contractual obligations

Cassandra was holding her stomach, laughing like crazy.

Sanakia looked like she suffered from immense second hand embarrassment.

Fisti was desperately trying(and failing) to hold her laughter back.

Beatrice covered her grin with a hand(very smugly)

Aiju merely stared blankly at me.

Uni smiled happily.

And Hebi-san was not so subtly stroking her snake.

These reaction weren't at all unexpected.

After all I was attired in an extremely frilly, extremely skimpy and extremely pink, dress.

“Yeah, yeah, hilarious!”

Yes, I am very well aware that I could just order them to stop laughing or hide in their room or even better, erase today from their memory.

But that would only make this even more pathetic.

There was one more girl present, however. The evil mastermind behind my current predicament was flitting all about me, applying the final touches with surgical precision.

“Master Beta, please desist from pouting”, she said while carefully spraying me with a strawberry scented perfume. It is of vital importance that you will show a friendly and cheerful demeanor at the exposition today. Remember: You are a princess.”

Maria had the audacity to call this a princess dress but no princess would dress this way.

To begin with, my arms and shoulders where completely exposed. Whichever country this princess hails from, they clearly did not believe in sleeves. My hands where covered though, in a pair of dainty white gloves.

The back of the dress was simply a big hole. I’m not sure how else I could describe it. A huge part of my back was just exposed.

The front portion of the dress was fully covered. Technically. In truth, the thin, pink fabric was so tight that my belly button was visible. The only exception was the chest portion in which I was **** to wear some padding that made it appear I sported a modest pair of breasts, just at the cusp of growing.

But nothing was as bad as the skirt.

It was both ridiculously frilly and ridiculously short. To call this a mini skirt would be generous. It barely covered my butt And that was when I was standing perfectly still. Even the tiniest gust of wind would have me completely exposed.

To make matters just a tiny bit more difficult for me, my shoes consisted of a pair of very uncomfortable glass high heels. Thankfully, I won’t have to do much walking in this.

Aside from that I was wearing a pair of pure white translucent stockings. They covered up all the way to my mid thigh and yet hide absolutely nothing. My legs, completely shaven of course, were basically on full display.

It wasn’t my only body part that got shaved. I wouldn’t exactly call myself hairy, but let’s just say Maria was very thorough.

Surprisingly, my hair was not tampered with other then the multi hour long soak I had to endure. Neither was make up applied. According to Maria they where going for a bit of a tomboyish look although I have no idea which part of my getup gives off that impression.

Quite frankly, the only thing hinting that I was of royalty was the small crown, studded with amber that rested on my head.

“My, I don't know what your problem is, Mari”, Beatrice grinned widely. “I always told you, you look absolutely gorgeous in a cute, girly dress.”

“I-I shall tell you what the problem is! My Princess, I mean my Lord can not debase himself like that! To wear such a degrading dress is beyond humiliating! Beyond mortifying! I-If I were in his situation I would die from embarrassment! How can my Lord ever hope to leave this tower again after...”

“Alright, Sanakia, I think she got your point!” I took a deep breath, trying to prevent my cheeks from burning even more.

“I...its not that..pffft. bad. Come on, Mari. Just...play along? It's like...dressup giggle and ya do look rather precious.”

“If you like it that much, how about you wear it?”, I grumbled.

That caused Fisti to desperately clutch her mouth with her hands, shakily trying to keep her giggles in. Apparently wearing this would be a fate worse then dead for her.

“Oh, Punchy could never pull that off!”, Beatrice stated with a smirk. “Only someone with such beautiful feminine legs as Mari could possibly make this dress work.”

Must punish brat.

“Mari smells weird”, Aiju said while sniffing the air. “But don’t care if still has dick.”

“We wouldn’t be surprised if it had shriveled up at this point”, Hebi-san added while caressing Gilbert in a manner that has long passed the obscene threshold. “His manhood was never that impressive to begin with.”

Aiju’s eyes widened at that as she looked between Hebi-san and me. Then she determinedly stepped into my direction. “Need to check.”

“N-No! S-sto...uhh I mean...go tickle Fisti for five minutes!”

“Why meeeeeee!”

As Fisti was made an example off, my so called maid politely cleared her throat. “Now then, Master Beta. Allow me to go over today's event once more. This is after all highly vital for your future success in the tournament.”

I could only groan in frustration as Maria explained this utter insanity.

“You are princess Mari. Courted by the three princes Minerva, Valkyrie and Sylphid. They will all try to woo your heart, but naturally only one will succeed. Said prince will serve as your opponent in the semi final.”

“Figures”, Cassandra looked at me, guffawed and then very quickly averted her eyes. “Daddy’s the weakest link, makes sense that the other three would want to fight him.”

“P-preposterous! My Princess will beat them all!”

Please don't address me like that.

“Alright, alright.” Cassandra inhaled and exhaled deeply. “As funny as this and trust me it is absolutely hilarious, this is important, Daddy. It is absolutely fucking vital that you get Valkyrie as your opponent.”

Valkyrie? Isn’t she the most powerful of the three? Although her forte is strength. I doubt I can beat her, but... “I see, you mean I should try to outlast her and make it to the time limit, right?”

The huntress laughed in my face. “What? Fuck no! It’s cause Valkyrie has no interest in slaves. You can even fight earnestly, won’t make a difference. So get her, get squashed like a bug and we are all set for easy street.”

“Cassandra...” I smiled at her.

“Yes, Daddy?”

“Go lick the toilet seat clean.”

“Well, you certainly have the supercilious, spoiled princess down pat”, Beatrice once again held a hand before her mouth and smirked as she watched Cassandra leave. “If this whole tournament doesn’t work out for you, you can always start a career in the service industry. People would pay good money to get bossed around by a promiscuous princess. I could be your manager.”

“Beatrice…” I smiled at her.

“Yes?”

“Go into the playroom, wear the most ridiculous, humiliating outfit you can find and show it off to everyone in this tower.”

Hebi-san sniffed and I whipped my head into her direction with so much **** a lesser being would have snapped their neck.

“Do you wish to add something to this conversation, Hebi-san?”

Perhaps her self preservation instincts kicked in, because for once Hebi-san held her tongue.

I took a very, very, deep breath. “Alright, Maria. Lets just get this over with before...”

Something appeared below my skirt.

“Top of the morning, governor. Dazzling dress and even more dazzling unmentionables.”

EEEEEEK!

Femto floated up from the floorboards. “Happy to see you embrace your sissy little princess persona. You have my full support.” She gave me a thumbs up.