Three hours.
That’s how long it took to find us a capable scout.
“And she didn’t even bother to tell me that she had the perfect person in mind all along. Noooo, she let us suffer,” I grouse.
Currently, I’m buried in Cari’s lap back in our dorm, unleashing every grievance I can muster against the foul woman.
“She even had the gall to tell me that she’d have suggested them earlier if I just asked, the witch.”
My tail thwaps loudly against the edge of the couch.
“As if that makes it better,” I add. “Apparently I’m supposed to communicate. Like some kind of functional adult.”
Cari scratches my ears gently. “Well you could have asked for the input of your team, you know.”
“I did ask,” I protest. “I asked myself. Thoroughly. Repeatedly. For hours.”
I groan.
Loudly.
“Well, as you are the party’s leader—” Bella starts, but I quickly interrupt.
“And since when was I the de facto leader of our little group?! Who made that call?”
I hug the now giggling Cari closer.
“You did,” Bella says.
I freeze, then instantly refuse to acknowledge taking charge of the little gaggle of Princesses after accepting Seraphine.
Because of course Seraphine is also a gods-forsaken Princess.
“That’s slander.”
Cari snorts at my effort to shirk blame.
“I’d like to file a complaint!”
She pats my head. “Okay, I’ll hear it,” she says, her tone solemn. “Just as soon as you get out of my lap.”
I tighten my grip.
“Unacceptable.”
Bella sighs, but I can practically hear the smile tugging at her lips. “You know,” she says, “most leaders don’t sulk when things go well.”
“I’m not sulking,” I mutter. “I’m recharging.”
Cari huffs. “Recharge faster.”
She doesn’t stop scratching that one amazing spot at the base of my right ear though.
“It takes as long as it takes” I say through a half restrained purr.
“Well, seeing as you returned before us, I take it you were successful in finding a team?” Bella asks Cari while I bask.
“Yeah, it was actually pretty easy. There was a team of three, like us, who saw my last match and decided I’d be their perfect fourth,” she sighs with relief. “A front-line Fighter, a Ranger, and even a dedicated Healer.”
Bella makes a pleased noise. “Truly? With you as their Mage, that’s a very well rounded team. Even better than ours, I might say.”
I inhale deeply, ignoring the subtle attempt to get me involved.
Cari flicks my ear. “Quit that, you. It tickles.”
“But you smell so goooood,” I whine. “Like cloves and honey and family and everything great and not like mean Princesses who mmmph!”
Before I can continue ranting, she wraps her arms around my head and hugs me tighter, muffling me against her stomach.
“Saying something so sweet and immediately following it up with complaints ruins it, so shush,” Cari says, keeping me muffled despite my halfhearted flailing.
“What about you two, then? You mentioned Seraphine again, so I assume you took her on with your party. What about this scout? Also, Seraphine’s a Princess?” she continues.
Bella chuckles, the sound low and almost sultry in the way it tickles my ears even as I’m distracted with trying to breathe.
“Yes, we took on Seraphine,” she starts. “She actually sought Emilia out herself and practically begged to join her party.”
I try to say “I already regret accepting her,” but it comes out muffled and completely unintelligible against Cari’s stomach.
Both of them ignore me, too.
“And yes, she’s technically the third Princess of the Pylum Consortium. They don’t exactly have royalty, but her family’s the closest thing to it.”
She shuffles on the couch for a bit, but I can’t see what she’s doing.
“As for our scout, it’s a Rogue by the name of Nyx Auvray. Seraphine vouched for him after we saw him in the crowd. He even left the party he’d been ready to join upon seeing her,” she says, chuckling again.
“Wow, lucky guy. A party with three beauties like you? Princesses, no less.”
“I’m not a Princess,” I manage, though only barely.
“You’re the System’s Princess,” Cari says without so much as a hint of humor in her voice.
Right, that’s enough of this.
I squirm free of her grasp and once I’m glaring at her from across the couch with folded arms, she finally cracks.
“What? I’m not exactly wrong,” she chortles. “Bella? Back me up here.”
My glare shifts to Bella, and I narrow my eyes, daring her to agree.
“Pretty much,” she agrees, backstabbing me without mercy.
“Wha—no!” I blurt.
Cari nods, donning a shit-eating grin. “Yes.”
I slump into the couch and bury my head in one of the cushions with a groan.
Then an idea hits me, and I snap back up.
“System!” I call out confidently. “Am I a Princess of the System? I… uh… need to know for... political reasons?”
By the end I’m reaching for a viable excuse for the System to actually respond, trying to make my request sound serious.
As expected, it doesn’t answer.
“System?” I ask the air, feigning panic. “Please don’t leave me hanging like this.”
It still doesn’t answer.
Cari and Bella snicker, seemingly enjoying my play-act.
“Pretty please?” I continue, trying to ham it up as much as I can.
NoticeWhile the System does not operate on hereditary, symbolic, or social hierarchies, the authority granted to the System Waker within the System is comparable in scope to that which a Princess would exercise within a Kingdom.
Though inaccurate, the analogy serves well enough.
Would you like to change your System Waker’s Title name to System Princess?Note: This will not alter the Title’s effects.
Yes / No
I stare at the notice aghast.
This is the first time I’ve seen the System so blatantly show that it has a kind of personality. Of course, I had a hunch that there might be more to it than people know, after the whole vote for baths thing, but that was all it was.
A hunch.
Honestly, I didn’t even expect it to answer at all, and I was going to use that as an excuse to say ‘See? I can’t be a princess, it ignores me,’ or something.
But it responded.
Not only that, it responded to a question I didn’t seriously want for it to answer.
And it went full on traitor mode, supporting Cari and Bella's teasing.
“Emi? Are you okay?” Cari asks, sounding concerned.
She quickly closes in and shakes my shoulders, making me focus on her.
“Huh?”
“You’re pale as a ghost. What happened?”
“N-nothing!” I say, mentally screaming ‘no’ over and over until the notice vanishes.
Bella hums thoughtfully, her eyes scanning me with a hint of mischief tainted by malice.
“Something tells me she got her answer,” she says, her tone teasing. “And she didn’t like it.”
I flinch.
Cari notices.
“Ooh?” she says, her tone instantly shifting from fussy to pure sisterly menace. “What did it say, Emi?”
“N-nope, I didn’t get an answer. I don’t know what you two are talking about.”
“Come on, dear sister. You can trust me,” she coos. “Tell me what it said.”
“I refuse.”
She wraps her arms around me and hugs me close, giving me her best pout.
“Emi.”
“No.”
“Pleeease?”
When I don’t respond, she sighs theatrically.
“Bella, do you want to hear about the first time Emi thought she was flirting with me?”
Wait, what?
Bella perks up immediately, clearly invested.
“It was shortly after she turned thirteen,” Cari continues, far too casually. “She’d just hit her first estrus and didn’t know what was happening. Snuck into my room in the middle of the night and curled up against me like I was a pillow and—”
Both of my hands clap over her mouth before she can say another word, my face burning hot enough to melt stone.
“Okay! Okay! I’ll tell you! Just—don’t keep talking!”
Back then, I didn’t know what was happening. The first estrus is always the worst, and I didn’t even know it was a thing.
I wasn’t trying to flirt. At least, not really. I was overheated, and running on instincts I didn’t even understand yet.
Cari woke up when I wrapped myself around her like my life depended on it and proceeded to do horrifyingly embarrassing things that beastkin should only do to one another, not to humans.
Of course, she immediately figured something was wrong, and just… let me cling until I calmed down.
I’d avoided Cari for weeks after that, too mortified to face her again. Thankfully, she’s made of sterner emotional stuff than I am.
Actually, my current cycle is a lot like my first... I wonder if my evolution to faefox reset things?
Gods, I hope so. If this is effectively my 'first' again, that'd be a fucking miracle. Having an estrus this potent every year would suck.
Bella arches a brow at us, amused.
I refuse to meet her eyes. “I was confused,” I mutter. “And tired. And very stupid.”
Cari grins behind my hands, victorious.
I growl at her smugness and instantly choose all out war.
“Hey Bella?” I ask sweetly.
“…yes?”
“Want to hear about the time Cari thought she was pre—”
A tentacle phases into existence and wraps around my face, cutting me off mid-word before yanking me back into the cushions.
“Oh my,” Bella says faintly.
Play.
Cari and I wrestle for a bit after that, limbs and tail and magic getting thoroughly tangled, Bella watching on with a mix of shock and poorly hidden amusement.
Despite the occasional war-cry, our combat is filled with nothing but love.
Even when something definitely pops in my shoulder and Cari immediately freezes in horror.
I instantly heal it and wrap her in a headlock she taught me herself.
Yep.
Love.
***
The next morning comes far too quickly.
By the time we reach the Tunnel Entrance, I’ve barely managed to rub the sleep from my eyes, much less actually wake up. Of course, I ended up showing them the notice the System sent me last night, and after getting a thorough teasing in, we ended up settling in for the night.
After having dinner brought to us by a butler-maid pair. According to Bella, it’s normal for the noble suites.
It takes my sleep addled brain a moment to shake off the memory of savory steaks and gravy, but I manage eventually. Then I look around us.
We stand in an open field, looking at the Tunnel entrance that sits slightly downhill from us. It’s surrounded by multiple layers of complex runes, each glowing with power, and several members of faculty standing in front of it, as if to block the entrance.
The field itself is surrounded by another few layers of runes, outside of which are miniature arenas for training and practice, which are then surrounded by yet another layer of runes.
In total, I see at least seven layers of runes surrounding the entrance, and I already get the sense that they’re there to prevent anything from coming out.
And yet… no walls. No gates.
In Bephis, and in every book I’d ever read referring to the Tunnels, every entrance was sealed behind thick stone and reinforced metal. Here, in the heart of Elderwynd Academy, the mouth of the Tunnels is just… open to the air.
Weird… are the runes really enough?
Meanwhile, as if to mock me for not being a morning person, the sky above the Academy is still pale and washed out, the sun only just beginning to climb, and the stone beneath my boots seeps its morning cold through my soles.
Just then, Cari splits off to join her team with a quick hug and a muttered warning to ‘stay alive’. Then she’s gone, swallowed up by the press of students gathering around the wide, yawning mouth of the tunnels.
Moments later, Seraphine and Nyx appear at our side without any prompting, and I can’t help but be immeasurably grateful.
I’m not awake enough to hunt them down.
This time we got a letter saying we’re allowed to bring whatever gear we like, and it shows. Students all around us are armored in every style imaginable.
Polished plate etched with glowing runes, lacquered leathers studded with gemstones, heavy cloaks that shimmer faintly with magic. Some look ready for war. Others look ready for a parade.
Bella stands at my side, composed as ever, clad in her fitted leather gear that covers every inch of exposed skin except her head. No ornamentation, though now that I actually look, I can see a faint sheen of mana laced throughout her gear.
Seraphine is a few steps away, posture straight, eyes forward. She wears light skirmisher gear—plate over her chest, chain where it matters, flexible enough to move without sacrificing protection. Her spear rests easily in her grip, as if it’s an extension of her arm rather than a weapon.
Our fourth—Nyx—stands close at her side. His hood is up, and an enchanted mask obscures most of his face, though I can still see his brown eyes watching everything. He hasn’t said much since we confirmed the team, and I get the sense that’s intentional.
But he really is standing terribly close to Seraphine.
Close enough that I notice. Close enough that Seraphine’s complete lack of reaction stands out. I file the observation away for later.
Conversations are hushed or frantic, laughter sharp and brittle. Somewhere nearby, someone retches quietly into the grass, their nerves apparently getting the better of them.
I even catch a few sending glances our way.
Some curious. Some assessing. A few openly envious.
Someone snickers and makes a comment about my gear. Or rather, my lack of it.
I, of course, didn’t buy any armor in Bephis. Our city was so small that the only equipment with decent defensive enchantments were found in the Tunnels, and those were always snapped up before I even knew about them.
And for me especially, unenchanted armor just isn’t worth buying. I can heal through any damage I take, and even my clothes will restore themselves.
Now that I’m in the capitol, though, I can look into getting a set like Seraphine’s… or maybe like Bella’s?
I honestly hadn’t decided yet whether I would wear something more defense-focused or more mobility-focused, though I’m inclined to lean toward the latter.
Still, I pretend not to notice the petty ridiculing from our neighbors, instead leaning on Charisma to match the poise the rest of my team is showing off. My back and ears straighten up, my posture relaxing into something more attentive and important.
Like my team, I’m calm. Focused. Ready.
I have my sturdy boots and comfortable clothes enchanted with Self Repair and Self Clean. And even my choker, Ashari’s Grace, with its Cleanliness enchantment to keep me clean too.
I’ve done this hundreds of times, and I intend to let my experience shine.
Not my gear.
It’s an exam, after all. Got to show them what I can do…
The air around the Tunnel Entrance hums with mana, and I feel oddly comforted by its ominous pressure rather than nervous. I’ve been so many times that its more home to me than the orphanage ever was, despite its danger.
The stone before us is carved open like a gaping wound in the earth, the tunnel descending into darkness that seems to swallow light whole. I can’t see far inside, but I can feel the nudge to enter. To explore.
I shiver with anticipation, more than ready to get started and gain some levels.
Then the air ripples.
The Principal and Headmistress appear before the entrance in a shimmer of mana. The low murmur of the crowd dies instantly.
“This marks the beginning of the end of your entrance exams,” the Principal announces, his voice carrying effortlessly over the assembled students.
I grin.