We passed through the castle's main gate without any problems - the guards just let us pass the moment they saw Arenia in the lead. But... man was I surprised when I walked into the castle grounds. A large group of servants formed two lines on either side of the walkway leading up to the castle's main entrance. They bowed as we walked past them - damn, I had forgotten what it was like to be treated like this already.
The luxurious main door of the castle opened into a long corridor with a red carpet running all the way down it. Kind of luxurious... but then again, this was my first visit back home in almost a decade. My father was bound to prepare something like this anyway... I sighed and continued down the corridor towards the large double doors at the other side. Through the doors was the audience room, where the commoners could have audiences with the King. Today, the place was empty for obvious reasons.
The doors opened by themselves as I approached to reveal a large room with a tall platform on the side of the room opposite the door. A small throne - a mere replica of the larger one in the actual throne room was on the platform, and my father was sitting on it flanked by several royal guards in full ceremonial armour. More of those guards were in the room, arranged in two rows from the door to the platform.
My father looked much older than I had imagined - he was almost hunchbacked at this point, and every strand of hair on his head had turned white. Wrinkles ran across his face and hands, with the rest of his body covered up by the royal regalia. He stood up as I approached and forced a smile - I could tell he was in pain...
"My daughter... you have returned!" he exclaimed. The royal guards saluted smartly as I approached the platform.
"It's been a long time... father," I smiled, kneeling down.
"Please, stand. You sure have grown... dear Traya."
"How are you doing? Arenia told me about your... illness," I stood up.
"I'm still kicking, as you younger people would say," he joked. Yeah, he used to be quite the joker...
"It's good to hear that... but are you sure you should be up and about?"
"Nonsense! What kind of father would I be if I were absent during my daughter's return in almost a decade?"
"You're... not mad that I left?"
"We must all learn many things during our journey through life. Staying penned up in the castle is no way to learn - your mother was the one who insisted on that. I believe in more practical learning - and I can certainly see that you have excelled in that sense. You carry a certain aura about yourself now - an aura of knowledge, of strength."
"... Thanks, father."
"Now, we must prepare for the ball tonight," he clapped his hands.
"Ball?"
"Of course, it's to celebrate your return, dear Traya!"
"Haha... I guess I really have no choice then."
"Good!" he smiled.
At that, a large group of servants in maid and butler outfits appeared out of nowhere.
"Take my daughter and her companions to the royal quarters! Arenia, you have done well, so you can just relax at the ball tonight."
"Y... yes, Your Majesty!"
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"I was kind of expecting this... but it's still kind of hard to believe I'm attending another ball," I sighed as I sat down on the lavish bed... the same bed I had used to sleep on all those years ago. This was my room - and surprisingly, it had been kept nice, clean and tidy all the time I was gone. Almost nothing had changed since I left too - the furniture, the placement of various items... everything was exactly the same although the bed smelled suspiciously new. Maybe it was the mattress.
"It's... hard to believe I'm in your room..." Arenia muttered.
"Mama's room!" Luticia laughed.
"It's only a room in the end. Too bad Scotty had to go to a different one."
"He's a guy after all. Not surprising."
"I suppose... but I still end up missing him a bit. So we're supposed to wait here until night when the ball begins?"
"Not really waiting here. Surely you haven't forgotten how long the royal and noble families take to prepare for a ball?"
"... It's not like I have much to prepare."
"Oh yes you do. There's the problem with your clothes - you can't expect to attend a ball in your armour like that. And you need jewellery, pedicure..."
"All right, all right! I'm never going to get used to living like a princess again..."
"You'll be Queen soon, whether you like it or not."
"I did say I'm not going to stay here for long."
"Regardless, you have to take up the mantle. You're the only one left."
"Look, Arenia, shut up."
"... Okay."
I headed to the door opening out onto the balcony and pushed it open. The door swang outwards as I walked out onto the balcony. The sea breeze blasted me in the face soon after - my balcony overlooked the sea while still giving me a very nice view of the city. Down on the streets, I could see a large crowd gathering at the bridge leading to the castle... all straining to get a look at me. Several binoculars glinted in the sunlight - ah well, most of them had already seen me anyway.
I gazed at the crowd for a few moments and smiled. Nothing really happened for a few seconds, after which a loud cheer arose from the crowd. I turned around and walked back into my room, closing the door behind me.
To my surprise, there were already a lot of servants in the room, busying themselves with various stuff - most notably, they were... transferring a lot of dresses to the wardrobe, which was really a large room entirely filled with clothes that was connected to my room.
"Your Highness, please select your attire for tonight," one of the maids bowed.
"Er, all right..." I walked into the wardrobe room. Every time I walked into this place, I always got amazed by the sheer amount of clothes in here - there was everything from one-piece dresses to rather... flashy-looking swimsuits, elaborate socks and shoes and even the occasional tiara and cloak. In the past, it had been filled with smaller clothes for my younger body - but now it was filled with clothes that were more my size.
I let my armour meld back into my body and selected a dress with an open top that was decorated with various gems - most of them rare. Several servants immediately took it off my hands and fluidly threw it around me. They also tied the strings on the back holding the dress together in a matter of seconds, but...
"Tight..." I squirmed uncomfortably. No... it wasn't the waist... it was the bust. Hell of a time to have my oversized proportions getting in the way. The dress practically burst open in front after a while.
"Is there anything... more my size?" I tentatively asked.
"Your Highness... these are the biggest dresses we could find."
"Swell."
I looked down at the torn dress I was wearing... so this was the biggest size they had? I wouldn't be able to wear any of them...
"But your Highness, you should at least put on some underwear first," the maids advised.
"I suppose..." I sighed. I had gotten too used to walking around wearing my armour underneath normal clothes that I had completely forgotten about that.
But honestly, their choice of underwear was simply amazing. Everything seemed to be covered in gems or made of some kind of rare material - eventually I picked a set that seemed to be made out of some kind of rare sheep wool that was good for my body, according to the servants. It was the only one that fit anyway - it actually seemed to resize itself to suit my proportions. It was pretty comfortable, but otherwise it was too soft to cover up the shapes.
"But isn't there anything you can do about finding me a dress?" I asked.
"The magical dresses should be arriving soon. We took longer to procure them," a servant replied.
Moments later, several servants burst into the room carrying several dresses that looked much different from the other ones here - they sparkled brighter than the gemmed dresses somehow. Magical, huh...
The servants placed the dresses on several special hangers in the middle of the room and bowed at me before leaving as quickly as they had appeared. I walked over to the dresses to get a better look at them...
One dress was red-coloured, apparently made out of dragonskin - it even featured ornaments made out of dragon teeth. Definitely one of the more exquisite ones. Another one was green and yellow, featuring a scaly pattern with the scales arranged to show the emblem of the Rygalian royal family on the chest. One of the dresses even appeared to be cloud-themed - featuring a basic blue pattern with a misty cloud for a scarf around the neck.
There was also a black, glittering dress with a dangerous look to it and a white, slightly more traditional one made out of a semi-transparent material that seemed to have no weight at all. "By the way, how magical are they?"
"They change to suit the wearer. The same enchantment is applied to all of them, but they have different individual enchantments."
Interesting... I decided to try the dragon one on first. The moment the servants finished tying the back straps, the dress just split down the chest. "... I guess changing to suit the wearer doesn't mean they can change size..." I murmured. Sadly.
It was the same with the rest of the dresses, at least until the white one - the only one that could fit me, like with the underwear. It was a similar case - the dress wrapped around me and I could barely even feel the weight as it did. The sleeves shortened to slightly above my elbows, and the back of the dress disappeared together with the part on top of the chest - my underwear seemed to vanish all of a sudden, replaced with a feeling of nothingness - like I wasn't even wearing anything on me at all, even though I could clearly see the dress... although it wasn't doing a good job of hiding my curves - rather, it seemed to be making them look a little bigger. It had turned opaque after I put it on so it wasn't see-through anymore.
Well, at least it looked decent. "Your Highness, you look fabulous," the maids applauded.
"I guess..." I turned around a bit to get a better look at myself before one of the maids appeared with a mirror.
But really... the maids weren't lying. I hadn't gotten to look this good in ages - owing to how hard it was to get a good dress my size. Even if I did have such a dress, I had nothing to wear it to because of my job. Victory parties were crude - nothing as sophisticated as an actual ball.
"So have you decided, your Highness?" one of the maids asked.
"Yeah. I can't wear anything else after all."
The maids nodded and quickly stripped the dress off and gave me a white robe emblazoned with the symbol of the Rygalian royal family on the back. "We have prepared a bath for you, your Highness," they bowed. Honestly, it really felt odd being waited on again after so many years...
"You two done yet?" I looked at Arenia and Luticia. Both appeared to be done picking - Luticia had taken the black magical dress I couldn't wear - it had somehow fixed itself and I had to admit, it looked good on her - showed off her curves and all. Wait, was that a bad thing or a good thing? Oh well. Arenia had taken a normal red dress - nothing too special.
"Hmm? Yeah, I'm done," Arenia said, quickly taking off the dress.
"Me too!" Luticia said, taking off hers as well.
"Then let's hit the bath," I smiled.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
And as usual... I was amazed at the scale on which the royal bath had been built. It was the size of a two-storey house, and was elaborately decorated with golden statues - the main bath in the middle had two lion heads with diamond-set eyes spewing water into it from their mouths. The bath didn't even use normal water - instead, it used a green cleansing goo that could only be created magically - and of course, it was dead expensive.
I slowly lowered myself into the bath - the goo seemed to be trying to cover me entirely as I did. Low tendrils of sorts were extending out of it and attempting to climb up my skin, but were too weak to go too high. "Is... this safe?" Arenia touched the goo tentatively. It responded to her touch by rapidly moving up her hand. She shrank back a bit, but the goo held tight and didn't break.
"It's safe... I've been in this before," I nodded, submerging myself in the water to chest level. My entire body was getting rather ticklish at this point...
Arenia hesitantly climbed in as well, while Luticia jumped in without a second thought. I sat back and relaxed for a while, trying to ignore the itchy feeling. It eventually dampened out as the goo finished its job. Luticia and Arenia were... scratching. "Don't scratch - it's just the goo," I said.
"Feels mighty suspicious if you ask me," Arenia muttered, but stopped anyway.
"Relax... bathing like this is actually better than using normal bath water," I sighed. The goo was nice and warm... just at the perfect temperature to bathe at. I looked around for soap out of habit - finding none, I remembered that the goo already had soap in it anyway. I immersed myself entirely in the goo and fought my natural instinct to hold my breath - the goo was permeable to air anyway, and was enchanted so it wouldn't enter my body at all.
Obviously it wasn't very often I got to relax like this, and I eventually half-fell asleep while still submerged. Arenia got a little panicked and pulled me up though, interrupting my relaxation time. "The goo's breathable... don't worry, it won't get in your body," I explained. She still didn't seem that reassured and stayed beside me the whole time.
I couldn't really help noticing that I was the biggest here in terms of bust size - Luticia was following a size or two behind, while Arenia was about 4 sizes short. Really, Luticia was seriously overdeveloped for her age. At any rate, she was going to end up as a serious guy magnet in the future when she was fully grown-up. I reminisced about my own past as I pondered Luticia's future - I never really got the chance to enjoy being a guy magnet before obtaining my Shadow Angel powers. Sure, my silver hair back then did draw attention - very few people had silver hair, but besides that I wasn't really that well off in the looks department. And after that, so many things happened until I ended up in this form...
"Sometimes I just find myself... envying you," Arenia sighed.
"For?"
"So many things... You're the heroine who repelled the Shadow invasion all those years back, and yet you're also a princess and a mother of such a nice daughter... And you're known for your looks too... not only that, you're even a Queen Shadow Angel."
"Well... I only started looking this way after I got the majority of my powers. Lots of stuff happened... by the way, did you tell my father about me having turned into a Shadow Angel and all that?"
"I did. He doesn't seem to mind it..."
"That explains why he didn't act strangely or anything I guess."
"He didn't say much when I mentioned Leon either."
"I just hope he's all right with me now being married..."
"I'm sure he understands. He's your father after all."
"I'm not feeling particularly reassured, but I really want him to let me stay with Scotty..."
"Can't really help you with that. Just keep on believing."
"Thanks."
I stood up and stretched for a moment - the goo just slid off me as I did. I could practically feel my skin glistening in the light from the magical lamps lighting up the room - it felt so much smoother now and I was feeling particularly refreshed. It felt like... an hour since we had entered the bath already. Luticia was swimming around - the bath was deep enough for that and the goo wasn't too dense to be slimy and all. Really, the goo felt more like water than goo. At least that was one redeeming factor - most forms of goo were disgusting anyway.
Well, at least it wasn't salt water. If it was salt water, I'd have turned into my Siren form and probably destroyed the bath - my tail in Siren form was almost 12 metres long already and it was kind of hard to control it since I could barely keep the whole thing in my field of vision while moving. Not to mention my tail was a little too strong for its own good.
"It's almost time for lunch..." I looked at a large clock hanging on the wall opposite the entrance.
"Maybe we should get out now. I think I've... had enough of this goo bath thing," Arenia suggested, quickly climbing out of the bathtub.
"Lute, come on!" I called. Luticia climbed out of the bathtub as well and ran over to me - luckily the floor wasn't slippery, or she'd probably have slipped.
As we walked back into the changing room, more servants appeared with fresh changes of clothes - er, mine appeared to be quite different... it was a full dress, and the servants had even brought a tiara...
"Your Highness, you're scheduled for a tour around the city after this until evening. We will have lunch at one of the city's high-class restaurants - we've made reservations already. In the evening, you will have dancing classes taught by a famous instructor to refresh your dancing until night, where you will attend the ball."
My jaw dropped.
"Wait... I just returned not too long ago, gimme a break..."
"His Majesty insists that you go out and meet the citizens. After all, they have not seen you in years."
"Can't that wait until tomorrow?"
"His Majesty has deemed it so. I am afraid we cannot disobey his orders."
"Aw man..." I groaned as the servants started dressing me - I noted that the dress had been modified to fit me, and it had an open top... not that I minded it. I was mildly annoyed when they got to work on brushing my hair and everything - I didn't even need it! But I didn't say anything and just stood there in silence as the servants did their job.
*Incomplete*
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