Morning of the Fire of Prometheus

The next morning, Eugene woke up early and wondered if he was even able to have some sleep. His dreams were interrupted a few times during the night, but every time he checked the clock, it was still a deep night. But finally, the sun had risen on the horizon, dispersing the darkness in his room. He was still anxious about the idea to sneak into the Red Cap, but every time a nasty thought arose in his head, he thought of that time he and Sylvia infiltrated bar Samuel. He already did that, had the experience, however now, Sylvia was not with him. He should think for himself.

After some time spent sitting half naked by the bedside, the man stood up and dashed towards the cupboard. There, he took out the two-piece dark suit that was given to him by Christopher. It was the fanciest piece of clothing he owned, not because he did not have any means to buy something new, but rather he never needed any to begin with. In the end, Monso Rooster had its own uniforms that were fancy enough for semiformal gatherings. He also owned some costumes that were simply good-looking, but not neat enough to trick the high society. Thus, this one was his only option to not earn unneeded attention at the party.

As he was dressing up, he realised a crucial mistake that was made yesterday, "I forgot to tell everyone to dress properly for this mission. Oh, god, I hope they will figure it out on their own."

He glimpsed at the phone, but quickly clicked his tongue upon a sight of the cut wire and fastened his dressing pace.

"I cant believe that this idiot would be actually useful in our plan. Where the hell are you, Douglas?" murmured Eugene cautiously. It was truly unnatural for such a social fellow to be missing out on their plan. Eugene had one idea regarding his absence, but it was quickly shaken off of his head. In the end, Douglas could not possibly be someone to fool the police as an infamous snatcher, right?

After fighting off his doubts and adjusting the attire, Eugene was ready to spend his weekends in the fancy restaurant as an uninvited guest. He departed from his house, not forgetting to lock the door and put a piece of paper in between the door and door frame, just in case. And from now on, his place of destination were the walls of the Red Cap. He did not want to be caught by Arnold, who most likely was at Monso Rooster, thus he decided to take a longer path towards the castle of Beaumont. He went by the Seine river, the second best walking path in the town to not dirty his attire. The houses facing the river were still lifeless, with their lights off, not due to the bright sun that had arisen, but due to all people inside still sleeping, resting before the grand celebration that will happen in the evening in the town.

Although the walk from home to the meeting point took longer than expected, he was still in place just in time. More surprising, however, was the fact that everyone already waited for him near the castle walls. Everyone, except for Sophie. They all were dressed fine, the three-piece suit of Maurice and fancy dresses of the girls were spectacular and could easily work as a camouflage in the party of higher ups. Lawrence, however, had a costume that did not really fit the dress code, but, perhaps, he could pass as someone less fortunate, but still worthy of the entry.

"Oh, hey, Eugene! You finally came here!" waved Lawrence, to which Maurice said, "I thought you chickened out."

"Why the hell are you all so early here? I thought I would be the first one to come."

Jessie crossed her hands and said, "Well, I called all of you, but you were the only one to not answer. Care to explain yourself."

"My phone was cut yesterday, don't you remember?" explained Eugene and Jessie's mouth opened, "Oh, you are right, I forgot!"

"Anyway, since we are all here, we can begin with the plan, I think." said Cossette and they all followed her lead. The manhole was near the back tower and thus quite far away from the gates. Luckily, local kids often played with the ball beside the walls, which made a narrow path towards their point of interest.

As they were walking in a line, Eugene wondered, "So, Sophie is already inside? Did she tell you what window or door she will leave open?"

Lawrence scratched his head and said, "Me and Jessie were the first ones to arrive here, and we saw her. She even brought a gift for organizators. Afterwards, Sophie said that she will leave some kind of door open for us and that we should just pull all the knobs."

"Well, that's not too reassuring, what if someone will notice that we are wandering around the premises?" asked Eugene, to which Maurice said, "I asked the same thing, and they just shrugged off. This plan is flimsier than a piece of paper."

"Have faith in us, Maurice!" exclaimed Jessie, but Maurice did not stop, "I might, if it somehow succeeds, though I would not mind if it fails as well."

"Why do you have to be so negative about everything?" asked Cossette without looking at him.

Maurice hummed for a little and then sighed, "I am not negative, just realistic. I do not like taking risks while I can't gain any benefit from the situation."

"What do you mean by no benefit?" wondered Eugene, to which Maurice explained, "Well, we are here only to get Sylvia's attention to catch Cormorant, right? I mean, this is cool to expose a criminal like that, but there is no gain for us or am I wrong?"

Eugene rubbed his chin in thought, he truly did not think of others' gains. In the end, he was the one who wanted to see Sylvia and expose the Phantom Cormorant. On the other hand, they will still be in the epicentre of the Fire of Prometheus, among nobles and businessmen from around France and beyond. It was truly a great opportunity to establish some useful connections, only a fool would not consider such a benefit.

Eugene giggled a little and then said, "Well, you say that, but you guys are the ones who might be able to get the most out of this affair. I am here only to convince Sylvia to help us, but you are not obligated to follow me. There will be tons of important people with whom you, guys, are gonna interact on equal footing. Just help me to get inside and for the rest of the day, you can do whatever you want, go nuts!"

Silence spread across the group, it seemed like no one thought of this, thus soon, a round of approval had risen up, and their mood was fixed. Even Maurice quit with nagging and was visibly excited about the infiltration.

Soon, they reached the manhole, which was indeed small, smaller than expected. First in went the girls, who did not suffer much, only dirtied their dresses, which were fixable with a few swings of their palms. The next to crawl in was Maurice and then Eugene. It was challenging for the two, but they succeeded with little to no scratches on their suits. Lawrence, however, struggled with squeezing his larger build into the narrow path. Only with the help of Maurice and Eugene, he was able to push himself into the walls of the castle. They were in, the first half of their plan was a success!