Angor and Rabbit Chacha were standing between a tree and a wall.
Behind the wall was a corridor about ten meters long, which led to the main hall of the castle. The three places Julie suggested, including the storage room, the study, and the treasury, were all near the main building.
"Where do you want to go first?" Rabbit Chacha asked Angor after making sure no one was around.
The storage room? The study or the treasury? Angor had no idea, so he threw the question back to Rabbit Chacha. "What do you suggest?"
"My suggestion?" Rabbit Chacha stroked his beard and said in a low voice, "I suggest that you explore the treasure vault last. It's in the basement, where the security is the tightest. If you want to sneak in, you'll have to take a long detour and sneak in through the ventilation pipes."
"The storage room or the study? It's up to you. Which one do you want to go first?"
At this point, Rabbit Chacha raised her head and looked toward the main building.
This was an open-air pond in the castle, which allowed them to see the castle buildings nearby. The closest one was the main building.
"The only one upstairs with a light on is Earl Black Tea's study," Rabbit Chacha whispered.
Angor followed the bird's direction. The color scheme of the main building was still pitch-black. It was tall and quaint, appearing both grand and tranquil in the night.
The first floor of the main building was connected to the main hall, so Angor could not see anything. The second, third, and fourth floors of the main building all had windows. The fifth floor had a protruding balcony.
The windows on the fourth floor were open, and Angor could see a faint red light inside. It was the only room in the main building with a light on.
"The study is on the fourth floor?" Angor asked.
Rabbit Chacha nodded. "Yes. If we want to go to the study, we'll have to take the stairs to the left of the main hall. We'll go all the way to the fourth floor."
"Stairs?" Will it be dangerous? "
They did not know how long it would take them to climb the stairs with their current height. If they ran into servants along the way, they would not be able to outrun them.
Rabbit Chacha patted Angor's shoulder and comforted him. "Don't worry. I know the layout of the castle very well. There aren't many servants who can cross floors."
According to Rabbit Chacha's observations, there were Puppet Maids on every floor, but they usually wouldn't cross floors because their body structure made it difficult for them to jump.
Currently, there were only three types of servants that could easily cross levels: Tea Puppet Servants, Imperial Puppet Guards, and Puppet Chefs.
Most of the puppet guards had been taken away by Earl Dark Tea. The rest of the guards were stationed on the city walls and the moat. Occasionally, there would be a few guards who were alone in the living quarters and would not come to the main building.
Therefore, there was no need to worry about the puppet guards.
The puppet chef and the puppet tea servant complemented each other. The chef's kitchen was on the right side of the main hall. Generally speaking, without Earl Dark Tea's order, the chef would not go upstairs and would only stay in the kitchen.
As for the dishes prepared by the chef, they would be handed over to the puppet tea servant, who would then serve the Count of Dark Tea.
Because of this, a tea servant and a chef were mutually beneficial. The cook didn't cook, and the tea servant didn't come upstairs.
Now that Earl Dark Tea had left and wouldn't be back anytime soon, the chef and the tea servant didn't need to worry too much.
In conclusion, as long as they carefully avoided the patrolling maids on every floor, they would be able to take the stairs.
After Rabbit Chacha finished talking about the study, she moved on to the storeroom.
The storeroom was the closest to them. It was right behind the kitchen on the right side of the main hall.
However, to get to the storeroom, they had to go through the main hall and the kitchen. There would definitely be puppet maids in the main hall, and a chef and a tea servant in the kitchen. It was close, but it was still dangerous.
After introducing the three main locations, Rabbit Chacha asked again, "Have you made up your mind?"
"Are we sure we'll run into servants whether we go to the study or the storeroom?"
Rabbit Chacha nodded. "Yes. But you don't need to be too afraid of them. That servant girl was nearby, right? She didn't notice anything in the end."
As long as they hid well in the blind spots of the servants, they could avoid them.
However, that was only if the servants didn't notice them.
Once the servants noticed something was wrong and became alert, it would be very difficult to hide from them by blocking their vision.
In other words, no matter where they chose to go, they had to hide perfectly. Otherwise, they would have a lot of trouble later.
Angor considered for a moment. "Let's go to the storeroom first."
Rabbit Chacha chuckled. "That's what I was thinking. We have to go through the main hall and the kitchen to get to the storeroom, but they have a lot of decorations and are the easiest places to hide. You can use this chance to learn how to hide so that the servants won't notice you. "
Rabbit Chacha began to boast about her experience again.
There were a lot of things that confused him. For example, Rabbit Chacha said it once hid behind a servant girl. When the servant girl turned around, Rabbit Chacha also turned around and successfully blocked her vision. It sounded more like a mime or a comedy. Angor doubted its authenticity.
He doubted the experience, but he knew one thing from it. As long as the servants didn't notice, their vision would be very limited. The difficulty of sneaking in was probably the same as a third-rate thief. However, if the servants noticed something was wrong, the difficulty of sneaking in would skyrocket. Even a great thief would not be able to escape.
So, in conclusion, he had to be extra careful. A single mistake, even if it was just an accidental trace left behind by the servants, could cause him to lose everything.
With that in mind, Angor looked down at his feet and the path he came from. He sighed in relief when he made sure he didn't leave any footprints behind.
"Let's go to the main hall first." With that, Rabbit Chacha began to climb the tree.
Angor was surprised. Weren't they going to the main hall? Why were they climbing a tree?
Rabbit Chacha said, "The main hall is close, but there's no place to hide in that corridor. If we run into the servants, we'll face them directly. So, we have to take a detour. "
Angor considered and did not argue. He followed Rabbit Chacha and began to climb the tree.
The tree had many branches, so they did not have to worry about not having a place to rest. Besides, the tree was surrounded by walls on all sides, so there was no wind to disturb them. The climb went smoothly.
A few minutes later, they reached the middle of the tree. Rabbit Chacha stopped and pointed at a branch that extended to the top of the corridor. "Let's go this way."
Holding onto the branches, they successfully jumped to the top of the brick roof above the corridor.
Just as they jumped onto the roof, they heard familiar footsteps coming from the corridor below. It was likely that another maid was coming.
Angor now understood what Rabbit Chacha meant. If they did not take a detour and came here from the corridor, they would probably face the servants directly. They would be doomed.
But now, they were lying on the top of the corridor. They did not have to worry about being discovered by the servants because of the bricks.
After waiting in silence for a while, the footsteps of the servant went away. She must have gone to the side building.
"Every floor has a patrolling servant. The one down there is probably the one on the first floor," Rabbit Chacha said. Rabbit Chacha said in a low voice, "Be careful. The perception of the patrolling maids is only weaker than that of the Imperial Guards."
Soon, the footsteps of the patrolling servant came again. She would go to the side building but would not go up.
When the footsteps of the patrolling servant disappeared from the main hall, Rabbit Chacha said, "This is only the first floor. If you want to go to the study, you have to be careful on every floor. Try to avoid the straight corridors. Otherwise, you'll get yourself into danger."
Angor nodded.
This was another version of the game "Daybreak". They could not afford to be discovered.
"Let's keep going."
Rabbit Chacha led Angor and walked for ten meters until they reached the end of the corridor. There was a slope at the end of the corridor. Above the slope was a wall, but there were long and narrow holes of various sizes on the wall.
Inside each of these large and small holes, there were colored glass pieces installed. Obviously, this was a kind of interior decoration.
Rabbit Chacha wriggled into the hole in the white glass with great familiarity. With a light twist, it revealed a passageway.
Behind the passage was the main hall of the castle.
However, Angor could not see what was going on inside from the passage. There was a curtain blocking the view.
This was why Rabbit Chacha did not hesitate to open the passage. She knew that there was a curtain behind, so she did not have to worry about being discovered.
After going inside, Chacha took out another piece of white glass and sealed the passage again.
"We're on high ground now. We can observe the main hall and confirm where the servants are before we go down," Rabbit Chacha said.
Angor was thinking the same thing.
Rabbit Chacha fumbled around and took out a monocle from her pocket. She then slowly lifted a corner of the curtain and peeked into the main hall. Soon, Rabbit Chacha came back.
"The main door is open. The patrolling servant must have gone outside. There are two servants in the main hall. I can't tell you what happened to them. Take a look."
Rabbit Chacha handed the monocle to Angor and explained how to use it.
The monocle was just a normal monocle without any special function. However, it was useful in this castle.
All the puppets in Castle of Black Tea were very sensitive to other people's gazes. If Angor and Rabbit Teacha stared at each other for too long, the puppets would notice them within seconds. Even if the servants did not mean any harm, they would not be able to stop their natural vision radar.
The best way to do this was to observe through a layer of mirror.
Even the most basic mirror could reduce the probability of being discovered by the puppet servants. Normally, as long as one did not keep looking at the puppet servants, they could observe for ten or twenty seconds without any problem.
However, Rabbit Chacha only had the monocle, so she still had to be careful. For example, she had to squint one eye.
Angor peeked his head out from the edge of the curtain with one eye closed.
Through the monocle, Angor quickly saw the situation in the main hall.
They were at the place where the main hall was connected to the corridor. Two red curtains were hanging down. In front of them were luxurious sofas and colorful carpets.
Short tables, tea tables, velvet rugs, porcelain, tapestries … The main hall was luxurious, but it was also vulgar. The only interesting thing about the hall was that there were pictures of teapots everywhere. Was this a characteristic of the Teapot Kingdom?
Apart from the style, the front part of the hall also caught Angor's attention. This was usually the center of the hall. Some nobles liked to hang their portraits here, while others liked to display their treasures here.
The Earl of Black Tea was obviously the latter. At the center of the hall, there was a pedestal carved out of expensive wood. On top of the pedestal was the Earl's collection: a fancy, square teapot.
Or at least, they looked as fancy as Rabbit Chacha's clothes.
Maybe this was the hobby of the Teapot Kingdom's people. They liked colorful things.
Apart from the decorations, the most interesting thing in the hall was the two maids.
Angor wondered why Rabbit Chacha didn't know how to describe them. He couldn't tell what they were doing either.
One of the maids was standing at the entrance of the hall. It looked like she was guarding the entrance, but her long snake-like neck was bent at a right angle toward a small window on the right side of the hall.
Angor didn't know what she was doing.
But there was a kitchen on the right side of the hall. Did the maid poke her head into the kitchen?
Maybe she was chatting with the cook in the kitchen? Or maybe she was sneaking some snacks?
Either way, it was a good thing for them. This was because these puppet servants relied on their eyes to see when they weren't on guard. Their field of vision was very narrow, and since the maid's head had reached into the side room, she definitely couldn't see into the main hall.
The other maid was holding something that looked like a feather duster and was wiping the porcelain decorations. However, that was only her hands. Her head also stretched out like a snake and wriggled on the floor.
At first, Angor thought the maid was doing some cleaning. But when the maid excitedly stuck out her long tongue and swallowed a cockroach, Angor didn't know what to think.
So the maid was hunting for food as well.
That was not easy to deal with.
The maid was looking for cockroaches, and they weren't much bigger than cockroaches. If the maid kept looking for cockroaches in the corner, she might find them.
Angor slowly lowered his head and told Rabbit Chacha about his plan.
Rabbit Chacha considered and said, "As long as the first maid doesn't move her head, we don't need to do anything. At least, we can leave her alone before we enter the kitchen. As for the second maid, we can do this … "
(End of Chapter)
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