A/N: Trigger Warning! This chapter contains Google Translate! If you are sensitive to bad translations, stop reading!

A Katarina Interlude

After the last delegation entered through the doors and the king gave his speech about how the International Assembly had begun and entered the castle with the rest of the royal family, everyone moved on to the reception hall where the welcoming reception was to happen. Technically, the purpose was to strengthen international bonds by creating friendships and good will between the nobility of Sorcier and that of other countries, hopefully leading to trading agreements or marriages that became alliances between houses.

However, what it was really for was to search for useful information about the current state of other countries and finding out what their thoughts were on certain policies or proposals to gain a diplomatic advantage, especially in the upcoming assembly discussions. It was not unlike some of the gatherings she'd attended, where people greeted each other with fake smiles and words she knew were somehow rude, even if she couldn't quite tell how. Only it was all happening on a bigger scale. She'd never liked going to those gatherings, either hanging out at the buffet—since no one ever seemed to go there, leaving the poor food unattended—or hanging out with her friends and people she knew, whose smiles were real.

Katarina had been able to skip those kinds of gatherings while she'd been at the Academy, but… actually, she was also skipping those gatherings now because of her squireship, wasn't she?

Still, she'd been worried she'd do something wrong that would put Sorcier at a disadvantage, but Dame Maria and Shana-sensei had both said not to worry. After all, she didn't handle any paperwork for her family's Duchy, she didn't work at the Ministry or the government, she'd spent most of the past year as a squire learning to be a knight, and finally, her memory was filled with farming, novels, and etiquette! There was absolutely no way she could possibly reveal anything really important, so she should just relax, have fun, and make friends with as many people as possible.

Lady Maria had been strangely intent when she'd told Katarina that last, repeating it several times. "Go make friends, my squire." "If you meet someone, just smile and be your usual self and make friends with them, my squire." "Be friendly to everyone you meet and treat them like you do all your friends, my squire." "Make friends with everyone you meet, Squire Katarina." It had been… kinda of creepy, really. But it was easy advice for her to follow, so she'd follow it!

Ah, wait, she did know something important she shouldn't reveal, come to think of it. She didn't think Dame Maria realized she knew, but she'd heard the blonde muttering under her breath about some kind of 'unbeatable social-political weapon' that she was planning to use to give Sorcier an unbeatable advantage in the International Assembly. Katarina didn't know what that was, but it sounded like the sort of thing that needed to be a secret. Secret… wait, Maria wasn't planning to use Dark Magic during the Assembly, was she?-! That… That would be really evil!

…

Ah, then Maria probably wasn't talking about that, then.

When they arrived, Katarina recognized the large and luxurious room they were holding the reception in. It was the one they had used on the princes' graduation party, before they'd had their sleepover.

(Katarina wondered how the friendly empty corridor was doing. Maybe if she had time she'd go and say hi? It had been a nice empty corridor, and so helpful with giving her directions… )

The room was filled with people. Some looked physically no different than Sorcieri, except for their clothes. There were plump men and women in silk, purple crushed velvet, sequins and capes from La Sable, lean men and woman in multilayered garments that might have been robes or might have been dresses in subdued but elegant colors from Xiarmah, men and women from New Catarina wearing their white formal armor—which looked like just like their regular armor for a lot of them, especially around the belly—with the men sporting very thick mustaches and the women in pale white makeup with perhaps a spot near their lips or forehead, living and undead in flowing silk robes and headwraps from Ethenel…

"Um, mother?" Katarina whispered.

Her mother's gaze darted towards her before looking forward again. "Yes, Katarina?" Wow! Mother's mouth barely moved at all! Was she a ventlo—… vendor—… bentrolo—… er, one of those guys who made dolls talk?

"I thought we were supposed to mingle in parties," she said. "Why is every just huddled in groups? Isn't that improper?"

It wasn't like everyone was just clumped together at the edges of the room. Indeed, the room looked evenly filled, and people were walking around and talking to each other, filling the room with the familiar stop-and-go movement she knew from parties. But if the room were a pie pan, it would look like someone had put several different flavors of pre-cut pie on it. She could see the sharp, dividing line between each group of delegates. The servant walking around with trays containing those little snacks and tall, narrow glasses of wine and things looked like ants crawling all over the pie, their stark black and white making them stand out among the less uniformly-dressed foreigners.

For a moment, there was something weird with mother's eye, before she turned away to face towards father. Katarina heard a tsundere sniff. "Normally, yes. However, as they are all visitors here, we go to them to greet them and introduce ourselves. Once that first round on introductions happens, that's the signal to begin mingling properly."

Katarina blinked. "Wow. That's not mentioned in your book at all… I think. Maybe you should add a chapter for international events?"

For some reason, Father laughed on mother's other side. "Now dear Katarina, you know the author her of that book is a complete mystery."

She blinked again. "But it's mother. It's clearly mother. You can tell from how it's written. Every word is definitely mother."

Father's smile was fond. "Katarina, I never thought I'd have to say this… but stop making your mother so proud, or else she will be unsuitable to greet the delegations."

Katarina put on her best smile. Well, to be honest, she didn't have a best smile because her villainous face made all her smiles look evil and sinister, but she did her best as she followed Keith towards a group of people in one of the pie slices. She was supposed to act like a perfect lady, but putting on a Mary impression wasn't polite, and anyway she'd feel guilty for mocking her friend like that, so the best she could do was muddle along.

What followed was a distantly remembered yet familiar routine, something they'd done when they were younger before Katarina had gotten to know the people whose tea parties and invitations she'd been attending. She'd smile—even though with her villainous face it probably made her look scary and scheming and like a shark about to eat them—greet people, introduce themselves and chat for a while.

"Hi," she said cheerfully as she approached a group of people who looked uncomfortable. "I'm Katarina Claes, and this is my little brother, Keith. What's your name?"

Ah, there it was, the familiar expression people got when she was trying to make friends just looked like a villain instead. The doubt and wariness. It kinda hurt a little, but it made sense. After all, her villainous face surely put people off. Still, they were all too polite to ignore her greeting.

"Greetings, Lady Claes," one of the men said with a polite smile. He made Katarina think of bundle of asparagus, for some reason. Weird. "I am Duke Folken Fanel, and this is my brother, Lord Van, and his wife, the Lady Fanel."

"Lady Claes, Lord Claes," the red-clad lord said, bowing slightly. His wife curtsied awkwardly next to him, wobbling a bit before catching herself and folding her hands demurely. "Are you related to his grace the Duke Luigi Claes in some fashion?"

"Oh, he's our dad," Katarina said honestly. Why was Keith sighing like that? Was he tired? Had he been too excited to go to sleep last night and stayed up waiting for the Assembly to come? "You know him?"

"Ah, so you are the children he is so proud of," Duke Fanel said. "How interesting. I have long looked forward to finally meeting you. Even in Tasmeria, we have heard… rumors."

"I'm sure any such rumors are exaggerated by the distance, your grace," Keith said, smiling at the foreign duke,

"Possibly," Duke Fanel said with a small smile. "And of course, a man in my position learns to doubt the truthfulness of rumors. Still, for there to be rumors of you being a saint, in this day and age… I admit I find myself curious."

"Oh, that…" Katarina said, embarrassed. "I really don't know how that go started. I mean, do I look like a saint?"

"Saints can come from all walks of life, according to the myths," the duke said.

Lord Fanel's wife frowned. "Sain-to?" she said, and there was something about her words… they tickled Katarina's ear.

"Ah, 'seijin', Hitomi," Lord Fanel said.

Katarina straightened. "Oh, Ashina karadesu ka?" she said excitedly. (Are you from Ashina?)

Lady Fanel looked surprised. "Hai! Anata wa ashinago o hanashimasu ka?"(You speak Ashinago)

Katarina blinked, tilting her head in confusion. "Muron. Naze watashi wa sore o hanasanai nodesu ka?" (Of course. Why wouldn't I speak it?)

Lady Fanel's face broke out into a smile of delight and relief.