Primera, however, kept going on and on. She hadn’t noticed either of them. “I mean, you brought me here because I had the day off, but days off for knights are supposed to be used for actual resting so we can perform when it counts. And I’m a captain. I have responsibilities, even when I’m off the clock. And not to mention that I could’ve worn something more appropriate had you told me where we were going in advance! My hair’s a mess! I haven’t had time to take care of it lately...”
“You two are in the way. Don’t just stand there, go in already!”
“Whoa!”
“Ack!”
When Luna showed up, she shoved both Prince Lyle and Kriss, making them tumble into the dining room.
“Whoops...”
“Huh?”
“Ah...”
Primera finally turned at their clumsy, loud entrances. Her eyes widened as she realized there were three new guests behind her, all of whom were frozen with dumbfounded looks on their faces.
Prince Lyle stuttered out an excuse. “Uh, well... I did technically get permission...a while ago... And we did say something on the way in... And it’s part of the whole ‘We’re close friends!’ image too...”
“Yeah, Tenma and I go way back. And hanging out here with Shiromaru and the others is how I recharge. Besides, I only come by after finishing up what I need to do...” Kriss added.
“Wait, what? No! I wasn’t talking to you two. I was talking to my brother, Cain, and Leon! From an outside perspective, their behavior could easily come off as being disrespectful to Tenma, or worse! Acting like it’s okay to treat him like that!”
Prince Lyle and Kriss were scrambling to explain themselves, but Primera’s lecture hadn’t even been meant for them in the first place. She looked totally lost at their reactions until she realized what they were trying to say and rushed to explain she wasn’t talking about them.
“Primera, it sounds like what you’re saying doesn’t apply to those two with the answers they’re giving!”
“Argh!”
Amur cut in at the perfect time, leaving Primera speechless.
“Well, that’s just kind of how it is around here, so don’t worry too much about it,” I said, trying to smooth things over.
Lyle, Kriss, and even Albert nodded in agreement to reassure her.
“Mm-hmm. I do agree, though. Close friends or not, a little courtesy goes a long way. You need to teach that to Alex!” Gramps teased.
“No way! I’d drop dead on the spot!”
Just in case, when Primera had said “drop dead,” she hadn’t meant that she’d get executed for treason or something. It’d been more like her heart would give out from the shock and anxiety of it all.
“By the way, where’d Luna go? She was here just before those two walked in.”
Knowing her, she’d probably picked up on the tense atmosphere and had slipped away. Honestly, she was getting sneakier by the year. I knew I could find her instantly with Detection, but I figured that Prince Caesar and Tida were still struggling to keep up with her.
I activated my skill. There you are. I could see right where Luna was, and if you knew her, it was exactly the kind of spot you’d never think to check.
“Anyway, it’s not like she’ll come out if I call, and I’m too lazy to go look for her, so... Luna! If you don’t come out right now, there’ll be no snacks for you!” I shouted into the hallway before turning to head back inside.
And sure enough, I could hear frantic footsteps as she scurried out of her hiding place.
She burst into the dining room less than a minute later. “That’s not fair, Tenma!”
“It’s perfectly fair,” I said. “There aren’t any snacks in this house for people who don’t show up. And even if there were, Shiromaru, Solomon, Amur, and Aura would probably just eat them anyway!”
“You can’t prove that would happen!” Amur and Aura declared, but my two followers simply drooled with smug looks on their faces.
“If you want snacks, the first thing you should do when you visit this house is to say hello to everyone. Understood?” I said.
“Yep! Hi, everyone! Snacks, please!” Luna answered enthusiastically, and she flopped into her usual seat, begging for treats.
Primera just stared at her, looking stunned.
“That’s nothing unusual around here,” Gramps said.
Jeanne agreed. “Yep, it’s pretty standard.”
Primera’s eyes only grew wider.
“Yeah, I get why you’re surprised, but that’s just how it is here,” I told her. “That goes for Albert, Cain, and Leon too, by the way. And if you think Luna’s behavior is bad, wait until you meet the king. He’s even worse. You’ll get used to it eventually, though. Or, well...you’ll have to. Oh, and the person who’s the scari— I mean, the one with the most authority in this kingdom also drops by sometimes, so you should brace yourself for that.”
“Tenmaaaa, my snaaaacks...”
Primera looked at Luna again and finally gave her a resigned nod. Albert and the others visibly relaxed, thinking they were out of the woods at last.
But then...
“That doesn’t mean you’re off the hook,” Primera reminded them. “The royal family has their own way of doing things, and the Sanga family has ours. From now on, I expect you three to carry yourselves like proper noble heirs!”
Primera hadn’t given up after all. She was just compartmentalizing things. The three noble idiots were now worried that she’d make things even harder on them to make up for how easy she’d gone on the others.
“Wait, hang on! Shouldn’t Albert be the only one Primera’s lecturing? I mean, I’m technically the heir of a different noble house!”
“Y-Yeah! We can’t keep putting all this pressure on Primera! We’ll take responsibility for ourselves!”
“You’re literally being lectured because you don’t do that,” Amur muttered under her breath.
They both froze for a second but quickly decided to pretend they hadn’t heard her.
“You’re abandoning me?!” Albert shouted at them.
Primera shot Albert a look that shut him right up before addressing the other two. “Cain, Leon. You three are a package deal. Don’t you think it’s unfair to leave Albert to take the blame alone?”
Something felt off about her tone. Then, it made sense—Primera sounded just like Albert when he was dragging Cain and Leon into something. Yeah, she’d definitely been forced to come here without any warning, and now she was getting her payback.
I wasn’t sure how serious she was about all this, but I doubted she’d go too far. After all, scolding those three while Prince Lyle and Luna were here could be interpreted as criticizing the royal family by extension. But since Prince Lyle was smirking off to the side, I figured it wasn’t a problem.
I decided to let Primera get her fill of stress relief and headed back to the kitchen to whip up Luna’s snack. Jeanne, Aura, and Leni came to help me, but Amur and Kriss tagged along too. However, they weren’t helping so much as they were fleeing from the scene.
Even with a few deadbeats in the mix, we had more than enough helpers to knock out enough pancakes for everyone to have seconds in under half an hour. We took our time on purpose, however, and we finished nearly an hour later. Luna had actually dozed off while waiting, so she stormed the kitchen in protest once she woke up. She easily forgave us when we told her we’d made a huge batch so everyone could eat as much as they wanted.
We carried a bunch of plates stacked high with pancakes into the dining room. At that point, Prince Lyle was chatting with Primera. She looked a little flustered, but he seemed in high spirits—he was probably just enjoying himself.
Now that Albert and the others had been released from Primera’s wrath, they were finally free. Even so, they were eating more politely during snack time than I’d ever seen them do before. Leon wasn’t a fan of pancakes and struggled to finish two, but Albert and Cain made it about halfway through their third helping when we ran out.
The rest of us ate the usual four or five apiece, though Jeanne and Primera tapped out after two. They just looked satisfied as they enjoyed their tea.
“Thanks for putting up with us today,” Primera said as she got ready to leave.
After she had vented and gotten all her stress out on the three noble idiots, enjoyed dinner, and soaked in the bath, she was in a great mood. The complete opposite could be said for Albert, Leon, and Cain—they looked completely exhausted. That was understandable, considering they’d been under the watchful gaze of Primera all day. But...they also kind of deserved it, so I didn’t feel sorry for them.
They left the estate like they were Primera’s personal entourage, and since they were all riding in the same carriage, they were probably about to get another lecture.
A few days later...
“Tenma, Luna’s gotten way better at running off and hiding. I can’t catch her at all anymore.” Tida had come over to hang out, and that had been the first thing he said when he showed up.
“You should probably start with the library or study,” I suggested. “You probably assume that Luna wouldn’t go near a place like that, so you skip it during your search. But if she sneaks into a spot you’ve already checked, finding her is going to get really tricky.”
When I’d used snacks to lure Luna out, she’d been hiding in the library, and anyone who actually knew her would’ve saved that spot for last, which was why I had brought it up. Tida looked totally frustrated when I told him that.
“Honestly, I underestimated her. I figured she was just acting on instinct, and we were overthinking things when we tried to catch her.”
That was harsh but fair. With the way Luna usually acted, it was hard to believe she was capable of thinking ahead like that. Then again, maybe she was just moving instinctively this time too. I couldn’t really fault Tida for that assumption, given that he was her brother.
After that day, the Luna-catching success rate jumped up, but it didn’t take long for her to level up her hiding game too. Before long, it was back to a fifty-fifty toss-up.
Anyway, once I showed the wheelchair prototype to Prince Zane, he was all in on it and said he had to be involved. He and I met every single day until I completed my first improved version. As a result, he ended up setting a new personal record for the number of tasks he left unfinished after taking office as the minister of finance. I eventually sent the upgraded wheelchair off to Princess Mizaria, and afterward, I began seeing her around the castle a lot more often.