A Katarina Interlude

Katarina hummed happily to herself as she did as she checked over her formal armor one last time. She'd woken up feeling weird that morning, but it turnoued she'd just gone to sleep with some soap in her ear. A little ear cleaning with her pinky had taken care of it. All buckles and such, checked! All pockets, full of cookies, notebooks, pens and secured bottle of ink for checking up on prospective Keith fiancée candidates, check! Sword, check! Peace bond, check! Snakes, versions 193.7 to 194.6, check!

"Now Katarina, remember all our lessons," Shana reminded her. "I don't want to hear you repeating what you did last time and interview women using lewd language and describing indecent scenarios, all right?"

Katarina winced at the reminder. "Y-yes, Shana-sensei!" she said. "I'll mind my language! Don't worry, tonight my only intention is to make sure everyone gets a chance to dance with Keith so I can gauge their alchemy and compatibility with each other!"

"Well, remember than Uncle Keith gets tired more easily than you do," Shana said. "If you're going to take charge of who he's going to dance with, you need to make sure her gets proper breaks and rests."

Ah, right. Keith didn't have a lot of stamina, did he? "Ah, thanks for reminding me, Shana-sensei! Don't' worry, I'll remember!"

For some reason, Shana and Anne shared a look. Eh? What was that for?

There wasn't much makeup put on Katarina. Usually she'd have to sit for hours as servants cleansed her skin, put makeup on her and whatnot. However, since she was going in her formal armor, etiquette said that she only put on a little makeup that Anne was more than enough to apply. Katarina had spent all that free time before she'd needed to get dressed putting together her notes on all of the girls who were making advances at Keith and ranking them. After all, even if Keith was going to marry more than one woman like Uncle Henryk, he deserved to have the absolute best waifus!

After that, she used her ranking to put together the schedule for the girls that Keith will be dancing with. The first one she chose by closing her eyes and jabbing her finger down and going with the girl it landed on, but the rest she considered with care. No girls with similar personalities or looks in a row, she wanted them to stand out in Keith's mind, not blend together. No shy girls before or after energetic girls, they'd get overshadowed. It was a difficult, especially since she couldn't schedule EVERYONE to dance with Keith's. There just wouldn't be enough time! However, she had a solution! The girls he didn't dance with, he'd sit next to when he was resting…

However, she persevered! Even if it had been years, her skills in scheduling her day—in games!—to be able to raise her affection points with all the capture targets in her games were still with her! Eventually, she'd had a schedule for Keith and a rotation for who he would sit next to during his rest periods. She might have to ask Mary for a little help, but Keith will get to spend all his time with a bunch of pretty girls—with a question mark on some of them that were hard to tell for sure, but that was fine since Keith was into girly-looking guys because of Nicol—so that he could finally get over his broken heart from Maria and Nicol no longer being available!


"Lady Katarina!"

"Eh? Sophia, you're done al—Ah!?"

Sophia smiled, twirling where she stood. Instead of a pretty dress like she had worn in the previous parties, she was wearing… well, the best way to put it was a Maria-style suit with the jacket and vest cut to look like formal armor… specifically, Katarina's. Instead of Katarina's blues though, her suit was in shades of white and gray, and her mantle and waist cape were brilliant pale blue with a lining in a dark purple gradient. Unlike Katarina, there was a large bow at the small of her back. "Do you like it, Lady Katarina?"

"You look really pretty, Sophia!" Katarina exclaimed. "But… should you be wearing that? I mean, aren't those… that things colors?"

Sophia grinned, then snickered mischievously. "I know, but… well, I'm rich now! I… sort of want to see if anyone is going to make trouble for me by bringing it up, or if they'd learned their lesson. Plus, I have a book pocket like you do now, too!" She reached behind her back and into the bow there, pulling out a book. "See! Ah, pockets, how I love you!"

"Ah! Now you have a secret romance novel pocket too!"

"I know! It's the best!"

"Eh? Sister, you're wearing that again?"

Katarina looked up, her smile widening. "Keith! Cousin Mashu!"

"S-sister! Control yourself! Isn't this against etiquette or something?"

"Nope!" Katarina chirped. "No rule against hugging best little brothers and cousin! I checked! A lot!"

"W-well, my suit is getting wrinkled! Come on sister, control yourself!"

Giggling, Katarina pulled back and helped straighten out Keith's suit. His sword, thankfully, was hadn't been moved much, so he just had to straighten it at his side. "Sorry, sorry. I guess I'm just looking forward to the end of the International Assembly so we can all finally go home. Cousin Mashu!"

"Cousin Katarina!" Cousin Mashu greeted her with open arms. "Stop calling me that!" It was a bit hard to get arms all the way around Mashu because of the big round shield on her back, the one she wore with her formal armor, but Katarina didn't let that stop her!

Keith smiled weakly, and nodded. "Well, I suppose I can agree with that. Though… I thought you'd be wearing a dress for tonight at least, since it was a ball…"

"Ah, don't worry Keith," Katarina said proudly. "I can dance in my formal armor just fine. See?" She took Keith's hands, put on of them on one of the faulds over her waist, held his other hand, and began to spin him around. All right, it wasn't a proper dance, but it showed her point that she could dance in her armor!

"Ah! No fair, Keith! I want to dance with Lady Katarina too! I, uh… ah, I haven't practiced dancing in this yet! I need to see if I can! Yeah, that's totally it!"

Katarina let Keith go, and he stumbled a bit. Thankfully, Mashu was there to catch him, the knight letting out a chuckle as Katarina grabbed Sophia. "Wait, wait, which of us lea—"

"You lead, Lady Katarina!" Sophia said enthusiastically.

Well, there was that. Okay, how had the Third Prince done it…? One hand on Sophia's hip there—ooh, she had a pocket there! Katarina wondered what snacks she had—hold Sophia's other hand… was it like this or like this…? All right! "Okay. Ready? One, two three, one, two, three, one, two, three…" They began to dance, Katarina very carefully doing the steps in reverse and making sure she moved first so she didn't accidentally step on Sophia's little feet with her heavy boots.

"…so happy…" Sophia muttered with a happy smile.

"All right, that's enough to that, sister," Keith said hurriedly, stopping the two of them. "Don't dance in the hallway, you'll make a spectacle of yourself."

There was a growling sound, and Katarina looked confusedly down at her stomach. Was she hungry? She didn't feel hungry—well, no more than normal—so what was her tummy growling? She rubbed her stomach trying to get it to stop as Sophia smiled at Keith, no doubt thankful he'd stopped them from being seen doing that. "Ah, thanks Keith, but we were fine. The ladies are probably still getting their makeup done."

Keith coughed. "Nevertheless," he said.

Katarina rolled her eyes. Ugh, that word. Oh, that reminded her! "Keith! I have your schedule for you!" she said happily, pulling it out form her secret romance novel pocket.

"Uh… what, sister?"

"Well, you're a man, so you don't have a dance card," Katarina explained. "Really, it would be simpler if you did. But don't worry, I able to put together a schedule for you. This way, you can spend time with all the ladies who want to get engaged to you!"

"Eh?!"

"Sorry, there's just not enough time for you to dance with all of them, but don't worry! You have rest breaks for your feet, and while you're resting you can sit with them and talk to them and get to know them better."

"You wha—!"

"Oh, that sounds great Keith!" Sophia said with a wide smile. "I'm sure it will help you get over how big brother isn't available anymore."

"I was never in love with Nicol!"

"Keith!" Katarina scolded. "Don't make a scene in the hallway!"

"Ah, I see you're all having fun as usual."

Keith, Sophia, and Cousin Mashu all straightened, no doubt surprised. Katarina turned to find the Third Prince, looking like his usual dashing self in his suit and cape. He also had a sword at his side, which made Katarina's hands ache for one of her snakes to throw, but his hands were well away from it. Keith was beginning to smile, as he always did when he saw his good friend, as was Mashu.

"Your highness," Cousin Mashu greeted with a formal bow, one Katarina hurried to imitate. Whew, almost forgot that one! "What brings you here?"

"Why, I'm here to pick up my dear fiancée, what else?" the black-hearted prince said with his usual smile. "After all, as we are engaged, I will of course be the one escorting her at this ball. That is the established etiquette and protocol, is it not?" Katarina could almost imagine the 'ting' as his smile glinted.

"Yes," a sudden presence behind the black-hearted prince said, "it is."

Mother had always been good at appearing unexpectedly when Katarina didn't want to meet her because she, for instance, happened to have dirty clothes on after a day of farming and was trying get to her room to get clean. Her suddenly just appearing behind the black-hearted prince—were they in some kind of cutscene?—instinctively had Katarina clenching in panic as she tried to remember what she'd done wrong. Then she saw mother's face and relaxed. Mother looked like she had a really evil look on her face as she looked at the black-hearted prince, but Katarina knew better now! It was just an unfortunate combination of Mother's villainous eyes, resting villainess face and standard tsundere expressions making her look like that.

The prince turned. "Ah, your grace. What a surprise—"

Mother stepped around him. "I heard something about a schedule, Katarina?"

"Uh, yes mother," Katarina managed to say. She held up the schedule she had written. "I had it all planned out here. I was planning to tell the g—Ladies so they'd know when it was their turn, but I suppose I won't be able to now." She heard Keith sigh. He was probably so disappointed at not being able to spend time with so many pretty girls.

Mother nodded. "Let me see that," she said, and Katarina handed her the schedule. Mother looked it over. "Hmm… well-arranged, my dear. Very well arranged." She sounded surprised. "Well done, daughter. I shall handle this in your stead."

"M-mother?-!"

"I won't force you, Keith. Far be it for me to tell you not to marry for love," Mother said. "But for you to do that, you'd need to know ladies besides your sister and friends. At the moment, the only eligible women you actually know are your cousins and Lady Ascart here." Mother raised an eyebrow at him. "As you do not seem interested in Lady Ascart that way…"

"No, I definitely don't!"

"Don't worry Keith, I'm not offended. I know I'm not as pretty as big brother." Ah, Sophia was so understanding!

"…then you will be following this schedule your dear sister worked so hard to devise for you," Mother finished. Then she turned, looking towards the black-hearted prince. "As to you, your highness… You will be on your best behavior as you escort Katarina, will you not?"

"Of course, your grace," he said with a smile. "How could I act otherwise?"

"Daughter, I will trust you to stay out of trouble and not get involved in anything scandalous," Mother said. "You won't do anything improper again, will you?"

"I'll behave, Mother," Katarina said, drawing herself up. "I'll make you proud."

"Oh, you already do that. Just work on the other things." Mother turned towards the Third Prince. "See to it me daughter doesn't spontaneously disappear from the ball, your highness. Should anything happen to her, I will be feeling quite… uncivil."

"Noted, your grace. May I have your permission to escort Lady Katarina now? I would not wish to do so without your blessing, after all."

Mother looked at me. "My daughter, it appears your prince requires his shield. Would you care to escort him?"

"Yes, Mother!" Katarina said. Wow, mother was so smooth! Once, she never thought she could be like that, but… well, she as learning etiquette now. Could she be like Mother some day? Not the boring parts, of course, mother would never go farming or climbing trees, but she was really smooth! Katarina walked up to the third prince, who had a weird look on his face, but he quickly smiled and offered her his left arm. Instead of grabbing it as she once would have, she bowed at him, copying the way Maria did it—she kind of always wanted to do that!—before accepting his arm.

"Well, shall we go, O beautiful fiancée of mine?" he said.

"Ready when you are," she said cheerfully. "Do you know a shortcut to where we're going?"

"Of course. It's my home, after all," he said.

They set off.

After walking several steps however, the prince looked over his shoulder. "Are you all going to just follow us?"

"I'd rather not get lost, your highness," Mother said from behind them.

"The castle is really complicated right now," Sophia said brightly.

"Mother has the schedule, I need to go with her so we can both peruse it," Keith said.

"I have nowhere else to be," Mashu said.

Ah, it was going to be a great ball tonight!