A Katarina Interlude

Katarina found Keith surrounded by a group of foreign women, all of them very good looking, with distinctive appearances suitable for the photogenic cast of the male-audience kind of galge. They were all but clinging to his sides and leaning towards him, and one of them was doing that classic move of crossing her arms under her chest to lift it up. There was a clear glasses-tsundere type, a shy-girl type who might or might not be a yandere (but then, anyone could be a yandere), one with oujo-sama spiral ringlets, a Chinese—ah, sorry, Xiarmen cool beauty with pale skin and robe-like dress, a small, slim, totally-not-underaged young woman who was only probably totally eighteen because of her presence in the gala… there was even a long haired pretty-boy type who was either the token yaoi pairing, or doing the bifauxnen thing.

…

Da fuq?

"Ah, sister, there you are!" Keith said loudly when he saw her, almost rudely disengaging from the group of women as he made his way to her side. His face was red as he compulsively straightened his clothes. "I've been looking everywhere for you!"

"Eh? Weren't you talking to them?" Katarina said, looking past him at all the women who were now giving her assessing looks.

"N-no, they were… ah, well, it doesn't matter," Keith said hastily. "Come on sister, we need to go meet with mother, and—"

She gave him a disapproving frown that made him flinch, no doubt frightened by her villainous eyes, and was this what mother felt like all the time? "Now Keith, Mother and I raised you better than that," she scolded him. "That is not the proper way to end a conversation with a young lady, and especially not many young ladies, who all seem like very nice people." After all, even yandere could be perfectly pleasant so long as you made it clear you weren't after their man… or woman, as the case may be. Anime told her so, and anime wouldn't lie to her! "Now, I know the gala is coming to an end, but why don't you introduce us properly?"

He gave her a wretched look of a boy being told to do something he knew was right but didn't want to, but sighed and turned back to his conversation partners. "Ladies, may I present my elder sister, the Lady Katarina Claes."

Katarina gave him a 'good boy' nod, and bowed. "It's a pleasure to meet you all, ladies. I hope you've enjoyed yourselves today?"

"Ohohohoho!" Surprisingly, that didn't come from the one you the ojou-sama ringlets, but rather a tall young woman with a short, bob-type tomboy haircut and New Catarina-style formal armor. "So, you are the famous Lady Katarina? Well met, Lady Claes! I am Dame Sieglista of New Catarina. I look forward to getting to know you and your brother."

"Nice to meet you, Sieglista!" Katarina chirped, raising her arm out sideways before making a clenched fist, which the knight returned.

One by one, the introductions came in. Katarina got a double handful of names in addition to Sieglista, and her expectations had been surprised and subverted. The one she had thought was a shy-girl type, Lady Lauren Hardin of Tasmeria, had instead had a surprisingly deep voice, and wasn't shy so much as mildly self-conscious, though from how confidently she had spoken it didn't look like some sort of complex over her voice was her character trait. The Xiarmen beauty had been loudly boastful and bombastic instead of being a cool beauty—though she seemed cool in a different way, since Katarina had seen Cestuses tucked into her sleeves. The one in oujo-sama ringlets had been warm, pleasant and motherly in a way that had reminded Katarina of… well, not her mother, because Mother was a tsundere and therefore prone to being terrifying… well, maybe Maria's mother, or possibly Sophia's mother, except without the tendency to be embarrassingly PDA with Uncle Dan..

Huh, now that she thought of it, Uncle Dan and Aunt Radea kind of reminded her of the American couple from that movie, where the wife looked like a sexy yurei and the husband had been a swordfighting lawyer who kept sending his golf balls into that man's house…

They all seemed very nice, however, and clearly thought Keith was hot, since they were doing all of the classic 'come on' moves short of actually doing so. Smiles, flirty winks when they thought she couldn't see, lots of subtle posing to show off their legs, shoulder, profile and bustline… it was probably all in the CG art folder, and the free to download wallpapers.

Eventually, however, they really did need to go. Katarina could see Cousin Adella standing not far away, and the rest of the gala seemed to be breaking up.

"Ah, looks like we have to go," Katarina said. "How about we all meet up again tomorrow?"

"That would be wonderful, Lady Claes," the pretty boy-looking one said, and their voice was absolutely no help in being able to tell if they were a man or woman! They'd introduced themselves as 'Director Drew Carrie', and was apparently from Hallig's equivalent of the Ministry, the Fundamentalist Institute, except with less magic because their didn't have as many magic users there, and that had NOT HELPED AT ALL! "I look forward to conversing with you and your brother again."

Well, at least she knew Keith swung that way because of his crush on Nicol. So it was all good!

"They all seemed like nice gir—people," Katarina corrected, just in case. She, Keith and Adella were leaving the gala's ballroom with Adella in the lead. Katarina smirked sideways at her brother, nudging him playfully with her elbow. "So, who do you think would make a nice 'future Duchess Claes'?"

Keith reddened, looking flustered. "S-sister! I've only just met them!" Ah, she better be careful or his 'flustered' meter might fill up all the way and kill him, making have to respawn in bed.

..

But not too careful! "Ah, so Nicol is still—"

"I am not in love with Nicol!" Keith sighed.

"So, you like girls?"

"Yes!"

Hah! He'd fallen into Katarina's bottomless instant-kill pit! "So, which of those girls do you think is the most likeable?"

"Um… ah… oh, look, it's Matthew!"

Really? Did Keith just do the 'oh, look, a distraction!' thing with her? What did he think she was, some kind of easily distracted violent harem anime girl character? Katarina gave Keith one last 'Mother is not amused' look, but ultimately turned towards her other cousin. "Hey Mashu!" she called, waving at the knight in the traditional fashion.

Mashu waved back. "Hello Cousin Katarina. Adella, Keith. Sorry I'm late. I was invited to the fight club."

Keith blinked, though Adella nodded as if she knew. "Fight club?" Keith asked.

"Ah, you don't know what a fight club is?" Mashu said, sounding surprised. "Well, I suppose it's no surprise. But I'd have thought Cousin Katarina would tell you."

Uh… um… the name rang a bell, but despite that, no gate seemed to be opening. Something about prism stones…?

"Ah, well, Keith never asked, and I'd never been to one," Katarina said hastily.

"Ah. That makes sense," Mashu nodded. "It's not really 'official' knight behavior, so I suppose Dame Maria wouldn't really let you participate in one." She turned to Keith. "I'll tell you on the way to Aunt Mili."

"Follow me," Adella said, once more leading the way. Mashu fell into step with Katarina and Keith.

"So, what's this 'fight club' you were invited to? It sound dangerous. I don't think Mother would want Katarina to be invited to one of those."

"Oh, it's an ancient tradition from the time of myth," Mashu said. "First, you need to set up some prism stones in a circle…"

Don't think this means you've gotten away with anything, Keith!

Normally, when a gala or tea party or whatever event Katarina had been invited to was over, they just went home. After all, the party was done, all the food had been eaten, and she'd managed to shield her black-hearted 'totes really her fiancé, yup!' from unwanted marriage proposals, Mary and Sophia had told her they'd be coming to visit her tomorrow, and so Alan said he'd come, and Nicol was coming with Sophia, and the Third Prince said he'd be there as well… so to home it was.

The International Assembly was different.

Adella led them to a small, discreet room. Outside, a lot of people, many she knew, lingered. Of course she smiled and greeted them, and they smiled and greeted her back, but they stayed were they were lingering, not moving towards her to talk. On the way to the door, Katarina felt the ear-popping sensation of wind-magic being used at least three times.

Inside the door, Mother sat in a chair in the middle of the room, furiously writing on a little lapdesk. Next to her, Uncle Henryk was doing the same. All around the room, other nobles she vaguely knew were talking, and the person they were talking to was intent on writing down what they were saying. Sometimes, instead of speaking the person handed the writer a small notebook or a sheaf of papers and left, and someone else would take their place to do the talking to the writer instead.

Ah, wait, wait, Katarina remembered this! She'd been told about this earlier, after the welcoming ceremony but before they'd gone to the gala. The ones talking were the minor nobility, like landed knights who, unlike Maria, were knights only in rank and title but weren't really knights, like some of the people who'd also been knighted at the same time Maria had been. They were talking to the noble they were sworn to, at least a baronet or higher, about all the things they'd seen and heard and learned during the gala, the conclusions they'd come to, things like that. Then that baronet would report to the person they were sworn to, a baron or baroness, on and on, until finally the Marquises like Mary's dad were telling mother and father, along with the notes of what everyone else below them had learned. Mother and father and Uncle Henryk and Aunts Eileen and Viola would report what they'd found to… uh, either the king or Uncle Dan. And Uncle Dan would pass that on to the people they'd have doing the negotiations during the assembly, to let them know the strengths and weaknesses of the other countries.

It was like they were putting together the wiki for the International Assembly Limited Time Event (no special gacha banner) so they could win before the event ended. Except they had no computers, or even phones, so everything had to be written down. It was like those old stories Katarina had heard of in the ancient 16-bit era, back before FallenGod had existed, and people had to rely on… uh, something called something-faqs for directions on how to get the best ending in their games.

Father had immediately seen them when they entered the room, and though his smile seemed a bit strained he gestured for them to come closer. The Claes siblings navigated the room, careful not to get between people as they heard all sorts of things. Off in one corner, Katarina saw Sophia, talking in low tones to Aunt Radea. Her normally smiling bookbuddy looked very serious as she spoke, and Aunt Radea didn't have her usual 'my daughter is so wonderful' either. Not far away, Mary was helping her dad and eldest sister conduct interviews, listening to an older noble as he spoke and wrote what he said. Aunts Leona, Sheryl and Henriette were also there, doing interviews while her cousins took away papers that were full of writing and brought her aunties new sheets, before going off to sort the papers.

"Keith. Katarina. You're late," Father said. Unlike mother, the words weren't scolding. He was just saying they were late.

"Sorry, dad," Katarina said. "We had to talk to these women who were coming on Keith, but he didn't seem to realize it." She sighed at her brother's obliviousness. Sure, it was better than him growing up into some kind of manwhore playboy, but still! Show some awareness, Keith!

For some reason, Keith started coughing.