Horeo teleported in front of Veo and Patishi's room and knocked on the door and waited…

"…?

"

Since there wasn't any response he tried to open it, but it turned out to be locked.

"Oh, great, now I have to…

"

He clicked his tongue, but then he realized that since it was the evening, his attendants would be in the kitchen preparing supper.

So he teleported there.

The kitchen staff was too busy to even notice the sudden appearance of the golden-haired youth and just continued preparing meals for each and every student who didn't have an attendant on their own.

The first person that the first prince saw was his ex-attendant Teo, the brown-haired girl in a butler's uniform who was working hard preparing meals for Miriette and Zoemi.

She also happened to be wearing the earring that Patishi told him about.

"Hmm…?

"

As if she felt that somebody was watching her, Teo looked over her shoulder straight in Horeo's direction.

"Ah…!

"

And completely froze at the sight of the gold-haired boy.

|That earring really looks eerily the same as the one I gave Veo… but… there's something disturbing about it…|

Horeo frowned and Teo hurriedly turned back to her work a bit paler than before.

Then the first prince saw his current attendants, both of who were showing their backs to Teo, and they didn't notice their master because of it.

Patishi was moving her hands as if she was playing an instrument and Veo was sitting on a high stool just a bit away from her, she had a pyramid of some sort of pastries next to her which she was taking one by one and munching on freely while the younger girl did her magic.

Horeo recognized the pastries as apple bunny buns.

He didn't mind them and would eat them if given but apples were a bit too bland for his taste.

|…She's sad…|

Seeing Veo seating there all slouched and eating treats made Horeo frown more angrily – he realized this recently but he severely disliked when Veo and Patishi were uncomfortable or sad – especially because neither of them wanted to tell him the reason even though he could solve their problems without breaking a sweat.

Whatever the problems might have been.

Still, in the first place, how could the first prince be so sure about his attendant's mood even without seeing her face?

Well…

Having Veo around made him learn to recognize her different moods just by the overall body language – which was very helpful since she usually tried to keep the emotionless expression, and only dropped her guard when she tried to tease him – which surprisingly she stopped doing recently.

…or maybe not that surprising…

Horeo furrowed his brows glancing between the two quarreling sisters.

"…

"

Besides the obvious butler–maid uniform choice, the two of them differed in jewelry – in particular, Veo wasn't wearing the earring Horeo gave her while Teo clearly had the counterfeit one on.

The first prince sighed and shook his head, then he walked towards the two attendants and put his hands on their heads.

"Eh!?

"

"Mufuh!?

"

Needless to say, they both let out confused noises as he did so.

Patishi turned towards Horeo and blushed at the sight and Veo looked at the prince shocked, with an apple bunny bun's butt sticking out of her mouth.

"We're going to the castle right now. Leave things here for others to clean up, you can take the buns with you though.

"

The last part he said to Veo, who quickly gulped down the rest of the apple bunny bun and blushed almost as deeply as Patishi.

"Th-then I must…!

"

Patishi put down the knife she was holding and looked like she was about to run to their room to pack some things or maybe to change.

Veo, who knew what was about to happen only took the plate with the stacked pastries and waited.

"No time. Just stay here. But first…

"

The first prince stopped Patishi from going anywhere and turned his head to the right.

"Teo. Where did you get that earring?

"

"!!!!

"

He asked coldly and Teo flinched at his words.

"I…

"

She certainly didn't feel good talking to her previous master, after all, he was always trying his best at being a good master but she just decided to leave his service, after all, that he did for her and her sister…

"I just… I don't…

"

She was tripping over her words and couldn't put a sentence together.

"It has a weird aura around it – if you insist on wearing it, you should at least show it to a teacher or something, it might be bad news.

"

"…

"

Horeo spoke in a serious voice, making the short girl lower her head while raising her hand to hide the earring.

"It's not an order, but it's for your own good – don't forget there are malicious spells in this world.

"

The first prince declared before disappearing into a golden flash together with Patishi and Veo.

Teo just stood there with a complicated expression.

"…I… I think that I don't want to do that…

"

Teo murmured to herself, tugging on the earring that kept getting heavier and heavier as if it was a ripening fruit.

What would happen if it became ready to harvest…?

——–

Horeo, Patishi, and Veo appeared out of the golden flash right into Horeo's room in the castle.

"Whoaah…!

"

Patishi, who was nowhere near the king's castle in her life before, not even mentioning the private rooms of the royalty, gasped in awe.

"Veo, show Patishi around, I have to go talk with my father…

"

Horeo said to the short brown-haired attendant and turned towards the door.

"M-My prince…!

"

But he was stopped by Patishi walking up to him with an embarrassed expression.

"You don't have to worry about anything, if you have any questions just ask Veo, you should already know that she's very reliable. I'll try to get back to you two as soon as possible.

"

"…!

"

Horeo said but Patishi approached him regardless.

"But… My prince, you haven't eaten anything yet, so you should at least…

"

"…?

"

The first prince raised his brows as he saw Patishi holding up the apple bunny bun right up to his face.

"Oh! Thank you!

"

The gold-haired boy said with a big smile and just bite into the bunny bun, picking it up like that straight from the younger girl's hands, and walked out of the room.

"!!!!

"

Patishi stopped moving – and her face became red like a ripe tomato.

"Hehehe…

"

Veo inched to her fellow attendant and nudged her in the side.

"See, I told you that feeding our prince isn't such a hard task, you should find a more bold dream now.

"

She smiled seeing how moved the younger girl became from the rather simple action.