The Prince escorted us, along with Captain Sunni and Corporal Marshoo, to Lena’s apartments. He only went so far as her antechamber though, and gave me a suspicious glare when the Princess pulled me along with a dismissive wave to her brother.

Marshoo was left on guard, while Sunni was ordered to fill the Prince in on details of the trip over some breakfast. Milliardo tried to get Lena to come to breakfast, but she refused, claiming she was tired from the long trip. She was required to come and greet her father after breakfast though, so she would need to refresh herself and change into something appropriate.

As soon as the Prince left, Lena dropped her [Cloak] and slumped.

“I may require you, my dear Prime, to figure out a method for boosting my mana levels if I am to keep this illusion running for such long stretches all the time,” she complained.

I followed after her, absentmindedly as I started thinking about what I could do to boost her levels. She didn’t have the chassis space to include any of the mana collection and storage units like I’d done for Carnivac. Maybe I should look into methods for making the units smaller? I’d have to do some experiments to see how small I could make the parts before I started losing efficacy.

“Prime. Go sit over there on the chez. I’m getting changed,” she ordered.

I nodded absently, and mumbled something about power conversions as I backed out of her bedroom to the living room and found my assigned seat. The door to the apartment burst open and a young girl of 10 to 13 barged in. She looked like a smaller version of Lena’s organic self. She was flanked by a draconoid knight and a high-end looking Automata maid. In their wake, was one of the castle maids apologizing and trying to slow her down, though was being ignored.

“Relena, your highness, you’ve returned!” the girl shouted.

She looked around the room, her eyes not even registering my presence. She lighted on the closed door to the bedroom and stomped in that direction. The castle maid rushed in front of her and put her hands out.

“Her highness is getting changed! Please wait a moment my lady,” the maid pleaded.

The girl glared up at the maid, crossing her arms.

“Laura, remove it,” she directed to her own maid.

“It?” I asked, speaking up. “I understand you’ve been put into a female looking frame so I don’t want to assume one way or the other, but I’m certain you aren’t an it, right?” I directed to the castle maid.

“Um... No? Sir?” the maid said, looking confused.

“And you,” I said, jabbing a finger in the direction of the little girl, “you’ve been informed that her royal highness is in the middle of changing. What, praytell, makes you think she’s interested in receiving guests in that state?”

The girl turned her sneer on me, looking at me for the first time.

“What is this noisy thing? Sir Rankor, remove its head.”

The knight didn’t say a word, but he did move to draw his sword. At that moment, the bedroom door opened and Princess Relena stood, glaring daggers at the knight until he backed off. She was wearing a full gown that looked entirely too fancy for an informal check-in with `dad`. The skirt was full length to the floor and, I assumed, contained many underskirts and petticoats to provide volume. The top portion had a fitted bodice and a high collar, but with a keyhole opening to show off her upper chest. A long sleeved jacket buttoned at her waist and the look was finished off with a pair of purple leather gloves. The whole thing was a substantial amount of purple and white fabric with accents of gold.

The girl squealed and jumped at Lena, ignoring anything else to this point, smashing her face into Lena’s chest. She then whipped her head back in shock.

“What happened? Your squishy bits aren’t squishing!” the girl shouted.

Lena closed her eyes and pursed her lips before clamping a gloved hand around the girl’s face, pushing her back until she was disentangled and at arm’s length.

“It’s breaking! My skull is breaking!” the girl screamed.

“You look wonderful, your highness,” I said, giving her a low bow. “The gloves are a clever touch. I would like to remind your highness that after your... treatment... you would have no problems cracking open an egg of any size.”

Lena blushed, slightly, but quickly recovered and released the girl, letting her drop to the floor. I noticed that neither of her attendants attempted to catch her, or to pull her up.

“This behavior is most unbecoming of a duchess, as I’ve warned you before,” the Princess scolded.

“What are you talking about?” the girl whined, “we’re here alone! It’s not like I’m doing this in front of people!”

Lena looked coldly on the girl then at her attendants, the castle maids, then at me. I noticed, for the first time, the two maids watching curiously from the bedroom. They must have assisted Lena in getting dressed. I wondered if they just... lived there. Lena made a pained expression and the girl looked flustered.

“I’m terribly sorry, Master Prime,” Lena said to me, giving me a little curtsy. “Allow me to apologize for this child’s ignorance. It would seem that she doesn’t even deem her own knight, a person. Let alone the maids in our employ, nor yourself. May I introduce my cousin, her grace, Naina Peacecraft, Duchess of Rover Fairia. Naina, this is my friend and confidant, the Master Artificer, Prime.”

Naina scowled at me and held out a hand for her knight to pull her up. She then returned her focus to the Princess and adopted a mischievous expression.

“What is this, your highness? Some sort of new play? Poor comedy, perhaps? Am I to be introduced to all of your toys? I think I should like to meet the stuffed animal that her highness sleeps with at night, over this ugly thing.”

Again, Lena closed her eyes and pursed her lips. This time, I spotted her tapping her thumb to each of her fingers in a rhythm.

“I have no time for your childish antics,” she snapped, surprising Naina. “I must give my greetings to his majesty, the lord emperor, my father. Come, or don’t. I don’t care either way.”

She then nearly stomped for the apartment door, Marshoo quickly getting out of the way. She then paused and half turned around.

“Master Prime, now might not be the best time for you to meet father. Wait for me and don’t make any trouble, okay? Later, maybe we can get you cleaned and shined up a bit.”

“As you wish, your highness,” I said, giving her my best Shiro bow.

If Naina’s scowl could melt steel, I’d be a puddle of slag. Still, she raced after the Princess with her attendants in tow. Once they left, I looked around the room but the castle maids had vanished. I was hoping to pass them my program, but it would have to wait, I guessed.

“Hey Marshoo,” I said casually, innocently strolling up to her position by the door. “The castle has a library, right?”

“Oh no. You’re staying here, pint size. The Princess said to keep you out of trouble and honestly I just want to go home.”

“Sure, yeah, I get that. I’ll just stay here. I have some projects to work on anyway. I’ll pick one of the less explosive ones... might be a little messy though... but you’re right. It’d be less trouble than checking out the library and quietly reading some books.”

I could see the war of thoughts raging inside of Marshoo’s brain. It was a joy to witness. Eventually one thought commander prevailed against the other.

“Okay fine, come on... but we’re staying on the first floor, got it?”

“There’s multiple floors?” I asked, getting excited.

She groaned and started walking down the hall, her thick tail dragging, uncharacteristically, on the ground behind her.

“This has been a really long campaign for you, huh?” I asked, trying to make conversation.

She looked at me, looking exhausted, then back in the direction we were walking.

“It has. It really has. I can’t begin to tell you how much I’m looking forward to getting back to my own room and my own bed and taking some much needed time off,” she groaned.

“Well, I appreciate all that you’ve done just the same. There’s mountains of stuff I don’t know about this country. I have a search function but it only has access to really top level stuff or things I’ve already interacted with so I’m really looking forward to plugging some holes in my knowledge.”

“Uh huh,” she moaned, giving me a side glance.

“For example, I have no idea what a porcoo—”

I was cut off by the sound of an explosion and the castle gently shaking.

“Go back to the suite and stay there!” she yelled over her shoulder as she took off at a sprint.

Fat chance in hell of that happening.