Initial Planning

Being a princess, or to be in general, a royal of this kingdom had its perks. I was not referring to the food, the money, or anything physical. It was the body I had. Aside from being more durable, my magic should be more powerful than that of any ordinary person. Meaning, we royals were just superior. I should be more powerful than the knight, but he was just more experienced than I, and well, my Puppeteer class was dependent on my puppets. If my puppets were weak, then I was weak.

However, it was different for Astral Forger. If I had used that on the knight, I might have defeated him, overwhelming him with blades. At any rate, it was time for a little scouting, to start making out a plan on how to escape this place.

I put aside the female-shaped puppet for the time being. Right, I was preparing my other puppet as well. This time, this one was more human sized, well, I meant, way shorter than Ripper. She would be around my height! And she would be beautiful and graceful. She was a project that had already been started that was set aside, but now I was continuing it.

I had already made something creepy anyway in the form of Ripper, so it was time for a different theme. It would become stale if I did the same thing again and again.

I had to admit, I had been constantly working on puppets that I was feeling quite tired, mentally and physically. So walking around would be a nice change of pace.

I left my room, and as I walked down the hall, I was wondering where exactly I would be sacrificed. I pondered about it. If I were to be sacrificed to the Great Hand, then the most significant place here to that thing would be the colossal tree. In my memories, there was an altar there for worship. But we were only allowed entry there for special occasions.

I made my way to the Luminous Tree entrance. When I arrived, I let out a sigh.

“Wow.”

It was a pair of massive metal doors, tightly shut. If they closed that while I was inside, there was no way I could even try to get out. Therefore, if I was dragged out here, I shouldn’t even let myself get put inside there.

I closed my eyes, trying to imagine, or simulate, the possible scenarios and what path I could take. Well, mostly my escape path, I didn’t imagine the fight and stuff just yet or how I would try to slip away from their grasp.

I opened my eyes and started walking down the hallway. If I were to escape, my only option was to go either to the elevator or the stairs? Hm, if I used the elevator, could they force it to stop? Or disable it? Surely they wouldn’t have time to disable it in time as I escape? Hm, I needed to think about that.

It was a bit of a long way to the elevator. Which was not ‌very good.

I could take the stairs, but if they move fast, I’d be boxed in. Furthermore, the elevator would be faster. And things were more analog, so I didn’t think they could disable it quickly.

But there must be something else I could do.

I glanced at the elevator cables… Would they be willing to snap them off just to stop me? Hm. I doubt falling while in the elevator would kill me when crashing to the bottom — yeah, I was that durable. But I would be quite injured. Still, all they needed was that I was alive. The problem would be for me if I broke a limb.

I let out a sigh. I shouldn’t underestimate everyone here. They were not normal humans. So it was best to overestimate them! But just thinking of all the possibilities made my head ache. The number of puppets I would need alone would be…

There must be a way to optimize all of this.

“Avenelle, there you are.”

I abruptly turned around to the person who had called me. I formed a smile. “Alaric, I didn’t expect to see you today.”

He casually shrugged. “Neither did I. I was busy with my business when I was ordered by Mother to call for you.”

I didn’t want to even hear what sort of business he was busy with. “What for?”

“For the Moon Blessing Ritual. We’re going together, right?”

I nodded. “And so you said to me. How are you more aware of the matter with the ritual than I, the conductor?” I also learned from him that he would be accompanying me. I thought I should be the first to learn about that, perhaps I could object or whatever. To be honest, Alaric would be a bit annoying to hold back from doing anything annoying.

“As your older brother, Mother said I should take care of most matters leading up to the ritual.”

I blinked in confusion. “Hah?!” I was in utter disbelief. “You?!” If we leave it all up to him, we’d be in a whole lot of trouble!

He covered his ears. “Hey now, don’t tell me you lack faith in me.”

I shook my head. “I have faith in you, dear brother… But I do have worries about how you do things.”

“Oh, come on, it’s just a bunch of guards and whatnot for the convoy or something.”

“That’s not all you should do. There are still a lot of preparations. And no bringing whores.”

“Uh! I’m not planning on doing such a thing…”

“My ritual shall have no pleasure activities for you.”

He groaned. “I know that. It’s yours, after all.”

“Good. But… I will trust you on the security. Leave the logistics to me.”

“Well, that’s good. But we still have a meeting with Mother shortly about the ritual.”

“Where?”

“Just follow me.”

“… Okay.”

I followed him, walking beside him.

“What were you doing lurking around here for anyway, little sister?”

“Hm?”

“I expected you to be in your room.”

“Just walking around, of course.”

“If you want to go outside, just ask. You can go out in the city if you want.”

“Yeah, but the disturbance and ruckus I’ll cause will be quite a bother to deal with.”

I would need a lot of security, my family wouldn’t allow just a few. It was a dangerous time for royals. Furthermore, people would gather around me asking for blessings or something.

“Well, if you say so. Finished my hot lady puppet just yet?”

“Ew, I am not making anything for you.”

Alaric clicked his tongue. “So stingy, little sister.”

“I would prefer it if you gave up on that.”

Alaric casually shrugged.

Eventually, we arrived at a meeting room. Alaric opened the door and let me in first. Inside was my mother. On the table was a large map on paper. I bowed my head to Mother.

“You two are finally here. Come here.”

I approached beside her and stared at the map.

“Avenelle, my daughter, you will be performing the ritual. I expect it will span two or three days, it depends on you.”

It would depend on whether I would be continuous in my work. Where after performing in one place, I would immediately travel to the next village or farm. It depended if I got tired and had to rest, or how far one destination was from the other. I would prefer to end it as soon as possible, but there was no telling what would happen.

“Understood.”

My mother started pointing at the marked locations on the map. “These are the farms that have been falling behind in their harvest.”

There were six locations. I frowned. “There appear to be more than last year.”

“Indeed. But that’s nothing strange, it often happens. The soil gets used more and more, and we can’t fall behind on our needs.”

This was going to take over two days, to my annoyance.

“I’m sorry, daughter. You’ll have to work harder this year.”

I nodded. “I understand, Mother.” Not like I had any other choice.

“That is why you need to take good care of your little sister, Alaric. No distractions.”

“Yes, Mother.”

“So, have you discussed what to do for the preparations?”

“I left the security matters to Alaric. I’ll handle the logistics or whatever else.”

My mother nodded. “It’s been a while since you performed the ritual, do you still remember it?”

I pondered ‌it. I could only recall from memory, but it was not like it was hard or something. “Yes.”

“Good. At any rate, it is best if you practice once more. People will be watching you, it would be embarrassing if there was a mistake or failure.”

I wryly smiled. “Of course, Mother.”

“And don’t forget the letters to send to these locations, let them know you’re coming for them.”

Ah, letters… Man, what a bother it is to write letters.

Thankfully, I had good penmanship.