“What are you here for?” A guard demanded as the group of us approached.

“We’re here on orders from Lord Reign. I was told to report inside immediately!” I declared, wondering if this would work at all.

The man’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “I didn’t hear anything about this.”

“Oh, yeah, communication throughout the Reign’s guards is awful, isn’t it? Why, the other day, I ended up spending half the day guarding a shrub. I’d still be guarding it now if a Knight didn’t walk by and correct me!”

He leaned closer to me, and I fought the urge to back away. I had thought we could talk our way in. However, it wasn’t like the girls weren’t prepared to knock them out swiftly and silently. We picked a time to approach when the street was nearly empty, and the girls had grown very skilled at knocking out enemies. Miki could also wipe their memories and keep them asleep. In short, they’d never realize why we were here.

“I know exactly what you mean!” The guy suddenly laughed, slapping me on the shoulder. “So frustrating. How are we supposed to keep the lord safe when our left hand never knows what the right is doing, right?’

“Of course, of course!” I laughed along with him.

“Well, go on, then. I won’t be the one getting yelled at if you end up late on your duty.”

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“Have fun!” I waved as the group of us walked in past the two men.

Once we were out of earshot, Miki shook her head. “That actually worked?”

I already had my menu open. Unfortunately, the menu’s scan function was blocked by closed doors. In the dungeon, there were no closed off parts. It was a fundamental aspect of dungeons. If they just shut off pieces of themselves and left people to be forever trapped, then the risk of entering a dungeon would lead people to never enter them. They had to always be able to escape under their power. Of course, that didn’t mean there couldn’t be death traps and temporary blocks, such as the one I experienced with Lydia in our first dungeon.

A castle was different. It was a hallway with many closed doors. Perhaps, it was a winding labyrinth, but instead of me getting a massive view of everything the second I walked in, I had to unlock the map one room at a time. I supposed in that respect this felt more like a video game than even the dungeons. The one good thing is that doors didn’t block Sense Life. They existed somewhere the Map didn’t cover, but I could usually guess if a room contained people or not.

Furthermore, it was a simple thing to avoid running into people. Since my main goal was to flesh out the map, the more I unlocked, the better I felt. If we did find a map or schematic of the castle, that would instantly unlock everything. That would probably be the best action, but I couldn’t guess where we’d find one.

To speed up our mapping of the keep, as well as our search for any documentation related to the Knight tokens, I had the girls break up into smaller groups and check down hallways. Of course, I told them where people were with my Sense Life, and even without my direction, Shao and Raissa were experts at moving around unheard, and Ruby and Salicia at least had the experience to keep low and not make any reckless moves.

We steadily started to get a full layout of the castle. As we continued without incident. My confidence grew. It was time we figured out where the treasure room was.