Follow the Plot

Chapter 14

Estorea flipped the page, taking a cookie, she bit it, chewing on it. The first test that was going to occur was English.

Which is going to happen 2 days later as all the participants were given a day to get used to the schedule given to them.

Estorea was fairly good at English. She just needed some more touch-up with the old manner of English that was used in this era, hence, why she is studying.

Estorea reached out for another biscuit when her hand came into contact with an empty plate.

Her eyes widened slightly, she pulled her hand back with a disappointed expression as she pursued her lips.

Her personal maid, Annette had gone off to do some chores that were assigned to her.

Estorea sighs and closes the book shut, 'It's a disappointment that I regrettably can't get any more of those good biscuits... How unfortunate.' 

Having run out of a good snack and no longer in the mood to study, Estorea kept her book in her bag and got up. Her eyes glance at the window. 

'I guess I can go take a look outside. It won't do me any harm anyways..' She thought as she walked to the door, opening it and exiting the room.

________

The areas that were given access to the participants were the garden or anywhere outside of the palace they were residing in, they were, however, not allowed to exit the palace grounds. The library and the dining room were also included. And that was all, besides their rooms.

Estorea decided she should go explore the palace, it won't do any harm.

In this novel, it seems that the Royal family had multiple castles and palaces, each for different purposes.

In total, there were six palaces,

The Sun Palace where the King resides. 

The Sky Palace where the guests stayed at.

The Moon Palace where the Queen resides. 

The Star Palace where the concubines reside.

The Jupiter Palace where the Crown Prince and Princess resides.

And the Pluto Palace, where the children of the concubines reside.

Again,

The Queen was staying in the Moon Palace, while the King stayed in the Sun Palace, whereas, the concubines all stayed together in the Star Palace. 

The Star Palace had the most drama occurring inside everyday and it was basically a verbal, if sometimes, a physical battlefield. Such a beautiful name, yet used in such an atrocious area.

The palace that the participants were currently staying in was called the Sky Palace. The Sky Palace was built by the First King, for it served the purpose of where the guests would stay when they visited the Palace.

The Palaces' gardens were massive, and fancy. They had pathways, fountains, arcs, gazebos, little rivers, big lakes and a greenhouse that held all sorts of exquisite and exotic plants.

The Sky Palace's gardens definitely didn't disappoint. In fact, it was probably going to be Estorea's second source of entertainment. 

Estorea needed to find a way to get to the Sun Palace, and that proved to be rather difficult if you tried to get into the palace. But who said Estorea didn't come prepared? 

Her plan was to disguise herself as a gardener. With that, she could freely travel around all the palaces as Gardeners were given access to every single garden. 

She would tell Annette that she would like to be left alone in her room for a certain amount of time as she would want to 'rest' since the test has exhausted her. 

There wasn't a very efficient back-up plan if her original plan failed, so Estorea just planned to try using pillows to create a bump under the blanket to make it look like a body was present, but it will prove to be difficult. 

Hopefully, Lady Luck shall grant her luck to her...

Hopefully.

For now, she needs to see if a butler will come for the next 3 days, by just checking through a window that was giving sight to the King's Study. 

Wandering around discreetly, should... Do the trick... Maybe.

__________

Day 1: After the English Test,

"Ane, I'm gonna go take a rest! Please don't wake me up for a few hours and don't come into my room. I'm a very light sleeper so I can easily be woken up with just the tiniest bit of noise. I do apologise for this inconvenience of mine." Estorea spoke in a sorrow tone, feigning a guilty look.

"Oh! It's not a problem, sir! I shall make sure no one gets close into the vicinity of your room! You can count on me at it!" Anette said with determination, "I shall stay guard outside of your door. Please sleep freely. And do call me shall you need anything." She then steps outside, gently closing the door behind her.

Estorea smiled, making her way over to the bed, she took several pillows, making a bump under the blankets. Making sure to hide the pillow, and hopefully make Anette think that she's the type to sleep under the blankets completely.

Taking out her bag, Estorea reached into the depths of it, and pulled off a leather cover.

There was a zipper at the bottom, she pulled the zipper down, revealing a decent size compartment, it had inside, folded clothes of the gardener's, gloves as well as a dark green newsboy cap. 

She took it out, zip it back up and out back the leather cover that was hiding the hidden compartment inside her backpack.

She then took off her clothes, taking a look at the bump on her bed, she walked towards it and took out the pillows, pulling the clothes onto it.

Just then, she had an idea pop up into her head, but frowned. She couldn't put it to use as she did not have the materials to do so.

'If only I brought a wig with me... How unfortunate.' Sighing, she put the pillows back and got onto putting on the new clothes.

Once she was done so, she tied up her hair into a bun, taking out a small hair clip from her pocket and clipping her hair to the top of her head as far as possible, she then put on the brown newsboy cap, took off her monocle and eye contacts, putting the monocle on the bedside drawer and keeping the contacts in her bag. 

The outfit consisted of white coloured tunic, brown bootcut pants, dark green Ugg boots and a brown newsboy cap. This was how the gardeners look like, that was working at the palace.

Estorea looked at her window, she took a look at it, outside. Cautiously checking her surroundings, finding the perfect time to climb outside and go.

After a few more minutes of waiting, finally, no one was in sight. Quietly and steadily, she lifted up the window cover, and hastily got out.

She hurriedly closed the window and made a dash for the bushes, hiding inside the bushes, she checked the surroundings, after making sure no one saw her. 

She breathed a sigh of relief and looked behind her with a sign of determination. 

'Let's do this!'