Royal Palace, Bathhouse—
Steam rose in thick, curling wisps, and spread through the bathhouse until the marble pillars became pale silhouettes, their shapes blurring and shifting within the haze. The air was heavy with the rich scent of fresh herbs and orange peel, clinging to the nose with every breath. Along the sides of the chamber, long stone channels carried streams of hot water into the bath, their steady flow echoing through the circular hall like the constant fall of a light drizzle against smooth stone.
Rolilly lay half-submerged, stretched out lazily across the edge of the bath. Her crossed arms supported her head, resting against the smooth marble, with her body angled down and her chest pressing into the cold rock floor. Steam puffed and billowed, hiding everything but the sharp flash of her piercing eyes, as she peered through the haze like a lazy cat.
"I swear," she muttered, sinking a little deeper…
"The capital can't go one day without causing me trouble!"
Multiple hands moved around her as a small team of female servants worked in silence. One remained focused on regulating the bath's temperature, ensuring the water stayed perfect, while another carefully cleaned her pale skin with slow, extremely methodical movements. A third, a beautiful girl with 'bright' azure eyes, worked on her hair, washing and rinsing with care, while two more focused on her limbs, and massaged her back with synchronized strokes.
"So," Rolilly continued, her voice rising in pitch…
"…That little bitch actually came back to the capital?"
"Yes, Your Highness," a distant maid replied from the far side of the room. She was distinctly separated from the half a dozen 'attending servants', concealed within the mist. Excluding her, the maid, no, all of the maids, seemed—a bit off…?
Upon closer inspection, their eyes were hollow, unfocused, and almost appeared as if something 'Important' had been 'taken away'…
Rolilly's eyes narrowed.
"She knows I hate her, and she still came back?" Her voice sharpened.
"Ridiculous! It's absolutely ridiculous! Does she think she has a backer now? Is this some kind of joke? She barely escaped last time, and now she swaggered right back in?! That slut! That damn slut! Who is it!? Who does she think can protect her from me! No, wait! Wait, it can't be that little brat, can it!? Hahaha! What a joke! Hahaha!"
Bang! Her fist struck the edge of the bath, sending water violently splashing everywhere!
"Damn it! How dare she! And that little brat too—!"
She gritted her teeth so hard they nearly broke!
The maids continued to work without flinching, almost mechanically...
Silence followed her outburst.
"How dare she-how dare she-how dare she!! HOW DARE SHE!" Rotell hissed, continuing to splash water as steam spiraled around her. "Just walking in like this place belongs to her! Does she think I won't notice? Does she think I won't care? Did she not understand from before!? HA! Hahahaha! Hahahaha!!"
She sank back, the steam swallowing her along side her anger!
A brush glided down her arm—
—! She twitched!
Her head snapped toward the maid—the maid's eyes refocused in horror, fear flashed, and then—the maid collapsed instantly, like a puppet whose strings had been cut, dead on the ground!
It happened in an instant!
The other servants trembled, but their hands didn't stop…
Rolilly clicked her tongue in irritation! Even so, despite her shrill cursing, her shoulders gradually eased. The warmth sank in deeper, slowly unwinding the tight knots of tension that had bound her body.
"…Tch," she muttered quietly.
"I'll deal with you later, there's no rush, mm, there's no rush." A thin crescent crept across her lips. "Since you've come to the empire—"
Her eyes flickered behind the steam.
"—Don't expect to leave!"
* * *
The next day—
Lilly and Luna sat together, with the silent Nebula lingering to the side. Their small butts were perched on the stone rim of a large fountain in the center of a grand plaza, right along the main street. People flowed around them in all directions, the excitement from the distant fairgrounds already bleeding into this part of the city.
Behind them, the fountain surged, sending a careless burst of water into the air!
A cool mist drifted outwards and caught them by surprise, lightly speckling their shoulders and necks…
They ate ice cream alongside a few other girls, chatting idly…
-
While Luna and Nebula stayed quiet, Lilly, leisurely listening to the others, was already distracted…
Her gaze, peering over the peak of her ice cream, was locked onto a man near the far side of the plaza. As her small tongue, lick-lick-licked, she quickly hummed with interest…
He was tall and broad-shouldered, with a lightly muscular build. He wasn't the kind of man that was shaped by battle, no—more like someone accustomed to lots of labor and travel! His dual-colored hair was split between white and black, partially hidden beneath a round, cute, and bell-bear-themed cap, giving him the rough appearance of a wandering peddler.
He called out to people with the confidence of someone who was used to a lot of attention!
To each side was a 'small bear cub', each about half a meter tall.
These were Bell-Bear Cubs!
They resembled a polar bear, but with a golden lion's mane and a bell-shaped tuft of hair near the end of its long, cat-like tail! It was both adorable and ferocious, a combination that made Lilly thankful that Petra was not here, after all—
They didn't have room for another pet…
A small crowd had gathered nearby as he laughed loudly, gesturing towards the two big balls of fluff!
"Mm, isn't that him…?" Nebula murmured—the Bell-Bear breeder from the Beast Competition in Imai. Back then, he'd been one of the winners, and now, his business was clearly booming! Children pointed, merchants lurked, and more than a few adventurers stopped to ask questions. Winning—or even placing well—in the Grand Gathering was an easy way to spread your name.
This man's Bell Bears had become a continental treasure!
At the same time, to the side—
No one saw the little pink-haired dragon girl drooling from under a nearby wooden crate...
Cough cough cough! Ok, so—! Lilly took another bite of her ice cream, then frowned. "Where exactly did Petra go?" she asked, turning to Nebula.
Nebula shook her head.
Then, in a rare moment of explanation, she added. "She said she smelled something again, but—"
Nebula glanced to the side…
The museum stood like a monument left behind by the old city, its pale stone face was framed by towering columns and a triangular roof carved with mythical reliefs. Enormous banners hung between the pillars, fluttering in the wind, while its rune-etched walls contained centuries of historical records and 'referable reminders'.
This was…
The Empire's History Museum!
"…I think she was mistaken for a student," Nebula said flatly, "and got scooped up into a tour group."
Lilly followed her gaze.
She sighed, "Why does this keep happening…"
* * *
"Hi, I'm Mimi!" A small green-haired child introduced herself to the other small green-haired child.
Petra looked at this small girl with the same color scheme…
She blinked.
Thinking about the grumpy auntie that appeared out of nowhere and ran over to her, screaming like a shrew… looking at this little look-alike, she felt that the mix-up was understandable…
Currently, she was blankly standing in the middle of a large cluster of young children, all sharing the same iconic green hair, only with slightly different tones! They were like a little sea of green stones, their heads bobbing up and down in anticipation. At a glance, they looked like a gathering of derpy dryads on a school outing, away from the forest for the first time. Some whispered to each other, some fidgeted in place, some just drooled, and a few stared around with their massive eyes sparkling with curiosity.
It was a tour group…
In the front was a tall auntie who was acting as their 'tour guide'. She wore layered green robes and spoke in a sharp, drawn-out voice, carefully projecting her explanations to all the bobbing blank blobs…
-
Petra followed through the front lobby of the museum. She tucked her hands into her sleeves as she blended in seamlessly with the tour group of treetop tots. The space was vast and echoey, with high ceilings supported by pale stone columns carved with faded inset reliefs displaying stories that were too complicated to read at a glance.
Sunlight filtered through tall glass windows around the room, spilling down and illuminating a suspended banner that depicted a famous scene from the empire's history, 'the founding'.
The group of little heads gathered near the center of the hall, clustering around the loud auntie as she spoke and pointed toward a massive painting on the wall that was positioned between two tall doors. One door led to the left wing of the museum, and the other led to the right, both passively promising a different part of the continent's history.
Petra drifted.
No one questioned her presence, no—in fact, several of the little girls even latched onto her, treating her as their de facto leader! They crowded around her, tugged at her sleeve, started conversations, and whispered in clumsy, childish slurs, asking all kinds of questions. Petra answered them happily, even if she had to make things up on the spot! Heh!
Petra seemed to fit in terrifyingly well among these small children, almost as if she really belonged…
Before long, the group was ushered deeper inside, beginning their slow loop through the museum.
* * *
Time passed…
-
Up-down-up-down—roll, advance! Clap-clap! They continued!
Some time later—
While moving to the next room, the tour guide was explaining the story of the founding.
With a pre-practiced performance prepared by the school, she began her speech and secretly activated a series of unseen rune channels embedded in the wall.
Soft light bloomed, tracing the borders of the corridor, illuminating unseen figures, igniting special symbols, and slowly forming the mural piece by piece, as the history unfolded before their eyes and extended down the special corridor!
Green Wave: "Ohhh—!"
The group of small girls reacted instantly, leaning forward with wide eyes as the mural manifested.
-
Up-down-up-down—roll, advance! Clap-clap! They continued!
Soon they were led onwards!
They entered the next room, towards a series of large statues arranged in a broad semicircle.
Each statue had the appearance of a 'founding patriarch' from one of the 'Nine Founding Families', carved in stone with blank expressions.
Their faces seem to have been lost to time…
The tour guide continued, explaining the founding families and how they survived the brutal environment during the early days, after arriving on the Cross Continent. When she reached the part about the disaster in the northern region that nearly wiped out the Hellion Family, she 'leaned' into the drama, purposely exaggerating the terror of that time!
Green Wave: "Aaaah—!"
The group of girls jumped.
Petra blinked.
It was an extremely overdramatic retelling of what Soryn had explained to her…
-
Up-down-up-down—roll, advance! Clap-clap! They continued!
They moved deeper into the museum…
The next section focused on the rise of the empire itself, detailing how the old emperor clawed his way back from destruction and founded what was now known as the Hellion Empire!
Green Wave: "Wooo—!"
They collectively wowed.
-
Up-down-up-down—roll, advance! Clap-clap! They continued!
The girls walked through a long hallway 'painted' on all sides with a three-dimensional display of history passing in real time. Cities rose, borders expanded, and the current banner of the Hellion Empire slowly formed right before their eyes! It was a compressed version of the last one thousand years! They watched as the empire grew from nothing. There was even magic added to animate some of it for clarity, er… or perhaps to exaggerate!
Regardless, Petra was genuinely impressed.
She was having a hard time placing what 'era' they were supposed to be in. Petra had originally assumed that they were in the industrial age, but looking at some of this stuff, perhaps Pillomal was already in the information age?
It was hard to tell because magic screwed everything up! Tsk!
-
They were halfway through the story of the founding when, suddenly—
The speaker's tone changed, growing heavier as she began to talk about the 'Seven Treasures'.