Max awoke in the p of absolute luxury. He slowly opened his eyes and rose from his comfy bed. He looked around and saw that he was still in the room in Comfort Castle, and it hadn't reduced in girlishness one bit.

  "So much for my dream theory..." he said. He threw off the sheets and stood up. Wish I knew what time it was he thought.

  Just then there was a pink fsh and a clock appeared on the wall. It showed the time as about 7 in the morning.

  "Well at least this whole mess hasn't thrown off my sleep schedule." he said. He decided to get dressed for the morning. He went to the closet and looked for anything reasonable, and eventually found a purple silk blouse and bck dress pants. He put them on over the cami and boxers he wore to bed and found that they fit him surprisingly well. He also found a pair of bck slip on shoes on the bottom shelf of the closet (next to much more adventurous footwear). A full body mirror hung on the inside of the closet door, and Max took the opportunity to get a good look at himself. The outfit was professional looking, unlike most of the clothing in the closet, which gave Max a sense of familiar comfort. He leaned in close to see how his complexion had held up. It seemed like no facial hair had grown overnight. His chestnut hair seemed a little softer than usual too. The blouse and the pants had seemingly altered his physique, creating the illusion of a narrower waist, and the slip-ons fit surprisingly well. The whole outfit definitely had a feminizing effect, which caused a warm feeling in Max's stomach that he desperately tried to ignore.

  Max walked out of the room and down the long hallway to the courtyard. It was another gorgeous day outside, and the courtyard was empty. He found his way back to the throne room and opened the heavy doors. The throne room was empty, save for a maid who was busy fluffing the cushion of the throne. Max approached her slowly, unsure of his position in the hierarchy of this pce. He may be a 'Princess', but he didn't know what kind of rights that gave him. He decided to just keep things polite.

  "Excuse me." max said.

  The maid looked up and smiled.

  "Ah, Princess Max, how lovely to meet you." she said. "I'm Sandra, the head maid."

  "Uh, thanks." Max said. He looked around. "Where is everyone?"

  "Well, probably in the cafeteria." Sandra said. "The cooks should be done preparing breakfast right now."

  Max's stomach growled.

  "Sounds like you should head over there too." Sandra said. "When you walk out of here you should find a door on your right with a fork and knife carved on it. Head through there and you'll be good."

  "Oh, thank you." Max said. With that, he headed for the cafeteria. He went back out into the courtyard and found the door that Sandra described.

  He entered the cafeteria and found a huge space filled with long wooden tables. Along the far wall was a rge buffet counter, and beyond that Max could see a kitchen filled with cooks rushing about, preparing various meats and baked goods. The smell of freshly baked bread and greasy bacon filled the space. All along the tables were people in medieval clothing dining on various breakfast foods; eggs, fpjacks, ham, and more all filled the ptes of everyone that Max could see. He was surprised to see such an egalitarian space in a castle like this. Max figured there would be some grand banquet hall filled with nobles dining on pigs with apples stuff in their mouths, not something that had more the vibe of a high school.

  Max scanned the room and found Isabel and Pierre sitting next to each other on a table near a corner of the room. They seemed to be talking to each other as watched the crowd, pointing at certain individuals and whispering under their breath.

  Max walked over to the counter and took in all the different options he had. He grabbed a pte and piled on some slices of Canadian bacon (Do they have a Canada here?) and two pancakes. He walked over to where Isabel and Pierre were sitting. They spotted him and waved to him. He took a seat opposite them.

  "Hello, Princess." Pierre said. "I trust you slept well?"

  "Uh, yes, I did." Max said. "But I was hoping you and Isabel could answer a few questions."

  Isabel gestured for him to continue.

  "Ok, so, I'm in charge of this valley, right?"

  "Of course." Isabel said.

  "Ok, so is there any political stuff I should know about?"

  Isabel tilted her head. "What do you mean?"

  "Well, don't I need to be briefed on like, the economy or diplomatic retions-"

  "Oh, you misunderstand." Isabel said. "We don't normally engage in such activities."

  Max squinted at Isabel. "What do you mean?"

  "This whole area is essentially neutral ground." Pierre said. "We have a few neighboring kingdoms but they mostly leave us alone. We're also mostly self sufficient, and we don't really engage in trade so that we can keep our neutrality."

  "Ok, but like, what ensures that neutrality?" Max asked. "There's got to be a reason these kingdoms just sort of...leave us alone."

  "Well, Max, do you recall how I said people come here for healing?" Isabel said. When Max nodded, she continued. "Many of those who come here are denizens of other kingdoms, and some of those denizens include nobility and their children. Any sort of hostile action would not only put one's own people in danger, but the people of many other nations in danger, and so most leaders respect us and leave us alone."

  "Ok, so, no real need for me to engage in policy," Max said, "and no need to worry about our economy, so....What am I supposed to do?"

  Isabel and Pierre looked at each other, then back at Max.

  "Whatever you want." They said in unison.

  ***

  Great. Great. Superb.

  Max was pacing in his bedroom, still wearing the outfit he had picked out this morning. "What am I supposed to do here?" Max mumbled to himself. "There's nothing to optimize, nothing to really do, it's like everyone's on a cruise ship or something."

  Max flopped down into the bed, stomach first. He felt a sharp pain in his chest.

  "OW!"

  Max quickly sat up and took off his shirt. His chest looked normal, except his nipples looked a little erect. He poked one and the pain fred up again.

  Are they chafing? Max wondered. All the clothes here are so soft that I wouldn't think that'd be an issue.

  Max filed away the medical abnormality for ter. They probably had some sort of magic here that could deal with that, anyway.

  Max put his shirt back on and then looked around his room. He was feeling more than a little demotivated. He had gone to bed determined to make the most of this princess thing, but it seemed like there wasn't really a need for him. What was he even supposed to do?

  He sat up and took a deep breath. "Ok," he said, "so maybe right now the role is ceremonial, but maybe I can leverage my powers to take a more direct role, get things moving around here. Steam power, irrigation, all that jazz."

  Then Max realized he knew nothing about how to industrialize a pastoral magical valley and promptly flopped back onto his bed (with his back this time).

  He took a look around his room. Maybe he was beating himself up too bad. Maybe he needed to take a minute and take his mind off things so he can approach this with a fresh perspective. He went over to the Switch the room had created and looked through the games to try and find one that he could zone out with. He set aside Mario Kart and Smash Bros (Not much fun without other people he thought), and picked up a puzzle game he had only vaguely heard about back home.

  "What the heck is Puyo Puyo Tetris?"

  ***

  A few hours ter Max realized he'd been sitting in front of the screen for way too long and needed to take a break. That's when he heard a knock on the door.

  Max stood up and smoothed out his clothes before he opened the door. Standing in front of him was Isabel. She cast a curious eye across the room.

  "My, it seems your room is-"

  "Hey," Max interrupted, "you know that uh, well, it's not like I...chose this."

  Isabel giggled. "Of course." she said, her voice containing just a hint of doubt.

  "Do you, uh, need something?" Max said.

  "Yes," Isabel said, "I need you."

  "For what?" Max said. "I thought that I didn't have any real duties."

  "Maybe you don't have to do certain things," Isabel said, "But as your attendant I would like to encourage you to get out and about, and I have just the excursion in mind."

  "What's that?" Max asked.

  Isabel csped her hands together and smiled wider.

  "How would you like to address your subjects?"