Erudite Kingdom (2)

First of all, breakfast was fried eggs, sauteed meat with chopped mushroom in soy sauce. Apparently there was a large 10 kg bag of sushi rice in one of the cabinets so yeah, we had rice.

Our fridge is now empty except for a few soon-to-be-used eggs.

Breakfast was.. for the most part. Odd.

It's serene, to put it in a sense. Our apartment was basically wiped clean. The randomly arranged fridge magnets, the tea collection Liliath once displayed on the DIY shelf-- those were gone, books that we usually left on the book shelves were no longer there.. The sponge and dish washing soap were new, the familiar little bits of fungus and mold growing between the tiles of the sink were gone.

You know-- that sense of incongruity? It's like your hotel room had been cleaned up or something-- except worse.

As for our current plans, we have 2 issues to solve. First was getting the hell out of the royal courtyard-- which means we would have to scale the crazy tall wall or-- just have Liliath use her Unique Skill, which functions similarly to an anywhere-camera to locate coordinates and teleport us to the town-- yes, Liliath just realized this morning she could've done that yesterday, cut her some slack. Now that's solved-- though I have no idea how teleportation magic works, let's get on with the issue regarding Princess Siesta, our second problem.

Votes were 4/4, everyone thought it was best to leave her be. Prune and Nine changed their minds, saying that their choice was because they were in the heat of the moment. I can't blame them, we suddenly got tossed into this world without knowing a single thing, so it's inevitable we'd be confused.

So.. what to do now?

"I suggest we talk to her through the messaging system. If what Liliath said is true then.. we shouldn't have any problems with her brother being engaged with the princess right?" Prune suggested.

From Liliath narration, her brother, Prince Kyoshi is a good person. Back when Liliath was studying in the library, or practicing magic out in the courtyard, he would drop by and give her some candy, or when she was on break, would accompany her for some tea and tidbits. For the most part, Liliath's family was average-- I would even say it was decent, contradicting the info I got during my brief view of Liliath's past. Since.. You know, royalty are supposed to be busy crap, but most of her siblings, even those aside from Prince Kyoshi, would spare some time with her.

Huh.. Kyoshi is my future brother-in-law huh… I wonder what he'd say.

"Can the princess even type into the messaging system?" Nine asked.

"We wouldn't know until we try," Prune said, "Giving her consultation and someone to talk to might be better than going against her engagement."

"Currently, her highness is in her room, it seems she has been given a day of rest," Liliath finally opened her eyes. She was reading a book using the BookReader widget a while ago, looks like she tuned in to our convertain mid-way. Truely.. my future wife is a stalker. I don't know if I should be worried or happy.

"So she's in her room?" Nine asked.

"Let's try texting her now," Prune said, brushing her hands together after tossing some mushroom into her mouth before operating the messaging UI.

In short, the messaging UI is like any messaging system you'd find in the normal world. Though, the one in my system is kinda lacking in certain aspects.. maybe it's because I have no idea how to use it.

"How about calling her instead?" Liliath suggested.

"Oh yeah, good idea.."

Something like a catchy ringtone echoed around the dining table. I don't know what song this is, I've never heard it before, but it's cool.

Siesta picked up the call.

"Uh-- Uh.."

"Good morning Your Highness?" Prune greeted.

"Good morning! Can I ask for an explanation? I don't understand what this is.. a unique skill?" I'm surprised the calling system has a realistic 4D audio experience just like back then.

"It's.. Before we continue.. do you mind if we speak to your highness casually?" Prune asked, directing her gaze at us.

"Please do, we could get our objectives aligned better that way," Siesta smiled.

"Um, Prune, I think you can expand the panel."

"Hm? How?"

"Like this," I reached over and touched Prune's UI-- looks like I can operate it too-- then clicked on the gear icon on the top right, selection resize, I dragged the corner to fold open the call screen.

There, now it's like we're looking at a mini TV. I had it float a distance away from the table so everyone could speak with Siesta.

"Good morning," Nine waved her hand.

"I'm glad to be able to meet Your Highness once again," Liliath said gracefully.

"I greet you all good morning. Thank you for reaching out to me once again.."

She was wearing a bright blue dress with all the fancy decorations and patterns here and there. You know, the otome kind of dress with very crazy tailoring. It's good reference for character design-- Also, I saw a large bed and weird motifs on the wall, a part of her room from here.

"So.. Your Highness, getting straight to the point, our opinion is that it's best that you go on with the engagement for now. Have you met your partner or.."

"Noel," Liliath looked at me with a troubled expression.

Ah well. Sorry to break it to you, I suck with formal language, my bad.

"My collective apologies to your highness. To phrase it otherwise, Prince Kyoshi-sama may not be as bad of a partner you may think he is. We are basing our opinion based on the fact that His Highness and Your Highness have yet to meet. Is that correct?"

"Yes, it is as you said, we have yet to meet.."

"Could I perhaps ask the reason as to why you're adamant in anuling this engagement?" Liliath stared straight into her eyes. You could see Siesta shaking on the other side of the screen.

"I.. I already have someone I love.."

"Is that so.." Liliath, hearing that, placed a finger to her chin and looked down with a wondering expression.

"So who is it that you love then?" Nine raised her hand.

On the other hand, Prune stuffed another bite of rice and egg into her mouth.. is she having withdrawal symptoms from trying to believe that this is not a dream?

"Sa.. Sasaki..sama.."

I wanted to ask who that was but.. taking a calculated guess, it's the hero, perhaps?

"Could I ask if Sasaki-sama is the summoned hero of the world?" Liliath queried.

Siesta nodded with both hands on her face. That's really exaggerated.

"If you don't mind, could you perhaps tell us more information regarding the heroes? There are 20 of them, correct?"

"That is correct.. furthermore, Sasaki-sama had been discovered to be the light hero."

"Are there any Irregulars among them?" dunno why Liliath would ask this but let's just see what answer we get.

"The Irregular in this group would be.. Park Jiwon."

Eh.. a Korean name?

"An unexpected situation occurred and he left the palace when he had the chance. His current whereabouts are unknown, but our empire places our hopes on him."

Hm.. it's kinda trippy. A Korean guy? And also, placing hope on someone not following the orthodox route.. it's as if the people of this world knew what cliche meant..

"Where are the heroes currently?"

"They left for the dungeon to train a few days ago."

"Wait a second, sorry to interrupt. We are Irregulars too right? Are you sure you can trust us to say this?" Nine interjected, in a polite manner? Maybe?

"I myself don't understand who I should trust, that's why.." Siesta said as if reminiscing. "Please lend me your strength."

"Do you have any underlying motives? Forgive me, however, our strength may very well be unsuited to capture a single person's heart," Liliath was skeptical.

"I thought perhaps you could bring me one step closer.. could it be that you really are not related to the others?"

"Not in the slightest," Nine shook her head.

I have no idea where this conversation is going anymore.

"Okay, please forgive me if I'm rude, but here's our proposal. I think you should let your engagement run its course, meet the prince and see how it goes. If you're dissatisfied with your engagement partner, just let us know and we'll see what we can do.. though it's not like we could really do much," I said. Let's just hope Liliath's brother Kyoshi is as much of a womanizer as Liliath says he is. Then she'll fall in love and problem solved.. that's just a wistful thinking of me.

"You Highness, we apologize for not having the sufficient means to comply to your request. In that regard, Your Highness should stand up for yourself if you wish to achieve a goal."

"I will keep that in mind. I thought perhaps you knew Sasaki-sama.. Then, could I ask what affiliation you are from? How was it that the summoning circle activated without the ceremony?"