Immediately after seeing the girl leave, a voice called out to me, "You there! Wait!" it was a woman’s voice I heard somewhere before, when I turned towards it I could only let a dumbfounded ‘Oh’ out, barely containing my urge to scream.

Princess Aria was there, approaching me in a fancy dress. I looked around but there was nobody here aside from me, so this meant the princess wanted me to wait… I have a terrible feeling about this.

I wanted to run away, but deep down I knew I was not allowed to do that, so I controlled my shaking body and waited for the princess.

"Ara? You are…” Apparently the princess doesn’t quite remember who I am, she probably called me out just because I was the first person she found.

I was a bit relieved but still very tense, so I tried talking as little as possible, hoping that the conversation would end soon. “Is something the matter?” Speaking to royalty is too scary for a commoner like me.

“I just wanted to ask you something, did you see Sakura-chan?” She said.

“Sakura-chan?” That’s the name of the girl that just left master’s room, though I need to confirm rather it’s the same person or not… Considering the other day though, she’s most likely it. “Is that a girl with long dark hair and that looks 7 or 8 years old?”

“Yes, that’s the one. Do you know where she went?” Guess I was right.

“I saw her in Master Len’s office just a while ago, she said she was going to meet a certain lady now…” I answered.

“I see…” After hearing my words, her momentum seemed to completely disappear…

I felt a bit of pity and mentioned something extra, hoping I wouldn’t regret it later. “A-and… She’s actually in need of an adjustment for a magic tool, so she’ll stay in the castle today.”

“What? Why didn’t you say that earlier!? We need to make a strategy right now! Alright, let’s go!” Her somewhat depressive state disappeared as easily as it came.

More importantly though… “M-me too!?”

“What are you waiting for? Hurry up!” I’m sorry master, I’m a weak child… And like this, I was once again dragged into the princess’ mischiefs.

“Alright, did you understand the plan?” Just how did this happen…? The princess took me to the queen’s private room, this isn’t a place someone like me should be in, I could barely keep myself from fainting. After a while, the lady from the other day appeared too, and like this the 4 of us from the other day reunited again.

It’s fine for the queen and the princess to be there, and I assume the other lady is a high ranking noble too, so it’s fine, but… Why am I here!? Just being in this place is giving me a stomachache…

While I worried over that, the three of them kept discussing something that I had no idea what it was about. I was trembling and sweating cold, so I slowly reached out to the tea cup in front of me… It was prepared by the lady that came in later but it is already cold by now. However, I’m too thirsty to care, So I drink it anyways.

I slowly moved the cup while making as little noise as possible. The tea was delicious… I let out a sigh, this kind of tea is probably so expensive I’d never drink a single cup in my lifetime under normal circumstances, so I’m grateful I can experience it at least.

I realized I was just running away from reality, but I preferred to focus on the tea than on the other alternatives… Fate was mischievous though, and had no intention of letting go of me. “Hey, are you listening?” Suddenly, the princess’ voice resounded, startling me.

I looked around and saw the three of them staring at me, “Eh…?” I’m pretty sure I let this out with a really dumb voice, but I have no clue what was happening until just now, so I couldn’t make any kind of sensible answer.

“Say, what is your name?” The princess asked.

“I-i-it is… So-Sophie, Sophie Kapuur…” My head barely recognized what she said, but I could give an automatic answer at least.

“Alright then, Sophie, you’re going to carry out the operation tonight.” She said.

“Eh? Uhn… What’s that?” I mean, I was taken away with no explanation whatsoever, how am I supposed to know what this is all about?

The princess didn’t seem to care though, she lifted her eyebrows and stared at me angrily… Scary! Though she’s still very beautiful even when giving this kind of stare, beautiful people surely have it nice…

While I was escaping reality again, she spoke up. “Alright, I’m going to explain everything from the beginning, so pay attention. First of all…” The resume of it is the following:

The lady will invite the girl to the bath while me and the princess standby in the hallway. When the lady gives the signal, the princess will fetch the second prince. Then I should darken the bathroom by turning off the magical lamps with my own magic, which should surprise the girl and scare her into screaming. When this happens, the second prince will jump in for the rescue. While this is happening, we’ll listen in to their conversation, light the lamps when appropriate, and then leave.

On a side note, magic can be countered by its opposite part, in case of darkness magic it’s obviously light. Generally speaking the spell with more mana into it would win, though this time I’ll be tinkering with a magical tool, so it should be hard to counter, as I’m just going to make the magical lamps stop sending out their magic.

Incidentally, the magic of the lamps is actually very strong, but they’re regulated to send out a specific amount of light regardless of how much mana they have in them, so even though the magic is strong, the light isn’t excessively powerful, it’s just hard to counter it.

Of course the same would never work with attack spells, but we won’t be dealing with that this time. Those are generally as strong as the concentration of the mana of their caster… Nobody really knows how to increase the mana concentration though, some say it can be done by training, others say it’s impossible so… For now, it’s something you’re just born with.

I digressed while running from reality again, the point is that I’m forced to participate in another of the princess’ mischief and I have no way of escaping… I’m sorry, master.