The night came sooner than they expected, and the two set off on the back of Haunter to fly towards the Krisen Kingdom.
The Krisen Kingdom was located 500 km east of the imperial city. Just as they reached the Krisen Kingdom, they looked down from the sky to see a beautiful sight of a whole Kingdom being lit up by night lights since most should have gone to sleep at such late hours.
However, they could see that the rumors were indeed true since even from afar, they could see a lot of tall and grand buildings located on wide and well-maintained roads.
They quickly came down and proceeded to walk on the road. There were barely any people on the road since it was at least midnight when the two arrived here.
Valentina was in disguise while Damien was wearing non-conspicuous clothes. The two quickly made their way towards the royal palace in the dead of night.
Soon enough, they came upon huge walls and a gate at the main entrance with two guards walking to and fro with sharp eyes.
"These guards are very attentive. Careful," Damien whispered as Valentina nodded.
Valentina crouched and moved towards the walls with the knife artifact Damien had given her to cut through the outer defensive formations so that she wouldn't trigger any defensive formations and alert people.
Since there was a good number of small trees surrounding the royal palace, it was easy for Damien to hide between them and also keep a lookout for the guards.
He knew entering through the main gate was impossible due to the two guards and was waiting for Valentina's response after she got through the walls.
He already got a map of the royal palace and even the information of where Princess Yurio was residing given to him by Farah Gale.
He once again realized how bitter a woman's jealousy would be. Of course, Damien was only happy since he got to profit from her objective to let Kale Gale not have any chances of winning the competition.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})Valentina followed Damien's instructions and located the back gate, which only had one guard in place. But that guard seemed to be at the Sky Ethereal Realm, a bit stronger than the two guards they saw at the front gate.
And this guard was not even walking but simply sitting on a chair near the gate while looking around with vigilant eyes.
Valentina wasn't worried since Damien had given her a needle smeared in a herb with a certain toxin that could help knockout anyone below the Heaven Ethereal Realm for at least twelve hours.
She quietly phased through the wall and quickly walked towards the oblivious guard in front of her.
She quickly jabbed the needle at his neck, making the guard slap his neck as if a mosquito bit him.
The guard had a confused look, wondering why he felt a sudden prick on his neck. But before he could think anymore, he started feeling drowsy, and within seconds his head drooped, letting out subtle snores.
She quickly copied the guard's clothes to make one for herself and disguised into the same guard that was sleeping before her.
She moved his body and hid it behind the trees, which she was sure no one was going to notice unless someone walked through here.
Although she disguised into a man, she was not feeling any different but was not surprised about it.
She had already realized that the Mask of Mischief was at least working based on Illusion Laws and doesn't really make any alterations.
However, the Illusion Laws behind it were so profound that they could make others see and feel as if it was real.
This made Valentina excited since she was also someone who manipulated Illusion Laws, especially to phase through solid things and become invisible.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})She wondered if she could one day increase her comprehension of Illusion Laws to the point of being able to do what her mask is capable of without using it.
However, this was just a passing thought since now was the right time to become thoughtful about things.
Damien, who was quietly moving over to the back gate, got a green signal from Valentina and moved towards her.
He saw her disguised as the guard who sat on the chair just a while ago and marveled at the capabilities of her mask.
She passed down some clothes, looking the same as the guards they saw before, the only difference being that the knocked-out guard had a green-colored badge signifying his rank, they thought.
Valentina opened the gate for Damien, letting him finally enter the grounds of the royal palace.
"You sit outside and keep a lookout for anything. When I tell you to run, you should immediately run, okay? This is only if something goes wrong," Damien instructed.
Valentina nodded and showed him a thumbs up, reassuring Damien. He finally strolled through the grounds while tying a scarf around his face, covering half of it.
He already saw some guards with scarfs, so he wasn't worried if anybody would find it suspicious though he had no idea why they were tying scarfs unless it was for no reason.
He followed the map in his mind and went around the palace to locate the residence of the princess.
He took in a cold breath when he saw more guards popping up the more he went deeper into the palace grounds.
However, the guards didn't pay any mind to him since there was nothing suspicious about Damien.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})Still, Damien was impressed that these men were still remaining vigilant at night instead of alleviating their boredom by talking to their fellow guards.
He thought that the king must have given strict orders to these disciplined guards.
However, just as he came near the residence of the princess, he was surprised to see a dozen guards wearing dazzling silver armor with capes and iron helmets, making them look like glorious legionnaires.
Damien could feel their collective intimidating aura even from afar, making him think that these guards were no ordinary guards but something very much more and were not ones he could trifle with.
He believed that these elite guards must be the personal bodyguards of the princess and realized how protective the king was about his daughter.
Damien knew the lengths a doting father could go to such that they would even pluck the moon for their daughters just to see them smile.
Still, Damien wasn't worried since he was prepared for this. He used Farah Gale's information to locate a secret backdoor to the princess residence.
Damien had no idea how bigshots like Farah Gale had access to such information. But this was proof that she or the Gale Emperor had spies planted inside the royal palace, especially someone who at least interacted with the princess occasionally.
Damien now felt that the Gale Emperor was indeed taking the Krisen Kingdom seriously, which only piqued Damien's curiosity even more, to know what special thing this kingdom was hiding.
Damien wasn't clear about what he was going to do once he came across the princess, but he knew he only wanted to make a deal with her, especially by offering something enticing which could benefit not only her but her father and her kingdom as well.
Of course, striking a deal in such a situation where he was breaking into her residence would surely be seen as unwelcome in her eyes and probably alert the guards.
But Damien was quite confident that if she was a princess with some brains, she would surely hear him out once he reveals his proposal.
He knew meeting her or the king officially wouldn't go well since there was no way he could meet them as Damien, nor could he request for a private conversation as Tristen.
Thus, resorting to this risky way was the only choice he had left. Damien came across the servant quarters building located just outside the palace, and apparently, most of the guards lived here along with other servants.
He entered the building and moved towards the vacant kitchen. He then scanned the kitchen walls as if searching for something.
Finally, he spotted a checkered line on one of the walls. His lips curved as he moved his hand over the line while applying pressure slightly.
His eyes shone when he saw the wall silently moving towards the side to reveal a dim-lit narrow passage which he believed should lead right towards the inside of the royal palace.
He quickly looked behind to see that he had forgotten to close the kitchen door. He decided to close it since he didn't want to get caught redhanded by a passerby if he was to exit out of the secret passage.
The secret door automatically closed since Damien was not near it anymore.
However, unbeknownst to Damien, a cloaked figure was moving through the secret passage in a very suspicious manner.
Damien closed the kitchen door and again stepped in front of the secret door. As he saw the door opening, he stepped forward to enter the passage but…
"Owww!"
"Damn!"
Two heads collided, making both Damien and the cloaked figure stumble backward with shocked cries.
