novelraw Chapter 516: The Key to the West Wing (I)
Chapter 516: The Key to the West Wing (I)
"Besides that, you have never hated people who have done nothing wrong to you, so you are not wrong for being unable to excuse all of Bianca’s bad behavior," Edmund said.
"Personally, I don’t want to forgive people who have such terrible thoughts about you, but Bianca is one of your close friends, so I will leave the final judgment to you." He added, "No matter what kind of choice you give her, I will support you."
"No matter if it’s good or bad?" Primrose asked hesitantly.
Edmund nodded without hesitation. "Good or bad."
Primrose pressed her lips together as she thought for a moment. "For now, she has given me something important, so I will keep my promise to her. But if she does something that harms me in the future, then my agreement with her will end."
Edmund nodded once again. "That sounds good."
To be honest, Primrose wanted to stop talking about something that was giving her a headache, but they truly didn’t have much time to waste.
"You must have heard Bianca’s explanation about the west wing, right?" Primrose said, bringing up the most important topic.
Without waiting for Edmund to answer, she continued, "Bianca was able to go there because she accidentally found a hidden passage in her bedroom, but I don’t think this room has anything like that."
"I think so too." Edmund slowly looked around the room, observing everything carefully before speaking again. "This room was probably built after Averon became king. If that’s the case, then it’s unlikely there’s a hidden passage here. But let me check just to be sure."
Edmund gently lifted Primrose so she could get up from his lap. Then he walked around the room, lightly knocking on the walls.
He checked every corner of the room and even examined the space under the bed. After inspecting every part of the room twice, Edmund finally said with certainty, "Yeah, there’s no hidden passage here. If we really want to go to the west wing, then we will have to sneak there."
Edmund walked toward the window that faced the back of the palace. He looked outside for a moment. "There aren’t too many guards here," he said. "But even if there were more, I’m not sure they could catch me easily."
Edmund had been through countless situations where he had to sneak into places; enemy camps, guarded buildings, and even palaces. Because of that, sneaking through a palace guarded by ordinary soldiers wouldn’t be too difficult for him.
"Even if we manage to sneak into the west wing, it will still be useless if we can’t open the lock," Primrose said. "Lord Keirwyn is not an ordinary mage. I’m sure the locks he made for Averon won’t be easy to break."
Of course, Edmund could probably destroy the lock by force. But doing that would likely trigger some kind of magic alarm. Averon and Lord Keirwyn would immediately know that someone was trying to break into the west wing.
If that happened, there was a good chance they would quickly destroy all the evidence in the west wing. They could simply blow up the place or move the prisoners somewhere else, and that would make it even harder for them to find those slaves.
"I’m not sure about Lord Keirwyn," Primrose said after thinking for a moment, "but I think... I can ask for Aster’s help. If she has often helped her father before, then breaking those locks shouldn’t be too difficult for her."
Primrose had known Aster for a long time and knew that she had a very soft heart. Appearances could be deceiving, but even when Primrose read her mind, Aster was still just as gentle as she seemed on the outside.
"Do you want me to kidnap her from her house?" Edmund asked directly.
Primrose gasped. "No, of course not!"
Edmund immediately became a little nervous, worried that he had said something wrong. But before he could apologize, Primrose quickly continued, "You can kidnap her at the Azmeria library."
She added calmly, "She often teaches night classes there for student mages who are failing their classes. That place isn’t guarded as strictly as her house, so... you should be fine."
Edmund stared at his wife in disbelief. Instead of stopping him from kidnapping her friend, she was actually giving him advice on how to kidnap Aster successfully.
"But I also don’t want you to scare her," Primrose added. Her gaze shifted toward the table, and she smiled slightly when she noticed a piece of paper and a pen lying there.
"So you should approach her carefully and give her my letter first."
Primrose walked toward the table, and then she pulled out the chair and sat down before picking up the pen.
"For Aster, a letter from me will be enough to calm her down," she said while dipping the pen into the ink.
The room grew quiet, filled only with the soft scratching sound of the pen moving across the paper. Meanwhile, Edmund leaned against the side of the table and watched her in silence.
Primrose didn’t write anything complicated. Instead, she wrote something very simple.
[Dear Aster,
I need you now.
—Rosie.]
Primrose and her friends had long been familiar with each other’s handwriting. They had spent many years exchanging letters, notes, and small messages, so they could recognize each other’s writing at a single glance. That was why Aster would not doubt the contents of the letter and would know that Primrose truly needed her.
"Here." Primrose handed the letter to Edmund. "When you meet Aster, you don’t need to explain anything. Just tell her that I asked you to give this letter to her and that I want her to visit me right now."
Edmund carefully placed the letter inside his pocket, then asked, "Do I need to tell her that I will bring her to the palace?"
Primrose smiled slightly. "My dear husband, sometimes it’s better not to say anything than to face a refusal."
She added, "No, you don’t have to tell her anything."