Lunch was held outside on the balcony that used to overlook the gardens. She'd had the overgrown, untended greenery cleared, so now it was mostly a clear area with the manor's wings to either side.

Maria was still unsure as to her armsmen's capability as guards, but they were clearly skilled hunters of boars, and they knew how to make the meat taste good.

"This is delicious!" Katarina cried as she happily ate from the selections of roasted boar meat. It wasn't ALL of it of course. Most of the boar's meat was being served to the women, children and staff, but the part set aside for Katarina and the rest of her visitors was still sizable.

"Big sis, please stop inhaling your food, no one's going to be taking it away," Lord Claes said tiredly.

"Please do not give my wards the impression they must eat like you do, Lady Katarina," Maria said sternly. "My food budget will be unable to feed anyone if they all learn your eating habits."

Katarina smiled sheepishly. "Eh heh… sorry… but it just tastes so good!"

"Hmm," Maria made a show of musing. "Perhaps Lady Katarina is now too full for dessert. A pity. It would do no good to offer you the treats that I baked only to have them regurgitated. What do you think, Lord Claes?"

Lord Claes nodded solemnly. "I concur, Lady Campbell. It seems Katarina like this thick, hard red meat better than your sweets."

"No, I don't! Besides, girls have a second stomach for dessert! It will fit, it will fit!" Katarina cried.

Really, taking care of this over-tall little girl was so difficult…

"– this could dominate of the battlefield for the next century before anyone could have an answer to it," Colonel Titanites insisted. "Something like this will change the face of warfare enormously! We could field more troops cheaply, train more troops and equip more troops to increase the power of this weapon!"

"John, that's the same thing they said when Lord Rust tried to equip his whole army with nothing but Avelyns because 'all they'd have to do was point and squeeze'," General Solcrista said tiredly. "They went bankrupt trying to make the crossbows, the crossbows they made couldn't be repaired in the field because the triple-fire mechanism was too complicated for barely-trained conscripts to clean and maintain, some of them didn't work at all because they were made in a rush, and knights with powerful souls and heavy armor didn't even feel them. It's a powerful tool, I'll grant you, but it's not an absolute instantly world-changing invention. Put a rank with greatshields in front and they'd be useless. Besides, for all you know these things might cost more than a whole suit of armor, and you're always telling me how many souls those cost, especially when they need to be repaired. It's much too early to make grand, sweeping declarations about all warfare being changed."

"This is the future!"

"No, this is an interesting device presented to us for consideration," Prime Minister Ascart said. "And while it's promising, even its creator admits it's not viable yet. And who would we even use it on? We're not at war with anyone."

"Yet!"

"Chosen Lord, you always get like this when you've had too much red meat, John," the King sighed.

"It just tastes so good…!"

The King sighed. "Still, it is an interesting and promising new device our young lady knight has presented."

"'Promising' is right," General Solcrista said. "She's offered a lot of promises, but no guarantees. Can she even really offer anything? I mean, she's not some artisan or alchemist or research. She's still a student at the Academy."

"The device she showed us is real enough, and my sons attest they've seen her creating the powder, so it at least actually does exist," the King said. "And there's no denying she replicated a weapon from the age of myths with it. It certainly fits the descriptions of a firebomb from that age. Myths say it was used to break through stone walls. It certainly seems plausible, with what we were shown."

"Unless there was some kind of trick to it," General Soulcrista said.

"Yes, but you can say that about anything," Colonel Titanites said.

"True," Prime Minister Ascart murmured. "It's certainly interesting, but I will reserve judgement for now, and wait until she proposes something more viable."

"Agreed," the King said. "I look forward to whatever that may be."

"I know she's not trying to take my fiancée away from me– unlike others I could name," the Third Prince briefly glared sideways at Mary, "but I can't help feeling she's trying to keep me away from Katarina for some reason."

"You're being paranoid," Mary said, rolling her eyes. "I thought we all agreed she's the only other person besides Anne who doesn't actually see Katarina as a woman?"

"Doesn't it make you wonder what she does see her as?," the Third Prince said.

"I don't want to try and figure out what's in the girl's head," Mary said blandly. "Once was enough."

"Yes, yes, 'she desires blood', so you've been saying," the Third Prince said, rolling his eyes. "It's a magic book Mary, you can't take it literally."

"Fine, fine, don't believe me," Mary said as she watched Katarina, completely ignoring Alan as the other Prince spoke with the Queen. "But when she starts cutting our throats and bathing in our blood–"

"Yes, yes, you told us so," the Third Prince said.

Selena Berg and Susanna Ranadall glared at each other over their plates of food. Well, the former glared, her gaze intent and stern. The latter smiled brightly and kept eating her food in a provocatively erotic manner.

"Why?" Selena said in a terse, restrained voice.

"Why what?" Susanna said, batting her eyelashes.

"Don't get smart with me, Randall," Selena snapped. "Why? Why let it happen to Katarina, to me?"

"It… seemed like a good plan at the time," Susanna said, not looking sorry or repentant at all. "For Larna Smith."

"We could have been hurt," Selena said, glaring as if she was trying to rediscover pyromancy, or even fire sorcery.

"I wouldn't have let you," Susanna said, sounding almost defensive. "That's why I was there, after all."

"Yes, you were very useful to have," Selena said sarcastically.

"In my defense, I did not know Maria was amazing," Susanna said piously. "Have you told anyone?"

"Oh? What makes you think I haven't?" Selena said.

"Well, you could have. That's why I'm asking," Susanna said carelessly. "Though if you must know, Prince Ian not trying to have me killed yet is a clue."

"Are you sure about that?" Selena said. She turned and walked away, aware Susanna was watching her.

Susanna stared after her, staring at Selena's ass. "Ah, those eyes… such intensity, such fire… " she whispered to herself. "She could destroy me so easily…!"

Unnoticed behind her, the Queen smoothly spun around, sighing as she pretended not to hear her potential daughters-in-law threatening each other. Abyss consume, why did her sons all choose such weirdos? And she used to like Selena. Arianna thought she was the sanest, most level-headed, rational, reasonable, and intelligent, if a bit of a sad sack. Now she had to add ' mildly terrifying' to the list.

Most of Maria's guests left after lunch. Maria really wanted to beg that they remain silent about what she had developed, but she could only hope that what she had showed them was interesting enough that they would not want the details to be spread.

After Katarina checked on the crops and played with the children, and Maria checked on the condition of her estate, and asked Ghiradeli to look for people in town who could be trusted to keep a secret (and then clarifying she meant trade secrets, not nefarious evil secrets), to be ready to meet her the next week, she returned to the Academy riding her wagon with Katarina, who was excited about getting a chance to ride a wagon for the first time.

Maria could feel the glares of the Third Prince and Lady Hunt from their carriages.

She slept early that night, one of her new horses now residing in the academy stable while the other slowly brought the groom who'd driven the wagon back, so Maria could prepare for the journey she needed to make tomorrow: Meeting with Duke and Duchess Claes.