Chapter 256 Entering the Palace
After a few minutes, the maid who was waiting at the end of the corridor let out a yelp as she saw the door opening.
Since the time she had been approached by the Black Raven Fighter to help him enter the room without raising suspicion, she had been terrified of the entire scenario, especially as she was just an outsider trying to make a living in this Kingdom.
She had barely managed to speak normally to call out the inhabitants of the room, and she had actually collapsed outside the door after the Black Raven Fighter entered.
Now, seeing him look around for a bit before walking towards her, she whimpered slightly as she froze where she stood.
"Everything is settled. It was just a misunderstanding, those people were actually innocent. You can get back to your work."
Nodding, she scurried off to the kitchen.
Seeing her leave, the Black Raven Fighter walked back and reentered the room before nodding at Daneel who was sitting on the sofa.
A pile of ash was on the floor, beside which lay a headless body of a Raven.
"All right, good that she bought it. Now, you got the drill?"
Seeing Faxul nod again, Daneel looked at him for a few moments before getting up and walking to the door.
Indeed, this was Faxul who had disguised himself in the clothes of the Black Raven Fighter from before. Luckily, the Fighter's body figure was similar to Faxul's, making it so that with a little bit of makeup that was learned from Luther, Faxul had become an acceptable copy of the soldier.
To complete the outfit, his Raven which couldn't hear his thoughts but still understood his orders was on his shoulder, leading the maid to buy the act.
Their objectives were twofold: find the secret location in the Palace, and find a way to obtain or use the trinket which connected a Black Raven Fighter/Mage to their Raven.
After analyzing the situation, Daneel had come up with a plan where Faxul could use the disguise of this soldier to accomplish both.
For one thing, the way to sneak Faxul in had been a problem since the beginning of this expeditionary mission. After all, he was still an Eminent Mage who couldn't cast the camouflage spell which needed at least the level of an Exalted Human Mage.
Now, with such a perfect camouflage to use, there was no need to figure out any other way to sneak Faxul into the Palace.
The plan right now was for them to first enter the Palace before exploring it and trying to find out anything about the secrets it was hiding.
Their time was limited, so both of them had taken the decision to only try once with this identity before leaving.
According to what Daneel knew, the identity checking mechanism for Black Raven Fighters and Mages in the Palace was a bit lax due to the impossible chance of someone other than a Black Raven Citizen bonding with a Raven to masquerade as one.
After all, there was definitely no one else like Faxul who could connect with a Raven on an intrinsic level in order to be able to command it without forming a blood bond with it.
Still, all soldiers were required to verify their identities twice daily: when they got on and off duty.
As identity verification was one of the most important things especially when it concerned the safety of the Kingdom, Daneel expected that they would mostly be using a system of high cost and high sophistication, making it so that he wouldn't be able to modify or hoodwink it even if he used the system.
Hence, they only had time till the night, which was only a few hours away.
Even though it would be tough, Daneel knew that he would be able to sneak in Faxul at least one more time even if their current plan failed.
Thus, after the try, Faxul would carry the beheaded Raven to the barracks which was located outside the capital.
After doing so, he would report that a powerful spy had infiltrated the Kingdom whose goal was unknown.
This would definitely result in the deployment of troops, after which Faxul would go to the room in the barracks which held the trinkets which were used to connect with Ravens.
The way the Black Raven Army worked was that their strength was always amplified when they had a Raven with them. Their training was, after all, geared in this direction.
Hence, all barracks had emergency Ravens which were put aside to be bonded. These were typically Ravens whose owners had died, making it so that although they were trained, they usually wouldn't agree to be bond with anyone else.
If any soldier lost their Raven in battle, he/she could try their luck with these, as it just so happened that the chances of bonding with one were apparently higher when the human had just suffered a loss of a companion himself.
According to those that studied these things, the common feeling of loss was the bridge which rekindled the desire for companionship in the Raven.
Of course, Daneel hadn't believed it when he first read the report that Human-Raven bonds tied them closer than family, as they essentially shared their thoughts. Hence, soldiers who lost their companions apparently even went into depression, which required therapy to get out from.
He had only started to believe when he saw Faxul change as he connected with that Raven.
Thus, he found that he was actually looking forward a lot to finally seeing Faxul form a blood bond so that he could finish the analysis by the system, letting him understand just what the magic of the link was.
All through the discussion of the plan, Faxul had turned back into his neutral self, making it so that Daneel had no idea exactly what his friend was thinking.
Yet, his instincts told him that this was still the man he could trust his back with.
Reaching the door and turning around, Daneel asked for one last time, "Are you sure you are OK, Faxul?"
Nodding with determination in his eyes, Faxul looked towards the eyes and said, "Let's do it."
...
An hour later.
At the main gate of the Royal Palace.
Seeing the guest of the King who had gone out for lunch return, the soldier on duty first contacted the spies who had been ordered to follow him around wherever he went.
After confirming that the man had just eaten his lunch, gone to the bathroom and come back, the soldier let him in.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Palace where there was a special entrance for Black Raven Fighters and Mages, Faxul walked through with a confident stride while the Raven on his shoulder kept looking around.
Although he had a countermeasure from Daneel which would save his life in case he did get discovered, he still tensed up as a sergeant stopped him on his tracks just before he entered the Palace.
"Get to the Throne Room, the soldier on duty had to leave."
Sighing with relief and feeling thankful about the system in the Palace where Black Raven Fighters/ Mages had revolving shifts, Faxul made his way to the sparring ground.
On the way, he just couldn't shake off the familiar feeling of having spent a lot of time on these grounds and the Palace in front of him.
Yet, when he tried to catch hold of those memories in order to obtain more information, he couldn't do so.
Wishing that he could enter the Palace in order to better trigger those memories, he saw that Daneel, disguised as Elanev, was already waiting for him at the ground.
Seeing his friend, he felt the image of the Black Raven Fighter from before falling to the ground rise up in his head again.
What he had felt at that time had indeed been anger and frustration at seeing a loyal soldier die.
Yet, he knew that in that situation, Daneel had had no other choice.
As for the matter of there being much more bloodshed, Faxul had set aside that matter for now and had gone back into the shell he had grown up in where his emotions were kept locked away.
After reaching the sparring ground, he said to 'Elanev', "Hey, I'm here to challenge you! Don't think you can win as easily as you did with my brothers-in-arms! In this fight, I will show you the power of the Black Ravens! I don't want you to whine that I beat you because my Raven has the advantage in open air, so let's go to a forest!"