During that afternoon's etiquette practice, many seemed to have taken Sophia's view of the matter and hadn't attended, confident of their grasp of not embarrassing themselves. As such, there were relatively few people who congregated in back in the cleared lecture hall after lunch for practicing the right bows, the right way to gesture with your fingers when you're making a bet with monetary stakes in Etran, how to slap someone in the face for a minimal level of intended insult instead of a blood feud-starting level of insult…
Which was not to say they were alone in practicing. There were a few of the younger or less experienced nobles present, who were also practicing with friends or siblings, referring to notes, and occasionally bursting out into giggles at the sheer strangeness of some of the gestures and the logic behind them. For some reason Duchess Claes was there, and with her Duke Claes, as well as Duke Adeth and his Duchesses. Their presence had also brought some of the lower-ranked nobles, perhaps out of curiosity, more likely out of sycophancy, as the Duchess practiced the gestures.
The Duchess didn't approach their group, didn't even look at them, but it probably wasn't a coincidence that they had been there during all the afternoon etiquette practice, and hadn't left until Katarina had. Occasionally, the young woman glanced towards her mother nervously, twitching for a moment before redoubling her practice with added intensity, though that intensity eventually bled off and left behind only stubborn determination.
Maria couldn't help feeling pride as she watched her squire practicing the etiquette they had learned over the week. The Katarina Claes she remembered from when they were in the Academy would try to study something, and shortly after starting would become frustrated, swiftly followed by her becoming distracted. She'd have stopped and turned to the nearest person in her retinue—either Lady Mary or the Third Prince, more often than not—and then plead for their assistance. They, in turn, would go through the motions of assisting her, all the while looking smugly at the others, seemingly completely ignorant of the fact that their explanation went completely over Katarina's head.
There was none of that distraction present today. Only steadfast determination and repetition of movement. There were no excuses, no litanies of 'I don't understand', only careful movement of her body to try and accurately depict the needed gesture. Katarina wasn't perfect—none of them were, except for perhaps Lady Mary, because she was Mary Hunt—but she didn't hesitate or become self-conscious when offered points of correction, nor did she become excited by compliments and lose concentration.
"How dare you!" Katarina said, in accordance to the established Xiarmen protocol. "You court death!" Her hand rose up, sweeping horizontally from full extension at her side, and slapped Lady Mary across the face.
Lady Mary moved her head with the blow, both to dissipate any accidental impact, and to dramatically fan her hair, which fluttered around her and made the blow look more powerful than it had actually been. That latter wasn't necessary, but Mary Hunt would be Mary Hunt.
"A bit too powerful, my squire," Maria said. "We are practicing the Slap of Chastisement, not the Slap of Personal Challenge. The former is for aggressively correcting someone, the latter is for initiating a duel."
"Ah! Darn it, I knew as I was doing it that it was wrong," Katarina sighed. "I'm sorry Mary! Maybe you should rest and let someone else practice with me for a while…?"
"No!" Lady Mary said as she turned her head back to face Katarina. Even with relatively weak slaps that had been pulled and had barely made contact, thre was a slowly reddening mark on the socialite's cheek that was distinctly different from her usual aroused blushing. "I'm fine, Lady Katarina! You can keep on slapping me! I can take it!"
Mary Hunt, Socialite – (=/=/_/_/_)
"Um… well… if you're sure… " Katarina said hesitantly, then straightened her shoulders, raising her right hand. "Ahem. How dare you! You court death!" Slap!
Maria nodded as Lady Mary's hair flipped dramatically. "Better, squire. Again. Ten repetitions."
"Yes, Dame Campbell. How dare you! You court death!" Slap!
"When is it my turn to practice with Lady Katarina?" Sophia sighed.
"How dare you! You court death!" Slap!
"I can practice with you, Lady Sophia," Dame Matthew offered.
"How dare you! You court death!" Slap!
"That would kill me!"
"How dare you! You court death!" Slap!
"Can you heal it? Please tell me you can heal it." Lady Mary said in a small, desperate voice as Maria used her light magic to heal the woman's reddened, slightly swelling cheek.
"Yes, yes, you'll be fine," Maria said. "Your face will be perfectly healed, and your good looks will be unmarred."
"Oh good…" Lady Mary sighed in relief as, in the background.
"Though I'm surprised you didn't elect to keep the alteration my squire made to your face."
Lady Mary gave her a flat look. "Are you mocking me, Lady Maria?"
Well, yes. "Of course not," Maria said smoothly. "Simply surprised, as I believe you've kept every other gift you've received from Lady Katarina."
The way Lady Mary twitched confirmed that stray bullet hit something vital. "Do you think me so sort of masochist who delights in physical pain?"
Maria finished, and lowered her hand, Lady Mary's face restored to its usual appearance. "Of course not," she repeated. "It's just that given how Lady Katarina had could be argued to have scarred your face, potentially affecting you marriage prospects, I'm surprised you did not wish to keep it so that she would be inclined to take responsibility."
Lady Mary stared. She started to twitch.
"Ah, finally, now it's all over," Katarina sighed in relief. Etiquette practice had finally ended, and they were all walking back toward their rooms to refresh themselves before dinner. Duchess Claes had left the lecture hall slightly ahead of them. "No more lectures! It's all done!"
Lady Adella looked at her cousin in confusion. "But Cousin Katarina, I thought you enjoyed listening to Professor Vaati's lectures about foreign lands."
"It's the principle of the thing!" Katarina said staunchly. "A lecture is a lecture, even if it was awesome and fun to listen to! Ah, I want to visit Drang someday…"
"I'm sure Drang wants you to visit them too," Lord Keith said dryly. "You remember how getting foreigners to visit them and pay for overpriced goods and services is how they like to make money, right?"
"But it sounds like they have a lot of delicious food…!"
"You will not be journeying to foreign lands until after you finish your squireship and become a knight," Maria said firmly. "Not unless Sorcier is plunged into war, and I doubt you will wish for that."
Katarina blinked at her. "Eh? Why would we go to war? Everything is so peaceful. I thought the International Assembly was being held so that things would stay that way?"
Maria had to fight tears trying to come from her eyes as Katarina showed she'd actually been paying attention.
"Are you crying?" Sophia said, smirking slightly as she leaned in to look at Maria.
"I am not crying. It has been a long day and I am tired," Maria said with stoic dignity.
"The excuse father gives is that it's liquid pride being squeezed out of him because of high pressure," Lady Iosefka said.
Maria coughed, looking aside. "S-so, Sophia," she said, hastily changing the subject. "Is everything ready on the Nightflower Workshop's end?"
Sophia rolled her eyes. "Fine, fine… yes, everything's ready," she said. "Starting tomorrow night, and all nights that there will be a social event, we'll be planting our flowers all over the sky! I've also got emergency nightflowers ready in case we're asked to do a display beyond those planned… for a reasonable fee, of course."
Maria nodded, and the two shared the satisfied smiles of people making a lot of money from the government.
Despite everything, dinner found everyone strangely subdued. Even Katarina was… well, for Katarina, anyway. She ate the food with happy enthusiasm, and spent some time talking to the servant who came with the food, asking them about their health and how they were doing, and had that tea helped with their father's joint pains, ah good, that was so nice to hear!
After that, however, Katarina ate slowly with a distracted air… meaning she ate at the same pace as everyone else. There was a nervous energy about the table, born of the realization that their time of preparation was over, and that the true test of what they had learned was coming upon them.
"Do you think we'll actually have to slap anyone?" Sophia mused, breaking the silence.
"Don't slap anyone," Maria and Lady Mary both said immediately. The two exchanged glances, and Maria gestured for the latter to go first.
"Even if they've ritualized and you only use the Slap of Chastisement, it would still be a loss of standing and would be considered an insult," Lady Mary said. "Unless you were clearly in the right and have other Xiarmen supporting you, don't slap anyone! It'll be an international incident!"
"If you did so, you would formally be challenging them to a duel," Maria added. "If you fought unarmed, as is their convention, you would be humiliated, possibly mutilated, and then Lord Nicol would do something violent and unfortunate, as would Lady Katarina, Lady Mary, Lord Kieth, the princes and myself." Maria paused. "If you fought armed, you would be revealing your armaments to foreigners, who would either try to acquire them or begin developing countermeasures. Also, the friends and family of the one you challenged would do something violent and unfortunate, and we your friends would have to do the same in response. So, please don't."
Sophia nodded, then sighed. "Ugh, then when have we been practicing all this face slapping and things if we're not supposed to do them!-?"
"For the same reason that 'The Noble's Proper Etiquette Reference and Manual of Propriety and Action' includes descriptions of how to offend someone," Lady Mary said primly. "So that you know what not to do, as well as recognize if someone is being rude towards you."
Abruptly, Katarina broke out into giggles.
Everyone blinked, staring at her.
"What is so amusing, my squire?" Maria asked. She couldn't think of how what they had just been discussing would have been interpreted humorously, even by Katarina.
"S-sorry," Katarina said brokenly, still snickering. "I was just thinking and…" More giggles. "All right, you know who when you do the slaps, you're supposed to aim for the cheek, r-right?"
"Yes…?" Maria prompted.
Katarina snickered again. "Well, I was just thinking… would it be more or less insulting if the cheek you slapped wasn't on their f-face?" At the, she broke into silly, childish giggles again.
For a moment, everyone paused to consider the thought.
Sophia started giggling as ay Mary pressed her lips together in a smile that looked involuntary on her part. Lord Keith's face fell into his hand as he let out an exasperated sigh, but he was chuckling softly to himself a he did it. Ladies Adella and Iosefka soon joined their cousin in giggling, even as they grinned widely, revealing their family resemblance to the other duke's daughter.
Maria, for her part, sighed, shaking her head. Still… she had to admit… it was an amusing thought.