Dragon-chan gives up the deception, and a party

The day came when I was to simultaneously be interviewed by my parents as Nene the adventurer, and be next to my parents as Nene Drachen while they were interviewing Nene the adventurer... This is going to be interesting. Due to having work at court, my lessons for the day were canceled. Ten minutes before noon, my mother and father, as well as myself, were sitting on our respective thrones, or, in my case, curled up on it in dragon form. Noon came and went, my parents getting increasingly impatient. I found the expressions on their faces, as well as on the face of the guildmaster (a mix of panic and... no, mostly panic) to be more funny than I expected, so I waited longer than I had intended to. Half an hour after I was supposed to show up, I realized that I had made a mistake. I got up, stretched my wings and legs, and started to walk to the edge of the dias.

"Nene... what are you doing? Get back here!" (Mother)

"Have you never heard that, almost as soon as you start to do what you shouldn't be doing, your reason for not doing so will appear out of nowhere? My reason for staying on that throne is because we ought to have someone here, but as she hasn't shown her face yet, I figured that by getting up, she might appear" (Nene)

"Huh... I've never heard that before, but it matches with my experiences. Who'd you hear that from?" (Father)

"A B-rank... no, he's A-ranked now... Anyways, an adventurer by the name of Douglas" (Nene)

"Douglas... Isn't that the name of one of the adventurers Nene beat when trying to register? I think he's a really good mage... maybe he was brought as a teacher for some magic by the Court Magician?" (Guildmaster)

"That information about his relationship to Nene is correct, and he is a prodigal mage. Mother? Father? Would you like me to call him here so you can meet your daughter's first, and at present, only friend?" (Nene)

"When and how did you meet him? I would like to meet him at some point, but that can wait for later" (Mother)

"I met him a bit over a year ago, and you will figure out how, and where, I met him soon enough" (Nene)

I stepped off of the dias, walked to the middle of the room, took out my cloak from my Hoard, and used wind magic to drape it over myself. I then shifted into my form as Nene the adventurer, where I also used magic to have my clothes appear on my body as opposed to in front of me, as they usually do when I take them from my Hoard. My parents jaws opened, and stayed open, as the guildmaster fainted.

"I would say some form of greetings, but you already know me, so let's cut right to the chase and skip the formalities. I won't apologize for sneaking out all the time this past year, you will act mad at me for appearance's sake while being impressed at my deception and shifting skills on the inside, and I'll request you continue to let me be an adventurer. You'll accept, as the only way to keep me from being one would be to reveal that Nene the adventurer is Nene the princess, which would also reveal that you were being constantly tricked by a little child for over a year, while also calling attention to the fact that your security may be severely flawed. Have I made any mistakes in my assumptions thus far?" (Nene)

"I... I don't know where to begin. I can't see any mistakes there myself... You know me well" (Father)

"I also can see no errors in what you just said, as much as it galls me to admit it" (Mother)

"With that out of the way, I would like to apologize for keeping this from you all, guildmaster included... Wait, he's unconscious... Just a moment" (Nene)

I walked up to the guildmaster, used magic to create a small amount of ice-cold water, and splashed it on his face

"Really Nene, I can now see that you have almost no tact... Though, I would have had a servant do the same thing were I in your shoes, so I can't really fault you for this particular act" (Father)

The guildmaster woke up, noticed where he was and that everyone had been looking at him as he lay on the floor, and stood up faster than the eye could follow.

"I deeply apologize for falling asleep... Nene, please, you should have been here at noon, not however late it is now. Argh... I had the strangest dream, where you were actually the princess... how silly would that be... wait... where is princess Nene?" (Guildmaster)

"I'm standing right in front of you, did you forget about me that quickly? I'm hurt... I'm truly hurt by that" (Nene)

"Hah? ... Oh... so it wasn't... a dream..." (Guildmaster)

"I guess I'll wake him up again..." (Nene)

After splashing more water in his face, having him stand up in record time again, I chose to cut off whatever he'd say.

"First off, no, it wasn't a dream. I really am the princess you would have expected to see curled up on that throne, and I am sorry for hiding that from you. I hope this won't change our relationship too much. In addition, I hope you would be so kind as to, say, refrain from fainting a third time? Thank you. As I was saying before I remembered you were unconscious, I feel good having gotten this deception to not have to be maintained, and I am sorry for hiding all of this from the three of you. With that having been said and the greetings skipped due to being unnecessary, shall we pretend like I am also on my throne and proceed as originally planned?" (Nene)

"Yes, that seems like it would be for the best" (Mother)

After that, we got into the boring political stuff that almost put me to sleep... Long, LONG story short, I'm now officially the first S rank in the empire in 197 years, and I have more time to be an adventurer now that my studies in magic have been ended... I mean, I have mastered every known spell and even created several new ones on top of that.

Later that day, the announcement of my promotion was made, and a week later, a festival was held to celebrate my exploits... something that made me wish to die from shame, but... what can one do when put in that situation? The princess didn't make an appearance, obviously, but I'd never made my public debut, so nobody thought twice about it.

I spent most of it talking with Douglas, the only adventurer whose name I could remember due to being someone I liked, as opposed to due to being a jerk... which also meant he was my only friend. I was starting to wish that I'd find Yuna soon, so I'd have someone else to talk to... despite my envy of her first place title in the game. However, that was seven years ago, and neither of us would likely ever play it again, so it was water under the proverbial bridge. When I was asked to make a comment by my parents, I was unprepared, and so I stood there, under the magical spotlight, with my mouth hanging open... eventually, I found where I'd placed my vocal cords, but by then people were laughing at my inability to say anything at all, and so I decided to go with the laughter and make a joke instead.

"You asked for a comment, but I don't know what to say. I mean, if I say too much about myself, I'd come across as full of myself, but not enough and I'd come across as the stereotypical person who is really bad at dealing with people due to spending her whole life learning to fight, not talk. I don't know which is worse, as they both have little to do with myself. I was hoping to be able to get through it by looking at someone my own age, but all of them would be too short for me to see. The only one my age who I might have a chance at seeing would be the one that you named after me... At least, I think you named her after me?" (Nene)