When Hilda sent a message to Count Vasi to keep his mouth shut, she knew there was one person he would have already reported to.

  Margrave Owen Keln, Lord of Beacon.

  Lord Keln was a piece of shit. He was snide, misogynist, and more than willing to invoke prejudice as a tool, even if he didn’t hold such prejudice himself. Taxes on the region weren’t low, which is to say that Keln was definitely rich off of others’ bor, even if the fees didn’t seem totally unreasonable. As such, if Prince Tobias took over the frontier, then Keln would be poised to lose his golden goose.

  Hilda had avoided making her presence known on the way to Thraes Hold because Keln would undoubtedly invite her to his estate, try to glean information from her, insult her backhandedly for being a woman, and generally waste her time.

  This time, she didn't have the luxury. A messenger with his invitation was waiting for her the moment they started their inspection to enter the city. It requested Hilda, her girlfriends, and Zerel to come meet him for dinner. Etiquette demanded she accept the hospitality tonight, if not before leaving the city, otherwise it was an insult to House Keln. He would have to suffer Dalia and Sheryl’s absence, though. Were they not trying to be discreet, Hilda would have skipped the dinner and suffered the fallout at a ter date, but Keln might try to hold them up at the gates if she didn’t show.

  After the inspection found that she had indeed brought just a handful of goblins into the city, Hilda was required to sign a writ of responsibility for her ‘risky cargo’. After which, she was asked to pay the ft tax per goblin for transporting ‘sve goods’ - she had the bill sent to the DuSonde estate - and they immediately began moving towards the warehouse she had in mind for the goblins’ overnight stay.

  “Yer grindin’ yer teeth again, Hil.” Zerel commented as they drove the wagon from one side of the city to the other.

  Blinking while she unclenched her jaw, Hilda fumed, “You know my distaste for all of this. It’s ridiculous that you’re not just people in the eyes of the empire. I can’t even call you and your cnsfolk prisoners without shackling all of you.”

  She pinched the bridge of her nose while Zerel touched her shoulder, “You can be mad at the situation all ya want, it’s just the reality of it.”

  “Well it’s a shitty reality, Zer. Apparently I couldn’t have been brought into a world where I-” Hilda paused with a frown as she realized someone could overhear before switching to hushed English, “I wish I had been brought into an isekai that didn’t make me feel a moral fucking obligation to emancipate the victims of imperial indenture.”

  “Aw, come on. We can't expect to live in a perfect fantasy world with no issues. There's gonna be some kind of oppression, no matter where or when we are. I'm not saying we should let it go on, but its presence is as mundane as money.” Zerel's chipper demeanor waned, “or men.”

  “...You're right. It's just that it had to be this, for some reason.” Hilda gestured as she let out an amused huff, “Not a fan of boys, are you?”

  “No. Not ones who are raised into misogyny. Even somma my cn brothers need the occasional bit a’ sense knocked into ‘em… hey, what about your brothers? They get on yer nerves?

  Hilda shrugged, “Sometimes. They're not really misogynistic, though, and I bme my mother and Matilda for that. Ed can be brash and competitive, Leo inherited the stick up his ass from his father, and Alvin is a good brother, but… he’s fun to pick on.” She donned a wicked grin, “He always says I cheat during our spars.”

  “Alvin's your full brother, right?”

  “Yes. He stays in Sondegürd with our dad, studying the bde together.”

  Zerel ughed at the choice of words, “you make him sound like an incel, Hil!”

  Hilda’s face contorted at the idea, “He's not, he's just very devoted to the sword.” She cracked up, “God, that sounds awful in English.”

  “You didn't say much about your youngest sibling, either. What's Kirk like?”

  Hilda's mood fell as she thought of her answer, “I… probably could have recognized the signs. Kyrike has always been an awfully nice kid, but they always seemed kind of lost. We were always a bit worried about Kirk - Lana, Celia and I - and since Lana was going to be the closest to home, she promised to keep an eye on hi- them. If I didn't have the solution, I'd have to hope she could find it.”

  Zerel was quiet as the wagon pulled into their overnight destination, “You think ya could have recognized the signs? Did ya know a lot of trans girls on earth, Hilda?”

  Hilda squirmed. She still felt uncomfortable about details of her past life, “Only a few, and none were very close. I'd seen talk about it, though. Online.”

  With a wholesome smile, Zerel elbowed her, “Then don't worry about it. You're already doing more than enough. Just by jumping to help.”

  The worries had already set in. Hilda couldn't help wondering if she had made a mistake in her second life. Did she become too focused on her own wants and ignore the people around her? Had she let herself become a narcissist?

  “You ever notice how there’s no kids in Thraes Hold?” Zerel broke the brief silence, interrupting Hilda’s spiral as she stared at a couple of human children in a yard next to the street, “One o’ the first things I noticed after living in Ademhill. We’ve always got little swarms o’ young gobs running around. The imperials think it’s too dangerous down there for any of their kids, though.”

  “No, but I wasn’t expecting children in Thraes Hold.” A younger woman stepped out of a nearby doorway, attempting to corral the kids inside. As her eyes fell on their wagon, she pushed them to move with more urgency. “You think that’s why there’s no eggs down here?”

  Zerel tutted, “Probably. You’d think I could find at least one merc, though… It’d be more baffling if they’d been friendlier to us, too. I’m sure there’s a couple around that just weren’t excited to let the goblin queen trans their gender.”

  Hilda patted Zerel on the back, and having bemoaned their situations, the conversation moved on to lighter subjects. Shortly, their wagon and the other goblins were put up in the warehouse with a brief refresh on their backup pns from Zerel. Then the two dressed in appropriate finery - Zerel in a maroon mid-calf dress with tall bck boots, Hilda in her ste grey military uniform from the academy - and embarked for lord Keln’s mansion. It was easy to find; a walled and gated building of stone brick near the center of town, with guards posted at the entrances.

  Hilda couldn’t hide her grin when Zerel mumbled something about poor masonry.

  The guards ushered them inside where the maids ushered them through the mansion to the dining hall, where, of course, no one else was waiting for them. The head maid seated them, with Zerel in pce as the guest of honor, which confused the goblin and amused Hilda, who had plenty of time to expin while they waited.

  “He thinks he’s insulting me by putting you in the seat of honor.” She told Zerel, “If I point it out, he’ll just say that you’re titled at a higher rank than I am, which is technically true.”

  “Whatever makes him happy, I guess,” the queen gave a bemused shrug.

  The lord took more than twenty minutes to arrive, a common impoliteness in Hilda’s experience. Owen Keln was a broad, stout man, adorned in the expected dress for a man of his stature, sans outerwear. His mild tan understating the salted brown of his short beard and balding head. A few guards accompanied him into the room as Hilda and Zerel stood for greetings.

  The margrave wore a skin-deep smile as he gave a shallow bow, “Lady Hilda, a pleasure to have you join us. A pity about the uniform, though. I’m sure you’d be more stunning in a dress.”

  Hilda returned the bow and refrained from rolling her eyes, “Of course, Lord Keln. Sadly, I didn’t bring much finery to the frontier.”

  Moving on to Zerel, he greeted her much the same, with more vigor, “Queen Zerel! It’s delightful to finally meet you, your highness.” He chuckled, “Were you any other guest, I’d ask if you needed a breath of fresh air or to loosen your corset.”

  Her reply came with a pointed grin, “I’ll try to remember to breathe, milord.”

  As they reseated themselves, Keln asked, “Lady Hilda, what of your other lovers? They didn’t accompany you to the city?”

  She ignored the petty implication. Acknowledging it would just give his nonsense more ground to stand upon, “Oh, no, they didn’t. Sheryl asked Dalia to teach her some wilderness skills and they disappeared into the wilds. You know how elves are. She takes her tracking and scouting so seriously. They said they’d meet back up with us on the road.”

  The servants began to bring their first course as he frowned in thought.

  “You are misrepresentin’ our retionship, Lord Keln,” Zerel spoke up, pausing her inspection of the silverware. “I’ve yet to broach that subject with Lady Hilda. I had figured,” she paused for effect, picking up a spoon, “that I should at least give her another week.”

  Hilda wanted to chide Zerel for pying into his petty nonsense but she was too busy suppressing her fluster and could only manage to whine, “Zerel!”

  Zerel snickered a moment before digging into her soup as Owen hid some amusement behind a hand. “I suppose I see why you're in a hurry to return home, then. The frontier is hardly a pce for romancing a girl like Lady Hilda. As much as a frigate is no pce for her sister. It's a shame to see such beauties go unmanned, though, don’t you think?”

  Zerel's mood soured in moments.

  Hilda briefly considered freezing his soup solid as she dined on her own, though she ultimately decided to let him enjoy the fruit of his kitchens. He'd move on to greater insult soon enough. He managed to keep it to lighter jabs and backhand compliments until the end of the main course.

  “Well. I suppose I've dawdled and amused myself for long enough,” he said, dabbing at his face with a napkin. “I must get to business eventually. Where is she, dies?”

  Hilda leisurely chewed with an unimpressed expression as Zerel swallowed the st of her own roast. The hobgoblin’s reply was startlingly innocent, “Who are ya askin’ about, now?”

  “You know exactly whom I mean, your highness. The woman from Dé Cyon.”

  “I see,” Zerel paused for a sip of wine, “she's still in Ademhill. Watched an’ protected by my coven.”

  “Is that so?” His eyes narrowed, “and I suppose you pn to entreat Duchess DuSonde to support your control over her, then?”

  For once, Hilda noticed Zerel get angry. She could feel the witch's magic fre for a moment before calming, “I would never try to control someone like that. We will be asking the duchess for support, yes. But. It will pertain to problems that Miss Dawn and Ademhill have in common. We would both like to exist peacefully on this continent, without the empire’s contempt.”

  Oblivious to the magic, he prattled on, “You can't seriously expect me to believe that you've discovered the spawn of a godbeast and you don't pn to use her powers for your own advantage. It's preposterous. She’s a powerful asset and you-”

  Lord Keln was interrupted by a loud, muffled cough from Hilda. Finished, she set down her utensils before cautioning him in her most sincere manner, “I wouldn’t antagonize her if I were you, Lord Keln. Haven’t you heard, actually? She can turn men into women.”

  “What? That's…” The hint of fear in his eyes infused Hilda’s heart with joy.

  Zerel caught on within a moment, and her teeth seemed to gleam as she grinned, “No, she’s telling the truth. I’ve made almost a dozen boys into girls. Call it a passion project. Lady Hilda was even making suggestions ta improve my process. It's so hard ta find good research in the wilderness, you know.”

  Hilda tittered, leaning into it, “Zerel, you can't say that! He'll get the impression that I'm some sort of expert!”

  “Oh, but Hilda! Tha whole coven found ya suggestions so helpful! Like I told you earlier, I hate to see nice boys grow into snide men.”

  The servants cleared their dishes and started to bring dessert while they ughed at each other's antics as well as the Lord's perturbed expression. The ensuing dessert was conspicuously quiet, though Hilda and Zerel both held back more giggles. Once they were finished, he asked the servants to take them up to their room and excused himself for the night.

  Zerel began to giggle as soon as the door closed while Hilda realized that they probably had just a little more wine than they should have. It was only a mild buzz and before she could draw any more conclusions, Zerel pointed at the bed.

  “Hilda,” she said while holding back more ughter, “there’s only one bed! Whattawegonnadoooooo”

  Her voice faded to a whisper as Hilda marveled at her friend’s inebriation. She supposed Zerel was several inches shorter than herself. “Most guest rooms do, your highness.” She gestured at a pitcher and a pair of cups left by the servants, “you should have some water before getting ready for bed, okay?”

  Zerel, eyes widening before she put a hand on her brow, seeming to suddenly realize her state, “ah shit. Yer right.”

  Before she knew it, Hilda had already gotten ready for bed, drank her own gss of water to Zerel’s two, and id down first. At which point she fully processed what Zerel had already stated. They would be in the same bed. Something she could be normal and mature about. However, when Zerel snuffed out the st of their lights and crawled onto the bed, she settled in with her head less than a foot away from Hilda’s. Facing each other.

  The queen’s voice softly floated through the air, “I meant it, ya know.” The catlike glint of Zerel’s eyes reminded Hilda of Sheryl while her face flushed from the queen’s barely visible look of affection. “I’m gonna ask you out within the week.”

  Tired, buzzed, and dazed, Hilda walked right into it, “What are you waiting for?”

  “Aw, are you impatient? Do you want me to ask right now, instead?” Zerel smiled like a cat that got the cream while Hilda stuttered for a moment. She reached out and put a finger on the noblewoman’s lips. “See? You’re not quite ready.” Zerel’s hand moved to Hilda’s shoulder where after a moment’s hesitation ter, Hilda moved her arm, allowing the shorter girl to nuzzle her head under her chin and mumble into her colrbone, “but- I used to sleep with plushies, and this is much better.”

  Hilda hesitantly put her own hand between Zerel’s shoulderbdes, and promptly drifted off.