The Queenless Queen's Royal Guard
Princess Fourmi had any number of guilds.
And every time a new one dropped, the same complaint followed close behind.
So what are they missing this time?
Take the Dessert Research Society, whose grand ambition was to create the most delicious dessert in the world — except none of them had the faintest idea how to bake. Or the Swimming Club, which had never managed to rent a pool, so not a single member had ever actually swam. Or the With Order, an idol fandom devoted exclusively to Nonoha — an idol who had already retired.
At first, people wrote it off as coincidence and paid it no mind. But as time went on and every single guild turned out to be missing a screw somewhere, the jokes started flying. Is that why the monetization is so half-assed, too?
...And the first guild was no exception.
The Queen's Royal Guard without a Queen.
It was a deeply unflattering nickname — but it wasn't wrong. They had received the Queen's final command and sworn themselves to a new Master, a male. Still, the fact remained: they had failed to protect their Queen.
Not that any of them wanted it this way.
Honestly, I doubted any of them had truly wanted to let go of their former Master. They all smiled as if nothing were wrong, but every so often — whenever they slipped and mistook the present for the days when the Queen was still here — their faces would cloud over with grief. It would take more time before those feelings faded.
At least this game isn't only about what's missing.
Princess Fourmi was a story about overcoming what had been lost. We had no Queen now — but in her place we served a male we could call Master, and through him we filled the void. Of course no one could simply replace someone else. But the practical side of things, at least, could be substituted.
From a work standpoint, the protagonist now handled everything the Queen used to do. Decisions that once required grueling meetings and endless deliberation had returned to the old, efficient system of simply following the Master's orders. Just looking at that much, things had normalized considerably.
Though the most important part is...
Building a real relationship with the new Master, and filling the emotional hole to some degree as well.
I glanced toward the corner where he and Powder were talking. Powder always smiled and threw herself into serving the Master — but dig a little deeper and you found someone who had been worn thin in more ways than one.
That was why I hadn't objected when she offered me her position. Honestly, she didn't need to be buried in work right now. Spending time with the pure-hearted protagonist and raising her affection would do far more for her mental health. Jasmine might have been the one whose mind snapped and who fled after the Queen's disappearance — but as captain, Powder had to have been just as wrecked.
Oh. It went up.
Affection seemed to be climbing faster than it did in the game's story. At this rate, Powder would be obtainable soon. Originally, the protagonist was supposed to help with this kind of work and raise affection slowly. Having me handle the work while those two focused on affection had been the right call after all.
And Powder had always been the type worn down by the world — so living alongside a protagonist who hid nothing and was completely honest made her affection shoot up even faster. The guy was even purer than the original story's protagonist, so of course it was rising this quickly.
"Captain Jasmine, I brought what you asked for."
"...Thank you. But are you sure it's all right for you to help like this?"
"How busy do you think I am? You're the one who's struggling, Captain — running yourself ragged on the Master's orders."
"......."
Of course, the misunderstanding about me still hadn't been cleared up at all. It wasn't that I hadn't tried. These idiots simply had no intention of listening. I never thought I'd end up on the receiving end of Fruity's particular brand of chaos.
Well... it is convenient. Maybe I'll just leave it. The protagonist doesn't seem to care either.
Whenever I worked hard gathering information, they all seemed to assume it was something the Master had ordered. ...When all I was doing was collecting intel so I could find a better path forward. Still, the fact that they felt sorry for me and kept trying to help in various ways did make things easier. That much was true.
"Aroma, thank you. This really helps."
"Does it?"
"Especially this hot chocolate. Drinking it feels like I'm melting."
"Right? See, Jasmine knows what's good. I should go grab a cup myself."
Aroma's special hot chocolate was thick and rich enough that after drinking it, you half-convinced yourself you'd turned into hot chocolate. Warm and sweet, it left your whole body pleasantly heavy — and somehow, even while working, it performed the miracle of actual healing. Especially in this weather, walking around in these half-naked outfits. Even with the "real men shower in cold water" option permanently toggled on, I felt like I was going to freeze to death.
Of course, as a major unit, my body temperature regulation wasn't so fragile that mere weather could actually hurt me. But that didn't mean I couldn't feel the cold — so after shivering through it and then drinking something warm, it felt like being saved.
"Ah, and this. I've corrected the sections that needed fixing. Please use it as a reference for operations going forward."
"Got it. Good work."
Aroma took the documents I handed her and left. They were a kind of operational guideline revision — answers written out for most of the decisions involved in running the guild. I'd set those parts up better than the original story, so we'd reap the benefits later.
...Is that everything?
I reviewed the papers Aroma had given me, adjusted a few schedules, and that was the end of today's desk work. What remained required hands-on testing to confirm — nothing that could be resolved from a chair.
"Could everyone gather, please?"
"Sure."
"I'll be right there."
"Fruity, get up."
"Ahh...? Hah!? Yes, ma'am!"
...No Fougere, as expected.
Well, she had her own things to take care of. I'd already handled everything that could be prepared for in advance, so leaving her alone for now was fine. She'd approach us herself soon enough.
"I've made notes on the dungeons and contested zones we'll need to check going forward."
In this game, most of what you spent Scent — the stamina resource — on was farming items through combat skips. Meaning even without the skip function, we could farm the same items by clearing those areas ourselves. I needed to verify whether the drop data matched what I knew from the game.
"Go in, confirm the loot, and record it. As you know, specific drops aren't guaranteed, so you'll need to test each location at least ten times."
This was the most critical work of all. From those combat zones, you could obtain not only "Collection" items — the equivalent of equipment — but also various consumable resources like affection items. There were long-term farming materials to gather, and more immediately, we needed to stockpile for the specs required in the next Deadly Battle.
"...That's an enormous amount."
"Then get to work. You've been slacking off this whole time just because the Queen wasn't here."
For the record, I'd set the difficulty as low as our current specs allowed. Reality being reality had its upsides — we could run content without needing the protagonist to register us first. That was normally only possible during the main story, but if I gave the order, they'd go even to ordinary dungeons.
And originally, dungeons that dropped good materials had daily attempt limits. This being reality, those limits didn't seem to exist — something else worth confirming. If that held true, gearing up would be easier than I'd initially projected.
There are higher places we could reach with our current specs... but they're not viable for long-term farming.
Anything a tier above these would need me personally helping with the clear. And in reality there was no stamina system and no skip function either — so I'd either have to run them myself every time or teach everyone until they could manage on their own. Better to put that off for now and farm the easy stuff first.
Nothing's urgent right this second, anyway.
What was urgent was securing Affection Gifts for the Royal Guard. Get everyone into the obtained state, then slam in every cost-efficient spec upgrade we could manage with the least resources possible. Fortunately those gifts dropped in low-difficulty areas, so that wouldn't be a problem.
"We'll be off, then."
"Yes. Good work."
...Having orders go through with no middle management really was convenient. Even if it meant more hassle for me, I preferred things progressing exactly the way I wanted them to. Originally, these were abilities I was supposed to teach the protagonist one by one...
We don't have that kind of time.
I'd planned to just roughly match levels and challenge content as-is. But that idiot had wasted Linger — the leveling resource — so now every available hour had to go into raising our specs as high as possible.
...And if the leveling ran a little higher than I expected, we could always compensate with other specs.
I refuse to just accept that it's impossible and roll over.
Clinging to the thinnest thread of hope until the very end, never giving up. That was the faith I'd poured money into Princess Fourmi with. Right — dump your entire life into this game and it answers. This time would be no different.
"Jasmine."
"Ah — yes, Master. How was your conversation with Powder?"
"Mm, it was fine. Better than I expected."
"That's a relief. But... why are you clinging to me?"
"I worked hard, so from now on I'm going to rest while smelling Jasmine's scent."
Worked hard? All you did was chat with Powder. Granted, that was important in its own way — but did it really entitle you to healing from me? Was being away from me dealing continuous damage or something?
"...Just for a little while?"
"Yeah."
The moment I gave permission, he buried his face in my hair, locked me into a full back-hug, and drew a deep breath. His breathing slowly evened out. Holding him like this felt like looking after a baby.
...He might be a little cute.
Maybe it was because I could feel that he genuinely liked me as a person — it didn't feel repulsive. Not that I liked the guy as a man or anything. More like... he was turning out to be a decent friend.
At any rate, it didn't feel as bad as I'd expected.