Follow the Plot

Chapter 18

The clear dark sky felt peaceful, it was quiet, with the moon not in sight. 

With only a few sounds of the natural wildlife. 

In the darkness, a small lamp lit up, the light invading the dark.

Estorea was sitting at her desk, in front of her was a bowl. 

Gloves adorned her hands and she was wearing a black mask she brought along with her.

Her eyes were also protected, using hand-made protection glasses.

She was holding a fork, mashing the berry in the bowl, currently making the poison.

Tomorrow, she would set her plan into motion, so she needs to finish tonight.

The clock continuously made a ticking sound, indicating each passing second.

...

"Finally done... Now to test it out... I think there was a plant around here... Where is it...?" Estorea mumbled, carefully picking up the small test tube with dark-coloured liquid sloshing from side to side.

She found a small potted plant in the corner of the room, she plucked off a leaf and walked back to the desk, putting the leaf inside the bowl.

She then tilted the test tube over, and a single drop fell out, it hit the leaf. And almost instantly, it shrivelled up.

Estorea clicked her tongue, "Why, it's quite poisonous, isn't it? Looks like I really do need this in extremely small doses. Can't be killing the guards now, can I?" 

With that, she tore the leaf apart, and tossed it in the trash. 

'I can't determine whether smell will affect it or not among close proximity. But I guess I can take a risk... Now that I think about it, what time is it now?' 

Estorea took a look at the clock, it read 2AM. She had started making the poison from 10PM onwards.

'This is the longest experiment I ever had... 4 hours? Goodness.' Shaking her head, Estorea closed the small test tube with a cork, and put it in the ceramic bowl.

She walked over to her bag, opened it and started digging through it, lifting up the hidden leather cover, she took out the disguise clothes, and beneath that, was a nicely folded plastic ziplock bag with black coloured clothes folded neatly inside it, completely compressed.

She had a decent amount of time before the morning arrived.

Breakfast started at 8:30AM sharp. Whilst, the tests will start an hour later.

So she would have like 4 to 5 hours.

And, she better get moving.

...

Putting on the black clothes, she immediately blended within the darkness.

Carefully, she checked the surroundings outside. Funnily enough, it seems like the King's Concubine doesn't put so much work on safety, well, it's more like they don't give a care at all.

No guards were to be seen patrolling at night, it was completely deserted, which worked nicely in favour of Estorea.

After making sure no one was in sight, Estorea silently and carefully pushed opened the window, she climbed outside and closed the windows again, immediately dashing straight for a bush, hiding within it. 

Crouching down, she shuffled her feet forward, trying to get closer to the wall. 

Slowly and surely, she made it. 

And stood up, gripped onto the wall. Lifting one leg over and the other over, and jumped right into another bush, her arms scraping against the sharp branches.

Thankfully, her arm was covered and she didn't manage to get any scratches.

Estorea sighed, it had only been 40 minutes into the plan and she already wanted to go back to her room, snuggled in her sheets.

Jesus, trying to make sure you stay alive is so difficult in a fantasy world. How annoying.

'Why couldn't I get one of those worlds that had like, no fucking world rules or something and they could anything they want but with the stupid mentality of "I can't". The utter bullshit. Honestly, if they were in my position...' 

Frowning heavily, Estorea forced herself to move forward. And eventually, she managed to make it back to the spot she was before.

She planned to go by the entrance, but before that, she wanted to see if the window at the King's Study could be opened or it was there for simply decoration.

And to test that out, Estorea got up, and made her way over to the window 

She lightly placed her gloved hands on the window panels, and gave a small push. 

And... The window...

Didn't budge.

'Damn it.' 

Estorea rubbed her temples, annoyed. 'Looks like I have to use the original plan. How useful and convenient for me if god just decided to make my life easier and let this window be open.' 

Walking back to the bushes, Estorea moved among them, finding the entrance to the palace easily.

And she was shocked, her mouth agape, when she realised, why the fuck was there no guards at the palace???

Is it because the King stays in the concubine's room or something? Do they have a lack of staff?

Why on earth didn't they bother to put any guards there? Estorea was in disbelief. 

'Why is the royal family so incompetent. How did they become at the top of the food chain with this kind of laid-back attitude? And I thought the Crown Prince was smart! Why didn't he stationed any guards here? Doesn't he take any sense of caution!?' 

Although this situation did make Estorea's life slightly easier. She still couldn't help but wished they at least took a little more caution.

I mean, come on!

What kind of situation was this!?

After scolding the whole royal family in her heart, Estorea finally moved on. 

No one was around in the vicinity of the garden, considering she had quite keen ears.

She slowly walked over to the entrance and peeked inside. Seeing a dark hallway, with a few lit candles, barely flitting up the place.

The hallway seemed ominous and definitely, not friendly in any way. 

Estorea furrowed her eyebrows, although she was an atheist, she still can't help but feel slightly uncomfortable by this atmosphere. 

Taking a deep breath, she stepped inside, the King's Study was supposedly far ahead according to her calculations so she better get moving, no time to be stalling after all.