Damian helped Natasha pack for her trip, and in the process, learned her name. That was one of the few things he managed to get out of her.
Natasha was good at answering questions without giving away too much information.
'She knows what she's doing,' Damian thought.
After helping her pack, Damian left. Natasha didn't see anything wrong with his visit. He seemed to be only curious about the captain position, which he wanted.
'I have the keys now!'
Damian was happy to have the keys to the locked rooms in the castle. He hoped they would open all the rooms, but there were many locked doors, and he only had three keys.
He still couldn't understand why Natasha, who would be gone for a month or more, had to take the keys with her.
Did that mean no one would be able to open the doors while she was gone? That didn't make sense.
'I bet Miller or someone else with a high position has the same keys, or even more,' Damian thought.
For now, he didn't have to worry about that. With the keys, he could explore new parts of the castle at night, which was great.
There was nothing else for Damian to do during the day, so he spent his time reading his necromancy book in his room—the first book he had gotten, not the second he had gotten after fighting the winged demon.
The first book still had some spells Damian wanted to master before moving on to the next one. He wrapped himself in a blanket near the fireplace and read his grimoire, glancing out the window from time to time to rest his eyes. freeweb novel.co m
When the moon rose close to midnight, the castle fell silent. Damian could only hear guards talking outside or walking through the corridors, making sure no one was invading the castle or doing anything illegal at night.
That was the perfect time to enter the locked rooms. It was darker, and there were fewer people who could see him, but there was still a risk.
Damian was glad he had his invisibility cloak to help him with this task. Without it, the task would be much harder, but it would still be possible if he knew the guards' routes and timed it perfectly.
He created a clone of himself using his Slime Ring and placed it on the bed. What if someone opened the door and didn't see him there? It could happen, and Damian wanted to be prepared.
After making sure everything was as good as it could be, he put his ear to the door to listen for footsteps.
'Clear.'
He didn't hear anyone coming, so this was his best chance to leave! Damian opened the door and closed it almost immediately. freew(e)bnovel
Then, he took out the invisibility cloak from his spatial ring. In one moment, he was there, and in the next, he was gone.
'I wish I could fly... I hate this place. It reminds me of the dragon city,' Damian thought.
Even with his invisibility, he wasn't completely hidden from everyone. But that would have to do. He couldn't float to the ceiling to hide.
The moonlight shone through the windows of the corridor, illuminating it slightly. The fireplaces scattered around also helped. That was it. There were no candles or other sources of light, making it easier for Damian to stealthily walk through the corridors.
After a few minutes, a guard came walking down the corridor, looking around the corners for anyone hiding. Damian was hidden in one of the corners, but the guard didn't notice him because of his cloak.
'He didn't sense a thing,' Damian thought. 'I think I might be able to easily hide from all the guards, but what about more powerful people?'
Damian waited until the guard was gone, and then he continued forward, looking for one of the locked doors scattered throughout the castle.
'Here's one!'he said to himself.
The door looked ordinary, exactly like all the others in the castle, but Damian could tell something was different about it, other than the fact that it was locked.
'Could this be protected by some kind of spell?' he wondered.
'Screw this!'
Damian took out the keys he had copied, and tried each one of them to see which one would open the door. One of them did! He slowly pushed the door open, and what was on the other side was like a storage room.
There were many wooden crates inside the room, and its walls were lined with weapons and armor. Damian's curiosity got the best of him, and he had to open the crates to check what was inside.
"F*cking hell!" he said.
The wooden crate Damian opened had a mummy inside with only a loincloth covering its parts. It was a frightening scene, reminding Damian of the catacombs he had recently explored.
'What are these corpses doing here? This doesn't look like a graveyard!'
What was happening inside Snowheart's family castle that Damian was missing out on? He closed the crate, and opened some of the others, and just like the first one, each wooden crate had a corpse in it.
Damian couldn't understand why those corpses were there, or who these people were.
'Wait. These weapons and armor look like the ones the guards in this place use!' Damian thought, realizing why the items seemed familiar to him.
Could all of the corpses inside those crates be guards? Damian had never heard about a mass killing of guards, or a dangerous mission that could kill them.
If something so severe happened, someone in Ishgand city would talk about it, yet no one did.
'They're hiding these corpses... Is Natasha hiding it?'
Natasha said the keys belonged to her, but Damian was certain she was not the only one with the keys to those locked doors, and Miller, who was the person in charge of the Snowheart's family, had to give her the access to those rooms.
The more Damian explored, the more doubts he had, and that was only the first locked door. What about all the others? What would he find behind them?
There was only one way to know, and that was by exploring! Damian searched all the corners inside that room to see if there was something else, maybe a hidden area, but he found nothing, so he decided to leave, making sure to close the door after leaving, covering his tracks.
Damian continued his search for another locked door, and within five minutes, he found one. He opened it and found the same thing inside as the previous rooms: corpses and the equipment those people once wore.
He searched through five more locked doors, all of which were the same.
'I remember seeing one near the guard's barracks,' Damian thought. 'I'll go check there.'
Leaving the castle was not difficult. All he had to do was open one of the windows and jump outside. The guards outside were cold and were more concerned with staying close to the fire than patrolling the area.
This gave Damian the advantage of exploring the courtyard without much trouble. He soon arrived at a locked door behind Natasha's room.
He waited a few minutes to make sure no one was around. Damian looked through the window of the barracks and saw that there was no light.
'Natasha is probably in her room right now,' he thought.
Damian opened the door and found himself in a mine. It was dark, but he could see a trail where a mining cart had been used.
'A mine? Why is there a mine here?'
The Snowheart family was not known for their ores or crafted weapons. If they had a mine like this, then surely it would be known throughout the land.
A few moments after Damian entered the mine, someone else unlocked the door he had just used to enter! Damian quickly hid behind a pile of rocks.
'Natasha?'
The person who had just unlocked the door was Natasha! She was not sleeping in her room like Damian had thought.
Natasha looked behind her, making sure no one had seen her arrive. After being certain that no one was there, she closed the door and followed down a tunnel.
'Should I follow her?'
Natasha was more powerful than the guards. If Damian decided to follow her, then there was a chance she would notice his presence. But his curiosity was too much.
'Let's f*cking go and hope for the best!'
Damian wanted to check the locked rooms to look for a escaping route or something that might help him complete this mission, but the things he witnessed inside made him curious!
Corpses and an unknown mine! It was impossible for him to stand by and forget about all the things he saw. Damian had to go check with his own eyes. He gathered his courage, and stealthly followed Natasha through the mine's tunnel, not knowing what to expect.
Th𝗲 most uptodate novels are published on free(w)ebnov(e)l.𝒄𝒐𝙢