"...And that's what she said."
"Sure you jest, Dame Medrauta."
"No, I'm quite serious. Here, read it if you don't believe me."
Medrauta tossed the letter in her hands to Sakura. She'd written a letter to Lady Merlynne three days ago after the Summer Gala concluded. The reply had only arrived now, and Sakura found it less than satisfactory.
"She won't see us until the festival is over!?" Sakura exclaimed in disbelief as she double-checked the contents of the letter. "That's in two weeks!"
"Yeah, well, I doubt the Witch Queen's gonna come back to life within the next two weeks, Lady Sakura. I think you can relax for a few more days."
"Are you two talking about that crazy prophecy again?" Viviane asked. Medrauta had filled her in on the night of the gala after they'd finished aiding the princess in her quest to find Prince Galahad. Riku hadn't appreciated the spread of information, but he'd expected it.
Seeing Viviane having just returned from a storage room with a pile of fabric in her arms, Medrauta took them off her hands before answering. "Yeah. Though, I'd much rather be talking about how wonderful you look today."
"G-Geez! You've been like this ever since the gala..."
"'Cause you're not gonna understand how I feel if I'm not always on the attack. And besides, it's not like your appearance is the only thing that's wonderful," Medrauta said as she set the heap of fabric to the side before walking up to Viviane and cupping her chin with a hand. "I love your adorable reactions too."
"Get a room, you two." Sakura rolled her eyes. "Don't you know how tiring it is to be the third wheel all the time?"
"My bad," Medrauta grinned as she backed off. "Still, we're missing our fourth again today, huh? She was already gone yesterday. The hell's up with that?"
"Perhaps the princess got tired of watching the two of you flirt constantly," Sakura suggested.
All things considered, it was a pretty fair line of assumption. After the gala, the princess had been quite distraught at her brother's actions and the dissolution of their oath as knight and lady. Worse, the imperial inquisitors discovered that her brother had divulged the location of where she'd stored her seal to Lady Rosenhall, leading to her quick arrest.
However, seeing as Lady Rosenhall hadn't been anywhere near the princess' chambers since Gwenhwyfar's arrival, there wasn't even sufficient circumstantial evidence to continue holding her captive.
As she was Duke Rosenhall's daughter, refusing to release her would be a slight that even the imperial family could not afford, especially when activity near the northern border had been so unpredictable lately.
With everything going on at once, the last thing Gwenhwyfar needed was to watch Medrauta flirt incessantly with Viviane.
Despite all of this, the academy festival was still slated to begin a week later. Thanks to the situation with Kaslavna, a good portion of the academy's staff had been sent to the northern border as reinforcements, freeing up much of the students' schedules with canceled classes and exams.
While students were usually allotted just three days to prepare for the festival, the remaining instructors decided to kickstart preparations immediately after the gala by allowing students to use the empty blocks in their schedule to work on their festival booth during the whole week. As an activity that was designed to foster a sense of unity within the school body, students were free to choose their own groups of up to six people.
Naturally, Medrauta and Viviane had paired up immediately, and surprisingly, the princess had begged to join their group too. Although Medrauta was initially against it, she eventually relented after Viviane welcomed Gwenhwyfar with open arms. Sakura soon followed suit after Riku excused himself with some pretext or other, and the four of them had a pretty productive first day.
However, Gwenhwyfar had stopped showing up the day after, and she was missing even now.
"Um... Actually, I ended up running into the princess yesterday. We spoke a bit, but apparently, she's been dragged away due to some unforeseen business..." Viviane said as she began pricking through the pile of fabric. She nodded in satisfaction after managing to find a particularly smooth piece of black cloth.
"'Unforeseen business', huh...? Well, that certainly sounds reassuring." Medrauta remarked.
Viviane shrugged. "I asked her if she wanted us to help, and she said she'd let us know if she did, so... All we can do is hope for the best, I suppose."
"Whatever the matter is, I hope it doesn't affect the festival too much," Sakura said as she held up the piece of clothing that she'd been working on. "I've been working so hard that my fingers are going numb. How's this, Viviane?"
"Oooh! Not bad! Not bad at all, Lady Sakura! You're a natural!" Viviane clapped, impressed at Sakura's handiwork. Though the foreign noblewoman was rather adept in a wide variety of skills, sewing hadn't been one of them.
Luckily, Sakura was a fast learner, and she'd managed to put together an apron just fine. As it turns out, the group had decided on the tried and true tradition of a themed cafe for their booth. There was no doubt that many other groups would do the same, but since this was Sakura's first academy festival, Viviane thought that sticking to the basics would be the best option.
"Still, we're missing two members, aren't we? If we don't find 'em soon, Sakura's hard work is gonna be for naught," Medrauta said.
"Yeah, that's true... But everyone we know is already in a group..." Viviane replied, despondence creeping into her voice. "Still, maybe we can—"
"Ufufufufu!"
The door practically burst open, revealing the source of that haughty laughter. Gwenhwyfar stood with her arms crossed, chest puffed out, and her nose high in the air. Her pink hair billowed behind her in some unseen wind, and she stared at the three in the room as if she were expecting them to thank her merely for her presence.
"Look who decided to show up," Medrauta said as she finished off the sleeves of a dress that she was working on. While the knight was no expert seamstress, she'd gotten used to repairing damaged clothing by herself. "I imagine you've got some sort of reason to be standing there so proudly?"
"Ufufu! Of course I do! Kneel before me, your savior!"
"I'd rather not."
"Hmph! And just who was it that was complaining about our lack of members a mere second ago? I've been making the rounds all morning attempting to recruit people!"
"E-Eh!? Surely not, Your Imperial Highness!" Viviane's eyes widened in surprise. "We couldn't possibly ask you to do something like that!"
"Well, just consider it one of many benefits for being my friend," Gwenhwyfar replied with a proud smile as she entered the room. "After all, I am in the business of righting my wrongs to you, Lady Viviane!"
"No... You don't really have to..." Viviane's voice trailed off as she saw that there was no reasoning with Gwenhwyfar once the princess had set her mind to something.
The princess snapped her fingers, and two girls entered the room at her signal. "Behold! Our final two members!"
Viviane and Medrauta stared at the newcomers with varying degrees of shock whereas Sakura merely raised an eyebrow at the princess' uncharacteristically odd personality that she was putting on. She had a feeling that Gwenhwyfar was attempting to loosen up, but the way she chose to do it just seemed awkward.
Medrauta was the first to recover. "Leticia. What the hell are you doing here? Aren't you in Kate's group?"
"Ah... Well, I..." Leticia hesitated, running a hand through her smooth black hair, her eyes darting frantically between the princess and Medrauta. "Um..."
"A lot of things happened, and now we're here. I hope our presence won't be too intrusive, Dame Medrauta," the beautiful noblewoman standing next to Leticia said. She was tall and graceful with a bountiful chest and beautiful features, her soft pink hair giving off a refined impression compared to the princess' brighter shade.
"...Of course not, Lady Rosaline. Your beauty enriches all that it graces, my lady," Medrauta replied with a bow. Despite being next to Viviane, she couldn't help but be stunned by Rosaline's exquisite appearance.
Still, Vivi's the only one for me, Medrauta thought.
"Oh my!" Rosaline giggled, the sound delicate and dignified. "You're rather forward with a woman who is to be married, aren't you?"
Medrauta's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "You're engaged!? Since when!?"
Rosaline smiled. "Pardon me for bringing a distasteful event before the aggrieved parties, but it happened while you were still recovering, Dame Medrauta."
"That's right!" Leticia cut in, showing off a beautiful silver ring on her left hand. It bore a small pink jewel that had been set into the metal so as to not be disruptive during combat. "And I won't hand Rosie over to anyone! Not even you, Medrauta!"
"Lettie..." Rosaline chided. "Aren't you jumping to conclusions too soon? After all, Medrauta has her lady, does she not?"
"Ah! I suppose so," Leticia grinned. "Sorry, Medrauta. I've just been on edge for the past two weeks. I ended up having to fight a gauntlet to become Rosie's knight, and there are still more duels coming."
Thanks to her possession of a semi-autonomous Crest, angelic appearance, and impeccable ladylike demeanor, Rosaline was also known as the 'Flower of High Society', her beauty second only to Amelia's. The fact that Leticia had to fight a gauntlet—a battle-royale style tournament between knights—to earn Rosaline's hand was unsurprising to Medrauta.
"Sounds like one hell of a tale I'd like to hear later," Medrauta laughed. "Where're the two of you getting married, though?"
"Not in the empire, that's for sure." Leticia sighed. "We would've already made our vows had that been possible."
Rosaline nodded. "Yes. Fortunately, I have a friend in Kharadshah where they permit two women to marry. They've promised to help us secure a venue after we've obtained permission from the crown to travel."
"And I've promised to help them obtain that permission in exchange for joining our group!" Gwenhwyfar proudly declared. "Am I not great? Am I not magnificent?"
Medrauta raised an eyebrow at Gwenhwyfar's remarks. "Well, that's great to hear, Lady Rosaline. Leticia. I wish the two of you happiness in the future wherever you may go."
"We thank you and wish the same for you and Lady Viviane," Rosaline curtsied.
Viviane blushed at Rosaline's words and turned her face aside, but she said nothing. Seeing this, Medrauta was compelled to speak. "Oh. Well, uh, Viviane and I aren't exactly—"
"Yeah, thanks, Medrauta!" Leticia chimed in with a grin. Medrauta's eyes narrowed, not entirely sure whether the black-haired knight had interrupted her on purpose or not. "So, what're we doing for the festival? I'm pretty good with my hands, so if we're sewing, you can count me in!"
"Likewise," Rosaline said as she moved forward to inspect the fabric. "Lettie can attest to the dexterity of my fingers," she added with a wink in the direction of her wife-to-be.
"...Oh Aluvsha, save me. There's more of them now. Princess Gwenhwyfar, just what have you done?" Sakura groaned.
Upon seeing Leticia and Rosaline begin flirting while they worked, Gwenhwyfar's heart sank in regret at her abysmal decision making, and she found a kindred spirit in Sakura who seemed equally irritated at the romantic antics that pervaded the room.
As such, they separated into three pairs after Viviane explained the plan for their booth. Well-versed in fine cuisine, Gwenhwyfar and Sakura were assigned to come up with the menu while Viviane and Medrauta took care of the heavy lifting and the actual construction of the booth. Unsurprisingly, Leticia and Rosaline turned out to be the best with their hands, and the two of them were placed in charge of the uniforms and their design.
They worked smoothly and efficiently, and by the time the sun began to set, the group had already gotten a quarter of their booth set up despite having been behind in progress only hours ago. As it turned out, two extra members really did make quite a difference.
"Whew! We got quite a lot done today, didn't we?" Viviane grinned happily as she packed up a few of the leftover materials. The rest of their group members had retired to their quarters, leaving her and Medrauta the only ones in the room.
Medrauta nodded. "Yeah. Y'know, I'm real glad we're able to spend time together again like this... Maybe we should start visiting the archives again."
"Oh? I thought you hated reading!"
"I do. But I love spending time with you," the knight replied as she finished putting away the last of the materials. She walked over to Viviane, slipping her hands into the noblewoman's. "Say, Viviane. What do you think about Kharadshah?"
"W-What do I think?" Viviane's face flushed almost immediately. She knew exactly what Medrauta was implying, but chose to ignore it. "I-I've heard that it's a very nice place! I'd like to go visit sometime!"
"Really? I was thinking the same thing, but I do wonder... Would you rather get married there, or in Higashi?"
"H-Huh!? W-What are you asking so suddenly, Medrauta!?"
Medrauta studied Viviane's spinning eyes for a few seconds before giving her lady's hands a gentle squeeze. It was time to retreat just a little. "Just a hypothetical. Anyway, it's getting late. Shall we head back?"
Viviane nodded. "Y-Yeah..."
Medrauta escorted Viviane back to her dormitory building, giving her lady a bow as she bid Viviane good night.
Viviane watched the silver-haired knight walk away. Her back was so broad and powerful, yet so fragile at the same time. Looking at Medrauta like this, Viviane just couldn't forget the image that had seared itself into her memories that day.
The image of her beautiful knight who had stood in front of the sun to shield her. It was heart-wrenching, but more than that, it had reminded Viviane of her knight's mortality. Even if Medrauta seemed invincible at times, the truth was that she could be felled just as easily as any other knight.
Viviane clasped a hand to her chest, watching as Medrauta's silver hair swayed in the wind. It had grown a little longer since she'd recovered from that match.
...I can't keep her waiting forever.