Oops this was supposed to be for chapter 22 but oh well. I decided to should leave you a review for each chapter instead of skipping around.

I'm a little sad that you took Sacrifice off of your favorites list as well as removed me as one of your favorite authors but I guess you got tired of my stories or something.

I suppose that's how the writing business goes...

However, I will continue to read your story until the end.

I really like Neesha and I think she's slowly becoming one of my favorite characters of this story. Well, sorry for the short review but I'm pressed for time. I must go and make a lunch date so I'll catch you next update.

It's nice to see you back int he saddle as far as writing goes. I've really missed reading your works. I had two chapters to catch up on and it's definitely refreshing to read this story again. I really like how long your chapters are and how well things have been developing lately.

I'll definitely be back your next update!

Oh la la... I need more!

This is a good story so far. I'm working on one too. Hope you do good with future whitings.

Sheezus! Don't ever pull something THAT long again, you hear me Natsu?!

Seriously, it took me 10 tries to read the whole dang thing because my attention span isn't that strong!

Alright, now that I got that out of the way, it's nice to see that Ricca & Neesha have finally met up with Blandier & Lulu, but what of Lann & Joshua? I wonder if Lann will be coming back or not?

And why am I asking all these questions?

Anyways, it's nice to have finally gotten through this, and having started on a few other stories I've been putting off reading, but I have a very important question to ask you...

Why is it that two of the more prominent Mecha writers on FP happen to both be YOUNGER then me?

All I can say is that I've been had...

It's sorta sad to say, but I'm just glad I finished this chapter finally, not that it was bad or anything...but it was a heckuva long chapter there, buddy! What? Maybe, like, 10,0 words or more?

Well, I'll stop giving you a hard time and end this review here.

Here's hoping an update (hopefully smaller installments!) is in our forseeable future!

See ya!

This story is reminding me of Last Exile... Loved that show haha.

Good job in depicting the tension between the main characters Ricca and Neesha, and I liked the monologue between Andreas and Rei.

It's still going on strongly, this story, keep up the good work. Also, sorry about the late reviews, I haven't been spending much time on FP as of late due to...other commitments.

Well, welcome back to the world of FictionPress. It's nice to see you writing again. I assumed that you were busy so I didn't press you too hard about reading Sacrifice lol.

Thanks for the entertaining read. Seeing this story's update made my day!

Sorry this review is so late, but I do have many new and problematic things to deal with in life. As such, I will have difficulty in R&Ring yours', and anyone elses' stories here on FP. Now that that's out of the way, on with the review!

I must say that this is a great addition to the story, but you dared to harm Aeather, and for that you shall pay...Seriously, I am shocked! To see such murderous actions described in such a beautiful prose. I will say this; while the idea may not be absolutely orginal, it is definetly well-done by your hands, Natsuhime!
I did not see anything specific that needs attention, as this was pretty good, so I won't waste any time on that.

I am wondering about Rosencrantz, and that ending makes me hate my coming lack of time so very much!! Ah, but this was a good chapter, seeing Thor and Golem in action...

Well, now that I've said my peace, I will beg your pardon that I must be going!
See ya!

Ok, the first thing I noticed here is that the characters' actions did not correspond with the dialogue lines. Like Blandier would be saying something, but the person mentioned in the adjoining sentence would be Neesha. It proved to be confusing at times.

Her uncle is also the rebellion leader huh? Interesting... Seems as if Blandier made the correct hypothesis.

very nice work as always.

The interactions between your main characters are well-written, and the battle scenes are sufficiently brutal. Andreas' mentality however surprises me... For an elite soldier, wouldn't the choice not to kill be a liability? I'm personally surprised that he could get promoted to the Sixieme in the first place.. considering his reaction to the killing.

Wow, what a refreshing thing to read after about 12 cliche's! Sorry for the late review, I had to update Sacrifice and abot 5 other stories I was behind on.

But, now I'm back and I'll be reviewing regularly again!

I can't wait for the next chapter, as always. Your stories are always so interesting.

What ever happened to Code Ragnarok? I noticed that you didn't have it under your name anymore.

My new favorite mecha is Aeather, therefore you may not destroy, or allow any harm to come to it...
Just joking on the last part, but how in the hell do you come up with such great mecha?!

I would have reviewed sooner, but...well, when I last tried reading it, SOMEBODY kept me occupied...wonder who that would be? But seriously, this was good, although I must comment on Andreas' new bout with stupidity, and his death wish when it comes to Rei and the man's...volatile personaility.

Lulu is back! even if only for a few paragraphs, it was nice reading that small bit with her in it...for obvious reasons. Although, with no news on Ricca or Neesha, I'm hoping the next chapter will reveal just how they (hopefully) survived the blast. All in all, a great chapter and a great addition to Maidens!

Nothing to report, as far as mistakes go, although I was engrossed in this chapter, so...yeah...

Well, I'll end this review here.
See ya!

T_T I want power so I can update my works! Ah well, people who are behind can read what I posted last week. Got a Tsurugi chapter up to Sacrifice and all.

Anyway, good to see you writing again. I was wondering where you been to these days. I really liked the pillow fight scene in this chapter. Lol, I guess it can be distracting to most who do read it.

I hope you update soon. I'm reviewing from work. It's lunch time. I'm going to go and eat something.

Woah. Pillow fight. Damn. Cannot...hard to focus...

Ok, lol, I think the pillow fight just about distracts everyone who reads this chapter for the first time. Haha, it makes for fun reading though.

Hm, looking at your dialogue lines.. Somehow I think they should follow the order of comma before closing rather than closing then adding a comma? Maybe that wasn't the easiest to understand... I would have thought the proper usage would be ," rather than " , for a dialogue.

Ah well, a small disagreement really.

As for the rest of the chapter, I have to say it sounds a little like an episode from Full Metal Panic IMO; at least the challenging bit. In any case, it still makes for an entertaining read...

Pillow fight... Dang.

Finally, back to the reviewing side of things! Now since I gave a really big review last time, I'll comment it based on what I said last time; merely because on the story and character side of things, there's nothing to say except lots and lots of very, very excellent things.

I'll highlight the transitions which I think could be improved on - I'll separate the action scene since it's a special case.

Ichi: [Both Neesha and Ricca gasped. “Joshua!”

Joshua leapt down the white Chevalier and thrust his head around to shake the beads of sweat out of his hair.]

Nee: [The two Princes strolled out of the office with a tail of scribes and knights that had been awaiting them outside, then marched towards a gold-framed elevator door...Joshua glanced down at his shoes as the elevator began its descent, slowly shifting down the castle into the courtyard. There, a row of large parade wagons stood waiting.

“Hey, Joshua is coming.” Ricca nudged Neesha as surreptitiously as possible and then pointed at the capsule...]

For the first one, it just bothered me since I was very comfortable from the Neesha/Ricca perspective, and all of a sudden, I was somehow kicked right into Joshua's location without much of a warning.

I have a few suggestions, but I have one that I think can benefit you more than the others.

Instead, of just jumping right into Joshua's perspective, you could add a little bit of thought and speculation from N/R's perspective, then have them move towards Joshua through whatever method you deem appropriate. Afterwards, focus on Joshua's thoughts, emotions, and his overall condition, and his conversation with Lachlann - essentially, just focus on the Joshua/Lachlann perspective. This will help soften the shock from jumping in between perspectives, especially for anyone who literally is picturing this in their minds, and not mindlessly reading it. Also, this gives a sense of movement and a signal to your reader as well.

For the second, the same problem as above. Just describe the scene where N/R are in before jumping into their dialogue. But I don't have much to criticize about this, since there was a sense of finality of their perspective, before returning to Joshua's perspective. Using transition words (this also goes for the above) can really help alleviate the shock as well.

Now, here's the action scene difficulty brought about by the Omniscient POV with having a ton of characters. I won't bring out examples since they all roughly can be solved by the same method.

Here are two words that pretty much spells out my whole argument: Slow down.

I don't run into this problem that often since I intentionally stick with one character, but in your case, with so many, it just becomes a sudden horde of action without a single pause. It's not to say it's bad - this is, what I think, the whole aim of action scenes is - but usually, the effect is much more pronounced with only one or two characters; not with seven or more. It's just a...really big, confusing mess. But this one, was actually so much better than the Airship One; I still had a firm grasp on what's going on.

The solution is quite simple, yet the methods to reach it are just so varied. I'll only list a few I use just to solve this.

1) Which set of character perspectives are the most relevant and the most important in this scene? If I were to say, I'd say that N/R can be largely ignored, while J/J/L and Leon/Victor can be described in greater detail. But, because this battle parallels what happens near the beginning, you can't ignore N/R either. Well, this brings me to my other suggestion.

2) Partition each set of perspectives separately. Since Joshua seems to be the key character moving this scene, you can do it like this: J/J/L first, then L/V, then N/R, and then end with J/J/L. You do it in this chapter, but you need to give even greater detail to the attacking forces and their goals, and give greater thought and in-depth reflection to Neesha/Ricca, especially Neesha because this is an extremely important plot point for her. Just take your time describing their intentions, thoughts, and goals for each perspective as your progress, but avoid making insignificant jumps just to highlight largely unimportant points of action. Do we really need to know that Leon notices Neesha? If we need to, add in more detail, not just that he notices her, and then jump to the N/R perspective.

This also utilizes the former solution I mentioned previously for the peaceful scenes. But a word of caution: This can largely be really boring to the reader. So, try to avoid too many scene switches unless it's absolutely necessary.

Oh, and on an unrelated note, you might want to fix this: [“It got into a Lulu explained. With a grin made of his corn-chewing mouth, Marco adjusted his black goggles]

There! This is pretty much all I can say about this. Keep this in mind primarily for action scenes since it just becomes a nightmare to read through and maintain a picture of what's going on, without constant re-reading. Everything else, it's largely just a problem with detail and location - easy to solve, compared to the action scene.

So about the characters, especially Joshua, it's interesting to see conflict within the family regarding the balance between duty and family. Plus, this just develops Joshua as a realistic character as well. King Vivi's appearance is very suspicious though; I wonder what he's planning behind that child-like face of his.

Seeing Neesha and Ricca as maids, that was just really well done. As expected, Neesha is far more flexible concerning housework rather than Ricca. And Madame Adalene, she reminds me of one of those really strict English teachers, who strives for nothing more but perfection. But she hates them both, so...yeah, that might be why she hates them.

As for your use of words and plot, character, themes, and such: Excellent!

Well, that's all I can think up right now. If you have any questions, you know what to do! Oh, and you better update soon! You can't just leave us in a cliff-hanger like that!

Back to my hiatus...*yawns*