You ask if you know what happened to the King, and ask where he is.

"That's a very good question!" The goth princess says loudly with a huff, looking at the downed robot. "...And what were you idiots doing?!"

The real princess said the last part with a finger now pointing at the nearby guards. They approach with their heads hung low, and one of them says, "We thought you were her! She looked just like you!"

"How does this thing look anything like me?" The princess says angrily. As Kamiko and the guards attempt to calm the princess, you approach the destroyed robot. Hilde is still standing over her kill, and produces a pair of handcuffs not unlike the ones you wore when you were kidnapped. She cuffs two of the enemy's spindly arms, and then looks satisfied at herself for a job well done.

"What?" She says as she sees you watching. You say that it still has like, six more legs.

"It'll be fine. The cold iron will make it so she can't revive if the story ends." Hilde says, now watching you examine the fake princess.

"Oil isn't even cooled and already you are scrapping her for parts." Hilde says, shaking her screen face in disgust.

You ask her who put two bullets into this things head.

"I'm just joking, dude." Hilde replies, "Robbing a corpse is actually pretty standard practice in stories."

Not being a master of robotics, you can't really make much sense of what you see. There are certainly a lot of wires and chips. You think the round metal orbs are ball bearings. You try to roll it over, but it's surprisingly heavy.

"Don't mess with it too much, I'm sure Zul will complain." Hilde says.

"If you two aren't busy, could you please go find Zul?" Kamiko asks, having disengaged from the furious princess. "I'll work on getting her to laugh."

You leave the stage, and walk back out through the castle courtyard. Unfortunately you don't know which way they ran after leaving the castle, but Hilde doesn't seem to worried.

"It's a story, just make an honest effort and I'm sure she'll turn up." Hilde says, shrugging her now once again dog-like body.

You ask the nearby guards if anyone saw a small bearded man and a little girl, and you are pointed out back to the street. Luckily (or inevitably?) you find Zul and Tamako sitting on the sidewalk's edge right outside the castle gate. Zul has her head in her hands, and Tamako is sitting nearby, giving her what she probably thinks are comforting slaps to the back. Zul seems to have discarded the facial hair and hat onto the ground in front of her.

"...were pretty adorable!" You hear Tamako say as you approach.

Zul let's out an exasperated groan and then says, "I thought I'd be okay but I guess it's just been too long since I've been in a story. How embarrassing to fall that deep into it..."

"You were a good grandpa, very forceful!" Tamako says encouragingly.

"Argh..."