Chapter 42: Hidden Archives (III).

Chapter 42: Hidden Archives (III).

Elizabeth's POV

"Based on the map, following the riddle written here- if we need to sneak onto father's study we would need to come at night where he would be asleep and the guards guarding his office would be lowering their guard down." I held the notebook drawing another version, the updated one because mother's childish scribbles were distracting me.

"One large window at the front and the door. These are the only places we can enter and leave." I was coming up with possible entrance and exit routes just in case we were caught. "If we're in some way stuck and in need to fight, I'll leave it to you Victoria. If I help you they might know who it was- my ice magic isn't really low-key and it's practically uncommon they'll have their suspicions."

"We'll also have to remember the servant and guard's patrol hours in order to avoid being seen." I continued holding another private document that I made over observing the servant and guard's usual activity while doing their

"Let us hope it won't come to us being caught in the act." (Victoria) lowers her head and smiles at my organized drawing of the floor layout plan and the prepared patrol layout of the servants. "I am glad you are using what I taught you, finding exits and knowing the people's patterns is crucial to every plan."

"I take any good advice that's given to me, fortunately you've given me plenty." I tell her, pointing at the east side part of the room. "I haven't been inside the main emperor's study to memorize its full layout but I remember seeing two pillars inside having a portrait."

"I see from the riddle, perhaps that's where the secret entrance is." We both decided to check out the emperor's private office that's been passed down to generation by midnight.

…

Victoria brought me a black cloak to hide my figure at night, I wore comfortable gray clothing so I won't get easily noticed or caught while sneaking.

"A mask for your face, your hair- its a symbol of royalty in color we'll be needing to provide you with a wig as well." (Victoria) takes something out of her inventory, giving me a long haired wig with raven hair color and a mask to cover the lower half of my face. "Since your eyes are inexperienced in sneaking around in the night, you'll need not to cover your whole face- those masks with little eye holes will make you uncomfortable if one is not used to it."

I wore the mask and placed the wig on my head. I looked at myself in the mirror and felt weird seeing me with black raven hair.

"Thank you, are you always this prepared?" I ask her, seeing it'll be my first serious stealth mission I'm a little nervous. We did a couple of these acts while practicing, Victoria told me it might help build my character.

Victoria nods, "Before I was General of war I had experience in spying, stealth and information gathering- for your mother."

I learn something new everyday. Victoria was my mom's personal spy and attendant.

For some reason I can imagine her always being by my mom's side and just giving her everything she needed.

"Is the General life better than the spy life? What's the difference- why did you become a general in the end?"

"Duty and favor towards your father, I am indebted to him for saving the orphanage I considered as my home."

"You know Victoria." I cross my arms doing a little pout, I'm a little unhappy that I'm just learning some of these mysterious parts of her day by day when she can just tell me a long story. "I wish you could tell me all of your past adventures with the empress rather than waiting day by day for it."

"Apologies, if I continue to do so I might lose stories to tell."

"Ah well I'm going to visit Sir Lincoln and ask all about her daughter who you're dating~"

"P-Please do not joke about that."

"Oh I wasn't joking, you kept me in suspense for a month! If you're not telling, don't worry I have someone else to spill the tea!" I happily tell her in a low voice before walking outside my room and she follows immediately holding my wrist.

Victoria points outside of my balcony, "The guards outside your room are still wide awake at midnight, we'll be taking the other way."

"Oh shit."

My room is about ten-story high, and the emperor's study is on the other side of the castle. "I have prepared a rope that will lead us to the ground, we'll sneak inside the kitchen backdoor and then make our way into the study."

Hearing that I swallowed the lump forming in my throat, opening the balcony door and standing near the edge looking down. There was a rope tied into a knot on the marble rail and I had this intrusive thought where the rope broke letting us fall into our death.

"That's one long fall down." I muttered, legs shaking.

Victoria must've noticed me because she walks right over to me asking, "Princess Elizabeth, you know I can always go alone and just tell you what I found."

I laughed, slapping the side of my thigh to stop the nervous shaking, giving Victoria a forced brave smile. "I am the newly crowned princess, if I can't handle a little height, how can I run a country?"

Is what I told her-

"Not to worry, Princess Elizabeth. I was also afraid of doing my first mission- but once I got used to it no matter how high we stand it won't matter right after because of the adrenaline you get from doing risky things." She assures me patting my shoulder, holding the rope and showing me how it's done.

"For safety you tie your waist with the rope, remember we've done this before- you did well back then just remember your training. Place the top of your feet first before lowering down the rest to avoid making much noise." (Victoria) ties the rope on her waist, securing it before going down.

I look over the edge to see her holding the rope tightly, looking down at the ground. "Ah best to not panic when you look down too- rookie mistake."

"Thanks for that…"

I'm not sure if my panic worsened or what. I held the other line of the rope and tied myself in a knot, I made sure it was secure before doing the same thing as Victoria did.

"Humph."

With not much of a hesitation I trusted myself to not fall down and remember all the training we did in the past.

Tip of the foot first.

"..."

It didn't make much noise and I went down jumping up and down slowly while holding the rope, thank goodness I had gloves on.

I made sure to look down to see if we were close to the ground, I could hear my heart pounding and I felt this overwhelming feeling that my head could explode-!

"Hah… hah…" I felt my ice magic leaking through, my eyes widened in surprise seeing small ice form at the rope I was holding. "Deep breaths… calm yourself… everything will be alright."

I kept muttering all over, reassuring myself- seeing that Victoria has gone down first already at the ground.

She won't always be here to tell me these things, I should get used on supporting and trusting myself more.

"Okay I can do this." I gritted my teeth and continued to go down, the only light source we had was the full moon giving it's glow.

"You're close…! Just a few more! You can do it!" (Victoria) cheered on me in whispers, I could breathe a sigh of relief knowing that I was close to landing too.

"Hah…" I felt the ground and saw Victoria standing, smiling proudly at me. I hurriedly ran over to her and hugged her tight, no words needed to tell her that was a scary experience for someone like me who always played it safe.

Victoria laughs quietly patting my head for a good job. I enjoyed every bit of my reward and reluctantly let her go. My heart calms down a little remembering our goal.

"Now let's go find that hidden archive."

Using Victoria's water magic she makes a small water incantation- turning the liquid form of her magic into a certain shape.

"[Water Magic: Water Dagger]." The water dagger was floating in her hand, and I watched in awe wanting to try the same thing with my ice magic.

Victoria takes aim and throws it into the very top of the railing, hitting the rope letting it drop down.

"[Storage Ring]." A small storage circle appeared where the rope was, it fell down into the circle without a sound and disappeared completely leaving no trace of how we got down just in case guards will come to patrol this side.

We carefully sneaked around, running, hiding our presence as Victoria took the lead and followed, watching how she did things and even taught me a few hand signs to communicate.

Step- step- step-

A faint glow of a lantern was getting close, both of us stopped walking and found some place to hide in. Fortunately there were a few bushes and trees around, we kneeled down keeping ourselves hidden as the light came in full view.

"Yawn… Tonight is also peaceful, I can't wait to go back home. End my shift to see my kids and family." One guard was talking to his company, who groans hearing him talk.

"Agh you and your family, you never tire of taking care of them. Listen mate- I'm more interested in the news happening in the provinces right by the border." The other guard shifts uncomfortably looking away. "The country suffered many losses but the provinces without much protection got raided by both bandits and demons- I doubt the king was doing much to protect them a few years since he was on the front lines fending the main entryway and now he's busy doing other things- making sure his people pay such ridiculous taxes."

"Ah… right apologies, your family lives on that side of the province. No wonder you're a bit worried."

I waited for them to be out of distance, "Victoria is it safe to go out now-"

"The… province… Mary…" I could hear Victoria muttering in a shocked trance. "The orphanage…"

"Victoria- Hey, Victoria-" I gently shake her arm trying to get her attention. "Are you okay?"

I lowered my voice as I talked, Victoria snapped back to reality looking towards me in a worried trance but soon her eyes regained back their focus. "Yes I am okay, apologies I just got a bit distracted."

And you're rarely distracted- could it be because of what those two guards were talking about?

Something about the province not being safe and the taxes being horrible?

"They're gone now, let's move, princess." She motions to follow her and I did, I looked back at the now faint glow of the lantern of the guards before and furrowed my eyebrows in worry.

Is Victoria missing her province home?

We found the kitchen backdoor and saw the lock.

"Keep watch, I'll pick the lock open." (Victoria) takes out a few thin metal tools that I don't know what they're called- all I know is used to open up locks. "This will only take a minute or two, I've gotten rusty."

"{Command.order: Time}." I focused on gathering mana and checked the time, we left from the balcony ten minutes ago and the next patrol won't come until half an hour. "We have plenty of time."

Click!

We heard the faint click of the door unlocking, we opened and entered the backdoor closing it after getting it.

Click.

We locked it to make sure no traces of tampering were made.

"This way princess." (Victoria) checks for any servants or guards walking around the hallway before we move, blending in with the still shadows of some statues laying around in display.

I did my best keeping up with Victoria- despite her current job as a maid her skills are spying and stealth made me feel so happy that I got such a maid to teach me how to do that.

"...!"

Victoria stopped her tracks and leaned in over the pillar looking left and right before hand signaling to me that it was good to go.

"Victoria- the guards- they're here looking like they need sleep." I whispered, and she looked at the two guards standing outside the door of the emperor.

"When's the next shift change?" she asks me and I take out the command.order to check the time.

"In fifteen minutes." I respond and she nods, we wait for the guards to move their way out of the door.

We could see the two guards yawning, holding their spear lazily and trying their best to stay awake.

"I need… sleep."

"Yawn… tell me about it but we have to keep watch."

The guards talked to one another and soon the fifteen minute mark was up, they didn't move a bit but after realizing their shift was over they smiled and walked away from the door to the other direction of where we were.

"The next guards will get here in thirty minutes." I tell her and Victoria nods, quickly taking her tools and working on the door's lock that was a bit more harder than the old kitchen backdoor.

It took Victoria about five minutes before we opened the door.

Click!

"Hurry."

We went inside and closed the door quietly. The creaking noise of it scared us mentally but once it was over we could breathe freely looking around the private study.

I took the better version of the map and saw what needed to be done.

"This… and that- in between- this should be a secret button to the archive." In between the pillars, a portrait of a running boy was shown. I pushed several parts and I felt a part of them being pushed to the back.

Takatak… takatak…

We could hear a faint sound of mechanism behind running, as an entrance path reveals itself- stairs down most likely leading to the secret archives.

I couldn't help but smile as everything was going through smoothly, I gave Victoria a quick high five before we went down the stairs.

"We need a lamp to see, hold on." She took a lamp out of her [Storage Ring] and placed a fire stone inside, giving light to guide us into the darkness.

"Nice."

Victoria went in first and I followed. We were being careful incase of any booby traps, nothing much was happening but soon we saw empty shelves full of dust and cobwebs.

"We're getting close." I muttered, now it wasn't only shelves but old portraits of the royal family dating back to hundred of years ago.

Items from the past started appearing, all in good condition- well preserved, just full of dust.

"A… Ach-" I covered my nose feeling itchy after all that dust got in there. "Choo…"

"Bless you, princess. Hopefully we find what we're looking for inside of here." She raises the lamp up a little, seeing a table not too far away.

She placed the lamp into the table and saw a couple of candles that's not fully used yet. We lit them up one by one and saw the small hidden archive room that had a lot of wooden crates with old paper scrolls.

"Don't mind if I do." I took one, opened it and started reading the contents of it. "The Duke of Hundein, the heir and son ran away… only to be found dying in glory in the forest trying to kill a monster that was terrorizing his father's territory."

I looked down and saw the writer used red ink in this part.

"That was the rumor we provided, the truth was the heir fell in love with a commoner girl- the Duke not supporting their son decided to commit suicide with his lover… in the said forest we spread the false rumor that he died in glory."

I covered my mouth in shock, only to feel the mask covering it.

I finished reading that scroll and felt bad for the couple. I placed it back to where I found it, possibly regretting reading everything it contended- I knew I was going to find such dark things in the archive but-

"I hope your love will continue in your next life." I muttered and took another scroll to read.

"The current ruler of the land of snow, the year 10XX, had a hundred concubines and one day decided to plan to make love to them all in one night…" I hesitated in continuing but curiosity took over.

"He died after making love more than a hundred times in one night, impregnating almost half of the women that he owned."

Blurgh…

Feeling horrible while reading it, I quickly took another paper scroll and rolled it down. "The countess is a witch, seducing another woman into her bed- only to find out she has both parts of the intimate body part- she claimed to be a man."

Oh no…

My hands were shaking.

"The woman she seduced reported her findings, both were excited and humiliated publicly before being tortured for all to see- let it be a lesson… unnatural people have no place in this kingdom." I almost let go of the scroll when it showed full details of how they tortured her, how good they felt on doing it, and I almost puked in reading all of this.

"Hngh…" I held my stomach trying not to let my dinner out. "Hah…"

"Princess Elizabeth, are you alright?" I heard Victoria call out, hearing me try to not puke in disgust.

"I thought… we would be learning something useful in here…" I balanced myself by holding her arm. "These scrolls are sick, it details to every disgusting and horrible thing I couldn't even think of but I shouldn't be surprised-"

Victoria raises her eyebrow while taking the scroll that I was reading, "..."

She stayed quiet and threw the paper scroll back in the wooden craft comforting me.

"I… Maybe you should take a break first. Sit down, this is your first stealth mission- I know this is all too much for you." (Victoria) holds me before getting me to sit down in a chair, right by the table with the lamp. "I'm sorry for letting you read all that- I should've warned and stopped you beforehand."

I shake my head knowing she didn't need to apologize to me.

"No… don't apologize I was the one who decided to pick that scroll up." I tell her looking at the flickering lamp. "This hidden archive, I can't believe I was excited about learning about blackmail materials I could use- but I was too naïve."

I didn't think they would be this detailed.

"You're still young, this might be an eye opener on what happened to the dark side of history of the kingdom you'll be ruling." (Victoria) kneels down and holds my hand. "But if you're not ready- don't touch any other scrolls for now."

I did what she told me and didn't touch any scrolls right after that.

There were almost hundreds recorded of torture, with the person's name, how they were tortured and what crime they did-

It made me shiver to think I've been living too safe. I was both regretting and glad that I came into this stealth mission. Victoria was speed reading every scroll she could get her hands on, putting it back on the wooden crate if it wasn't what she needed.

I tried forgetting the things I've read. It's going to keep me awake at night- why did they have to include an accurate drawing?

"I found someone in a similar situation to you, Princess Elizabeth." (Victoria) held a paper scroll and gave it to me. "It may be a little- intense but it might help you understand what you have from their past research."

I take the paper scroll in my hand, brushing off the first and thanked Victoria for doing a good job.

"I'll be checking a few more scrolls, see if there's anything we could use against other nobles present in ruling." My maid pats my head again before leaving me alone with my thoughts, checking the other left over scroll.

I opened the scroll and read a case about a young commoner man, possessing a different appraisal glow- instead of a main magic element- he was given a strong gold glow.

"The magic extension of gold manipulation. From the main element of earth, gold being a mineral he can control, it appears to be stronger than the main element- he was experimented on and was forced to make tons of gold for the royal family." I read the details that were in blank ink.

"He was chained, recorded to be starved and kept in a basement- if he didn't make the minimum gold requirement he would be whipped to death and starved- but not to the point leading him to death- just enough to make him obedient." Reading this was already making me sick. They literally took him by force without much choice.

"He was the only one who can control gold, make them without needing to master the skill for years like having the main element of earth- we called this a gift." Soon I saw the familiar red ink, meaning the next paragraph would be his detailed demise.

"He died getting sick, not getting the proper nutrition and the royal family got too greedy storing their gold only to be hidden somewhere- we don't even know." Whoever wrote this clearly didn't care much about the poor man- victim by all this greed of shitty people- it seemed like the next lines were focused more on where the treasure could be.

I closed the scroll feeling tired, I learned nothing.

"At least I wasn't alone- and if I wasn't a princess- would I be chained to be a slave as well?" I asked myself how thankful I was to be born with such privilege.

Not having hurt anyone in coronation saved me a lot of trouble, if I killed anyone accidentally-

If Victoria wasn't there to calm me down- what would've happened then?

"No use thinking about that now." I took the scroll with me, as a reminder of how lucky I was.

After reading, Victoria was holding a few other scrolls that were deemed to be useful. "I don't want to leave any traces of tampering- it's a good thing I brought one of your mother's inventions over."

She took the camera out and began opening each scroll, placing the lamp closer and began to take photos. Victoria was a spy for the empress, no wonder she invested in some certain inventions that could possibly help her like the camera- a bit retro on the design though.

"Whew… done." Taking everything into her [Storage Ring] I told her that I'll be taking one of the scrolls.

"It's just one scroll, they wouldn't miss this one." I told her as I helped Victoria placing back the scroll she opened into their respective places.

"One would indeed be okay, keep it safe." she didn't scold me or warn me on bringing it so I was happy.

We finished putting everything back, we took a few more photos of all the portraits and what the hidden archive looked like before leaving and closing the hidden entrance blowing out the candles and making sure we left it like how we found it.

Takatak…

It closed, finally we just needed to go back into my room safely. We walked checking the door, looking down on the small opening- seeing that there were no boots and talking we figured it was safe to leave.

I suddenly felt uneasy… this just seems too good to be true.

The air… I smell something.

"Get down-!" I held Victoria's head back before pushing it down, my gut was right.

We weren't alone in this room.

"Ice."

A huge ice spike was stuck inside the wall where Victoria's head was. My heart dropped knowing what would've happened if I didn't push her down.

"...!" (Victoria) fixed her mask, looking at me thankfully and I glared at the figure hiding in the shadows.

"Nice reflexes, intruder. I didn't think you'll be coming out of here alive after all- you had fun getting inside the hidden archive. Did you find what you were looking for?" (Emperor Alastor) showed himself and we panicked.