. That's my name. But that's all your getting from me. Now why are you inside castle premises? And don't think about lying! I can tell... I'm, sorta, good at it..." She tells him as she somewhat menacingly points the pan at him like a sword. "I wasn't lying when I said I'm being hunted by a hunter sent by the royal adviser." Derrick starts explaining his case.

"Look Ms. Elaine. There's nothing I can do to prove it to you right now but a lot of people are getting hurt by this situation right now..." Derrick explains to her as an image of Ecrucio before his last moments flashed right before him and then fading away as quickly as it was there. "I don't wanna see anymore people die because of me... Because someone wants to get to me. And there's an item where I can fix all of this if I can just find it." Derrick says as he looked straight at her. His hand slightly shaking from behind his head as anxiety and the trauma of seeing Ecrucio die for his safety wells up. But in front, he was showing her a smile. Elaine's eyebrows furrow as she contemplates whether to let her guard down and give him a chance or not and leave the boy to the wolves. But she relents and drops the pan down. Deciding to trust him. "Fine. I'll trust you. But I'm keeping the pan on me." She says to him as Derrick gratefully nods his head in understanding. "That's only fair." He says. Finally being able to put his hands down as both have come to a truce. "So... The royal adviser really sent a hitman on you?" She questions as she finds it hard to believe a guy who looks like Derrick would warrant the attention of a royal adviser. The literal person that helps the king with decisions.

"It's... Very convoluted. I don't even know why he wants me dead but the matter is that he does. And there's an item that I need to fend them off and stop that hunter from hurting more people." He says. "You keep saying that an item such as that exists but you're not saying where it is." Elaine pointed out as Derrick took a second to realize his mistake. "Oh, that's my bad. I believe Ecrucio said that it was within the royal Adviser's office." Derrick reveals to her. "Well if it's the office you need to find, then just head over to the south west wing of the castle. There should be a label on the door for you to find it." Elaine tells him to which he was ecstatic about as he finally has a direction to follow. "That's perfect!" He says but then suddenly, the pan was raised again as it hovered in front of his face. "But you never heard this from me okay!? I'm already in big trouble talking to you, what's more if they knew I was the one to tell you where to find the Royal Adviser's office!" Elaine warns him for her safety since she was already in deep waters. "Don't worry, I give you my word that this exchange never happened between us." Derrick swears to her as she sighs in relief.

"Oh, before I go though. I need to stock up on some potions. You got some ingredients I could borrow? I'll be quick." Derrick asks of her. "We got some in the pantry and some in the freezer box." She says as she points him over to the pantry as well as the freezer box. Though, Derrick was way more intrigued with the freezer box more than anything. "Freezer box." Derrick mutters as he approaches the box. "Have you not seen one before?" Elaine asks thinking that he's mesmerized by such a marvel of cold storage. But Derrick was more interested of what was inside the box as he brings out his pickaxe and wedges it in-between the faceplate. "Woah- hey. The heck are you?-" before she could even get the word out, he then pulls back as hard as he could and prys off the faceplate. Revealing the inner mechanisms of the box which was just copper coils that wrapped around a Cryomorcite rock which he plucked out of the wrapping. "What the hey hey! You're going to get me killed here! Why did you do that!?" Elaine profusely yells at him as she shook him back and forth to express it.

"Don't worry. Cryomorcite rocks are very easy to come by. The freezer box would likely get a replacement very fast considering it's owned by the castle." Derrick explains to her as she releases him from her grasp. "Alright. Just give me a few minutes while I synthesize a potion with it." He says as he lights up the stove burner and got to work as Elaine just watched from the side. Very perplexed. Moments pass as Derrick had now began making his way over to where Elaine said the office was located at as he was now equipped with one potion that was inside a mason jar which he held in his arm. After avoiding knights and other staff, he finally makes it over to the Southwest wing of the castle as he walks the empty dark hall. "This is where it should be...." He mutters to himself. He then slowly hears the sound of a grandfather clock as the ticks and tocks echo through the hall. The red carpet lined all the way forward. Seemingly into a dark abyss. Derrick dared to step a little closer to it and thanks to his goggles, he was able to make out a door at the very end of the hall. A door with the sign hanging on it with the label 'Royal Adviser's office'.

With one big gulp, Derrick steels himself for this moment. "Tetsuga is counting on you Derrick... Let's make this count." he mutters to himself as he approaches the door. Ready to meet what or who was on the other side.