The ongoing trials and tribulations of Ronin Kassius as he assumes the identity of Isabel val Sanreal and returns to Ar Telica City. Having survived the encounter with the Gun Queen of Ar Telica, Ronin returns to Ar Telica and begins his/her new dual life as Isabel val Sanreal, illegitimate daughter of the uber rich Sanreal Family, and as the Gun Princess, Mirai, an artificially created entity with preternatural abilities. But as he struggles to deal with the reality of living the rest of his life as a girl, Ronin/Isabel is caught in the middle of an ever-expanding web of deceit and intrigue as House Elsis Novis spars with the Aventisse Empress over possession of the research on the Angel Fibers conducted by Ronin’s sister, Erina Kassius.

Amidst the political maneuvering, while slowly reconciling his past as Ronin Kassius, Isabel faces a new threat from Tabitha Hexen who reveals her own agenda in wanting to fight Mirai in a Gun Princess Royale battle.

---

 

Ar Telica and its sister city-states never slept, but that didn’t mean they didn’t wind down a little during the dark side of the morning.

From 3:00 am onwards, the majority of the shops and outlets closed their doors for a few hours. Thus, there was always a mad rush to squeeze in as much activity as possible – whether senseless or not – before the city slipped into a light, fitful slumber as the new day headed inexorably toward the dawn. Because of this, a cluttered, strung out, multicolored, multicultural collection of bodies either surged or trickled over the sidewalks, plazas, and boulevards, moving from megascraper to megascraper, or dove into venues deep below the towering cityscape looking to eke out one more bit of fun before briefly retiring.

Ar Telica’s architecture possessed more than just tall buildings.

Elevated plazas, bridgeways, and promenades crisscrossed at various elevations high above the city streets, forming a misshapen lattice canopy between a forest of towering buildings, while the streets far below teemed with vehicular traffic, hemmed in by sidewalks burdened with throngs of people both braving and relishing the night life.

Mirai had chosen to remain in a powered-up state, so all my senses were hyperaware to a frightening degree. Because of this, as I walked along a bridgeway a hundred feet above an eight-lane street, I surveyed Ar Telica with the embarrassing disposition of a newborn, and in a sense that is what Mirai was. She had taken her first steps into the world and straight into battle. But now she was immersed in a different kind of world – an environment of bright lights, myriad sounds, and sky-scraping architecture that was swarming with people, not Zombie Simulacra.

However, before she and I embarked upon this journey to Ar Telica Tower, I made three important purchases.

After all, as Miguel de Cervantes said, ‘to be prepared is half the victory’.

I wonder, what’s the other half?

Regardless, I had made the decision that I wasn’t going to head out unless I was indeed prepared.

The first and most embarrassing purchase was a sports bra for Mirai’s fulsome bosom. I swallowed my pride, walked into a shop selling lingerie, and then asked the store assistant for help. The young lady who attended to me proved to be most helpful, and quite understanding of my needs since she herself sported a rather full bust. Her choice proved to be impeccable, and I walked out of the shop feeling like a girl reborn…although that in itself is rather dispiriting since I’m not entirely a girl.

The body? Yes.

The mind? No.

The second purchase was a hairband. I had chosen to leave Mirai’s long, raven hair flowing loosely down my back, but the hairband was to keep her bangs away from my face. In case I found myself running for dear life, I tested the hairband – and the sports bra – by jumping a few times, then shaking my head like a headbanger at a heavy metal concert.

The hairband stayed on my head like it was glued in place.

And the sports bra handled Mirai’s prominent attributes with aplomb.

The third purchase was a pair of stylish midnight sunglasses. I used them to hide Mirai’s crimson eyes without impeding her vision. However, while I take pride in saying that she looked good behind those sunglasses, they proved to be a pointless acquisition.

Why?

Because as I walked through the city’s elevated architecture, I quickly lost count of the number of young people I saw with crimson eyes. Of course, they weren’t real. They were contact lenses that seemed to be the rage with the young demographic that swarmed through the city at night. Red, blue, violet, golden, iridescent, even luminescent, the lenses offered a variety of colors and textures to appease the personal tastes of a collective aspiring for individuality, or for those people that wanted to fit in with a social clique or their trendsetting circle of friends.

For example, somewhere along the way to Ar Telica Tower, I slowed down to watch a girl with honey blonde hair walk by me. Her eyes met mine and I saw that they had slit irises like those of a cat. For a moment, I thought of Straus’s Cat Princess, and my body tensed reflexively until the girl eased my mind with a fleeting smile as she continued along in the company of a group of girls sporting a variety of animal ears and tails. I figured they were in costume, either coming from a party or going to one somewhere in the vast city. However, they weren’t the only example of wild, bizarre paraphernalia that I encountered since stepping out at this rare hour.

I wasn’t going to say that the crazies of Ar Telica only came out at night, but I can say that far-fetched, bolder, and out-of-left-field fashion was prominent during the Witching Hour. In any case, it explained why the lady who sold me the cell phone didn’t bat an eyelid when I looked at her with Mirai’s crimson eyes, nor the woman at the café that I visited afterwards.

While the extravagant fashion sense of Ar Telica’s midnight denizens wasn’t to my liking, they nonetheless added flair to the city thereby influencing the overall holistic experience.

I was nearly inundated by the rich variety of smells Mirai’s nose was capturing. The fragrances of people on the elevated boulevards and walkways, the aromas coming from the shops, the smell of vehicles on the road far below, even the subtle odor of metal and ozone from the maglevs racing overhead on rail lines – I could perceive all of it, including the veiled scent of the ocean carried on the back of the breeze drafting in from the harbor about a kilometer to the east.

On Mirai’s bare skin, I could feel the cold air and the warmth of the people around me. When their bodies brushed by me – because they were unwilling or unable to avoid me – I could feel the texture of their clothes and their skin to a disturbing degree.

Conversations, shouts, laughter, footsteps, music, the hiss of electro-fusion drives from cars and maglevs, the whirring of drones high above, the high frequency hum of powerful photronic lights, the rustling of clothes, all blended into a menagerie of sounds absorbed by Mirai’s ears.

Ar Telica was also a great feast for the eyes.

When not looking at the people around me, I gazed upwards at the ubiquitous pyramidal megascrapers of the city-state, standing hundreds of meters tall, and illuminated by countless lights. Because of their slanted shapes, the buildings avoided the canyon effect, leaning back to offer as much of the sky as they could. Thus, while they loomed over me, I didn’t feel oppressed by them. I doubted there were any engineering benefits, but perhaps this was one reason why the general architecture of the city-states was reminiscent of the Aztec pyramids.

All of this combined to immerse me into the mélange of sights, sounds, smells that was Ar Telica and its people.

Yet this was only the proverbial cake.

The icing was the emotional impact it had upon me.

For me, this was an experience that went beyond the physical.

I had never walked these streets during this side of the morning.

I had never seen the city and its people in this light.

My life as Ronin Kassius was a sheltered routine existence that was safe and secure – one that adhered to the rules and regulations imposed on young people by the city-state authority.

That said, I could never have indulged in my surroundings to this extent.

All of this was possible because Mirai was an entity that perceived the world at a preternatural level.

I remembered reading how autistic people experienced the world to such a degree of clarity that they suffered from a sensory overload. Yet while it was true that I now lived in a world where the proverbial curtains had been drawn aside, the windows opened, and the scales removed from my eyes, Mirai’s mind was coping to the fullest extent.

I wasn’t hampered by the rich, vibrancy surrounding me.

Instead, I was basking in it like no other human could.

But when I realized this, my euphoria quickly evaporated, and afterward I felt crushed by the cruel reality of Mirai’s existence because she was an entity like no other.

Mirai was unique and thereby alone.

I couldn’t share what I was feeling with anyone else because they couldn’t understand it.

Describing it with words wasn’t enough.

To appreciate my view of the world, people would have to be like me, but that meant no longer being human, and knowing that I wasn’t human added to the loneliness that now fettered my state of heart and mind.

The sights and sounds of the city grew muted, vague, and indistinct.

What was once so clear was veiled behind a curtain of depression, and thus I turned away from the surrounding city and its people, unable to bear the weight of the once glorious vista.

With my eyes downcast, I avoided the crowds while walking on autopilot to the far end of an elevated promenade bridging the expanse between two megascrapers. To some extent, I was carried along by the stream of people, and I began to feel incorporeal, or rather like an entity that lived in a separate reality from the rest of humanity.

It underscored my uniqueness with a deeply penetrating sense of isolation.

I suddenly thought of another unique existence much like mine – a fictional character in a novel written hundreds of years ago.

Frankenstein’s monster – a lonely creature that had beseeched its creator for a mate to dispel its solitude; for a companion that could understand it.

Would I become like that monster?

I knew that I wasn’t a loner, but the deeper question was would I crave companionship like the monster had?

That made me wonder what kind of companionship I was after – male or female – and my feelings sunk even further as a result. I liked girls but there were a couple of occasions after awakening as Mirai when I’d caught myself looking at Mat, embarrassingly seeing him not as my friend but as a handsome young man. So while I was drawn in one direction, I was also being tugged in the other.

Then I had a frightful thought.

What if one day I woke up and no longer thought of myself as Ronin Kassius but as Mirai or Isabel?

What sort of person would I be when that happened?

What would my life be like afterwards?

Would I have learned to walk like a girl by then?

That last thought irritated me such that I came to a sudden stop.

“Blasted Erina. Who does she think she is criticizing how I walk—uh?”

At a standstill, I looked around me at unfamiliar surroundings.

Where the Hell am I?

I was standing in the middle of a bridgeway, one of many that came together to form an immense concourse that was canopied by a transparent dome. Projecbeam and holovid signs floated overhead, providing directions, and I started reading them in order to get my bearings.

Okay…which way to the Tower?

“Princess, are you all right?”

I did a double-take when I saw Ghost standing beside me.

In fact, I jerked back with a startled cry that luckily caught in my throat before it could draw people’s attention.

“Princess?”

I stalled him with a raised hand and whispered, “Would you stop doing that?”

“Doing what?”

I started to reply but realized that talking to myself would appear strange to the people around me since they couldn’t see Ghost standing nearby.

There was also Raine Renew to consider.

True to her word, she was giving me a lot of room.

In fact, she was giving me so much room that I had no idea where she was.

I looked around me and muttered, “What is she—a damn ninja?”

“Don’t you mean a Shinobi?” Ghost asked.

“What?” I gave him a puzzled look.

“You are referring to Miss Renew, are you not?”

I started to answer him with a nod then chose not to.

Sweeping my gaze over the people walking through the concourse, I noticed that I failed to draw more than a glance or two, but it was enough for me to reconsider how I should communicate with Ghost out in the open.

Pulling out my phone from a pant pocket, I said, “Call me.

Then I walked over to one side of the bridgeway within the concourse, thus keeping out of people’s way.

The phone vibrated in my hand while I was peering over the side of the guardrail at a twelve-lane street far below brimming with swiftly moving cars and buses. Dragging my attention away from the vista, I checked the caller ID on the phone before answering it, but as expected, GHOST was written in big bold letters on the phone’s screen, then flipping it open, I held it up to my right ear.

I could have used the detachable earpiece transmitter, but I preferred to be seen talking on the phone. No doubt, Renew would see me on the phone as well, and I suspected she would eavesdrop on me somehow, but how was I to stop her?

Damn it. Where the Hell did she go?

Hoping it would make it harder for Renew to read my lips, I chose to look down at the city street well below the bridgeway.

“Princess?”

“Ghost, can I ask you something?”

“You may, Princess.”

I stifled a frown.

Was he hinting at my poor grammar?

Shaking my head inwardly, I ignored the intimation. “Ghost, do I walk like a boy or a girl?”

Ghost had vanished from sight a moment after I told him to call me, so I could only picture his reaction.

He’s probably frowning at me, I thought to myself as I waited for his answer.

“Princess, if I may be so bold as to offer my opinion.”

“You may,” I replied tartly.

“From my many observations of Ronin Kassius—”

“Your many observations?”

“—I can safely conclude he was never the manliest of men.”

I huffed loudly then retorted with a scowl. “I think you’ve mentioned that already.”

“Princess, my point is that he lacked the—dare I say—swagger that most teenage boys exhibit.”

“So…I walked like a girl?”

“No, you simply walked. That is to say, you lacked the physique of a girl, but you also lacked the physique of a boy.”

“So…I was somewhere in the middle.”

“Correct. As a consequence, I can say that your manner of walking was rather neutral.”

I felt my forehead begin to furrow. “Is that what Erina meant?”

“No, she most clearly exaggerated to rile you up.”

I exhaled slowly, feeling oddly relieved, perhaps because Ghost had judged that I wasn’t at either extreme. In other words, my body language wasn’t something that would naturally stand out. It may draw attention to me, but not in an untoward way.

So that begged the question, did I want to walk like a girl?

Abruptly, I realized the flaw in my thinking. “Ghost, you said Ronin Kassius was never the manliest of men. You were talking past tense, right?”

“Indeed, I was.”

“Then you were talking about Ronin Kassius, not Mirai.”

“Correct, Princess.”

I swallowed anxiously before reluctantly asking, “So how do I walk now?”

“Princess, I assure you that you walk like a girl. Truthfully, you have a rather fluid and natural gait.”

Understanding what he meant, I felt a cold emptiness begin to hollow out my chest, and it swallowed my voice.

However, I wasn’t able to stay quiet for long.

Swallowing twice to help regain my voice, I then looked down at the pedestrians on the sidewalks far below the concourse of bridgeways.

“That shouldn’t be possible, should it?” I asked. “If Mirai is a newborn, how can she run and fight the way she does?”

“Normally, that would not be possible.”

“Normally?” I raised my head again. “What does that mean?”

“Princess, might I suggest that you resume walking. We can talk along the way.”

Was he avoiding the question?

I exhaled loudly, then straightened as I pushed away from the railing. Turning around, I gave the projecbeam and holovid signs providing directions a studious look.

Damn, I really am lost.

“Ghost, how do I get from here to Ar Telica Tower?”

“Do you wish to walk or ride the maglev?”

I grimaced at the memory of riding on the roof of a speeding train. “That depends on where I am right now.”

“In that case, I suggest the maglev. Ar Telica Tower is seven point three kilometers on a bearing of 177 degrees from true north.”

My shoulders slumped as though in surrender as those numbers made the choice for me. “Fine. I’ll take the train.”

“Very well, Princess. Make your way to the southeast exit. You will come across a maglev station within two hundred meters.” Ghost paused before asking. “Princess, does your phone not have a map function?”

I pouted sullenly as I walked toward the concourse’s southeast exit but stopped suddenly when I remembered my chaperone. “What about my shinobi?”

Ghost snorted. “Trust me, Princess. She will be just fine.”

“So she’s still with me?”

“I presume so.”

That was not the answer I was expecting. “Does that mean you don’t know where she is?”

“She engaged a thermoptic field. It makes it difficult to locate her using the surveillance cameras in the area. However, I have glimpsed a faint distortion pattern here and there, thus it is safe to say that she is still shadowing you.”

A distortion pattern had to mean the strange shimmer in the air that betrayed the presence of a thermoptic camouflage field, but I was puzzled. Did this mean that Mirai’s eyes could see as well as Ghost through the surveillance network?

No, she can see better.

Through her eyes, I could see what Ghost couldn’t – the lifeforce that radiated from a living creature. But in a city full of living people with auras of their own, it would be hard to pick her out from the crowd.

I resumed walking. “Forget about her. If you spot her, fine. If not, it doesn’t matter.”

“Princess?”

“If she can’t keep up, that’s not my problem.”

I exited the concourse into a building with a high ceiling. With its many open levels and retail outlets, the place reminded me of the landside part of a spaceport terminal. Taking a few seconds to orient myself by reading the signs, I quickly headed for the maglev station.

“Ghost, tell me why Mirai can move so well.”

The answer to my question had to wait until I boarded the maglev simply because Ghost insisted he wouldn’t tell me until I was safely aboard a carriage…rather than riding on its roof.

I had the niggling suspicion he had done this to me before – insisting that I first perform a specific task or he wouldn’t reveal something he’d discovered.

Using the cash card to pay the boarding fee, I waited at a mildly crowded platform for a couple of minutes, then caught the first maglev headed southbound through the city.

Occupying a seat at one end of the fourth carriage, I was well clear of the nearest passenger by about a dozen feet. Thus afforded a small measure of privacy, I listened to Ghost’s explanation on the phone.

“Princess, you are aware that Mirai possesses intimate knowledge of firearms and is well practiced when it comes to shooting.”

I nodded faintly, feeling slightly unsettled when reminded of all the shooting I’d done. “Yeah, I know that. I’ve got all this knowledge in my head about weapons I’ve never seen before. And I know how to use them, too.”

“Your mind—rather, Mirai’s brain—was imprinted with that information. The same applies to her body. When a Simulacrum is birthed, it has little knowledge of how to move. For that reason, the muscle memory belonging to other Simulacra of similar body type, proportions, and dimensions is used to imprint the newborn’s body. This shortcuts the natural learning process by essentially compressing it into a matter of days or even hours, and allows for a newborn Simulacrum to be both functional and productive sooner rather than later.”

I frowned to myself, a little unsettled by the obvious question begging to be asked. “Does this mean there’s another Simulacrum like Mirai?”

Ghost took his time before replying, “No. Mirai is unique.”

Now I felt even more anxious. “Then how was Mirai imprinted? Where does her muscle memory come from?”

“I do not know.”

That was unexpected and left me grasping at straws as I appealed to Ghost, “Please don’t lie to me. If you know, then please tell me.”

“Princess, I am not lying to you. I know a great deal about you, but this I do not know. There is a cluster of classified data on Mirai that I have not been able to access. The ICE surrounding it is the thickest I have ever encountered. My attempts to penetrate it have been unsuccessful. Every ICE breaker I have employed has been crushed by the very ICE it was trying to break through.”

Wondering what he meant, I cocked my head in a questioning fashion. “ICE…?”

“Intrusion Countermeasure Electronics.”

“But I thought isolated electronics were a thing of the past. I thought all our systems were now photronic based.”

“Indeed. However, calling it ICP does not sound nearly as cool as calling it ICE. As a result, the acronym has persisted throughout the modern era of cyber warfare.”

His explanation made me feel like palming my face in dismay, but instead I sat back in the seat and stared up at the carriage’s ceiling. “Okay, I get it. But this means the Sanreals can keep secrets from you too.”

Ghost sounded faintly peeved. “I assure you, Princess, it will not be for long.”

A shiver ran through me.

Revenant and his kind had broken into a Citadel and caused it to explode, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and Simulacra. If he put his talents and skills to it, no block of ICE was going to keep that data safe. The thought made me shiver because Ghost was also inside my head courtesy of the wetware embedded in Mirai’s brain. Could he exert an influence over me from within my mind? He was able to project himself into my vision, and I could hear him in my ears, so how else could he affect my senses?

This uncertainty made me feel naked and exposed, and I wondered if Ghost was aware of this. I didn’t think he could read my thoughts, but I suspected he was monitoring Mirai’s body, reading the chemical changes that took place within her, and using them to interpret my state of mind. In short, Ghost could tell when I was troubled, and perhaps he could even discern what was bothering me.

To get a grip on my emotions, I chose to focus on something else.

The city buildings racing by offered me a convenient distraction, but my feelings soured when I remembered being chased down the side of a megascraper.

The hunt may have been suspended – possibly called off – but it felt like unfinished business. Thus bothered by it, I looked away from the city outside the maglev and turned my attention to the carriage’s interior. There were still plenty of vacant seats, and I had a sizeable gap to the closest passenger. Nonetheless, I kept the phone close to my right ear as I cautiously asked, “What else do you think is hidden inside that block of ICE?”

“Difficult to tell. However, I presume a copy of the data on Mirai’s inner workings.”

I frowned faintly in confusion. “Ghost, you control the Sarcophagus. Doesn’t that mean you know Mirai’s secrets?”

“It does not work that way, Princess. What I control of the Sarcophagus allows me to support and maintain you. It does not provide me with the means to create another Mirai.”

I lowered my voice to a whisper. “Does that mean you don’t know where the Angel Fibers come from?”

“It would be safe to say the answer lies behind that wall of ICE.”

“Oh….”

“Princess, your stop is coming up.”

I glanced at a holovid banner scrolling below the ceiling near the middle of the carriage.

RING ZERO. DISTRICT SIX. BLOCK SIX.

I closed the phone shut as the maglev smoothly pulled into the station.

After disembarking from the carriage along with a handful of other passengers, I soon left the station behind as I followed the most direct route to Ar Telica Tower.

Earlier, when I’d checked the map on my phone, I noticed that the station closest to the Tower was a district block away. Therefore, I would have to walk the last leg of the journey, though I could make use of the elevated bridgeways, plazas, and promenades to stay well above the streets. I could have used the map on my phone to guide me, but Ghost chose to conveniently lead the way by reappearing in my vision.

As I followed him, the bustling bridgeways and promenades grew busier the closer we walked to Ring Zero’s entertainment districts located due west of the horseshoe shaped harbor. Unlike the outlets in other districts, those found here would be open until the crack of dawn. However, many of them would then close their doors until early afternoon. Such was the nature of the entertainment they offered.

I will point out that I wasn’t anywhere near Ar Telica’s red light district. Rather, this area could be considered a focal point for tourists that were either off-worlders or visitors from Teloria’s other city-states.

I must to admit, I’d mostly forgotten about the curfew, but that changed when I stepped out of a megascraper and onto a bridgeway connecting it to the squat, circular building that served as the foundation for Ar Telica Tower. The building also doubled as a civic center. At twenty stories high, it was a popular tourist spot and was thus unusually open at all hours. Entry into the building was free, though I would have to pay an admission fee to ride the ultra-fast maglev elevators up to the Tower’s various observation decks and restaurant floors.

However, now that I was here, I couldn’t get in. That was because two city-state Enforcers clad in armor-skins stood at the far end of the connecting bridgeway, guarding the entrance to the Civic Center. If I was spotted by those guards on duty, they were likely to run a facial recognition scan on me and learn that I was underaged.

It was time for my Shinobi chaperone to make herself useful.

Until then, I had no choice but to retreat into the megascraper.

The building was an office complex so its many businesses were closed until mid-morning. That should have left the place deserted, but because it offered access to the Civic Center via the bridgeway there were numerous groups of people walking through it.

I kept out of their way while waiting for Renew but I also kept an eye out for her.

I was curious to see how she would make her entrance.

Would she drop her thermoptic field early, allowing me to see her at a distance?

Or would she materialize beside me and try taking me by surprise?

Her thermoptic field?

At a sudden thought, I hurriedly opened the notepad app on my phone.

GHOST, TELL ME ABOUT RENEW.

I stared at the message, hoping he would notice it through my eyes.

“Princess, she’s here.”

I looked up and saw Renew step out from behind a cluster of people walking toward the building’s exit nearby.

I closed the phone and pocketed it.

Renew noticed me doing so but didn’t appear to mind. Instead, she glanced silently in the direction of the bridgeway connecting the megascraper to the Tower’s Civic Center, and moments later, she stopped in front of me.

“Are you ready?” she questioned me in a clipped tone.

I casually shrugged a shoulder at her. “Lead the way.”

 

– II –

 

Was it so important for me to observe the city from Ar Telica Tower?

I frowned inwardly as I pondered the thought while riding the high-speed maglev elevator up to one of the observation decks.

Getting past the guards had been a cinch.

Renew produced photronic identification for the both of us that the guards scanned, verified, and accepted. I didn’t get to see what she showed them, but the guards didn’t bat an eyelid at my appearance, nor did they ask me to remove my sunglasses.

Once cleared for entry, I followed Renew into the building and over to an elevator bank on the tenth level that had many people queued before it.

The elevators ran within a white column more than twenty meters in diameter that rose through the middle of the building. Starting at the ground floor, it connected to the ceiling high above. I assumed that it continued all the way to the Tower’s observation and restaurant levels some four thousand feet above sea level. To get to the elevator bank, I had to pass through a security scanning gate lorded over by sentry bots – the bowling pin kind – and then join the tail end of the queue.

At sight of the gates, I hesitated as I was unsure of how they’d react to Mirai’s body.

Glancing covertly at Renew walking ahead of me, I pulled out my phone, flipped it open, and hurriedly typed: SECURITY GATES?

Again, Ghost replied through the earpiece. “Princess, you may walk through. I have taken care of them.”

I experienced yet another of those sudden shivers whenever Ghost calmly demonstrated the extent of his abilities.

If he ever turned against us—against me—would we stand a chance?

Once I’d nervously passed through one of them, I was confronted by a sentry-bot fitted with a scanning plate.

It was time to pay the admission fee.

I’d watched people wave their smart bracelets, watches, or phones over the plate to pay their way into the Tower. However, I hadn’t installed the payment app onto my phone, so instead I would have to rely on my cash card.

“Princess, relax.”

I understood Ghost was trying to reassure me, but oddly it made me feel more nervous.

Nonetheless, I tried to take his advice.

After a deep breath, I relaxed my stance as I anxiously waited for the admission fee to be deducted from the card’s balance. The transaction took only a second, but it felt like an eternity even though my mind wasn’t in an overclocked state. The sentry-bot then waved me through with a thin metal arm.

“Please, move along. Move along.”

Swallowing discreetly, I then walked the distance to the stepped dais that surrounded the white column rising through the middle of the building.

A short while later, I boarded an elevator and made the journey up the Tower.

Of course, Renew boarded it with me, though she kept her distance.

That said, the interior of the large elevator car was crowded – but not cramped – and everyone inside was doing their best to be polite and not bump into each other.

I did my part too.

Standing with my back against a wall, and my arms crossed under Mirai’s big bust, I stared up at the ceiling to avoid eye contact with the people around me who were chatting in hushed tones as the elevator soared skyward.

I may have come across as haughty, but I wasn’t in the mood to care.

Instead, I was struggling to contain my troubled feelings.

Renew had gotten me into the Tower, but now I asked myself if it really was so important to see the city from on high?

I simply didn’t know anymore, but the question was tied to another.

Was the trip worth the effort?

The answer would have to wait until I arrived at an observation deck.

For now, while staring up at the ceiling, I watched Renew in the corner of my eye.

Why does it feel like she’s the one leading me around?

Thus far, Renew had been disturbingly true to her word. She had shadowed me while giving me an abundance of room. Yet knowing she was around was as bothersome as not knowing where she was, and undoubtedly, she would vanish once again when I stepped off the elevator at one of the Tower’s many floors.

I resolved to use Mirai’s talent to keep track of Renew.

I wasn’t going to lose sight of her this time.

But if I was keeping an eye on her, how was I to enjoy the view?

The question made me sigh, and it caught Renew’s attention, but I steadfastly continued gazing upwards.

The elevator slowed swiftly to a smooth stop.

The highest level was home to the restaurants that offered diners a stunning view of the city, but I had no intention of going there, so I got off at the observation floor immediately below the restaurants, and naturally, Renew accompanied me.

I gave the spacious, circular floor a good look.

There was comfortable seating for visitors, low lying tables, information kiosks manned by holovid projections, and so forth.

In short, it was outfitted like a tourist attraction, which is indeed what it was.

Yet, despite the abundance of furniture and people, the wide open layout made me feel oddly exposed, so I began looking for good places to hide and for ways to get off this floor without relying on the elevators, such as the spiral staircases that descended to the observation floor below this one. This made me feel a little better, but it also bothered me that I was treating my surroundings this way. It was wasn’t the product of countless hours of holovid gaming. Rather, it seemed be survival training that had been imprinted into Mirai.

I completed turning full circle, then looked over at Renew who was standing a few feet away.

She too was surveying her surroundings.

She’s just like me, or maybe I’m just like her.

Then I noticed her eyes were darting about and I realized she was going further than I had.

Renew was looking at the people.

She was looking for threats.

Sensing that I was watching her, Renew faced me. “I will be around if you need me.”

Turning gracefully on her heels, she began walking away.

However, I called out to her because there was something I just had to ask.

“Have we met before?”

Renew came to a neat stop, then half turned to look at me sideways. “This is our first meeting in person.”

I shook my head. “That’s not true.”

“It isn’t?”

“We came face to face on the landing platform.”

Her eyes briefly narrowed. “You’re right.”

“But I get the feeling we’ve met before.”

She smirked faintly at me. “In a past life?”

I understood she was poking fun at me, but I wasn’t going to dismiss the unexpected shiver that ran through Mirai back on the landing platform, and then later at the megascraper.

However, what she said next left me speechless.

“Aren’t you supposed to be blonde?” she asked.

My heart thumped loudly as panic blossomed in my chest, and I needed several seconds to recover my poise well enough with a question of my own.

“What do you know about me?”

“I’m not at liberty to say.”

Her reply was a confirmation of sorts. “So you know what I am….”

Renew turned toward me a little more. “I am aware of who you are.”

I wasn’t in the mood for word games or semantics with her, but I felt I had my answer. “Fine. I get it.”

She probably took that as her cue to leave because she started turning away again. But as she did so, she offhandedly said, “Dark hair suits you better.”

After that, I watched her walk over to a small coffee lounge about a dozen meters away.

I can’t say I was pleased with how that little repartee had ended.

I really felt like she’d won that one, but then I wondered why I was bothering to keep score when what was really important was learning that Renew was aware of Mirai and her alter-ego, Isabel val Sanreal.

I retrieved my phone from a back pocket, opened it, and then ended the call that connected me to Ghost. Pocketing the phone once more, I turned my back on Renew and walked over to an observation window.

A guardrail ran along the inside of the window to keep people away from it.

Like the permaglass of the VTOL’s cabin, the Tower’s windows were treated with something that made them non-reflective, thereby providing a clear view of the sprawling skyline at night.

Standing behind the guardrail, I looked out at the city-state before me.

After all that trouble, I was finally here and yet my mind wandered such that I couldn’t focus on the panoramic vista.

With a bitter sigh, I cleared my throat, and then quietly whispered, “Ghost, who is she?”

He replied into my ears, rather than through the earpiece I was still wearing. “I cannot say, Princess.”

“Cannot or will not?”

“Princess, I can provide you with her city-state identification, but I presume that is not what you are asking for.”

I slowly exhaled my mild frustration with him. “Just tell me what you know about her.”

“Her name is Raine Renew. She is twenty-eight years old and 177 cm tall.”

I bit my lower lip, thinking that Renew looked extremely young for her age while wondering how tall Mirai was.

Ghost then added, “From the top, her dimensions are 88—”

“Stop!” I whispered sharply. “I don’t need to know those.”

“Very well, Princess.”

I sighed softly as I leaned on the guardrail in front of me. “Can you keep it relevant? Please?”

“Relevant, you ask?” Ghost hummed thoughtfully to himself. “As you wish.” He paused as though gathering his thoughts for a moment. “Raine Renew is a member of the Sanreal Family’s private security. Her current assignment is to provide protection for Isabel val Sanreal.”

I narrowed my eyes a little. “Just me? I mean, just Isabel?”

“No. She is also responsible for Erina Kassius’s safety. However, you take priority over your sister.”

I didn’t bother reminding him that I no longer considered Erina as my sister. “What else?”

“Before she joined the Sanreal Family’s private security firm, Renew worked for Ar Telica’s Enforcer Corp from 2265 to 2271.”

I did the math. “She was an Enforcer for six years?”

“Yes. And during the last two years of her service, Renew was part of the Grey Ghosts.”

“What are they?”

“An Enforcer division responsible for protecting visiting dignitaries and other very important people. In short, they are an elite division of public security. But there is something else I should mention. Earlier, I told you I had compiled a short list of candidates who could be dispatched to pursue you on short notice. Raine Renew was at the top of my list.”

“Then you think it’s Renew who chased after me?”

“Aye, Princess. She is particularly adept at using thermoptic fields and glider packs. Another specialty of hers is long range sniping from the air. Death from above, as the saying goes.”

So it was her.

The grim concern in his voice made me regret keeping it a secret, but Renew’s aura matched what I remembered of the lifeforce that radiated from the woman who’d first hunted me down the side of the megascraper before the chase moved onto the speeding maglev. As such, Ghost’s revelation wasn’t that surprising to me. Rather, it was an affirmation of what I’d already surmised on my own.

I leaned a little more on the guardrail, and then stared off into the darkness that lay beyond Ar Telica.

She chased me down that building, onto a maglev, and then acted like it never happened. What a bitch.

“Princess, may I ask you a question?”

I dragged my thoughts back to the present. “Sure….”

“Why did you ask her if you had met her before?”

On impulse, I started gnawing on my lower lip.

Should I tell him?

“Princess?”

I decided to be open with him. “I have this weird feeling sometimes when I’m close to her.”

Ghost was quiet for a short while before cautiously asking, “A weird feeling? Could you elaborate upon it?”

I shook my head gently. “I don’t think I can. All I can say is that something about Renew made Mirai shiver when we first met her back on the VTOL.”

“Mirai, you say?”

I silently nodded.

Ghost hummed for a second. “Perhaps that would explain something curious about Miss Renew.”

“Like what?”

“The fact that elements of her data are encased in a block of ICE. And the nature of that ICE matches the ICE surrounding Mirai’s data. Other personnel associate with the Sanreal Family have security around their data files, but I have noticed that only individuals associated with Project Mirai have their profiles protected by an ICE barrier. In addition, we can also infer from your recent conversation with Miss Renew that she is aware of your nature. However, this does not explain why Mirai remembers her. It simply establishes a connection between Project Mirai and Miss Renew.”

On the one hand, this eased my mind a little, but like Ghost had said, it didn’t answer why I experienced a vaguely metaphysical connection to Renew.

Should I ask Erina about her?

Shaking my head slowly, I sighed so heavily it made my body shudder.

No, I doubt I’d get a straight answer from her.

I was about to sigh again when I felt my phone vibrating in a back pocket. Thinking it was Ghost, I answered the call without looking at the screen. “Ghost? Why are you calling me—?”

A girl’s laughter cut me off. “Ghost? Who’s Ghost?”

Flinching sharply, I hurriedly looked at the caller ID on the screen but there was none.

What the Hell?

Unbidden, Ghost quickly said, “Princess, I assure you. I have not given anyone your number.”

Lifting the phone back up to my right ear, I turned around, then swiftly gazed over the observation deck.

The unknown girl chuckled. “Oh, that’s a good one. You didn’t bother asking who I was. You went straight to searching for me. I wasn’t expecting that. You’re certainly fast thinker.”

Conveniently and perhaps on cue, Mirai overclocked her consciousness.

Then again, it could have been my doing, yet that seemed unlikely to me.

Rather, she was probably responding to the sudden, sharp spike in tension I was experiencing. In other words, being called out of the blue by an unknown girl who mysteriously had my unlisted number had made me very, very worried.

“Hello? Are you still there?”

Why was she asking? She could obviously see me, that is, she had eyes on me, so why bother asking?

“Hello? Are you there?”

I felt no urgent obligation to reply to her.

Instead, I considered from where she could be spying on me?

Facing the interior of the observation level, I leaned my back against the guardrail, and continued sweeping my gaze back and forth over the people on this floor. A few of them were talking on their phones, but none of them was a young woman. On the other hand, maybe it wasn’t a teenage girl on the phone. Perhaps it was someone using a voice changer, yet it sounded quite natural despite coming from the phone’s speaker.

My searching gaze found Raine Renew sitting on a butterfly chair. She was watching me while sipping something from a disposable cup.

I narrowly avoided meeting her eyes, just as the unknown girl on the phone spoke again.

“You don’t want to talk to me? In that case, relax and listen up.”

The girl coughed as though dramatically clearing her throat.

“Now then. Helping you out with the maglev was a freebie. A favor to a friend. I won’t call us comrades-in-arms, but you did try to save me once. It was a futile effort, but it touched me deeply. So, I decided to help you out with the train.”

What was she saying?

I had tried to save her, and it proved futile?

Perplexed, I strove to remember when I’d attempted to save someone only to fail.

There was Mat and Shirohime, but Erina had said they were both alive and recovering in medical stasis chambers, hence I crossed them off the list.

But who did that leave on the list?

Clarisol? Nope.

Erina? Definitely not.

Who could I have possibly failed to save that was somehow still alive?

That made no sense to me.

The girl carried on while my thoughts were twisted in a knot.

“But now, I’m going to offer you something, and if you accept, you’ll owe me a favor.”

Ghost had materialized off to my right. I glanced at him and he quickly shook his head at me, but I didn’t know if he was warning me to be cautious or to reject the girl’s offer.

“Are you interested?” the girl asked. “If so, give me a nod for yes, and a shake for no.” Abruptly, she chortled. “I mean shake your head, not your booty.”

With that statement, she more or less confirmed that she was watching me.

But from where?

Was she inside the tower? Was she on this floor? Or was she watching me through the Tower’s surveillance cameras just like Ghost was able to?

Or perhaps she wasn’t inside the Tower at all.

I turned around slowly and looked out the window at the megascrapers surrounding the Tower. Though they were quite tall in their own right, but they were not the tallest structure in Ar Telica, so I was able to look down at them. However, was it possible that the unknown girl was watching me from one of those buildings?

“Is that a Yes or a No?”

I swallowed anxiously as I peered at the massive megascrapers that I could see through the window.

“Come on, girl. Don’t leave me hanging. I’m dying out here. Give me a sign.”

She wanted a sign and I wanted to know from where she was watching me.

Ghost smoothly cut in with a suggestion. “Princess, walk counter-clockwise along the perimeter.”

Puzzled, I hesitated for a couple of seconds before doing as he suggested.

The girl on the phone chuckled.

“Oh, I get it now. You think I’m outside the Tower watching you. You’re pretty smart. And that’s a Yes. I’m somewhere out there in the darkness between the bright city lights.”

The sound of clapping came from the phone’s speaker, but I didn’t stop walking. When I encountered people looking out at the city, I walked around them and continued silently along my way.

“But even if you walk to the opposite side of the Tower, I can still see you.”

Undeterred, I carried on until I arrived at a point roughly two radians from where I’d started.

“Let me put it to you this way, you can run but you can’t hide.”

Spotting one of the spiral staircases leading down to the observation level below this one, I started heading toward it until Ghost unexpectedly appeared before me.

“Princess, I believe there is no need to go downstairs.”

At a standstill, I threw him a questioning look.

He then explained, “I believe she is using a stealth drone to spy on you from outside the Tower.”

So that’s how she’s keeping up with me.

Exhaling with a mixture of relief and frustration, I floundered on what to do next until I spied a vacant sofa-like seat a few meters away. Since there was no point walking around, I decided to sit down instead. So, as nonchalantly as possible, I walked over to the seat and dropped myself into it. When I crossed my legs, I unexpectedly did so like a girl. It briefly surprised me and added to the growing list of questions I was compiling about Mirai. But they were questions best left for another time, because for now, I had an entirely different sort of question to ask.

“Who are you?”

“Ah! She speaks!”

I bit my lower lip, took a short breath, then warily repeated, “Who are you?”

“A friend. No—that’s going to far.” She paused for a second before hurriedly saying, “I’m someone with a special interest in you because you’re a special girl. And I’ll point out that you’re a lot tougher than you look.”

I couldn’t fathom why she would say something like that, and yet, what I asked was, “What do you want?”

“To give you a taste of freedom for at least a few hours.”

Surprised, my breath caught in my lungs. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means that you’re tagged. Wherever you go, they go. It’s worse than having your parents chaperone you on prom night.”

I nervously wondered, How the Hell did she know that?

Had this girl been listening in on my conversation with Erina back at the café?

Wait—what does she mean by prom night?

“Are you interested?” Somehow, she sounded more like she was teasing me rather than asking. “Well? Cat got your tongue?”

I inhaled deeply while worrying about what I was getting myself into if I continued to listen to her.

“Get to the point,” I demanded.

“Don’t you want a few hours to yourself? Alone?”

I was making a bad habit out of biting my lower lip, but it failed to distract me from the anxious sensation swirling inside my chest. “I can’t do that. I have an agreement with—”

“I can make you disappear from their eyes, Mirai.”

It shouldn’t have come as a surprise, yet hearing this unknown girl call me Mirai made my heart twinge on top of the uncertainty and anxiety I was already experiencing. Was it because I’d been consciously or maybe subconsciously thinking of myself as Isabel? I didn’t know, or maybe, I didn’t want to know. Either way, I was presented with a problem: I had no idea who this girl was, but she clearly knew about Mirai, and she claimed that I’d helped her before.

Unfortunately, that didn’t ring any bells.

“I’ll ask you again. Are you interested?”

Honestly, her offer made me anxious rather interested because of the problem it presented.

If Erina and the Sanreals lost track of me, there might be Hell to pay, and there was also the matter of having given Erina my word. As rebellious as I was, breaking my word didn’t sit right with me on many levels.

Regardless, if I dropped out of sight, there would be consequences.

Then again, Ghost was chaperoning me and he could keep Erina informed of my situation.

With that in mind, a sliver of curiosity made me ask, “How do you plan on doing that? Are you going to translocate me away from Ar Telica?”

“That is a lot easier said than done. Therefore, in answer to your question: No. Not happening. Also, doing so is likely to start a war.”

That sent a chill running through me. “A war?”

“Yep, and that’s something I want to avoid. There are rules that even I’m loath to break. Thus, the most I can offer you is a few hours of privacy.”

“Why?”

“Think of it this way. If I do you a favor now, you do me a favor later.”

I mulled it over for a few seconds, trying to figure out the angles, but then decided to be blunt with this girl.

“I don’t know who you are, so I can’t accept your offer.”

“Okay. Then how about us getting together to chat.”

Not entirely unexpected, yet I was suspicious of how easily she made the proposal, sounding as though it was something she’d already planned for, so perhaps that was her intention all along.

Narrowing my eyes, I allowed myself to sound uncertain when asking, “To chat? Are you serious?”

“Most of the time.”

I swallowed quickly. “What do you want to chat about?”

“About your sister. About Clarisol val Sanreal. And about you.”

“What about me…?”

I suspect she was smiling when she asked, “Oh? Did that get your attention?”

Honestly?

Yes and no.

Her offer intrigued me, but it also rang like a warning klaxon inside my head. Because of this, I spent a long while vacillating between yay or nay.

Sensing this, it was no surprise to hear Ghost break into my thoughts. However, what he said was entirely unforeseen.

“Princess, this may prove to be an interesting opportunity.”

Shocked, I almost dropped the phone.

When I recovered my hold on the device, I quickly said, “Excuse me for a minute.”

Muting myself on the open line, I then lowered the phone to my lap. However, I felt that wasn’t going far enough so I bowed my head, and then covered my mouth with a free hand.

“Why?” I whispered to Ghost.

“Because, Princess, I would like to hear what secrets she knows…or believes that she knows.”

I tightly pressed my lips together.

Ghost’s personal desire overlapped with mine.

In all honesty, I was both curious and afraid of what the unknown girl knew about Erina, Clarisol, Mirai, and possibly the identity of Isabel val Sanreal. However, breaking my word to my former sister continued to gnaw at me.

“What about Erina?” I whispered. “If she loses track of me, she’s going to be pissed.”

“Princess, I will keep Doctor Kassius informed of the situation.”

“But what about the Sanreals? Won’t they launch a city-wide search for me?”

“Not if they know where you are, courtesy of your friendly Ghost.”

“…I doubt it’s that easy…,” I muttered under my breath. “But even so….”

“Princess, have a little faith in me. At the very least, allow me to demonstrate my diplomatic skills.”

Diplomatic skills?

For a brief moment, I had the impression that Ghost was going to mediate between various parties. I then wondered if there was more than one faction within the Sanreals with differing views on Project Mirai.

“What about Renew?” I softly asked.

“What about her?”

“Doesn’t she answer to Simon Sanreal?”

With my head bowed, I was looking down at my lap, thus unable to see what expression he was making. Hence, I was surprised to see Ghost kneel before me on bended knee.

Looking up at my downturned face, he gently asked, “And what if she does?”

My eyes widened slowly as I understood what he meant.

“Hello? Telos to Mirai? Is anybody home?”

Ghost offered me a faint, yet reassuring smile. “Princess, what is your answer?”

Good question. What was my answer?

Despite knowing that Ghost was supporting me, I felt pressured by both him and the girl on the phone, and that choked me a little. I had to hastily swallow a couple of times to clear my throat, before I unmuted my end of the call, and then lifted the phone back up to my right ear.

“I have a shadow.”

“Well of course you do. You’re not a ghost.”

I exhaled loudly before retorting through clenched teeth, “That’s not what I meant.”

To my surprise, when she spoke again her tone had grown distinctly cold. “I know what you meant. But trust me, I have a way of taking care of your shadow.”

The chill in her voice was something I simply couldn’t ignore. “How…?”

“For starters, I need you to start moving so that she’ll follow you.”

“And then what?”

“Draw her outside the building. I’ll take care of the rest.”

Hearing that, my stomach clenched unpleasantly with worry. “Your going to harm her?”

“I don’t need to harm her to get her out of the way.”

“Then what will you do?”

“That’s something you don’t need to worry about. Trust me. She will come to no harm.”

I didn’t know why I was suddenly concerned about Renew, but it was a feeling that I couldn’t shake, and so I lowered the phone, bowed my head, and then whispered to Ghost, “…what do you think...?”

“Princess, I can pass along a warning. However, that may tip our hand.”

I painfully bit my lower lip.

Again, Ghost had a point. It could make the situation worse if Renew was expecting an attack. That being said, she had to be aware there were risks that came with escorting me about the city. Yet, this still felt wrong. It was as though she was being sacrificed all for the sake of maintaining a lie to trick the girl on the phone.

There has to be another way.

I heard something creak and realized it was the flip-top phone in my right hand. My fingers were slowly crushing the plasteel casing, so I hurriedly relaxed them.

Looking up, I stared out at the city.

Is this how things are going to be? Intrigue, cloak and dagger, people coming to harm or being put in harm’s way all because of me or what people want from me?

My throat felt tight as I swallowed anxiously, before coming to a decision.

No, there is another way.

After a couple of deep breaths, I lifted the phone to my ear again. “You said you wanted to chat, then let’s chat. But we do it my way and no one gets hurt.”

“…I’m listening….”

“You’re tracking me just like the Sanreals are.”

“I’m not going to say.”

“Fine. Don’t tell me how you’re doing it. Just tell me if you can track me across the city.”

“I can—”

“Then I’ll make it easier for you. I’ll tell you where I’m going next.”

“No need. I can hazard a guess. It’s a place where you can reconnect with your past…albeit briefly.”

My breath caught in my chest making it difficult to speak. “You know where I’m going?”

“It’s where you should have gone first,” she replied, and her tone gave me the impression she was smirking at me.

In other words, I could all but hear the ‘Gotcha!’ in her voice.

Damn it—who the Hell is this girl?

Despite being caught off guard by her, I grabbed a tight rein on my composure because I couldn’t afford to stumble again. She was watching me from whereabouts unknown, so I had to maintain a strong façade and a firm tone to match it

“Good. Then you can meet me there in a few hours.”

“A few hours?”

“That’s right. Because I want some alone time, and you promised me that.”

“Ah, yes, but—”

“You and I will chat, but it’ll be on my terms. Take it or leave it.”

I ended the call, then snapped the phone shut. As I did so, I noticed my hand was trembling, and my heart was racing inside my chest.

Was this the result of adrenaline coursing through my body?

I snorted softly, thinking this reaction was surprisingly human of Mirai before reminding myself that she wasn’t a machine – she was flesh and blood. But I didn’t believe it was Mirai who was suffering from an adrenaline rush.

It was me.

As Ronin Kassius, I’d never been an assertive person. I’d avoided arguments and mostly gone with the flow because it was safest. But now as Isabel, I’d made a choice without consulting anyone other than Ghost, so it was natural to be a little scared. However, I had made my choice, and now it was time to see it through.

After quietly pocketing the phone, I remained seated as I looked through the observation windows at the sprawling city surrounding the Tower. After a short while, I quietly cleared my throat, then softly asked, “Ghost, is Renew still watching us?”

He had risen to his feet and was now standing beside my seat. “Indeed. She has been observing us intently.”

Glancing up at him, I saw him looking off to my right, however, I didn’t feel it was wise for me to follow his gaze.

Instead, I softly whispered, “Is that so…,” and kept it at that.

Renew was aware that I’d been on the phone, but she probably didn’t know to whom I was talking to. And while I was conversing with the unknown girl, I had been sitting down facing away from Renew, so she would have been unable to read my lips.

Would she consider that as suspicious behavior on my part?

Would she think I was talking to Erina?

Suspecting that something was afoot, would she call in for instructions?

If so, and depending on what orders she received, my plan could still go wrong—very, very wrong—and if it went south, then Renew was likely to be hurt.

It may sound ironic that I was concerned for her, especially since I was certain Renew had chased me down the side of a giant building while shooting electro-shock darts at me, but having her blindsided by the unknown girl continued to feel wrong to me. I may have felt differently if Renew was a Simulacrum or operating a mechanical avatar like Straus and her Cat Princess, but she wasn’t – she was a human being and thereby vulnerable.

Yet what really troubled me was the possibility that I was leading Renew into a trap.

It made me complicit in the unknown girl’s plan to take Renew out of the picture, and that was something that I couldn’t accept which was why I was hoping my plan would pan out.

If it all went well, then nobody would be hurt.

Hope for the best, I told myself before asking Ghost, “Do you know where I’m going next?”

“Yes, Princess, I believe I do….”

I snorted inwardly and sarcastically thought, Great minds think alike.

“Good. Then tell Erina. That way if Renew questions me about who I was talking to, I can tell her I was talking to Erina.”

“Princess, you want me to tell your sister to play along?”

Looking up, I glared at him through narrowed eyes. “Ghost, she’s not my sister. I’ve told you that already.”

He hesitated before nodding contritely. “Yes, you have. I apologize, Princess.”

I softened my glare, then averted my gaze. “Just tell Erina…tell her where I’m going.”

In the corner of my eye, I caught his gloomy smile. “That may not hold up to scrutiny.”

“I’ll take the chance.” I hesitated before adding, “But if you need to tell her the truth, I’ll let you make that call.”

“I understand.” A moment later, Ghost frowned down at me. “Princess, about what I said earlier—”

“Forget it,” I cut him off softly. “I just don’t think it’s right for Renew to be hurt like this. And something tells me that given half the chance, that girl will definitely hurt her.” I glanced up at him. “She’s looking forward to hurting Renew. I know it. I can feel it in my gut. And that’s why I want to keep this between us. I don’t want Renew catching on. I don’t want her trying to second guess me and making a mess of things.”

Ghost seemed conflicted yet he accepted to my decision with a shallow nod. “I understand, Princess.”

Staring out the windows again, I sighed heavily at the city buildings, and wondered with a touch of dread what it was that awaited me out there.

---

Thank you for getting this far.

This is the unpublished version of Book 3 of "Gun Princess Royale" a sci-fi, gender-bender, girls-with-guns, action series that I self-published on Amazon Kindle as eBooks in 2017. The series tanked in sales due to a bad story, very bad writing, and failing to put in the required time to develop the Gun Princess Royale Universe before releasing the books. Consequently, I never self-published Book 3. I did post a rough cut for Book 3 here on TG BigCloset. However, I was unsatisfied with the result, so I went back and rewrote the novel with a new approach. This is that novel.

For those of you who are interested in reading the original 2017 release of "Gun Princess Royale" the books are still available for purchase via the links are provided below:

Book One - Awakening the Princess

Book Two - The Measure of a Princess

The new "The Gun Princess Royale" will hopefully be release on Amazon Kindle as an eBook in 2023.
It all depends on what issues my editor friend finds with the story.