A Katarina Vacation Arc

Time passed, and as with all visits to relatives, Katarina and her mother found themselves being sucked into the household's rhythm. They awoke in the morning and sometimes in the middle of the night to weird sounds coming from Leona's laboratory, which Mili found very concerning since it was all the way in the basement, but she was assured that the sounds were nothing to worry about if they didn't make the manor actively shake, which was even more concerning.

They had breakfast as a family, where Katarina rotated which of her cousins she sat next to so she could talk with them while Uncle Saloman checked Aunt Leona over for signs of mercury poisoning and lectured her on the importance of wearing gloves and a mask. Then they'd all spilt up to do their own thing, with Uncle Saloman going to his practice in the nearby town of Stolat with Adella and Iosefka, while Aunt Sheryl went off to her work as the duchy's representative to the knight covenants.

"Eh?" Katarina said when she found this out. "Aunt Sheryl is a knight?"

"No, she's just the duchy's representative at the knights' chapter house," Cousin Watson explained as he got ready to set off with his stepmother. Uncle Henry was also getting ready to leave, since he had to handle some duchy affairs in his office in town. "Matthew's the only knight in the family. Sometimes she assists when they need to do a major arrest, representing the duchy. Last year she helped Sir Peraltad capture the Pontia Bandit, who'd been preying on merchant caravans coming in from the south."

"Wow!" Katarina said. "That's amazing! I suppose that's the sort of thing you have to expect from a knight, huh? Just ebing all amazing and heroic?"

Cousin Watson smiled. "Why don't you tell her exactly that? Ah, but wait until we're all together for dinner before you do it, all right?"

Katarina also learned that her grandparents were not, in fact, dead.

"Wait, you thought they were dead?" Cousin Watson said. "Why would you think that?"

"Um, because they're not here," Katarina said.

Cousin Watson opened his mouth, paused, closed his mouth, and tried again. "All right, I can sort of see your point. But no, they're not dead. After the old king was deposed and King Artorias took the throne, grandfather decided it was time for new blood to be in charge, so he abdicated in favor of Uncle Henry, who's the duke now. He and grandmother went on a honeymoon to Gyrmland last year to see some adventuring friends of grandmother's. We've been forwarding Aunt Mili's letters to them. They were really glad to hear she's visiting."

"Huh," Katarina said. "So basically they're on vacation."

"… sure, let's go with that," Cousin Watson said. "I suppose some people would consider being friendly with desert priestesses a vacation…"

Katarina herself found her own rhythm, and her cousin soon learned that when she wasn't eating like the rejected suitor of the Baneful Queen of myth, then Katarina could be found in the greenhouse and gardens, helping the gardeners tend to the exotic plants and asking questions that the gardeners were glad enough to answer.

Best of all, mother hadn't told her off about getting dirty being out in the garden! No even once!

Finally, the day of the party in their honor arrived!

"This is exciting!" Katarina said, wearing the good party dress her mother had insisted she pack. "I've never been a guest of honor before!"

Mili, clad in an appropriately duchess-y dress, gave her daughter a look. "What about on your birthday?"

Katarina waved that away. "That doesn't count, that was my birthday."

Mili considered that and conceded that Katarina was correct.

Given Katarina had never been the guest of honor before, she'd listened as her mother explained what she was supposed to do. First, they were to greet people when they arrived, then they were to mingle and talk to as many people as possible during the party. That… well, that seemed more labor intensive than what she usually did at parties, which was to park herself next to the buffet and eat all the delicious food people always seemed to end up neglecting…

Ah! Maybe she could do both and talk to people around the buffet table!

"Olga, dear, make sure Katarina doesn't only talk to people around the buffet table," Mili said. "Please?"

"Yes, Aunt Mili," Olga said.

"Thank you, dear."

AGH! How had they realized her genius plan?!

"Seriously?" Olga said. "You're saying it out loud!"

Ugh. This was why Katarina never actually held any of her own parties, just attended the ones she was invited to. Standing at the receiving line to greet people was boring! And they had no food to eat while they were there, which was even worse!

Ah, but the people seemed very nice! She smiled and greeted them enthusiastically. Aunt Sheryl was there too, the shortest of her aunts looking very cute in bright bubblegum pink that matched her hair as she greeted people as well. Many people knew her, and would talk to her briefly about how nice it was to see her again, how her wife and son were doing, and if they were any closer to catching the Dancehall Strangler, whoever that was.

Katarina was surprised when she suddenly found herself face to face with one of her classmates, who she mostly remembered as one of the nameless mob characters in the classroom background CG. Fortune Lover had very detailed background art, not just faceless mobs, but she remembered this one because her face was always just about the character name in the speech panel.

"L-Lady Katarina?!" her surprised classmate exclaimed. Katarina had to admit, she was wearing great makeup. Why, it almost seemed like she was blushing!

"Hi Lady Anri!" Katarina said, taking her hands in greeting. "Wow, I haven't seen you since graduation! How have you been?"

"Ah, I've been w-well," Lady Anri said. It was nice to see she was over her complex about her deep, almost mannish voice. Seriously, who cast her seiyuu? "W-what are you doing here, Lady Katarina? I didn't know you knew the Adeths."

"Oh, they're family," Katarina said. "On my mother's side."

"Oh? OH! Oh," Anri said for some reason, her face changing expressions with every 'oh.' "Oh, that's why your smile always seemed so familiar! I'm glad to know, that was bothering me the whole time we were at the Academy. Ah, I hope we can talk later, so we can catch up. I'll see you at the buffet table!"

Eh? How did Anri know she'd be at the buffet table? Oh, did this mean Olga had been talking to people? It was always nice to see someone become less tsun and more dere!

The next incident came when she she was shaking hands with a short, portly man with a cartoonishly curly moustache. Like, American Looney Toons cartoonish.

"Aha! It IS you," the man who had just been introduced to her as Lord Stone said. "You're Lady Katarina Claes, aren't you?"

"Yes, I am," Katarina said. "Um, have we met before sir? I'm sorry, I'm trying to remember…"

"Oh, we've never met," Lord Stone said, "But I had the honor of seeing your performance in this year's Student Council play during the School Festival at the Academy! That was a masterful duel! Truly an impressive display of skill and grace, and with such a large weapon at that. Now, I'm an axe man myself, but I've fought people with swords and big swords, and I must compliment you, young lady. That was truly skilled and elegant handling of your weapon. I wanted to tell you so at the ball afterwards, but I wasn't able to find you."

"Oh, I'm so sorry for inconveniencing you like that," Katarina said. "I'd been kidnapped you see, else I'd have been in the ball. But thank you very much for the compliment! If you want we can talk about it more later?"

"I look forward to it, young lady," Lord Stone said. "Especially about this kidnapping thing, I hadn't heard about it at all!"

Lord Stone left the line, leaving Katarina with a surprisingly warm and fuzzy feeling. It was so seldom that she got any compliments on her swordsmanship. True, Maria had always said how good her poise and balance was, and how she had a refined defensive technique, but Maria said that all the time.

Olga, standing nearby in the dark as if she was trying to be a gloomy mushroom instead of a nice, bright, happy mushroom that made plumbers get twice as big leaned towards Katarina. "You weren't really kidnapped, were you?" she said.

"Eh, technically I was," Katarina said. "I mean, someone put me to sleep and took me away from the school, so that's a kidnapping, right?"

Olga paled. "That's not something that happens often at the Academy, does it?"

"Oh no," Katarina said. "I was only kidnapped the one time."

So saying, Katarina turned back to the receiving line, saying hi to a well-dressed lady that looked about her mother's age, leaving a pale-faced Olga to stare at her.