In the morning Ashley brought Mia her breakfast, followed by an overly eager head patting session as she had missed last night’s session. “That hero,” Ashley said as she patted Mia’s head, being mindful to scratch and rub in just the right spots that prompted the best reactions from Mia “he sure pissed off the princess.”

Mia could imagine. The hero had unknowingly thrown her plans into disarray and from Mia could tell forced his own plans in place of hers, without compromising. He did so in order to spend more time with her, as the princess had extremely limited it in the name of preparation. Of course, Athena wanted her to be her spy, so she wouldn’t have this limit in place for long. But this was apparently too slow for John.

Mia winced, tilting her head to guide Ashley’s hands into a better spot as she continued to think. John had seen something in her status, her level up. What ever changed had prompted him to take matters into his own hands, which as Mia had found out last night, probably aligned with one of his stories.

“In fact, the princess wanted me to bring you to her room early to see what was going on but… Well, she doesn’t get up till later.” She stroked Mia’s head, her facial expression slacking “more importantly, doing that will cut into our precious alone time.” She reached for Mia’s tail, eager to stroke it as well but let out a disappointed sigh when it flicked away from her hand.

“Won’t get in trouble?” Mia asked, looking back at her.

Ashley shook her head “Oh no, I will most definitely get in trouble for this. But a quick knock on the hero’s door pushes all the blame to him.” She said, quickly bringing her attention back to the area behind Mia’s ears.

Mia looked at her questioningly. She did not understand why she’d risk getting in trouble for a few minutes of petting her head. Well, to begin with she did not understand why she was willing to help her in the first place but as far as Mia could tell, she was genuine.

The maid sighed “Sadly, I believe that is all the time we have today.” She stood up from the bedside and started walking over to John’s door. She stopped besides it and turned towards Mia, who was fixing her ruffled hair “Hopefully someday you will allow me to pet your tail as well, yes?” She bowed then nocked on the door.

A moment of silence passed, then sounds of rushed scattering could be heard from the other side followed by a loud thud. The door opened, John with bed hair and wearing nothing but a T-shirt and shorts standing at it’s entrance “Mia?! Did you need… oh, Ashley right? What are you doing in Mia’s room?” John asked, excited at first but his enthusiasm waned once he realized Mia was not the one who knocked on his door.

Ashley bowed “Forgive me my hero, I have been instructed to bring both you and Mia to the princess first thing in the morning.” She then straightened herself up and clapped her hands, prompting a Maid to enter the room with a metal cart “I understand you have not eaten yet? I have prepared an early meal for you. Please hurry as the princess will be expecting us soon” She smiled.

Mia watched the cart be brought into the room, wasn’t she supposed to bring me, alone? She thought, When the dish was presented to the hero and uncovered, she also noticed that… how should she put this… the quality of his meal was less then hers? Her breakfast today consisted of an egg omelet, a large serving of bacon, and some toast. John’s was similar, but the omelet was smaller and he didn’t have any bacon, Did she…?

As if noticing something was wrong, John’s gaze hovered over the meal “Um, Ashley I think this is-“

Interrupting the hero, Ashley spoke “Sorry my hero, as I mentioned the princess requires our presence. I am already quite late letting you sleep in. Please enjoy your meal as Mia has and get ready.”

John blinked “Um, yeah but this is…”

Ashley ushered the other maid out of the room, shutting the door she did an about face “Is there something wrong? Miss Mia has already finished her meal.”

“No, but… uhm…” John looked between her, Mia, and to his plate and gave a heavy sigh “No, nothing is wrong.” He began to eat, defeated by Ashley’s unwavering smile.

Mia was amazed, not so much at what Ashley had done, but the fact that she did it in the first place. She glanced at John’s food and could tell it was cold, she had planned this from the start. Part of her wondered if she was doing this as revenge for John causing her to miss her nightly patting session. Mia titled her head, looking up at Ashley.

Feeling someone was looking at her, Ashley looked down towards Mia and winked, then returned her attention towards John.

Yup, there was no doubt about it now. She felt a bit sorry for John having his meal reduced, even after his last meal was already halved because he shared with her. But more importantly Mia hoped Ashley was correct and knew what she could get away with.

Time passed and the hero quickly finished his meal and got properly dressed. then lead by Ashley, Mia and John were guided to the princess’s chambers with no incident, most likely due to the presence of John the hero. Upon reaching the door Ashley knocked then announced herself “This is Ashley, I have brought Mia and the hero.”

A yell could be heard from the other side of the door, Mia could barely make out it was the princess but not long after that the door was opened by an old butler.

The man looked them over, his gaze lingering on Ashley longer than anyone else, then stepped aside “The princess will see you.” He said, motioning for them to enter.

Ashley bowed, the two entering before her and as she entered, she felt a grip on her dress’s collar stopping her in her tracks “Eh?”

Upon hearing the startled yelp of Ashley the two looked back, The butler had grabbed Ashley, who was very confused at this development, and nodded towards Athena who was seated at the end of a table littered with documents “I shall leave these two in your care, my princess. I will see miss Ashley out myself.”

The princess waved him off, dismissing him.

The butler nodded and started to drag Ashley out of the room.

“Eh? Wait Doug I can walk on my own, Doug? Hey, wait. Eh?! Doug I don’t- Hey?! “

Despite the shouts of protest, Mia watched as Ashley was dragged out of the room. At first she thought that butler was stronger than Ashley, but upon further inspection it appeared that Ashley, despite her protest, was allowing Doug to pull her. She found it odd, and it only left her wondering which one was stronger. But before she had the time to really think about it a loud “ahem” brought her attention to the princess.

The princess moved a few documents on her table to the side, sliding them across the surface with the tip of her finger. “So, my dear hero… I assume you are prepared for today?” Athena said, tapping her nail on the table’s surface.

The hero, initially taken aback by the princess’s behavior, shook his head out of it “Yes I am!” he said, bumping his chest in confidence. “With this quest today, I hope you will understand that we are ready! And that Mia shall be training with me.”

The princess’s eyes narrowed “Oh, I would hope so.” She then pushed another document to the side “Otherwise my workload you selfishly increased would have been wasted.” She said, letting a sigh escape from her lips.

John approached her, Mia following at his side, and briefly looked down towards the documents before fixating on the princess, confused he asked “Your workload increased?”

The princess’s eyebrow twitched “Tell me, John, what is your ‘quest’ today?”

John was puzzled “To… recapture slaves?”

“Correct. “Athena said, clapping her hands together “Now can you tell me who was originally planned to take care of this issue before someone barged into my meeting and made a bunch of hasty promises?”

“The… knights? I don’t understand. How does that have anything to do with your workload? If anything shouldn’t that lesson it?”

Athena opened her mouth, but stopped, deciding against whatever she had planned to say and instead slid one of her documents forward. “The knights were originally planned to handle it, was properly placed in their schedule. The equipment signed off.” She slid a stack of papers forward “Logistics planned and approved.” Another pile slid forward “Payroll assigned…” another paper joined it’s brothers “We even paid fees to book a slave merchant’s time so he will be available to inspect the slave collars for defects.”

Mia took a peek at the papers; she could not read a single thing written on them so she instead focused on the princess. Her behavior shift towards John was shocking and questioned if this pile of paper was worth it.

John took a look at the papers, taking a small step back in his nervousness “ I, so… So that’s good then right? Now they don’t have to worry about-“

Athena slammed her hand on the table, interrupting him and lightly scattering the documents “We most certainly have to worry about it! These plans do not simply go away because the hero says ‘he will handle it’ “ She pushed the documents she had pushed forward aside, pushing a new pile forward to replace it “Cancelation requests, rescheduling Knights on duty, inventory control, the entire reorganization of travel expenses.” She pointed to several different documents before falling back into her chair “We are lucky we were able to reschedule with the slave merchant.” She pinched the bridge of her nose.

The hero shook his head “Wait, but why is it coming to you?! Don’t you have people for this?”

Athena raised her hand away from her face, glancing at him, sighing, then went back to pinching. “Remember, John, as the princess I have several duties placed upon me. This matter was assigned to me by the king, my father, to take care of.” She sat up in her chair, pushing empty documents to the side to make an empty space to rest her shoulders as she propped up her chin “in the same way you were assigned to be under my care.”

“Now this matter was as good as settled. As I have said everything was prepped, that is… until a certain someone appeared.”

John gulped “Athena I-“

The princess rose a single finger “You as the hero carry a lot of expectations on your shoulders, your actions also carry a lot of weight. I understand you might have some idea how certain things play out, but please understand how they might effect people and the safety of their night’s rest, ok?”

“U-understood.” John nodded

“Good” Athena clapped, standing out of her chair “Now, we must be leaving. It is the hero’s first request after all! We must make a good first impression.”

With that, the princess buried her tone from earlier. Mia looked up at John to find he was sweating, she hoped after that display he had gotten a better idea at who the princess was but to her dismay she saw a smile spread on John’s face.

“Yes! I won’t let them down!” John shouted eagerly.

…

Mia found herself wondering if Ashley was fine…