The meeting between the second princess and the king did not end until the afternoon.

"Ugh... I'm starving to death! That old bastard doesn't even care about food..." Tiran dragged her feet slowly back to her quarters in the palace, leaning against the wall and gritting her teeth.

"Stop talking about food. At least you managed to find something to eat. I haven't had anything since breakfast!" Aya complained, her face pained. Her stomach felt like a grinding machine, and she was so hungry that she felt like she could eat a whole cow.

"Let's have Mimi make something to eat later." Tiran suggested. The head maid's cooking skills were excellent, on par with a professional chef. But speaking of which, where was Mimi?

They had walked through the long corridor of their residence and were about to reach their rooms. With Mimi's dedicated and meticulous personality, she should have been waiting at the entrance. But she still hadn't appeared.

With this doubt lingering in her mind, Tiran pushed open the door to her bedroom. There, she saw Mimi leaning against the wall, her head drooping, wearing a desolate expression. She looked pale, as if she had suffered a terrible blow.

"Mimi, are you okay?" Tiran felt a pang of pity seeing her maid in such a state.

Mimi didn't respond, still standing motionless by the wall, her gaze vacant.

Tiran approached her and gently tugged at her clothes. It was then that the dispirited maid finally snapped out of it, forcing a terrifyingly stiff smile and saying, "Your Highness, welcome back."

Tiran was horrified by the smile, as chilling as a smiling dog. And the effect was even more pronounced on Mimi.

"Mimi, snap out of it!" Startled, Tiran immediately slapped her to bring her back to her senses. Only violence could bring Mimi's soul back into her body at a time like this.

The slap finally worked, and Mimi came back to her senses. She shook her head vigorously, trying to clear her mind. She looked at Tiran with a confused expression and asked, "Your Highness? When did you come back? Weren't you supposed to accompany Aya to duel with that knight?"

Was she completely out of it? Her memories were all jumbled up!

"Mimi, what on earth have you been through?" Tiran asked seriously. After all, Mimi was her exclusive maid, and she wouldn't tolerate anything done to her maid.

"Experienced?" Mimi tried to recall for a moment, and then her body trembled. Her expression suddenly became aggrieved. "I was disliked."

"What... what happened?"

"I was disliked by that child again..." As soon as she mentioned this, Mimi's entire being became gloomy. She almost crouched back to the corner, returning to her pale state.

"That child? Juju?" Tiran blinked. Come to think of it, she did ask Mimi to take care of Juju while she accompanied Aya to fight. But this reaction... could it be that Mimi really liked children very much?

In another part of the room, Aya was still searching for the missing Juju when she suddenly got attacked. Her vision turned black, and her head became incredibly heavy. Her neck was almost snapped, and she fell onto the big bed.

Only after picking up the thing on her head did she realize it was a little fox-eared loli. Aya's face was full of black lines. "What are you doing..."

"Jiu! It's because Jiu Jiu misses mommy!" The little loli happily waved her small hands, wanting to be hugged.

"I've told you not to call me mommy... Can't you call me brother?" Aya sighed. "By the way, why did Mimi become like that?"

"Jiu, that mean person who bullied mommy wanted to get close to me, but Jiu Jiu avoided him! Isn't Jiu Jiu amazing?" Juju flipped on top of Aya and put her little head in front of her.

Maybe it was because of the influence of the alchemy magic circuit. In just over ten days since Juju was born from the stone egg, she had already learned how to talk and communicate normally. Unfortunately, even though Aya asked her to call her brother instead, Juju stubbornly insisted on using "mommy" as her address.

As for addressing Tiran, she inexplicably started calling her "daddy." This was the most unacceptable part for the head maid. It was clearly I who was here first, whether as a maid or fighting alongside Her Highness, I was here first! Why should this new dumb dragon be so intimate with Her Highness? And now she even has a child! (Confused)

"Oh well, let's not talk about that for now. Mimi, please prepare some afternoon tea. Instead of tea and pastries, I want a big steak with double-sided fried eggs, bacon mashed potatoes, and some ice cream on the side."The stomach growled loudly, and Tiran suddenly remembered the issue of food and warmth. Ah... my stomach feels like it's about to perforate from hunger...

"Um um, beg for food!" Aya held onto Chirpy and nodded repeatedly. He even fought with Eromar, which consumed a lot of energy, and now he was feeling a bit dizzy, probably due to low blood sugar.

"Your Highness, are you kidding?" Mimi sighed. "Instead of tea and snacks, you might as well just say you want dinner."

"That works too. I was trying to be a bit more subtle," Tiran shrugged, "Anyway, hurry up. I'm really hungry."

"Besides the issue of the contents, don't you think this is not the right time, Your Highness?" Mimi massaged her temples, oh, her head hurt. Couldn't the prince understand a bit? "Furthermore, all the food you want is high in calories and greasy. Can't you understand the hard work I put into calculating your daily nutritional intake standards?"

"Hmm..." Tiran scratched his head. He realized that he never paid attention to these things before. He always felt satisfied after every meal, so he didn't think much about it. Did Mimi calculate it all for him on purpose?

"Therefore, Your Highness, give up this unrealistic fantasy! As long as I'm your maid, I will never allow such a thing to happen!" Mimi suddenly forgot that she was just acting like she was about to die half a minute ago and switched to lecture mode.

Normally, Tiran would listen to her. But this time, it was about the issue of food and warmth, and not having lunch was really uncomfortable.

"No, I still want it. Steak, ice cream... just a feast," Tiran insisted stubbornly.

...

In the evening, the table in the dining room was filled with various empty plates, and two satisfied individuals sat back in their chairs, stretching lazily.

Originally, Mimi only planned to cook something simple like soup noodles or fried rice in the kitchen, but she couldn't resist the continuous pleading of the prince and his servant, so she kept adding dish after dish until it became a grand feast. In the end, the table was piled high with empty plates like a small mountain.

Although Mimi knew that someone with the prince's abilities wouldn't be affected much by overeating or skipping meals for a long period of time, she couldn't help but feel a deep sense of failure as the head maid.

Maybe she had spoiled the prince too much?

"Your Highness, why did it take so long to see His Majesty?" After hesitating for a moment, Mimi asked the question that had been bothering her since she stood by their side. She knew Tiran and Guranxiu's personalities quite well. They both hated anything troublesome, so it was a miracle for them to spend fifteen minutes on a formal audience.

"...We were playing hide and seek with that old man," Tiran said with a slight stiffening of his grip on the teacup, feeling a bit embarrassed.

"I'm sorry, did I mishear that or did you misspeak?" Mimi's eye twitched slightly.

"Playing... hide and seek."

"I understand, you must be joking," Mimi's eye twitched even more.

"It's true, you can ask Aya," Tiran said seriously.

"Um, it's true," Aya nodded. Chirpy, who was sitting on his lap, also nodded along, looking silly.

After that, the head maid fell into a minute-long silence, followed by a sense of relief. Ah, what was I expecting? This is the Elisen Royal Family, with King His Majesty and Princess Her Highness... With their personalities, maybe it's not so impossible?

"There's actually a profound reason behind it..." Tiran noticed the expression in Mimi's eyes and felt like she had misunderstood something. He wanted to explain it in detail but was interrupted.

"Your Highness, you don't need to say it. I understand now," Mimi said.

"Why do I feel like your understanding might be different from the actual situation?" Aya hugged Chirpy and felt that something was off.

The other maids had already come in to clean up the empty plates from the table and put them on a small cart to be taken outside. Just then, Justice walked in from outside with a slightly surprised expression. He didn't expect the princess to be here. There was still some time before dinner.

"Sir Justice, you've worked hard," Mimi clasped her hands in front of her maid's apron and greeted him with a slight bow. Justice had just arrived at the palace and didn't rest like the other maids. As the steward of the Gladstone Castle, he had to go through the inventory of a large batch of goods brought, including the New Year's celebration gifts for His Majesty the King, and personally store them in the warehouse. He also had to handle the handover procedures and a series of troublesome matters."It's okay. As long as everything goes smoothly, that's all that matters. It's my responsibility as the Lord Chamberlain of Gilliast." Justice nodded slightly in acknowledgement, then greeted Tiran with a bow. In his ice-blue eyes, there was a hint of meticulous seriousness.

The others in the dining room hesitated to make eye contact with Justice. Oh, okay, such a serious attitude makes certain slackers and bystanders feel uneasy.

"Oh, by the way, Your Highness, Prince Blade will arrive in the capital in three days and has specially invited you to have dinner with him." Justice took out a beautifully designed invitation card from his pocket and handed it to Tiran.

"Blade? Older brother?" Tiran picked up the invitation card, which clearly bore the private emblem of the Kingdom's Crown Prince, an imposing lion with its teeth bared amid flames.

"Yes, a simple private invitation, just the two Highnesses. The venue is a private club in the capital owned by Prince Blade. In fact, there were other invitations as well, but considering that Your Highness doesn't like attending banquets, they were all declined."

"Oh, I see. Thanks." Tiran waved her hand, but her gaze fell on the invitation card in her hand, her expression a bit conflicted.

...

Some time passed.

Justice sat alone in the empty dining room.

"Lord Justice?" Mimi, passing by in the corridor, spotted Justice in the dining room and was slightly puzzled why he was there.

"...I am waiting for dinner." Justice furrowed his brow. "Mimi, isn't it already dinner time? Why..."

Ah... come to think of it, it seems like they used up the ingredients for dinner when they added an extra meal for the princess. He and the other maids went outside the palace to buy some food for dinner, but he forgot to inform Justice.