Reincarnated Into A Dead Woman's Body In Another World-Chapter 189: Arc 4, Act I, - 34: Sneaky Tomfooleries
’-With that, the tragedy in Hartamat has dishevelled the lives of its civilians and I for one cannot stand Trailon’s unethical and deceptive strategies. I believe the Undying Princess, is the key to success in-’
Jotou sat at the vanity, using a pen to write down one generic response, one if Trailon was not going to send a reply today and another if they do.
She scratched off a word, having to make sure to follow this world’s alphabet fonts. Jotou sighed, "The best play, is to make the public believe in Daiyu..."
Out of earshot of Jotou, by the vanity and on the balcony, pies were being set onto the tiles by three invisible figures. Lying down was a ladder that just about made it from a balcony of another room onto Jotou’s balcony, tied down by ropes.
Asobi turned the pies invisible again. "Well, good thing I didn’t actually fall," Daiyu said in pride.
"The Undying Princess almost fell off the balcony while trying to cross a ladder she tied to it so that she could throw pies at her friend. Now that’s a headline..."
"Whatevs, let’s go give him a surprise."
"Wait a minute..." Fumeko held a hand to her chin.
"What?"
"We made sure the guards didn’t see us, used a ladder to cross balconies, we didn’t open the door because we would’ve warned Jotou, but we forgot one thing..."
"Oh, yes-yes! If Jotou’s guard’s down, she can sense anything that’s about to attack her!" Asobi answered.
"Oh shit, I forgot! Dammit, we have to be quick then."
"Well, only if Jotou’s about to be attacked... Does pie to the face count as a harmful attack?"
"He could sense when I was using my truth tap thing."
"It might be an intrusion? Maybe she can sense malevolence?"
"Look the windows’re open, we can run inside," Asobi pointed.
"Yeah, screw it; Fumeko blink in throw a pie to his face, then me and Asobi will run in with the rest of the barrage. Actually, take two."
Jotou looked up from the paper, knitting her brows. She glanced left to the balcony, seeing nothing but the tables and grey-ish clouds in the distance, alongside a light breeze...
"I swear I heard something... Great, there’s so many voices in my head I’m starting to hear things..." Jotou sighed back to the paper, "Alright, focus don’t get distracted."
Jotou scanned for where she had left off on the paper, before sparks of electricity fizzled down her ponytail.
In a haste she got up from the vanity, onto the balls of her feet like a cat- "SPLAT!" Only for her to be hit straight onto the face by whipped cream and red filling.
"PLEH!" Jotou grunted, using her arm to wipe her face as the small pie tin fell to the floor. Her eyelashes fluttered covered in cream, only to catch a glimpse of the brunette coming out of invisibility.
"Meko! The fu-" "SPLAT!"
Fumeko threw another onto her face. "HEHEHAHA!" she cackled as she blinked to the side, allowing two other feet to run across.
"What, bleh, even is this!?" Jotou used both hands to clear her face, stumbling back a bit, "Cream? And Jam? Wait, are you pieing me!?"
A mere nanosecond to open her eyes—"SPLAT!"—before Daiyu splatted another pie into her face, "Eat it loser!" the evil cackle followed a blinded Jotou as the princess made sure to smush her face into it.
’Where’s my sword? Where’s my sword!?’ Jotou took steps back from the vanity, landing her hands on the bed canopy.
She stumbled back, clearing the cream off her face with an arm, only to notice she was on the wrong side of the bed from her sword.
Just grabbing something, anything, she swung around a fluffy thick pillow by the ends. Cornered to the wall, "Get back you savages!" she panted, watching Daiyu grin and Asobi pouting unsurely with a pie still in her hand.
"Sobi... No, no," Jotou, face covered in pie remnants and red filling, tried to command. Fumeko blinked right in front of the blonde and- "SPLAT!"
"PUFF!" Jotou whacked the pillow into Fumeko’s head and knocked her onto the bed with a "BAK!" from her. The pie tin hit the floor, the remnants on her face; Fumeko blinked away.
’This, this is an ambush! I need to defend! I need to cast with another part of my body... That’s it!’ "SPARK!" as Jotou casted, she could feel her lips, tongue and eyes beginning to tingle, like something coursed over it.
The electricity sparked around her head, going over all the cream, crumbs and red filling that dripped down her forehead. The remnants hardened and crumbled in response.
"Mmm, mmm, BLEH!" Jotou struggled to free her mouth. Opening it caused all the remnants to fall like crumbled rocks. She shook her head furiously and everything flaked off like a crumbling statue.
Her face now clear, Jotou blinked away the last of the hardened cream, "Now vengeance’ll be swift you psychopath... I know this is your doing!" the only thing remaining was a glare and dishevelled bangs.
"Come on Joey Toes, just a prank~!" Daiyu stuck her tongue out.
"It’s a one out of ten, I ain’t laughing..." a crazed blonde with sparks disappearing over her head replied.
"Pretty funny for me standing here," Daiyu put her middle finger up before a brunette blinked into view and handed Daiyu another pie.
Fumeko blinked away to somewhere unknown. ’No doubt for a sneak attack. Alright, keep your guard up for whenever she reappears... Daiyu’s not holding the pie tin hardly.’
Jotou’s eyes scanned before Daiyu ran towards the blonde ready to throw the pie. Jotou grunted, holding the pillow in her right while her left hand reached forward.
Daiyu was just about to let it fly before Jotou’s hand caught the tin and instead simply took the pie by sinking her fingers into the edge of it.
"Hngh!?" Daiyu stood stunned and tried to grab it back. "SPLAT!" She instead got pied herself as Jotou threw it onto her face.
"Take that!" the tin fell and Jotou grabbed the pillow by the corners and—"SMACK!"—thwacked Daiyu on the side of the head and onto the bed, dirtying the sheets with the gelflower filling and whipped cream.
Shadows appeared in front of the blonde as Jotou threw the pillow onto the back of Daiyu’s head. Her eyes narrowed to find an arm and reached for it, grabbing Fumeko’s wrist which held another pie, "HEY!"
Jotou quickly grabbed the pie out of her hands and splatted it onto Fumeko’s face, pushing her back. Fumeko flailed her arms and fell onto her ass on the carpet. "How do you like it detective?"
"SPLAT!" Jotou had enough time to look up and reach her free hand up to catch the incoming pie with her hand. The pie sunk until knuckles, "Ew," before Jotou dropped it onto the carpet.
"You’re smiling Jotou! That means this is fun!" Asobi cheered.
"No, it’s a mess!" "THWACK!" "Ughf," Jotou groaned as a pillow hit her to the side of the head. The princess came back into battle with a pillow.
Fumeko sat clearing the pie off her face while Asobi ran for a pillow as well. Jotou pushed Daiyu back whilst Daiyu thwacked Jotou over the head. ’Strategize Jotou, strategize!’
The blonde picked up the edge of the blankets and lifted them up. She twisted them to the left, pulling them over Daiyu’s head. The princess fell back into the sheets as Jotou kept wrapping the blankets over her fallen form.
With her trapped under the covers Jotou picked up another pillow in defence. Asobi flung the pillow and herself onto the uncovered mattress and tried to hit Jotou, who batted it away with her pillow; the feathers burst out of both.
Asobi bounced once and rolled over to Jotou’s side onto the carpet next to Fumeko. The brunette finally could open her eyes as she scanned the scene next to a fallen and giggling Asobi.
With adrenaline rushing in her body, Fumeko blinked back onto the balcony for the final pie. Jotou took a step back and—"Shuck..."—stepped into the pie which she had stopped with her hand previously. "Ugh."
She lifted a foot up and flung it off, not noticing the single arm reaching out from the rolled up blankets grabbing her wrist, "WoAh! hEy!" she hopped on one foot till she got the edge of the mattress and tumbled onto the blanketed form.
"Gah!" a muffled voice released all its breath as Jotou fell onto it. Daiyu rolled out from under and saw the fallen Jotou placing her fists on the bed to get up.
She raised a pillow over the blonde’s head and—"THUMP!" "THUMP!" "THUM- POOF!"—hit her till the feathers burst out of the pillow.
"STAHP!" Jotou scrambled onto the bed and pushed Daiyu away with her legs. Daiyu tried to resist, but with the bed a complete mess, could not stop herself from falling onto the other side.
"Ah!"
A few minutes earlier_
"Alleviate Migraine," drops of water surrounded Feyan’s temples akin to a glowing blue halo before the spell faded and the water dissipated into the air.
"Ah... I might have had a slight headache, but it is definitely quelled now." Feyan smiled. "I think you have sufficiently grasped the spell Ms Hotaru."
"Thank you," Hotaru’s tail wagged before the two walked into the inner foyer from the courtyard. "Why was your head aching? Something about the meeting?"
"In a way," Feyan sighed. "Madam Telae will be managing any meetings going forward so it is no longer my planning. However, I simply worry that, if something like that day were to happen again...
It was not the admiral alone; you, Jotou, my brother and a lot of people had a hand in protecting the dining hall and thanks to Detective Namora, the princess was not poisoned, alongside myself.
I fear most meetings, simple or otherwise. I am no longer in charge of any safety measures that could be placed."
"Well, whether or not danger reveals itself is out of your control anyway. Prepare for it, but it’s best not to worry about it."
Feyan nodded, "I suppose you are right... I am glad to have my free time to be occupied with something to do, oh," his eyes widened. "I was supposed to inform Ms Jotou of the seamstresses taking her measurements this evening."
"Hm, Jotou probably skipped breakfast too. If you have free time left, we can bring some food to my room and we can eat a little there," Hotaru invited.
"If you insist, I would not mind. I hope the princess has had her fill..."
_
Jotou crawled up and sat on her own bed, hair fuzzy and pillow in her hands. She glanced left and right, "ARE WE ALL TWELVE!? THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?"
"WHACK!" Asobi hit Jotou back with the half-filled pillow onto the mass of pillows. Daiyu grabbed the edge of the bed, getting up with a pant.
She got onto the bed and grabbed another pillow to smack Jotou with. Jotou grabbed Daiyu’s wrists and threw her back off the bed.
Fumeko blinked back with a pie in her hand and threw it across the bed, making Jotou flinch and duck- "SPLAT!" The pie hit Asobi in the face instead.
The tin slid off the elf’s face, before her eyes opened and lashes fluttered through the red, yellow and white dessert caked over her face... She raised her wand, "MUTINY! TREASON!" she screamed.
Jotou began laughing, maniacally as she swung the pillow to the brunette standing by...
The two walked up the steps, Feyan holding two plates of pancakes whilst Hotaru held one. "Hm... It just hit me, that I’m not that good in a fight.
I can heal, put up a little support spell, but if someone was in danger, I couldn’t really defend them; more so heal them after or reduce their injury."
"Well," Feyan tilted his head, "It is true, but there is a spell within the healing affinity that would allow one to fight. Only one that I know of that is."
"Really?" Hotaru’s ears pricked.
"Perhaps this could be the next spell I teach? It is known as ’Siphon’. I use a modification of the spell; though it is mainly necromantic, it also is in line with healing affinities."
"That sounds, advanced... Maybe you can teach me Remedy Paralysis before that?" Hotaru approached the door of her room, her head turned to Feyan.
"I could, however it might be difficult since there would be nothing to test it on..."
"The prisoners I guess," Hotaru opened the door.
"Perhaps-" Feyan halted in his step, staring into the room. Hotaru’s neck recoiled taking a glimpse...
Asobi stood, taking a lick of the pie with a tilted head and a finger. Yellowish-white feathers were flying in a hurricane through the room; cream, gelflower filling, crusts and pie tins lied through the carpet and some on the sheets.
Daiyu had pinned down Jotou on the bed, to which Jotou had held both Daiyu’s wrist up and a foot to her stomach. Fumeko stood about to swing a pillow when Jotou was to flip Daiyu over...
This was the image at which they all paused, their eyes glancing over to the open door... Their hairs all ruffled and some of Daiyu’s jewellery fallen over the pillows. "Chu!" Asobi sneezed, launching more pie onto the carpet.
"This... is, uh, they started it," Jotou replied before throwing Daiyu to the side.
Hotaru stared at the scene before the corners of her lips rose, "What, in the world happened here?" she could not help but giggle.
"We were pranking Jotou! Then, we, what were we doing?" the pie-faced Asobi spoke.
"Winning," Fumeko whacked the pillow onto Jotou’s face, sending her into the pillow realm.
The plates in Feyan’s grasps shook... "This is... Oh no..." he gradually fell to his knees, "The room is, oh... Oh..." he set the plates on the floor and held his head, "Those were, those were swanowl feathers..."
"Uhhh..." Daiyu stared with a nervous smile, "You can, get replacements right?"
"I am no longer in charge of the housekeeping in the palace... I will have to speak to Mr Ramresh..." he stared into the void.
"Lord Artevik! Lord Artevik!" armour clanked behind the two at the door; a Royal Guard rushed forth.
"Wha-what is it?" Feyan turned his head, having not the strength to stand.
"There is a letter my lord," the guard stood, wide-eyed, "It is addressed from the Trailon Regime."
