Stealth Mission III — Ambrosya

Just to give you guys an image, the middle area of the de Nuantra castle wall was in a sense, hollow.

It was hollow not for structural integrity and defensive purposes... but because the de Nuantra family simply wasn't that rich. They cut a few corners when they had their castle constructed, and made it so that it was merely built for aesthetic purposes.

The function was the least of their worries.

So here I stood, in the dim darkness of some kind of hallway. A tiny bit of light seeped through the gaps in the stone bricks, and magic programs hummed all around me.

"At least they thought it sufficient to add enchantments to their walls," I muttered as I pulled out a brick leading into the insides of the castle.

I peeked through the hole I made and discovered an orchard spread out before me. It spanned at least an entire soccer field and was filled with fruit-bearing trees. A few farmers were taking care of the trees at the moment, and they had yet to take notice of the hole in the wall.

Swiftly, I made the hole big enough for me to pass through. The leaves and branches of a few, low-lying, unkempt trees hid me from any direct line of sight.

This was a secret escape route, after all, so it made sense that its entire pathway leading to and from the castle was hidden from any prying eyes. It was made for the inhabitants of the castle just in case someone invaded their home.

After squeezing myself through, I filled the hole back in behind me like closing a door. When I was done, I advanced.

I searched for the right tree, and I found what I needed just a few feet away from me. It was a trap door, hidden underneath a pile of soil. Not even a handle could be seen as it was built to be pushed out from underneath instead of opened from above.

I found it simply because... for some reason... the trap door was slightly ajar. I could see the dim darkness beneath its wooden craft.

'...Weird,' I thought to myself.

I didn't remember making any incident where this escape route was used at this time in the story.

It seemed like the butterfly effect I caused was at work once more. Or, some character's backstory had created this phenomenon when my book became a world. Maybe as a result of the way I worded my sentences.

I did not know.

All I knew now was that there was an unknown variable in my plans. At any moment in time, something could easily destroy all that I had worked for and send me to my doom.

Still, I had to advance. Today was the day that the secret hidden within the de Nuantra castle would bloom. It would be the reason why their family would rise to be on par with other top families of Aelthrie.

I thus pulled the trap door open and jumped in.

...

The underground pathways underneath the de Nuantra castle created a mini labyrinth that one would easily get lost in. There were a lot of junctions, turns, staircases, and dead ends.

It was not a simple pathway in or out... Which only made sense.

It was a security measure built to keep the de Nuantras alive, after all.

I had to navigate my way through twists and turns, searching desperately for any marks that I could recognise. I got lost. I was forced to retrace my steps and waste a few minutes of my time.

Eventually, however, I came across what I wanted to find... But not before I heard the laughter of a child echoing through the stone brick hallways.

No.

I heard a group of children.

I got the shivers from the sudden reverberation of child-like tones. I knew what they were, and I wanted nothing to do with them right now. The horrors of the de Nuantra castle were beyond my current pay grade.

I quickly made my way out of the underground labyrinth. Cold sweat was slithering down my back, and my lips were visibly pale.

The shivers I got did not come completely from fear, no. Subzero temperatures had consumed the entire labyrinth, accompanying the laughter with immense pressure.

I shook the frost that had formed on the cloth of my cloak as I climbed a ladder that had definitely seen better days. Splinters threatened to pierce into my skin, but the leather gloves I wore protected me sufficiently.

"So... much... noise..." I grunted as I carefully climbed up around five metres worth of height. My Silent Being wasn't enough to cover the range of the sounds the ladder made, thus it echoed throughout the tube that I was scaling.

Anyone with claustrophobia would surely despise the setting I had at hand.

When I made it to the end of the ladder, I was caked in dust.

"No one passed through here..." I couldn't help but mutter. I fully expected that some youth of the de Nuantra family had gone exploring and discovered the secret pathway I had created.

It now seemed that perhaps they had taken a different path.

"But if so... which one?" I asked myself as I reviewed the other connections that the underground maze had.

A few entrances came to mind, but they were all harder to discover. Whoever had gone exploring was probably one curious kid.

"Now... Let's see,"

I placed a palm upon the trap door above my head. The moment that I pushed it open would mean that there was no more turning back for me. I would leave behind physical traces of my presence that magic or any skilled eye could discover.

They could then track me down while I was still in the castle. Thus, I had to hurry.

Not even King's automatic technology could hide such trails. I had to do things manually if I did not want to have such subtle details discovered.

But that was too much work that I did not need to do.

...As long as things went according to plan.

With these thoughts in mind, my senses pierced through the wooden trapdoor. As far as I could tell, there was no human presence on the other side.

"So far so good, Ambrosya. You won't be dying just yet," I reassured myself before prying the door open with all my F rank strength.

Creaaaak—!