I stumbled backwards and fell on my butt.

  While I certainly appreciated the fact that my cssmates had 'disposed' of that annoying guard, I certainly didn't want to whacked in the face with a metal frying pan. Moreover, I really couldn't let them know that I understood what they were saying. Back on Earth, Hong Baiye was my natural nemesis, and I didn't want to be stranded in the middle of the queen bee's territory with my identity exposed.

  If she knew who I was, that vilin absolutely wouldn't hold anything back.

  "No. Leave her alone." Kang Jiesu said. "Actually, if you could remove the guard's memories of her, that would be great."

  Hong Baiye immediately frowned.

  "Shouldn't we erase her memories too?"

  —My memories.

  It took all of my self-control not to show any visible reaction.

  Hong Baiye's power must have been some type of mental magic. If she had the ability to erase memories, this could certainly expin how the group of them had managed to gather in the middle of the night without attracting any attention from the maids. I imagined that they must have promptly rewritten the memories of anyone that they encountered, allowing them to act in total secrecy. At Level 59, it was quite likely that she was significantly stronger than the legilimencers employed by the royal family, and it was extraordinarily difficult to defend against psychological attacks unless the target was expecting it in advance.

  That was genuinely a very frightening ability.

  I immediately put Hong Baiye at the top of my most dangerous enemies list.

  + + +

  "Not yet," Kang Jiesu said.

  "Why not? Don't tell me you've gone totally soft because she looks a little vulnerable and misfortunate."

  Another one of my female cssmates, Ming Lina, chimed in her two cents:

  "Isn't that the same maid that you had on the first night, Kang?"

  Ming Lina was a retively quiet and reserved girl in my css who I hated as much as 0.82 Hong Baiye units on the Standardized Personal Hatred Scale (SPHS). I stopped talking to her ever since middle school, mainly because she started to spend way too much time with Kang Jiesu and she was far too obsessed with him. Only an idiot would develop feelings for my childhood friend, so I clearly couldn't possibly be friends with her.

  Hong Baiye snorted in response.

  "If that's the case, it really is better to obliterate the girl's memories completely."

  "What do you mean?" Lu Liwang asked.

  "Kang Jiesu is weak to women," Hong Baiye said, practically disregarding the fact the fact the subject of her thesis was literally right in front of her. "One of these days, it's going to become his — our — fatal Achille's heel. It's a total blind spot in his big stupid head. If I didn't stop him, he would definitely end up accidentally dating five different girls in our school at the same time, and a few of them would invariably try to backstab him and trap him in their basement dungeons for their own selfish gains, and then everything would be a BAD END."

  "...That's not a nice thing to say," Ming Lina protested weakly.

  "I wasn't referring to you, Ming-Ming," Hong Baiye crified. "You're an absolute angel, sweetie. My point is that outsiders can't be trusted if we're chasing a good ending."

  The foxgirl chuckled softly from the sidelines.

  My childhood friend pretended that he didn't hear Hong Baiye's attacks on his character.

  "They had the maid in handcuffs like a prisoner, so she's certainly not on the same 'side' as our hosts," Kang Jiesu tried to justify his position. "At the very least, I think she could give us a different perspective on this kingdom. All of the information that our hosts have been feeding us seems rather 'sanitized', if that makes any sense, and I think we could benefit from an alternate viewpoint."

  The ice queen brushed Kang Jiesu off and crossed her arms with an exasperated pout.

  "Excuses! You're making up excuses!" She huffed. "I get it already, Kang. You don't need to lie. I'll follow your wishes all the way to very end. I know you have an irresistible urge to pick up stray cats on the side of the road, but if you keep accumuting more girls every other month, Zhang Guiyu is never going to look at you any differently."

  There was a visible reaction in Kang Jiesu's expression.

  "This situation is totally different," he replied stiffly. "You can erase the maid's memories after we extract any useful information from her."

  My expression was bnk.

  Why did they mention my name all of a sudden?

  The conversation continued onwards, but they didn't eborate on the random mention. Instead, Lu Liwang and Hong Baiye made their way over to the unconscious guard, where they started to prepare some kind of strange magical spell. Evidently, they were preparing to erase the memories of that unfortunate man.

  + + +

  The swish of a bushy tail grazed across my back, and I stiffened reflexively.

  "So it sounds like it's been decided that we'll delete your memories afterwards?" The foxgirl(?) purred as she crept around me.

  I felt like a prairie mouse that had been cornered in the clutches of a circling mountain lion.

  What big teeth that she had....

  And big cws....

  I honestly couldn't tell if the Ruby Princess was a cat, a fox, or some other animal. She seemed to have hybrid features of each creature, although I couldn't really say exactly which animal was supposed to be the original inspiration. In some regards, she looked something like a fox, but her behavior was much closer to that of a cat.

  Who was this girl, anyways? I still didn't know her real identity.

  "I know you can't understand what we're saying right now, but I'll make sure we'll become very best friends until your memories are erased~" The foxgirl whispered into my ears as she pced her fluffy hands (sheathed cws) on top of mine.

  I shivered. Why did that sound so threatening?

  I could infer from everyone's retive positions in the Emerald Room that the kemonomimi was responsible for guarding me, but somehow I didn't feel so thrilled about this arrangement. Perhaps it was Hana Stiria's gut instincts, but the carnivorous beastkin in this isekai universe were generally man-eating. Royal w in the Kingdom of Galuterica forbid human cannibalism, but everyone knew that the wolfkin and the felixkin in the wild nds sometimes preyed on humans for food.

  "Hong Rei, don't bully the maid," Hong Baiye called from across the room. "Even if I'm going to erase her memories ter, that doesn't give you a free pass to do whatever you want."

  Hong Rei...

  That was Hong Baiye's twin brother?

  But... he was a boy(?)

  However, no matter how I looked at the Ruby Princess in front of me, she was definitely a girl.

  Or was she(?)... he(?)... them(?)...? What??

  ?