"Oh, come on... What's with the sudden mood swing?"

After the effect of the compulsion command wore off, Aya turned around and looked at the door behind her. She felt a slight discomfort in her heart and wanted to go back in and say a few more words to Tiran. But when her hand touched the doorknob, her body involuntarily moved again. She did a backflip in the air, missing the mark by a few degrees, and landed directly on the ground.

Editing commands, advanced usage of the master-slave contract, can be bound in the servant's contract to force action under specific conditions. The normal use is to forcibly summon the servant when the master is under attack, similar to a shortcut key.

"What the heck are you doing!"

Perhaps influenced by Tiran's mood, Aya felt that she too was becoming a bit restless. Even when Tiran played even more outrageous pranks before, she never felt annoyed like this.

"Aya? Um, how is Lady Aya doing?"

Upon hearing the noise inside, Coco, who had been waiting on the terrace, also peeked in.

"Her? I don't know if she's doing well or not, but she looks quite spirited!" Aya gritted her teeth and sat up, supporting herself with her hands on the floor. Then she deflated and felt frustrated.

Well, I guess that young lady is also quite irritated, but what exactly happened? It's better to talk about it than to keep it to oneself... Argh, forget it! I don't want to think about it anymore! The more I think, the more annoyed I get!

Aya's emotions were a bit complicated, and ultimately, she could understand Tiran's feelings. But that unexplainable frustration... is it because she's not trusted?

"If Lady Aya is in a bad mood, why not try giving her a gift she likes?" Coco blinked her eyes.

"A gift?" Aya rolled her eyes and waved her hand. "What a joke. It's clearly not my fault, but it's being made out as if I'm the one who made her unhappy."

"But, um, but..." Coco became a little anxious, stumbling over her words, and finally couldn't figure out how to persuade Aya. She grabbed the hem of her clothes and whispered, "There's a trading market in Milt these days..."

"The capital city?... So you just want someone to go with you, right?"

"Y-yes, I'm sorry..." Coco bowed her head dispiritedly.

"Well, I don't mind..." Aya rubbed her chin, as if considering it. After all, the young lady really likes reading manga novels, right?

...

As Aya's footsteps faded away, Tiran peeled herself off the wall and returned to the windowsill. She picked up the manga she had left unfinished last night.

Before she came here, she had the alchemical creature in the secret room pack up the unread manga novels and put them in a box stored in the wristguard. At first, she was worried there wouldn't be enough to read, but now she had been in Milt for so many days and hadn't even finished the first one.

The plot was clearly exciting, and the art style was something she liked - after all, it was the latest work by Reijin, the master of cool garb. How could it not be good? But now, as she flipped through it, it tasted like wax.

"...How annoying."

Closing the manga, Tiran stood up and did a somersault, landing on the bed with a blank expression, staring at the ceiling.

Although she always appeared unreasonable and had a bad personality, Tiran rarely did anything outrageous, and she would never deliberately harm others.

But just now, when she forcefully kicked Aya out, she felt a sense of relief, as if she had finally vented the burden in her heart.

And with that came guilt and regret.

Tiran was well aware that her emotions were completely out of control just now. The words spoken by the astrologer "Starseer" whom she still didn't know the name of had indeed disturbed her mood.

After their first meeting, Tiran had already made several guesses about her identity and prepared herself mentally for when they would meet again. However, Starseer's first sentence after getting to the point shook her defenses.

"Your Highness Tiran, do you want to go back?"

The beautiful woman with black hair lightly touched her index finger to her lips, like a witch from a fairy tale enticing a passing child, except this bait she tossed out was something Tiran couldn't possibly ignore.

"Go back? Go back where?" She wanted to respond like this at that time, after all, she couldn't be sure if Starseer was really trustworthy or if she was just saying some vague words to deceive her.

But when she met those black pupils, Tiran inexplicably believed that she truly understood this secret of her being "from another world."

Although she maintained a calm demeanor on the surface, she almost immediately asked about how to go back.

"Let's not talk about this for now. Your Highness, is it really alright for you to not belong to this world?" Starseer smiled kindly and her gaze drifted towards Aya beside them.

Can others know about this?

Her gaze seemed to be asking this. It was then that Tiran realized that she had been communicating with her in the language of the Eastern Continent all this time, just so that Aya wouldn't understand, right?

Can I trust Aya?

If it were an ordinary matter, or even the life-and-death missions she had taken against Xiaofeizi and Hermes, it wouldn't matter to her—once Aya took over her from Xiaofeizi's Holy Spear in the royal capital, the significance of this so-called "servant" was completely different.

But Aya was still a creature of this world. Would he be able to accept the fact that "Miss is an alien"?

Maybe not necessarily? He would probably think it's a joke, right? Tiran suddenly felt like laughing. As a servant, Aya was quite similar to her in character, thick-skinned.

So why was she feeling restless?

Was it because of what Starseer said? The specific commission still required her to go find the chief of the Gaoxia Academy. If nothing unexpected happened, she would have to make a trip to the Eastern Continent. But to be honest, she had already spent nearly twenty years in this world. It was not a big deal to go through some trouble to go back for the sake of a clue she finally caught.

But how would she explain this to Aya? If she completed Starseer's commission and could return to her original, familiar world, what would the foolish dragon think? What about her father, Mimi, and the others? Or rather, how should the story in this world come to an end?

Unconsciously, she had already spent seventeen years in this world. At first, she could still see this place as an ultra-realistic VR game, but after forming countless connections with the people and things here, it was now impossible to see it that way anymore.

—Especially after bringing back Aya, the foolish dragon. In the midst of playing and fooling around, she had been to many places she had never been to when she secluded herself in the castle before. She could say she had perfectly assimilated into this world.

Yet, at this moment, in the princess's heart, that sense of unfamiliarity and alienation from when she first arrived resurfaced once again because of Starseer's words, as if someone had suddenly pulled her out of the comfortable warm water while soaking in a winter hot spring and left her exposed to the chilling cold wind.

"After all, I don't have the experience of inexplicably crossing over and being able to go back..." The princess held her head with a pillow and let out a muffled voice.

In addition to the unexpected trip to the Eastern Continent, another worry has been lingering in my mind for a long time.

"After one year, I will set you free."

That's what he said originally, and his view of Aya was merely "a whim to snatch back a new toy." But now, even though there are still a few months left, why am I feeling a bit...anxious and nervous?

I'm just a dumb dragon, a stupid dragon.

"But... I don't want to let you go... Why did I only say one year at the beginning?"

Tiran muttered to himself, reaching out a hand towards the ceiling as if trying to grab something.

Hold on.

What did I just say out of instinct? Why did I say something like that! The princess was stunned, her fair cheeks inexplicably turning red, and her ears becoming slightly warm.

Yes, this is the emotion that has been entangled with me all along, an emotion I've never experienced before...

Could it be...

"Like...?"

The room fell into an eerie silence. Tiran suddenly sat up, staring at the mirror fixed on the wall, carefully examining the unfamiliar girl with a cute blush on her cheeks, whose expression was unexpectedly happy.

Silver-white long hair, a deep blue hairband, and she was wearing her usual dress, the one she was accustomed to. Her eyes were still the same beautiful emerald green, but this expression shouldn't be her own!

With a bang, a pillow flew and hit the smooth surface of the mirror, but because of its soft texture, it only slipped to the ground. The girl in the mirror maintained the posture of throwing the pillow, with a face full of embarrassment, anger, and frustration.

"What kind of joke is this! I absolutely won't admit it!"

...

"Oh, oh! Such a large scale! Even bigger than the capital city!"

After entering the venue of the trade fair with Coco, Aya opened her eyes wide in surprise. "And... was this held publicly?"

That's right, last time in the capital city, it was still done secretly, but now it's directly in the central square used for the regular matches of the martial arts festival in the Academy City. The second-largest square in the Academy City, called "Changlan," as well as the surrounding two streets, have all been rented, lined up neatly with rows of booths. There are also three large stages, a cosplay zone, a gaming zone, a food zone, and the most popular zone for fan works...

"Normally, it's always this big," Coco said, finally feeling more relaxed in this kind of setting. She didn't behave as reserved and timid as she did in the academy. She happily started explaining to Aya.

"It seems only Milanía's exhibition has to be held underground, otherwise it will definitely be investigated by the kingdom's officials."

"Huh? Milanía has to deal with that?"

"Yeah, yeah!" Coco nodded vigorously, seemingly a bit annoyed. "There's an official department called the Illumination Bureau, which previously issued a notice called the 'Milanía Spiritual Civilization Construction Project.' They crack down on secret society trade fairs everywhere, saying that these things go against the spirit of the notice, and they have to be investigated."

"..."

"Of course, secret societies are influential forces in every corner of the continent, able to stand on equal footing with the Adventurers' Guild and the World Chamber of Commerce. Just a mere Illumination Bureau would be disbanded in minutes."

Coco was excited, then sighed in distress. "But now, it seems like there won't be any chance for Milanía to hold a trade fair there."

Even though Aya was used to being around Tiran most of the time, she now felt a sense of helplessness and couldn't help but feel like sighing.

Your mysterious family, with the organization of otaku activities spread throughout the continent, stands on equal footing with the Adventurer's Guild.

Yes, this is very isekai.