Chapter 23

One of the specific duties of the Regent Princess is to attend meetings for a large variety of topics, and it so happened that Princess Rhinese was in one discussing the budget when one of the maids burst into the room.

“Your Highness!”

“What is it Sammy?!”

“There’s a problem in the library, please come with me!”

Sammy had been Princess Rhinese’s maid for the last 6 years and in all that time she had only been this panicked once before.

The day Princess Rhinese al voth Alda almost died.

She quickly stood up, “This meeting is adjourned.”

Princess Rhinese quickly rushed out of the room, ignoring a storm of protests, and activated the [Quick Change] feature on her Status.

[Quick Change] is a feature of one of the [Status] upgrades. It simply allows the quick swapping of clothes from the ones she’s wearing to one she has stored in her [Inventory]. She’d had this upgrade for just two years and loved it to death; it was good in everyday life and in emergencies: like that day.

[Quick Change] swapped her floor length dress for a white robe with slits up both legs. She wore a pair of pants underneath and the top half was tight enough to not get in the way, but loose enough not to restrict her movement or breathing.

She followed Sammy from the meeting room through twisting hallways and down stairs as they made their way to the library.

After arriving Princess Rhinese tried to slow her breath, a bit envious of Sammy and her much higher [Stamina] and [Constitution]

Around the library door was arrayed a gaggle of maids armed, with a variety of weapons. There was the eye-watering stench of smoke in the air and it was quiet, too quiet.

“I don’t hear any of the golems.”

“No your highness, one of the maids discovered them all deactivated in their storage closet. Based on the amount of dust on them it appears that they have been deactivated for several days to a week or so.”

“Why haven’t we discovered this sooner Sammy?”

“You were the only one to visit it on a regular basis your highness, but I know that you haven’t had the time due to your duties as Regent Princess. As far as the maids none of us have a reason to enter your highness. The golems keep everything neat and tidy without need for us to interfere.”

“That is a problem indeed. So, to get to the point, what happened here Sammy?”

You see your highness, Lee-Lee,” Sammy gestured to a maid holding a longsword, “spotted a stranger in black clothing, some kind of cloak or robe, burst out of the library. He proceeded to barricade the door shut with an item enchanted with a sealing spell and used another enchanted item to teleport away. According to her statement she heard screaming and the smell of smoke inside after the man left.

“Lee-Lee doesn’t have any ability to unseal doors so she ran as fast as she could and informed this humble one. I ordered the maids to surround the library and retrieved your highness as fast as this humble one’s abilities could manage.”

“You didn’t enter to put out the fire?”

“No your highness. Li,” she gestured to a Snake-Kin maid, ”would have burst in if she felt the fire was still ongoing.”

Princess Rhinese nodded, some Snake-Kin had the ability to detect heat.

It was really the best decision in this situation; there was a chance of a trap of some kind behind the door which made entering a matter of balancing risks. On one hand, if there is a fire it is worth the risk to enter and put it out, even if there is a trap. On the other hand if there isn’t a fire it isn’t worth the risk of entering on threat of a trap.

Princess Rhinese ordered: “Step to either side of the door, two maids with the [Guardian] class will deploy their defensive abilities and open it while I support them.”

Two maids holding shields, one with an axe the other with a sword, stepped forward and both used the same abilities.

“[Stalwart Defense]! [Elemental Rejection]!”

Princess Rhinese pulled her staff out of her [Inventory] and cast her own spells on them: “[Angel’s Prayer], [Clear Mind], [Focused Heart], [Shield of Light].” After they had prepared the other maids stepped to the sides of the door and the two [Guardian]s stepped forward. They sheathed their weapons while she backed further away so she could clearly see the situation.

They used their hands to push the door open, and…nothing happened. Princess Rhinese felt her brow crease in confusion. Why isn’t there a trap? That scream from the inside plus the smell of smoke was clearly bait. It’s one thing if they had set the library on fire that would be the danger clear and simple, even if it wouldn’t have burned the castle down, but there isn’t a fire. There’s…nothing. Is this just a distraction?

Princess Rhinese was pulled out of her confused and slightly panicked musings when one of the [Guardian]s called out to her: “Your highness, there is no threat, but there is something you may want to see.”

She quickly walked over to the library door with her soft leather boots hitting the ground loudly.

She looked in the library and glanced up and around the shelves. I don’t see anything. Sammy tapped on her arm and pointed to the ground. She looked down and saw Crimson, the man she had sponsored for the DGs.

He was laying on his side and was shirtless. His bare chest was covered in a horrible burn that made her want to puke. It was difficult for her to imagine the pain caused by the burn. She could hear that his breathing was shallow and strained from where she was standing and the sound grated on her ears like an accusation.

“Spread out and investigate!”

“Yes, your highness!”

She quickly walked over to Crimson and began casting healing spell after healing spell. Her skill set wasn’t particularly well suited to dealing with burns, but she could help a little. “Sammy, heal him!”

“How do you know he wasn’t assisting the culprit?”

“Just do it!”

“…yes, your highness.”

Sammy had a [Druid] Sub-Class which made her better at dealing with these types of nasty status ailments; much better than Rhinese. Sammy had originally gotten the class to detect and counteract poison that may be leveled at Rhinese, but her skill went remarkably unused for most of their time together.

Sammy finished healing Crimson and the [Burn] was gone. Rhinese’s [Empathetic Sight] guaranteed it. Just as she turned around and opened her mouth several maids ran up and made their report.

“So there is a DG standard issue shirt, wrapped around a badly burned book, and next to a pile of books soaked in oil; there are also several more piles of these oil soaked books on the first floor. I think that helping Crimson was a good decision Sammy.” Rhinese shot a triumphant look at her personal maid as she turned away with a slight bit of red on her face with its frozen expression.

Princess Rhinese faced the maid in front of her and gave her several more instructions: “Take this DG to the infirmary and set a guard. I will question him personally when he wakes.”