The world was a strange place. If Jia had been asked at any point in her life how likely it would be for her to one day have a private audience with the Queen of her country, she would have said that it was a stupid question. Orphan girls who made their living by lurking in the gutters and stealing forgotten or unsupervised scraps did not meet with royalty. Even after meeting Seong Eunae, becoming friends with Hayakawa, and even actually meeting the Seong clan—Jia still would have maintained, until the very moment that Queen Seong Eunhee requested it, that a private audience with her was simply impossible.

Yet here she stood. Alone in the enormous throne room with just her and the Queen. Seong Eunhee seemed to tower over her from her seat on the throne, smirking down at her with a predatory glint in her eye. Jia wished that she could have at least had Eui with her—this would be so much easier as Yoshika—but whatever barrier surrounded the throne room had left their connection muted. She could still vaguely sense Eui’s presence, but it was dull and hard to reach. For the first time in years, Jia felt truly alone, and she didn’t like it one bit.

“It’s so good to finally meet you, Lee Jia. Please, come closer—I’m sick of shouting.”

Jia took a few hesitant steps forward, pausing in front of the dais on which the throne rested. The queen rolled her eyes and beckoned her closer.

“Come now, right up onto the dais, don’t be shy—I promise I won’t bite.”

Stepping onto the dais, Jia couldn’t help but notice how much smaller the queen seemed up close. Perhaps that was the point of the throne room’s setup—to make her look so imposing. Seong Eunhee was still taller than Jia—no surprise there—but she wasn’t exactly the towering figure that she’d seemed to be a moment ago. She tutted softly when Jia tried to kneel down, simply gesturing for her to stand back up.

“None of that, we’re alone here—no need for all the theatrics. I just want to talk.”

Jia stood up awkwardly, taking a moment to find her voice before she finally managed to offer a response.

“I-is this really appropriate? I feel like I’m doing something wrong.”

Seong Eunhee laughed melodically and shook her head.

“Oh absolutely not. If anyone saw you standing there it would be a scandal. But we’re alone, and—more than anywhere else perhaps in the entire country—free of observers. No sense standing on ceremony. So please, do try to relax.”

Jia swallowed nervously and nodded once.

“I’ll try my best.”

A smile slowly crept onto the queen’s face as she looked Jia over with a sigh.

“Ah, I can see why she likes you so much. Tell me, Lee Jia—is it true that you’ve managed to acquire heirloom treasures from the Awakening Dragon sect?”

Jia froze for a moment, unsure how to answer. She didn’t think lying would do her any favors, but she balked at the idea of revealing such secrets to someone so powerful. As if reading her mind, Queen Seong waved a hand dismissively.

“Relax, we’re not so impoverished that we’d covet something as simple as a dimensional storage artifact—no matter how superlative. The awakening stone would have been another story a few years ago, but I’m not concerned with it now.”

Letting out some of the tension with a breath, Jia looked askance at the queen.

“If you already knew the answer, why ask?”

“Hah! Fair enough—I suppose if you observe certain formalities often enough, they become second nature. Please forgive me.”

“Uh, sure...”

Jia felt so out of her depth. She tried to remind herself that Queen Seong was just a person. One of the most powerful people she’d ever met, in both strength and influence, but still a person. Even Sovereign Shen had been a fallible human being, and he was a god or something. It didn’t help, and she gave the queen her full attention when she started speaking again.

“It tickles me to know that such a relatively obscure talent from my nation managed to embarrass the Awakening Dragon so. Yan De’s been fuming about it for years, you know. I’ve had multiple requests for your extradition written and signed personally by him. I’m tempted to have a few of them framed—the Qin have a way with colorful language when they put their minds to it.”

The color drained from Jia’s face, but Queen Seong waved aside her concerns.

“Oh, don’t worry. I’m not throwing you to the wolves. Leave Yan De to his impotent rage and his delightfully angry letters. If anything I should commend you for that. We’re getting off track, however—with a storage artifact as powerful as yours, I imagine that you probably keep most all of your personal possessions within, yes?”

Jia blinked in confusion, not entirely sure where this was going.

“Uh, yeah—pretty much.”

In fact, the capacity of her dimensional ring was so great that she’d been keeping various bits of random junk in it for years without even approaching its limits. She had random weapons, furniture, bits of food, and of course the mana cores and monster parts from her time in the wilderness.

“Among your possessions, would you happen to have an elemental converter?”

Jia started to nod, then froze. Seong Eunhee’s gaze had fixed directly on her, the easygoing demeanor vanishing in an instant. It was such an innocuous thing—an elemental converter. It was a tool used by early stage mages to charge talismans with specific elements. Certain spells didn’t work very well if charged with neutrally aligned mana, and first stage mages couldn’t control the elements within their aura very well. The one that Jia had was useless to her now, had been useless to her almost as soon as she’d obtained it, and she’d long since forgotten that she even had it.

That was why she hadn’t thought anything of it when Seong Eunhee asked about it. Why she hadn’t stopped to think before responding. She’d forgotten something crucial about the little trinket—she had received it as a gift from Seong Eunae. Jia could remember it as vividly as if it had been only minutes ago—it was, after all, one of her most precious memories. That had been the day that she had truly become friends with Seong Eunae, despite Jia’s misgivings about her heritage. A heritage Jia had discovered because Seong Eunae had let slip that she’d received that elemental converter as a birthday gift—from her aunt.

Seong Eunhee’s steely gaze felt as if it was boring into Jia as she spoke, her tone now dark and commanding.

“Show me.”

Jia’s hands trembled as she produced the offending object, which until moments ago had been one of the uncategorized random pieces of junk in her ring, for all that it held a certain sentimental value. She’d been meaning to return it to Eunae, but had simply never gotten around to doing so. The queen took the converter from Jia and ran her hands along the delicate gold filigree highlighting the formation etched into the jade tablet.

“She modified it, I see. Clumsy work—I’m amazed it still works at all. How ungrateful.”

Queen Seong sighed miserably and set the elemental converter aside.

“She’s never appreciated everything I do for her. Just between us, Eunae’s always been my favorite daughter, you know. Her own mother doesn’t appreciate her as much as I do. She probably saw this gift as an insult. Of course—it was framed that way. It wouldn’t do for me to show favoritism—never mind that everyone else dotes on little Haeun as if she were the Kumiho herself reincarnated. I’m glad that she was able to make some proper friends—get away from this place before it could choke all the life out of her entirely. That’s why I sent her to that ridiculous academy in the first place.”

She huffed irritably as she finished her sudden rant, meeting Jia’s eyes with a dark frown.

“But Misun raises a fair point—the lazy brat. While Eunae has changed significantly since her return from the academy, Misun’s concerns aren’t unfounded. I need to be certain that you really are Eunae’s friend, and not her slave. So, you’re going to answer my questions. Answer swiftly, and if I don’t like what I hear—ambassador or not, no matter how much it would hurt my favorite daughter—I will kill you where you stand. Understood?”

Jia nodded in a hurry, a cold sweat forming.

“Yes, your majesty!”

“Good. What do you think of Eunae?”

Taking the queen’s words to heart, Jia rushed to answer—saying the first thing that came to mind.

“She’s my friend, and I miss her dearly. She’s sweet and supportive, and she loves her tea, but she’s also sad and lonely and her calculating side can slip out when she thinks nobody will notice. She really loves her little sister, but I think she wishes she’d never been born a princess.”

Seong Eunhee nodded, but her expression remained cold as she continued.

“Has she ever used her gaze on you?”

“Yes. Dozens of times.”

The queen blinked in surprise.

“Elaborate.”

“When I first encountered her, our eyes met briefly but she broke eye-contact and later apologized. The second time she used it on me was to free me from the influence of a spiritual art that had trapped me in a dream while someone else controlled my body. She made me answer questions about my identity.”

“And the rest?”

“Training. In order to strengthen my resistance to mental and spiritual assault, and to help Eunae gain control of her own power we regularly practiced. She would always break eye-contact the moment I succumbed to the technique.”

Seong Eunhee shook her head in disbelief.

“Oh, of all the reckless...whose idea was that?”

Jia flushed with embarrassment.

“Mine.”

“Tsk. Very well—have you ever seen Seong Eunae use her power on someone else?”

“No—wait, yes. She used it to hold down magical beasts during expeditions, but I don’t really think that counts. And she attempted to use it on Seong Misun during the descent, but it didn’t seem to work.”

Queen Seong frowned.

“No, it wouldn’t. Fine, last question—what does the name Seong Heiran mean to you?”

Jia blinked.

“Um, ‘The Fox Princess’? She was an exceptionally powerful mage who had the same power as Eunae. She led a war against Qin and took a bunch of territory before disappearing a few centuries ago. Nothing I read was consistent about when or how she died.”

For a long moment, the queen stared intensely into Jia’s eyes, as if searching for something. Finally, she let out a long sigh, and shook her head.

“Thank the ancestors. Very well, you’re free to go. Don’t repeat anything that happened here.”

Jia hesitated at the dismissal.

“Wait, what? That’s it? What was all that about?”

Seong Eunhee sat back in her throne, the tension melting out of her as she returned to her relaxed posture and waved Jia off.

“I don’t feel like explaining it right now—besides, Eunae’s going to hate me if I keep you any longer. Go on, shoo!”

Jia didn’t need to be told a third time. As frustrating as it was, she wasn’t about to start arguing with the most powerful person in the country.

She was met back in the main hall by her friends, as well as the maidservant Hyeong Aecha—the guards from before were nowhere to be seen. Takeda grinned as she approached.

“Welcome back, bigshot. What did the queen want?”

“I’m not supposed to say.”

“Aww, come on. Eui’s going to find out anyway, right?”

Jia frowned, glancing at Eui and shrugging.

“Yeah, but I don’t think she’s supposed to say either.”

“Tsk, fine!”

Thankfully, Takeda left it at that. Hyeong Aecha cleared her throat and bowed to get their attention.

“If you’ll permit me, I can guide you to your quarters. You’re permitted to use them freely or return to your own accommodations at your discretion.”

After receiving a round of nods, Hyeong turned neatly and set off out of the main castle. As they were led out of the castle Jia heard Eui’s voice in her mind.

“Are you alright? You’re being really clingy all of a sudden.”

Jia looked down and noticed that she had hooked an arm around Eui’s and joined hands without even realizing it. After being separated from Eui inside the throne room, she found comfort in the physical contact.

“Not really, no.”

“What did the queen say to you?”

“A bunch of stuff about Eunae. We can talk about it later.”

Eui nodded, leaving it at that. Soon, they were led out of the castle and off to a tiny district of side buildings that Jia could only assume were guesthouses. To her surprise and delight, she felt a familiar presence waiting for them. Even more surprising was a small but powerful domain that she felt probing the edge of hers. As soon as she entered its range, the origin of that domain came rushing towards her, and she barely had time to prepare to defend herself as a small figure came rushing around a corner, launching itself at her like a fox-tailed missile.

“Big sis Jia!”

Princess Seong Haeun slammed into Jia, wrapping her arms around her in a tight hug. Jia giggled in delighted surprise at the sudden and unexpected display of affection from the country’s rising star, returning the hug gently.

“Hello to you too, Princess. I’m surprised you even remember me!”

Before Haeun could respond, her sister came running around the corner, panting for breath.

“Haeun! Don’t run off like that, we’re supposed to be waiting for...”

Seong Eunae trailed off as she realized just who her little sister had suddenly assaulted.

“Oh! Um, h-hello Jia, Eui, Rika. It’s nice to see you again! You too, Miss Hayakawa. Welcome to my home.”