yemalu

Instead of the princess visiting us today, I was invited to visit her instead.

I pulled aside the curtains covering the carriage window to look outside. It took me a moment to realise that we were coming up to the palace outer gates.

I thought we would be asked to stop but the guards did not even challenge us and immediately opened the doors to let us pass.

I let the curtains fall back into place before turning to Katsuki who sat opposite me, "This might be a little late to ask but… Do I need to observe some kind of etiquette in the palace?"

"There is no need, Mistress, you can just act as you normally do," Katsuki replied without hesitation, as though she already knew I would ask this question ahead of time.

"Umm… Alright… What if I see the king and queen?"

"The king and queen would be attending court right now, Mistress. The likelihood of you meeting them is very low. But in the event that Mistress does meet them, you may greet them as you would another noble."

… Alright then… Let\'s just pray hard that I don\'t meet either of them because I\'m very certain that I would screw up somehow.

Yep, let\'s just find Tiara and stay in her room and never go out until it\'s time to leave.

The carriage soon reached the inner part of the palace and the door was opened to allow us to disembark.

Katsuki got off first before helping me down from it gracefully.

Waiting there for me was Aria who gave a deep bow when I alighted, "Welcome, Young Mistress Nilm. I trust you had no problems at the gate?"

I shook my head, "Not at all, they let us in without saying anything. Is that what\'s supposed to happen?"

"Of course, all the guards know what the carriage of the Nilm family looks like so none of them would ever make the mistake of inconveniencing you."

The Royal Guards are worried about inconveniencing us… You know what, I\'m just going to shut up now and just take it as it is.

I turned to Sebastian who was, as usual, acting as the coachman, "Thank you for the ride, Sebastian."

He smiled at me, "Think nothing of it, Young Mistress. I shall be back to pick you up after your tea party with the Third Princess."

He then drove the carriage off, leaving me with Katsuki and Aria.

Aria bowed again, "Young Mistress Nilm, Princess Tiara\'s tea party will be held in her room. If you would follow me, please?"

"Unn… We will be in your care," I nodded, letting the maid guide the way to the palace.

She turned around but instead of walking through the main gates, she took a side road towards the gardens and then passed a room full of guards where all of them seemed to be intentionally avoiding looking in our direction before reaching a tower at the back of the palace.

Ah… So it\'s the princess in a tower trope huh? Except she\'s not actually locked in it I guess.

Aria reached the door and pushed it open, revealing what appears to be an intricately drawn magic circle in the centre of a room that was decorated with plants and brightly lit with Mana Crystals infused with Lumenmancy magic.

"Please step onto the magic circle, Young Mistress Nilm," Aria requested.

I pointed at the circle, "Is that a teleportation pad?"

The maid seemed to hesitate for a moment before inclining her head, "I\'m not sure if that\'s the proper term to refer to it, but it is indeed a magic circle infused with Astromancy magic with the function of teleportation to another similar magic circle, Young Mistress Nilm."

Ah yeah, that\'s what I was asking. Good to know that there\'s such a thing that exists here I guess.

I was wondering how the princess could still be weak if she had to climb up and down this tower everyday, especially when the tower looked like it was at least six to eight stories high.

I stepped to the magic circle and tried to inspect it, wondering just how something like this is made.

Hey, I\'m curious ok?! This is the first time I\'ve seen a magic circle and I\'m wondering if it\'s possible to make this on my own! Just think of the possibilities!

Ok, I have seen another one in the Dungeon as a teleportation trap but I thought those were just limited to Dungeons and not actually applicable outside of it.

But do you know what this means?!

I could set glyphs as forms of traps before a fight, I could maybe inscribe these on scrolls or parchments to store magic and use when I\'m out of mana, I could even learn more magic just by deciphering magic circles I find outside!

"Is Young Mistress Nilm perhaps interested in magic inscriptions?" Aria asked.

"Unnn… This is actually my first time seeing one."

"I see. Unfortunately I am not very well versed in such a skill so I am unable to offer much in this topic, but I believe the main Aerialla Academy has courses that teaches one on how to inscribe such inscriptions."

I waved my hand, "Oh, it\'s fine. I was just curious about it."

I took another look at the magic circle but unfortunately the runes were all foreign to me since it doesn\'t look like the letters of this World.

Giving up on trying to understand it for now, I stepped in the circle with the other two maids and I expected to be immediately teleported up but nothing happened.

Aria then raised her arm, palm facing down, "Cookies are the best thing ever, ever."

The magic circle then lit up, signalling its activation. I can only assume that was a password and I could already guess who came up with it.

When the light died down, I found myself in a different place inside a room of sorts that looked similar in design from the previous one. The only difference was that the plants were of a different variety and an intricately carved double door was built into the wall at the side instead of the simple wooden one in the previous one.

I guess the door must lead towards the actual room that the princess was in.

Aria stepped forward and opened the doors to let me in.

When you think about a room at the top of the tower, you might be thinking about seeing grey stone walls, the barest amount of furniture and maybe just a single window to peek at the outside world.

If that\'s what you thought, then you\'re not alone because that was what I was expecting too.

But nope, the room was lavishly decorated with marble floors, brightly painted walls, pots of plants hanging from the ceiling and even a large balcony that offered a splendid view of the city. You might even forget that this was a room on top of a single tower and just a normal room within the palace.

Tiara was seated at said balcony where a table with two chairs had been set up with various desserts piled high on a rectangular table nearby.

The princess saw me and immediately leapt to her feet before rushing towards me, "Big sister! Big sister!! You\'re here, you\'re here! Welcome to my room!!"

I caught her as she ran up to hug me, her face burrowing into my bosoms as I patted her.

"You have a very nice room, Tiara."

"Ehehe~ I bet it\'s not as nice as yours, big sister! I haven\'t gone to your room yet though…"

Trust me, my room is really simple and definitely not as well decorated as yours. Not because I can\'t but it\'s not like I spend much time in it aside from sleeping so there\'s not much point anyway…

She then pointed to some of the plants, "Papa got those for me! He said that they came from some forest or something. That dresser was Mama\'s birthday gift to me! And it has all the nice clothes I like to wear! Maybe we can play dress up later? Ehehe~"

Yeah, I already figured this but her parents must also still love her as a daughter despite the curse. Thus they still want to spoil her as their parents.

They made sure even if they had to keep her away from everyone else, her living conditions would be no worse than her siblings who were living in the main palace itself. They even gave her a large balcony where she could see out into the city so that she would not feel as though she was locked up in this tower.

Although I don\'t know if that\'s a good thing or bad thing since she could see the city but she can\'t go there on her own…

Oh well, I guess it\'s still better than being locked up here all alone with nothing but books for company. At least she still has Aria with her to wait on her.

And right now, myself as a companion I guess?

The princess pulled me over to the balcony and hurriedly sat me down, "Big sister is here! That means we can start the tea party now! Aria, cookies please! Cookies, cookies! And also for big sister too!"

Aria bowed, "At once, Princess. And you, Young Mistress Nilm?"

Katsuki nodded at her fellow maid, "Do not worry about Mistress, I shall serve her."

"Very well, I shall leave that to you."

"Yayyy~ Tea party with big sister! Ehehehe~"

Mmm… Sweets first, other stuff later~