Beatrice's orgasmic misadventure was interrupted suddenly and rudely by someone entering the room. Beatrice had still not come to her senses and hung limply in Ember's arms, basking in the afterglow of three consecutive, mind-shattering climaxes.
Ember heard the door squeaking open just moments before, but had no chance to warn the others as she was busy exchanging mouth fluids with Beatrice. Still supporting Beatrice in her arms, Ember looked at the small figure at the door.
Similar to the two catgirls before, there stood another beastkin with a somewhat melancholic expression.
"What the fuck, Noel!?" princess Marry growled and slipped her right hand under her dress. "GET OUT!!"
Mary got out a knife from beneath her dress and threw directly at the beastkin's face.
The knife flew straight through the beastkin's melancholic expression like through thin air.
"I'm sorry, My Lady, but I am not here," Noel said somberly. "That is, I am here where I am currently standing, but my 'here' is not your 'here' where you are, which is the bedroom of one of our head maids, namely Tabitha. And where you are is not where I am, therefore you cannot interact with me in the direct physical manner which you just seconds ago attempted, which was impaling my face with a throwing knife. And you cannot interact with me in such a manner because this is a projection. That is an image that I am projecting to your location along with my voice, thoughts, and physical appearance. Which means, that although you cannot interact with me in a direct physical manner, you can interact with me by using your voice to convey words—"
"Oh, shut up!" Mary shouted at Noel, with her voice and expressions full of contempt, and slowly got up from her knees.
Unlike the previous two catgirls, Noel was properly clothed. But instead of a maid uniform, Noel wore a dark suit with an olive-colored strap running to the side from where a necktie should have been. Noel was short, no more than five-foot-tall, with a narrow frame. Two furry cat ears, as well as a small seed-shaped green gem, stuck out of Noel's olive-colored hair that barely reached the shoulders.
"What the fuck does the old hag want from me?" Princess Mary asked as she dusted off her blood-red dress.
"Her Highness wouldn't say," Noel answered. "But you should know that because she never states her reason for summoning her daughter whenever she summons you."
"Sure, just let me run to her every time like a fucking call girl," Mary said as she threw death glares at Noel. She then turned to Beatrice, threw her a small brown badge, and said, "Here's your stupid badge!"
Beatrice was only now coming to her senses, so Ember caught the small item instead. All Beatrice could do was look half-lucidly at the item that was supposed to grant her the rights to safe passage through the city.
"Is that any way to talk to our guests?" Noel asks. "That is, they are your guests, in a certain way. However, I am speaking on behalf of the royal body, and as such the guests become 'our', and I find it is not polite to shout or scream at someone you have just been fucking with their own appendage."
"Tch, you have some balls on you," Mary scowls. "Just because you're my mother's sex slave you think you have the right to waltz around the palace, give out orders, and speak 'on behalf of the royal body' as if you've ever been a part of it? I am a princess!! THE princess! Firstborn! You are nothing!!"
"Although my physical presence is indeed not where you are, that does not mean that I do not exist. And even where you are located right now, some of my being does manifest a visible form and an audible voice. Therefore, to say that I am—"
Another dagger flew through Noel's face and impaled its blade deep in the wall behind the beastkin.
"It was a joke," Noel explains, unfazed by the princesses' futile attacks. "That is, I obviously understood what you meant by your saying that I am 'nothing' and it was hurtful. Thus I decided to misdirect my objection to your accusation by stating the facts that countered the direct pronoun definition of your statement instead of the adjective informal meaning—"
Another dagger flew through Noel's face.
"Do not make the queen wait," Noel said. "That is, for your own sake, it is in your best interests to arrive at her quarters."
And with that statement, Noel vanished.
"Who the hell was that?" Ember asked.
"My mother's little pet," Mary answered, still looking where Noel was a moment ago. But with the beastkin gone, her anger visibly subsided. "Unfortunately, I don't have much time to play with you anymore."
Beatrice finally recovered enough to stand on her own two feet and adjusted her damp panties.
"Let me help with that," Ember said and crouched at Beatrice's feet. The redhead mumbled some kind of enchantment, her hand started to glow red. Ember placed her hand on Beatrice's panties and pressed it close against the futanari's crotch.
"Hnnn-hot!" Beatrice moaned and winced.
"It will only take a moment," Ember said as she dried Beatrice's lace panties.
Mary watched this scene with amusement and said, "I don't know how serious your whole thing about saving the world is, but you need to develop better resistance. I suggest you join the S.E.C.R.E.T. guild. It will do you some good."
The princess then went to the bookshelf that stood next to the bed. She slid her finger across the upper row of books until she found what she was looking for – a thin, dusty blue book, that would most likely go unnoticed by anyone not looking for it. Mary pulled the book out half-way, then inserted it back. She repeated that two more times, and on the third insert the whole bookshelf slid to the side, revealing a hidden passage behind it.
"Go straight, never take a turn, and this tunnel will take you outside the palace," Mary explained to Beatrice and Ember.
"Can't we take the normal way out?" Beatrice asked.
"The throne room will be locked for hours," Mary said. "And even if you were not morons and knew the other ways outside through the Oval Room, this is the quickest way."
"It's not a good idea to wander around the palace without Master Lucarad," Ember said while she dealt with the massive cum stains on her robes. With both her hands she heated up her robe to the point that steam formed around her. Once she was done, she and Beatrice went closer to the passage, where Mary waited for them.
"Good luck!" Mary said with a smile. "I'm looking forward to our next meeting. And you better not come back as some shitter D-rank! I expect more of somebody who can come three times in two minutes!"
And with that the bookshelf slid back into its original place, leaving Mary alone in the room.