Surprisingly, one of them had a eighty Creas bounty on him, which we agreed to split amongst all of us to have ten Creas each.
That brought my total earnings up to fourteen Creas after we split the loot we got from the bandits too. Not a lot but still something.
The moment I bid the others farewell outside the Guild, I turned towards the direction of home to find Katsuki standing at arm’s length away from me.
I jumped in surprise, “Gah! You scared me, Katsuki!”
“My apologies Mistress. I am simply here to pick you up.”
“Were you following me the entire time?”
“I do not know what Mistress is talking about.”
Trying to avoid answering the question I see… Well then I won’t feel guilty for asking this!
“Hmph! When we get home… I’m going to fluff your tail.”
Hey! I already said I was going to do it! So I’m going to do it!
I noticed her tail twitch slightly when she heard me but she quickly bowed to hide her face, “Understood, Mistress.”
Ufufufu~ You may act all calm now but I’ll definitely make you squeak later!
Ok… That sounded wrong, please forget that I ever said that.
She straightened herself, her face betraying no emotions, “Mistress, I also bring news from the Royal Family.”
I tilted my head, “Eh? From the Royal Family? Is it from Tiara? Is she inviting me out for another sweets outing again?”
“I’m afraid this message comes from the King and Queen instead of Princess Tiara, Mistress. They wish to invite you to the palace.”
“Eh?! Why?!”
“Mistress might see it as a trivial thing, but the princess was still saved by you. The King and Queen wish to express their gratitude to you in a formal event.”
She then pulled out a letter seemingly out of thin air before passing it to me.
I looked down at it and I could already tell from the feeling of the paper that the envelope itself was really high quality, even when compared to my old World’s standards.
“Err… Is it a good idea for me to open this now?” I asked, gesturing with my eyes at our surroundings where I was still standing outside the Guild with countless people around us.
“If Mistress does not wish to be known, then it might be wiser to open it back at home,” Katsuki admitted before gesturing to an alley nearby.
I was about to ask her why she was pointing to that alley when I realised Mary was standing there, or more accurately, she was in her Lina form instead of her original form. She inclined her head in greeting when I saw her, ignoring the other passers-by who were wondering what a maid like her was doing there.
Ok… Was she waiting there this entire time?
I went towards Mary with Katsuki, the Trasif wordlessly slinking back deeper into the darkness of the alley when we got closer.
“Good evening, Young Mistress. Shall we head home now?” She asked when I stepped into view.
“I was under the impression that I would be walking home on my own though. Is there a need for you to come here for me?”
Mary/Lina smiled at me, “Of course it is, Young Mistress. We have to make sure that the little bugs that are following you need to be removed~”
Eh?
There was a ‘thump’ from behind and I turned to see a hooded man being thrown on the floor by one of our maids.
I did not get a good look at him before the sound of a portal opening up came from the side and Katsuki took my hand.
“Let’s go, Mistress. We can leave the rest to them.”
Huh?
Wait, wait, wait… What was that?!
The last thing I saw was Mary moving towards the hooded guy before I was pulled through the portal, arriving in the entrance of our main hall with the portal closing behind me.
I pointed at where the portal was a second ago, “Hold on! What was that, Katsuki?! What happened over there?!”
She maintained her air of composure, “As Head Maid had said, Mistress, it was simply a bug that was following you that we needed to remove.”
…
Ok, I’m not that dumb… I can already guess that the person they threw there must be related to the two people I beat up in the Dungeon earlier. To think they were already tracking us and none of us even noticed.
“What about the others?” I asked, fearing that the members of the Free Wind Mercenary group might also be in danger.
“No need to worry, Mistress, we have also dealt with the ones that had been following the Free Wind Mercenary group, they are safe,” Katsuki assured me, already knowing whom I was referring to despite me not giving any context.
Mnnn… Alright then… Although now I’m questioning if they decided to get rid of these guys purely because of the fact that they were following us or they were already aware of our scuffle with them in the Dungeon?
Honestly, I would not be surprised if it was the latter…
Since she told me not to worry about it, I decided to focus on the letter that I received from the king and queen instead.
Katsuki even presented a letter opener for me which I used to cut open the seal on the envelope to read the letter.
I quickly scanned through the contents of the letter and it was as Katsuki said, they were basically expressing their thanks to me for taking care of princess Tiara while she was out and even the fact that I had paid attention to her was something that they felt I had gone above and beyond for.
For my ‘achievements’, they requested that I attend some ceremony that they were planning to hold in my honour to reward me for what I have done for their daughter.
“I don’t know Katsuki… Should I go for this? This is going to be quite a serious ceremony isn’t it”
“Indeed it is, Mistress. And yes, Mistress would be the centre of attention for this event where other nobles would also be attending. This would also allow the public to be aware that ‘daughter of the Nilm Family’ exists. As for the question of whether Mistress should go, it is still entirely up to Mistress to decide.”
“Umm… Wouldn’t it be rude to reject the… Ah… I suppose that doesn’t matter since it’s us isn’t it?”
“That’s correct, Mistress. If Mistress does not wish to go, you need only reject them.”
Ugh… As much as I don’t want to go. Even I could tell that it’s not a good idea to just reject such an invitation from the Royal Family… Tiara might even think that she was not good enough for me to attend this ceremony too…
I guess I can just go and show my face a little…
But before that…𝔬𝔳𝓵xt.𝒞𝐎𝑚
I motioned for Katsuki to turn around and she seemed to realise what I wanted to do since she not only obeyed but also bent her body slightly so that her tail was sticking upwards in the air.
I immediately went ahead to shove my face into her fluffy tail and proceeded to fluff it~
Ahhhhh~ It’s so soooooooft!! So fluffy!! Fluff~ Fluff~ Fluff~
Ehehehe~ This makes it so worth it~
“Ohhh! Sister Aster is back!”
I looked up at the unexpected intrusion to see Odeta skipping towards me.
“Wahahaha! Did Sister Aster get the letter from Tiara’s parents? Oh! I see you did! She asked me to give that to you but since Katsuki said you went out for a walk, I asked her to give it to you instead!”
Oh, so Tiara came over to deliver herself huh? Now I guess I really should just go ahead and attend that ceremony after all…
Odeta then pointed at my hands, “So what’cha doing there, Sister Aster?”
I looked down at my own hands, “Hmm? Oh this? I’m just fluffing Katsuki~ Ehehe~”
“Eh? What’s that? Is that a way to get stronger?”
I giggled, “Oh no, no~ I just like touching her tail~ It’s really soft~”
“Oh! I wanna try it too!”
The Amrap reached her hand forward in an attempt to touch my Inugami maid’s tail but faster than the eye could see, Katsuki’s hand shot up and grabbed her by the wrist.
“My apologies, Miss Odeta… But I cannot allow you to do that,” Katsuki told her, a very distinct edge creeping into her voice.
Eh? She actually sounds… Angry?
Odeta frowned at her, “Why not? It’s not like I’m gonna rip your tail off or something?”
“This body of mine belongs to Mistress and Mistress alone. Only Mistress is allowed to touch my tail, which unfortunately means I will not allow you to touch it either, Miss Odeta.”
Oh wow… She’s actually being really serious about it.
The two of them glared at each other and even I could tell that they were on the verge of a fight. Wow… They’re really serious about this?
I quickly hugged Katsuki’s tail to me which caused her to let out an ‘Eep!’ sound.
“Umm… Sorry Odeta! But I would also like to keep this privilege to myself if you don’t mind?” I apologised.
What can I say? I’m selfish~ I want to be the only one who gets to fluff her tail too~
Odeta relaxed, “Hmm… If that’s what Sister Aster says… Wahahaha! Ok!”
Oh good, they almost fought each other over tail fluffing.
Then again, it is indeed something worth fighting over~
Now where was I? Oh right!
Fluff~ Fluff~ Fluff~