The villainess's slow prison life

Attendant Delivers Something to her Lord

After confirming there were no problems at all, see immediately took out the wagon. It had already been prepared for departure upon Sofia's arrival, so with an escort accompanying her, she could load herself into the back of the wagon. With the carriage making its way through the backyard's wicket gate, the store didn't look any different from the usual.

♠

Although you'd think that being the gatekeeper for the royal palace would be a busy job, this was only true until around midday. Everybody there to do business would already be inside, and any visitors wouldn't come by this late. That's why when it is late in the afternoon, you will see almost no visitors to the castle or wagons delivering goods.
At such a place, a small wagon with no notable characteristics appeared.

"Halt! .....um, to which station are you delivering to?"

An elderly gatekeeper met it. As that elderly gatekeeper tried to find out where this wagon was going, the elderly coachman smiled from his seat and tipped his hat to say hello.

"Yes, I've got a delivery of cat food here."
"Understood, proceed!"

The gatekeeper made a signal while handing the driver a pass permit, and another gatekeeper removed the barricade that blocked the way. The coachman offered a nod to him as well before the wagon continued on its way into the royal palace.

It seems that a notification had been sent ahead from the first gate as when the wagon reached the second gate, it was allowed a free pass through.
The vehicle eventually passed by the front of the dungeon, and stopped at the back-facing door.

Sofia jumped out from the luggage carrier of the carriage. The coachman and escort meanwhile pulled back the canopy and began unloading the luggage.
A knight then suddenly ran towards them from out behind some nearby foliage.

The knight came right up in front of Sofia and gave a standing bow.
Sofia kept calm and asked,

"Are you a dog?"
"Right now everyone on duty is a cat. The others are keeping watch nearby. Today's patrol won't make it's way to the prison cell for another three hours."

If you look around, you'll see that several of the Royal Palace's lower clerks had gathered to help unload the goods. Sofia left the delivery to them and made her way down into the dungeon.

♠

Having already become aware of the situation up top, Rachel removed her cell's padlock and unwrapped the chain from the bars. As for the lock to the jail cell itself, she was currently in the process of trying to dexterously pick the lock with her hand poking out from between the bars.

"My Lady......please use the key to open the door."

Sofia voiced her complaints, but Rachel responded showing little care for her servant's words.

"If you don't use your skills occasionally, then they'll surely rust over time."
"They'll realize the trick when they notice the strange scratches around though. And what will you do if you accidentally crush the keyhole?"
"Don't you think it'd be interesting if you could just slide these bars off and set them against the wall?"
"Please save it for next time."
"I, you'll be coming in again.........?"

Sofia pushed her Lady aside as she opened the cell door with a key that only the Prison Guard should have. By the way, Rachel also has a copy of this key. She just doesn't use it. It was a lockpicker's pride (Lie).

"Madame's life, are their any inconveniences?"
"Nothing in particular. I've been able to sleep well ever since we switched out my cushion for a bed........and my writing is going well also."
"We've loaded the sample from the Mouse & Rat Company on the carriage. Please take a look later. .........It hasn't been a month yet, so why have you already written ten volumes?"
"Fufu, the story moves on its own when the characters are alive."