Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 2959: Chapter 2960: Arrival at the Main Hall

At this moment, Angel and the rabbit Cha Cha were between a tree and a wall.

Behind the wall was a corridor about ten meters long, which led directly to the castle’s main hall. The three places Julie had suggested—whether the storage room, the study, or the treasure vault—were all near the main building.

”Where do you plan to go first?” After confirming there was no one around, the rabbit Cha Cha looked at Angel.

Should it be the storage room, the study, or the treasure vault? Angel wasn’t sure, so he threw the question back to the rabbit Cha Cha: ”What do you suggest?”

”My suggestion?” The rabbit Cha Cha stroked his whiskers and whispered, ”I suggest you check out the treasure vault last. It’s in the basement, and the security there is the tightest. To sneak in, you’ll have to take a long detour and enter through the ventilation ducts.”

”As for the storage room and the study, either can be explored first, based on your preference.”

As the rabbit Cha Cha said this, he looked up at the main building.

Since this was the open-air pond inside the castle, from here, one could see the nearby castle buildings, and the closest one was undoubtedly the main building.

”The only light on upstairs is in the Black Tea Earl’s study,” the rabbit Cha Cha whispered.

Angel followed its direction. The hues of the main building were still pitch black, tall, and ancient, appearing both grand and tranquil under nightfall.

The first floor of the main building was connected to the main hall, so it wasn’t visible at the moment. However, the second, third, and fourth floors each had windows. As for the fifth floor, it was an extended balcony.

The window on the fourth floor was ajar, revealing a faint red glow inside. It was also the only illuminated room in the main building.

Angel: ”The study is on the fourth floor?”

The rabbit Cha Cha nodded: ”Yes, so if we want to go to the study, we have to go up the stairs on the left side of the main hall, all the way to the fourth floor.”

Angel: ”Going up the stairs? Could it be dangerous?”

Given their current height, climbing the stairs might take a long time to reach just one floor, and if they encounter any servants along the way, they wouldn’t be able to escape.

The rabbit Cha Cha patted Angel’s shoulder and reassured him: ”Don’t worry. I’m very familiar with the castle’s layout, and there are very few servants who can cross floors.”

According to the rabbit Cha Cha’s observation, there were puppet maids on each floor, but they usually didn’t cross floors because their body structure made it difficult for them to jump.

Currently, there were only three types of servants who could easily move between floors: puppet tea servants, puppet guards, and puppet chefs.

Among them, most of the puppet guards had been taken away by the Black Tea Earl, and the remaining ones were mainly guarding the outer walls or patrolling around the moat. Any isolated guards were in the living quarters and wouldn’t come to the main building.

So, there was no need to worry about the puppet guards.

The puppet chefs and puppet tea servants were complementary to each other. The chef’s kitchen was on the right side of the main hall. Generally, without the Black Tea Earl’s orders, the chefs wouldn’t go upstairs and would only stay in the kitchen.

The meals prepared by the chefs would then be brought to the Black Tea Earl by the puppet tea servants, who served the Earl during his meals.

Because of this, the tea servants and chefs complemented each other. If the chefs weren’t cooking, the tea servants wouldn’t go upstairs either.

And now that the Black Tea Earl had already left and wouldn’t be returning for a while, there was also no need to worry about the chefs and tea servants for the time being.

To summarize, as long as they carefully avoided the patrolling maids on each floor, they could boldly use the stairs.

After finishing with the study, the rabbit Cha Cha talked about the storage room.

The storage room was the closest; it was right behind the kitchen on the right side of the main hall.

However, to reach the storage room, one had to pass through the main hall and kitchen. The main hall surely had puppet maids, while the kitchen housed the chef and tea servant. So although it was close, it was also risky.

After introducing these three main locations, the rabbit Cha Cha asked again: ”Have you made a decision now?”

Angel thought for a moment: ”No matter if we go to the study or the storage room, we’ll definitely encounter servants?”

The rabbit Cha Cha nodded: ”Yes, but you need not be too afraid of those servants. Wasn’t the maid just now near us, and in the end, she didn’t discover anything?”

As long as they hid well, staying out of the servants’ blind spots, they could evade them.

However, all of this was based on the servants not being alert.

If the servants sensed something amiss and became vigilant, it would be much harder for them to evade simply by staying out of sight.

In other words, no matter where they chose to go, they had to avoid detection perfectly, or else the consequences would be severe.

Angel was silent for a moment: ”Let’s go with the nearest first, to the storage room.”

The rabbit Cha Cha smiled: ”That was my thought too. Although going through the main hall and kitchen to the storage room is risky, these areas have plenty of arrangements, making it easiest to hide. You can also take this chance to learn how to conceal yourself, ensuring the servants don’t notice you.”

With that, the rabbit Cha Cha began to boast about its experiences again.

These experiences contained many elements that puzzled Angel. For example, the rabbit Cha Cha mentioned once hiding behind a maid and turning whenever the maid turned, thus successfully staying out of sight... This story sounded more like a mime or comedy, making its truthfulness questionable.

Despite Angel’s doubts about this story, it did teach him something: as long as they didn’t alert the servants, their field of vision would be limited, making the infiltration difficulty only at the level of a third-rate thief. However, if the servants were alerted to something unusual, the infiltration difficulty would skyrocket, reaching a level even a great thief might struggle to escape from.

In summary, the key was to remain extremely cautious. Even the smallest mistake, like accidentally leaving a trace and being discovered by a servant, could lead to total failure.

With this in mind, Angel looked down at his feet and checked the path he came from, ensuring no footprints were left before he breathed a sigh of relief.

”Let’s go. We’ll head to the main hall first.” With that, the rabbit Cha Cha began climbing the tree.

Angel was taken aback. Weren’t they going to the main hall? Why start climbing the tree?

The rabbit Cha Cha said, ”It’s closer to go directly to the main hall, but there is nowhere to hide along that corridor. If we encounter servants, we’d be face-to-face. So, we’ll have to take a detour.”

Angel thought for a moment and didn’t object, following the rabbit Cha Cha in the tree-climbing endeavor.

This tree had many branches, so there was no worry about a lack of resting spots. Additionally, the tree was sheltered on all sides by walls, ensuring no wild winds disturbed them, making the climb relatively smooth.

A few minutes later, they reached the midway point of the tree. The rabbit Cha Cha stopped and pointed to a branch extending over the corridor: ”We’ll go this way.”

Gripping the branch, they smoothly leapt onto the roof tiles above the corridor.

Just as they jumped onto the tile roof, familiar creaky footsteps echoed from the corridor below; it seemed like another maid was coming.

Angel now understood what the rabbit Cha Cha meant earlier. If they hadn’t detoured and walked through the corridor, they would have faced the maid head-on, and it would have spelled disaster.

As it was, they lay atop the corridor, separated by tiles, and didn’t need to worry about being discovered by the servants.

After waiting quietly for a moment, the maid’s footsteps grew distant; she likely went to the side building.

”Every floor has patrolling maids, the one below is probably the first-floor patrolling maid,” the rabbit Cha Cha whispered. ”Be careful, the patrolling maids’ perception is only slightly weaker than the puppet guards.”

Soon, the patrolling maid’s footsteps sounded again. She would patrol to the side building but would not go upstairs.

Only when the patrolling maid’s footsteps vanished in the main hall did the rabbit Cha Cha say, ”This is only one floor. If we want to go to the study, we must be cautious on every floor, trying to avoid the direct corridors; otherwise, it’s very easy to end up in a dangerous situation.”

Angel nodded.

This was like an unusual game of ’Dawn of the Dead,’ where no mistake could be allowed.

”Let’s keep moving.”

Rabbit Cha Cha led Angel ten meters along the top of the corridor, reaching the end. At the end was a slope, above which was a wall, but this wall had variously-sized narrow openings.

Inside each of these openings were colored glass panes, which were clearly for decoration.

Rabbit Cha Cha adeptly crawled into the opening with a white glass pane, gently pushed it outward, revealing a passage.

The passage led to the castle’s internal main hall.

However, at this moment, the internal situation couldn’t be seen through this passage because it was blocked by a curtain.

This was precisely why Rabbit Cha Cha boldly opened the passage, knowing that the curtain prevented immediate discovery.

After entering, Cha Cha then refitted the white glass pane to seal the opening.

”We are now situated high up, so we can first observe the situation in the main hall, pinpoint the maid’s position and then descend,” Rabbit Cha Cha said.

Angel shared the same thought.

Rabbit Cha Cha fumbled, taking out a monocle from his pocket, then quietly lifted a corner of the curtain to peek into the main hall. Quickly, Cha Cha drew back.

”The front door is open, likely indicating the patrolling maid has gone outside; there are two maids in the main hall. Their situation... it’s hard to describe, see for yourself,”

Rabbit Cha Cha handed the monocle to Angel, explaining how to use it.

This monocle was just a regular monocle, without any special features, yet here it could be quite useful.

All puppet servants in the Black Tea Castle were highly sensitive to direct sight lines, and if Angel and Rabbit Cha Cha stared directly at the maids, they would be detected in seconds. Even if they didn’t hold any malice while observing, they couldn’t prevent the maids’ innate sight radar.

The best method was to observe through a layer of mirror.

Even the most basic mirror could reduce the chances of being discovered by puppet servants. Generally, as long as it’s through a lens and not constant staring, they could observe for ten or twenty seconds without issue.

But Rabbit Cha Cha only had the monocle, so some precautions were necessary while observing, such as squinting one eye.

Angel at this moment squinted one eye, cautiously peeking out from the curtain’s edge.

Through the lens, Angel quickly took in the situation of the main hall.

They were located at the point where the main hall connected with the corridor, with two crimson curtains hanging down. Directly ahead was an ornate sofa and a vividly colored carpet.

Low tables, tea sets, rugs, porcelain, tapestries... the main hall’s decor was undoubtedly lavish yet also somewhat vulgar. The hall’s style had teapot motifs everywhere, suggesting this was a hallmark of the Teapot Country?

Besides the style, the most attention-catching feature for Angel was at the forefront of the main hall. The core spot where nobility liked to hang their portraits or display precious collections.

The Black Tea Earl was evidently the latter, placing an expensive carved wooden pedestal there, and atop it was the Earl’s collection: a flamboyant square teapot.

At least, it looked flamboyant to Angel, much like the clothes Rabbit Cha Cha wore.

Maybe this was an aesthetic preference of the Teapot Country’s citizens—favoring those vibrant hues?

Apart from the decor, the two maids in the main hall were equally noteworthy.

Angel previously wondered why Rabbit Cha Cha was uncertain in describing them, and Angel himself couldn’t understand what they were doing either.

One maid stood at the entrance of the main hall, appearing as if guarding, but her snake-like neck was bent into a right angle, reaching the small window on the right side of the hall.

What she was specifically doing... was unknown.

Nevertheless, the right side of the hall was the kitchen, so was the maid putting her head into the kitchen?

Perhaps conversing with a cook inside or maybe sneaking a snack?

Regardless of what it was, it was advantageous for them. Because when not in an alert state, these puppet servants relied heavily on their eyes, which had a narrow field of view. As this maid’s head was extended into the side room, the main hall would be outside her concern.

Meanwhile, the other maid held something resembling a feather duster, using it to dust the porcelain decor. But while her hand engaged in this activity, her head elongated, snaking and twisting along the ground.

Angel initially believed this maid was merely cleaning, but when she excitedly shot out her long tongue to consume a cockroach, Angel was silent.

Apparently, she was scavenging as well.

This made it more difficult to manage...

Because she was earnestly searching for cockroaches, while they were barely more conspicuous than cockroaches. If she continued rummaging for cockroaches in the corners, she might indeed discover them.

Angel quietly drew back, sharing his thoughts with Rabbit Cha Cha.

Rabbit Cha Cha pondered for a moment before saying, ”As long as the first maid’s head doesn’t move, we can ignore her, at least for the moment before entering the kitchen. As for the second maid, we can do this...”