The Break-in

*Crunch* *Crunch* *Crunch*

Cal was sitting in my room at the inn, where he was intensely grinding together a variety of ingredients with his mortar and pestle. A grayish plume of powder filled the room.

"Here are the herbs you requested." I said.

Cal wiped the sweat from his brow.

"Perfect, we'll have enough sleep powder to drop a herd of elephants. Those guards don't stand a chance against my alchemy."

As usual, Cal was much more resourceful than he appeared. If he wasn't a raging alcoholic and a womanizer, I actually wouldn't mind having him around.

"Just don't forget to also mix together that 'special' liquid." I replied.

Cal grinned.

"Erika made a fatal mistake with this prohibition rule... I'm sober now... which means I can crank these potions out like an assembly line."

For the next few hours, Cal grinded and mixed away. He managed to fill two leather bags the size of watermelons with sleep powder and a small vial with the 'special' liquid.

✨✨✨

Eventually the sun set. Cal and I casually patrolled the streets outside the palace, blending in with the city's usual night crowd. The front gate was obviously guarded and there were guards stationed at four separate watch towers overlooking the perimeter of the palace grounds.

"Stick close and stay quiet." I said to Cal as we inconspicuously moved toward the palace's stone outer wall.

As we got right up to it, I snapped my fingers. My vision suddenly got a dark bluish tint to it and I was able to see the heat signatures of all the guards in the courtyard. I only had enough mana to use this spell few times tonight, so I'd have to make each use count.

After scoping it out for a bit, I managed to find an area that was relatively devoid of guards.

I pointed to a section of the wall.

"That's where I want you to use that 'special' liquid."

Cal pulled the vile from his pocket.

"No problem, this will melt through that wall like butter."

He splashed the liquid on the stone wall.

*Sssssss*

Just as Cal had mentioned, it ate through the wall like nothing. I wasn't particularly sure what this liquid was, but judging from the looks of it, it was probably some kind of acid.

The two of us crawled through the hole which led into the courtyard behind the palace. Despite now being within palace grounds, there was still a fair bit of distance between us and the actual palace.

I directed Cal's attention to the nearby guard tower.

"We can't let our guards down. The last thing we need is to get spo-"

A yellow crystal like object suddenly shot up and levitated out from the bush we were in. It cast a blinding light illuminating the entire area.

"Something's set off a detection crystal!" A voice off in the distance exclaimed.

*Stomp* *Stomp* *Stomp*

I could hear a group of guards rushing to our location.

"Quick over there." I whispered to Cal.

We hurried toward a nearby structure. I quickly cast the heat signature spell to see if anyone was inside and luckily there wasn't, so we entered.

"That didn't go well." Cal said.

I shook my head.

"I would have never had anticipated they'd be using detection crystals. I'm guessing they have them scattered throughout this compound."

"What are we going to do now? I think we just alerted this entire place."

I sighed,

"I think we're going to have to abort this plan. Let's just focus on getting out of here. We'll have to go back to the drawing board."

*Creak*

The door of the structure we were in suddenly opened. Instantly Cal and I hid underneath what appeared to be cots lining the entirety of the room. It seemed like we were in some kind of barracks.

"Bro, I'm telling you, I heard from this one bodybuilder Chad that if you swallow one rock a day, you'll get abs without having to do a single sit up." One of the individuals that entered the room said.

"I don't think trying that would be a good idea, Ryo. Something tells me that wouldn't work." The other person responded.

"I'm not sure. The dude who told me that was pretty swole."

"Alright... Well I'm hitting the sack early. After these last few days, I think need to start considering a new career pa-... Whoever is hiding under those cots over there, show yourselves."

We were completely across the room. I had no idea how we were noticed.

Still under the cot, Cal looked at me with wide eyes.

"What should we do?" He whispered.

"Just play along for now. We'll make a break for it as soon as we get an opening." I said.

Both of us slowly rolled out from our hiding places and stood up.

"You two aren't guards." The short brown haired one said.

I recognized the two of them from the city entrance the other day. The other black haired one was the one who was hitting on Erika. I believe I heard his name was Ryo.

"No we're not guards." I responded.

"Yeah... We're just... tourists." Cal added nervously."

"You honestly think I'd believe that. I know there was a detection crystal that just went off a few minutes ago."

The short one wasn't buying it. That didn't matter though because all we had to do was get close enough to use the sleep pow-... The bag containing it that I had strapped to my side was gone. I looked over at Cal, his was missing too.

"You're looking for these aren't you."

Somehow both of our bags were laying at the feet of the two guards.

"Nice one Kuro! That power of yours sure does come in handy." Ryo exclaimed.

"Ah come on! Do you have any idea how long it took to make all that sleep powder?" Cal said.

"Shut up!" I scolded him.

He was only incriminating us even more.

"You guys obviously aren't up to any good, having all this sleep powder on palace grounds."

Kuro started drawing his very short wakizashi, but suddenly returned it to its sheathe.

"...wait a second. You're that guy who was with Shogun Erika when she first entered the city. I don't understand, she's your companion, isn't she? Why would you be coming after her like this."

Cal chuckled a bit.

"That's because Erika threw Arno, her mentor here, to the curb."

"So you're here trying to get her back, aren't you? I have to say, you guys are kind of crazy to try and break into one of the most secure compounds in the East Kingdom." Kuro said.

"What if we are? What exactly are you two planning on doing about it?" I asked, defensively.

Kuro paused for a moment as if he was listening to something.

"As much as it's against my better judgment, I'm just going to let you guys go... In fact, I'd like to help you. Erika-san is making a mockery of the shogunate and to be honest, all her goofy new regulations have been making me consider resigning anyways."

Ryo looked a bit surprised at his companion's answer.

"This doesn't sound like you bro. What's gotten into you?"

"Nothing...let's just say my 'Conscience' is telling me that I have to do this."

Ryo smiled.

"Well then, whatever happens I'm with you all the way, dude... I don't even really care about this job that much anyway. I was just in it to impress chicks with the uniform."

I was taken back by this sudden and unexpected turn of events. My cautious nature though was eating at me.

"Why should we trust you two?" I responded.

Kuro looked very serious as he thought for a moment.

"I'll prove it to you guys. We'll distract the other guards outside, so you can slip out of here. Then tomorrow how about we agree to meet at noon at the fish market. We can put together a plan then."

As much as I didn't entirely trust these two, I had no other options. That spell I used twice already, drained a lot more mana than I thought it would. At the moment I wasn't able to use magic.

"Fine, it's a deal... For now at least." I responded.

Kuro smiled.

"Great, we'll go out first and distract our colleagues. You guys take the opportunity to slip out. We'll talk to you tomorrow when we meet again."

*Creak*

The two of them exited the barracks and ran over to the other guards. To my surprise the two of them forced themselves to throw up. That might have been a bit extreme, but it worked. With the other guardsmen distracted, Cal and I escaped back through where we entered.

I still wasn't sure yet if I trusted those two though. Tomorrow I'd make sure we were extra cautious during this meeting.