Tama

  Talia looked at me, then at Saki. “Technically, it would be highly illegal, but knowing Saki, she would find a way and make it your fault.

  ? I looked back at Saki who shrugged. “I am not above petty revenge Tama.”

  I sat there for a long moment as Saki groomed her tail back to its correct level of fluffiness. Grooming my tail was super hard!

  I have to actively control it and its really hard to do, especially when I am trying to brush it. Sensei made me start doing it for training when he realized I couldn’t control it or catch it easily.

  “Either way, potato franchises aside, let's discuss the actual important aspect. When do we leave for Trissiale?” Saki asked as she looked at Talia.

  “Actually, we will be teleporting.” Alissa said proudly. “I have one of the best Air mages in the land!”

  “One of the only Air mages in Xanrea at all…” muttered Talia.

  Alissa ignored her and stood tall. “We pay him lots of those shiny round things! So many that my advisors say it might bankrupt us, so we have to fire him soon. Then I have to walk to far away places.”

  “Wait, how many of these ‘shiny round things’ are you paying them exactly?” Saki stepped forward, a frown on her face. “Cause if it’s as much as I think it is, we can just have Tama take use there. I personally am not the biggest fan of her mode of travel, but I will not pay an air mage what my friend could probably do in an afternoon“

  Alissa frowned and seemed to consider for a very long time then held up three fingers. “This many!” Her tail wagged happily behind her as she spoke, her ears twitching with glee.

  I nodded seriously. Three must be a lot!

  “three.. what?” Saki asked and Talia sighed. Talia turned and walked over to a man wearing a weird shirt. He had asked me questions earlier about ticks and whatever a poli-tic was.

  He mentioned lots of words that Saki might say like “Our gold stock is severely depleted and I require you as the Princess’s signature to alleviate the treasure and cut some of this rampant spending!” He said it all super serious too!

  Saki walked over to him and the three of them started talking. They used a lot of big words. Alissa left the building, a small detachment of royal guards followed her, Tera and her group stayed with me.. sadly.

  “HOW MUCH!” Saki suddenly screeched. She turned and stormed over to me in a rage. She grabbed my hand and said “Tama, fire the Air mage NOW!”

  I looked at her confused but nodded. “Tama fires the Air mage!” I said cheerfully.

  Saki facepalmed and said “Please at least ask why!”

  I shrugged. “Saki is the smarter.. the smartest! If she thinks three is a big number and Air mage is bad, then we save three right?”

  Saki pursed her lips and sighed “I don’t know why I tried.” She turned around and walked over to the man whose whole body seemed to relax and he almost seemed to smile.

  Saki brought over a bunch of paper and had me sit down with it. “So Tama, these forms need to be filled out so we can officially fire the Air mage, and do a few budget cuts. We will go over them together. This is very important!”

  I nodded seriously. “Don’t worry Saki! Tama has this! Tama is the bestest Queen ever!”

  Saki sighed, “I would settle for a competent Queen over the best.”

  The next three hours were the worst in my entire life. I was pretty sure time lost all meaning. Saki said it was three hours though, and Saki is never wrong. But maybe Saki is also being lied to by this person? Maybe time is the real enemy!

  Saki said I couldn’t even make pretty circles or draw things! She said they were ‘official documents’ and that it would be illegal to defame them. I tried to escape so many times, But Saki’s grip on my wrist was strong and I couldn’t pull away. I mean, I could have but it would have hurt her. Time is turning my friends against me!

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  Saki made me sign weird squiggly lines that were my name. She made me sign them above these dotted lines. Once they were all signed, the man who had been watching us started to cry for some reason and hugged me. I hugged him back!

  “Now that that utter disaster is out of the way.“ Saki said in a tired voice. “We now need to travel to Trissiale. I personally don’t see the point of teleportation. While Mantheria is certainly a threat, she isn’t a direct danger unless we provoke. We traveled for weeks without her showing up previously.”

  I nodded as I ate my fries. Alissa had brought more and said she was sorry. She also brought her own plate of fries and was eating them separately.

  Saki pulled out another piece of paper. It looked like a map. She looked at me and I fled. I turned and blinked out of the Guild hall and onto the roof. My perfect hiding spot! Talia appeared next to me a second later and grabbed me.

  “No Tama, running away right before we leave isn’t going to happen.” She said as she jumped from the roof, dragging me with her. She dragged me back into the guild hall. I looked over at Saki and saw she was covering her mouth and her body was shaking.

  “You are fast, Aunt Talia!” I said as I tried to pull away. Her grip, unlike Saki’s, was actually not super tight. But I couldn’t break from it even trying my hardest. I know attacking her with Serenity would cause her to let go for a second.

  She was clearly smart enough to find me.. She might even just have Saki tell her where I went. Saki knows everything so she definitely knows. I glared at Saki. Saki smirked back. “Come now Tama, You are getting too predictable.“

  Even Matriarch Talia saw that coming and knew you would try it.”

  ? I just frowned at her and then sighed. I looked over at Tera who was looking between Aunt Talia, Saki and me with a serious look on her face.

  An idea came to me and I smiled. Saki quickly raised her hand but I got three words out. “Tera, Tama wants…” and I was suddenly silenced. I was talking but no noise came out. I blinked in confusion. I tried to scream, but only silence. Saki smiled and said “We aren’t playing sic the royal guard Tama.”

  I glared at Saki and she once again, smirked back. After a moment her smirk dropped and she looked at me seriously. Stepping forward she took my hand gently.

  “Please stop doing this Tama, we need to do this and I know this is all your insane attempt to avoid becoming Queen. These people need you, I am just as scared as you are. But you aren’t even Queen yet and we have already fixed so much.”

  I opened my mouth to respond, and realized I was still silenced. Then closed it and considered. After a long moment, I nodded and she smiled sadly at me. “Don’t worry, you are going to be a great Queen, I promise. We will do this together!”

  I looked into her eyes and she looked into mine. I pulled Saki into a hug, Talia letting go so I could. Saki hugged me back and we wrapped our tails around each other. I felt so safe and happy.

  There was a cough and I turned to see Lyran standing in the doorway holding a small rock. “Am I interrupting something important?” He asked as he looked between us.

  “No, Tama and I have just finished talking. What do you need?” Saki said quickly. I nodded as I looked at the rock. It had blue all over it like someone drew with a crayon.

  “Well, Alissa was in the restaurant earlier complaining about how the royal Air mage was fired. I am not an Air mage, but I was thinking about maybe applying for royal engineering?” He said the last part like a question.

  I turned to Saki, she had her illusion up of herself. The real her was red in the face and her breathing had quickened.

  Saki coughed into her hand and her illusion stated “As per royal decree, one must go through the proper channels and fill out the proper forms. Then they must be evaluated. For something so important as this job.

  Newly created at that, would require a signature from the Queen.” Even as she spoke, she rubbed her legs together and kept looking down.

  Lyran nodded seriously and asked “That is to be expected, but I believe I have inventions and creations that will bring our country into the future. Please point me towards the correct forms and paperwork.”

  I stared in open mouthed horror. He was going to do the paper thing willingly!? My ears flattened and I looked at him fearfully, truly he was a dangerous opponent I could not take lightly.

  Even though Sensei disliked the paper work, he made sure to do as little as possible. He even made ‘cheat codes’ as he called them. He made a thing that when he pushed down on it, it made the squiggly lines that were his name.

  Saki poked me in the side and said “Well, with permission from her highness, Queen Tamaneko, I will fetch the paperwork!”

  I looked at Saki and opened my mouth and she poked me harder. I decided to change what I was going to ask. Instead of asking why her face was red, I just turned to Lyran and said “Nya! Queen Tama accepts your app thingy!”

  Anna hissed at me “Application, its application!”

  “Tama accepts your applycation!” I said seriously.

  Lyran looked puzzled and asked “Do you mean, you give me permission to go for the role?” His head tilted slightly to the right and he looked to Saki. Saki had her mouth open like she was screaming and the real her was pulling her hair.

  After a moment she calmed down and her illusion spoke. “Princess Tamaneko is obviously tired after a long day and simply mixed up her words. She was clearly giving permission for you to apply for the role. Are you willing to travel to Trissiale and officially apply there?”

  Chapter 113: Tracking Fallout