A Katarina Vacation Arc

The room Katarina got was in the same hallway as mother, and just one door away from her cousin Matthew if the map that had been included in the Characterpedia Files was correct. It was a nice room, with a big, fluffy bed, a sitting room, and even a balcony! Her room back home hadn't had a balcony! She wished it had, she could have put potted plants there so she'd have an emergency seed stock and food supply if she ever needed to run away.

Even without Anne, the servants mother assigned to her knew how to put away her stuff, although she had to grab her special farming bag and hold it close when one of them tried to 'lose' it in the back of a closet. Anne would have known better than to try, and she'd have known to maintain and oil all the tools so they wouldn't get rusty. Rust was the enemy! She'd lost more tools to rust than to servants 'losing' them, so good tools had to be maintained.

She kept a wary eye on the servants in case they tried to take her tools as she lay them out on a table in her room. There were the small hand tools, since she probably wouldn't have time for a full garden, some seeds, a proper watering can she had made, and her favorite wooden practice sword, the heavy oak full of bumps and nicks from all the years she'd been practicing with it. There were even some stains from all those times she'd used it to smash watermelons!

"You're ladyship," one of the not!Anne-maids, Ginger, said, gesturing towards the attached bathroom. "The bath is ready."

"Eh?" Katarina said. "But I just had a bath this morning!"

"Nevertheless," Ginger said, trying to sound authoritative and Anne-like.

Argh, she missed Anne! Anne, if you've already rescued Maria's mom, you better be grateful for all the paid nookie time you're having!

"Eh, maybe later," Katarina said. "I think I'll go and find my cousins."

"But, your ladyship!" Ginger the not!Anne said as Katarina cheerfully tucked all her tools back into her bag and, to keep them from 'losing' it while she was gone, carried it with her tied to the end of her practice sword. She'd hide it in the carriage, the grooms and footmen were nice and would keep an eye on it for her.

Grinning, Katarina skipped off down the hall, knocking on the walls every ten feet or so in case there was a secret passage to some sweet loot. This was an unexplored DLC after all, you always had to be on the lookout for secret passages!

In hindsight, Katarina should have brought the map her aunt had given her.

She hadn't found any secret passages– YET!– but somehow she'd ended up in the basement? She ended up in some gardens with really high hedges and… yeah, she was probably stuck inside a maze now. Argh, she always sucked at these things, and she didn't even have a walkthrough to help her find her way around!

She was tempted to push her way through the hedges, but that would have been rude! She'd never raised hedges herself, but as a farmer she knew how hard it was to grow and raise something, much less how to get it to grow the way you want it to, and could tell these hedges were well taken care of. Hmm, maybe she could climb the hedges? Hedges, trees, they were all the same, right?

She was eyeing the nearest hedge, wondering if it could take her weight, when a voice suddenly called out, "Turn right and keep walking!"

Katarina blinked looking around. "Eh?" she 'eh'-ed, wondering where the voice had come from.

"No, not that way, your other right! Yes, that way! Now keep walking and take the first left!"

"Um… are you the voice in my head?" Katarina asked nervously. Hearing voices was bad, right?

"Wha… NO! It's me, your cousin Olga! I can see you from my balcony!"

"Eh? Wait, how can you see me, these hedges are really tall!" Katarina asked.

"I can see that bag on the end of the stick you're carrying! Come on, get moving!"

After a lot of directions, Katarina managed to find her way out of the hedge maze, to find her cousin Olga looking down at her from one of the balconies. At first Katarina thought she was being glared at, but then recognized it as 'resting tsundere face'.

"Thanks cousin Olga!" Katarina said with a wave.

And… yup, there was the tsun and the sniff. "I-it's not like I did anything special for you or anything! It's merely because we're family, hmph!"

Yup, definitely a tsundere.

"Eh, but that's the best reason to do something!" Katarina said. "You stay right there, I'm going up to your room to give you a proper thank you!"

So saying, Katarina dashed inside, heedless of her cousin's "EH?!"

Katarina stared at Olga.

Olga stared at Katarina.

"Cousin," Olga called up, "Why are you on the roof? There's nothing up there but the giant crows' nest."

"I got lost!" Katarina called down.

Olga sighed. "Stay up there and don't do anything silly, I'll come get you!"

"What did I tell you about doing anything silly?" cousin Olga exclaimed at Katarina once she'd reached the roof.

"Eh, but they kept asking me if I hand anything smooth and silky…" Katarina said.

"So you took off your dress?"

"I was just showing it to them! Now they won't give it back!" She held up the weird pitchfork the giant crows had tossed at her. "They said they traded this for it, and they won't take it back!"

"Wait, they gave you a trident? Those stupid birds! When I gave them my dress, all they gave me was a stupid rock!"

"If you want it, you can have it. I don't even need a pitchfork for anything."

"I-I can't accept that!"

"How about I trade you for it? I kinda need a dress…"

"W-well, if it's a trade, then I guess it would be churlish to refuse…"

Yes! Gift-based affection points, works every time!

"Give us smooth! Give us silky!"

"Y-you shut up, stupid bird!"

"Aren't you afraid they're going to poop on you while they're flying around?"

"…"

When Olga came back up, she was carrying two dresses.

"Hex it! Another stupid rock!"

"Eh? But it's a really pretty rock! See, it's twinkling!"

"You can have it then, I don't want it."

Thank goodness Olga's dress fit Katarina! She almost thought it wouldn't, but it fit perfectly when she put it on.

Distantly, a bell began to toll.

"Ah, t-that means it's lunch time! Come on, I'll show you where the dining room is so you don't end up in the family crypt or something."

"Thanks cousin Olga! You're the best!"

"I-it's nothing!"

Yup, definitely tusndere.

They were the last to arrive for lunch. Everyone but mother was smiling and didn't seem to mind, and on examination it turned out it was mother's usual contented not-smile, so that was okay.

Mother's gaze sharpened, however, when she saw Katarina's dress. "Katarina, I don't remember you packing that dress," her mother said.

"Oh, it's cousin Olga's," Katarina said cheerfully as a maid led her to an empty place setting across from her cousins and next to cousin Matthew.

Mother gave her an intent, disapproving look. Then she said, "Crow on the roof?"

"Yup!"

Mother nodded.

"Oooh, did you get anything nice?" cousin Iosefka asked.

"I got a nice, shiny rock out of it," Katarina said, presenting her new rock.

"Ooh, nice titanite," aunt Leona said. "Weren't you looking for one of those, Matthew?"

"Oh, you can have it if you'd like," Katarina said, offering it to cousin Matthew.

"R-really?" cousin Matthew said, surprised.

"Sure!" Katarina said. "I'll find another pretty rock."

Cousin Matthew gave her a guilty look, be accepted the pretty rock. It really did have a nice twinkle.

"Well then," Aunt Sheryl said, for once not using her wife's chest as a hat. "Now that we're all here… let the feast begin!"

Lunch was delicious!

Twinkling Titanite
Certain unique weapons cannot be reinforced with ordinary titanite, nor can they be infused.

Unless one uses this twinkling titanite, which reinforces these weapons without unraveling their inherent strength.

What cosmic event could have created such a powerful class of titanite?"