After using Light Magic to deal with the pain in her nostrils, Maria fixed Katarina with a flat stare. "Please repeat that," she said. "I want to be sure I heard you correctly."

"I want to be a knight, so can I be your squire?" Katarina repeated.

"Ah," Maria nodded. "Yes, that's what I thought you said. May I ask why?"

"I don't want to be a fat, corrupt noble who just spends money on her hobbies and doesn't do her duty," Katarina said. "I want to be better than that."

"And so you thought you'd become a knight?" Maria said.

"Well, first I thought of becoming a farmer, but I know mother wouldn't let me do that," Katarina said with a sigh. "Which is too bad since I'm a pretty good farmer."

Maria had to nod in agreement at both points.

"Then I thought about being a doctor, but… no," Katarina said, shaking her head furiously.

"No," Maria said, shaking her head in sympathetic agreement.

"And I'm not good at paperwork, so I can't really help around the duchy with reports and things… or work for the government… and my magic is too weak and my grades too low for the Ministry…" Katarina said.

Again, Maria nodded. Katarina was a wonderful person but a bloodstain of a human being, if you only compared her accomplishments with her pears. Oh, she had her strengths too, but they were unorthodox and non-standard. Most noble ladies were garbage at swordplay, for example.

"So I figured I'd be a knight," Katarina said. "That way, I can protect people with my body since I can't do it any other way. And then since knights protect people from all sorts of things, I can protect them from hunger and farm!"

"Ah," Maria said. So, it was all a ploy to farm. Only Katarina. "I'll… have to think about it. We've only just gotten everything set up… I'll have to think about it."

"That's fine, I understand," Katarina said. "If you can't do it, I'll ask Lalatina. Or maybe I can find someone else…"

Maria suppressed her reaction to assure Katarina that she could do it, since that was basically agreeing already. "I'll have to speak to your mother," Maria said. "And I want you to rethink this. Becoming a knight is no simple matter. It will take dedication and learning– and remembering," Maria said emphatically, remembering Katarina's approach to taking tests back at the Academy, "things beyond how to fight. You'll need to at least learn proper behavior for a knight. It will take years of hard work."

"Didn't you just get called up and got knighted one day?" Katarina said.

"Yes, and I still don't know why that happened," Maria said. "But since you're asking become a squire, I'm telling you what it takes to become a squire. So go back and think about it, and so will I."

"Okay," Katarina said, her expression as pleasant as ever. Maria could almost SEE the words go in one ear and out the other, with only a modicum of thinking in between.

"Now, let's sheath this subject for now," Maria said. "I can't show you the manufactory due to the new security we have, but I can show you what's new around the manor. We've finally built the bathhouse. The Ashina women were very helpful in advising how it should be organized."

"Ooh, can we go there first?" Katarina said. "I want to see!"

Maria showed her the new bathhouse. It was set in what HAD been the inner courtyard garden, with the wings of rooms on either side overlooking it. Specifically, it was on top of where the fountain used to be so they had a means of pumping and draining water from it. The building was larger than Maria's old house, with a water reservoir above it that fed into shower stalls, spigots where the Ashina women could fill the buckets they preferred, small pools that could be filled with heated water, and a furnace for heating that water… Light wells kept the baths illuminated during the day, and lamps had been set for those who'd bathe at night. Even with its size, people still needed to bathe in shifts.

Currently it was empty save for those assigned to clean it, maintain the furnace and reservoir, and make sure no one fornicated in the baths. So Katarina was able to gush at the cubbyholes filled with baskets for people to put their clothes in, the wooden stools for those who preferred to sit while they cleansed themselves, the echoes of the main bathing chamber as Katarina tested the acoustics…

Maria shook her head. The children did the same thing when they took a bath.

As they stepped out, Katarina looked around. The once-ruined garden was less ruined now, with some plants being cultivated again. Some of it was Maria's doing, as she'd claimed an area for her sword practice. Maria supposed that if she did take Katarina as a squire, she'd be suing the too. The rest held planters of herbs for the kitchen, discrete planters filled with garlic and onions, a few varieties of moon grasses, and even some wildflowers the children had planted because it was pretty. If you didn't know that the bathhouse was, one would find the little stone and wood building perfectly acceptable to look at as you ate from the balcony.

Katarina looked at the back of the garden space and frowned. "Isn't that your house?" she said, pointing at the humble stone house at the open end of the garden where it could catch the sun.

"After my mother was kidnapped, I decided to keep her close by," Maria said.

Indeed, there was a small hedge around the house consisting of thorny flowering plants to discourage approaching it so Mother could have her privacy. Even as they watched, Mother and Miss Shelley stepped around the wing of the building, walking on the new path that led to the house's front door, hand in hand. It seemed Mother was still feeling weak if she needed to walk around with such assistan–

Katarina, why are you squealing like that? It's very high-pitched and bores into the ears, please stop.

Maria then showed Katarina the new schoolroom. It was in one of the first floor rooms that had once been… well, some kind of ostentatious, tasteless display of wealth, and then later a dining area. Now it was a school room for the few schoolchildren of Raven's Nest, the many ward children of the estate, and some of the Ashina and Gerudo women who were taking lessons right then. They had to learn in shifts since they teachers needed to focus on the children, and not all were really that willing to learn, but it was something to keep their minds off killing themselves and it beat chores.

"How are you teaching them?" Katarina asked as they peaked through one of the doors. "Did you master Ashinago while I was gone and then teach the teachers?"

"No," Maria said, shaking her head. "That would have been much too difficult. We let the children do it."

Katarina blinked. "The children?

Maria nodded. "Apparently, while I was trying to learn two languages by lesson," she said dryly, "the children all just played together and picked it up from each other. Now they're acting as translators while the adults learn slowly, and from what I can understand are getting a lot of amusement at our expense. Unfortunately, they've already taught each other all the dirty words."

Katarina giggled. "Sounds about right."

For her part, Maria felt annoyed and a bit negligent she'd never noticed how well the children had been communicating all these months. They'd only noticed because the children, feeling helpful, had started correcting translations during class.

Maria then showed her the new fields, or 'paddies', that had been added on to the fields Katarina and the children had already made. They were trying to grow rice, a crop that was apparently plentiful in Ashina but was only available in small quantities in Sorcier. The Ashina women had been speaking longingly about it, and Rafael had eventually managed to procure some from a contact at the Ministry. It was taking a lot of water though, but thanks to the recent rains they had a goodly reserve.

"AH! Rice! Maria, you have rice!" Katarina cried in a tone that sounded borderline orgasmic. Maria supposed it was only to be expected that she'd get that excited over a foodstuff. "It's actually rice! When will it be ready? Ah, I want to eat it, I want to eat it…!"

Maria didn't ask where Katarina had tasted rice before. She probably wouldn't understand the answer. "Settle down," Maria said. "They're still growing. Mai is concerned they won't grow properly because of the weather in Sorcier."

"She does?" Katarina said, not even wondering who this 'Mai' was. She probably remembered the name from months ago. It was very strange the things this girl remembered.

Maria nodded. "Mai said her family used to farm rice, and she was able to teach us how it's supposed to be done."

"Do you think you can spare some for me?" Katarina said with wide-eyed eagerness. "I want to try growing some in my fields too."

"I don't think we can spare any," Maria said. "Perhaps next year if this crop is successful. I'll have some set aside for you."

"Wah! Thank you so much Maria-chan! You're the best!" Katarina exclaimed as she threw her arms around the knight.

Maria quickly squirmed out of it. She just knew Lady Hunt would smell the contact and try to kill her for it…

From the fields, Maria pointed out the new buildings. There was the expanded Nightflower manufactory, the new powder storage sheds with their light but waterproofed roofs, the new dormitories (and baths) for the blacksmiths and the knights who were to protect the estate, and then there was the gun manufactory, which was a stone-walled building with multiple chimneys. Even from the field they could hear the faint sounds of metalwork and guns going off as the knights practiced with their new weapons. They could finally hit things at medium range, so Maria would probably have to push the targets back again. It had taken a bit too long to get them to stop flinching at the explosion and smoke. Soon they'd almost be ready to learn how to properly use those weapons…

A deep trench surrounded the buildings in lieu of a wall, edges reinforced with Earth Magic so it wouldn't crumble. Too far to jump, too deep to climb unassisted, and which would have fires lit at night so that any attempted intruders would be outlined in light, she had them put in instead of a wall so that if there was some accident the workers would have a safe trench to run to. The only way out of the trenches were near the guard station that held the short drawbridge to let people get at the factories, and the guards patrolled both inside and above the trench. The children had planted flowers and garlic at the edges of the trench, with a wooden hence to keep people from falling in accidentally.

"We've had people trying to get in and steal," Maria said as she pointed out the features. "They've stopped since the knights appeared, but better safe than sorry."

"Is that why the new wall?" Katarina said, gesturing towards the road that bordered her estate.

"Yes," Maria said. "The villagers know better, but some nobles keep sending agents in for what doesn't belong to them. Thankfully that's died down too."

And now she had names, names that Lady Selena and through her Prince Ian were investigating. Because not all Ashina and Gerudo in Sorcier were free. Maria was darkly sure that after the death of Kent Ashmore many unfortunate victims had been buried in shallow graves so that some nobles wouldn't be caught with evidence. But that was months ago…

A worry for another time.

She heard the tolling of the gate bell, and turned to see Sophia's carriage, back from whatever noble she'd managed to separate from their money. "It seems Lady Sophia is here," Maria said. "Shall we go and greet her?"

"Ooh, Sophia!" Katarina cried. "I've missed her so much! I really want to talk to her, I have this new Nightfall theory about who killed Asmodean…!"

Katarina rushed towards the manor as Maria followed after her, moving at a more leisurely pace.

It was good to have all her children back where she could keep an eye on them.