Chapter 576 (1/2)

Chapter 576: Deep Inside the Palace

Translator: TransN Editor: TransN

Otto Luoxi and Oro Tokat lurked behind a rockery, in the palace garden, in the City of Glow, the Kingdom of Dawn

.

Of course, they were not completely sneaking. At least when entering the palace, they had passed through the door, right under the guards’ noses. No guard would stop them from visiting any place in the palace, except for the forbidden areas, because all the guards knew that the Luoxis and the Tokats had always been loyal supporters of the royal family, and that these two young men would become the ministers of the eldest prince when they took over their respective families.

“Hey, are you sure about this?” Otto could not help but feel nervous.

If the Dawn castle where the King of Dawn spent time was a forbidden zone, his bedroom was even more forbidden. However, they happened to know a secret way from the garden to his bedroom. This narrow underground channel which they had explored with Andrea and Prince Appen in their childhood was meant to be one of the escape routes from the palace. They had considered it their own secret base and held small parties there occasionally.

Given that they were only 10 years old at that time, the worst punishment, even if they were found by His Majesty Moya, would have been being blamed. Now as grown-ups, if they entered the palace without permission, what would His Majesty think?

“Come on! Gathering the three families to find out the reason why Appen has been acting strange, isn’t that the plan?” Oro twitched his lips. “And now, at this crucial time, you want to flinch?”

“I …” Otto opened his mouth but he was speechless.

“But how stupid you are! To get messages from Quinn, you told him Andrea’s recent situation. If you weren’t Andrea’s childhood sweetheart, the old man would have killed you,” Oro said while looking around, “and now is the best time to tell the truth, will you do it or not?”

After a moment’s hesitation, Otto gritted his teeth and nodded.

What Earl Quinn had told them was astonishing.

Since His Majesty had fallen ill, the prince often met with an alchemist in the palace, casting his visitors out. It was said that a special drug from the alchemy could resist disease and enabled His Majesty to remain awake for one or two hours a day. As the prime minister, Andrea’s father naturally had access to the palace to obtain political suggestions from His Majesty. The old man had gotten a glimpse of the alchemist and to his great surprise, he saw that it was actually a young woman, covered with a black veil, only her bleak silver-gray eyes showing.

At this description, Otto immediately thought of the church.

If it were not for his recent trip to the Kingdom of Graycastle, he would not think this way. After meeting with Roland Wimbledon, the messages about the church secretly training pure witches, attempting to subvert the four kingdoms and accumulating its power to resist the Battle of Doomsday had rooted in his mind.

He did not tell what he knew from Roland to Earl Quinn. After all, the impact of the news was so huge that he must confirm his conjecture before deciding the next step.

Hearing from the Earl that the alchemist would appear today, Otto immediately thought of the secret channel from his childhood.

Now that it was impossible to get the support of the eldest prince, this was his only way to discover the truth.

With this thought, he nodded to Oro who immediately poked the knee-high weeds, using a dagger to pry a cover disguised as a stone from behind the rockery. Rusty steel bars appeared in front of them. The fence, which could only be opened from the inside, was about an arm-length in width, but this was not a problem for the two who were fully prepared.

Oro took a glass bottle from his pocket, opened the lid and poured the tawny liquid onto the lock catch.

A puff of pungent white smoke rose up and the steel bars gave off a sizzling sound, like butter being thrown into a hot pot.