"Your Highness, are you planning to go out again?"

Delua, who was sitting in the room sorting out the information for the negotiation with the bigwigs behind the scenes of the Kingdom of Sains, paused when she heard Tiran's request and looked up, adjusting the glasses on her nose.

"Ah... yes," Tiran replied, feeling a little flustered under her gaze.

"But you just came back not long ago," Delua wondered. Although she was responsible for the negotiation part of the visit to the magitech kingdom this time, it wasn't good for Your Highness to leave so frequently, was it?

"I haven't seen enough yet..." Princess lowered her gaze slightly, guiltily staring at the floor, her hands clasped in front of her, pleading, "Please!"

"Your Highness, are you hiding something from me?"

After giving Tiran a deep look, Delua sighed, put down the stack of papers in her hand, took off her glasses and placed them on the table, and gently massaged her slightly sore nose.

"Um!" Tiran was suddenly at a loss for words.

"Can't you be more reliable...?" Aya, who was standing behind, almost choked on her own saliva. Who was it that promised me confidently before asking for leave that it would be easy to handle?

"Is that really so? But even if that's the case, can anything be more important than what's in front of us? If we can successfully secure this support or get Sainz's support, it would be of great help to the current situation of the kingdom. Shouldn't you, as a princess, be more aware of this?" Delua's tone gradually became stern.

"But I can't help with anything..." Facing the increasingly harsh Delua, Tiran stammered. Ahh, are all head chamberlains and housekeepers like this? I thought I would finally have some freedom without Mimi around...

"I'm very sorry... but we must go this time."

Aya hesitated for a moment, walked over to Tiran, and placed her hand on Tiran's shoulder, earnestly speaking to Delua.

"Miss Aya?" Delua, who thought she had almost convinced Her Highness, didn't expect Aya to speak up. "What do you mean? Are you saying that there is something more important than the security of the country?"

"Maybe that's true." Aya met Delua's gaze head-on, bluntly saying, "In fact, even if the king doesn't allow Tiran to go to the Kingdom of Sainz, she will still come here."

Delua looked puzzled.

"Because Chirp was taken by that lunatic Hermes."

"Chirp?" Delua had a vague impression. It seemed that Chirp was an demi-human child whom Her Highness had found on the way back to the capital last time? She had seen him a few times while dealing with Tiran's residence... Wait, that child was kidnapped?

When Delua carefully recalled the intelligence that was handed to her, she realized that it did indeed mention this. However, compared to the attack on the royal castle, the fact that a child was abducted didn't seem to be taken seriously by the soldiers responsible for the investigation.

"Whatever else may be said, neither I nor this person can give up on that child, Chirp." Aya rubbed Tiran's head, "After all, that child has called me 'mom' before."

"Huh?" Delua was taken aback. "Miss Aya, you haven't gotten married yet, have you?"

"That's not the point!" Aya was on the verge of losing the courage she had mustered. Sister, are you focusing on the wrong thing? Can you let me be serious for a moment?!

"... Is that so? Well then, I agree."

This time, Aya and Tiran were baffled. Did they really just agree so easily?

"Well, even if I forcefully oppose, you'll still sneak off, won't you? After all, Your Highness, the White Knight, is famous. No matter what, neither Shuma nor her knights can stop you if you insist on going. Mimi sister has complained to me about your sneaking off many times."

Delua couldn't help but chuckle at the memory of Mimi, who would drink with her after work and complain about how troublesome the second princess was.

When Delua came back to her senses, she noticed that Aya and Tiran had already disappeared outside the door.

"... " The beautiful secretary couldn't help but tug at the corner of her mouth, but her right hand slowly pulled out an envelope from the pile of documents on the desk. The letter inside was signed by the Director of Intelligence, Heffy Stos.

...

After receiving Delua's agreement, the master and servant left the residence and arrived on the streets of the magitech capital.

The center of the street was a spacious road for magitech motorcycles and carriages to travel on, while on both sides were sidewalks and road lights powered by a giant magical gathering array underground, just like the intracity rail. The well-planned and modern routes and tall buildings on both sides... It all felt so familiar.

Chip told them to find him at an old bookstore on Seventh Avenue, so they decided to walk since it wasn't far.

"By the way, dumb dragon, you were pretty brave just now." While walking, Tiran patted Aya's back with a grin.

"Of course, don't think I'm useless!" Aya hmphed, proudly raising her chin... Although she actually felt nervous under Delua's gaze. Yeah, she was definitely naturally restrained by beings like the head maid.

"Well, it's rare, but I'll compliment you on that." Tiran couldn't help but chuckle at Aya's smug expression, "But it feels like Delua is much better than Mimi. Mimi... would never let me out so easily, and if she did, she would stick to me like glue."

Recalling Miss. Mimi's usual behavior of wanting to become a piece of clothing that Tiran could wear, Aya nodded emphatically.

But they soon realized that they might have been overthinking things.

Seventh Avenue and the old bookstore were not hard to find, especially in the modern-style magitech capital, where an old wooden bookstore was quite eye-catching.

Chip stood at the door waving to them, but there was another unexpected person standing beside him.

"Shuma?! Why are you here?"

"Tiran-sama, Miss Aya." The female knight bowed to them.

Wearing all black, with a knight's sword hanging from her waist and her shoulder-length short hair gently swaying... It definitely was the undercover knight who had been following them all along.

"It is my duty to protect you, Tiran-sama," Shuma said solemnly, her face serious.

"I see..." Chip quickly stepped in to explain.

After returning, Chip carefully considered the Hermes incident and concluded that he couldn't handle it alone, so he took the opportunity to report it to his teacher - the Director.

However, due to the magnitude of the incident and the fact that it even involved the families behind the magitech kingdom, Heffy decided to keep it hidden, only notifying Delua and explaining the seriousness of the matter, requesting her help.

"I said, no wonder Delua agreed so easily..." Tiran had a black line on his face. Turns out, he wasn't convinced by Aya's persuasive words but had originally planned to go save Chirp himself!

Originally, Shuma was planning to bring all of his subordinates, but on one hand, Delua needed someone to protect her, and on the other hand, according to Chip's description, the next destination was quite secretive and not suitable for a large group. So in the end, he came alone.

"The more the merrier," Aya covered her face. "So, where are we going?"

"We'll find out soon," Chip pushed open the door of the nearby old bookstore.

As the copper bell on the door rang out with a crisp sound, the magitech lights in the bookstore also lit up one by one.

Inside, it was indeed the setting of a normal bookstore, with rows of neatly arranged old books on wooden shelves that seemed to have been there for quite some time. Behind the counter at the end, an old man with a pale and white hair was leisurely wiping the lenses in his hand.

Huh? Tiran's expression turned stern. A bookstore that stood out from its surroundings in terms of style, those old books that seemed profound just by looking at their titles, and the old man wiping the lenses behind the counter... According to normal rules, the old man must be someone extraordinary!

"Mr. Chip? Rare guest, even people from the Mechanism Research Institute come here?"

Hearing the sound of the doorbell, the old man looked up, squinting his slightly farsighted eyes and struggling to recognize the visitors.

"This time I've brought friends," Chip said briefly. "Including me, there are four people. Please open the door."

The old man nodded and pressed twice on a wheel on the counter, causing the lights in the bookstore to dim. At the same time, a large bookshelf in a corner of the counter slowly split apart and slid to both sides, revealing a small space behind it.

"An elevator?" Aya was dumbfounded. Although there were some differences and the cabin was much smaller, it was overall not much different from the elevators they would ride in the research center.

How did they manage to get this kind of equipment into this small bookstore?

Chip had already entered the cabin, and before Tiran entered, he lingered in front of the counter, staring at the old man for a while. "Old man..."

The old man felt a bit uneasy under the princess's gaze. "Do you... have any martial arts secret manuals? Like the Nine Yin White Bone Claw or the Arhat Palm..."

"How did you guess... cough, no, I've never heard of them. I'm really just an old guy responsible for opening the door."

"Stop embarrassing yourself, let's go!" Aya covered Tiran's mouth and forcefully dragged her into the elevator, ignoring her struggles.

The elevator door closed, and after a slight shake of the floor, it began to descend.

"Don't touch randomly, you rascal." Tiran frowned and touched her lips. The sensation from just now... thinking about it, the princess suddenly felt her face heating up.

"Aren't we going to find Chirp? Focus, please."

"Okay okay." The suddenly shy Tiran absentmindedly answered.

"Hey, Chip, isn't the underground of the Magitech City a ruin? Are we going to the research institute here?" Aya used her psychic power to sense and found that the elevator was taking her down into the ground.

"Not the research institute... How should I put it, the ruins underground in the Magitech City are quite massive. The area covered by the underground ruins is not even half of what the current city on the surface can reach. Our research institute is just a small part of it."

Chip paused, "If I must say, this is probably the Underground beneath the Underground."