“Is this the calm before the storm or have I actually managed to get a good hand for once?” I mumbled to myself while laying on one of the gardens and watching the silver-colored spinning orb in my hand. “Well, ignoring the lack of magic, I mean.”

  In the last few days, I got to know that my worries were, mostly, irrelevant. No one seemed to be wanting to bully me, or even seemed to notice that I was around, and nothing bad happened. I even seemed to have magic. Some magic I, and everyone else for that matter, had no idea how it worked, but magic nonetheless.

  From what I read, this world had a standard system of magic based on magical circles and elements, with the oddity of having way-too-many elements. These elements were based on what the spell did, and people had affinities that made them better at one or a few of them. Nothing special in relation to usual magical systems. The only real interesting thing was the fact that their goddesses seemed to directly speak with anyone who awakened their magic to teach the basics of their element.

  Of course, all this was based on accounts and books instead of experience. Awakening my magic gave almost no result at all, so I had no direct experience on what I heard. The most I got was the fact my mana didn’t fit any known magical affinity.

  Due to it, the king even got his archmage to try and teach me, but the guy just gave up under some excuse after a few days. Something about going to their big important tower to search about my ‘silvery element’, if I remember right. I then ended with nothing better to do and defaulted to hiding in one of the groves of the palace to read magic books while sometimes hearing people talk about the royal leech who should be sent back to her world.

  It made me notice how useful the fact that I could just understand this world’s languages was. I could just read and understand whatever I wanted just by seeing it. But more than that, if I wanted, I could focus on getting the meaning of every specific word one by one. It should even be possible to actually learn it, although I’m not sure if I had a reason to.

  More importantly, though, this got me to see dozens of spells and magical circles in search of one I could use, but it never got me much. By now, I even had some runes straight up memorized and could write my own spells if I wanted, but that also gave no results. Or actually, the only result was that I got confused on why you would need some god to teach magic if you could just read the recorded ones and try them out.

  That was the case just for normal human spells, though.

  Other than those, this world’s system also has enchantment, alchemy, and sorcery. The former two are the expected mix of engineering/chemistry and magic, but the other one is basically non-human magic with esoteric rules.

  And in this last category, there are these items known as artifacts, which I can actually use… like everyone else.

  From what I got, these items are like the highest grade of enchantment that could only be done by a now extinct race. Most of them are very weak or straight up useless, but they all can make things magic alone couldn’t and that’s quite something. Something that only meant I could use was the same useless toy-level items anyone else could, but better than nothing. Even if ‘better than nothing’ meant playing with a hand mirror that could create hand-sized immobile illusions since they wouldn’t let me borrow an actual useful artifact.

  By the way, playing, and fainting, with it made me very good at controlling my useless silver-colored mana. It also got me chronic migraine caused by some weird noise ringing in my head whenever I tried to use magic, but it was only another on top of the usual.

  Meanwhile, Mr. Hero was parading around with a group of strong people and beating demons down. He got the obvious ‘affinity to everything’ and then a bunch of absurd magical items, some being the actually useful artifacts, over an absurd mana capacity. Very much what I expected from him and a lot of achievements in less than two weeks of activity.

  “Would be nice if they didn’t ignore me all the time, though… Even if that’s the norm for me.” I mumbled after wondering for a little while. “Would be very bad if they just decided to send me back to my world because I’m too useless…

  “I doubt that would happen, milady.”

  “Who the…?! Wha!” I shouted out at the sudden appearance of another person in the area and then fell from the bench I was laying at. “Ouch…”

  “Are you well, milady?” The same person from before asked and I finally managed to notice that she was one of the castle’s maids. Some ten or so centimeters shorter than me, lightly tanned skin, caramel eyes, dark brown hair with a huge ribbon, and a nice face, even if somewhat lacking in care. Quite the beauty even if not under the perfect proportions I have. A little lacking in the chest, though, but looking further down makes this problem seem irrelevant.

  Either way, she didn’t seem unusual unless you noticed that her outfit was somewhat short for a maid and the huge ribbon on the head. Was almost like a maid cafe variant, if you ask me. And somehow, I felt like something was out of place here.

  “Sorry, I got a little startled there.” I managed to answer, taking the maid’s hand as she helped me get up. “Can I help you with something?”

  I got up, but kept myself as wary as possible. The palace grounds are absurdly big and this one gazebo is the most isolated and forgotten of them all. The only things around this area are random trees, this gazebo, and all the books and snacks I smuggled in. Finding someone here is weird. So much so, I wasn’t even paying attention to my surroundings and didn’t notice this person closing in.

  Worse even, I wasn’t in the proper condition to meet someone. I mean, did get some clothes to throw away my school uniform, and some shoes since I didn’t have mine, but I wasn’t using them well. I just threw the fluffy red dress, fixed my hair the best I could and went off just with the simple makeup I had in hand. In summary, I wasn’t even close to perfect looks or even the best looks I could manage with the limited resources I had.

  To think I would make such a blunder… Even worse with the fact I wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings at all. Not that I would let it show to the unknown maid. At least not until I could ensure she was just a maid and not someone dangerous.

  “I apologize for startling you, milady.” She bowed while answering, keeping a pokerface that made it hard to get a read on her all the while. “Would you mind coming with me for a moment? Your presence has been requested.”

  “My presence?” I raised an eyebrow mentally while controlling my expression to not show my wariness about the situation. “Would you mind explaining who or why?”

  It was a real question going through my mind, but the reason behind it right now was trying to buy time. The maid appearing got me on alert, and doing so made me notice that she wasn’t the only person around. She was the only one in clear view, but there was at least one other presence around, maybe more.

  “It would be easier to just show you, milady. I do believe you never met her.”

  “I see, I see…” I nodded while getting ready to use my secret weapon stored into my dress’ pocket. “Can I have your name then? And no need to call me ‘milady’ either.”

  “My name is Evelin Duckard, but not using… What?!” Her sentence got interrupted by me suddenly throwing some sand towards her face and then running off as fast as I could.

  It was a very mean trick and would be bad if I was wrong about being suspicious, but I couldn’t just risk it. People in this world are all very athletic, probably some side-effect of magic, so she would catch me very fast without some tricks. Worse than that, I could already hear noises in the woods and feel the other presence closing in.

  I had this whole area mapped out in my head, though. And since I had it mapped, there were more tricks for me to use. A wasp nest close by, a bunch of patches with uneven terrain, some fallen trees blocking things around, and even a shed that I could use to hide.

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  Planning for an escape was always important when in the middle of an unknown place. And just as planned, my pursuers were soon lost in the woods. Either that or they gave up after I jumped through a window and hid inside the castle.

  This place is way too big and way too good of a hiding spot for anyone to find me.

  An odd experience if you ask me, but I wouldn’t be taking my chances here. It’s always better to be safe than sorry, and luckily, I didn’t feel any presence hunting me for the rest of the day. I even managed to visit the library, get some food and take a very long bath without any problem. If that was some weirdo calling me out with a maid or an actual threat, that I would never know.

  Or so I thought.

  The same presence came back eventually. Or to be specific, it appeared again when I woke up the next day, waiting by my locked door. By the feeling I got, it was the same maid from before too, which likely meant she actually worked here, making the whole situation much worse. I could justify throwing sand at some weirdo, but it was harder to do so against someone who was just working. And that meant I would have to apologize if she ever saw me.

  Luckily again, I could just keep avoiding her forever.

  So, for the next few hours, I tried to do my usual routine while staying away from the dark-haired maid, which was harder than expected.

  To be honest, most people don’t even notice I’m around, so most people have no idea of what I do, and still, she seemed to be track me somehow. She felt, as respectfully as possible, almost like a hound, and I am the prey. Not that it was enough to get me.

  When she entered the kitchen, I was down in the cellar. When she got to the library, me and my books were up on the roof. When she tried to get me at the gazebo again, I was hidden in the wasp-infested tree. When night came and most people went to eat, I had all my food smuggled to the rooftops for a moonlight dinner.

  No matter how good Eve, as I came to call her, was, none could take the mighty Illia when she wanted to hide. I even waited until she gave up on waiting for me at the baths to finally try and enter, rushing to take my clothes off and wrap myself in a towel. This part wasn’t necessary, but I’m too used to doing so by now. It always feel wrong to just let everything be seen, especially without some make-up, even if it was unlikely anyone was around this late.

  Entering this place always makes me think about studying enchantments further after I find a way to use magic. The pond-like bathtub made of molded gray stone in an area filled with statues and watering holes was also quite the sight. It even has some hooks to the side that hold towels dry inside the room.

  One of my favorite places in the palace, even though I rarely used this one since it had the tendency of having people inside.

  “And now I have it all for me…” I nodded before looking around and finally moving to remove the towel, which I only barely failed to do before a sudden noise got me by surprise.

  “Think twice about that, dumbass!” The water of the tub splashed up and a figure suddenly tackled me down, stradling me on the bathroom’s floor. “Now, care to explain why the hells you keep running away from me?”

  There was an incredible beauty right on top of me for some reason. Silver short hair, reddish sharp eyes, a beautiful face, and wearing absolutely nothing, which was when I couldn’t focus on her face anymore. Made me take notice of the perfect skin, fit muscles, and almost as well-equipped body as the queen.

  I’m quite sure I didn’t get any training for this kind of thing, though…

  No, calm down. She said some things and is glaring at me, so there’s a reason for this and I know about it. Focus on that and try to answer first. At least there’s a towel between us.

  “S-so… Who exactly are you, please?” I managed to put a decent answer after a little while, punching my head into some focus while trying to not embarrass myself. “I’m quite sure we didn’t meet yet.”

  “Oho? You have the gall to say so, eh? I was sure you would panic and surrender right away.” The naked princess smuggly answered me, moving her hands away and letting me move a little. “The name’s Eleonora dan Prourene, and that should be enough to get a good idea if my hair didn’t say everything yet. A pleasure to meet you.”

  “I agree, but would like to choose a better place for meetings.” I answered, trying to control my weirded-out expression against the huge smile of the princess. “Also, it feels really weird to call you ‘Your Highness’ right now, so…”

  “Call me Elen then. I’m not fond of stuffiness anyways. And now that we’re done with the frivolities, it’s time to talk about the task I have for you, one you can’t refuse, of course.”

  “A task…? Like, you’ll talk about it right here, right now? For real?”

  “Do you have a problem with it?” Elen slitted her eyes and glared at me as if what I said was nonsense. And for a moment, all I could do was stare at her, then at the position she was, and then at the roof.

  To think I was sure to have this whole isekai thing figured out…

  “Would you mind letting me take a bath properly first? Pretty please.” I tried for the sake of common sense and sanity, which honestly didn’t seem like that much of a good shot. Still, as unexpected as it was, Eleonora stared at me one last time and then got up with her hands up.

  “Don’t try to flee, errr…”

  “Illia.” I helped since she didn’t seem to know my name, getting up after the whole ordeal. “The surname isn’t important and I don’t think you can make this one shorter, though.”

  “Illia is good enough. Don’t try to flee again, okay?” She turned to me with eyes that seemed to be glowing with a very dangerous glint that made her next words very believable. “Try again and I’ll be forced to do something even more radical.”

  She then got up and left as if that was all she wanted to do here, though I could still feel her presence, and now another one, waiting at the changing room. One that soon made itself clear by speaking with the leaving princess.

  “Was the plan a success, Your Highness?” I heard Eve’s muffled voice from the other room. “Although I could’ve solved it if you allowed more direct methods than only tracking.”

  “Of course it was. And I won’t let you start throwing spells and spears at a hero like this… Dad would kill me.” The princess answered in a matter-of-fact tone. “Though I got a bad position and couldn’t use the chance for much…”

  “Please refrain from scaring the heroine too much, Your Highness…”

  “Look who’s saying it.”

  Their conversation didn’t go anywhere decent after that and I had more things to worry about, so I instead hurried to finish, or actually start, my bath. The process ended a lot faster than I wanted and the fact people were around made me unable to actually lower the towel, but that was beyond the point. What mattered was that I managed to accomplish most of my goals for the day and, after kicking the princess and her maid out, put on my dress back and some minimal make-up.

  “You take a long time to get ready, eh? The sun will be rising soon.” Elen muttered right after I left the bathroom, cressing her brows as she looked at me. “Wait! Are you wearing make-up? At this hour?!”

  “It’s only proper to be at your best whenever you have something important to do.” I answered as if that was the main reason. “A princess should know this much, no?”

  “Yeah, maybe my sister…” She answered right as I noticed that she was wearing a set of light clothes that didn’t even cover her belly and a cloak that made her look like a rogue. “I’m partial to more practical clothes and customs.”

  I could also see some pieces of armor, a leather breastplate in particular, so her words seemed to be in a very literal sense. The number of daggers stowed around her set and the fact many of the pieces had colorful gems also made me believe she was quite the fighter. That, and they added to my initial conclusion that Elen was some sort of ranger or rogue.

  That didn’t matter much, though.

  “So…” I eventually said, trying to steer the talk back to what I wanted to know. “Would you mind telling me what you need now? I’m not sure if you heard, but the actual hero is the other guy. I only came as a tagalong without any power or fighting skill…”

  “Nah, that much I can see, but you’re still a hero, and that’s enough.”

  “We do need your position as a summoned hero, even if the skills for such are lacking.” Eve explained over the random disrespect from her liege. “What matters the most for this is your position and origin, and not what you can do.”

  Their words burned a little, but I could understand the point. Or at least, I could understand part of it. Why they needed the royal leech’s position was still beyond me.

  “I don’t get it…”

  “Well, I can explain better, but do you really plan on having this whole conversation without a seat and some tea?” Elen asked, but then smirked at whatever reaction I had and turned around before leaving us behind. “That was rhetoric, by the way.”

  “I do agree that would be a more comfortable method.” The maid agreed but continued by my side instead of heading ahead like Elen. “Also helps keeping unwanted attention away.”

  “I see… Well, I don’t really have much to do, so that’s fine by me.” I ended agreeing, ignoring that this whole situation was only getting weirder and weirder. “I do prefer cold drinks, though.”

  “Cheeky. That’s good.” Elen laughed from some steps ahead, without stopping at all. “We’ll make do. To my bedroom now! For actual business instead of anything more fun, though.”

  I wasn’t so sure if I got what she was saying, but to be honest, it didn’t matter. A chance to do something fun instead of wasting a fantasy world stuck into some books was good enough for me. That is, as long as it wouldn’t be a terrible experience or something too annoying…