209: Sneaking In

Sneaking In

When Oriana reached the guest mansion designated for the delegation of Abetha, the knights easily recognized her as Prince Arlan's aide. There was only one servant from Griven with a headwrap—the young physician who treated their liege's hand injury.  1

"May I ask what brings you here, Physician Orian?"

"I am here to bring medicine for the Crown Prince of Abetha," Oriana readily informed the knight who spoke. "Is there anyone inside I can speak with to leave instructions on how it's administered?" 

"Ah, yes, please wait inside the drawing room. I will call His Highness's attendant."

The knight let her inside the mansion without suspicion. Along the way, she began to study the layout of the mansion while making small talk with the servant who escorted her. An innocent smile hung on her lips as she found the hallways empty.

'As expected, this timing is best.'

Inside the drawing room, Oriana handed the medicine to the young man working as the prince's primary attendant. "I will explain to you how to give them to His Highness." 

She continued to explain the uses of each medicine bottle, at the same time fishing for seemingly unimportant details from Cian's aide.. 

"...really? I apologize for disturbing your meal. I should have come later—"

"No! It's fine, really! I can continue eating afterwards. It's not a concern."

It turned out that when the attendant was summoned, he was dining along with the other servants. Generally, servants could only have their morning meal after their liege had eaten. That was the reason why none of Cian's servants were in the area, and only a few knights and maids in charge of housekeeping were spotted by Oriana when she arrived.

This kind of arrangement was generally practiced by the servants of nobility and royalty alike, and that was one of the considerations Oriana had when she planned her little espionage trip. 

Once she was done explaining, the aide spoke. "Thank you so much, Physician Orian. I will inform His Highness about your reminders and make sure to give his medicine on time."

Oriana offered him a polite smile, and turned to leave but…

'Luckily, the layout of this mansion is the same as ours, so the study ought to be on the first floor. However, the knights will block me if I try to head upstairs.'

Oriana had only one option.

'I need to distract them all.' Her heart raced as she silently urged the power inside her. 'My power, I don't know how to use you entirely yet but please don't disappoint me.'

As she stepped out of the drawing room, she eyed the glass window on the hallway nearest to her. It happened that a group of laundry maids were passing with baskets of dirty linen in their arms.

'A chance!' she thought. 'I apologize in advance.'

She sent a ball of air towards the window—

Crash!

"Aah!!!"

"Help!"

The sound of glass breaking and the screams of the laundry maids alarmed the knights within hearing range. The maids were not hurt by the attack itself, but some were so startled they fell on their bottoms, flinging out the baskets and their contents into the air. Those standing a distance away thought the dirty linens were people attempting to escape through the windows. Confused shouts could be heard coming from all directions.

"An attack?"

"What, who dares? Is there an intruder?"

"Is there anyone hurt?"

"Guards! Where are the guards—"

Cian's attendant and the knights hurried towards the commotion, and Oriana found this chance to slip away from the crowd. She easily found her way towards the staircase and hurried towards the prince's study. 

As expected, the architecture of all the guest mansions was identical. No one was standing guard outside and she entered as swiftly as she could.

As she locked the door behind her, her heart was beating so fast, she thought it would explode.

'I did it!' she cheered. 'I pulled it off!'

However, she had no time to spare celebrating.

She walked towards the desk. Its surface was clean from clutter, quill pens and ink bottles and several sheets of blank parchments neatly arranged on the side. There were no documents on it. 

'Maybe something in drawers?' 

She went through the drawers and found documents pertaining to the summit conference. After checking through them, she found nothing.

'This is the last drawer. Perhaps…'

It only held one rolled piece of paper. 

'It looks like a map of the city?' 

She observed the difficult-looking symbols on the map with various places marked. Thanks to the small green flag atop a castle, she guessed it pertained to the royal palace, then the surrounding area ought to represent the various districts of the capital of Othinia. 

'This is the palace, then these marked places inside this line should be within Nefer. These lines ought to be the rivers. Three places are marked within the city, while the others are in the forest. 

'Why did the prince mark so many locations? These letters are not the common language used by the continent. Are these some sort of secret code? The only thing he's investigating in Nefer is the matter of banned herbs. This is what I'm looking for!

'Those in the forest should be either possible storage locations or the plantation of black nightshade, then these places inside the city must be possible hideouts of those who trade the harvested herbs, or maybe the black market or those related to it. 

'If I explore the forest, it will probably take me at least an entire day to check one location. I won't be allowed to go out for long. I can only find these marked places inside the city in our next visit to the market. I must find a way to get away from others and buy several stalks.'

She searched the shelves as well as the other documents inside the study, but there was no more document related to black nightshade. There were also no other paperworks with those strange coded marks on them.

'Prince Cian sure is careful to not leave anything behind. Nevermind, I can make do with this.' After roughly copying the map on another sheet of paper, a few quick strokes to give her a general idea of their location, she put the map back in its original place. 'I need to leave. I can't get caught.'

Oriana slowly opened the door of the study to check if anyone was outside. She was aware of the risk she was taking since the moment she decided to follow her plan. However, although she understood the severity of it, she had no other option. 

All of these, working as a royal servant and journeying to another kingdom, she suffered for one single reason—her grandfather, Phil. She needed results. She was not scared of punishments. In her mind, there was nothing more horrible than being forgotten by her own grandfather.

'They must be still dealing with that small chaos I caused.'

Just as she was about to leave the study—

A hand pulled her back and shut the door close.

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