Page 252 of The War God’s Favorite

“So, no big dragon, but two guards. I wouldn’t have been surprised if that psycho had put more men than that. How are we supposed to get to the Old Man now?”

However, Cassandra wasn’t listening to her. She was already staring away at one of the windows. She walked to the opening and stuck her head out to look down. Missandra frowned in confusion.

“Hinue, what are you doing?”

“When my Prince had...Well, when he injured Princess Phetra, he threw her out of one of the banquet room’s windows. Lady Kareen had mentioned there were only three or so floors below, and she was right, there’s actually a roof. I can see it from here. The building below goes all the way down to the Emperor’s apartments.”

Her sister shook her head in disbelief. That was it. Her older sister had officially gone crazy!

“I’m not breaking my ankles to go and save a dying old man,” said Missandra, coming to stand next to her at the window, to check what was below.

Cassandra chuckled and pointed her finger.

“We don’t have to fall if we can climb. Just like I thought, the stones in the walls are very uneven. Which means we could possibly climb laterally until we reach it. We would use the outside instead of walking inside and past the guards.”

Missandra was astonished. This idea was easily taking first place for the most dangerous idea her sister had that day, and that was saying a lot! Sure, they were exceptional swimmers, but swimming was nothing like climbing up and down walls! Missandra was about to protest, but for the first time, she decided against it. Instead, she scrutinized the wall Cassandra was thinking of climbing.

Indeed those were the typical rock constructions of the Dragon Empire. It was mostly uneven, however, from the many years of dragons attempting to climb on the buildings. Large, sharp claws had clearly scratched deeply into the wall, taking off some of the stones and helpfully given the duo even more spots to safely put their hands and feet on. Technically speaking, this wasn’t impossible. Both girls were in pretty good shape, physically speaking. Missandra hesitated a moment, sending a backwards glance towards the other room. Those guards didn’t look to be the pleasant type at all. That damn Second Prince had probably chosen men that would guard his father’s room very carefully. She quickly tried coming up with another strategy to get rid of them, but Missandra was nervous someone would recognize her; she resembled Cassandra too much.

Missandra decided the climb, in comparison, didn’t look as dangerous or as crazy to try. They had the physical condition for it, a stable and hidden path, and they even had the luxury of a rooftop below them to fall on, in case of failure. Of course, they’d probably suffer major injuries like Phetra if they did fall. But at least, the chances of survival were decent, given the situation.

Checking that the corridor was empty, Cassandra climbed out of the window, carefully hanging onto the window’s rail. She moved to the first target, a larger hole in the wall. She had never liked the Imperial Palace, but the place was old enough to have had many, many dragons’ claws leave their imprints on the walls. The indents in the stones gave her some easy spots to grab onto and move around. Sure enough, Cassandra made her way to the external walls of the previous corridor. Biting her lower lip, Missandra watched her sister’s progress. Every imprint that she placed her foot or hand into seemed stable. Not even a speck of dust moved. Checking her surroundings, Missandra climbed out of the window to follow her.

Quickly and silently, the sisters moved around the external walls, keeping their heads below the windows. The main danger would be that someone spotted them from another window. However, from what they had seen so far, not many people were hanging around the premises. So they continued moving, climbing the wall sideways until their position was past the guards they had seen inside. There were some problems, though. Cassandra had no idea how many rooms there were inside, their configuration, or who might be inside. They would have to take a guess on which window to climb back in through, but they had to decide quickly. Climbing was a difficult exercise, and neither of them were very experienced at it. Their arms were starting to get painful and their muscles were aching. A pearl of sweat was growing on Missandra’s forehead, threatening to take away some of the fake tan that was covering her. When she finally found a position right under one of the windows she could stay in without too much strain, Cassandra stopped, trying to listen to what was going on inside. Seemingly, nothing. The other side seemed strangely quiet, though she couldn’t tell if this was a good sign or not. She exchanged looks with Missandra, who nodded. In any case, the longer they stayed there, the more risk they were taking of being found by someone. They had to climb back inside.

Carefully, Cassandra climbed up, glancing inside. It looked like she had actually picked a bathroom window! Luckily, that room was small, and with the door facing the window, she could immediately tell the place was empty. With a sigh of relief, both sisters climbed inside to finally rest their aching muscles.

Missandra stretched with a grimace and even went to the little basin of water to drink. Their arms were sore, but at least they had made it inside the Emperor’s apartments. Cassandra walked as quietly as she could and put her ear against the door. It was complete silence on the other side.

Very carefully, the sisters came out of the bathroom. This was truly a strange atmosphere, almost like the inside of a church. The aisle was beautiful, all made of marble and white stones, but it was as silent and intimidating as a mausoleum. In such an environment, each step or breath the sisters took seemed too noisy.

“All right, now to find the Old Man,” whispered Missandra.

Cassandra nodded, and they started walking down the corridor. They had no idea which door to push, and were terrified to run into someone that would give away their position. However, after a while, it looked like this place was truly abandoned. They pushed open many doors, each time to find an empty room.

“Are you sure these are the Emperor’s apartments?” asked Missandra, frowning. “There’s nothing going on here!”

“I don’t understand,” muttered Cassandra. “If he’s sick, the Emperor should definitely be kept in his apartments!”

“That’s the rule of the Imperial Palace? Well, someone needs to learn them again, because the Old Man isn’t here! Cassandra, this place is completely empty! There’s not even a single servant, those two idiots outside are guarding nothing but air!”

Cassandra shook her head in disbelief. Where was the Old Emperor then? If he was sick, the Emperor should be resting here, in his quarters! The sisters turned to each other.

“That damn Second Prince expected someone would come and he probably hid the Old Man elsewhere!” Missandra decided.

“But where? It’s the Emperor, he can’t simply vanish this way!”

“We...”

A sudden movement was felt from somewhere behind Missandra. Both sisters froze. Something was moving just outside of the room they were in. They slowly turned around, and it was there at the window. One reptilian blue eye, surrounded by white scales. Staring right at them.

Both sisters almost stopped breathing. A drop of cold sweat ran down Cassandra’s spine. She had been hoping to find the Emperor and his Gold Dragon, but this was definitely not Glahad. Where did this white one come from? The sisters hadn’t even heard anything until then. Missandra didn’t dare move either, but she sent a glance towards her sister. No words were exchanged, but her expression was clear. Which dragon was that?

Cassandra tried hard to remember. She couldn’t remember if the White Dragon was the Fourth or the Fifth Prince’s, she had only seen it once! She couldn’t even see its size, as only a little portion of its head was stuck against the window. The only thing that was a little bit reassuring was that it didn’t seem to be unhappy at all. The white creature wasn’t growling, and its eye just seemed...curious. Was it simply observing them? Either way, if it was there, its master definitely knew where they were. She didn’t want to wait to see which Prince was about to show up!

“Let’s go back,” she whispered.

Missandra nodded slightly, but neither of them could take their eyes off the gigantic beast staring at them. Both sisters started stepping back, very carefully. The big blue eye was following their every move. They hesitated. They definitely couldn’t go back the way they came in, with the White Dragon climbing along the tower as well. It would put them one arm away from the dragon, and its maw was definitely longer than that. Also, they had already struggled to get this far, Cassandra wasn’t sure she would have the strength to go back the same way without making a mistake this time.

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