The Author's POV

Staring at Kevin who was busy controlling his drone in the air, I impatiently asked.

"You got something?"

Staring at his watch as he monitored the drone in the sky, Kevin shook his head.

"Nothing yet"

It's been about a couple of hours since Kevin, Silug, and I were waiting outside of the perimeter of the castle.

As Kevin was able to enter the castle through the use of a skill that he had acquired a couple of months prior back in the novel, for obvious reasons, I couldn't replicate the same method he had used to enter the castle.

...If only there was only a secret passage.

*Sigh*

Sighing inwardly, I knew that lamenting at my past decisions was stupid as my past self would've never been able to know that I was going to enter my own novel.

...but I still did it anyway as I needed someone to vent my frustrations against.

In the end, as I didn't know of any secret passage that led to the inside of the castle, we could only scout the castle using Kevin's drone to get a better idea of how to sneak in.

Interlocking my arms together as I stretched my body, I asked.

"How much more time do you need?"

Staring at his watch intently, Kevin shook his head.

"I'm not sure, because I don't want to get caught I'm currently operating the drone at an altitude of four kilometers...it's hard to get a proper read from that height"

Surprised by the information, I asked.

"four kilometers?"

"Yeah, since we aren't sure on who is in the castle, the safest height to surveil would be that"

"I see..."

Kevin's words weren't without merit.

Although Marquess Azeroth wasn't present in the castle, as we still weren't fully aware of who was inside, it was never wrong to take extra precautions.

Moreover, since demons could fly, the chances of the drone getting discovered weren't low despite the fact that it had a cloaking system.

Thus, such a high altitude made sense.

Plus, with how advanced technology was, that height still didn't impede the drone from scanning the castle below.

"Alright, I think I got a general idea of the layout of the castle"

After another ten minutes of surveying the castle, nodding his head, Kevin tapped on his watch as a three-dimensional model of the castle appeared before him.

"Good"

"Khhr...hm?"

Taken aback, Silug who was standing next to Kevin showed a surprised look on his face as he looked at the holographic image that appeared before Kevin.

Pointing towards the castle, he curiously asked as his deep voice resounded across the area.

"What is that?"

Turning towards Silug, speaking in Latrvian, Kevin responded.

"It's called a hologram and one of the castles before us"

Confused, Silug repeated.

"Hulogram?"

Nodding his head, Kevin elaborated.

"Hologram, yes, it's human technology and it helps us project an image of objects through the use of infrared sensors and-"

"Stop, you're confusing him"

Staring at Kevin who was about to delve into the topic of holographic technology, I rolled my eyes as I pointed at Silug who seemed to be even more confused than before.

"Project? Infra-red? Sensors?"

Staring at Silug, Kevin rubbed his nose in embarrassment as he apologized.

"...sorry, I got too into it"

He got too caught up and almost rambled about his hobby.

Knowing that Kevin was a tech junky, I didn't think too much of his behavior and switched the topic.

"It doesn't matter, forget about that, have you found something?"

Turning his attention back to the holographic image displayed on his watch, Kevin pointed towards a certain section of the castle.

"Yeah, take a look at this"

Heeding Kevin's words, leaning in, I looked in the direction of where he was pointing at.

"Check this out, although it looks like there are only three entrances of the castles, if you look at the map close enough you can see that there is another one not so far from the easter gate"

Frowning as I squinted my eyes to get a better look at the holographic image of the castle before me, after a minute, not seeing it, I glanced at Kevin and asked him to point it out for me.

"Where?"

"Here"

"Oh, I see it..."

Pinching the holographic image and moving it to the right, Kevin pointed towards a certain section of the castle where a small wooden door appeared.

Because of how grand the castle was relative to the door, If not for the fact that Kevin pointed it out for me, I would've never been able to see it.

Though I do find the fact that there was such a place odd...in the end, I didn't dwell too deeply into it.

If there really was something off about that place, with the red book in my hand, I didn't have to worry about our safety too much.

Seeing that I noticed the door, Kevin continued.

"From the looks of it, this seems to be the exit that the servants of the castle use to dispose the trash and unnecessary items. Although I wasn't able to figure out how many guards are present in that place, from the looks of it there are no more than two guards. But it doesn't really matter as what we should truly care about is their strength..."

Nodding my head, I glanced at Kevin and asked.

"Hmm, so are you suggesting we sneak from there?"

"Yeah..."

After thinking for a couple of seconds, nodding my head, I agreed.

"That sounds reasonable, when should we go?"

Placing his hand on his chin as he pondered for a moment, Kevin glanced at the castle before him for a couple of seconds before saying.

"hmm, now that I've figured out about that area I'll try to get even more info on it so that we can create a more appropriate plan...so maybe a day?"

Taken aback, my brows knit tightly.

"A day?"

Wasn't that a bit too long?

Seeing the doubt on my face, Kevin elaborated.

"Yeah, the more thorough we are the less the chances of something bad happening"

Checking my watch and seeing the time, my face crumped up a little.

"That's a bit too long, if we spend a day surveilling the castle we'll only have eight hours before we are forced to go back to earth"

Glancing at me from the corner of his eyes, Kevin nodded his head.

"Yeah I know, but since you said that the castle is the last place we need to go, I don't think we'll need to spend more than eight hours there"

Pausing for a second and fully looking at me, Kevin continued.

"...unless you think we need more time and if so I can just do a short skimming and we can go in a couple of hours, but the chances of something going wrong might be higher"

Given that they weren't going to go stay there for long, Kevin estimated that eight hours should've been enough.

Since Ren said that they were only going there to collect a few things, staying there more than eight hours wouldn't really be the best idea since each passing second they spent there could lead to situations where they could get spotted.

Listening to Kevin speak, with my brows knit even tighter, after a while, my brows eventually loosened as I shook my head.

"No you're right, do your thing"

After thinking about it for a while, I knew that Kevin was right.

Although eight hours was indeed enough time to accomplish everything, considering the fact that we were going to be moving slowly and carefully around the enormous castle, there was a small chance that it might not be enough time given that something could happen during the time.

However, after weighing the ups and down, I decided to go along with Kevin's decision.

...so what if we ended up wasting a day.

As long as we could reduce the chances of getting caught whilst infiltrating the castle, I was all in for it.

Haste made waste.

Thinking thus far, resolutely looking at Kevin, I nodded my head.

"Alright, take your time and get a proper read on the situation"

...

"How long?"

"Shhh..."

Placing his finger on his lips, Kevin looked towards the distance. Towards a certain part of the castle.

"...soon"

Just as planned, Kevin spent a whole day scanning the perimeter of the castle as he got a proper read on the situation.

After restlessly analyzing the situation through looking at the times in which the door was used and who was guarding it and who was leaving it, Kevin was able to come up with an appropriate plan on how to infiltrate the castle which he naturally shared with me.

...and well, once I heard of his plan I couldn't help but scratch my head in confusion.

The reason why I was confused wasn't because of how complicated the plan was...no, it was the exact opposite.

The plan was simple.

Too simple.

It was so simple yet so efficient that I was left speechless for a long time.

-Clank!

Not long after Kevin spoke, snapping me out of my thoughts, the door opened revealing the features of two orcs. Each around <B> rank.

After them, another orc carrying a trolley filled with trash soon appeared as he moved out of the castle and headed towards the direction of where Kevin and I were hiding in.

"Good...everything is going as planned"

Seeing the orc heading our way, sighing in relief, Kevin glanced at Silug who was standing next to him and said.

"Silug, your turn"

"Khhrrr...Yes"

Nodding his head, Silug's deep green eyes remained fixed on the orc that was slowly approaching him.

In terms of size, the orc was a bit smaller than Silug, however, aside from that, he resembled him a bit as his skin pigmentation was a shade of light green, almost white.

...although they could easily be told apart if they stood next to each as Silug had a massive scar running across half of his face, if it was only for a short moment, others might actually not notice that they were in fact different orcs.

Which was something we were aiming for.

Not long after, taking a step forward, as soon as the orc was close to Silug, quickly dashing in his direction and grabbing him by the neck, Silug clenched his arm as the muffled sound of bones breaking resounded across the space.

-Crack!

-Thud!

Throwing the orc into the trolley, taking the trolley, Silug turned around and made his way back towards the entrance.

At the entrance of the door, two orcs quietly stood with their weapons by the side. They both wore thin metallic armors that only covered part of their bodies.

-krrr! -krrr!

Hearing the sound of the trolley headed their way, staring at Silug's figure heading their way, the guards stood still as one of the guards asked.

"You're back already?"

"Yes"

"That was fas-huh? Who are y-"

Arriving before them and stopping them mid-sentence, before noticing that something was wrong, two large hands grabbed both of them by the neck as once again the muffled sound of bones breaking resounded across the area.

-Crack! -Crack!

...not even a minute after he incapacitated the previous orc, Silug took out the two guards. Almost as if he swatting a bunch of flies.

Scary.

Extremely scary.

Staring at Silug who had just incapacitated the two guards, smiling, Kevin looked at me and said.

"Come on Ren, let's go"

"...yeah, sure"

Looking at Kevin for a couple of seconds, I couldn't help but scratch my head.

...I was not used to this.

I was not used to sneaking into places through pure brute strength without going through elaborate schemes and preparations.

Felt sort of weird and refreshing at the same time.

Was it just me?

I think I might be going crazy.