Novel Full Chapter 2169 Castle Slowdown
Chapter 2169: Chapter 2169 Castle Slowdown
— Kat —
Kat found nothing. She went looking, Furen let her… and she found nothing. Her ears couldn’t detect the sound of anyone breathing or their hearts even when she pumped a massive amount of demonic energy into her ears. So… she left. Kat might have wanted to explore a lot more and be extra certain that nobody was in the area but they were on a time limit with Furen’s protection so… she left.
It did mean that Kat’s mind was essentially ’hovering’ around Lily’s. Constantly looking in on her rest to ensure that nothing had disturbed her. Kat couldn’t really hear anything through Lily’s ears because she was sleeping, and the attention probably wasn’t changing anything but it made her feel like she was doing something to combat the worry she felt upon not finding anything.
When they left the poison and asked to see Steel, they were informed he was at the castle and would still be for quite some time. Despite the fact that the enchanted ceiling made it seem like it was rapidly approaching dinner time. *I’m starting to get the feeling that Steel does nothing but work, and that overtime is a foreign concept because it might imply he was working more than he should…*
Still, after a bit of back and forth with the guard, Kat got the sense that if she wanted to inform him of everything then they had no choice but to head to the castle themselves. Hedera and Appoline were apparently already back at the house, and Tweedle might be there as well. The question was… did Kat stop past there on her way to the castle to drop off Furen or did the two of them go straight for the castle.
After a few minutes of walking while pondering the answer, Kat just asked what Furen would prefer. “I think I would be best sticking with you. While I don’t doubt Hedera’s combat prowess her ability to protect from unforeseen danger is notably lower.”
Kat nodded, though got the sense that there was a more important reason for sticking around her that wasn’t listed, Kat had no real desire to dig into what that reason was, for now anyway. It did mean that she was stuck to Furen’s pace as they made their way towards the castle, but it probably didn’t cost them that much extra time when compared to detouring to Steel’s house. It was a decent amount of time out of the way and Kat would’ve still been stuck to Furen’s pace as they trekked that extra distance.
Arriving at the castle saw them waved in fairly easily with a guard ready to take them up to Steel’s location, or at least, that’s what Kat was assuming. Apparently the other guards had called ahead. Soon they arrived at Steel’s office… and Steel was nowhere to be found. Kat glanced at the guard who had taken them here, “Um… where is Steel?”
“Steel is currently in a meeting we were given strict orders not to interrupt unless there was a major incident. As such, I’ve delivered you here to Steel’s office where he will no doubt return. I am also authorised to offer you both some snacks from the kitchen to occupy your time while you wait,” explained the guard.
Kat winced, “The issue… while it’s not immediately time sensitive is a rather big deal. I’m not sure what the meeting is about so I can’t really say… but I suspect Steel will be having another similar one about this information if we don’t go to him now.”
The guard shrugged. “Not my call to make. I can throw it up the chain but I don’t know what that will change,”
“I thought you couldn’t interrupt the meeting?” asked Kat.
The guard nodded, “And I can’t, but I can send it up to the current shift manage, who can talk to either Charles or Steel, who I believe are both in the meeting you’re requesting access to. So while might not be able to help yet, that doesn’t mean nobody can.”
Kat sighed and nodded, “Alright we’ll wait to here from you both,”
The guard nodded and left the room. Kat felt that was a bit… odd because surely there were sensitive documents here that she wasn’t meant to look at but Kat had no desire to test that particular worry. Instead, she just took on of the regular chairs and did her best to relax. Furen behaved similarly, but was clearly failing harder about the relaxing part. Not able to be truly comfortable here inside the palace.
After around ten minutes, the guard came back into the room, throwing the door open to say, “Hey so, I haven’t quite got permission to interrupt the meeting yet but apparently it’s not out of the question. Can you share what this is about?”
Kat glanced at Furen who shrugged. *Real helpful.* “I certainly CAN I’m just not sure if I should?”
“Ah, one of those issues,” nodded the guard. “Well, I can’t give recommendations on what to do there. Mitsy is in charge of the shift, and I can call her over for you to explain, or I can head off.”
Kat noted that the guard didn’t offer to listen to the information personally once it was revealed how secretive she wanted to be about it. Still… it didn’t give a proper indication of what to do. Kat considered it for a few minutes, the guard patiently waiting for them to make a decision, though after three minutes he announced, “I’ll just be waiting outside if you wish to discuss. The room is of course soundproof from the inside out so that enchantment will stop my listening in.”
Kat nodded as the guard stepped outside and Kat turned to Furen with a slightly questioning look… though at this point Kat found she had mostly made up her mind. “Do you have a preference?”
“I’m following your lead here,” offered Furen.
“Alright then in that case we’ll just wait,” announced Kat. With Lily guarding the entrance there’s no major reason to rush this. If the meeting is important, and about something else, there’s no reason to interrupt. “Did you want me to ask for some food then? I don’t exactly have much on me at the moment just some snacks.”
“Do you think we’ll be waiting long?” asked Furen. Kat shrugged. “I see, best we do ask for something then.”
Kat poked her head out of the room to see the guard standing to the side looking outwards. “Excuse me, we’ve decided to wait, would it be fine to ask for some food?”
The guard turned to face her, and Kat thought she might have caught a flash of annoyance running across his face… but it was hard to tell considering he was wearing a full helmet. “Of course, I can either request some food on your behalf or you can use the call bell inside to place a proper order. I’m not sure if it will be accepted, but you can try,”
Kat shook her head. “Whatever is fine,”
“Of course,” said the guard with a slight inclination of his head before Kat ducked back inside. Kat pondered what, if anything that look of annoyance had been. Even going back over her memories of that split second made it hard to decipher anything. The angle was bad too because most of her vision was blocked by the guard’s visor. His eyes were hidden behind the metal tines and it was hard to be certain if it even WAS anything.
*Why would he be annoyed though? Is it just annoyed that he needs to stick around now? Annoyed we didn’t share the info? But he didn’t even seem to want us to share it with him but his boss. Am I overthinking this?*
Kat eventually just shook her head and sat back down. It didn’t take long for some food to arrive, less then five minutes so Kat would guess that it had been prepped beforehand. A servant came in with a small cart that folded out into a table. They proceeded to expand the cart out into table form, remove the various cloche’s and then simply left all without saying a word.
The snacks looked to be mostly fancy cheese along with some thinly sliced bits of meat with two trays of various fruits. One seemed to be watermelon adjacent, considering the size of the slices though the colouring was off. Still, Kat tried a bite of that first and found that despite its green colouration it really did taste like watermelon. Then again, both were mostly water so perhaps it wasn’t a surprise.
Furen started to chomp down on the same fruits Kat had just tried swiftly eating about half of them. Kat raised an eyebrow when she noticed this. “What?” asked Furen.
“I don’t know if I should comment on how many you ate or that you’ve only eaten that one fruit. Is it really that good?” asked Kat.
“No, but I’m super nervous here in the castle. I feel like I’m about to be arrested or poisoned, and you didn’t seem to have issues with this… so I’m eating it,” answered Furen.
Kat let out a long sigh and then quickly snatched the smallest piece from each plate and tried them all. They were mostly fine… except for one of the cheeses. It tasted awful. Kat still ate it, but yeah no more of that. “I don’t taste any poison, but I don’t know that I would. I also don’t know how much poison would be necessary for me to notice as compared to effect you,” answered Kat with a smile.
“Yeah see, somehow I feel worse now,” grumbled Furen. Kat just grinned back. A little payback for barely helping earlier was fine. Especially when poison seemed unlikely.