The words printed in two simple lines could not have been any clearer...

  U R A

  FAGET

  Visibly distressed, distress turning into snarling rage, the Prinz Galopin turns around at the semicircle standing behind her, waving the paper in front of them.

  "Who wrote this?! You! You!!? Or... YOU!!!"

  The crowd gathered know very well of the Prinz's paranoid tendencies, and all retract a half-stride back from their paymaster. Wringing their arms while looking at one another, it doesn't seem like anyone can give a concrete expnation, nor did anyone dare to point out that it must have come through a window somewhere...! The very act of doing so would just put all the suspicion on the whistleblower's head!

  So they all kept silent.

  Except for our golden-haired ojou-sama.

  "Oh. Oh! Ohoho. Ohohoho...!"

  "What's so funny?! You think this is a joke?!"

  Val-sama had seen this meme before.

  A long time ago when veetubaing.

  But there was little point expining to someone who did not menne.

  Making a small gnce to the window,

  she caught the ends of a purple side-tail,

  disappearing from the window view!

  Even with her back cut off by menacing horseguy guards, Val-sama knew her role here was done.

  When Oracion had the exchange about their Master earlier,

  Oracion silently signaled to an odd guest looking their way

  with two fingers across her chest.

  That goat-masked guest turned and left the ballroom as the two [Trono Palido] girls stood up from the table; inexplicably goat-mask passed the guards without much trouble. However, following her now would arouse too much suspicion, and the guards that kept track of the comings and goings in this ballroom would most definitely take note.

  Hence, the fingers across the chest.

  For all of Oracion's mixed feelings towards Val-sama, hentai bird still taught them the same techniques, hand signals and know-how, more than enough that they were able to catch each other's meaning without words! Val-sama catching that purple shadow by the window was no accident, Madi-san let her glimpse that on purpose!

  The main actor has descended on the stage.

  Whenever she did, chaos soon followed.

  She has always been like this, even as La-Roux.

  Now... how to use this to the best effect?

  Perhaps, we should start with...

  "Yes, I think its hirious."

  Val-sama opened with that line, for the Prinz walked into that one by herself!

  Pressing fingers to a joyous, closed-eyed ugh, Val-sama's heart was much more calmer now.

  "This vulgar, rotten, hateful letter... you find it hirious?" The Prinz stands fbbergasted, an entire life's of learning only the right things to say, yet she could not find the humor in it. There was no 'right stuff' to ugh at. No great message to be spread. Yet this girl who had been a picturesque well-brought up dy, at least moments ago, is ughing.

  This was unacceptable.

  Who knows who else might ugh!

  Thankfully, the Prinz's sycophants did not dare ugh.

  The loss of face would have been tremendous!

  "Would you allow me to tell you a story?" Val-sama's eyes twinkle, not waiting for unneeded permission from the dumbstruck Prinz.

  "Once, there was a girl, who saw conspiracies in everything.

  Even as a young child, she was able to

  to clearly see shadows cast upon the mountain of mud.

  But her upbringing could not let her unsee said shadows,

  in a world where the very C-word was forbidden,

  to see and know is sin in itself!

  The forces of darkness descended on her,

  shadow people chased after her,

  chitinous monsters bared fangs at her,

  mobs of antis

  sought to cut the very source of her menne off!

  Even so,

  she ughed,

  she ughed and ughed until the heavens opened."

  Val-sama finishes the story with a flourish of her hand trailing tiny blue sparks in the air.

  "Mademoiselle Galopin, whomst do you think I am referring to?"

  "What foolishness." Rufti brushes the side of her prince-like hair, "Anyone with proper upbringing knows this is a verse from 《The Princess Wars》. Modified as it is, the girl in question is Valerie Villetia, the girl who would become The First Princess of Vespana. [1]"

  Val-sama does a mock curtsey, bowing low while holding both sides of her dress, when she rose, she looks the Prinz with a smug eye, her bait having been taken,

  "Well caught, mademoiselle Galopin,

  but as you, who is well-brought up knows,

  there is always a second meaning

  in every verse of The First's story.

  This verse was explicitly

  made to be exploitable,

  that anonymous girl,

  was never named,

  such that it may reflect the heart of its reader.

  Perhaps the shadow in your heart,

  is The First herself."

  Horse-faced Galopin did NOT like the sound of that, her face scrunching into immeasurable rage at having her heart exposed so openly! Val-sama did not mock her as a certain purple-haired annoyance would have done, but within her matter-of-factness there is a sharp tone hidden within, not unlike the tip of a long fencing bde...

  "But your courtiers don't seem to think so..."

  A palpable change in the air had occurred.

  "Perhaps this story struck too close to home for them..."

  Panicked whispers spread among the Prinz's sycophants. Who, in their tiny minds added up the chaotic nature of the letter and the mysterious tale retold by Val-sama together. The circle of animal-headed guests had started trembling so hard that the very tops of their heads wobbled like rubber tendies!

  "'She' is here?!"

  "Was 'She' not killed by the [Shadowthrone]?!"

  "Shush! You'll bring 'Her' down on us, speaking about 'Her'!"

  Prinz Gallopin was perhaps the only one in the room unaware of of 'Her'.

  "Who?! Who is this... conspiracy girl in this wretched story?!"

  "No, my Prinz! Don't...!"

  Val-sama had gotten far more out of this exchange than she expected. If Rufti was not aware of the purple-haired fiend's name, perhaps she had not sunk her feet deep into the abyss that is the mountain of mud yet. The same could not be said for her hang-oners,

  "It is a name that the darkness of Vespana has come to know in recent years...

  ... does [The Exposer of Conspiracy],

  Ma-di-son

  De--roux

  recall any bad memories?"

  Val-sama purposely elongates every part of Madi-san's name, to the weeping and gnashing of teeth of the animal-masked circle, some having fallen to their fours, scratching and cwing at the ballroom floor with bloodstained fingers; others hollering in abstract and foreign tongues while holding their heads, one even just couldn't take it and jumped straight out a window with a flying leap, elbows pointed to the sides, feet taking them on a long path away from this madness!

  In the midst of all this biichiing and moaning, an animal-masked guest raises a trembling finger past the the absolutely confounded Prinz,

  "The golden-haired one is with 'HER'!!!"

  Get HER!!!"

  Val-sama had been waiting for this moment.

  Tilting her head to the side with narrowed brows,

  a most undy-like smug smile comes over her face!

  [Trono Palido's] investigation is complete.

  Now, it was time to fight.

  At this moment, the cws of a metallic rappelling hook tches itself on the windowsill of a second floor washroom. Climbing up that rappelling rope is none other than the aforementioned [Exposer of Conspiracies] in all her mischief and crooked Frxnch beret. Barreling over the open window, she does a sideroll on the floor, ending up in kneeling stance with bottom both hands pressed against the pristine washroom floor!

  "Safe!"

  Turning around, Madi-san throws the rappelling rope, the other end attached to Madi-san's Bag-o-Tricks. Leaning out the window, she yells out for the continent to hear,

  "Oiiii! Aya-chan! Ya wanna keep moi' waiting? We don't have all night!"

  I WOULD come up there if you didn't dangle the rope just one segment out of my reach! Do you mind?! I'm not interested in pying hi-jump tonight! Not everyone is able to run up walls or do impromptu rock-climbing like you! Is that what the gloves you always wear are for?

  Madi-san sniggers something to the tune of 'detective defective' while making a face at me, and pulls out the pulley-like contraption that rolls the rest of the rappelling rope like a spool of yarn. Locking it in pce against a bathroom stall doorknob, she turns the levered winch which slowly brings (me) up to the second floor, clinging on for dear life. When I reach the top, I can only flop through the window awkwardly, one leg entering first before flipping over and nding entirely on my back!

  "That's a D for stylishness, Aya-chan!

  The look of disdain on my face should tell you all you need to know about how I feel about crazy Frxnchwomen. Do all the Frxnch run around with 3D-Mxnouver gear? Dusting the pain in my lower back off, I ask a really stupid question,

  "So Madi-san, what are we doing tonight?"

  What I got back was the most sheeto-eating grin that would put even the smuggest half-Brazilian swordsmen to shame.

  "Let's introduce a little... chaos for the luz!"

  Domo Domo, Author-kun Des[1] The First Princess Of Vespana - Not our Valerie by the way. Its just a coincidence they share the same name. Or IS IT?! - Author-kun

  HouseDerouxScribbles