Page 248 of The War God’s Favorite

“Well, you’re still alive, aren’t you? Also, there isn’t a single human being in this place that doesn’t owe their life to Cassandra. She freed us from slavery or servitude, which was just as bad. Everyone here would die for her.”

Missandra pouted. Why was it that Cassandra always had that kind of effect on people? The North people, the Diamond people, and now these servants, everyone loved her. Was it okay to trust them? If it was up to Missandra, she wouldn’t even have entrusted them with a single hair of her nephew! She let out a long sigh, turning to her sister once again.

“I suppose we don’t have any better option?” she asked, totally ignoring Yasora’s glare.

“I’m afraid not,” said Cassandra. “No one knows where I came from, or that I’m in any way related to this place, aside from the Prince. At least Vrehan won’t be able to find them here, even if something happens to us.”

This way, even if something happened to Cassandra, Kairen would immediately know where to look for their son. She didn’t say that out loud, though, as Missandra was already rather upset.

“Fine, say that I do agree to all of this, what’s the plan? How do we get into the Imperial Palace? Because the heavily guarded situation is still pretty much a problem there.”

Cassandra took a minute to think about it. Unfortunately, there was no way the dragon could fly them into the Palace. This was the way she had most used, recently. The only exception had been with Shareen, when she had gone downtown. But then they had used the main gates, and that was out of the question.

“You could use the servants’ entrance?”

They turned around. The young Mara had just come back, carrying a big bowl of meat buns since Kian had happily emptied the previous one. She carefully put the new bowl close to the young dragon, making sure to keep her fingers away from it, and sat on her knees, close to Cassandra.

“The servants’ entrance?” asked Cassandra.

The young girl nodded.

“Do you remember when you came back and the dragon ate the Master? A lot of the other servants left, but some are still my friends, and now they work at the Imperial Palace. They said the servants’ entrance is not well-guarded, there are only two guards!”

Cassandra and Missandra exchanged looks, a bit doubtful. Only two guards? That almost seemed a bit too good to be true. She actually had no idea there was a different entry for the servants, but remembering her days at the Imperial Palace, Cassandra had indeed noticed that they would appear to come out of literally nowhere. They had to stay out of sight, so as to not annoy the many members of the Imperial Family. The Imperial Servants were often invisible to most people, walking quickly and keeping their heads lowered. In a strange way, it almost made sense. So many scholars, ministers, Imperial Advisors, and soldiers were circulating through the main door, who would bother with the lower-class people? The servants entrance should actually be much less guarded.

“We are still pale,” Missandra reminded her.

“Well, we have already proven to be good at disguising ourselves, haven’t we? If you managed to fool them once, when we only had a bit of make-up and a few trees to hide behind, you should be able to do it again, right?”

Missandra was bitterly starting to regret her display of make-up skills now. She sighed and turned to Yasora and Mira.

“Do you think you could get us some servant outfits and make-up?”

“Anything you need! We have servants going to the market and shops every day, no one will suspect a thing.”

Just like that, Missandra and Cassandra started reviewing each step of their plan, with Yasora and Mira’s help. The more she heard her sister, the more Cassandra knew she was going to accept this. Missandra was making sure every detail of their plan to infiltrate the Palace would work, and there was no end to her questions. Just from hearing her talk, she could tell her younger sister had much experience in dealing with all kinds of people. She was talking about the guards’ rounds and breaks, the servants’ schedules, the rotations and tasks inside the Palace.

However, they didn’t have that much time to spend talking. No matter how well they tried to plan this, they wouldn’t be able to prevent anything bad happening. With that in mind, Yasora sent a couple of servants to go grab the things Missandra asked her. While they waited for their return, the sisters agreed to go to the Palace early that afternoon. Cassandra didn’t want to lose any more time. She knew that right after lunch the activity inside the Palace would be much calmer, as it would be time for court. Cassandra only had a glimpse of the Emperor’s activities, but with his illness, she expected the Ministers and Generals to have even more work to make up for his absence. They had a rough idea on which areas to avoid, thanks to Mira’s servant friends, and they agreed that neither the Fourth or Fifth Princes were to be trusted. Cassandra wasn’t too sure about Opheus, but she definitely didn’t want to run into Lephys. Missandra’s plan was simple; avoid anyone wearing purple and get to the Emperor’s quarters as quickly as possible.

When the servants came back with all the make-up, they ate a quick lunch and started getting ready, being more cautious about the tan and returning their locks to a solid black color. This felt all too familiar, but the preparation was necessary. Once the sisters were ready, Yasora nodded.

“You do look like our people now... except for your eyes, of course.”

“We’ll have to remember to look down,” said Missandra.

Meanwhile, Cassandra was hugging Kassian. The baby hadn’t been very noisy during their preparations, but as if he knew what was going on, he was now starting to cry and get upset. This broke Cassandra’s heart. She had been with her son for a full week. If this wasn’t so important, she wouldn’t separate from him, even for a short while. She hugged him closely, kissing his forehead and whispering to calm him down. At her feet, Kian too seemed nervous, walking in circles and emitting quick, little, high-pitched sounds, trying to get her attention.

“It’s going to be fine, my love,” she whispered. “Your mom will be right back, I promise.”

Kassian started crying even louder, and she had to take a deep breath before hugging him, and the Baby Dragon, one last time. It was difficult to feel their warmth and part with it. She gave her baby to Yasora, and made a promise to herself. This wasn’t going to take long. She’d definitely be back soon for her son.

Cassandra had the urge to cry when they left the residence, but tried her hardest not to. Even Missandra had her little good-bye moment with her nephew and his small dragon, but she didn’t say anything. She knew she couldn’t afford to be emotional now, they had to focus on this plan and ensure their survival. Even if she had agreed to it, Missandra was still not feeling anywhere near confident enough. Anything could get them killed, even the slightest mistake could end their lives in a split second.

At least they looked different now. With green dresses on, their skin darkened to match those of the people, and their hair black as ink, they would be hard to spot by any soldiers who were looking for them. Not having a baby or a young dragon definitely made it easier to move around, too. They also had an extra asset, as Mira had rallied a few of the former servants of the house. They quickly met the three girls in the middle of the market, where no one would be suspicious. They were all familiar with Cassandra, as they had worked under the same roof, briefly. These three had been there the day she had freed the residence, and even if they were now working at the Imperial Palace, they were happy to look out for her and help the sisters as repayment.

This was also a good omen in Missandra’s eyes. The two sisters would be less likely to be noticed if they walked into the Palace as a group of five servants instead of a duo. They had no idea if the Second Prince was looking only for Cassandra, or for the both of them. In any case, this was still working in their favor.

They walked towards the Imperial Palace, and seeing the high walls from up close gave Cassandra an inexplicable feeling of nostalgia. She hadn’t been there in weeks, and this time, she wasn’t with Kairen. She had never liked this place, but this feeling of dislike was much stronger now. To Cassandra’s surprise, the soldiers weren’t very familiar with the servants going in and out all day. They checked their belongings in detail, but they didn’t find the hidden daggers on either of the sisters. She realized there were truly too many servants for the soldiers to bother recognizing all of them. The Imperial Palace was gigantic, and with all of the Imperial Concubines, Princes and Princesses, the servants probably changed a lot every week. It was probably the same for the soldiers as well. Unless the same soldiers would be assigned to the same doors every single day for weeks and weeks, it seemed hard to think they’d remember the faces, unless they were memorable.

---