Keith thought a spell to detect self-destructive suicidal princesses come to punch him in the face was too specific.

After a while he did manage to configure a [Detect Suicidal Intention] spell. Now all he needed to do was carefully trace it onto a new construct and he wouldn't need to worry about this happening a second time.

He could leave it in the castle moat and move on.

If another Henrietta, not that there was anyone else quite like Henrietta, but if another person who didn't intend to fight but just die appeared, they would be captured and delivered to Rufus.

Along with anyone else thinking about ending it.

He used his once daily [Construct Creation: Medium] ability to reshape stone into the rough outline of an octopus, and started sprawling ink designs over its back. To help capture intruders, he gave it the ability to scale walls and leap unnaturally far for its size. And a lot of arms - more than eight.

It looked like some tentacle monster from the Depths of Despair Dungeon off the eastern coast.

It was perfect.

He then reviewed his character sheet logs and had to drag his attention away from calculating success rates. He hadn't really used his mid-sized construct Skill much recently. Once he had hit Level 60, giant constructs had become available, and who would make horse size creatures when you could make dragon sized golems that shook the earth when they walked?

No one, that's who.

Keith was preparing to activate the mana circuit when a knock sounded at the entry to his workshop, startling him.

Tulith escorted Henrietta in and curtsied before leaving. Keith really needed to set some kind of warning alert in case they interrupted him during another Great Work, or he might really get murdered by his wayward princess.

"Let's see it." Keith walked over to Henrietta and reached out a hand, waiting. She smelled like cinnamon, honey and vanilla today. He resisted the urge to lean in closer.

"What?" She looked up at him with wide eyes.

"The prescription." Keith motioned with his hand again to give it over. Rufus always gave out post first-visit instructions.

"Ah, yes." Henrietta pulled a slip from her apron pocket.

Keith looked it over and sighed. "Well that's easy. You can bake for half the week, go on an outing, then do a follow up with Rufus and report back to me."

Thank goodness that was done. He could get back to work on expanding his Dark Army and have her delicious baking at the same time.

"Excuse me, King Keith?"

"Hm?"

"Why is this happening?"

"Why is what happening?"

"This!" Henrietta moved a hand between Keith and herself. "Why aren't we fighting?"

"I thought you didn't want to fight?" Keith said.

"I don't! But it doesn't matter what I want." She drew herself up, standing taller and looking him in the eye. "Nobody cares what I want. I'm supposed to shut up and do what I'm told and not cause a fuss. This," she waved between them again, "is causing a fuss. You don't need to do this. We can fight, or duel, or whatever and then I'll be out of your hair."

"First off," Keith resisted a dramatic sigh. "Of course I don't need to do this. I'm the Dark Lord of Nilheim; I do whatever I want. And what I want is to eat bimbleberry scones - and to hire the excellent baker who makes those bimbleberry scones. I also want to avoid the war that follows your death. You think I have time to waste fighting your sorry excuse for a father? I am working on leveling up my ability to create automatons."

"No but–"

He continued, "And my Necromancer is still on holiday! She left three days before you arrived and I don't expect her back for at least two weeks. No one is allowed to un-alive themselves in the meantime or it'll be a royal pain." Keith paused. "Sorry for cutting you off, you were saying?"

"I'm just…" Henri hesitated, "can I really just bake and go around sightseeing?"

"What else would you be doing?" Keith raised an eyebrow, "and don't say fighting again. I really don't have the patience for practice battles, and I sent the Healers out already. Besides, baking is an admirable job, much better than Crown Princess."

If she landed one hit on his glass-cannon min-maxed Magician's body, there might not be enough left for Chloe to piece back together again. He should have kept a Healer on hand at the castle. After this talk, he needed to craft a stronger amulet of [Repel Strike], or [Advanced Constitution]. They were a pain to create since he didn't have any related ability so maybe not… maybe his godmother had left him something useful in her hoard before she'd flown off.

He'd been too careless. But then, a Level 60 anything was nearly unheard of.

Henri pushed one lock of hair behind her ear. "I'd like to keep baking, even if I don't have any baking Skills–"

"You don't have a Skill!?" Keith interrupted her, again. Her baking tasted divine and not from a simple amateur. He coughed and composed himself, "pardon me, continue."

"I have lots of other Skills. I have Bureaucracy 6, Leadership 5." Henri began listing each of her non-combat Perks on her fingers, "I also have [Sense Motive], [True Taste], [Sense Ability], [Inspire], [Multitask], and [Quick Read]. If not baking, is there something else I could help with? Do you have any monsters you need fought?"

She was honestly telling Keith, her kingdom's mortal enemy, all her Skills and Perks. Though one thing stood out above the rest.

Keith smiled down at the princess and she blushed. "So what I'm hearing is that you want to bake for fun, and get a job that utilizes your abilities?"

The princess nodded, and then for some reason she wasn't looking him in the eye anymore, but staring at his partially revealed left collarbone.

This was wonderful. If the King and Queen of Drendil wanted to throw away their highly skilled and adorable princess, he’d happily accept her. As Godmother always said, ‘only a fool would stop prey from walking into your mouth.’

Keith might be a bit careless, but he was never a fool. "Then Princess, I have just the job for you."