The Blueprint Prince-Chapter 46 - 45: The Invisible Class

The sun rose over Neo Osgard, the Royal Capital.

It was a city of breathtaking beauty. White marble towers reached for the sky, connected by arched bridges. Banners of gold and crimson snapped in the wind. The streets were paved with clean cobblestones, and the air smelled of roasting meat and expensive perfume.

But a mile outside the city walls, in a muddy ditch near the river, the air smelled very different.

"I refuse," Julian stated flatly.

He was standing next to the Pendelton Cruiser, holding a pair of greasy, grey canvas overalls.

"It is the only way," Arthur said, pulling his own overalls up over his clothes. He smeared a handful of engine grease on his face. "We cannot drive the car through the front gate. The guards will recognize us. They will recognize the car."

"So we walk in?" Vivian asked, tugging at the collar of her disguise. She had hidden her rapier inside a roll of blueprints.

"We don’t walk in as guests," Arthur explained. "We walk in as Laborers."

He pointed to the massive city walls. At the base of the wall, near the riverline, was a large iron grate. Brown water trickled out of it.

"The Sewer Outflow," Arthur said.

"We are entering through the toilet?" Julian looked horrified. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

"We are the Royal Sanitation Inspection Team." Arthur handed Julian a clipboard. "Nobody looks at a sanitation worker, Julian. They look away. We are invisible because we are dirty."

"This is dignified," Julian muttered, putting on the overalls. "I am the heir to the Arch-Mage, and I am sneaking into my own home through a drainpipe."

....

They hid the car in the dense brush, activating a Camouflage Rune Arthur had rigged to the battery.

They waded to the iron grate. It was locked with a heavy rusted padlock.

"Zack," Arthur whispered. "The lock."

Zack didn’t use magic. He used a pair of bolt cutters Arthur had brought. SNAP.

They slipped inside.

The smell was indescribable. It was a mix of centuries of waste, damp stone, and old magic.

"Masks up," Arthur ordered, pulling a cloth mask over his nose.

They walked along the narrow stone walkway beside the flowing sewage. The tunnel was dark, lit only by the glowing moss on the ceiling.

"According to the Runeware Map," Zack whispered, checking the iScroll (which illuminated the tunnel with faint light threads), "We are directly beneath the Merchant District. We need to go deeper to reach the Old City."

"Halt!" A voice echoed down the tunnel.

A Guard stood on a platform ahead. He wasn’t a Royal Knight; he was a Sewer Watchman. He held a lantern and a rusty mace.

"Who goes there?" the Watchman shouted. "This area is restricted!"

Julian froze. His hand went to his wand hidden in his pocket.

"Don’t," Arthur whispered. "Let me talk."

Arthur stepped into the light. He didn’t look guilty. He looked annoyed. He looked like a man who had been working a double shift.

"Inspection," Arthur grunted, waving the clipboard. "Sector 7 blockage. The Arch-Mage is screaming about the pressure drop. You want to tell him why his toilet isn’t flushing?"

The Watchman hesitated. He saw the grease on Arthur’s face. He saw the official-looking clipboard. He saw the miserable look on Julian’s face.

"I didn’t get a work order," the Watchman grumbled.

"That’s because the clerks upstairs are useless," Arthur spat. "Look, do you want to check my papers, or do you want me to fix the leak before the noble district floods with... you know what?"

The Watchman wrinkled his nose. "Go ahead. Just don’t make a mess."

"Too late for that," Arthur muttered, pushing past him.

As they walked away, Julian whispered, "How did you do that? You didn’t even use a spell."

"I used Bureaucracy," Arthur said. "It’s the strongest magic of all. No one wants to do paperwork."

They found a maintenance ladder and climbed up. Arthur pushed open a manhole cover.

They emerged into an alleyway in the Merchant District.

The noise of the city hit them instantly. Merchants yelling, carts rumbling, children laughing.

Arthur pulled the manhole cover shut.

"We are in," Arthur said, brushing dust off his overalls.

"Now what?" Vivian asked, keeping her head down. "We go to the Palace?"

"No," Arthur checked the map. "We need supplies. Food that isn’t dried beef. And... we need to access the Old Atherian Elevator."

"Where is it?" Zack asked.

Arthur pointed to the center of the city. A massive, ancient tower made of black stone rose above the white marble buildings. It looked out of place, like a relic from another time.

The Spire of Ages.

Currently, it served as the Royal Museum.

"The entrance to the Undercity is in the Museum basement," Arthur explained. "The King thinks it’s just a ruin. He doesn’t know it’s the service elevator for the Global Pump."

"So we rob the museum?" Julian asked.

"We visit it," Arthur corrected. "But first... look."

Arthur pointed to a newsstand on the corner. A magical printing press was churning out broadsheets.

The headline was in bold, black ink.

THE PHANTOM CARRIAGE: ROGUE STUDENTS DESTROY ACADEMY WALL! ARCH-MAGE DECLARES: "MY SON HAS BEEN KIDNAPPED BY RADICALS!"

Julian stared at the paper. "Kidnapped? He thinks I was kidnapped?"

"It’s easier than admitting you ran away," Arthur said gently. "It saves his reputation."

Julian’s jaw tightened. "He can’t accept that I chose this. He thinks I’m a victim."

"We don’t have time for family drama," Vivian grabbed Julian’s arm. "Patrol."

A squad of Elite Royal Guards marched past the alley entrance. Their armor was polished silver. They held halberds that glowed with enchantments.

They were scanning the crowd. Not for sanitation workers, but for teenagers matching the wanted posters.

"We need to move," Arthur said. "Keep the overalls on. We head to the Museum. If anyone asks, we are there to fix the boiler."

...

The Spire of Ages was massive. The ground floor was open to the public, filled with glass cases displaying pottery and rusted swords from the Old Empire.

Arthur, Julian, Vivian, and Zack walked in through the service entrance at the back.

The guard at the door looked at their grease-stained clothes.

"Deliveries in the back," the guard said, bored.

"Boiler maintenance," Arthur said automatically. "Temperature fluctuation in the storage room. Bad for the artifacts."

The guard waved them through. "Basement stairs are on the left."

They descended.

The basement was a labyrinth of storage crates. But Arthur wasn’t looking for crates. He was looking for the foundation.

He found it in the deepest room. A wall made of seamless black metal, covered in faint blue lines.

"Here," Arthur said. He pulled out the Black Keycard the Sentinel had given him in the mountains.

"This doesn’t look like a door," Zack noted. "It looks like a wall."

"It’s a Blast Door," Arthur said. "Seamless seal."

He held the card up to a blank section of the wall.

BEEP.

A hidden panel slid open, revealing a slot. Arthur inserted the card.

THUNK-HISS.

The entire wall shuddered. Dust fell from the ceiling. Slowly, agonizingly, the massive metal slab slid upwards.

Behind it was not a room. It was a dark, vertical shaft that went down forever. A platform—large enough for a truck—hung suspended over the abyss.

"The Elevator," Arthur breathed. "This goes down two miles. To the real city."

"It looks... rickety," Julian noted, kicking a loose bolt.

"It hasn’t been serviced in two millennia," Arthur admitted. "But the cables are Carbon-Enchanted Steel. They will hold."

They stepped onto the platform. Arthur found the control panel. It had only two buttons. [SURFACE] and [CORE].

He pressed [CORE].

Nothing happened.

"Power," Arthur realized. "The grid is disconnected."

"Don’t look at me," Julian backed away. "I am not powering an elevator for two miles! I will pass out!"

"We don’t need you." Arthur opened the panel. "We need the Thunder Core from the car."

"The car is in the swamp!" Vivian yelled.

"I know," Arthur grinned, pulling a small, glowing crystal from his pocket. "That’s why I brought the Spare Battery."

It was the Class-C Core they had harvested from the Scrappers in the Ironwood Forest. It wasn’t as strong as the Thunder-Lizard core, but it had juice.

Arthur jammed the crystal into the slot.

WHIRRRRR.

The lights on the platform flickered on. The gears groaned.

"Going down," Arthur said.

The platform dropped.

They descended into the dark, leaving the sunlight of the capital behind.

Above them, the blast door slammed shut, sealing them in the shaft.

"Arthur," Zack whispered as the air grew cold. "What is down there? Besides the pump?"

Arthur looked at the darkness below.

"The logs mentioned ’Automated Defense Grid: Active’," Arthur said grimly. "So... probably more robots. And maybe the things the robots were built to fight."

End of Chapter 45