The sun was getting ready to set when I found myself; just a head, an arm, and an upper torso; nestled in the lap of a sixteen year old imperial robot Princess, riding in the royal coach, with the imperial, crown, non-robot Prince to destinations unknown. The absurdity that had become my life was not lost on me. Cyclone walked alongside the coach, being too big to fit inside, along with the acting Captain of the Prince’s company of Royal Guards; Vice Captain Antilles. I had never met the Vice Captain before, nor had I ever seen one of his species.

Captain Antilles was a centaur of sorts. He was a large-type species, as you might expect, and broad with huge muscles. Rather than a horse's lower half, he had a “winged tiger”. Unlike Sunni, he didn’t wear much by way of armor and he carried a sword that looked like it could slice the coach in half with a single swipe. His face was mostly human-ish, though a bit fuzzy and orange, but his eyes were golden in color and his teeth all looked like needles. Tongue twisters were probably a deadly affair for the man.

Prince Milliardo said that he had something he needed to give me, after demanding that I “become his sword”. After that he wouldn’t say a word about it and just forced everyone on this early evening stroll through the city. Not that I had anything else to do, other than marinate in defeatist thoughts and ruminate on the loss of my best friend.

Milliardo told Lena that she didn’t need to come, but she got mad and yelled “how else is Prime supposed to get around?” I have to say, Milliardo knows when not to go chasing an impossible win. I suspect that most arguments with his sister are “impossible wins”, though. Lena once mentioned that she had eight siblings, and I know that she and Milliardo have different mothers. I wondered where all the other imperial kids were. Or their mothers. Milliardo, being the crown Prince, was likely the oldest, right? Or maybe there were older ones that were disinherited for whatever reason?

Lena was absently rocking back and forth, looking out the window, and humming while Milliardo was getting increasingly agitated.

“You know what? I’ll hold him for a while. It isn’t fair to you that the Princess should have to play nurse to Prime, now is it?” Milliardo said suddenly.

“Hmm? What?” Lena said, snapping out of her daze. “It’s fine, really. I don’t mind in the least. In fact, I insist.”

“Nonsense,” Milliardo countered, reaching over to pull me off of her lap.

As soon as my weight was no longer supported by Lena’s lap, I raced for the floor only to be caught at the last moment by Lena again.

“Ye ghads!” Milliardo exclaimed. “Prime! There’s less than half of you, just how heavy are you??”

“Um... Full bodied, I’m probably around 90 kilograms or so... Right now... I dunno... What would you say Lena? 35, 36?” I asked, looking up at her as she returned me to her lap.

“Yeah, that sounds about right.”

Milliardo’s face went slack and his shocked stare switched targets from me to Lena.

“How... How heavy are you now Lena?” he asked, agog.

“Sweet Milli, there are some things you should never ask a woman,” she said, pointedly turning to look out the window.

“And she picked him up with one hand...” he half muttered to himself. “Exemplary. Truly exemplary work Prime. I may have to request a conversion myself if it comes to it.”

We continued to ride in silence for a bit until Lena’s humming returned. After a while, the coach came to a stop and the Vice Captain knocked on the door.

“We’ve arrived, your highness,” Antilles announced, in a low growl.

Milliardo exited the coach first, followed by Lena and I. Cyclone made sure to hold a hand out to help Lena step down as a proper knight. I looked around, and we appeared to be on the outskirts of the noble residential district, according to what all Cyclone had seen on the way over. I really hadn’t gotten a chance to see much of this city, it was really huge. From here, though, I could see the castle, or at least the inner walls that surrounded it and the upper levels that reached high above anything else.

We followed Milliardo into a building that, truthfully, looked on the shabby side. Not at all the sort of place that this guy would hang out in. Maybe this was on the border between residential and industrial? We passed through a heavy iron gate that, when closed, probably afforded this place some rather fortress-like qualities. The walls were thick and stone, reminding me more of a bomb shelter the further we went inside.

Inside, the space opened up into a huge open area that reminded me of a garage. One of those spacious ones that had multiple lifts that could service a handful of cars at a time.

“Don’t get too excited just yet, my Automata friend,” Milliardo said, hiding a smile.

He led us to an area near the back that had a not-at-all-suspicous stone circle pattern on the floor among otherwise square patterns. With a mischievous grin, he shepherded everyone into the circle and acted like he was performing a magic trick when he pushed a little mana out his toe and into the center tile.

I can’t say I was terribly surprised when the circular area suddenly dropped like an elevator to a lower level. Antilles seemed impressed though, and Lena clapped, resulting in a flourish and a bow from the Prince.

When the elevator stopped, we were in an underground facility that was clean, well lit, and stocked with just about every sort of tool and material you could possibly want for making just about anything. The Prince walked out into the work area and spread his arms wide, giving us an extremely wide, and extremely smug grin.

“I call this... The Foundry! Though come to think of it with you in charge here, I suppose AutoFoundry would be more apt,” he declared. “Prime, I want you to think of this as your home whenever you are here in town, in a very real and legally binding sense. Time is of the essence, whatever you need, you’ll have. Oh yes, you’ll have an assistant as well! Allow me to introduce Professor Rechts, head of Artifice Research at the Pukokania Academy of Magical Sciences.”

Amidst the exotic metals and elaborate tools, stood an indignant dinosaur. The same dinosaur that I’d seen rummaging around the junk heap earlier that day.

“Assistant?!” he huffed. “Your highness, this is quite irregular. I’m the head of artifice studies! I believe you used the term consultant when you enticed me to join your little experiment.”

“Ah. Yes, well. It’s true, I may have said that,” the Prince said, rather nonchalantly. “But! I think you’ll change your tune when you meet the artificer you’ll be working under. Allow me to introduce, Master Prime.”

With a sweep of his arm, the Prince indicated me, though the professor didn’t look impressed.

“Your highness... I am familiar with the Princess Relena, though I was not aware she held such a title in artificery...”

“What? No, not her, the one in her arms, that guy. That’s Master Prime.”

The professor looked less impressed than before.

“The Automata?”

“Yes.”

“In her arms?”

“Yes.”

“The one from the junkyard that’s missing most of its body?”

The Prince looked over to Lena to confer, who nodded.

“Yes.”

“What’s the joke, your highness? Isn’t this a bit like asking the court mage to play assistant to a broken wand?”

Lena stomped over to the professor and pushed her face close to his, causing him to back up in panic.

“Listen here, Professor Court Mage, do you think that you’re capable of building something like that?” she challenged, directing a finger over at a semi-molten and charred mess that used to be IronHide.

“I really don’t even know what that is, your highness...” the Professor admitted.

“Well then how about this? Cyclone, show him your other mode,” she ordered.

Cyclone stepped forward, to the alarm of the Professor.

“That’s not a knight? That’s huge,” he marveled.

Cyclone rolled his eyes and transformed into bike mode. The Professor fell back and landed on his tail, even Vice Captain Antilles was shocked.

“That’s... That’s amazing! Who built this?” Rechts wondered, creeping closer to touch Cyclone.

“Ho HO!” Lena laughed. “And that’s his early work! No offence, Cyclone.”

“Yeah... I’m hoping there will be a mark II body coming my way sooner or later,” he pined.

“Hey, when you’ve died as many times as Carnivac has, you can get a new body too,” I quipped.

“This little guy here, built this magnificent machine?” Rechts asked.

“That’s not all,” Lena said, smugly. “He’s even responsible for this.”

She raised a hand over her head and snapped her fingers. Her illusion dissolved, like scales falling away; starting at the top of her head and working their way down to her feet. The Prince crossed his arms and looked concerned.

“The Princess is an Automata?!” Rechts shouted.

“Yes, well. I don’t know if that purros should have been let out of the sack, but what’s done is done,” Milliardo lamented. “Rechts, that’s a state secret. If it gets out, I’ll have you executed for treason.”

The Professor shakily looked over at the Prince and enthusiastically nodded his large head.

“Exemplary,” the Prince said, clapping his hands. “I leave you to it. I expect dragon slaying weapons in no time. Now then, I’m famished. Off to find some dinner.”