A Katarina Vacation Arc
The cycle of Ages turns, and Ages of Fire and Dark come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Bluepoint Remastered Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, call the Age of Humanity by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose in the halls at the heart of the Duchy of Hasard. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings in the cycles of New Game+. But it was a beginning.
"Leona, stop that!" Mili said, because the wind was NOT meant to rise indoors.
"Aw! But we all look so dramatic with rising wind," Leona said.
As it was raining yet again, Cousin Marie had offered to give Katarina a tour of the manor. Usually they gave guests a tour much earlier, but she'd been lost in the hedge maze when they'd gone to offer her a tour the first time.
Olga's twin was as fluffy and dere as she was tsun. Marie was very affectionate, and if Katarina had been a man she figured Marie would already have done the 'press breasts to arm' thing, which would have been very effective even if she wasn't as endowed as her mother. But no, this was the yuri-yuri DLC, right? As it was, Katarina figured they'd managed to present several CGs already.
Through all this, Marie was proudly fulfilling her offer of a tour, showing her down the hallways and byways of the manor, far from the more public areas that visitors usually saw. Which was a pity, since some of the artwork was gorgeous. They passed through a hallway where the ceiling was decorated with friezes of ancient heroes and villains, which Marie helpfully identified. The vile, terrible, villainous, never to be sufficiently damned Fume Knight being met in battle by a younger Chosen Lord of the Hallowed wearing the Crown of Immortality (even though that was mythologically inaccurate, since he couldn't complete the crown without the Crown of the Iron King that the Fume Knight guarded, or so Marie said, but artistic license), depictions of the seven incarnation of the paledrake and the heroes who slew them (why did one of them look like Principal Siegmann?), oppai-goddess Gwyndolin of the Dark Moon before she died, the black-clad Betrayed Goddess whose death created the world…
Katarina tried to keep all this setting information straight in her head and sort of gave up. Yeah, she definitely had no idea who any of those people were. Though she wished Acchan could have seen this, her old friend would have really liked all this fancy art and setting info.
Marie, as if sensing Katarina growing bored, then guided her out to the garden. Or at least a covered balcony where they could see the garden. She'd already seen the hedge maze, but they apparently had a more extensive garden filled with exotic plants like gold pine trees, white birch, medicinal moon grasses, forkroot, green blossoms, dusk herbs, as well as fruit trees like Ashina mangos, golden apples, and one of the few banana trees in Sorcier outside of the Cavendish plantations.
"We have to keep it in the greenhouse since we're a bit too far north for it," Marie explained as she showed her the leafy tree. "But it makes for great desserts!"
"Ooh, do you have any?" Katarina said, latching on to the part she cared about.
"Oh yes, the kitchen is making one for dinner," Marie said. "I hope you like it."
"Oh, I'm sure it'll be delicious," Katarina said, already fantasizing about what the dessert could be. "Do you think I could have a few seeds? I'd LOVE to have some of this for my garden, especially the mangoes! They smell really sweet!"
"Seeds?" Marie said, blinking in confusion for a moment. "Oh, I'm sure the kitchen will have some. I'll have word sent to save them for you…?"
"Hmm…" Katarina said. "It might not last, though?"
"Perhaps one of the fruits, then?" Marie suggested. "I'm sure we can part with a few for when you go back."
"That would be great!" Katarina said. "Ooh, can I talk to your gardener? I want to find out how to best take care of them…"
Mili had been waiting for some passive-aggressive comment. Some sort of condemnation or barbed remark about why she hadn't contacted the family in so long.
Instead, she'd gotten warmth, acceptance, lots of crying from her younger sister who was so glad to see her again, lots of bad jokes from her older sister who seemed to be touching her more than she used to, and her brother had hugged her before every meal so far for an almost unseemly amount of time.
She should have known it was too good to last.
"So, how long did it take you to realize your husband actually loved you?" Leona said once it was just her, Mili and Sheryl in her room that night. Saloman had been kicked out to a guest room for the time being, leaving only the three sisters. The three of them were braiding each other's hair in preparation to sleep, something Sheryl had begged her to do and she'd acquiesced too despite the little voice in her head that said she was too old for it.
Mili, who was braiding Sheryl's hair in preparation for rolling it up into buns, almost whirled around to face her older sister. "You knew!" she said accusingly.
"Oh course I knew," Leona said. "Anyone with eyes would have known. Only you somehow were completely oblivious despite, you know, him spending Sheryl's entire wedding reception with you, staring at like you were the only person left in the world and begging father for your hand in marriage. But I guess he got through to you eventually. So, how long did it take?"
At this, Mili began studiously ignoring her older sister, focusing all her attention on braiding her younger sister's hair.
"Mili? How long did it take?" Leona asked, tone still teasing.
Mili ignored her. Braiding was very concentration intensive, after all.
"It didn't actually take a month, did it?" Leona said.
Braiding, braiding, very busy braiding!
"Mili? You're hurting me…" Sheryl said diffidently.
Mili's hands stop. For the first time, she noticed how much they shook.
"Mili?" Leona said, dropping the teasing tone. "Are you all right? Talk to me, you little mushroom. Is this battle shock? Hex it, were you abused? I knew I should have ripped that smarmy bastard's greatwood danglies off–"
"NO!" Mili cried. "Don't you dare! My husband has been nothing but the best to me?"
"Ah? Okay then… AH! Mili, you're crying! You're actually crying! Did I tease you too hard? Whatever it is I did, I'm sorry Mili, just please stop crying!" Leona cried, suddenly panicking.
Sheryl just turned around and hugged Mili, wrapping her arms around her sister, and example Leona followed a moment later.
"There there, Mili," Sheryl said, patting Mili on the back. "Whatever stupid thing Leona accidentally said, she didn't mean it and she's sorry."
"So sorry! Please stop crying Mili, it's really weirding me out!" Leona said.
Without looking, Sheryl reached over and flicked her oldest sister on the forehead.
"Ow! I mean, please stop crying, I'm greatly concerned for your wellbeing and your happiness is very important to me!"
Shame, embarrassment and mortification swirled around inside Mili like Katarina mixing the punch bowl so she could see the ice cubes tumble around. In all the years she'd resolved this misunderstanding with her husband, it had never occurred to her she might someday have to explain it to someone.
"Mili? Please tell me what's wrong," Sheryl said. "Tell me so I can help you do something about it."
"My pseudo-pyromancy gauntlet works great," Leona said. "If what's wrong is, you know, something you can set on fire, I'll be happy to lend it to you."
Mili's laugh was strangled by a sob.
Her sisters looked at each other.
"She's… kinda laughing," Leona said. "Progress?"
"Mili… talk to us," Sheryl said. "You're safe… you're home."
The three sisters sat there in silence for a long while.
Eventually, Mili took a deep breath and began to explain.
…
Her sisters stared at her.
"For the record, I was joking about you needing a month to realize it," Leona said.
"You always did see me as better than I was," Mili said dryly, still wiping tears from her eyes.
"Yes, you little mushroom. Because we're your sisters and we love you," Leona said. "You know what, I WILL rip off his greatwood danglies for not telling you he loved you for that long!"
"Touch my husband and I will beat you to death, possibly with my bare hands," Mili said, still wiping her eyes.
"Isn't that improper behavior for a noble?" Leona said.
"Damn improper behavior, that's my husband's danglies and greatwood you're threatening," Mili said. "I happen to like them, thank you very much. They gave me a surprising, wonderful daughter. Besides, I'm a duchess. The rank is technically a military title. So it's very proper for me to get martial in defense of the family greatwood."
"Please, spare my virginal ears this lewd talk," Sheryl said.
"Oh, like I can't hear you from down the hall," Leona scoffed.
"I married a woman, I'm an untouched virgin maiden," Sheryl said beatifically.
"No, you're not," her sisters chorused.
Sheryl ignored that. "Well, I love you," she said, hugging Mili. "I hope you didn't doubt that, at least."
"I'm not into women, so I only love you as a sister," Leona said.
Sheryl reached over and brained Leona with one of the pillows. Leona retaliated with the other pillow.
Mili sat there, embraced by both her sisters as they had a pillow fight around her, feeling warm and safe.
"So, tell us when we can start teasing you about this, okay?" Leona said. "Because make no mistake, once you're feeling better, we're telling Henry and teasing you about this."
"Mercilessly," Sheryl agreed.
"Says the woman whose spouse has a portrait of Nicol Ascart," Mili said.
"Oh, you're already over it, I see," Sheryl said brightly. "Excellent…"
Mili had never been good at pillow fights, but she found there wasn't much to it.
The three fell asleep in an exhausted heap on the bed, their hair only half braided and tangled up everywhere.
It turned out cousins Adella and Iosefka were training under Uncle Saloman to become doctors. Katarina tried to sit still as a nervous Cousin Iosefka undid the bandages around Katarina's leg and examined the fading bruises, while her uncle supervised and her sister watched. She didn't see what the problem was. She'd gotten worse falling out of trees and accidentally dropping sacks of fertilizer after all.
"It appears to be healing well," Cousin Iosefka said., running fingers over the leg. She poked. "Does it hurt here?"
"Uh, only because you poked it," Katarina said. "Ah, not that I'm complaining or anything, I'm sure you had a good reason!"
After a while, Cousin Iosefka switched out for Cousin Adella, whose fingers were a bit firmer and clumsier in her examination. However, Uncle Saloman declared that Katarina's bruise was healing well, and gave her a candy.
"Uncle, you're a great doctor!" Katarina said reverently. She hadn't gotten a candy from her doctor in… well, not since she was ten in her first life! "The best doctor in the world! Does this mean I can do sword practice now?"
"Well, as long as you go easy on the leg," her uncle said. "No sparring with Matthew's shield, be careful about putting sudden weight on it, and try not to hit any coffee tables."
"Don't worry, I won't!" Katarina said, turned around, and promptly hit her shin on the chair she'd been sitting on.
"Well, at least it wasn't a coffee table," Uncle Saloman sighed as Katarina hopped around on one foot. "Adella, get me the grass jelly, will you? Iosefka, get more ice. Sit down again Katarina, we need to put ice on that…"