"You found the gold then?" Myoukou said. We both nodded our heads. Edinburgh was now sitting upright; our boss having taken pity on her somewhat and tilting her upright. "Did you ever find this 'Mr X'?" she asked. We both looked at each other, Edinburgh's cries were starting to get louder.

"Yeah…haven't you figured it out yet, rookie?"

"Wait? You knew who it was!?"

"If you let me finish…" I said.

The two of us were sitting on a row of seats outside the infirmary, waiting for Edinburgh to regain consciousness so we could get paid. We had decided to take it in turns to sit outside while the other went to the canteen for dinner, which caused a huge and long argument about who would go to the canteen first for dinner, eventually I was forced to go first, unfortunately for Hornet, by the time I came back and she had gone to the canteen, they had finished serving up and were now busy cleaning up the remains of tea, which meant that Hornet ended up eating warmed-up leftovers. Sitting next to me with her head in her hands and a very heavy silence on top of her, I knew she was in a bad mood, unfortunately, I didn't know what I could do to cheer her up, I'm not used to these situations, my sister Portland could be cheered up if she heard me breathing, but Hornet is completely different, so I just sat there, hands on my knees, not saying anything. It can get surprisingly quiet in the infirmary at night. The door to the infirmary opened and out walked Vestal, the two of us stood up, Hornet once more putting an 'I'm not annoyed' face on. "Is she awake?" she asked. Vestal gave a nod.

"It appears to be just stress, you can come in now, but don't ask too many questions, she's still a bundle of nerves, I'll be in my office having dinner."

"But the canteen's…closed…?" I responded, the was a small silence before my boss whispered.

"Don't, don't worry, just get on with your dinner." Before we entered the infirmary, Vestal walking off to a door to the side of the room before closing it. We made our way towards Edinburgh's bed, the only one with the partition drawn around it. "Vestal's the go-to repair ship on this base, so she's busy almost 24/7 so she orders her meals early in the morning and phones the canteen when she has time and has one of the Royal Maids deliver it to her." My boss explained.

"Oh…right…" I said. That was something new I learned today. We walked past the blinds and stood at the foot of Edinburgh's bed, the poor ship having a pale face.

"I apologize for acting so unprofessionally…" she cried.

"That's okay," my boss said "According to Vestal, you've been under a lot of stress recently, which is understandable when you're accused of gold robbery." I could see something white in my peripheral vision, one of the Royal maids delivering Vestal's dinner no doubt.

"I'm sorry…it's just…I didn't think that I'd ever be released from jail~!"

"Yeah, we know" I replied.

"It was a close call," Hornet continued "But now no-one will believe that you stole those gold bars"

"Wait…What?" Myoukou stared at me with wide eyes and a shocked expression.

"Oh, haven't you worked it out yet…" I explained "Edinburgh actually committed the crime that she was accused of…" I turned to the bound maid, who had stopped wiggling and was silently staring at Myoukou with a worried face that was dripping lots of sweat. Myoukou slowly got up from her seat and turned towards the maid.

"You. Did. WHAT?" she shouted, causing Edinburgh to go into a frenzy trying to escape.

"Calm down rookie, we're just getting to the good bit."

"B-but I didn't steal the g-gold bars." The maid quivered.

"Sorry…" I said "But the three of us know that is a complete lie."

"The Queen was right, that was your handwriting. You'd realised that you'd never make back the gold you stole so you rushed back to base and hurriedly wrote a note to shift blame onto an imaginary third party, then ran to us so that you could convince us that the Royal knights were on the wrong track." Explained Hornet "The messy writing gave it away, as if this calculating criminal was in a rush, if they had planned this meticulously, they wouldn't have written a sloppily written note." Edinburgh was starting to sweat.

"To be honest, we almost fell for it…"

"That was until another person sent us around on this, basically wild goose chase. I'd realised by the third clue that someone was covering for you by sending us off on this 'trail of gold'."

"H-huh?" Edinburgh responded.

"Of course, you didn't know that someone was covering for you," I explained "Because you didn't believe that the gold would ever be found, so when we did tell you that we found some, you fainted from exasperation at having been let off the hook."

"B-b-"

"But who was this secret guardian angle of yours?" Hornet asked, "Why don't you ask her yourself… hey?" We turned towards the maid that had delivered Vestal's food as she peered around the blinds. The colour from Edinburgh's face instantly disappeared.

"B-b-b-b-"

"That's right…" Hornet smirked "Your little sister Belfast!" Belfast stared at Edinburgh with furrowed brows and an angry pout. Yep, she was extremely pissed.

"Hello sister, I see you're enjoying yourself with your hard-earned money" Edinburgh gave a shriek and pulled the covers over her face.

"Hiding under the blankets won't help you out Edinburgh, come out and face your punishment" Belfast quietly said in a firm tone

"B-But I thought you were on holiday!" the thief cried, slowly dragging her head over the covers.

"As if I could relieve myself of my duties while you create a mess as big as this!" she firmly replied. Belfast gave a sigh and turned towards the two of us. "So…what gave me away?"

"Lots of things" I started.

"Firstly, you were the only other person in the room when we found the note that Edinburgh wrote, then there was your handwriting, it's quite similar to Edinburgh's so it must have been some one related to her, who was willing to cover for her." Hornet explained, "My guess is, upon seeing the note that she wrote and realising what she planned, you decided to carry the illusion of a criminal mastermind to deflect blame from your sister."

"That is quite correct"

"But you didn't have a lot of time to lay this trail out, so you were always just slightly ahead of us, which would explain the shortening riddles."

"So that's why you were in a rush at the end!" I exclaimed.

"Tell me, how close were we to catching you?" Hornet asked

"Not two minutes after I placed the last of the gold bars in the fountain, you came running from the opposite direction."

"No wonder you were one of the first to appear to help with the removal of the gold, you'd only just put them there!" I realised. "But, where did you get the gold from in the first place?" I asked.

"My sister gave me some cash from the sale of the gold, so that I could have a holiday. Instead, I invested it more wisely than she and covered the rest from my own pocket." She turned towards her sister with an angry pout. "So, what do you intend to do with my sister?" The criminal maid looked between us with a worried expression.

"Well, there's no need to rock the boat here" Hornet replied "The queen's happy that she has her gold back, so it'll be a bit of a disappointment if she was to get upset at the fact that one of her maids was a thief" I looked at Hornet, confused, where was she going with this? I decided to say nothing for the time being.

"I guess all that's left to do is for my sister to pay for your expenses, from her own pocket."

"Yeah, I doubt that Edinburgh would have any more cash than we have after paying off her debts after her stint in the stock market. However…I don't suppose her majesty would mind if we were given a hand around the office, just to help us around a bit." Belfast gave a smirk.

"I think I could persuade her majesty to give you some assistance…" she smirked.

"You mean she hasn't been punished!?" Myoukou yelled.

"Oh, I wouldn't say that rookie…" Hornet replied, "Consider her being her as a form of 'community service'. Well, it looks like its locking up time!" Hornet exclaimed looking out the window at the slowly setting sun before making her way to the door. "Could you untie our maid Rookies? Thanks!" she added chipperly before closing the door behind her. Myoukou slowly walked towards the prisoner, her face rather annoyed.

"How long is she supposed to be here?"

"I don't know" I shrugged, "We didn't exactly make her sign a contract, so…forever minus a day…?" Myoukou looked back at me angrily.

"This is slavery! This girl is nothing more than our servant!"

"Well, I mean she is a maid," I pointed out "Besides," I added drinking the last remains of my beverage "She make a really good cup of coffee."

The queen was happy that she was able to send her shipment of gold to London, with Belfast efficiently giving a reasonable BS explanation as to the whole situation. Our new 'unpaid, part time apprentice assistant', has, so far, not attempted to try investing in the stock market again and is unlikely to for the foreseeable future.