Maria had half-expected the Third Prince to do something blatant, like putting Katarina in a room directly in front of his own. If that were the case, she was fully prepared to raise issue with it. The girl was her squire, after all, and she was not going to allow herself to be separated from her squire. Especially not at this place. Who knew what sort of depravities occurred behind closed doors? It was a castle full of nobles and the royal family, after all. Even if the servants were not fed upon for their sweet, sweet, delicious blood, that was not the only use for comely servants…
Also, Maria remembered how much she hated mythic architecture. The galleries that had no railings, only ostentatious pillars that did not prevent anyone from falling to their deaths. Stairs with no railings. Outside balconies with no railings. Wide circular elevators with no railings. Libraries where the very bookshelves were platforms and floors to reach other bookshelves and floors, so of course they had no railings. If it were possible to have no railings with no railings, the castle would probably have those as well. It reminded her a bit too vividly of Yharnam and Cainhurst, as if the architects for both were given a greater budget and told to add a little sunlight here and there.
It was a terribly unsafe place to raise a child. Her manor was full of railings to prevent such falls from happening.
"My squire, make sure to hold Shana's hand so you don't wander off and fall down a ledge," Maria warned her as they walked through a garden. One edge just dropped down into a view of the moat around the castle, an edge that had decorative shrubs but no railings. Occasionally she glanced back towards Sadako, who was carrying Maria's trunk with Lasciel's help, in case her maid was feeling overwhelmed by all the men about. Thankfully, she seemed unperturbed though it was admittedly hard to be sure because of the way her hair concealed most of her face. Lasciel, however, was definitely feeling out of her depth, looking lost as she glanced about. Thankfully, stepmother-to-be was there to assure her. it made sense, Maria supposed. After all, this was Lasciel's first trip to the capital, much less the royal castle. Of course she would need time to get used to it.
"Yes, mistress, stay with us and don't get lost," Anne said, huffing slightly at carrying Katarina's personal luggage, with her clothes and stores of romance novels. Maria resigned herself to not asking about the hoe strapped to the outside of it as they went from the garden to some wide doors into what seemed like a sitting room, and through it to a hallway.
"I've been to the castle before," Katarina pouted. She turned to their guide, a young man garbed as one of the castle's many butlers. "Tell them Thornton!"
"Her ladyship has been to the castle before," the butler dutifully said. "However Lady Katarina, the castle has not been in this configuration when you had previously done so." He nodded to a door they passed by. "From here, you would usually use that door to head down to the cellar and from there to the underground waterway so you could come out of the third southwest service hallway to get to Prince Alan's music room, would you not?"
"Yup," Katarina chirped happily as Maria had terrible flashbacks of trying to get from one side of Cathedral Ward to another on her first day in Yharnam. It had taken her two days, and she had needed to sleep in a tree to avoid dogs.
"Because of the international Assembly, however, that door has been locked, and it does not open from this side."
"Aw! You mean I have to go up the ladder and walk over the chandeliers to get across to the outside ledge that lets me get into the musty green room and then push the spinning stairs around so I can get through the hall to the music room instead?"
"I'm afraid so," the butler said.
Maria really hated mythic architecture.
It was obvious when they had finally reached their destination, because there was a great crowd of people standing around and barring the way to the door.
"Eh? Mary? Sophia? Mashu? Alan? Nicol? Keith? Adella? Iosefka?" Katarina exclaimed. The Third Prince was also there, but it seemed like her squire had actually expected him to be present, so he elicited no comment.
"Lady Katarina! We've been waiting for you!" Lady Mary declared, rushing towards Katarina with a wide, predatory smile on her face. As usual, Lady Mary barely had any restraint upon her lusts. "Ah! Shana! You're here too!" Fortunately, it seemed even she still had some limits.
Maria watched as her little ward smothered a wide smile, exchanging it for a polite and dignified one as she curtsied to Lady Hunt. It was very deep, as befitting a commoner to a high-ranked noble. "Lady Hunt. It is an honor and a pleasure to see you again."
Lady Mary drew herself up and barely inclined her head, a noble deigning to acknowledge the presence of someone so far beneath her that they stood among the roots of the Archtrees. "Little Shana. Have you been keeping up with your studies?"
Shana bowed down her head in a nod. "Yes, Lady Hunt."
Lady Mary nodded. "Excellent. Continue." She made a small, dismissive gesture with her other hand.
Shana curtsied again.
Lady Mary immediately broke out into a smile as wide as the one she had given Katarina. "That was perfect, Shana!-!-!-!-!-!" she cooed. "You're going to conquer at the Academy, I just know it!"
"Thank you, Lady Hunt!" Shana said, smiling brightly up at her teacher.
"What are you doing here, though?" Lady Mary asked.
"I'm here to attend the lectures," Shana said proudly. "Uncle Prince arranged it and mama said I could go, as long as you control all rumors about any connection I might have with anyone that would put me in danger."
Lady Mary glanced at Maria. "Ah, that's what that letter was about. You should have just said so, Lady Maria."
"I thought you would enjoy the surprise of seeing Shana unannounced, Lady Mary," Maria said.
"And indeed I did," Lady Mary said. "So I suppose I am inclined to acquiesce to your request."
"Eh?" Katarina said, looking confused.
Shana leaned towards her. "That means 'hai'," Shana said, switching to Ashinago at the last word.
"Ah. Arigato, Shana-sensei," Katarina said. "But why is everyone here?"
"We're here to attend the lecture series too, cousin," one of the young women that that Maria recalled was Katarina's cousin said. "We are father's heirs to the duchy as well, after all."
"All of you?" Katarina said.
"Of course, Lady Katarina," Dame Matthew declared. "After all, we need to put our strongest shield forward so that we're ready for whatever happens at the international Assembly."
Maria barely managed to keep herself from snorting at the thought of relying on a shield. True, it worked for the other knight, but…
No. Just… no.
"Lady Katarina, I brought several novels with me for your stay!" Sophia said happily. "There's the latest volume of Demesne Oratoria, a new Devilish Count novel, a new series that looks promising called Wing Aquifer Chronicle—"
"So that's why you had all that baggage with you. Sophia, we are here to study, not read novels," Lord Ascart said, sounding almost mildly disapproving as he picked up the trunk with Sophia's novels. Behind him, Dame Matthew and her cousins went a bit weak at the knees at the sound of his voice, the two sisters needing to help each other support their weight lest they collapse.
"NO! My novels! I need my novels! Big brother, how could you? Are you entering your rebellious phase?" Sophia wailed. "I'm so far behind! Come on big brother, give them back!"
He merely handed the trunk to a nearby servant. "Take this to my room, please," he said, seemingly ignoring how the man held the trunk at waist height to hide his arousal. Lord Ascart turned to Maria, smiling apologetically. "As you can see, Sophia is not quite taking this matter seriously yet, but please look after her. I will be staying at the castle too so I can attend both some of the lectures and still perform my duties, so let me know if anything happens."
"I will try, Lord Ascart," Maria said, "but as you can see, I already have my hands full." Really, she didn't see the appeal. "I must ask, though, why are all of you congregated here? I thought this was the room assigned to myself and my squire."
"Yes, why are you all here?" the Third Prince said with a show of teeth that only Katarina would think was a smile. "Aren't your rooms on the other side of the castle?"
"Naturally we were waiting for Big Sister so we could greet her," Keith said, showing his own teeth in the same way. "Alan showed us the way."
"Did he now?" the Third Prince said, directing his gaze towards his younger brother.
"Yeah, I was concerned when I couldn't find her room assignment in any of the lists," Prince Alan said. "It took some digging to find that she'd been assigned to this room. I'm having a new room readied for her."
"Eh?" Katarina said, blinking in surprise. "What's wrong with this room?"
"That's not necessary—" the Third Prince began.
Alan opened the door.
A revoltingly putrid stench wafted out, reminding Maria of swamps, hunting for boars in the sewers of Yharnam, and improvised poisonous bombs of last resort. Everyone recoiled from the open door, raising hands and cloths to cover their noses or, in Sophia and Lord Ascart's cases, using Wind Magic to push the smell away from them.
"Gah!" the Third Prince cried as he recoiled, a flame appearing in his hand as he raised it up near his face, as if attempting to burn out the smell. "What is that?"
"Kind of obvious, don't you think?" Alan said, making a face of his own as he shut the door. "I think it's coming from under the bed. I didn't stop to check further, but it's pretty clear no one can sleep in there any time soon. I've already called the staff to clean it up and air it."
The Third Prince shot a sideways, annoyed look at Lady Mary, who had a perfumed handkerchief over her mouth and nose. "Oh. How terribly unfortunate. Then it's very necessary, I suppose. Well, Katarina can wait in my room until—"
"That won't be necessary," Maria said. "My squire will stay in my room with me, Prince Alan. I need to make sure she continues her training when she has time, after all."
"She will? Oh, all right then," the youngest prince said. "I'll get it noted down. Though if you need a bigger room, tell me sooner rather than later while there are still options."
"Eh? You're still going to make Lady Katarina train while she's here?" Sophia exclaimed.
Maria raised an eyebrow. "Of course. How else is she going to remember the content of the lectures?"
"We can help with that!" Lady Mary said. "We all helped Lady Katarina with her studies in the Academy!"
"So her abysmally low grades are because of you all, then?"
Those who had attended the Academy with them didn't really have a retort for that.