After telling the general to not tell anyone about what happened with the mana geode, I decided that this would be a great time to visit the empress and tell her about my research progress: the mana lamp. Though I say it's a mana lamp, it’s honestly only for formality and the fact that inventing the geode coincidentally glows when the condensed mana inside of it is extracted. When the time comes, I will invent an actual mana lamp that is more energy-efficient, because using a whole mana geode just for a lamp is such a big waste of resources... But for now, this mana geode will do its job as a lamp.

Visiting the empress, in general, is hard, even though she looks like she’s always lounging around with the royal castle’s staff, she’s the ruler of the entire empire and definitely has a lot of work to do. But since I’m one of the royal staff, I can see her pretty much every day. Usually, when I’m doing my garden work in the morning, I can see her doing her ‘routine’ in the knight’s training ground.

The first time I heard about her ‘routine’ was when I was still in the underground prison and she was about to make me her slave, needless to say, it was not a pleasant memory to remember. But the first time I’ve actually seen her doing her ‘routine’, is a pleasant memory to remember since it was the time I felt like I’ve actually been transferred into an isekai.

Her ‘routine’ is sparring, though it’s more like a one-sided beat down. I have no idea how strong she actually is, but considering mostly it's her laughing while giving her sparring partner some advice and a good serving of a foot-long knuckle sandwich, I’m pretty sure she’s one of the most- if not the strongest person in Crenada Empire.

My plan was to visit the training grounds before the empress starts her routine, but a lump of unknown and quite literally obnoxious meat is blocking my way. The lump of meat has straight blue hair that compliments her tosca colored eyes, her face looks like it was sculpted perfectly by a world-renowned artisan; in short, she’s got a pretty face for an 11 year old, but the face doesn’t matter because she’s rotten to the core.

“I want in on it!” Said Elena, the rotten lump of meat with crossed arms.

“What are you talking about?”

“Don’t play dumb, I saw everything. I want to be a part of your world-changing team!”

“No. This is top secret stuff and children are not allowed.”

“I’m older than you!”

“I may look young, but I’m actually a 30 year old man.”

“Would a 30 year old man let mold grow on his clothes?”

“Wha- Yes, he would!”

“No! He wouldn’t! Unless he’s a deadbeat and of no use for society.”

“Deadbeat you say?! Fine! You’re going to be my assistant and see how great I am when I invent tools that will change this world!”

“Alright. No take-backs.” 

What just happened? Did I just get reverse-psychologied by an 11 year old? What the hell am I doing with my second life…

And I can’t just stop her from being an assistant right away, that’ll just prove her point and more on me being a deadbeat, my ego can’t take that. What’s done is done though, I can’t change it unless the empress is not cool with it and erases her memories using magic or something. 

So, with a heavy heart, I took Elena with me to see the empress after I went back to my room sneakily to hide the mana lamp in order to not invite any more unwanted attention. When we arrived at the training ground, the routine was about to start, so I decided to spectate from a safe distance. But Elena, seemingly infatuated by the sight of the empress, wanted to take a closer look and is standing among the knights that are also spectating.  I guess someone who’s hailed as the empire’s savior would get a lot of praise. Though I do view her as a savior since she's practically my benefactor after letting me live on in the body of the prince and not letting my face be disfigured for the rest of my isekai life, I don't have any memory of Alton Crenada and what happened in the empire before I transported into this world. So, I can't really sympathize with Elena and most of the empire's citizens.

Empress Josephine is sparring against someone I’ve never seen before. Well, it’s not like I actually know who that person is since they’re covered from head to toe in armor. It looks like any other medieval armor you see in an isekai with only a slit through the front of the helmet to let them see their surroundings. Though, if you look closely, It’s a bit different from all the other knights’ armors; It looks a lot lighter and doesn’t look as rigid as all the other ones.

“It’s been a while, General. Let’s see if you keep up with your training or not.” Said Empress Josephine to her sparring partner.

“Of course, I do, your majesty.” Said her sparring partner with a soft voice, which I assume to be a woman’s voice.
“I’ll be the judge of that!”

Empress Josephine started to let out her mana; it glowed a harsh crimson red and swirled around her body forming some kind of armor. She then jumped forward at an incredible speed that it looked like she just vanished and reappeared where the armored woman was. A loud boom can be heard echoing through the knight’s training ground when she reappeared and hit the ground, forming a large crater behind.

This is the first time I’ve seen Empress Josephine strike first. It was always her standing her ground while her opponent tries to at least touch the tip of her fancy army clothes. Goes to show that she’s taking this way more seriously than when facing other opponents, but she definitely took it a bit too far. Who in their right mind would hit their subordinate hard enough they disappear without leaving even a drop of blood behind?

Though I thought it was an easy win for the empress, it looks like she’s still vigilant of something. Her eyes are closed and it seems like she’s trying to focus on something. But a flash of dark green light broke that focus and hit her on the side of her stomach, sending the empress hurtling towards where Elena was watching. Thankfully, the knights that were close to Elena were able to move her out of harm's way.

There’s a look of concern for the empress’ well-being, but it soon turned into that of astonishment when Empress Josephine got up and walked back to the center of the training ground like nothing happened. As I was expecting, a barrage of dark green light storms Empress Josephine like it's a machine gun, but she parried all of it like it was no big deal. It was then that the fun spar between a superior and subordinate turned into a natural disaster. Dust was flying everywhere, gusts of winds were picking people off the ground for a second, and the air shook every time she blocked or parried a hit.

I, on the other hand, who’ve been observing the spectacle from a safe enough distance to not get flung off into the sky have figured out what has been happening. The armored woman from before uses some kind of invisibility magic. She got the first hit because Empress Josephine wasn’t ready for it, after that though, it was nothing but child’s play for the Empress. Why is she using brute force when she’s also using her stealth skills? Beats me… it’s fun to look at though.

The empress smirked and reached her hand forward through the barrage of dark green light. Then, everything comes to a standstill. No more dust clouds, no more huge gusts of wind, and no more loud booms coming from the training ground. Empress Josephine caught the knight by her helmet and she was dangling on her hand powerlessly. It’s a win for the Empress.

“You weren’t lying about keeping up with your training,” said Empress Josephine through all the cheerings of the crowd. “You even hit me one.”

“It was a fluke, your majesty. I couldn’t hit you even though I’ve gone invisible.”

“Your invincibility and punching power is impressive, but you need to train on your speed more. It looks sluggish and easy to parry.”

As the two sparring partners were focusing on each other, I was searching for my own forcibly made partner. And it seems like I’ve found her in a very wonderful scenario. She’s currently drenched after being caught in the wind during the spar and falling down into a water well usually used by the knights to drink after their training. Of course, as the wonderful boss that I am, I helped my newly appointed assistant out of the well by asking the knights to reel her up because my tiny body is not suited for lifting up heavy objects.

When she finally got out of the well, I looked down said well, and saw my reflection looking back at me from the bottom of the well. The empress certainly did a swell job doing last-minute plastic surgery on my face. My wavy brown hair, bright brown eyes, and a sharp jawline might look almost similar to the empress from afar is surely concerning, maybe she modeled it while looking at herself or something. Though I don't know how the original Alex Crenada looked like, my new face would definitely rival his in the princely category.  Also, I haven't noticed up till now, but my cheeks are pretty chubby... Oh well, it's probably just baby fat and I'll grow out of it. 

I turned around and saw Elena looking blankly at her drenched clothes. Ergo, here I come to the rescue to cheer her up!

“Kekekeke!¹Yes, this is how he laughs. Dear me, it seems I’ve been a terrible boss. I should’ve known you wanted to take a swim before coming here. I am so terribly sorry…”

“...” Nothing’s coming out of Elena's mouth, but I swear if there’s a thermal gun here, her head would go over the temperature of burning steel.

“Anyways, let's get out of here. The empress is probably tired after being in an intense fight like that. We could try reporting tomorrow.”

“Tired? Who? Me?”

“Your majesty!” I yelped, surprised that she appeared behind me. I was not the only one surprised though, Elena was so flabbergasted she couldn’t breathe for a second then moved into a bowing position.

“What’s this about me being tired and reporting something?”

“N- no, your majesty. I- I was just-”

“Hahaha! Relax kid, no need to be so tense, you’re just facing the ruler of the ground you’re standing on.”

“Y- Y- Yes!” I said, reflexively, before lowering my voice and continuing, “It’s about my research, your majesty. I have it in my room; I will bring it to you later-”

“No need.”

Empress Josephine held mine and Elena’s shoulders before she teleported the three of us into my room. It seems she’s very quick to catch on, but the fact that she can teleport inside my room without a moment’s notice is scary and concerning. Seeing that she can use a lot of magic, which I still don’t understand due to not having the proper education for it, means she’s super powerful and probably was holding back when sparring against the invisible lady. Not only that, considering the magic that she uses to enslave me and also teleportation magic, which in many isekai stories are classified as advanced magic, she’s probably a magician. She truly is a monster…

Good thing that monster is on my side! Now is the time to show the monster what I’ve made. Hopefully, with this, I could be free from my fate of being burned alive along with all my belongings.