"You look happy Anne," Katarina said as her maid helped her get dressed. While she'd be perfectly willing to put on her clothes by herself, the sad fact was that noble clothes weren't meant to be easily put on by the person wearing it. "Did you enjoy your day off?"

The happy humming Anne was making cut off. "Yes, my lady," she said, humming another bar with a serene smile on her face. "It was most enjoyable. Thank you for giving me a whole two days off and use of the carriage."

"No problem!" Katarina said cheerfully. "Where did you go, anyway?"

"Oh, I visited a friend," Anne said.

"Ah, that's nice," Katarina said. She was glad Anne was making more friends. "I'm glad you had fun."

"Much fun, my lady," Anne said. "There, you're ready."

"Thanks Anne!" Katarina said. "See you later!"

Anne waved goodbye to Katarina as she started humming again, closing Katarina's dorm room behind her.

Katarina nodded to herself. "Yeah, she's getting some," Katarina mused to herself. "I hope they're using protection. Hmm, do they even have protection in Fortune Lover? Oh, wait, they did, it was an item you needed to unlock the saucy (but tasteful!) CGs…"

Humming to herself, Katarina walked to her the usual spot to meet up with Mary, Sophia and (Maria) Lady Maria, humming the same tune Anne was. Anne might think she was subtle, but Katarina had an advantage. Anne had been humming Fortune Lover's love scene music! N-not that Katarina had heard it a lot, she hadn't cleared that many routes of the game!

Thanks for the vids, Acchan.

"Good morning, Lady Katarina!" Mary said exuberantly as Katarina came into view. She seemed to be relieved, since Sophia and (Maria) Lady Maria were deep in some sort of discussion. She was probably feeling left out.

There was a snap. "L-lady Katarina!" Sophia greeted, from beside Mary, leaving a bemused (Maria) Lady Maria talking to herself and looking bemused as she looked around only to find Sophia somewhere else. "Did you sleep well? Or at all? I didn't sleep at all last night!"

"Yeah, Anne confiscated my book when it got late so I'd go to sleep," Katarina said. "She said she'll give it back to me later. The newest Night Fall book is so good! I can't believe there was actually a secret mushroom-people community hidden in the abyss!"

"I know, right? I can't believe they finally showed what the pendant did!" Sophia gushed. "Who would have thought that it–"

"Ah, no spoilers, no spoilers!" Katarina cried, covering her ears. "I haven't gotten that far yet!"

"I stayed up all of last night finishing it!" Sophia said, shaking in place. "Finish it fast so we can talk about it!"

"Lady Sophia, are you all right?" (Maria) Lady Maria said. "You seem… excitable."

"I drank a whole pot of green blossom bud and purple moss tea this morning," Sophia declared. "I always drink it after finishing a book!"

"Because she wouldn't get any sleep the night before and needed to be up for when Katarina visited," Mary explained to (Maria) Lady Maria.

(Maria) Lady Maria looked concerned. "Will she be all right?" (Maria) Lady Maria asked. "Do I need to heal her?"

"I'm fine!" Sophia cried. "I'm used to it!"

Maria sighed and put a hand on Sophia head.

Sophia would have collapsed with her strings cut if (Maria) Lady Maria hadn't caught her and carried over her shoulder. "We should get going," Maria said. "Sophia can sleep until class starts."

Katarina nodded. "Yeah, that tea doesn't last very long anyway. You're really strong Maria Lady Maria!"

(Maria) Lady Maria shrugged, making Sophia go up and down. "Commoner living," she said. "Shall we get going? I need to have breakfast after getting her to class."

They began walking towards the school building. "Did you try that strawberry mousse at Aunt Radea's party?" Katarina said. "It was great, I think they used strawberries from Morel…"


"Did you hear? Lady Maria was carrying Lady Ascart around this morning!"

"That's…! …wait, what? That's not romantic or anything, that's just confusing!"

"Maybe it's some kind of weird commoner kinky thing?"

"In public? So LEWD!"

"Carrying someone over your shoulder is a kink?"

"Who knows with commoners?"

"Okay, I think we need to rethink our preconceptions about commoners, we don't want to be like Lady Hunt and base everything on that 'Goodwife Bathory' scary story."

"Wait, she believes that? At her age?"

"I know, right?"