I sat waiting in the receiving room of Lena's suite. It was the day of the Emperor’s Funeral and the palace was abuzz with activity and preparation. Thankfully, none of it really had anything to do with me. I would be expected to be Lena’s “plus one” for the event, though I didn’t know what all would actually be happening.
Ram and Rom were in the room with me, giving Cyclone a final buff and shine so that he wouldn’t “embarrass” his Majesty, Milliardo. Convoy had been buffed to a mirror finish, as requested, and stood empty and waiting. I didn’t particularly feel like lounging around while wearing it.
The door to Lena’s dressing room opened and one of the palace maids scurried out and took up a position next to the door, with her head bowed. This one looked to be a mix of human and wolf. I wondered how she felt about attending to an Automata.
Lena stepped out of the room wearing a beautiful black dress. The skirt consisted of layers upon layers of ruffled fabric that dragged on the ground behind her. Her bodice, though tight fitting, gave the impression of banded armor, wrapping around her torso and flowing across her arms. A black pillbox hat sat atop her silver wire hair, the braids wound into a tight bun at the back of her head. A delicate black lace veil hung in front of her face, though the weave didn’t obstruct any of her features. Aside from the veiled face, the only parts of her left exposed were her fingers, false ears, and a circular keyhole cut out the size of a fist, revealing an under cleavage.
Though difficult to see, the whole dress was embellished with black on black embroidered roses and skulls. Very goth. For now, Lena wasn’t using her [Cloak] skill to hide her mechanical nature but this level of coverage would allow her to be frugal with the mana consumption.
“You shouldn’t stare so much,” she said meekly, her pink eyes darting to the side.
“You look beautiful, your highness,I’m sure Daddy would say so too if he weren’t so spellbound,” Rom interjected, wrapping an arm around Lena’s and shooting me a quick wink.
“So black is the color of mourning,” I queried, changing the subject.
“Is it not, in your world?” Lena asked, apparently relieved to have something else to talk about.
“Depends on the culture. Some use black, others use white,” I replied.
“In Master Prime’s culture it’s typical to be nude. After all we’re naked when we arrive and naked when we leave,” Ram offered.
“Na na na NUDE??” Lena blurted out, flustered.
“She’s lying. I’m not a Betazoid,” I corrected, shaking my head.
“Spoil sport,” Ram accused, sticking a metallic tongue out at me.
“Brat,” I jabbed back, pushing her tongue back in with a thought.
I got up off of the couch and stood in front of Lena, looking up into her optics.
“You okay? This has to be an emotional day for you, right?” I asked.
I could only imagine what sort of emotions she was feeling, having to attend her father’s funeral procession as well as deal with the whole I’m-an-Automata-now thing in front of all the other nobles and extended family; to say nothing of the Captain of her personal guard being arrested for treason. She looked away and subtly nodded her head.
“I know that your brother requested this armor but which form of mine would be easier for you? Should I distract others from looking at you, or should I distract you from others?”
“Um, I think I’d prefer the real you...” she mumbled.
“As you wish,” I winked, snapping my fingers and dissolving Convoy into my [Inventory].
“Daddy’s a softy,” Ram teased, squeezing my head.
“Softy though he may be, he’s unpolished and covered in scratches,” Rom lamented.
Lena glanced behind her and nodded to her attendant, Priss.
“Her Highness anticipated this,” Priss spoke up. “Sir Prime, if you would please,” she said, bringing out a bundle from within the Princess’s room.
Rom took the bundle and unwrapped several expensive looking fabric items. She held up a dwarf sized silk shirt and leather pants with riding boots before looking sideways at the Princess. I drummed my toes on the floor and looked away as Ram snickered. There was no way that my weird proportions would fit any of those “prince charming” type clothes.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Despite living a whole life as a human, it still felt weird to wear clothing now. I had an embroidered, black and gold tabard with the Imperial crest on my chest; a leather belt cinching the tabard in with a fancy sword at my hip; and a thick, black cape draped around my shoulders. I felt like a little Black Knight or something, though that may have been the intent.
We were escorted by soldiers from Milliardo’s personal guard to a waiting open top carriage. My girls escaped back to the Forge to “help work on GodBomber” leaving me to handle the Princess on my own. Lena was more clingy than usual, standing at my back and pulling me close whenever we weren’t actually moving. Given the nature of the event, I figured I could afford to spoil her a bit.
Lena initialized her [Cloak] as we were joined by her cousin, the twelve year old Duchess Naina, and her dragonoid bodyguard Rankor. Given that the brat had me thrown into a junkyard after the Automata Dragon had ripped me apart and the fact that Lena’s conversion was now known among the court, it was an awkward ride. The base pleasantries were exchanged between Lena and the Duchess, but I noticed the girl shift a few inches at a time as we rode, like she was going to attempt to steal third base and make a break for it.
We rode in a procession of open top carriages full of, I assumed, important people or nobles. It was my first time in a parade, it was a weird experience. Especially since it was a somber parade rather than a celebratory one. We were pretty far back in the procession line and most of the crowd had lost interest by the time we came by. We got some fingers pointed in our direction and Lena and Naina waved to people, mostly kids.
“So, where’s Milliardo in all this? When I last talked to him, he gave me the impression that he wanted us to be front and center and highly polished,” I asked, giving a lazy wave to some service Automata I spotted at a food stall.
“Such disrespect. Honestly, being so overly familiar with his Majesty the Emperor Apparent,” Naina scoffed.
“It’s fine, your Grace. His Majesty and I have an understanding,” I countered.
“Tch, who said you could talk to me?” she spat, her voice dripping with vitriol.
“Naaainnnaa,” Lena said, drawing out the Duchess name. “How is your Automata maid Laura? Were you ever able to get her face repaired? Her skull was completely caved in, the last I saw her.”
Naina paled and shrank back, remaining quiet the rest of the ride. Lena explained to me that Milliardo would be up at the front of the parade along with the Emperor’s casket. The parade looped around the city and ended up at an overly ornate cathedral located within the palace complex. As soon as the carriage stopped, Naina and her knight bolted for the door.
The group of priests that I’d seen at Milliardo’s duel were swarming the place, blessing things and looking important. At the far end of the open hall, crystalline structures formed a natural looking stage. Runes carved into the structures emanated light along with a large magic circle painted onto the floor. At the center of the circle was a casket that had been propped up at an angle. The lid was glass so that you could see the Emperor inside, surrounded by white flowers.
I spotted Milliardo near the stage and started to walk toward him when Lena pulled me back and walked me to a row of seats about halfway up.
“This is as close as I can get,” Lena explained.
“You don’t get to be any closer to your own father?” I asked, confused.
“Not publicly, no. I don’t have the rank for it.”
“But you’re the princess...”
“A princess, not the princess. I may be his child, but I’m the lowest rank of all his children.”
“How do you rank children? Parents aren’t supposed to play favorites, right?”
She chuckled at my ignorance and patted my head in a condescending way while shaking her own.
“Okay listen. My father, the Emperor, had a total of four wives and three concubines. A concubine being little more than a servant that gets special attention. Up near the front, you see that woman with the four horned headdress?”
I nodded as I spotted what I assumed was a woman. Every inch of her was covered in black fabric and a thick veil covered her face. She wore a crown that had four demonic horns protruding from it though.
“That’s Father’s first wife, his childhood sweetheart. She was the daughter of a local baron, so a minor noble. They had a son but he died during a training exercise. Their daughter, Regina, is the woman next to her. She’s married to the Earl of Lakecross. Let’s see... Those two, the man and woman in the scholar robes with the purple skin and white hair? Twins with glasses and snobbish faces? That’s Azmuth and Alegra. He’s the Dean for the Academy of Magic and she’s the Headmaster. Their mother was Father’s second wife, the Duchess of Maulia, so they are fairly high ranked. She has the hat with all the feathers. Milliardo is the only son of the third wife, but she was the First Princess of the Kingdom of Paneale so she became the Legal Wife and Empress. She’s the woman in all white next to Milli. I’m the daughter of her handmaiden. There’s also Griko who is between Milli and me and Sandri who is only eleven. Both of them are the sons of the widowed Baroness of Pokokania. It was a strictly political marriage. I don’t know if they ever actually met and I don’t see her here. Griko is a Captain in our army though.”
“So you’re the only child of a handmaid rather than someone with peerage? I’m sorry, but I’m not likely to remember all of these people,” I apologized.
“Yeah,” she sighed, waving away my apology. “And his third one at that. I’m also his youngest so you can see why my rank is lower than any of the others. I’m barely above a commoner, really. I don’t even have any political value as a bride, or at least not much. Since my mother was so close to Milliardo’s mother we were raised together. That’s why he tends to be protective of me.”
“Ah. I see. I guess you’re lucky you didn’t end up as his personal maid given the position of your mother then.”
“Something like that, yes.”
The event ended up being more like a viewing than a funeral. No one gave any speeches, there was no talk of an afterlife or what a good person the Emperor had been, or how he would be missed. There was a lot of spell casting, however, so there was more going on below the surface.
When I [Inspect]ed one of the spells nearby, I could see a data packet that was transmitted to the magic circle up on the stage. According to Lena, each person is supposed to send their thoughts, prayers, wishes, etc. through the spell as part of the ritual. It all then gets sent to the departed spirit and all that mana is a form of currency of some sort that will be used in their next life. I could see that all the mana was collected by the central spell but I couldn’t see what would actually happen to it without being able to look at the spell’s source code.
Maybe the mana was assigned to the soul ID and applied to their base stats when they rerolled a new character life. If that were true, though, then someone like an Emperor would get a massive cheat bonus for the next time over someone that died alone and forgotten. Arguably, being an Emperor was already a massive cheat bonus, so I hoped that wasn't the case.
Once the priests had decided that enough well-wishing-mana had been collected they put a cap on it and the magic circle erupted like a volcano of light that blasted through a skylight I hadn’t noticed before and up into the sky. The spectacle of it all made for a pretty nice sendoff. The blast of light would be seen throughout the city and be a great visual for the spirit going to heaven.
I couldn’t help but wonder if this sort of send off was limited to dead Emperors or if anyone could get this sort of funeral if they had enough money.