The Phileam estate’s lawn was quite big, but Mikhail Phileam wasn’t so wasteful that he would buy a bigger estate than he needed other than to show his affluence. And there was a fine line between showing off his wealth and boasting without substance to back the boasting. The Phileam estate was precisely large enough to show that the Phileam House had money and resources. But it wasn’t so big that others would think that they were posturing or thinking they were richer than they actually were.
Ackster was thankful that he didn’t have to sneak across an entire field. But a small lawn made it easier for the guards to keep an eye on everything. So, Ackster had to be careful as he crawled between the bushes and trees that were spread out to decorate and liven up the lawn.
However, since the trees and bushes were the perfect places for intruders to use if they infiltrated the estate, there weren’t that many of them, and there was a significant distance between each of them.
However, with the cover of darkness and careful steps, Ackster managed to pass through most of the lawn without alerting any of the guards he heard nearby. Now he only had to cross the last stretch before he could completely leave the estate.
Unfortunately, that last stretch was also the most difficult. Guards patrolled the walls so tightly that there were barely any gaps between the areas of light that the torches gave off. If Ackster had a stealth skill, he might have been able to go unnoticed. But the only thing he had was his Strong Body. It made him faster, stronger, and better than average men. It even improved his senses. But none of that would help him pass by the patrols undetected.
But Ackster didn’t leave his room without a plan. Though, it was a little too cheap to call it a proper plan.
Simply put, if there weren’t any gaps between the patrols, Ackster simply had to create a gap. And he had to do it without raising any suspicions. If he raised enough suspicions to make the guards ask someone to check his room, and they found out he wasn’t there, things would become quite messy. It would spell the end of him.
That was why Ackster had prepared something while sneaking through the lawn.
If he succeeded, he would manage to draw the attention away from the wall and sneak over the wall. Reentering the estate would require a different method that Ackster would deal with later on when he was actually sneaking back into the estate.
Ackster held the stone he picked up in his right hand as he sharpened his eyes. With the help of his skill, Ackster barely managed to make out his target in the darkness. Since he had to move whether he failed or succeeded, Ackster took a breath and looked around to make sure when the right moment to throw the stone was.
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Eventually, the patrols lined up so that if the sound Ackster was about to make caught their interest, they wouldn’t unintentionally walk past and discover him. They would head straight toward where the stone hit.
Ackster wasn’t just going to throw a stone. If the guards identified the stone as the source of the sound, they would quickly realize that the stone hadn’t flown and struck something on its own. Someone had thrown it.
Ackstre threw the stone. He was a little worried that he would miss. But his body lived up to his expectations. The eye-hand coordination his body helped him with made sure that the stone flew true as it gently arched through the air and toward the apple hanging from the tree.
The stone hit the slightly unripe apple with a thud too soft for the guards to hear. But the crack the branch below made when the apple landed on it was enough to alert the ones close enough to hear it. The sound sounded suspiciously similar to the sound an intruder might sneak if they crossed the ground while trying not to make any sounds.
The guards in the same patrols exchanged glances before silently signaling to the other guards with torches to surround the tree where the sound came from. It only took a few moments for the guards to start moving toward the tree, with the torches lighting up the surroundings and preventing any intruder from hiding and sneaking away.
The other guards, the ones without torches, hid in the surroundings and watched to make sure that the possible intruder didn’t manage to escape through the encirclement.
Eventually, a group of the armored soldiers arrived at the identified source of the sound. They found the apple and the recently snapped branch below it. But they still scoured through the surroundings for evidence of an intruder. But they didn’t find any signs of anyone passing through the area.
“False alarm, everybody. Return to your posts.”
An authoritative voice, most likely the guard captain, spoke up and ordered everyone back to their original positions.
The guards hurried back to their routes and continued patrolling the estate. Some of them were a little wondrous that an apple had managed to fail straight on a branch and snap it. But no one raised any suspicions of an intruder entering the estate, much less a member of the family sneaking out of the house.
Meanwhile, Ackster sighed in relief on the other side of the wall. He had used his hearing to eavesdrop on what the guards were saying, and he had just heard them talk about looking for footprints before he jumped up and clambered over the wall.
When he landed on the ground, Ackster sensed the ground soften below him and realized that a pair of footprints passing through the grass would unmistakably lead to his incarceration, especially since the footprints would pass right through the lawn to his window.
Thankfully, simply rustling the grass after he walked on it was enough to hide his tracks from the ordinary eyes of the guards.