"Boredom is the illness of the blessed. You are not cursed with boredom, Gerald-sama. You were just born with a silver spoon up your―."
The hour prince Gerald specified was minutes away and all he could think about was 'Katarina is usually late. It's not unusual for her'.
While his other guests were already gathered and exchanging pleasantries, only his fiancée was missing from the meeting. Shining from her absence and leaving the blond patiently wondering if she forgot and whether he should send a maid to see if she did.
"Ah, Alan-sama." The younger Ascart offered Gerald's brother a hand while approaching.
"Sophia-san. You look a bit…" Alan took it and kissed it briefly, before running his finger up and down in front of himself, trying not to stick his foot in his mouth in the process.
"Ah, yes. I was under the sun for a bit. I am fine, though." Because of her skin condition, Sophia Ascart couldn't stay under it for long. Gerald knew this, but it still shocked him a bit how happy the little girl was from just spending a bit of time outside without getting sunburnt.
She was capable of getting joy out of something so trivial…
Alan took a glance at his brother, but the blond prince was the perfect image of amicability. It didn't stop Alan from shaking his head, but Gerald knew his expression was faultless. It was just Alan being Alan.
He waited for Mary Hunt to give the albino girl her regards to approach, and nodded in place of a bow when they two girls were finally done exchanging words.
"Sophia-san. Glad you could come." He knew she had nothing else to do, since everyone in the room worked at the student council. Still, politeness dictated he said the lines and the girl to reply in kind. It was just how things were "I hope Nicol-sama is doing well?"
"Gerald-sama." She bowed and held the hem of the skirt in the customary form before answering "Indeed. Nii-sama is in good health."
Gerald waited a couple of seconds for the girl to elaborate, and chuckled when she didn't. She usually was all about praising the older Ascart in front of Katarina. Did she, perhaps, felt it was improper to do so in front of Gerald but not in front of his fiancée?
"I see. I noticed he ranked higher in the scores this time around." Still not high enough for president Sirius to contemplate him for the student council, fortunately, but a big enough jump the prince noticed immediately.
Had the teachers on the year above grown lax or what?
"Yes. It's not a surprise, though. Nii-sama is very bright." Sophia almost sparkled while saying that. That was the expression Gerald knew all too well, alright "Gerald-sama should know."
"I have my reservations." Gerald answered ambiguously "But if what Sophia says it's true, then I'm looking forward to working with him in the future."
Of course, for the sake of the country Nicol Ascart would have to be more than bright. The responsibility on his father's shoulder was nothing to scoff at. It was constant work, and no normal person would be able to withstand it. Even among nobles, those of the most powerful families held themselves above the rest precisely because they held the country from collapsing. It was their life's work, and would continue to serve until they either passed down the responsibility to the younger generation or another family raised to power.
"I'm on time!" Katarina entered the room with a bang. A shy Maria Campbell modestly entering the room and keeping herself close to the wall and away from everyone's sight.
She was welcome, of course. But this was a gathering of nobles. A time out from the academy's rules so the aristocrat children didn't forget their standing and the protocols they would come back to when their education was over.
Well, since Maria Campbell had a bright future she might as well have some experience in these gatherings. Right?
"One minute before five." Alan whistled like a commoner "Not bad, miss dumbass."
The others also expressed their happiness for seeing her. First Sophia Ascart, then Keith Claes and finally Mary Hunt; and welcomed Maria as naturally as working with her made it. Gerald schooled his features and made a mental victory pose for not having succumbed to his uneasiness.
Still, how strange. Gerald didn't know what the deal was, since Mary Hunt would be the first to get Katarina's attention 9 times out of 11. Oh, well. She seemed a bit down, so Gerald switched his expectations accordingly.
"Ah, Katarina dear. I'm glad you could make it on time." He replicated Alan's greeting to Sophia but with practiced swiftness so Katarina wouldn't pull back. He did give her hand a deep kiss unlike his brother's shallow one, though. Showing off like this wasn't necessary. But it kept some illusioned people on their toes and with their head on the ground.
Katarina was still his fiancée, after all.
She laughed it off and pulled back after Gerald let go, which was expected. But it didn't seem like Katarina hated it at all "Yes, Maria-chan was ready before me so I kind of hurried to come…"
Katarina turned to the blonde light mage, as if expecting the girl to take the initiative. Gerald didn't understand why it was always the light mage but accepted it would not make sense and humored his lady by coming to the commoner first.
"Maria-san, a pleasure to have you." Gerald took her hand in his and nodded. A far cry from the way he greeted Katarina so she would not get any weirder ideas than she already had from his interactions with Maria Campbell.
Her eyes were sparkling a bit, but before his mind could produce an hypothesis he accepted Katarina wanted the two of them to get along and that was the end of it. Otherwise he would start a wild chase after Katarina's reasoning and there was so much Gerald could understand of her before his head started spinning in a bad way.
"Thank you for having me, Gerald-sama." Maria Campbell's answer was proper and modest. A far cry from what he expected of a commoner, but that was their year's light mage. She always found ways to excel even in places commoners usually don't bother exceling "I hope my presence is not a bother."
He liked it. Made it easy to work with her.
"Not at all." Gerald assured her "If Katarina wanted you here, then I can't help look forward to your presence."
There were roughly three to four ways Gerald could have worded it better. He didn't particularly dislike Maria Campbell, and he would have invited her if it wasn't so strange to have a commoner in an aristocrats' reunion or if she had expressed interest beforehand. But it was necessary. Katarina was still watching their every word and Gerald needed her to know Maria Campbell was allowed in because she wanted her to be.
Gerald didn't need to make any calculations to know Maria Campbell's reaction to his words was basically irrelevant in light of the goal, so he didn't bother with a more eloquent wording.
In any case, Gerald had more steps to take. This tea party was planned ahead to have everything he needed for this to work.
Maids brought forth thirty-four kinds of pastries, sweets and cakes. All carefully selected and placed in such a way Katarina would eat them in a certain order, and hopefully bring the flavor out because of sheer contrast.
There were two kinds of tea, and one solely bought for Katarina and Gerald. While the others were given one of the two according to their taste. Furthermore, three types of honey were in stock and a cup of sugar since Alan liked it better than honey. There were also spare glasses of water in case the tea was too hot for Mary Hunt's taste.
He didn't know Maria Campbell's real likings when it came to these things, but the girl was modest and wasn't one to complain when something wasn't to her liking.
Gerald still asked her how bitter she wanted the tea and told her about the honey and sugar. She didn't seem as lost as she did the first time around, which meant he wouldn't have to explain a third time.
He motioned for the girls to go to the table that the servants were done preparing for everyone to come together and share their drinks. He assured Maria Campbell could sit wherever she felt like while Katarina was given a plate to go pick up everything she felt like eating. Maria Campbell ended up sitting between Katarina and a very disappointed Keith.
With Gerald to Katarina's left, that made the sitting Gerald, Katarina, Maria Campbell, Keith Claes, Sophia Ascart, Alan, and Mary Hunt. With the next person sitting to the right of the previous one, putting Gerald between Mary Hunt and Katarina.
There was an extra chair besides the dessert table, but that was just for show. Just in case someone wanted to annoy Gerald by mentioning someone outside of their small circle.
For better or worse, this didn't happen. As the small talk filled the table while Katarina devoured her pile of pastries and Gerald watched her. Everything had more or less gone perfectly, for once.
"Perfection is a blatant lie. It is just not attainable. Whatever claims to be perfect, whoever proposes they are a master of such degree in anything… They are all lying. They are fooling themselves. And in fooling themselves, they will overlook that small detail that will crumble the illusion sooner or later."
"Ugh…"
"Gerald-sama?" Mary Hunt snapped out of her thoughts and gave the prince a worried look. The others stopped what they were doing and stared at the prince, who put down his cup and cleaned his lips in a swift motion.
"Apologies." He didn't elaborate, as Alan would have picked on anything he said.
Gerald turned to Katarina, who was looking at him but hadn't stopped eating at all. Disappointing, but not unexpected. He still had her attention though, so his mind quickly spun something to keep it that way.
"Katarina, can I have a taste of your cup?" He flashed a winner smile at her while asking.
"Sure!" She didn't point out they were drinking the same thing, nor did she try to prevent him from drinking from the same spot as she did.
Her little brother seemed frustrated, but that was part of the idea. These were the things only Gerald could do without losing face or being confronted about because of their engagement.
"Katarina-sama. May I have a taste too?" Eh?
"Sure, Mary! Go ahead!" Katarina replied between bites. Not sparing any more attention to either of her companions while doing so.
Mary Hunt took the cup from between Gerald's hands and stared at the deep red liquid for a moment, deep in thought while she weighed her options. She took a sip and gave it back to Katarina, locking her eyes on Gerald's while doing so.
Gerald didn't back down. Mary Hunt was testing his reaction, and the prince immediately switched his expression to an innocently confused one.
Katarina took the cup without a second thought and gulped the rest of the liquid in one go.
"How pitiful. To have so much 'talent' and yet not being special in any way. I'm sorry I made fun of you, third prince. I didn't know you were so small my words could break you."
"Katarina." Gerald stated, his voice on the brink of missing the tone he wanted. The lady locked her eyes on him while patting the table to look for her plate and take another pastry "You look radiant today."
"Awww, thanks Gerald-sama." To her credit, she didn't bring Maria Campbell for praising this time around. Perhaps she was too focused eating to do so.
"No problem… How do I look today?" Gerald smiled at her, patiently waiting for her to stop munching on her food to answer.
"Sharp as always!" Katarina gave him a thumbs up "It's weird not seeing you in the white suit, though."
"Weird how?" He pressed on, keeping his tone at bay so he wouldn't sound too demanding.
"I guess… Just different." Katarina shrugged "Not particularly bad. Just different."
Gerald nodded, keeping his sigh within his mind and out of the way.
The party wasn't going as planned, and probably wouldn't either since there were so many things out of place this time around. This effect was joyous when it happened because of Katarina, but he didn't like it here.
Sophia Ascart had not mentioned her brother even once since they greeted each other, Mary Hunt was plotting something, and Katarina was calmer than usual. Was something wrong? Did Gerald miss something?
He reviewed the past few days and he couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. There was only one other person that went out of his way to mess things up, but it couldn't be his fault.
After all, president Sirius privately shared his worries about the unruly noble. And promised to keep an eye on him for Gerald in the future.
Gerald could only school his features and bury the uneasiness in his heart. This evening was going to go well, even if it was the last thing he ever did.
Maria Campbell was staring at Gerald when he got out of his thoughts.