Directly behind the king's grand throne lay the secure meeting room, the inner sanctum where the kingdom's most critical strategies and future plans were forged.
Roughly an hour later, the heavy doors opened and Sliviy stepped inside, her eyes locked on her electronic tablet. The room was arranged with a long, polished table; at the far end stood a single, towering throne-like chair reserved exclusively for the King.
Flanking the long table were six other chairs, three lined up on each side. Walking straight to the front, Sliviy chose the seat closest to her father's throne and set her tablet down on the polished wood.
Shortly after she settled in, the doors opened again, and three young women walked into the room.
The three princesses immediately scanned the table, silently calculating which seat would put them closest to their father's throne.
"Sister Takao, how is your current project coming along?" Sliviy asked, breaking the silence as she looked across the table.
The girl sitting directly opposite her was Takao, the second princess of the Loid Kingdom.
She possessed a breathtakingly beautiful face and a stunning figure, accented by striking blue hair tied into a neat ponytail and matching blue eyes.
Unlike her regal standing, she wore a casual blue T-shirt and black jeans, standing just a bit taller than Sliviy.
When it came to engineering, Takao was an absolute tech nerd so deeply obsessed with technology that she often struggled to explain her work in normal, layman terms.
"Huh? Oh... ermm! It's, uh, it's going fine!" Takao stamped nervously, her blue eyes instantly darting away from Sliviy's intense gaze.
Sliviy offered a gentle, knowing smile. 'She's a remarkably cute and beautiful lady,' Sliviy thought to herself, 'but man, she can be so incredibly awkward.'
Turning her attention down the table, Sliviy called out to the remaining two, "Sister Rory, Big Sister Iris, what about you two?"
"Yes, my administrative work is perfectly fine. No issues to report," replied Iris, who had taken the seat right beside Sliviy.
Iris was the first princess of the Loid Kingdom and Takao's twin sister. She shared the exact same blue hair and height as her twin, but wore her medium-length hair flowing freely down to her waist.
Her attire was vastly different, opting for a crisp, commanding blue-and-grey military formal uniform.
Iris inherited the best traits of their mother: she was fiercely confident, highly reasonable, deeply hardworking, and possessed an undeniable natural charisma.
"Work is incredibly boring," a lazy voice groaned from the other side. "I just forced my assistant to do all of it."
The speaker was Rory, the third princess, sitting right next to Takao.
Rory was easily the most unique sibling.
She was remarkably open-minded, deeply positive, and always looking forward to testing new things in life but she absolutely despised repetitive tasks, hated routine work, and was fundamentally lazy.
She shared Sliviy's height, but possessed long, flowing black hair that matched Iris's length, along with the striking crimson eyes of their father.
Like Iris, she also wore the sharp blue-and-grey military formal uniform.
Sliviy's brow furrowed slightly. "Wait... Sister Rory, weren't you explicitly assigned to handle that report yourself?"
"I didn't want to do that same job," Rory whined, her crimson eyes turning comically dark and lifeless. "It's just the same boring, repetitive thing over and over again."
"That is exactly what a job is, Sister Rory," Sliviy chided, trying desperately to correct her sibling's work ethic.
"Don't stress over it, Sliviy," Iris interjected smoothly, leaning back with a calm smile. "I will take care of her. If anything goes sideways, I'll look after her myself."
Sliviy let out a groan, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Big Sister, you are literally enabling her bad behavior right now!"
Clap, clap!
Iris brought her palms together with a crisp sound, laughing off the tension.
"Alright, alright, that's enough, okay, my little sister Sliviy?" she teased, flashing a bright grin to show there was absolutely nothing to worry about.
And so, the lively voices and playful bickering between the four princesses continued to echo through the grand room, a brief moment of normal sisterly interaction before the King's formal arrival completely changed the atmosphere.