Chapter 2474  A Furniture Workshop

Ashy had been observing the routine of the Servant girl for days now.

She knew where she usually went and what tasks were a.s.signed to her. The Imperial Kitchens made dishes of various kinds that needed many unique ingredients. Among such there were foods that needed to be grilled or smoked which needed different kinds of woods.

Her being asked to bring wood was rather common and she would refuel the smoker which needed special kinds of fragrant woods that provided special flavors to the food.

Of course, the Imperial Kitchen had their own store of these kinds of woods and were kept within its grounds for easy access.

Ashy had seen the Servant girl go there before too and knew where it was. Thus when she skipped past it, she was rather surprised.

The Servant Girl seemingly left the Imperial Grounds, without informing anyone which was very shocking as the punishment for it was harsh. After all the imperial Grounds was a highly protected place and entry and exit through it needed to be watched at all times.

The location that the servant girl exited from was also not the usual gate, but rather a secret tunnel that was hidden in a Garden Shed. "She"s definitely doing something suspicious." Ashy knew for sure now. There was no way a servant would be taking such a secret route without it being for some nefarious purpose. She became fully alert and watched every little movement of the Servant girl as well as her surroundings.

Ashy memorized the path that the Servant Girl took as well as the method she used to open the secret tunnel.

In the Garden Shed, she opened a drawer that was attached to a table and pressed a b.u.t.ton underneath it made a faint clicking sound. After doing that, the Servant Girl placed her hand on a very specific brick on the floor and imbued her Qi into it.

~SHUA~

A faint wave of energy could be felt from the brick before it sunk down.

~CLACK~CLACK~CLACK~

That was just the start as the rest of the bricks also started sinking down, revealing a staircase that brought her to the tunnel. From here she simply walked straight and after about a minute she reached its end which was another set of stairs.

Upon exiting, Ashy saw that she was now inside a workshop of some kind.

There were tools lying everywhere on worktables as well as hanging on the walls. There were logs of wood along with planks that had been neatly cut for use.

The Servant Girl kept silent and walked into the next room which had a lot of wooden furniture. It was not fully completed as the surfaces still looked a bit rough, but one could still smell a faint fragrance of pine coming from it. The next room though had furniture that was polished and some of it seemed a bit wet.

If one looked closely they would see that they had been coated with a light amber resin that further amplified the fragrance coming from the wood. With how intense it was with so much furniture packed here, anyone would be able to make out that it was none other than Pine Resin being used to coat the furniture.

Staying there for just a few minutes might be enough to leave the traces of fragrance on one"s clothes.

The Servant girl though ignored all this and simply walked to a small door located at the corner of the room, just beside the neatly stacked furniture. The door was locked and had no handle either.

In fact, if one looked at it in dim light, one might simply think that it was a plank of wood kept standing against the wall which wouldn"t stand out too much considering this was a furniture workshop.

~KNOCK~KNOCK~KNOCK~

The Servant girl knocked on the door three times before speaking a phrase.

"The Tides of change are cold." "The Fires of War are hot." A voice was heard from the inside.

"Yet both are necessary for the balance." The Servant girl replied.

~CLICK~

In response, the door clicked open and the Servant girl walked in.

Ashy saw that they were in a dimly lit room that was mostly being illuminated by candles. There were around twenty people present in the room, doing different tasks.

"Don"t they prefer using formations for lighting though?" Ashy had seen that in the city pretty much everyone used basic illumination formations for light.

This wasn"t limited to the rich either as even the poor had enough money to get them or simply make them themselves. After all they were one of the simplest formations to make and even a child could make them granted that they had enough training.

This it didn"t make sense for them to use something as simple as mortal candles for lighting.

The candle flame flickered as the servant girl walked past them, the faint drafts from her movement affecting them which cased the shadows in the room to move eerily.

"What do you have to report, "Little Cloak"?" A man who was sitting at a desk at the very center of the room asked noticing her arrival.

"The Treasury Minister is holding a Banquet for a guest. We have a chance at reattempting the previous mission." The Servant girl stated.

"Hmm… Which of the "Daggers" are currently present within Imperial Grounds?" The man asked out loud.

"We currently only have one "Dagger" present in the Imperial Grounds." A woman sitting at a desk against the left wall replied. "But the Dagger cannot be mobilized as they are a.s.signed to the Household of the Rites minister." She added.

"Any others we can use to reattempt the mission?" the man asked again. "Unfortunately we had to recall all those that were present nearby." The woman replied. "Looks like we have to use other measures…" The man muttered before looking at the servant girl. "Seems like your time for Promotion to a Dagger has come, Little Cloak."