Prologue

Sanbi Kingdom’s “economical department” was renowned for its extensive collection of tax documents and reports on cost-saving measures, a beacon of frugality for all to see! Contrasting such boring-ass documents, a wall of mannequins with maidly clothing that sometimes looked skimpy, sometimes cute, sometimes a bit of both matched the portraits of their famous wearers. And don't forget the thick metal door leading to the coffers, of which only the Sanbi royalty with their painted blue hair strands knew what was inside! Maybe the "True Sanbi King" would know it too—or not! The "true king," revered by the Sanbi people, was a humongous fish that salivated over old people's skin, allowing Sanbi fishermen to catch its younglings in exchange for raisin-looking leather treats. All maidly outfits, cute or sexy alike, revered this “true king” in some way. Such a distinct place brimming with those outfits and documents was located on the second floor of the Sanbi castle, not so coincidentally, where the King-Maid Eiri called her happy place! The only place where she truly had control! Everything was spotlessly clean and arranged in a way that tickled her brain the most.

However, such a happy place was once again invaded by a creature with an aura that spoiled the air itself, or perhaps Eiri associated rose water mixed with wine notes perfume oozing from this tainted creature with negative thoughts. A mental Hmmmm rattling inside Eiri’s skull slipped out into a grumbled “Hmmmmm” as the creature drew closer with a familiar-looking white envelope.

“Your dearly Sanbi-eye is taking steps to fulfill his responsibilities effectively!” The creature everyone knew as the Queen of Sanbi, Neferteri Sanbi Royal, spoke in an unusual, delightful tone, contrasting her usually neutral tone, which made understanding what’s inside her skull a black void of motivations and feelings—except this time.

Eiri grabbed the letter, feeling Neferteri’s thumb still slightly gripping in. Sanbi Mail was written on the same face where a broken blue wax stamp once protected the contents of this undetermined letter. Feeling a curiosity bubbling inside, Eiri hastily took out the letter from within, focusing on every word with enough attention as the letter’s handwriting was hard to read, either looking outright sloppily written, or the person had some sort of muscle coordination issues.

Dear Sanbi Queen Neferteri,

Sorry for writing to Eiri before you and for not being as clear as I should have been in the letters. I will try my best to give more details on all the people’s names and descriptions from now on! Sorry for not knowing that people outside the kingdom rarely have badges and need more than just the name.

I went to Green Sea and had a chat with the one and only chief Tupinamba!!! He said life is good, but wished the kingdom helped with woodworking tools as the smith from Sanbi East completely sucks ass, even worse than his father! Oh! Almost forgot! Tupima Tupinamba looked old and cranky, but he seemed to speak truth with people in the room, really, really agreeing with him when he talked about the smith. He kinda seems as old as Gabiro, but a bit fatter and taller. Not as much of an ass though. Hope that’s enough of a description! For the villagers, they all seem to agree with the chief, and they look happy too! Going to spend another day mim having fun with them! They loved the presence of a kingdom official!

All The Best!

Harry, the Sanbi-eye of the great Sanbi Kingdom!

Reading the letter with her full attention to the point she momentarily forgot Neferteri was still there, the same noise appeared again in her brain hmmmmm, but this time another thought accompanied it; again with All The Best weird old people thing and now being even bubblier, hmm? Eiri then flipped the envelope to see the From and To, and surely enough, what she expected to see was there: Neferteri Sanbi Royal under To. He hasn’t even written to me in quite a while! Eiri glanced at the work calendar to her right, trying to forget today’s date, but the calendar refused to lie, marking today as 1039 A.G. Paulin 47th, Tollday. “So what did you write to him? He hasn’t said anything to me since the Sanbi mail you brought a few weeks ago—” Eiri’s tone grew slightly sarcastic as her eyes narrowed on Neferteri, folding the letter back into the envelope. “Which, of course, you would know that already!”

“Indeed, I am well aware.” Neferteri slowly nodded. “The contents of what I stated to him are not yours to know; it’s the Monarchy department affairs.” Her delightful tone waned back to cold neutrality.

“But—but I’m the King Maid!” With what appeared to be the last spark of fire in her spirit, Eiri stood up and moved her hand to show the room, “I’m the economical department!” She seemed to look for words for a second, leaving a cringe-inducing air to fill the room.

“If you—” Neferteri began to fill the void with her carefully selected words. Her eyes still looked down towards Eiri, even though there wasn’t much height difference between them.

“No! I’m not finished!” Eiri pointed at Neferteri with her gloved yellow hand, “I—I need to know what the Monarchy is spending its resources on! Yes! I—”

Neferteri closed her eyes for a long pause, presumably keeping her neutral stance from being affected by Eiri’s “utterly rude attitude.” Instead, she looked to ignore Eiri by looking at a portrait on the wall that closely resembled Eiri but was far more sassy, with a mannequin showing far more revealing maidly clothing.

“—I need to know that so that I can better advise—” Eiri’s babble began to lose steam again, her mind searching for something snarky and well-said to front the one and only Queen of Sanbi. “That’s it!” A thought slipped from her mouth, “This whole Harry thing was costed by you only! You did not even give me a choice to review it! You didn’t talk about the Sanbi-eye thing until Harry already had shown up!”

“Indulge me in a simple question—” Neferteri’s eyes shifted back to pierce Eiri like a laser beam of pure discontent energy packaged in eloquent words and a slight smirk of her own in the corner of her mouth, “Why attempt to question me at such late stage? Why must you fail as a King-maid not to have questioned such presumed audacity in the first meeting concerning this subject back on Paulin 11th?”

Feeling a chill coming down her spine, Eiri's mouth began to betray her, “But-did—I did!”

With a simple, slow shake of the head, Neferteri shut up the fumble. “You did not make any objections to the request my department proposed. We stated clearly that we desired one sapphire and five aquamarines to invest in finding a potential husband for Maiara! Once we had found the potential partner, we would alter him with the soul energy department's assistance according to her wishes for a public display of love through a Gandew duel.”

Eiri drew breath in another attempt to counterattack.

“Furthermore!” Neferteri spoke neutrally, but her volume went up by a notch before returning to normal. “Harry’s servitude to our great Sanbi Kingdom for losing the Gandew duel must trump any of your feelings for him. He was supposed to be Maiara’s husband, not yours.” With a smooth drag, Neferteri pulled the white envelope on the table away from Eiri, picking it up gently, “This simple matter is not even why I choose to invest my time to walk over and listen to your unnecessary pleading! We have a greater concern!”

What in the Sanbi King is happening— Eiri widened her eyes as her stance waned. Her brain tried to foresee and think ahead, but all it did was fire randomly aimlessly.

“—you unfortunately know it as Gabiro.” In this silent room, Neferteri’s voice felt like it was echoing off the walls, repeating the monotone words over and over.

Sitting down and shoving cocona with cadioca biscuits in her mouth, Eiri tried to focus instead on the starchy, earthy, slightly sweet flavors of the cadioca in the white paste, contrasting the tart, semi-salty glaze of the cocona in the red cream.

“Good.” Neferteri kept staring at Eiri. “There will be a shoutcast today to gather citizens on the Sunnilow of Paulin 50th at the Old Wharf.”

Eiri kept eating the sweet and savory biscuit with distant eyes but still listened to every word from Neferteri. She could imagine a public announcement of Gabiro’s death. With a loud crunch, she stopped as a precise memory came to mind, “Wait a hunk! Our official—” making quotation marks with her hand, Eiri continued with a blunter tone, “message is that Gabiro was recovering from a lab accident, so what—oh” She took another bite of the biscuit, chewing it at the same sluggish pace her dozen thoughts chewed at the back of her mind.

Neferteri’s voice kept clashing with the crunchy outer shell of the biscuits Eiri was eating, “If by that oh you meant Kibe being inept at restoring Gabiro, then indeed that is why we must be transparent to our great kingdom citizens. Gabiro has soul died. Not only so, Kibe will accuse Gabiro of tampering with soul research without consent from the other departments.”

The sound of biscuit chewing stopped. Leaving a growing, dead quiet in the room that consumed whatever was left of the tranquility Eiri craved. Oh no, he’s fucked! She could almost feel a bead of cold sweat running down her check.

“Your directive is simple—do not clash with Kibe’s statement, and burn all evidence that says the opposite.” Neferteri calmly laid down the white envelope back on the reddish wooden table, putting it closer to Eiri than her. “Otherwise, I shall see that your guild becomes nothing more than a word in a forgotten book.” With an elegant turn and steady walk, she paced out of the room, each clack echoing through the silence.

But—but! Eiri's mouth wanted to speak, but nothing was immediately forming as she saw the envelope patiently waiting to be picked up. With a sudden long breath, her feelings spilled out, “What will happen to Kibe?”

With a short stop, Neferteri did not look back. “He will become the next courtroom scientist, as per tradition.” She continued going out the door, “Be better than your infamous mother!” With a soft yet firm shut of the door, her walking could still be softly heard echoing outside.

With a long sigh, Eiri felt the tranquility slowly return to her happy place. Glancing sharply at the sassy portrait of a familiar person, she confronted it with a single question: “What am I supposed to do now?”

Removing her gloves, Eiri began to chew on her short nails as dozens of thoughts churned in the back of her mind all fought for processing time. Gabiro was in his own world most of the time, but it’s wrong to blame him for everything—hmmm—the excuse is pretty airtight, though.

What a bitch—but she actually thought of everything! Eiri caught herself and slipped her hand back into the yellow glove, grabbing the white envelope and putting it between her and the sassy-looking figure in the portrait, smirking back at her. “AH! Leave me alone!”

With an inward stare, Eiri entered the Sanbi castle kitchen. Her silent face gave away a slight smile when her heart was warmed by a lively space filled with her children—not actual children, also not from her womb, yet needlessly to say, they all soothed her stomped heart!

“—ehhh? Tell me more!” The murmuring from a maid sounded inquisitive and sarcastic. Her bright cyan eyes and red lips, accentuated by a slender, curvy body, belonged to no other than Arukia.

“Arukia! You don’t even know the half of it, girl! Hey, King-maid! You gotta listen to this too!” an older maid replied; her older, gleeful appearance complemented her sweet words, sounding as if she was salivating at the opportunity to relay her latest breaking news about a random poor soul. Her extravagant red hat made her easily recognizable as the one and only Aurora. The jovial attitude in her words shifted back to grandma's vibes as she handed off a plate she had finished drying to another tiny, cutesy maid with equally tiny bottom fangs coming from her mouth. “Everything okay?”

Eiri broke the silence with a nod as she clenched her interlocked gloved fingers. “I wanted you all to know this before you hear the shoutcast.” Some intrusive words slipped into the back of her tongue, but she refused to let them out. Gabiro is not dead; Kibe doesn’t know how to bring him back!

“Lemme guess!” With the same inquisitive but far less sarcastic tone, Arukia sounded back, her attentive, unusually bright cyan eyes performing some sort of cold reading as she looked Eiri up and down, “Kib—no! Harry? It’s Gabiro! It’s about Gabiro, right? Did that guy finally get what he deserved?”

“Ha! Arukia!” The same older maid, Aurora, snappily replied, elbowing Arukia’s shoulders as she dried another plate. Her tone seemed more playful than threatening, perhaps because even if it were supposed to be threatening, coming out of such a sweet older lady would make it impossible to be taken seriously.

Meanwhile, the petite, cutesy maid with fiery red hair, belonging to none other than Sora, nearly dropped a plate she was struggling to store it away. The shocked horror on her face looked as if someone had insulted her entire guild with the most profound of obscenities.

Contrasting Sora’s near meltdown, a taller maid with freckles kept on waxing the ground without three, or four for that matter, Sanbi shits to give. Perhaps for her, he was already worthy of becoming food for the true Sanbi king a long time ago.

Eiri tensed up posture released like a flattening balloon, “Hmm? How did ya know?” A developing feeling of something stuck in her throat appeared as another invasive thought appeared. Did Neferteri tell them before me? That’s just—

“Of course, we would know! It’s a simple matter of deduction!” Arukia, who appeared to have been doing nothing in the kitchen besides talking to Aurora, stepped closer with a slight smirk on her red lips and held Eiri's gloved hands, “We know you! Every time someone brings up Gabiro or Harry, it’s like you suck up the mood in the room!”

“It’s that bad?” Catching herself, Eiri could feel Arukia’s grip in her hands as some sort of small embrace, creating a weeping feeling that sat at the bottom of her stomach. Or it was her strong grape with notes of bubblegum perfume that had something to do with it—definitely not. It must have been the sensation of walking on eggshells. With a gulp, Eiri took a deeper breath. “Sorry for worrying you all!”

“It’s okay!” Arukia let go of Eiri’s hand and walked to grab one of the washed but still wet mugs.

While Eiri’s eyes followed Arukia on the way to pour herself some tea, she announced the news out loud and clearly to everybody: “Arukia is right. The shoutcast is about Gabiro—he is soul dead.”

A silence took over the room, with a sniff from the cutesy petite maid breaking the silence. Tears started pouring down her face like water from a spring.

The maid with gossipy grandma vibes, Aurora, came to the younger maid's rescue, offering her broad chest and breasts as a comfy pillow to express her emotions.

“Took him long enough—” Between sips, a curt reply from Arukia sounded over the sniffling coming from teary-eyed Sora.

“Arukia!” With a stern look, the grandma-looking maid's threat did not sound that threatening. “Don’t be like that around Sora!”

“What? I still remember that time he shoved his cane in your face.” Arukia made jabbing motions with her free hand. “You even told me you wished he was dead already so Kibe could finally spread his wings and grow!”

“I—did not.” A rosing flush appeared on Aurora’s cheeks, hugging Sora tighter in her chest, suffocating her from precious oxygen.

Sora waved her hands frantically. A cutesy murmur coming from between Aurora’s breasts.

“Okay—okay—” Eiri took another deep breath. “I know he was always too much to handle, but he still is—was our courtroom scientist. Kibe’s transition will be announced on his Soul Send Away this Forrday at Sunnilow. ”

Sora was released, gasping for air. She then spoke in a muffled, high-pitched voice, “What about his body? What about his family?” Her headpiece was crooked back, and her face still looked smushed.

Arukia’s eyes widened; her lips seemed like they wanted to say something, but she hid it with a final gulp of her tea.

“Hmmm—I don’t know.” Eiri stepped forward to fix Sora’s disheveled look. “But Kibe will figure it out! Neferteri is helping him sort things out.”

A clank sounded as Arukia dropped her empty mug in the sink. “I bet,” she stated in a sarcastic tone and a matching smug tone.

The grandma-looking maid looked directly at Eiri, putting her hand on her shoulder, “So what happened to that Fanchaki? Some people asked me if that was Gabiro because they saw his body turn into the white flame thing that the fanchaki came out of kicking and screaming.”

Arukia’s lips appeared to slightly smirk on their own again, saying something without actually saying anything.

Neferteri’s words rang in Eiri’s mind, almost forcing her to say what came out of her mouth next, “Kibe would know.”

“But he doesn’t like us!” Aurora replied as she began to console herself on Sora instead, hugging her from the side this time. “I’ve tried to see what he was doing, but he kept shooing me away like Gabiro!”

“Like Gabiro?” A snarky speech came out of Arukia again as she clicked her tongue, “It’s not like this is Eiri’s problem anyway. Besides, the kingdom, and especially we, are finally better off not having to deal with that old cranky thing every day!”

Well—true, but it's not like Kibe can do much for us either. Eiri put on a smile of sorts and clapped her hands twice, “Enough with the shitposting! There’s no point in making my sweet little Sora cry! C’mon! We all have a job to do!” She pointed her gloved finger towards the ceiling and continued, “If anybody asks you something about this, relay the question directly to Neferteri. It’s her job to deal with this kinda of stuff.” Making her way to the main hall, Eiri bit the inside of her mouth as the thoughts crept back in. Why did I take this job in the first place? Gabiro is dead. I can’t get anything useful from Kibe! Even Harry is ignoring me now. How could I have fucked this up even worse?

A sigh came out of Eiri as she made her way up the stairs. No wonder Mom drank so much. So much Sanbi shit to deal with, and I can’t do anything.