When Nick was all cleaned up, he returned back inside and sat on his bed practicing Qi and restoring his strength to it’s peak. Several minutes later a soft bell resounded somewhere near the large plaza and the barracks were filled with hurried steps that died down a moment later.

Nick waited for few more minutes and then took off his outer clothes, dropped them on the bed and covered himself in the stealth powder. Earlier this morning he already expected possibility of a night stroll, therefore a thin black clothing was already prepared beforehand.

He lied there for a couple more minutes and then silently slipped through the open window right next to his bed.

Every move he made since entering the castle gates was dangerous and if he was caught now, it would definitely mean a death sentence. Still, he didn’t bother thinking about it and swiftly slipped through the shadows and approached the emperor’s residence.

Nick didn’t have any idea where to start, but figured that the most likely place to keep next victims would be somewhere close to the tower. Obviously it was not possible for him to enter through the main entrance and soon he found a slightly opened window on the second floor.

After reaching it, Nick checked if anyone was inside, but couldn’t hear anything and slipped in as stealthily as he could. He found himself in a small room, probably belonging to a servant who was currently soundly sleeping in the bed near the door.

Nick carefully opened it and through the gap tried to observe the next room, but it turned out only to be a dark corridor. After entering it, Nick tried to maintain the general direction towards the side where the tower was located and kept tiptoeing for more than five minutes. He knew it was almost impossible to go out the same way he came in, therefore he just tried to listen to his surroundings and prey for a lucky turn of events.

The building had three floors, at least above the ground, and Nick figured that on the second floor he had the highest chances of spotting something from below or above at the same time. He was not wrong and after few more minutes he heard someone crying in the distance. There were probably tens of women locked up here and it was likely that the girls would be somewhere near as well. Crying came from the third floor, so he had to try and somewhere find the stairs.

Suddenly Nick encountered the first guard in this place. The man was leisurely standing near the stairwell and Nick wasn’t certain if he was awake or asleep, but at least the guy was facing the opposite direction and with some luck it was possible to slip by.

‘Thank god I practiced Qi and don’t really have to step on these stairs with my full weight. One weird sound and I’m a dead meat!’ Nick thought.

He moved the same way he ran on water or desert sand to keep himself almost afloat. After getting to the third floor Nick calmed his panicky heart down and proceeded towards the sound of the crying female.

Nick was already expecting to see dozens of women locked up, but what he saw actually managed to shock him.

After taking another turn he entered a dimly lit, long hallway with several tens of doors on both sides. Every door had a small opening on it that were like huge peepholes, a bit larger than size of a palm and through these openings he could see small rooms with several women in each. Most of them were lying in their beds lifelessly, but some were softly crying while staring through the small window with iron bars bolted trough the widow frames which erased any last hopes of escape.

Nick’s heart started beating restlessly again while he checked these rooms one by one, but without finding any familiar faces. When he got to the end of the corridor, he stopped and tried to calmly analyze the situation.

‘Let’s see. I have confirmed that the old freak is in fact a pervert and does not only kill the women for replenishment, but keeps them for other purposes as well. None of these captives were as young as the princesses, that means I am still looking in the wrong place! Where is the tower?’

He tried to estimate his position in the building once again, but this structure was not much smaller than the main building in Aurora’s palace, therefore it was not difficult for Nick to get lost.

Suddenly he heard footsteps approaching from his right. Currently Nick was at the end of the hallway and to his right was the door to the next one. There was nowhere to run, so he climbed up the wall and tried to ‘glue’ himself to the ceiling, right above the door.

Soon the door opened and two older female servants walked through carrying some clothes.

“… are you sure she won’t die? She really looked very weak.” One of them said.

“They all look like that after some time here. And even if that one dies, it doesn’t matter. Princesses look healthy and in the worst case we’ll just replace the weak one before bringing them to the emperor tomorrow.” Other one replied.

“Fine, fine. I just don’t like it – it’s always a mess when someone dies here. We can’t transport bodies out and it is difficult to burn them as well.” The first one was obviously annoyed.

The second one answered something, but Nick didn’t hear them anymore because he already closed the door behind him after entering the hallway from where these two came out.

‘Girls are fine and they are here!’ Nick was delighted.

Still, he remained cautious, checked surroundings and proceeded towards the large doors at the other end. On his way he passed few more regular looking doors, but decided to check the big ones first. The regular sized doors didn’t have any peepholes and he believed he was already out of the female prison quarter when all of sudden Nick heard a quiet sobbing behind the door he just passed. He pressed his ear at the door and listened carefully, but there was nothing besides few sobs and periodical soft crying.

He really wanted to check the room behind these doors, but the door was locked and there was too high risk of raising the alarm even if the ones inside were his friends.

Nick thought for a moment and got an idea. He went over to the next door and carefully tried to open it. It turned out to not be locked and behind it he saw a spacious living room with nice furniture and even bookshelves that didn’t have anything on.

After closing the door behind him, Nick approached the window, and checked the surroundings once again. Some ten or so meters to his left he saw the huge tower and right below him was the castle wall with patrolling guards marching on top of it. Behind the wall there were dim night lights of the city on the other bank of the river.

‘I think I’ve found them!’ Nick’s eyes lit up.

Despite his anxiousness, he still managed to keep his cool and wait for the patrol to walk further away before climbing outside and moving towards the window of the room he heard the crying from.

Thankfully it was a cloudy night and it was not easy to spot his black silhouette on the dark wall even if one looked for him.

Few seconds later Nick was already trying to carefully peek through the half opened window next door. At first he couldn’t discern anything. But then he recognized that the room was similarly furnished to the one he was just in, only this one had more beds. And on those beds were bodies of some females.

‘There is no way I can call them or climb in. With the first shout of surprise we will be found out.’ Gears in Nick’s head were spinning at accelerated rate.

‘Wait! The Qi masters can see better at night because they infuse the Qi in their eyes in some way.’ Nick thought and got back to the first room.

Patrol was coming this way again and he didn’t want to unnecessary risk now that he might be so close to success. At this moment a little more than an hour had passed and he had to get back before the next shift, otherwise someone could return to the barracks and find him missing.

Thus, Nick decided to do few experiments in the room first. Until today it was enough for him to see, for example, the position and the lines of a sleeping body at night – like with elder Ernest, but now to recognize the people in the other room he had to discern their facial features. He tried few different approaches and one seemed passable. Then, after confirming the patrol was further away again, he climbed towards the neighboring window.

After concentrating his stare for a few seconds Nick became confident that the person on the closest bed was Kate! But he still couldn’t simply shout or even whisper. But then he got an idea – he had been in the high school after all.

From his wristband he took out a paper sheet, rolled it in a tube, then bit off a small piece of paper and shot a spitball at the sleeping Kate. The first shot missed, but the second hit her right on the cheek.

She opened her tired eyes just to notice a silhouette of a head in the window. May be because of her female instincts or may be because she was hoping every single moment for the last month to notice this person somewhere hiding in their surroundings, Kate knew that Nick had finally showed up.

But when she wanted to rush towards window, she noticed him put his finger at his lips and disappear. Although Kate understood this could be her mind playing tricks, she went over to the princesses and poked them to stay silent for a moment, then as stealthily as she could, proceeded towards the window and opened it to see nothing was there except for the patrolling guards on the wall below.

She almost got disappointed when suddenly understood – how could anyone hang from the windowsill when the guards were passing by? Obviously the person hid for a moment. She left the window wide open and went back to the two royal sisters and motioned for them to stay silent again.

Few moments later a shadow darted in from the open window and silently landed on the floor.