As expected, the day had been long and trying and while Maria was fairly certain she'd retained everything, When she got back to her room she would have to check all her notes and use Dark Magic to refresh her memory, when there weren't other Light Magic wielders present to raise an alarm.

"Ugh,,,,!" Sophia groan as the last lecture of the day finished. "I'm a gainfully employed, tax-paying adult! I thought I'd left this part of my life behind me?-!"

"Apparently not," Maria said succinctly. She turned and gave her squire a disapproving look. "Squire, tomorrow I expect you to take more notes." She glanced at the notebook, which contained a list on countries names surrounded by doodles and what appeared to be a list of attributes. Going by 'brown hair', long hair', 'breast size' (+2 Insight), 'villainous eyes' and other points, Maria had a decently good idea about what it was about, even as her mind twitched and shuddered (+3 Insight).

"Eh heh he… Sorry, Dame Campbell," her squire said, rubbing the back of her head for some reason. "But I made sure to listen really well! I didn't even fall asleep at all!"

The depressing fact was, not falling asleep actually was a substantial improvement over her Academy days. "Then I'm sure you had no problems remembering the etiquette recently taught."

"Oh, give it a rest, Lady Maria," Lord Keith huffed. "I still have to practice that, and probably so do you."

"Ah! If we're going to practice, how about we all practice it together in our room?" Katarina suggested. "That way we have someone to practice against, since etiquette is about… uh… wait, I know this, I know this… Ah! About appropriate responses depending on time, place and circumstance, right? So we should, uh, run drills about the situation and circumstance, and that takes at least two people."

(!-!-!-!-!)

Maria looked aside, coughing slightly. "Well put, my squire," she said. "Yes, it was my intention to have you drill on the etiquette taught today after dinner."

Sophia frowned. "Eh? But I wanted to read novels with Lady Katarina… "

"Ah. Well, you if don't want to join us in doing etiquette drills, then that is most unfortunate," Maria said. "Well, I'm sure Lady Mary will be willing and —"

"Of course, if it's to help Lady Katarina, then I can put off reading!" Sophia said in a rush.

"You'll need someone to play the men's role too, I'm sure," Lord Keith said.

So predictable.

In truth, Maria had actually wanted to find a balcony or courtyard or hallway with a dead end wall so she could run her squire through a few drills before dinner, but that plan ran into a large swinging log covered in spikes and was thrown into a pit full of giant ants almost immediately. Getting out of the lecture room took a while. There were many people who lingered, speaking to acquaintances, and therefore blocked paths to the door… which was itself blocked, as that's where many people congregated. Of course, there was a path left open… but with the number of people lingering on either side, it was inevitable that someone would pass a person they were acquainted with. And of course, one cannot just pass by without speaking to them, implicitly snubbing them. That was a declaration of social war.

This was complicated by the fact the nearly everyone, of course, knew Katarina Claes. As such, everyone they passed acknowledged her and she acknowledged them back. In the Academy, this had led to students swooning or sighing when she passed by as she graced them with her omnipresent smile. Here, among older nobles, there was less of such pubescent dramatic nonsense and more like being treated like a favored niece. The niece that wasn't taken to the bedroom and ravished, though there were no doubt some who at least fantasized about it.

Maria took note of the tongues licking lips when they thought Katarina, Sophia and Keith had turned away, the lingering looks that angled slightly downward. For all that Katarina claimed she was a shield to protect the Third Prince against unwanted women, the knight wondered how much of a shield the Third Prince was, as the cloak of his protection draped over Katarina Claes despite her ignorance of it.

She herself was noted and spoken to, of course. After all, these people had probably been present during her strange knighting, and those silly stories from two summers ago still lingered, festering in their own strangeness to give birth to inbred, twisted abominations of more stories that had her acting like some sort of relentless specter of vengeance and justice. When had she ever ran through the dark alone to rescue a imprisoned princess and free them from durance vile by dire forces? The closest she could think of was her role in the Student Council's play, meaning people were confusing fantasy and reality even worse than usual.

Thankfully, Katarina was the one who corrected the nobles who mistakenly referred to her wards as 'her stable of exotic foreign beauties'. Maria didn't think she could have done so without insult. Or violence. Or insulting violence. None of the nobles were names she recognized from her armsmen's reports about alleged servants who had tried to get in her manor, but that meant little. Even the most enfeebled of mind would have a capable lackey who would think to use dupes of dupes in such swampy dealings.

Eventually, however, they managed to reach the door and out to the hallways beyond, where they were joined by Dame Matthew and Katarina's other cousins who were present, as well as Lady Mary. Maria looked about, and found Duchess Claes the center of attention, in a way not dissimilar to her daughter. She seemed occupied and in conversation, and did not seem like she would be leaving the halls any time soon.

"Ah, should we wait for mother?" Katarina asked, noticing what Maria had.

"No, she'll be there for a while," Lord Keith said. "Father told me that the Duke's and Duchesses are using the time afforded by the lecture series to get together and discuss minor business that aren't really important enough to be meet face to face about under normal circumstances. Having dinner together with us last night was really all the time they'll have free until the end of the International Assembly."

"Oh?" Maria said, interested. "What sort of minor business?"

Lord Keith gave her a sardonic smile and glanced pointedly at Lady Mary. "Well, reading between the lines, it's mostly going to be yelling at each other to keep their Marquis and Marchionesses in line. There's the usual enthusiastic toll fee, yelling about who's been sending giant crabs over whose borders, who was supposed to kill what ogres and things like that, but apparently it all boils down to whose Marquis or Marchionesses aren't doing their duties, which is almost all of them."

"The old king had a lot to answer for," Lady Mary shrugged. "Not my business. My family does its duty. I make sure of that."

"Poor Marquis Hunt," Sophia muttered.

There was the necessary stop to attend to the call of nature, since they'd all be listening to one lecture after another since lunch, but fortunately Katarina wasn't separated from them and therefore kidnapped. At the dining hall, they were able to find a table that could accommodate them. Though Maria looked, she didn't see Rafael anywhere, though she did spot the mantled robes of Ministry employees, so perhaps he was simply occupied still.

During dinner, despite themselves, the topic of discussion was the day's lectures.

"I didn't realize there were so many countries around Sorcier," Dame Matthew sighed as they waited for their food to arrive. "I mean, I've seen maps before, obviously, and I've heard of Etran and Tasmeria, since we get a lot Etrani traders, and of course all the best chocolate comes from Tasmeria, praise be to Duchess Iris—"

"Umbasa!" Katarina, Sophia, Adella, Iosefka and Maria all agreed.

"—but I thought Drang was just a place in the old myths, you know?" Dame Matthew finished. "Seems silly to think that, since the name was one the tapestry map we had at home, but I just thought it was an old map."

"I'm surprised to hear you say that, cousin," Lady Adella said. "You're a knight. Who did you think you'd be fighting?"

"Uh, ogres, giant crabs, bears, basilisks, dogs, bandits, highwaymen, smugglers—"

"All right, all right, we get it cousin!" Lady Iosekfa said with a laugh.

"What I don't really understand is why is Ethenell part of the International Assembly?" Sophia asked. "I mean, they're to the south east across an ocean, so they don't really have a political stake in what goes on around here. Why are they even a member?"

"Ah, it's because Ethenell has a long history of trading with Sorcier and another history of contesting fishing territory with Xiarmah. They were invited to the first International Assembly because their fishing boats kept running into each other and fighting and they started bringing out warships, but really, it was because Sorcier wanted to keep Archdragon Island strategically secure without going to war with either one, since they kept fighting near where we raise and train our dragons."

Silence. Everyone turned to stare at the innocently smiling Katarina Claes.

"Who are you and what have you done with the real Katarina Claes?" Maria said sternly, reaching down for her sword.

The impostor blinked in seemingly innocent confusion. "Huh?"

"Hex it! We finally find a perfect fake Katarina, and someone else has already hired them!" Keith groaned, before turning to glare at Lady Mary and Sophia. "You were supposed to be watching her!"

"We were watching her!" Lady Mary protested. "It must have happened in the stall, some kind of secret passage!"

"Wait, what are you all talking about?" the fake said.

"Silence, you faker!" Sophia declared. "You're pretty good. In fact, you've done better than anyone else! But you still made a fatal mistake! The real Lady Katarina would never have remembered anything from any of the lectures we had today."

"Ah hah!" Lady Mary declared triumphantly. "Not our fault! She must have been replaced even before the lectures, so it must be Maria's fault!"

The shame of the accusation writhed within her, but Maria couldn't deny it. Somehow, at some point between waking up and getting to the lecture hall, her squire had been replaced by an impersonator.

"Uh, what are you all talking about?" the clearly fake Katarina Claes said. "Why are you talking about a fake Katarina Claes? Oh! Did mother finally find one to send instead of me?"

Everyone stared at her again.

"We have two options before us," Maria said eventually. "Either this is a fake Katarina Claes… or my squire finally learned something in a lecture."

Mary, Keith and Sophia all considered the idea. They turned to regard the possibly-not-fake Katarina Claes.

"Say something only Lady Katarina would say!" Sophia declared.

The might-not-be-fake Katarina Claes blinked. "Something only Lady Katarina would say."

"…" Keith said. "That's definitely sister. Only she would say something like that."

"Ah, I-I knew it all along!" Lady Mary said, coughing as she looked aside.

Maria frowned. "But… that means she actually learned something during this lecture…"

Everyone glanced at the probably(?) real Katarina again.

"I'm so confused…" Sophia groaned as the food arrived.

Lady Adella and Lady Iosefka stared at this byplay, then turned towards Dame Matthew.

The knight shrugged. "If Auntie had found a fake Katarina, she'd have told me."

Maria stared in disbelief. "Then… my squire actually did learn something?"

"Well, when you put it that way…" Lord Keith said, watching his sister just start eating and happily not understanding the conversation.

"But… HOW?"

(+10 Insight)

…

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Topic: NEW LORE HAS APPEARED!
In: Boards ► Fortune Lover ► Sorcier ► The Capital ► Katarina's Brain
StudiousKatarina (Original Poster) (Verified Braincell) (Verified Katarina)
Posted On June 30th 2022:
YES! After all these years, we finally get someone giving us straight up lore! No link to a video since this isn't really the internet, just Katarina's head, but I'll take what I can get!