With the whole camping plan semi thrown to the gutter because of some unknown variable, Kana hastened our operations.

A noble lady, a guard and finally her two handmaids.

That’s the setting we’re using.

I’m humiliated. Not by the fact that I’m wearing a dress and told that I could pass as a girl, but by the fact that this absolute garbage of an infiltration worked. Walking through a side entrance of the palace, the guards immediately let us in. How did this even work? Where’s Vigilance?

“Jeez, I’m thinkin’ the same thing Jeff. Who’da thought this kinda cliche would work?”

“Well that’s because nothing can’t be done in this kingdom with my authority!” The little lady happily explains.

Ptui! I spit on the overtly clean and posh corridors. My vexation has reached past tipping point. Seriously, this is absurd!

“Hm hm,” She puffs her chest — or lack thereof— proudly, “I’m not the second Stargazing princess for nothing, and stop spitting, we’ll get found out.”

Wait, you’re actually the princess? I mean, I kinda expected it with how posh she was acting, I was inclined to call her princess but that title… The genius Stargazer, “Kana Astar?!”

My shock was great, like being strapped to a tesla coil on a rainy day. Even someone from the boonies like me had heard of her great merit, such was the calibre of the lady in front of me. My muscles refused to move as I stopped in place as many thoughts assault my cranial faculties. And that’s when my thoughts realise… We’re trying to kidnap this person’s sister. Then doesn’t that mean we’re kidnapping another princess?!

That goes against all my vows when I joined the law enforcement! Granted, the vows were more so perfunctory and not actual Oaths… but still! This moral quandary isn’t so easily resolved in such a manner!

“Ah, you a fan?”

My lord… There were many grills that needed to be greased. Many questions needing answers. Starting with where in all Hell did she get that fountain pen from?

And why was she doodling my face? It kinda hurts…

“Enough, let’s start,” Savage grates, interjecting the little princess, “I don’t know why you want to kidnap your sister but I won’t comment.”

Cowering before the undead’s savage glow, she gives a short affirmative.

Sigh, let’s just get this over with. Out with thinking! Time for a brain numbing labour!

That’s when a bell knells right through the hallways.

“Oh, looks like someone tripped the scrying layer,” Kana nonchalantly puts a finger over her mouth, “That makes things a biiiit harder I dare say~!”

Is that us? It’s probably us. Just… Just end me now…

“Ay, stop that, it ain’t us,” Laffer hushes me (even though I didn’t speak) with his unrelenting optimism, “It can’t be us. We’ve met the cliches, it’s simply impossible for us to be exposed already.”

Mate, as someone who’s messed around with Vigilance arrays before I can say that we’re most definitely exposed. It’s inherent function is to detect verboten and esoteric essence types. Though I notice that it’s mostly tuned to scrying divine essence… And we don’t use any divine magicks…

That being said, I’ve failed to mention that the capital has Auspices, which is basically the core of all the Vigilance arrays in the Kingdom. Needless to say, its scrying capabilities are insane. And it’s probably hypersensitive to anything that isn’t the Astra Kingdom’s specialty Star essence. The essence of Charnel that I’m using in recent times is… It’s most definitely gonna get a ping.

So if the alarms ringing, then it ain’t coincidence. It’s correlation.

We’re done. Busted and out. I think I can get a lighter sentence if I willingly hand myself in. Oh wait, death is the minimum for trespassing into the Palace.

Mmm, not a bad outcome I’d say, though it would be a pretty shite way to end it.

“Oh, Laffer, you are quite right. You needed worry yourselves because you should know that your presence isn’t illegal.”

“What?”

“Quite the opposite actually,” The princess adds.

Isn’t heresy always illegal?

“Hmm, are you folk truly unaware? Though society gives you a bad tag, have you considered what heresy is?”

As a member of the law enforcement, I can safely say, “It’s illegal.”

“Eh well, it was, but now it isn’t.”

Why have I not heard of this? Laffer, have you heard of this?

Receiving my glance, Laffer gives a big ‘nono’ as response.

“Uhmm, you guys really don’t know?” The little princess fully stops our parade with blaring accompaniment of the sirens, “Like, everything that’s happened so far was because of that, y’know?”

I couldn’t help but put on a contemplative gaze. Really now? Heresy wasn’t illegal? Now I’m pissed. You tellin’ me that I was not only falsely accused, but also had invalid charges pressed against me? That’s horse shite!

“Wow, do you guys even know why we’re going to kidnap my sister?”

“To get the hero?” Laffer hesitantly answers.

“Mmm, I guess as a servant of the idols, he’s still your enemy, huh? Do you guys just not concern yourself with politics? I mean, the Kingdom’s entangled in all this, because the practice of esoteric arts or ‘heresy’ was legallised…”

I wonder who thought that was a good idea?

“T’was I who thought the idea, and now your service here will prove it!” The princess beams under my widened eyes, “Now! Abduction time!”

…

“Pst, over here,” A quiet whisper comes from the balcony.

With the bird’s cue, Reon swiftly jumps up, back into the Palace. Tripping off the alarm. Because although Jeffrey and co. have been making light of it, Vigilance is so much greater than it seems. Not to mention Auspices, which can even detect the slightest waft of divine essence.

“Wawa Lily?! What’s happening here?”

A reasonable question considering how unacquainted the fellow is to this new world.

“Uhm, you tripped the alarm.”

“How come you didn’t trip the alarm?!”

“Cause I’m a birb.”

That was true. Though in that case we’d be to omitting a lot of things. As you good fellows know, Lily is actually smol lil’ birb. A night crow, to be exact and although the power of unsolicited evolution gave her a human body. And as Jeffrey had noted, it gave her no extra advantages besides aestehtic. Indeed, it was cute. That being said, she counts as a bird under the watchful eye of Vigilance, not any kind of divine preacher or magician. She also has the advantage of undergoing stealth checks as a bird instead of a person, that being the main reason she slips away from Jeffrey so easily.

Though I guess it also didn’t help that Dok just watched as Lily left. The plaguebearer simply ‘kept an eye’ on the bird as she just… left.

Can’t really fault the guy though. T’was just doing his job.

“What? But wasn’t I supposed to be allowed her—” Reon points to his left arm. Which doesn’t have the special armband for distinguished guests.

Good job. You lost your security card.

“But hey! Stop thinking about it. It could just be coincidence!”

“An intruder has entered the west wing of the Star palace!” The formation controller wailed as if to immediately contradict Lily’s optimism, his voice was soft, like repeating a drill but still easily heard across the palace, “Be a-lert! I’m being legit! We’re gonna get jumped if you guys keep screwing around! Tom, you better get your ass over there, or I’ll…”

And under these decries of the formation controller, the two successfully entered the palace proper. Though now it was question of what to do now. And to answer why they were even here, it’s necessary to look back at an interaction that happened an hour ago.

“So you’re the summon? Really now?”

“Haha… Yes.”

“I regret everything.”

Flashback. End.

Yup, this guy whom she helped is the target of an underground hit. And the fellas after him were the kind to stop at nothing lest it resulted in his complete death. So, as everyone would do, she was gonna put him back where he belonged and let nature take it’s course.

Though of course, it’d be best if she could hand him to the elites of the kingdom. After all, with the standard of the heretics she’d seen so far, they were kinda dropkick. But they’d yet to fail once, so that was rather concerning. Nonetheless, although they may have infiltrated deeply into this kingdom, there’s no way that they would be inside the palace.

No way at all.

And with these thoughts, Lily ushers through a garden pavilion. One with pink roses and purple lilacs. A path straight to Reon’s vouch, that is, the first princess. Moving quickly, Lily notices the stark bareness of the place. It’s as if no one’s even here, but that can’t be right, the controller was spazzing to get troops to assemble here.

Mm, indeed, it was an ominous feeling that made Lily regret everything. Although Lily had the stealth as a bird, Reon didn’t and if they got lost, then they would be screwed.

But luckily! Fickle Miss Fortune took her side today!

“We found it!”

Yes! They found the room that their vouch resided in! And in his excitement, Reon, the daft man of little etiquette wrestled the door open. Which really wasn’t okay.

First off, you can’t just go into a lady’s quarters like that. It’s improper.

Second off, you could see something that shouldn’t be seen…

“… Shite.”