A Katarina Interlude

Waking up early had become annoyingly regular for Katarina Claes. While she was generally a morning person, that was only when she was actually awake. Until she could actually be dragged out of bed and gotten upright, she loathed getting up with the burning passion of an otaku who stayed up until 2AM trying to beat just one more event, just get to one more save point, just farm one more node…

Still, even without Anne, she was managing to drag herself out of bed even before the sun rose so she could do her daily training schedule. She would deny it to her grave, but the lack of available snacks and romance novels helped in this regard, as there was nothing to do but sleep early. After all, she could only sit and write her correspondence for so long before she wanted to amputate her hand for turning against her.

This morning, however, was different. Usually, she woke up early to do her sword drills before she started learning how to use the new weapon Maria was making her get familiar with (this week it was scythes. Which to be fair Katarina had never used because she didn't raise grain). Today however, she'd put on her training clothes— hardened leather tunic over a padded training coat, faulds, a cuirass, rerebraces, metal-backed leather gauntlets, and a hat to keep the sun off so she didn't get sunstroke—before belting on her wooden sword and met with Maria, Rafael, and that nice but horror movie-looking maid of Maria's to get on Maria's totally-haunted ghost carriage.

"Ooh, where are we going? Are we going on a quest?" Katarina asked eagerly.

"We're going to the Ministry," Maria said as Sadako-san began to hand out food from a little basket. Not fancy sandwiches with the crust cut off and dainty little filling. It was a bun with a slice of hot ham. There were also some sausages, and some waterskins in the basket for drinks. "Eat your breakfast. Carefully."

"Arigatou gozaimsu!" Katarina thanked the maid. "Why are we going to the Ministry?" she asked before taking a bite. Ah! Delicious! The meat was a bit tough in some places, but it was warm, full of flavor and there was a lot of it. Katarina had to force herself to finish chewing all her food first before taking another bite.

"To bring Rafael to work, of course," Maria said, delicately wrapping her sandwich in a napkin first as Sadako handed Rafael a sandwich before getting one for herself. "Then we're going to the town of Cleeseton in Morpork Duchy."

Katarina frowned. Morpork, Morpork, where had she heard that name before… "Why are we going there?" she asked.

"It's taken a while," Maria said, "but I've finally for you to be fitted for proper formal armor."

"Eh?" Katarina said, looking down at herself. "I thought this was supposed to be my armor?"

"That's your training armor," Maria corrected. "It's barely fit to be taken to formal events and is mostly to get you started getting used to the weight, which you have."

It was true. It had been a little awkward at first, wearing the extra weight of the cuirass and the faulds and the rerebraces, but at this point she was used to it, and it had never really slowed her down. After all, she was a farmer! She carried her own fertilizer!

"However, on top of your own dignity as a knight-to-be, as the daughter of their graces the Duke and Duchess Claes, you need to be attired with quality fitting your rank. Do you remember the armor your cousin wore to Lord Cett's Party?"

Katarina nodded, eyes shining.

"We're getting you one," Maria said. "In addition to being something you can wear on future occasions, it will let you practice performing armor maintenance on more pieces of armor. You will be taught how to maintain it and every day you are to inspect it for damage or corrosion and keep it in order."

"So… more chores?" Katarina asked, just to make sure.

"More chores," Maria confirmed. "When you become a knight, you may choose to hire armorers to perform this maintenance for you. However, it is still essential for you to know how to maintain armor on the field, and so you will. We will also be adding greaves and sabatons to your training armor. You will be adjusting to new weight."

"Yes, Dame Campbell!" Katarina said enthusiastically.

Rafael was shaking her head. "It's still strange to think that you're training to become a knight," he said. "I can still remember when most of what you did was eat in the student council room. When you weren't tending to your 'garden'."

"It was a vegetable patch," Maria said blandly.

Katarina blushed in embarrassment, remembering that. "Ah, well, I grew up?" she said.

"Actually, I don't think you've gotten any taller since then," Maria said.

Katarina pouted. She was pretty sure she'd grown at least a half inch since then! A third of an inch easy!

A thought occurred to her, conceived by her studious brain cell. "Say, Rafael, can I ask you a question?"

"Okay…?"

"Why did you have people denounce me in the dining hall?"

There was only the sound of hooves and wheels as Rafael slowly went red in embarrassment.

"I mean, I forget that exact details, but that was you, right? Using the…" Katarina glanced at Sadako, "you know."

Rafael was now burying his face in his hands, his ears almost as red as his hair.

"Yes, I would like to know what that had been about, Rafael," Maria said, sounding curious. "It ruined what would have been a pleasant lunch."

Rafael raised his head slightly, one eye peeking out between his fingers. "Um, please don't be mad?" he begged.

"I won't be mad," Katarina promised.

"Or tell anyone else what I'm about to tell you?"

"I promise," Katarina nodded.

Rafael nodded slowly, then slowly removed his hands. He looked extremely embarrassed. "Two reasons…" he said, not looking Katarina in the eye. "The first was you… well, you really annoyed me back then."

"Eh?!" Katarina exclaimed.

"Well, I mean, you just basically did what you want," Rafael said. "No consequences, no limits, and everyone seemed to love you for it. And I had to pretend to be…"

Katarina felt a slight wince of guilt as she realized what he meant. Ah, of course. For the Rafael who had to pretend to be Sirius Dieke, who had to be someone else for years instead of who he really was, she could see how that might have been… painful.

"I'm sorry!" Katarina said. "I didn't mean to make you feel bad!"

"Ah, no, it wasn't your fault!" he said, looking mortified. "You couldn't have known! And I was… idiotic back then. Besides, I was the one who tried to get you disgraced. You have nothing to apologize for!"

"What's the second reason?" Maria asked quietly.

If anything, Rafael blushed even further. He coughed. "I, uh… might have been trying to get rid of Katarina so people would stop getting distracted in the Student Council room and just do the hexing paperwork. And, well… as we later learned, that parried horribly."

"Eh?" Katarina said, tilting her head.

"If something had happened to you, people would have done less paperwork, not more," Maria explained. "Such as during that time you were in a coma for weeks."

"Eh heh he…" Katarina looked aside, her turn to be embarrassed. "Sorry about that. I'd have woken up sooner if I'd known that would happen."

"You weren't supposed to wake up at all," Rafael said wretchedly.

"I almost didn't," Katarina admitted. "You gave me such a wonderful dream Rafael. So, again, thank you."

Rafael's face fell into his hands again.

"Lady Katarina," Maria said, and Katarina nearly went (!-!-!-!-!) at the indicator that they were talking as friends again, "please stop forgiving my fiancé, I believe you are causing him to be painfully embarrassed."

"Um, sorry?"

"No, please, stop, you're just making it worse."

"Sorry!"

Rafael somehow managed not to die of guilt, mortification and forgiveness before they reached the Ministry, where they dropped him off and Maria gave him a sweet kiss goodbye. So pure…

Really Maria, do something more lewd, like hold his hand! Ah, but not here, that would be public indecency…

Then they were off again as the sun continued to rise higher, and Katarina looked eagerly out the window to see where they were going. The road seemed strangely familiar as the morning wore on and they traversed mile after mile of road, but it wasn't until they got into town and she spotted a familiar fountain that it finally clicked. "Oh, this is the town near our house! Is where we're going near here?"

Maria gave her that look. The one Keith or one of her other friends sometimes gave her. "Squire," she said, and awwww, friend time was over, "this IS Cleeseton. Please tell me you didn't actually not know the name of the capital of your Duchy. The one you seem to have visited before. The one I suspect you are known on sight by every bakery, café and every other purveyor of cooked food in the town?"

"Eh heh…" Katarina said, giving her 'I goofed' smile. "I've always just called it the town?"

Maria sighed the same sigh her mother in this life and in her past life sighed. "Well, now you know. Commit it to memory, if you will. You would not want to hurt the townsfolk's feelings by letting them know their duke's daughter doesn't know the name of their town, would you?"

Ah! Maria was right! That would be terrible! She began to mutter the name to herself, patting her belt pouch for her notebook and a small pencil. Wonderful things, pencils. She was glad some ancient king in the distant past invented them. Or was it some duke's daughter? No, that one was the inventor of chocolate…

Duke's daughter of the distant past, this kohai and countless woman praise your name (which Katarina had forgotten just then. Eris? Iridis?) for inventing the most divine of foods!

She filled a page with the name of the town before she was sure she wasn't going to forget. There! Now the townspeople wouldn't have to feel hurt!

The carriage stopped. "We're here," Dame Campbell announced.

Katarina put away her notebook and pencil before looking out the window and gasped.

"Mother! Father! Keith! Mashu!" she greeted as she opened the door wide—

Someone grabbed by the back of her armor and pulled her back inside, then closed the door.

"Try again, squire," Maria said flatly.

Eh?-?-? But… but…

Sigh.

Dame Campbell was so strict!

Still, Katarina opened the door again. "Your graces!" she called, stepping down and giving a knightly bow. "Lord Keith. Dame Matthew." Ah, she already know this was kind of wrong, but one of the rules was not to bring attention to breaches of protocol. If she just kept going, it could be ignored, as long as she started doing things right again! "I am Squire Katarina Claes. How may I be of service?"

Eh? Father, don't applaud, she wasn't doing a show! Mother, tell him to— Mother, why are you crying? Was the screw up that bad?

Augh! She really hoped Shana didn't lose any dessert over this!