“Let me go.” I wriggled around, failing to escape the guards that were restraining me.

“You destroyed a priceless relic!” One of them explained.

“And thank the Triunity that no one got seriously hurt, otherwise it would have been a one-way ticket to the Chasm for you!” The other chipped in.

Well, if nothing else, I had succeeded in saving my Lady, who was currently giving me concerned looks from across the ballroom. But, in doing so, I had also guaranteed myself a life in prison. And even if by some miracle I would manage to suck it up to either Rose, or the legitimate Duke Barclays, and somehow evade the prison sentence for kidnapping a man, and hijacking a train, there was no guarantee that June would see me as anything more than a terrorist ever again.

In other words, I was doomed.

With that realisation, I stopped fighting - or rather trying to because let’s be honest I managed to kick one of the men and he didn’t even react – the guards.

“Come on, to jail you go.” The guards started dragging me.

I waved June goodbye, with a sad smile. I hoped my expression did successfully convey how grateful I had been for an opportunity to know her, and to some extent how sad I was that she wasn’t into women. I knew we were never meant to be, social class, being the first of obstacles, but I hadn’t been ready to bid farewell to my spark of wishful thinking.

But, fate seemed to have other plans, as just as I was about to be dragged out, the main doors to the ballroom slammed open, and a servant announced:

“His Imperial Majesty, Basil Harvard.”

I turned my head, in awe, just like everyone else in the room. Basil was gorgeous, with long flowy blond hair, gem-like blue eyes, and a square face that wasn’t too angular. Had he been alive in my world during the 1940s, his face would have probably been plastered all over Berlin on propaganda posters.

Muttered whispers were quickly replaced with a respectful silence, as the crowd waited for Basil to speak. Although I held no attachments one way or the other to the man, I also fell under his spell.

When he’d deemed that his guests had given him enough attention, he spoke:

“Under normal circumstances, I would welcome you to the annual Capital City ball. However, I cannot ignore the issue at hand. I am not talking about the riots in Volgrad’s towns, but rather the broken chandelier spread across the floors of my palace. Who caused such a disturbance?”

A few people glanced in my direction, but it seemed overall that my tempering with the mana-oil switches had gone unnoticed. Which made sense, considering all I did was pour wine over the switches, and then press two of them at once, just like it had been described in the novel. In ‘Sumer Flowers’ this was done by a member of staff who was cleaning up after Rose had “spilt” wine on a technomage from the Genkh dukedom. June had not only been the only one to get injured but also the only one to pass away in that incident, as she was talking to the legitimate heir to the throne at the time and pushed him out of the way.

Walking through all of that, in this moment of relative calmness suddenly made me come up with a plan.

“I did.” I stated. Then realising that my voice had not carried enough, I repeated, “I did!”

The room, which had once again filled with whispers, went quiet as people’s attention got split between me, and the pissed-off expression of Emperor Basil.

“A maid?” He asked, bringing silence over the crowd once more.

He wasn’t wrong, as I was still wearing my work outfit, having not deemed getting changed high enough of a priority. But, more importantly, I did not how to reply to this. Not only did I not want for the high society to remember me as ‘the maid who broke the chandelier’, but I also didn’t want to drag Lady June into this, as the identity of my employer would get brought up eventually.

So, I ignored Basil’s words, and went on with my plan:

“You speak as if you are not an illegitimate heir to the throne, who killed his entire family just to-”

“Enough!” A female voice intervened.

I once again followed the gaze of the crowd, as my eyes landed on none other than Rose Pinkstar herself. She was just as beautiful as the book had described, and evidentially just as cunning, as she’d interrupted me right before I’d had the time to reveal hers and Basil’s true motives.

“No, I think we should let her speak.” Lady June put a hand over the shoulder of Rose, and by the looks of it squeezed hard enough to make her shut up.

“I do not. I will not tolerate vandalism and violence. Take the girl away!” Basil decisively interjected.

The guards shrugged, but before they could resume dragging me out, I yelled:

“The scroll of Thessirée!”

The crowd turned to Basil, whose expression had frozen in one of shock and anger. There was only one person in this room who knew about the scroll, or so Basil had thought. In reality, there were four, me included, and I was going to make him aware of that fact.

“Do you really thing the most brilliant magician of our generation would simply fall into your arms, enamoured by what, your genocidal tendencies? No, Rose Pinkstar,” I gestured towards the woman, as much as the two guards restraining me would allow me to, “Has come here to take possession of it, one way or the other, so she could use its formulas to revolutionise the man-oil industry.”

“That is nonsense!” Basil shouted. “Not only do you insult my reign, but also my intelligence. And the honour of an innocent lady!”

His already loud voice echoed in the ballroom, making me fold back, and take a tiny step back, pressing myself against the guards. But, scared or not, I had to continue:

“You’re right. I’m not calling you stupid, since you didn’t fall for her lies, just for her looks.” I tried to sound confident. “Duke Cedar on the other hand fully believes that she will use those formulas to make mana-oil more accessible, so that even the poorest citizens will be able to use air-coolers and ride trains.”

By this point, either the guards had gotten bored of holding me, or they’ve seen the reaction of the Emperor and decided that maybe I wasn’t all that bad. I stepped forth, turning towards Rose, who seemed disconcerted with the whole ordeal.

“And she, Rose, only wants power. She wants to control both the fake and legitimate rulers of this dukedom, and she’s keeping one of them in check with promises of helping the masses, and the other by feeding him Tache extract to keep him in check.”

“Rose?” Basil turned towards the woman as well, his voice suddenly filled with doubt. “You said they were medicine for my …” He didn’t finish that sentence.

“Darling, you’re really going to believe this random girl?”

“I’m not done!” I yelled, drawing attention to myself once more. They were free to hold those conversations in the privacy of their bedroom, some other time. “Cedar Barclays is the rightful heir to the throne. Not only because he didn’t murder his whole family to get there, but also because he’s the holder of the ring of Tournesol, that shines only in the presence of true royal blood.”

The audience gasped, and I took this as a sign to make my exit. Basil was fuming, Rose was trying to make her way towards me, avoiding the crowd and the shards of glass on the floor. June had vanished, which I didn’t blame her for.

“Hold that heretic!” Someone whose voice I did not recognise yelled from the crowd. “She can say what she wants about the bastards ruling the secular world, but she shall not speak the name of the great sage Thessirée in vain!”

Guards immediately blocked the door, and I was cornered once again. I spun around, maybe hoping that I could make a run for a different exit, but Rose and Basil had both made their way towards me, one having picked up a mana-medium and the other a sword along the way.

“Well, fuck me,” I swore under my breath.