"His Royal Highness, the Crown Prince, has arrived." The driver declared as they reached the gates.

The guards blocking the way saluted as they saw the Royal emblem that the driver had been given, and then opened the gates for them to enter.

The arrival of a carriage had put the whole staff into a frenzy, with last-minute cleaning and room preparation underway the moment that they had been spotted coming up the hill.

That was one of the other reasons that it was preferred for them to travel by carriage. It gave the staff time to prepare for their arrival when they weren't informed in advance.

A wing of dragons descending from the sky might be significantly faster, but with only a few minutes to prepare, it was impossible to have the entire castle up to standards before the guests arrived.

Though Karl likely wouldn't have noticed if they didn't do anything but change the bedding.

His version of clean and the Royal version of clean were far from being the same thing. He was used to the whirlwind that was the Guild House, where there were crafting materials and half-finished projects everywhere, or random people standing around to be used as mannequins for Rae's fashion designs.

The carriage stopped at the gates, and a group of maids came out to greet them, and get an update on the Royal Family members' preferences from the maids that they had brought along with them.

"You should call out your summoned guards now, so that the staff isn't surprised to find them. If they mistake them for intruders, it could cause a much larger incident." Lukas suggested when they exited the carriage.

"Good idea. Alright, I will bring out the basic security team for now." Karl agreed.

[MONKEYS! No, bring out the Elves. Nyx will love them. Yeah, Elf Kings and snake girls.] Cara insisted.

Karl smiled as he called out the Haint, his Epic Guard, who also looked like a form of Treant, four Lamia bodyguards, and a pair of Dark Elven Kings.

"These should do as a basic security force. I would call golems and Epic Golems as well, but they are larger, and not as well suited to being indoors. These few should be more than enough to secure our safety." Karl informed the Crown Prince, and by extension, the staff.

"What sort of summoning ability is that? I am familiar with Golems of multiple sorts, but none of these look like golems. Definitely not those two Dark Elves. The look they are giving the maids is concerning." Lukas noted.

"They won't harm them. They're quite good about keeping to their duties. But they are Dark Elven Kings. Epic Golems cloned from a Dungeon Boss. They are intelligent, capable of independent thought, and they can create their own strategies.

It makes fighting a lot easier.

The Lamia are a [Bodyguard] spell, and also intelligent, as is the Epic Guard.

The final one is actually a Haint. A living weapon grown from the claw of another of her kind. She's the strong silent type, but she's wickedly fast, and her skills are incredible to see in action."

Lukas nodded slowly as Rue ran over to greet the Lamia.

"That's an awesome spell. I like that they're not all big strong guys. Having cute girls as bodyguards is way better than having some smelly old dragon Elder." The Princess insisted.

The Crown Prince's guard chuckled quietly at her comment. Most of them were considered 'Elders' by Rue's definition, and they were all Dragons.

But it generally took a few centuries for a common dragon to reach the Mythic Rank, so there were no young people on the guard detachments for senior Royals.

"As long as they are capable, I don't mind if you want them as your personal guards for this trip. The ladies are quite friendly, and I am told that Lamia give the best hugs." Karl informed the Princess with a smile.

Lukas' hatchling turned so fast she almost fell out of her mother's arms, then began flapping desperately to get over to them.

You couldn't just tell it that there was a better source of hugs available and then not prove it.

Mildred sighed and let the little one fly over to the bodyguard, who cradled the little dragon in all four of her arms, with a smile.

The little one sighed happily. The Karl was right. Four arms for hugs was superior to any other hug.

But on closer examination, she realized she was still too small for a proper Lamia hug, as they had a whole lot of tail that could wrap around for bonus hug. That was a shame, she couldn't wait to grow up and find out for sure how good it could be.

However, staying awake was exhausting, and within minutes, she was asleep again, securely cradled in the Bodyguard's arms.

"You know, they actually make pretty good nannies. The extra arms let them hold wiggling babies securely, and when she's not fussing, they can use the extra arms to take care of tasks, or even defend against attacks." Mildred realized.

"Exactly. They're wonderful at their job. Don't worry too much about the little one, they will watch out for her when you're busy.

Now, should we let the staff here do their jobs and lead us to a suite? I'm sure that they're dying to prove that they managed to complete their tasks before we arrived." Karl teased the flustered new mother.

The staff eagerly motioned for them to follow, and led the groups to Royal Suites in the castle, each with far more space than even Karl thought that they might need.

The rooms were designed with dragons in mind, so the main rooms were five metres tall, large enough for all but the biggest of dragons to walk in from the central courtyard before transforming.

But there were also signs that said there were dens dug into the mountain, for dragons who wanted to relax or meditate in their scaled forms, a state that was nearly impossible to maintain within the capital.

There simply wasn't enough space for everyone to be in dragon form in a big city.

"Sir, this is your suite, If you need anything else, please let us know." The maid informed Karl as she stopped in front of a massive room.

"All I will regularly need is access to the Princess for training purposes. I am her tutor, and we're working on both magical and physical skill development.

I will also set up a temporary training area here. But that won't require your assistance, other than for food and beverages during the training sessions."

Cara nodded eagerly. She was ready to start training again. The bunny maids were great fun to play with, fast and smart. Of course, she wasn't trying to beat them up. It was more fun to try to capture and tickle them because they fought so much harder than they did to simply avoid injury.

Back in the Capital, the Palace was in a state of utter panic.

The attack had failed to kill two of the three maids who were in the illusionary domain. As Karl had suspected, when the illusion was broken they were deposited multiple rooms away, and then trapped by the falling stone.

But now they had been rescued, and they were quite emphatic about the fact that an unknown person had entered with a tray of supplies, and that had been the source of the explosion.

That person was wearing Palace servant livery, but neither of them had recognized him, and the man left before they had a chance to finish their tasks and speak to him.

Unfortunately, the third maid had entered right then, and that had triggered the explosion.

So, it was clear to the King, and to everyone else within the inner circle, that it was a deliberate attack, and that someone among the three noble ladies was the target.

Of all the bad ideas that lesser Royals had come up with during succession battles, this one had to be the very worst, in the opinion of the ministers.

But the more information they got, especially about how a Mythic Ranked Illusionary Domain had been dispelled by the nullification effect before the blast, the more they began to realize that this was no mere sibling squabble taken to extremes.

But if it wasn't, then it was something much worse.

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