A Katarina Interlude
Katarina had to get help putting on her new formal armor. It was in blue, of course. Why mess with a color scheme that worked? After all, if she started wearing red and/or black, she'd basically be going full Demon Lord Evil Villainess. She wasn't a pink person, orange person, green person, white person, gray person or purple person (all those colors were taken by other people in the cast already, even if Maria did wear more black than pink…), and brown… no. Brown makes you look like poop… er, sorry Rafael. Yellow was still available, and she had worn a nice gold dress during her birthday before coming to the academy, but it seemed a bit too 'kill me for extra-valuable loot'. Yeah, no. If she was gold, she'd be a metal slime or something.
Thankfully, the other knights, who had also gotten invitations and were also putting on their formal armors (those who would be coming, since there was guard duty, and apparently there would be shifts who would go to the party while the other shift guarded) helped her out. Maria had shown her how to put it on, but it had been only the one time and she'd… sort of forgotten. Still, it was mostly leather with metal accents, so it did need awkward tightening at her back.
Katarina did get teased about her waist cape though. Apparently, they were considered pretentious and their use was 'hiding the fact you shit yourself'. She did get told, more seriously, that the mantle around her shoulders was a nice accompaniment to the fauld-skirt and the waist cape giving her a nice outline and a well-balanced look. People had also been amused and mildly envious about all the snack pockets she'd asked to be added on.
She and the knights had been the first to the party. Maria and Rafael even greeted them, and Katarina had been happy to hear she was 'Lady Katarina' in this party and not 'squire'.
It was probably a test. Joke's on her, Katarina had long ago mastered greetings! Shana only needed to remind her a little, but she was set!
Ah! Maria also had a good spread! In addition to the usual kinds of party food like cold cuts, hors d'oeuvres, breads, smoked meat, there were cakes (Maria cakes!), brownies (Maria brownies!), cookies with fruity cream (Maria cookies!) and…
Katarina stared at the pot-sized magic tool being attended to by a maid. It wasn't… but it looked like…
"Lady Katarina," the maid—Katarina recalled her name was Imariel—greeted her warmly. "Would you like some mixed berry ice-cream?"
…
Maria had ice-cream (Maria ice-cream!).
THIS WAS THE BEST PARTY EVER!
A Keith Interlude
Keith Claes had to wonder if Maria had consciously set out to have an Abyss-themed party or if things had simply turned out that way. It could have gone either way with the commoner-turned-knight. The overcast, the candles, the statue of the Abysswalker… Not that Maria could control the overcast, but still.
He'd been a bit surprised to see so many people already there, until he recognized several of them as knights who had been assigned to guard her grounds from spies and thefts. He'd build the stone walls that enclosed the factories, after all. Had Maria invited them to pad out her party, or because she was genuinely friendly with them…?
"Welcome, Duke and Duchess Claes," Maria greeted, giving them a bow of greeting. "Lord Keith. Lady Matthew. I'm glad you could attend my humble little affair. Lady Katarina has already arrived." Keith was escorting Matthew, and while it was still a little strange to be escorting woman other than his sister, Matthew had been nothing but pleasant company and, more importantly, shared his desire to protect Katarina from The ADVERSARY And Enemy Of The Alliance without herself being a rival. It was… was this how Katarina felt like all the time, having someone she could call a friend without worry? No wonder she was so absentminded, the sheer relaxation could be incredibly heady!
"Lady Maria," Mother acknowledged. Keith had to wonder how the two had gotten so close. "Thank you for your kind invitation." Her gaze drifted over the party, taking in the details.
"I hope you enjoy yourselves," Maria said. "May I recommend you try the ice-cream?" She said it with that weird emphasis on the first syllable, as she always did.
Mother's gaze snapped towards Maria. "Ice-cream?" she said, intensely reminding Keith of Katarina on the scent of a good buffet. "You have ice-cream?"
"Yes, your grace," Maria said. "Lady Katarina has demonstrated the recipe several times, and so I commissioned a Magic Tool to provide it to my guests. I hope you enjoy it."
There was a strangely conflicted look in Mother's eyes, and Keith was able to guess why. Ice-cream was debuting in Maria's party… despite, as far as he knew, being Katarina's creation. As a keen and trendsetting socialite, Mother was probably upset at what she might see as a social usurpation of Katarina's invention.
"Well… I'm glad that you will be serving my daughter's dessert at your party," Mother said, her voice just a shade less warm. If Keith hadn't been listening for it, he might have missed it.
"Have no fear, your grace," Maria said. "My maid has orders to let everyone know that Lady Katarina was the originator of the dessert."
"Ah. Forgive me. I did not mean to doubt your intentions, Lady Maria," Mother said. "Do you happen to know where my daughter might be?"
From the party was the sound of a strangely loud moan of delight.
"I believe she is at the aforementioned ice-cream, though I could be wrong," Maria said blandly.
"Yes, I believe you are correct as well, Lady Maria," Mother said, looking amused instead of exasperated. "I hope to see you later. Once more, congratulations on your party."
They moved away as she greeted the next persons in line—Sophia and Nicol, as well as their mother, surprisingly enough—Matthew glanced towards some of the other knights in formal armor.
"Do you want me to drop you off here, cousin?" Keith asked.
There was a momentary flicker of guilt as Matthew shook her head. "No, that's fine. I can talk to them later. We need to protect Katarina from him after all."
AND not a rival! Keith had never felt so close to another person since Katarina had said to call her 'big sister' and mother had started praising him…
Eventually, all the guests arrived, and Maria was glad to see that people seemed to be having a moderately good time. The musicians from the village had also finished setting up in the gazebo statue and were playing music. There was no piano, unfortunately, since it had been too heavy to move, but the various horns and stringed instruments worked well enough as long as no one asked them to play 'The Dead God Gwyn'.
There were also many people gathered around the buffet, and it wasn't because of Katarina. No, her squire—but currently friend and guest—was at a table, an empty I Scream bowl in front of her, regaling her retinue—as well as some of the student council, with some story… from the gestures, she seemed to be relating her experiences trying on heavy armor. A few, such as Duke and Duchess Claes, were even dancing on the grass around the gazebo, and the music was trying to keep up. At one table, Lady Idris, Lady Marcone, Lady Cisarovna and Lady Wraithcroft sat together and seemed to be marveling over the I Scream with Lord Copperfield and Lord Silverberg. At another, various knights seemed to be trying to impress Lady Redmane with their exploits, pointing at one visible scar or another as she looked more and more impressed and horrified by turns.
She would have liked to run and hide at this point, but as the host of this party, she still had more obligations. Thankfully, it didn't seem like she needed to facilitate introductions, and no one appeared to have been murdered, so she didn't need to hide any corpses or find any murderers either. Maria checked the food, but it looked like her staff had things well in hand. Ghirardeli nodded at her from where he was supervising unloading the I Scream into metal servers surrounded by ice so they could get the next batch started. Next to the Magic Tool she had made, Larna Smith was watching intently, even as she took down notes and talked quickly to Rafael near her. Maria was a bit surprised to see she was actually wearing a well-cut and flattering party dress. A part of her had expected the woman to come in wearing a white coat splattered with blood and quicksilver, for some reason…
Maria went over. "Enjoying yourself, Larna Smith?" she said.
"Very much," the artisan said with a wide smile. "Now I understand why the stringent requirements for the silver-vessel. Amazing! I'd never would have thought to make this device. Who'd have thought that would could use a magic tool to make a new kind of food?"
"Lady Katarina would," Maria said, making subtle signs to Rafael for him to step back and take a break. He looked torn for a moment, before heading towards the rest of the buffet table and began gathering food.
Larna perked up at those words. "Ooh, Lady Katarina invented this?"
"Yes," Maria said. "It's technically a variant of custard without the egg, with added flavoring. However, it requires the Magic Tool to properly create, since it needs to be cooled with ice to form properly."
"Ah, I suppose Lady Hunt helped her with the ice, then," Larna Smith said, nodding knowingly.
"Actually, she has a magic tool for that."
Larna Smith blinked. "Eh? But I don't remember making one for her."
"I believe it was made for her by Leona Romani."
Larna smith suddenly stiffened. "What," she said flatly.
"Hers' is much smaller than mine though," Maria said. "I—"
But Larna was gone.
Rafael came back with a pair of small plate of food. "I wanted to tell her about Leona Romani," he complained, actually pouting as he handed her one of the plates.
"My apologies, dear Rafael," Maria said. "I'll make it up to you."
Rafael sighed. "Well, I love you, so it's all right. Shall we see how this turns out?"
"I should really mingle and host…"
"Consider it making it up to me."
"Well, if you insist."
They strode at a leisurely pace towards the bridge about to be rolled over by a boulder and set on fire by a dragon.
"Lady Katarina!" Larna Smith suddenly cried at their table. "How could you?!"
Katarina, mouth full, couldn't respond right away. She shouldn't talk with her mouth full, after all. Even she knew that.
"How could she what?" Keith said, answering for her. Katarina gave him a nod in thanks.
"How could you cheat on me with that woman!" Larna wailed.
Eh?
Katarian didn't choke on her food, because she had no idea what Larna was talking about.
"What?-!" Mary cried, looking scandalized on Katarina's behalf even as everyone else frowned and looked ready to say something as well. "How dare you—!"
"I thought we had something special!" Larna wailed right over her. "Why would you have that woman make you a magic tool instead of coming to me?-!"
Mary stood there, mouth open. She closed her mouth with a click and sat back with an intent, listening expression. Alan, for some reason, started coughing. Thankfully, he covered his mouth, lest he suddenly start spreading whatever germs he had and cause a terrible world-ending epidemic.
Katarina finally finished chewing and swallowing. "Eh? Are you talking about the magic tool I got from Auntie Leona?"
Larna Smith stiffened. "Auntie Leona?" she said with a strange tone. She stumbled back, face looking like she had an upset tummy.
"May I ask who you are, please?" Mashu said, frowning at Larna. "And what you have against my mother?"
"Your mother…?-!"
"Ah, this is Larna Smith," Katarina said, introducing her. "Larna, this is my cousin, Mashu Romani."
"Matthew," Mashu corrected with a sigh. Oh, right! Then she frowned. "Wait, are you that woman mother is always ranting about? The one who keeps stealing her ideas?"
"Hah! She keeps stealing my ideas!"
"Ah, please don't argue, you're going to ruin Maria's party," Katarina pleaded. "Why don't we all sit down and have more ice-cream?"
One table over, Duchess Claes was crying.
"My daughter… behaving and trying to keep someone from causing a scene," she sniffed, dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief. "I'm so happy…"