Act 1 Close door cultivation Pov Nanami

Yesterday Shiro asked me for help, and thanked me while showing me the maple he bought and gave me back the money he didn’t spend and some tea bags, of what smelled like high quality green tea.

But since then I haven’t seen him and it’s already lunch, I was standing at mistress Komiko’s side as she ate.

“Mistress, can I ask if you’ve seen Shiro? I haven’t seen him since late afternoon yesterday.” I asked respectfully as a maid should do.

The mistress didn’t answer immediately but I know she was thinking what to say as she ate.

“I sent Shiro to a self defense class, I was thinking of making him into a bodyguard rather than keeping him as an errand boy.” I bowed to the mistress.

“Thank you for looking out for him, mistress.”

Even as I said that I was worried, being a bodyguard was no joke and very dangerous.

“Call me master, Nanami and Don’t fret too much, I’m still unsure if I should hire him as a bodyguard, he does have potential but he's young. All I can do is wait for the result of his class.”

With that our conversation was over, as I cleaned her table, and waited for Shiro to come back.

Act 2 Coming out of the attic

It took three days, but as I opened my eyes, I saw I was inside my ritual circle, the bowls of food where turned to ash, the metal pipe crumbled to a pile of rust, and the sap I used to draw the circle hardened turning to sugar dust.

I stood up as I felt the new strength in my limbs, my stomach and back, and I was even surprised by the clarity of my mind as I went through my mental exercises.

I walked out of the attic, and saw the walls scratched, with long blade strikes?

“Did a monster come in while I was doing my ritual?” I went to the dining room and as I opened the door.

“Is that you!” A yelling princess Komiko with a blaring chainsaw came at me.

I was lucky I was stronger now as I easily dodged her madwoman strike.

“Lady Komiko, it's me!” I told her to calm her down as the chainsaw. “GRGRGRR!”

Cutting the stone flooring of the manor.

“Shiro?” She looked at me up and down, I was almost as tall as her.

Then we heard the sound of someone stepping on broken glass.

“There!” “GRGRGR!” She swung her chainsaw again, towards the window this time.

Then I heard footsteps near me as I punched out, I didn’t have any spells prepared but with my strength now, it’ll still hurt, but I missed and something went out the door.

“Lady Komiko, I think it left.” I told her as she stopped swinging her chainsaw, as she looked at Flenna and she nodded.

“What is the enemy?” I asked her as she sat down and continued with her tea.

“An invisible man. . .” She started but gave herself a pause.

“I see your ritual went well.” She said looking me over like a prize hog in a county fair.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

I opened and closed my hand and yeah it was successful but then I felt everything go dark.

“It’s been three days, you should have your drink.” That’s the last thing I heard.

Act 3 Summoning magic

When I came too, maybe after half an hour, after I once again drank royal blood.

I stood up, my head aching, and my breath slowly becoming normal.

“You're not used to it yet?” Princess Komiko asked, as she sipped on her tea in a dining room she ravaged.

“Fluga” Flenna said as she helped me keep my balance.

“No, it still hurts, is the enemy still inside the manor my lady?” I asked her as I finally got my balance.

“I would wager yes, he's probably setting invisible wire traps in the entire house right now.” She said, looking unconcerned.

“Is that why you’ve been, swinging your chainsaw like a madwoman?” “Cough.” Lady Komiko coughed, taken off guard by my words, as she took a napkin and cleaned her lips.

“Yes, I am not so violent as to swing it around without good reason, Shiro.” I nodded and then opened my legs and cupped my hands.

“My lady is my sister inside the manor?” I asked before I cast a powerful spell.

“No, I sent her to spend the whole afternoon in town.” I nodded, and then grabbed a knife from the table and closed the doors in the room, locking them and carving runes on them.

“Lady Komiko-sama, please carve this symbol into the middle of the room.” I drew a rune on the table, showing her what I needed and she did so with her chainsaw when she was done she asked.

“What is this for Shiro?” It took me a moment before I could answer.

“It’s a summoning spell, Lady Komiko-sama.” I told her hoping she knows what those are.

“It’s princess Komiko, Shiro, you don’t need honorifics, but as you are my vassal Shiro, you need to address me properly.” I gave her a bow, as I knew she was being serious.

“Can I call you my lady when talking with others or when we are in public? It’ll make people believe you're a rich girl rather than a cosplayer, and it’ll make interacting with normal humans easier.” My words made the princess thoughtful again.

“What’s a cosplayer? but more importantly, how would this magic of yours work Shiro?” She asked as I processed what being a vassal meant in this world, and how to explain cosplayers.

“I would sing my spell princess Komiko, and then you would kill whatever I summon.” I explained bluntly, she gave me her approval as she turned on the engine of her chainsaw.

“Also a cosplayer is a human that dresses or wears customs to look like monsters or other people. in our case a princess.” I started slowly in explaining why I shouldn’t address her as princess in public.

“Which means if humans think of you as a cosplayer, princess Komiko. Then it’ll make other humans less receptive to persuasion or threats, but if they think you're a rich noble girl which is more common than a princess then talking to them would be easier.” I finished hoping she would be convinced, but that looked in her eyes told me not.

“Stop with your babble Shiro, I don’t care what the commoners think, address me properly in their presence or not.” She answered.

“But princess, where in the human world, you can’t honestly believe there wouldn’t be a time that conversation would be better than force.” That made her thoughtful and then she gave breath being convinced of my argument.

“Do what you think is best, Shiro, now your spell, we’ve talked long enough.” I nodded and after clearing my throat and breathing deeply I sang, slowly at first then deeply.

“Come a little closer, let the light spill in,

There's a world outside that won’t wait for us to begin.

I’ve got my shadows dancing, they've got stories to tell,

But here at this moment, I just wanna be well.”

The rune started to glow, but it wasn’t enough so I used the knife in my hand to cut into my own flesh, letting fresh steaming blood drop to the rune.

“You’ve got my heart wide open, like a book on the shelf,

If you could just see me, not just the parts of myself.”

The rune started to burn, as a silhouette started to form, it’s almost here.

“So appear in front of me, let me show you who I am,

Peeling back the layers, darling, take my hand!”

With a spark of fire the symbol stopped glowing.

“Now princess Komiko!” I yelled as I went for the invisible figure's neck, with a strong hand.

“This is the end!” “GRGRGRGR!” Komiko yelled as she swung her chainsaw down, cutting down the enemy I was holding.

He was struggling mightily but quickly went limp, as the chain of blades struck his back, probably ravaging his spine.

I kept holding onto the corpse as it bled blue luminescent blood, I looked at it interested.

“I have two questions princess Komiko, will you answer them?” I asked, trying to be polite but it was hard as my heart was pumping from the rush of the killing.

“Consider it your reward for this kill.” She said, looking pleased with herself, I nodded.

“Can I keep this corpse?” That made Komiko look at me strangely.

“Also why did he try to kill you?” I asked the more important question next, cursing myself at the blunder.

“You can keep it. . .but please don’t do any dark sorcery, and for the other question, he was sent as an assassin, he killed one of my brothers when I was little and now another sibling probably sent him to kill me.” I nodded as I took a pitcher from one of the broken cabinets to collect the luminescent blood.

“What do you plan on doing with the invisible man’s blood?” She asked me as she put down her chainsaw and asked Flenna to brew another pot of tea.

“I don’t know, In the past I’ve used the blood of a lightseek, basically a large lizard that can bend light to turn transparent, into a spell that hid an entire army from another army. . .I’m not really sure what I can do with this material.” I answered honestly as magic isn’t really an exact science nor it is entirely an art.

I carved a portion of his skin but as I did the invisibility disappeared from it leaving me with a chunk of chalk white skinned flesh bleeding luminescent blood.

“Darn, I can’t make a cloak of invisibility with his skin.” I said frustrated.

“Disappointed with your reward?” Princess Komiko asked as I turned around and she was observing, with a kind of unreadable expression.

“No, it’s fine princess Komiko.” I said, slightly disappointed with the materials of this world.

“So do we hire people from town to fix this place?” I said looking around at the damage of the fight.

“Well it would be faster than you doing it yourselves, tell Nanami to hire a construction crew tomorrow, use this to pay for it.” Komiko tossed me a black bank card, registered to the imperial bank of Kyoto, damn she is really rich then, as I remember black cards are for VIPs and there was an actual VIP tag on the card.