The Crown Prince In Hiding

Fury’s decision was final, and it was a decision he had successfully persuaded his fiancée to accept.

He would stay here for a while longer, at least until his beloved fiancée completed her mission, so they could return together.

This meant the cozy little house gained one more resident.

Casca Saint-Maximin.

“Sleeping on a doormat? Are you fucking insane?!”

“First come, first served, that’s all!”

“What right do you have to order the wife of the house around?! I’m sleeping next to my husband! You’re the one who needs to get lost!”

“I’ll sleep next to His Highness, like I always have! The tiles you’re walking on? I laid them with my own hands! You’re just a guest! I’m a co-owner!”

“What did you say?! You filthy Skank!”

“You’re the one who’s always making problems! Does the world have to revolve around you?!”

“Answer me this: does your status even come close to half of mine?!”

*They grab at each other’s hair.*

“Please, don’t kill each other,” Dan said, pulling the two apart to opposite corners.

“I’ll sleep on the bean bag. You two can share the bed.”

“Fury! I’m not sleeping next to this rotting corpse! No way!”

“Your Majesty! If I have to sleep next to this religious fanatic and she wakes up to strangle me, what then? No way!”

*Grab.*

Dan seized both their shoulders, smiling broadly though a vein pulsed at his neck.

“Don’t make my brain explode and kill me.”

“Ugh…”

The two calmed down for the moment, though another eruption was likely brewing. At least he’d bought some time.

After putting away his things, Dan yanked Zeedee by the collar of his tank top.

“Urk!? Y-Your Majesty?!”

Casca: *Whips around.*

“Now it’s time to clear things up, Freya. Explain this device that put us onto paper. Right now. How dare you keep secrets from me? Do you realize how serious this is?”

!

Freya had the temperament of a mischievous, willful child. Controlling her was difficult, and sometimes she did things that deserved punishment… like hiding a camera, for instance.

“FREYA!”

But when he raised his voice… and Commander Fury’s presence threatened to emerge if she kept defying him… Freya relented.

(Sticky, squelching sound.)

Freya’s tendrils retreated into the depths of her body, retrieving a box-shaped device and placing it before Dan.

The young man picked it up, wiping off Freya’s sticky, translucent residue without the disgust Casca openly displayed.

“So this thing can put people onto paper, huh?”

“Tristina told me that’s how it works… She said all you need to do is press this button.”

Dan turned the box over and pressed.

*Click.*

“…Nothing happened.”

“You have to… um… press the smaller button here, and then the image-making mechanism will work.”

*Click.*

(Crystal mana whirring.)

Suddenly, the box vibrated as if gears were turning inside. Fury felt the mechanism’s motion before a square sheet of paper slid out from a slot at the bottom, landing on the table.

The image on it was a photograph of Casca, who had been standing there moments ago. It was in color, though the hues were faded, not like the vivid 4K 64-inch TVs of the modern world.

By the standards of our world, it was a crude device, but for Prince Fury’s world, it was beyond miraculous.

The three gathered around the freshly printed photo.

“Mathema’s reached this level?” Dan marveled.

“In all my life, I’ve never seen anything like this, Fury,” Casca said.

“Even you, Casca?”

“I knew Mathema was always advancing their technology… but this… this is another leap forward.”

Casca swallowed hard.

“It’s unbelievable…”

*Snatch.*

Zeedee quickly pulled the camera back, keeping it out of Casca’s reach, lest she destroy it.

“Tch!”

As expected, Casca had been ready to seize the chance to grab it.

“Hey! You lunatic! Delete that picture of me and Fury right now! We had an agreement!”

“I already deleted it!”

“I don’t believe you! Show me!”

“I deleted it!”

“Don’t play dumb! Hand it over!”

“What, so you can use it yourself?”

“You—!”

“Freya, please,” Dan interrupted, turning to her.

“If the laws about kids are as strict as you say, then delete it. You don’t want to put my fiancée in a tough spot, do you?”

“Fiancée this, fiancée that! Am I nothing to you?!”

“She’s my fiancée, damn it!”

Casca: “????”

“Casca! Stop!”

Casca: *Wilts.*

Dan turned back.

“Do you know how to get rid of that image? You don’t have to destroy the camera since you need to return it to Tristina, but please… delete the picture. If it leaks, all our secrets could be exposed, Freya. It’s not worth a fleeting moment of satisfaction.”

Freya’s eyes showed reluctance, but she finally complied.

She pressed the delete button, erasing all the film stored in the device, then pulled out the photo of Casca kissing Fury’s cheek in Dan’s form.

Casca’s eyes gleamed, ready to snatch and burn it, but…

“For both your peace of mind, I’ll keep it myself.”

Fury took the photo.

And he wouldn’t destroy it or let it spread anywhere.

So both sides could rest easy.

Though Casca was his fiancée, Fury only took her side on some matters. Casca wasn’t exactly innocent—she could be vicious when teasing Freya.

Indeed, Casca often started it, and it was clear that if she activated [God’s Command], her full combat mode, Freya would be reduced to pulp. So, even as his fiancée, Casca wasn’t facing some nobody. Freya was like family, having been through thick and thin with Fury for over thirty years, long before he even grasped the concept of a “life partner.”

He pulled Casca close, then Freya, taking their hands and making them shake.

“From now on, you’ll be living together for a while. Better to get along.”

The two women avoided each other’s gaze but reluctantly shook hands as Fury requested.

“And I’m sleeping on the bean bag.”

“Seriously, Fury? Come on!” Casca protested.

“No, Casca. I won’t let someone I love sleep on the floor like a pet.”

“I could say the same about you!” Casca shot back.

“And the same goes for Freya.”

Twenty years was twenty years. He couldn’t just send Freya to sleep like a dog.

“Here’s the deal: until we get a new bed, two sleep on the bed, one on the mat. We’ll rotate so there’s no fighting. Fair enough?”

“No way! I’m not sleeping with her! Who knows what she’d do to you!”

“Oh, I’d do plenty, don’t worry!”

“You—!”

“Oh, here we go again,” Dan groaned.

---

“Princess Nora.”

The dormitory maid bowed respectfully to Nora Ophilis, who had returned from what was understood to be “personal errands” and arrived just as dusk was settling in.

“Dinner has been prepared, Your Highness.”

“Mmm.”

Though it was just a short “mmm” in her usual style, her personal attendants caught a strangely vibrant shift in her expression and tone.

These people noticed because they’d been with Nora since birth. Their detection system could pierce her poker face like a sensor picking up the flutter of a butterfly’s wings behind the moon.

They understood that, from now on, Nora no longer bore the pressure of the Empress.

Since the second term began, the princess had been disappearing from four in the afternoon until seven at night, returning to the dorm around eight to retire for the evening.

This odd routine had been going on for a while. Under the Empress’s scrutiny, Nora would’ve faced a barrage of questions.

But now, bearing the title of “the Princess who slew the dragon Isakryx,” no one—not even her closest attendants—dared question her.

Even so…

“Where do you go during the evening, Your Highness?” her personal guard asked.

“I mean no intrusion, but your safety is paramount. It would be safer if I at least knew the gist of it, to prevent any unforeseen incidents.”

“I just went for a walk. There’s nothing to worry about.”

“But you’re a target for rebels, Your Highness. It hasn’t happened yet, but they could track you here. They might use some strategy to assassinate you at your favorite place!”

“Don’t worry about my safety, Donovan,” Nora said, her eyes drifting to the window.

“I’m certain there’s no place on earth safer than there.”