Upon checking, not a single member of Hotel Lenore's staff remained.
"What a terrible hotel..."
"Mm."
Jin D and Elsa D were utterly exasperated.
They then discussed what to do for the rest of the night.
"...Can't be helped. Let's have our Doppels rest in the car."
Jin, back on Hourai Island, reached that conclusion.
Due to the time difference, it was just past ten at night in the Kingdom of Franz, but on Hourai Island, it was just past midnight.
"By the way, Reinhard, what were you up to?"
While the other members of the Jin Family appeared to be asleep, Reinhard had, for some reason, shown up in the command room.
"Ah well, I was working on various power-ups for Black Knight and lost track of time."
"Berche is going to scold you."
"Yeah... I'm going to sleep now. Good night."
"That's for the best. Good night."
"Rai-nii, good night."
After seeing Reinhard off, Jin and Elsa turned back to each other.
"Now then, what should we do?"
Because of the time difference, neither of them felt sleepy yet.
Furthermore, constantly switching back and forth while trying to adjust to local time at their destination would only lead to jet lag.
"If we're going to continue our journey a bit longer, we should sleep and wake up according to the local time over there."
"Mm, I agree."
With that decided, Jin and Elsa chose to rest at the Mansion, working around the roughly three-and-a-half-hour time difference.
Locally... that is, in Loloon Town, it was 7:00 AM.
Jin and Elsa were about to switch back into their Doppels, but...
"There are signs of people nearby," Reiko advised, prompting them to hold back and observe how things unfolded.
"Remnants from that underground gambling ring?"
However, that guess proved wrong.
"Lord Jin—no, Third Generation Magi Craft Meister, Lord Jin Nidou."
The one calling out was the female crime investigator from the night before.
"I am Najas Kahn, a crime investigator answering directly to the King of the Franz Kingdom. Would you be willing to grant an audience with His Majesty the King?"
"Huh? Why is that?"
"When I reported last night's arrests, that was what was decided."
Najas Kahn seemed rather poor at explaining things, failing to get straight to the point.
After repeatedly asking questions, Jin finally pieced together the situation:
Under direct orders from the King, she had been tasked with investigating underground syndicates. She successfully dismantled one such underground gambling ring, captured those involved, and obtained a list of everyone implicated.
It was a tremendous achievement.
However, Najas Kahn did not consider it her accomplishment alone. When she reported the whole sequence of events without hiding anything, a new directive arrived this morning.
It ordered her to escort the Third Generation Magi Craft Meister, Lord Jin Nidou, to the royal capital.
That was apparently what had happened.
"So, you found out about me from the guest register—?"
Jin started to ask before remembering that he had introduced himself yesterday. Furthermore—
"I had carelessly almost forgotten to report you, but thanks to this attendant automata, FR-028, I was able to report it properly."
Her statement dropped her standing in his eyes by a notch.
The automata, FR-028, was apparently one of the versatile automata ordered from Avalon by the Kingdom of Franz.
"It helps make up for our staff shortage."
I see, Jin thought. This woman, Najas Kahn, seemed capable enough, but she was a bit scatterbrained. The automata was likely an ideal assistant to keep her on track.
She also mentioned that she had communicated with her superiors via manaphone.
"So, what do you say?"
"I won't force you," Najas Kahn added.
Jin D—or rather, the real Jin back on Hourai Island—thought for a moment before replying.
"Very well, let us go to the royal capital."
'My Lord, are you certain about this?'
Laojun asked somewhat anxiously after Jin agreed to make the trip.
"Well, it should be fine. I haven't met the leadership of the Kingdom of Franz yet, after all."
'Understood.'
With that settled, they would continue operating through their Doppels for the time being.
"W-What a magnificent Golem automobile!"
To save time on travel, they took Najas Kahn and FR-028 along with them.
Incidentally, the captured underground gambling associates had been handed over to a special detachment.
The distance from Loloon Town to the royal capital of Sanjerton was roughly sixty kilometers.
At sixty kilometers per hour, it would take just an hour, but with so many horse-drawn carriages and pedestrians on the road, they could only manage about fifteen kilometers per hour at best.
"The road is wide, but there's certainly a lot of traffic."
What surprised Jin was that as they drew closer to the royal capital, the number of Golem automobiles increased. Naturally, they were not the models Jin had crafted, but he got the impression there were more here than in other countries.
As they neared Sanjerton, the congestion worsened, slowing them down even further. In the end, they did not arrive until well after noon.
"Jin-sama, I am terribly sorry."
Najas Kahn bowed her head apologetically to Jin and the others.
"No, no, the traffic isn't your fault."
Jin D laughed it off.
"If only I had requested an escort from the magi-ritter corps at the Royal Palace, we could have been granted priority passage..."
"No, I'm not particularly fond of pulling rank like that."
"...Is that so?"
"Yes. So there's no problem at all."
In truth, by the time the highway became congested, control of Jin D and Elsa D had been temporarily handed over to Laojun, and Jin and Elsa had taken the opportunity to enjoy lunch on Hourai Island since the timing was convenient.
Once they entered the royal capital, an escort from the Royal Palace arrived to meet them as expected. It was a unit of about ten royal ritters.
"Lord Jin Nidou, we have come to receive you. We shall lead the way."
With that, they followed behind the ritters.
Najas Kahn panicked slightly.
"Ah, wait... When am I supposed to get off...?"
However, the automobile was completely surrounded on all sides by the ritters, leaving no opportunity to pull over and step out.
Ultimately, Najas ended up entering the Royal Palace right alongside Jin D and the others.