I rang the servant bell of my room while tapping my foot impatiently, “Where the hell is Zath?” I

muttered to myself while staring at the open doors of my quarters, there was nothing on the hallway outside the doors save for an empty space.

Frowning, I looked up and eyed the grandfather clock of my room, then frowned, she should’ve arrived 30 minutes ago, what the hell was up? My room turned dark as something blocked the natural sunlight that came from the windows, turning back, I saw Fafnir’s eyes and smiled, I gave her a wave, “morning, you’re already up?”

‘Up and ready since the break of dawn,’ she replied casually and I briefly imagined her treating flying around Everlast in the early morning as a small stroll, ‘I’ve finished breakfast too actually, what about you?’

I gestured to the tray to my right, the empty plates and empty glasses on top of it could barely be seen under the shadow that my Dragon cast across the room, “yeah, another maid already gave me a light breakfast,” my actual breakfast would come later, when everyone else is done eating and the dining table is free for me to use and put as much meat as I could on top of it, “it was pretty good, had my coffee, too. Yours?”

‘Something-something, a small house worth of meat.’ Fafnir’s smirk can be felt from her voice, ‘nothing changed for my daily meal really, despite being bonded to Royalty.’

I shrugged, “eh, get used to it, food isn’t really a problem but sometimes the people at the kitchen just like to pinch things,” and that was actual truth.

As despite all the resources available, the chefs there just liked to cheapen stuff occasionally, and actually, I think the head chef not only tries to personally find people who would sell him foodstuff for cheap but also has a small record of my family's food intake so that he can “guess the amount of food he needed to prepare.”

And the worst part is, he's mostly right. Things are kind of getting wasted.

‘You guys just let that happen?’ I nodded, ‘why?’

“The head chef's been working here before I was even born,” I replied, remembering all the compliments that all those old guys who visited gave our head chef, and among those compliments is his ‘served time’ here in the castle.

‘What about an ulterior motive?’

“He doesn't have one for doing it I think, the guy’s practically glued to the place, I don’t think he means harm,” I crossed my arms on my chest and eyed the ceiling, “if I remember correctly, the only ulterior motive he has is that the man tries so hard to recommend his daughter to take over once he’s retired and honestly? From what I’ve seen of her, she’s pretty good, so I think that's a given.”

I gave Fafnir a satisfied grin, “Girl's a good chef and it's not like she's a bad person either, so I'm pretty sure she's gonna be the one feeding us after her father retires,” I said, more or less repeating my previous thoughts on the matter, “I even ask her to cook for me and my invited guests at the back of the castle occasionally, girl makes amazing roasted lamb sauce,”

“I’ll make sure to give her the compliment sister,” Pearl’s lithe form walked past the doors before stopping for a second to stare at Fafnir’s eye, she blinked, “oh. Hello there. I’ve heard of you but never met you, you… are telepathic correct?”

Pearl flinched when a deep rumble shook the room- Fafnir’s chuckle, ‘I am, and nice to meet you,’

“How polite, Neophyte could certainly learn from you.” My sister replied with a smile.

I rolled my eyes, “Great, that’s great, so uh, why are you here?”

“News.” My sister replied, making me quirk an eyebrow, “and its related to your lover.”

I didn’t have the time or the mood to play around and refuse her calling Zath my lover because my friend’s safety was more important than some petty rumor- I narrowed my eyes, “what happened?”

“Now- now, before you do anything rash, I just want you to know that it’s nothing bad,” she fixed her hair, “in fact, its rather good as it solidifies your marriage with her-” I glared at her and she stopped playing around to tell me the actual situation, “fine, she earned herself a Pledge.”

What?

“What?”

‘Huh, would you look at that, guess your worries about her being left behind weren’t necessary after all!’ Fafnir's relief was evident from her tone alone but I on the other hand… felt pretty conflicted about this entire thing-

My body moved on its own as I dodged a butler with a towel wrapped around his arm, I was moving way too fast, I knew that but I didn’t want to acknowledge it- mostly because my mind was too pre-occupied with what Pearl had told me.

Seriously what the fuck? Did Zathania really just get a Pledge a week before the school year at Pledge Academy starts?

What the hell?

How the fuck?

Zathania, the character, never had a Pledge in game! She was just a normal NPC who would aid the player with servants- mostly battle maids but those who can cook healing items are possible as well, - right as long as the Player pays for them! This doesn’t make any fucking sense!

Well-

I hate to admit it but it also does.

Sort of- this is real life and not a game so the Goddess can really just pick whoever, whenever to give Pledges to but that’s not really enough for me-

I think!

Fuck this is too complicated!

“Why is everything so complicated?” I said out loud, words mirroring my thoughts, “I mean, why now? Why- why everything actually? I didn’t ask for any of this-”

‘You should be happy.’ Fafnir pointed out.

“I am.” I said with gritted teeth, “but- I don’t know, it just feels like everything is falling apart,” and it is, isn’t it? The Game knowledge that I knew about and the lore that I’m sure the world would follow can actually potentially be derailed? That’s- I don’t know what to do- so I sighed, “I don’t like this,”

‘The situation overall is good isn’t it? The Hero did die early but someone near you getting a Pledge would mean that they can personally get tutored by you, and we need every fighting force we can get.’

I paused.

… the Hero did die didn’t he? That’s already a derailment of the plot-

“I’m probably worried about nothing,” I murmured to myself and to reassure Fafnir, I'm pretty sure the game's plot is irrelevant at this point because it’s all the same in the end isn’t it? The Demons are gonna attack and we have to drive them off.

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Am I just overcomplicating things?

The answer was a resounding yes. And it was pretty much proven when I used half my strength and pushed past several guards, maids, and butlers with relative ease and entered Zath’s quarters without a single care about the group of hands that tried to pull me back- what I saw was not some dangerous variable that’ll cost humanity everything and make the demons win, no, instead, what I saw was my friend, lying there and giving me a weak smile.

I smiled back and pushed forward, uncaring of the people trying to grab me, they didn’t have the strength to do it and I was honestly too busy to bother with keeping my strength in check so they can shove their policies up their asses.

I entered the room proper and glared at the guards walking behind me, completely unnecessary, in my opinion, for them to be put here but sure, it's fine if they can shut their mouths. Also, they needed to go-

“Leave.” I commanded and when I saw a single mouth open to protest my decision I decided to use my authority as their princess because I didn't have time to wait for anyone else's orders- “I order you to leave,” and they did, and I'm gonna shoulder the responsibility when things go wrong (if they even could in the first place,) I don't care, my friend is hurting and who are they to stop me from helping her?

When the guards pulled back, I slammed the door shut before facing Zathania, she was bedridden, pale, and looked like she was about to die- telltale signs that someone had been under the presence of The Goddess and received a gift, a Pledge, “Zath. You okay?” Stupid question, of course not, “do you need anything?”

She turned to face me, “mistress,” I smiled even as I noticed just how hoarse her voice is, at least she could talk, that's already infinitely better than when Bismuth got his.

The first thing that Zath did is apologize- “I… didn't come this morning because-”

I walked over to her and rubbed her head, “hey, it's fine, it's just one morning, and this is your moment and not mine,” I beamed and cupped her cheeks, “I mean, Zath! You just got a Pledge!” I squealed, “that's… I don't know what to say!”

Congratulations is probably a good start right? Nah, actions speak louder than words so as an idea struck me, I grinned and said, “Wait- this is gonna be great-”

I ran around her room and tried to find her closet, it should be… Ah, I opened the doors and stared at the chockful of maid outfits in delight, I presented one to her, “So… as a congratulatory gift for getting a Pledge, how about we reverse our roles and I serve as your maid for the day?”

That didn't sound so bad right? But Zath seems to think the opposite, “mistress, you don't need to do this, you're a princess-”

I basically just went over her refusal and grabbed an outfit before changing out of my nightgown and walking out of her changing wall? Room- the uh… whatever! It's a thin wall- I walked out of the thin wall wearing a maid's outfit and Zathania blinked at first, then she chuckled weakly, before she started to chortle- then she started coughing and I had to run towards her in concern and check if something's wrong.

“Hey, hey, now, calm down alright?” I grinned, trying to reassure her, “you… can rest for the time being. Consider this as your break.”

She smiled, “mistress… I do not know how to thank you enough for this,”

“Start by not acting out and hurting yourself-” I started to say before I was cut off.

The door violently slammed open and in came Adamantite with a scowl, he looked around until his gaze landed on me and Zathania before visibly calming down, “can you believe those guys?” He pointed to the guards behind him, “they said that I am not allowed to come in!”

“Well you aren't,” I said dryly, “but since you're already here, look!” I gestured excitedly at Zath, “she now has a Pledge!”

Adamantite waved me off, “it's great that your lover has a Pledge Neophyte but father wants to talk to you about your… dragon.” He said while staring at the window, probably trying to spot Fafnir.

“He has been putting it off and has thought that he would talk to you about it the day before you leave for the Academy but clearly, The Goddess has saw it fit to bless you multiple times this week and of course, they cannot be merely coincidences.” Adamantite sighed in exhaustion, “So he thought that he should take care of one blessing that came your way and then deal with the other one on a later date,”

“Uhuh,” I said, “sure, I'll be there in a moment,” I bent down and wrapped Zathania's hand around mine, “I just need to take care of my friend first,”

Adamantite nodded, “I'll tell him that you're doing… some sort of bedroom maid play,”

“Go for it,” if that was his attempt at making me hurry to leave by getting me flustered, he should already know that I didn't care.

“I'll be seeing you, Neophyte.” He started walking out.

“Bye bye!” I waved and watched him leave before facing Zath again, “now, as for you, I’m gonna start serving you now, mistress,” I smirked.

Zath averted her eyes as a bit of color returned to her pale cheeks, “thanks,”

I smiled, "you're welcome!” I looked around “now… what the hell do I need to do to serve you?..” I wondered but saw nothing around the room that'll help so you know what? I walked back to the door, opened it and faced the people on the other side, they stared at me and my new outfit like I had grown a second head.

“Princess, you can't wear something like that-” I clicked my tongue and cut the butler off.

“I can.” I replied resolutely, “and also, I want someone to bring a tray of food here, as for the food… the more it'll help with Zath's recovery, the better.”

When the butler nodded, I left the door open and walked back to my friend's bed to find a chuckling Zath, “what?” I asked, “what?” I repeated, was there something wrong? Why was she giggling? “I literally just walked away for a single second and you're already going insane? Come on, mistress, you can't be this sick.”

“No- it's just that… I find it funny that you decided to call another maid to bring me food instead of getting it yourself,” her chuckles stopped and I pouted, what was she implying here? “But I guess it's the thought that counts,” she cupped my cheeks and gave me an encouraging smile, “Thank you, Neo.”

“You're welcome?” I said in confusion, “Also, you don't ask the other maids to bring me food?”

She shook her head, “no,” had been the soft reply, “I usually just grab a tray of food from the kitchen as I make my way over to your room,”

“Oh.” That makes a lot more sense actually, “I thought you just stand outside the door while waiting for the tray to arrive,”

“And that's the reason why I always open the door to your room while already carrying food?” I nodded and Zath giggled, “That is such a bad guess I don't even know how to react to it,” I grinned, “but… I guess that's on par for the course,”

“What are you implying?” I pouted.

“You are a princess after all,” she replied vaguely.

And I thought about it and… yeah, I am but only for like, 16 years!

Wait- that's probably long enough for me to get used to this type of life isn't it? Scratch that, it’s more than long enough for me to get used to a luxurious life, “Okay, you win that round,” I conceded, “but you know what? I don’t think I care.”

She giggled again, “fair enough,”

The conversation stopped, silence reigned and I placed my head on Zath’s bed and she rubbed my hair while we were waiting for the food to arrive, and when it did, I sprung up and Zath’s hand moved away from my head, “okay, I guess it’s here,”

I walked away from her and back to the door where a middle-aged maid is waiting with a small cart of food, she bowed, “princess,” she greeted, “I have brought herbs, meat, soup, and other foodstuff that’ll help with your lover’s recovery,”

I nodded and grabbed the handle of the cart with a smile, “thank you, but she’s not my lover.”

“Of course, princess,” she bowed and I returned it with a smile. Finally! Someone who actually believed me.

Walking back to Zath with a cart had my friend direct a winning grin my way, which I returned with enthusiasm before preparing a small breakfast in bed for her, “alright, here’s the starting dish-” she nodded, “and everything else can come later so for now-”

I started feeding her personally and she eagerly played along, it felt like I was a kid playing dollhouse and Zath just went along with it but hey, if it helps- which I think it does, Zath is starting to look lively now, her cheeks becoming redder with each spoon that I give her. - then it doesn’t hurt to continue doing it.

None of this really helped me with removing the thoughts of Zath’s Pledge out of my head though and I knew that later- when Zath has recovered - would be an interesting time because it would be time to test out my maid’s newly gotten weapon.