When the manager wordlessly pulled out a book with a thud , the bookshelf twisted to the side and creaked open.
Behind it, an underground passage radiating cold, damp air revealed itself.
“Follow me.” He spoke briefly and went down first.
I followed a step behind him.
A narrow, endless spiral staircase.
With every echoing footstep, a chilling dampness crept up my legs.
Had we walked for a good ten minutes?
The manager walking ahead glanced back several times.
As if my silent following was incredibly bothersome to him.
Then, at last, the stairs ended.
At the very bottom, deep underground.
Amidst smooth rock walls that looked as if they had been ground down hundreds of times, a strangely out-of-place, ornate door stood alone.
It felt as though only this spot had been carved out of reality.
The manager stopped in front of the door.
“Because of your audacity…
I’ve guided you to where Her Highness the Princess is, but…” His voice sank low.
“You’d better not even think about…
trying any funny business in there.” A cold gaze that promised a quiet disappearance until death.
He seemed more like some beast living underground than a human.
I smiled gently and nodded.
‘The room is probably loaded with magic anyway.
It’s obvious I’d be turned into a honeycomb at the slightest strange movement…’ But seeing how he deliberately didn’t mention that, it seems he still suspects me completely.
However, that very suspicion was exactly what I needed.
Because that was the key to unlocking the first wall of my plan.
If my memory served me right, this was the most infamous secret organization in the Abellan Empire.
‘Ashen Hand.’ On the surface, they were called a ‘righteous outlaw group that fights evil with evil’ and were rumored to save persecuted citizens throughout the empire, but the reality was completely different.
A secret organization personally founded by the Abellan Empire’s Second Princess Evelyn, to save the increasingly corrupt royal palace.
Others didn’t know, not even the Emperor.
A shadow-like army whose movements were controlled solely by the princess.
And now, I was standing before the door to their headquarters.
“Your Highness.
I have brought the person I mentioned before.” The teahouse manager knocked carefully three times on the door.
His voice was low, but every single word was exceptionally clear.
He had probably already reported everything about me through their private communication magic while we were coming down the spiral staircase.
This was the method the Ashen Hand used to exchange information with each other in the original work, Vengeful Goddesses .
So I wasn’t all that surprised.
Click— The door unlocked from the inside and slowly opened.
A quiet, library-like room where blue candles burned brightly revealed itself.
‘…It was eerie when I read it in the original story, but seeing it in person is even worse.’ This room, where the Leader of the Ashen Hand, the princess, resided, wasn’t a place just any organization member could enter.
Only two types of people could enter here.
Subordinates personally acknowledged by Second Princess Evelyn enough to keep them by her side, or beings who had extremely stimulated her interest.
The three heroines of the original story belonged to the ‘latter’.
Ten years later, they would become the first outsiders to set foot in this room.
And now, I had arrived at this place much earlier than that.
As I stepped into the room— Fwoosh.
Blue flames that had been dormant in the air quietly flared up, lighting up in sequence as if paving a path.
At the end of that line of flames…
a hooded figure sitting at a desk, writing something on parchment, revealed themselves.
They were far away, so I could only see a silhouette, but they were roughly slightly taller than the current Lucas?
According to the setting, she should be about a year older than me.
Right at that moment.
Thump— A chair behind me nudged the back of my legs with a subtle force.
I naturally sat down, pushed by it, and the chair smoothly moved forward like a ritual until it was directly opposite the hooded figure.
And the pen nib stopped on the parchment.
“Welcome.” The hooded figure raised their head.
“I am the Leader of the Ashen Hand, Jin.” The blue flames faintly revealed the contours beneath the hood.
“…Or so I say, but it would be impolite to use an alias in front of someone who already knows my true identity, wouldn’t it?” A subtle smile.
Her tone was polite, but the atmosphere was as cold as the tip of a blade.
Did she judge that there was no need to hide?
Soon, as she slowly pulled back her hood, sapphire-bright eyes and sea-colored hair were revealed in turn.
Colors that one couldn’t possess unless they were of imperial blood.
She took her hand off the quill and flicked her fingers lightly toward the empty air.
Cra-crack— In an instant, the surrounding blue candles began to change shape.
The soft flames that had been lighting the path just moments ago turned into spearheads as sharp as shards of ice, aiming at me from all sides and stopping right in front of my nose.
“For your information…” Princess Evelyn shrugged slyly.
“You’ll be in big trouble if you underestimate me for being young.
Even though I look like this, I reached the 5th Circle as a mage last year at the age of 10.
I’m a top prospect in the empire.” …Gulp.
By real-world standards, she only looked about the age of an older elementary school student, but I didn’t expect her to be this vicious.
In the original work, she only made her appearance in earnest 10 years later, speaking little and keeping a stiff expression.
Right now, she just talked a bit more and showed more emotion.
Her abrasive attitude toward people, like broken glass, was the same then as it is now.