Maria was used to getting weird looks from people at the Academy. She'd been getting them since her first year. These days, it was mostly at a distance, and so she was able to easily shrug it off as nothing important. Other nobles could be as outraged at her outlandish garb as they wanted, but unless they did something that merited her breaking their arm, it was their own business and none of hers.
Absently, she tucked a lock of her hair under her ear to keep it out of her face, a gesture that was apparently so outrageous several nearby nobles turned away in disgust.
Maria shook her head, repressing a sigh. It seemed she was no nearer to being accepted that she had been when she had merely been a commoner Wielder of Light Magic.
She heard the faint whispers of their discussion, felt their intent gazes and her, and wrapped herself in the dignity of her office, the wisdom of her years, and the sure and certain knowledge she could kill them all by ripping their hearts out through their stomachs with her bare hands.
Armored in surety and confidence, she walked towards the student council office, her mind making preliminary estimates as to what they could afford to make for Sophia's mother's birthday, hoping Rafael was doing well in getting her estate in order, and practicing the scant few Ashinago words Katarina had declared she'd managed to say correctly…
"Oh, Chosen Lord, I could just DIE!"
"What idiots thought to bully her? She's so lovely!"
"We were young and stupid, all right? Argh, maybe if I say it fast enough I can apologize before she breaks my arm and I can ask her out."
"Aren't you engaged to Baron Marcone?"
"Details! Look at her! Tucking back hair should not be that arousing!"
"Like a statue carved from marble, a relic from the time of myths. A perfect thing left behind for us to worship."
"Berelain, have you been reading Night Fall again?"
"Don't judge me!"
Maria entered the student council room to find everyone in attendance. Katarina was again missing, having gone to Maria's estate to assist Rafael. For a moment, Maria was irrationally envious that she wasn't being told off not to do such a thing, but supposed they had a point. Rafael had sent her a report on her new staff so far, which mainly consisted of names, what posts they filled, and if they had used to work at the manor. They had all been triply checked by the Third Prince's staff, and deemed, if not completely ignorant (for some had suspicions they could not act upon), at least verifiably uninvolved.
Lady Cavendish nodded to Maria upon her entrance, a gesture Maria returned. If she was still disappointed in Maria, she didn't show it, conducting herself with competence and had also helped Rafael at the estate while Maria and Sophia had been at the capital, helping the Gerudo women adjust. Maria reminded herself to inquire about learning the Gerudo language as well.
Maria placed a smaller than usual batch of baked confections on the central table– Katarina wasn't there, after all– and went to her own desk, listening to the sound of work and casual conversation as the first years discussed their classes, and Katarina's harem casually snipped at each other in the way of people who might actually like each other were they not all after the same woman.
It was quite sad, really.
Eventually, the note came from Rafael:
Come to the estate tomorrow so I can introduce you to your staff.
Tomorrow was Sar, which meant Katarina could go without any absences. Katarina was going and Lady Cavendish volunteered to come along to translate, and given that the Third Prince and Lady Hunt had reason the be there, and that Sophia wished to officially see the facilities for their business, Maria invited Prince Alan and Lord Claes along to complete the set. Maria had been surprised, however, when the first years of the Student Council had expressed a wish to go as well. As it would be no great difficulty on her part and as they had been spectator and bearer of load of paperwork that had piled up due to her absence, Maria allowed it, as they deserved to see what all the trouble was about.
If nothing else, it would likely be the most unorthodox estate they would ever see that wasn't in outright poverty.
They made for a long line of carriages going there, even as Maria had to share the Claes carriage with the siblings and Sophia. After all, one could not expect royalty to travel in such constricted quarters, ever for a relatively short way.
The first change was obvious when they reached the estate's gates. It was now manned, for one thing. A man wearing a simple plate-like helmet and a brigandine under a patched gambeson manned the guard house, a quarterstaff at his side. His expression said he recognized the lead carriage and river, but he did not open the gate until Katarina stuck her head out the window.
"Hi Bill!" she greeted.
"Lady Katarina," he said. "A pleasure to see you again."
"Can you open up for us?" Katarina said, seemingly ignoring how Maria was boring a hole in the back of her head with her eyes. "We're here to see Rafael."
"I'll let Master Helmet know," Bill said, ringing the bell at the guard house four times before opening the gate for them.
"Master Helmet?" Maria said flatly.
"I'll… let Rafael explain," Katarina said.
There was a cheer and a rush from the children as they saw the carriages approach, and not for the first time Maria winced and feared them accidentally being trampled by either horse or wheel. Fortunately, their driver knew his business and the children had good survival instincts for they stopped well back from the carriages. Even from inside, Maria could see that the children were getting along rather well, as the Ashina, Gerudo and foreign children were all mixed in with her original wards, doubling their number. The dragon-kin girl stood out among them, though someone had gotten her a hat and shawl so that she wouldn't burn in the sun. Maria approved.
In addition to the original caretakers Maria had retained, several women seemed to have been watching the children. Some of there were Ashina and Gerudo, and Maria supposed they were relations of some sort of some of the children. Sisters most likely, given their ages. Some were still so young…
Again, Maria wished she'd found a way to make Ashmore suffer more.
A man in semi-familiar clothes but wearing a face-concealing helmet came out of the manor, waving towards them as they stepped down. "Welcome home," a familiar voice said from beneath the helmet. He made a sweeping gesture. "What do you think?"
Maria surveyed her lands. She took in the buildings going up, on the opposite side of the mansion from the vegetables fields Katarina had set up that seemed to have expanded. The new wells dug. The second dormitory that had been repaired and seemed to have been occupied. The extensive lines of laundry. All the Ashina women wearing strange clothes that had a foreign look to them.
"Why are you wearing a helmet?" she asked.
"Because Rafael Walt is not supposed to have any connection to Sirius Dieke, and definitely shouldn't look like him," Rafael said.
"Ah," Maria said. "All right. Well then, Master Helmet, shall you show me around?"
…Cut content, non-canon…
Everyone looked up in surprise as the door suddenly opened and Nicol Ascart strode in, looking like he had traveled with great suddenness and haste.
"Big brother?" Sophia exclaimed in delighted surprise. "What are you doing here?"
"Sophia," he said, nodding to her. "I will deal with you later."
She blinked. "'Deal with me'…?" she said, sounding confused.
"Maria Campbell," Lord Ascart declared with bland-faced intensity. "What are your intentions towards my sister?"
Maria blinked. "I beg your pardon?"
"You may not," Lord Ascart said. "Not until you've answered my question. I repeat: what are your intentions towards my sister?"
"I must repeat my statement with added request for clarity," Maria said. "Lord Ascart, I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Deception does not become you, Lady Campbell," Lord Ascart said. "News of your dalliance with my sister has reached even the capital. So pervasive and shocking were they that I resolved to see to their validity at once."
"Oh," Maria said. "You speak of that arrangement. I'm surprised it became rumor that quickly. We only finalized our union a few days ago."
Lord Ascart blinked. "Union?" he said, and for a wonder there actually sounded something like dawning horror in his voice.
"Yes, we made a formal contract and everything," Maria said.
"I see…" Lord Ascart said. "Lady Campbell, I must ask that this contract be dissolved immediately."
Maria blinked. "Dissolved? But we've just joined together."
"All the better that it be dissolved immediately," Lord Ascart said. "This is quite rash. I doubt father would approve. I certainly do not."
"You disapprove?" Maria said in surprise. "On what grounds?"
"I find this relationship to be quite questionable," Lord Ascart said. "That is not even getting into the outrageous breach of commitments it represents."
"I am unaware of any such breach, Lord Ascart," Maria said.
"You say that, yet you know very well that there exists a certain implied commitment that is breached by this, which makes it even more necessary that it be dissolved."
Implied commitment? Maria frowned in consideration, the enormous staircase in her head turning as a little Maria pushed on the bar that rotated the entire mechanism around to align stairs to landings. No stairs met with a landing, however, and Maria had to shake her head in the negative. "I am unaware of any previous commitment on Lady Ascart's part that prevents her from being with me."
Lord Ascart's brows furrowed. "It is not any commitment on Sophia's part that I speak of," he said, looking almost accusing.
Did he mean the venture group the princes and Lord Claes had formed with her and Sophia for the school festival? "That association has already been terminated," Maria said. "It was understood from the beginning that it was meant to be only a short affair, which suited our purposes at the time. It was the experience of that union that prompted Lady Sophia and to unite together."
"I don't need to hear the sordid details," Lord Ascart said. "Even if that is so, that does not answer my question. What are your intentions towards Sophia?"
"I intend for the two of us to form a productive partnership as we use what each other has to offer to our mutual benefit," Maria said. "While the terms stipulated are private between the two of us, we both intend to work to make this relationship work."
"And that is it? Merely mutual benefit?" Lord Ascart said.
"Of course. Naturally in future I would wish our bonds have grown strong enough to be more than that, but at this early juncture it would be premature to reasonably ask for anything else, optimistic as we would wish the future to be," Maria said.
"I see," Lord Ascart said. "It is clear to me that this was definitely an agreement that Sophia had no call making. Lady Campbell, I must demand you dissolve this association immediately and henceforth cease associating with my sister–"
And that was when Sophia Ascart, crimson with mortification, tackled her brother and began beating him with Katarina's napping pillow to shut him up as Prince Alan, both his brother and his fiancée forcibly covering his mouth, finally burst out laughing as the other two let go amid their own peals.
