Chapter 262: Sneaking a Peek at Master Shuna
From the beginning, Shuna hadn’t intended to enter through the main gate. After all, she figured her identity as “a teammate of the Empress’s fiancé” would get her hunted by the slightly eccentric Treya.
After observing the palace surroundings for a day, she had a rough understanding of the patrol routes and mentally mapped out a way to scale the walls. This was something she had done many times before. When tackling dungeons alone or with weaker teammates, it was often necessary to “avoid combat” and head straight for the BOSS room, which sometimes involved encountering elite monsters and requiring strategic detours.
Moreover, these soldiers, despite wearing armor and looking the part, were likely far inferior to dungeon elite monsters, especially if they hadn’t undergone regular training in years.
The night was deep. Shuna wore a simple black hoodie she had bought with Will, a color that easily blended into the darkness. Before entering, she cast a simple spell to conceal her presence. With a flip, she soared over a narrow gap in the castle wall and entered the grounds. Like a shadow, she flitted past the patrolling knights. She rolled into the grass and then, hugging the wall, crept a few more steps to find an unlocked window and slipped inside.
Her infiltration of the palace was successful. As long as she stayed inside a room, made no noise, and avoided contact with anyone, she was unlikely to be discovered. Rooms were generally private spaces, and no one would search them without cause.
“But now the problem is… the palace is quite large. Where could little Will be?” Shuna, finding the room empty and possibly long abandoned, clapped her hands and stood up. There were countless rooms like this in the palace; pinpointing Will’s location wouldn’t be easy.
But she and Will had something in common: when entering a dungeon, they always came well-prepared. And she was prepared. She pulled out… a map of the palace. She had bought it from a street vendor in the capital, and while she wasn’t sure of its accuracy, based on the external buildings visible, it seemed at least 80% correct.
“This map was drawn before Treya took office. If she’s not foolish, she must have drastically changed the room layouts.”
“But…”
“It doesn’t matter. I can start by checking her former residence marked on this map. It’s right here.” Shuna put the map away. She mused that Treya likely wasn’t a favored child in her family. Based on the map alone, the palace assigned to her was not only the smallest in area but also remotely located, with a convoluted access route and the worst lighting among all her siblings.
Thinking of this place as a “dungeon,” she needed to understand the situation of the first area she entered. She explored the first room. A thin layer of dust covered the floor, but the bed itself wasn’t dusty. Considering the window was open, it appeared the room had been occupied within the last two weeks. The occupant had been removed during this time.
She went outside. The corridor was eerily empty. Using a fire-trace magic to check the oil lamps, she found they hadn’t been lit in two weeks. Her “former residence” seemed to have been completely abandoned, and the situation was sudden and very strange.
“According to the map, her room is on the third floor.” Shuna moved slowly down the corridor, lit by the bright moonlight shining through the uncurtained windows, not bothering to light any lamps.
She felt something peculiar. Ever since stepping into the palace, she had this feeling. This place… carried an aura akin to the “inside of a dungeon.”
“No matter how you look at it, this should be ‘reality,’ but…” Shuna felt walking here was more like navigating a dungeon. It was the kind of place where the “dangers” one might encounter only in dungeons could possibly appear. Perhaps an elite monster would suddenly jump out. Or she might step on a trap around the next turn. Or opening a door might lead to the BOSS room.
Although it was just her “intuition.” Despite years of experience in dungeons, she had never encountered dungeon-like “abilities,” “oddities,” or “rules” manifesting in the “reality” outside. She didn’t just trust her intuition, even though it had never been wrong. Without any other corroborating evidence, she couldn’t just treat this perfectly fine palace as a dungeon, could she?
“Here we are. This is probably her former room.” Treya’s room looked no different from any ordinary princess’s room. Shuna hadn’t met her in person; based on Treya’s rumored personality, she had expected to see rows of strange weapons and armaments.
“But…”
“Everyone likes to hide their most treasured possessions under their bed—” She bent down and crouched. As expected… Under the bed where Treya had lived, she pulled out several cardboard boxes filled with… books. Not etiquette manuals, not court rules, and certainly not secret sword techniques. They were all romance novels sold on the market – in cruder terms, books for girls to daydream and fantasize.
“I wouldn’t read this stuff…” she thought, but her eyes were immediately drawn to the cover of a book that had fallen out of a box.
“Wait, isn’t this that famous book about the dark and scheming male lead with glasses who’s a teacher, and then gets completely taken by his student?” She had found this book in the school library; it was a popular read that she’d borrowed during her downtime! When you find a book in a series that seems to have a specific theme, and it’s strikingly similar to your own taste, you should—
Sit down and enjoy reading it quickly-
It would be a shame to miss out on such good stuff. By the moonlight outside the window, she pulled out the boxes full of books. The boxes even contained moth repellent, and each book was meticulously encased in a cover and bound. Then, she began flipping through them one by one.
This one: A frail, bespectacled noble young master being kept by the Empress.
This one: A love-hate relationship with a sharp-witted, bespectacled fiancé.
This one: Intimate moments with a clever, bespectacled minister.
“What is this with ‘yandere’ young masters and ‘yandere’ teachers? And they’re all about the female lead taking charge?” This person basically created a super book list for their own fetishes, didn’t they?
No, more importantly, where did she find so many books catering to such niche fetishes?! Was this the privilege of a former princess? Why didn’t she share such good things?
What’s even more outrageous…
“What’s with this trashy novel, ‘I Want To Do XX Things With the Hysterm Family’s Young Master’? Are we not pretending anymore?” Shuna flipped through them, her fingers trembling more with each page, even to the point where she briefly considered tearing the book in her hand.
