Feast planning

All the girls were now united in the guest room left for Calla in order to help her on her personal request. It was an emergency meeting to find a way for her to survive the feast.

Calla was in a panicked state right now and the others could barely get any of their words to her. It took them what they all felt was forever to reassure Calla about the situation.

Calla herself felt sorry about that but she couldn't help herself. She just felt way too anxious about this and feared that everything would go wrong. Even if Maria or Bailey were to tell her that it didn't matter even if she messed things up, it still stressed her out to no end.

Sure, she understood the logic behind it all.

Even if she didn't give out a good impression, if she started to stutter, even if she was entirely unable to speak, if she shamed herself or simply collapsed, nothing bad would happen. She truly did understand that, Aminui was here, she would still be the wife of Emp, she didn't even have to see those nobles often or maybe even at all after this. They didn't matter for Emp's current fight for the tittle of great general.

Nothing that happened here could possibly hurt her in any way. Everything was safe, everything should be fine.

Despite knowing that however, she was still unable to stomach the possibility of her doing anything wrong. It was a secret to no one in the room that she was afraid.

She was always afraid about a lot of things, she was scared of falling down the stairs and so gripped the railing tightly every time she climbed them back home. She was afraid of getting hurt while doing mostly anything except cooking so she was always very careful and slow. She was afraid of monsters and people in general because everyone looked so strong or scary compared to her so she didn't speak to anyone. She was scared of breaking things in her clumsiness, of loosing money, of ripping her clothes, afraid of disappointing people, afraid of not being good enough, afraid of being embarrassed, scared of being scared.

She was always scared of being scared.

She felt it was really idiotic but she still felt scared anyway. That was just how she was. The possibility of something going wrong wasn't just a small bump she could step over, it was a real wall instead. As usual, she'd never find the strength in herself to climb over those walls, she'd be too scared of falling, she needed someone else to bring her over instead.

That was always how she lived. She borrowed the strength of others to let her cross difficulties because it was too much for her alone. She was a weak person.

She felt rather pathetic.

She was ashamed of herself and embarrassed but didn't see a way for herself to change. The possibility of her getting flustered already sent her heart racing and her cheeks burning. If only Emp was there, she wouldn't be so worried. Since he wasn't there however, she felt frantic, because she knew that if she became too embarrassed and felt unwell, she'd be too worried to do it all again when she really needed to. If she found the courage to do this now and messed it up, she would not find it again later, there would be no next time.

Her mind was caught doing circles around how she didn't want to feel embarrassed, how she knew that she would, how much feared the moment, how she didn't know what to do about it and how she missed Emp. Her thoughts didn't make much sense but she was too stuck in her worries to calm herself.

Her breath was cut short and she listened to the others while having the impression that the simple state of being alive in itself was laborious.

The other did their very best to help her. They all had their own tricks and thoughts on how to best calm down and survive the feast.

"Grandfather doesn't know you well enough yet. He would not have told you to not worry about it that way if he had." Kaisla commented on an apologetic tone. "He knew that you'd worry about it so he just told you not to because he felt it wasn't worth worrying over but..."

"Yeah, if he had known our lady like we do, he would have known that she would worry about that anyway." Sarissa approved.

Her friend Eda was the next one to speak, she was the one here who knew her for the longest time so of course, she understood her the best as well.

"Calla is always worried about everything. I'm sure there no one in the entire world who worries more than her about the tiniest of things. Not that this is a tiny thing though. I know that question won't help her much raise her confidence but will she really be fine attending a feast?

I can't really see her mingling with noble blood... Well, she does with you all but you know what I mean, right?

Am I even allowed to speak like that or am I doing something wrong? All of this is a bit overwhelming, I can't believe that Calla managed to not drop dead after all this time already."

That was also true, she was out of her element and that was the biggest source of fear for her. Could they hold the feast in the kitchen instead? She'd feel much better if they just put a knife in her hands and let her prepare some vegetables while they all came to talk to her. She couldn't even speak to them using food as the medium like she usually did because of the circumstances.

Eda didn't adapt to this strange situation at all but at least she still managed to speak to the other girls like normal. This was way better than what Calla could do.

"Maybe we could just all say that we feel sick and tell them we won't show up?" Lea said in a hopeful tone.

She too hated to be with people. She liked to be left alone so of course her first idea was to not go at all but Lusine shot her down right away.

"She can't do that, her husband promised to attend and she's standing in for him. If she doesn't come it would be like Emp going back on his words, she has to do it."

"Right." Most of the other girls nodded in agreement including Harriett and Galana.

"Then let's establish a strategy. The fear of the unknown is already a great opponent, if we beat it beforehand, the rest will be much easier." Lanavera said while slamming her fist into her palm.

She was welcome to try anything that could help her get over all of this. Calla nodded in agreement right away. The twins took that opportunity to narrate the current situation and set the scene.

"For her tender love, the lady was forced upon an unknown battlefield."

"Surrounded on all sides by dangerous foes, she made her resolve to fight until the end."

"But deep down she knew that this wasn't a place for her and feared the worst might happen."

"She called upon trusted allies for a plan to be made, the insignificant battle would be the stage on which her fate would be played."

Destiny and victory seemed to have a lot of fun blowing the current situation out of proportion but their story was awfully close to what was really happening. With how comfortable she was around strangers, this might as well be a battlefield, insignificant for anyone other than herself. Her fate would be decided by whether or not she could face those people. If she couldn't and cowered in a corner she'd definitely feel useless.

The twins were trying to put things in perspective to help her see how tiny this event really was but they were underestimating how apprehensive she was about this whole thing. If only they could all just go in her stead! The twins would surely be comfortable to partake on their own.

Calla didn't answer anything to their story and turned to the others instead to hear out their opinions.

"Well, it's going to be a feast so we should let the twins do their thing. If they do their usual nonsense, it should gather a lot of attention away from Calla." Bailey said with a shrug.

"I was about to tell them to refrain from doing that like I usually do but you might have a point." Lusine nodded. "The more they make themselves stand out the less pressure Calla would feel."

"Usually, as your entourage, we are supposed to do our best to put you forward and make you the center of the attention but I guess its true that this time around, we want the opposite. We don't really care anyway what the nobles here will think of Calla. Who's even going to be there at the feast?" Maria asked. "Oy Galana, you've lived here for a long time, right? Who are the local nobles?"

Galana let out a sigh of annoyance because she didn't really want to speak about those people she hated but still explained to the benefit of the rest.

"There are only three houses worth mentioning in the city itself, the rest are all minor houses of knights and such. Since the feast is organized so quickly, there won't be anyone coming from the surrounding smaller territories, they won't make it in time so we only have to worry about the three main houses. There will be the Staedlers you all met today, the viscount Rougefond and those Balpoisson. The Balpoisson son tormented me but Emp had him executed after a trial, I don't know how they'll feel about attending a feast to welcome Calla. The Rougefond are the rivals of the Balpoisson so they should be easier to deal with but they're just as untrustworthy as the other ones."

"Do you have any details about the individuals? What about their duties and activities? Any information will help us deal with them." Kaisla urged the book seller to speak some more.

Galana told them everything she knew, the names of the people that mattered, who was the next head and who did the real work. She told them that the Staedlers were in charge of the inner city and the fields around the walls while the Rougefond and the Balpoisson shared the harbor and everything related to the lake including the fishing industry and the protection against the monsters lurking in the dark water. Those two seemed to have the tastiest piece of the economy in Red-water but the count Staedler still took taxes from everything they did and watched over every trade taking place out of the water.

The girls spoke about those three houses at length and got a few ideas about how to deal with each. The hardest was that if she ended up interacting with them, she needed to show interest but not in any way show that she might support them over anyone else or for any particular goal. She couldn't show her dislike to anyone or her approval over anything.

She couldn't be rude by ignoring them but she couldn't show too much interest either because a rumor might sprout about the Muracier favoring one noble house over another. The imperial family had it worse for this kind of thing for sure but the Muracier weren't much better. Having a firm hold over the military, siding for anyone would be problematic because it would probably give them an instant victory in anything they were arguing for. No one would want to fight against the Muraciers over anything after all.

"With all of us being there surrounding her however, there shouldn't be many who would come to her on their own. I think they'll mostly keep their distance and just take a look at her from further away. They'll target the old head instead since they must have all known him for a long time." Lusine commented.

With all the noble girls acting as a shield around her, she should be mostly safe. The many noble men would probably not dare to dive into a group of more then ten women just to speak to a single one. As long as she didn't initiate a conversation herself, most would stay away.

She was so thankful for the idea that interrupting a conversation of a higher ranked noble was very inappropriate. All she had to do was to focus her attention on the girls here and let everyone speak around her. As long as they kept talking, no one would be able get to her.

Once the idea had been presented to her, she started to feel a lot better about this. Plus, most men would feel strange to join a group of women just like that. This meant that they'd send their wives and daughters instead to make contact with her and this was a lot less scary for her.

An unknown girl getting close to her would still make her anxious of course but it couldn't be compared with the feeling of an unknown man approaching her.

"Then all you have to do is acknowledge the girls brave enough to walk into the group with a nod if you want them to speak or introduce themselves. You don't have to say anything to them at all." Bailey added. "They'll be delighted to have their presence be acknowledged by you even if you don't address them directly. At most they'll only be mid ranked nobles so just you looking at them is already good enough."

"Says the daughter of a baron." Sarissa chuckled before turning back to Calla with a warm smile. "We've been invited to attend to you and teach you but to think you would treat us all so warmly. It must be because of your origin but you clearly do not understand how special this is for us."

"Indeed, another would treat us all like servants as our ranks are all too far apart. I'm just the daughter of a baronet and yet our lady listens earnestly to all my counsels. This is very unusual but I'm sure everyone here agrees, we're thankful for our lady's great generosity." Lusine agreed with the others. "You can be certain I will do my best to make myself worthy of this trust and attention."

At first, Calla didn't think there was anything special about all of this but she had heard many things since she became Emp's wife that led her to think otherwise. The noble society of the Steelwood empire wasn't the most rigid there was but it could still be rather cold. Because of how the Muracier handled the armies of the empire, any lower ranked noble could end up with a lot of political power just from showing some prowess in war. Thanks to this, most nobles tended to stay polite and friendly even with nobles of a clearly lower status then them.

They weren't forced to however.

Many of those more highly ranked didn't even glance at those at the lower end of the ladder. Those like Emp and from what she heard, Mable, who showed interest to others regardless of their ranks were considered to be more on the eccentric side of the scale. Well, the Muracier were known for being strange from the start so it wasn't particularly abnormal for Emp to just speak casually with a simple knight or even someone like her who just grew up picking up apples in a field.

Most nobles would want to make friends with those with a better rank then them and try to stay away from those with a lower rank. This seemed hypocritical since they asked for the same attention they refused others but that was how things worked, anything to better their own position and improve the place their house held.

The Muracier worked differently but in the end, it was all the same. Instead of appearing decent and polite, one needed to be strong and show talent to get the attention of the Muraciers and rise in the ranks. Houses would rise and collapse much more quickly around them than they would otherwise. If all their prestige came from a single strong warrior and he ended up dying, if his son or daughter wasn't as good then their house could very well vanish from the world. In a way, it seemed more fair but on the other hand, it was much more ruthless.

Calla didn't act like a noble normally would and she believed it was because she wasn't born a noble herself. She thought it would obviously be the case but everyone she met since she tied herself to Emp felt it was the strangest part of her instead.

According to the others, mostly anyone who suddenly gained a lot of power would use it and feel superior to everyone. With the rank she currently held, she was well above all her friends and mostly anyone else as well. She could order mostly anyone she knew to do mostly anything and they would all have to follow her whims or face the wrath of house Muracier but she didn't do anything special with that power.

She heard Galana speak a lot about how nobles would ask all sorts of unreasonable things to the citizens in Red-water and it was probably the same everywhere else. The laws were heavily tilted in favor of the nobles and they used that power liberally in many cases.

Even the ladies here right now used that power for many things in the past. Sometimes it was just as simple as Bailey using the name of her father the baron Sorenthal to bring her wolves into an inn's room were dogs weren't allowed and sometimes it could be Sarissa forcing her way into buying a slew of items at half the price because she didn't like the attitude of a merchant. Even Emp did it, she saw him use his title to threaten people who did Svae or Galana wrong, the son of a viscount died for that.

If any normal person did that, nobody would listen and guards might even be called but when a noble of a higher rank than you did it, somehow, people were compelled to listen in fear of the possible consequences of disobedience.

Someone like her who suddenly gained such a power should be very tempted to use it for all kinds of things. This was what everyone around her believed.

Her acting so meekly despite having a rank that was essentially equal to that of a queen, maybe even higher, had everyone dumbfounded. Of course, none of the girls here would complain about it because they liked the way Calla was but they clearly felt that she gave them too much consideration. They were here to assist her and provide her some company, it was normal to be friendly with them but treating them as equals was a rather strange thing to do in their opinion.

Calla didn't intend to change her ways at all, she was convinced that she was doing it right. Emp was always doing the same too, what she was doing was just like how he would bring his friends from school to eat in their backyard a meal prepared by herself. She believed that mostly none of them had a high noble rank either but Emp still acted casually with all of them.

Even if she had been bold enough to use the name of her husband as a weapon, which she wasn't, what right would she have of doing so while even he didn't? If Emp was her example of how nobles should be than she was treating those around her exactly as she should. The surname and title didn't really matter in the end, only the person underneath did.

Then again, Emp was allowed to do things this way only because of his surname. Anyone else treating a duke casually would end up in serious trouble. Because he had such a powerful name and future rank, he was allowed to treat people however he wanted and looking only at the personality and talent of those around him was his way of doing so and also exactly what the Muraciers always did.

Maybe that was why Aminui liked her right away? She didn't act like a real noble, she just approached him like she would anyone else and offered him some good food. In some strange way, she had acted like a Muracier would, even though her way of doing things was painted with fear and angst.

She treated everyone equally but that equal was mostly a plea to not come too close to her.

Because of those ways she learned from Emp, all the girls here felt included in her group and accepted. That was a good thing since it made them all happy. She only feared that they might end up being a bit too devoted to her. She would like them to think a bit more about themselves instead of always worrying for her. Well, she still wanted their help for things like today, she did have a lot to learn from them still and she did like their company but felt uncomfortable being the center of the group.

Of course she wouldn't be conceited and feel above the others! She was just an ordinary girl after all. She didn't deserve all that attention and didn't want to be looked up to. The truth was that she was just the daughter of an orchardist, there was nothing that special about her. She wasn't a real noble at all. Even if they dressed her like one and stuck a noble name to her, it didn't make her one.

She felt uncomfortable just thinking about using the powers of a noble because she didn't feel like one and believed she never would. Her not acting like a noble wasn't extraordinary, it was just who she was, the girls shouldn't be impressed by that. She felt distressed at the idea of everyone handling her like they would a noble, she would feel like a fraud, she already did feel like one. She hadn't done anything at all to deserve the help of her new friends.

"Th-thank you." She finally only managed to stutter out in answer to Lusine.

"You don't need to thank us, it's what we're supposed to do after all." The ever dutiful Kaisla told her.

"We haven't even done anything yet!" Maria laughed.

"Speaking of doing things, if we want to be an effective shield tomorrow, we'll have to talk about something. We've all been talking everyday for a long time already, it would be bad if we ran out of things to say at the feast." Lanavera said.

"So you're suggesting we should plan conversation subjects in advance?"

"What sort of subjects then? Does anyone have an idea of what we could talk about tomorrow? Isn't that weird to think of a conversation in advance?"

Bailey seemed to think this was very strange. Lea on the other hand stared blankly at her as if she was the one saying something absurd.

"... That's always what I do though?"

"Oh... Sorry?"

Embarrassment aside, planning a whole conversation ahead of time without ending up speaking as if reading a script did sound rather hard.

A script!

Feeling excited about her idea, she brought it up to the others with the power of her magic cuff.

"We should go see the theater play and talk about it."

"That's right, the count did say that there was a famous troupe playing in the city right now. We should have time tomorrow to go see it before the feast." Sarissa approved.

The twins instantly started shacking in excitement.

"That would be great!"

"We love to watch plays!"

"What is this one about?"

"It doesn't matter, whether it's good or bad it still gives us something to talk about."

Calla was glad everyone agreed with her idea. While they were out to see the play, she might even get some time to go find Marcellia's brother. She had heard from Emp that they had twins too, a boy and a girl. Once she met them, she would know three sets of twins! She felt really excited for that, way more than participating in a feast.

The food might be good though, she wanted to taste it at least.

Going back to Tiberius, she wondered if he was like his sister. He might be really intimidating. It was sort of scary but she felt obligated to meet him and Palonia at least once since they were family too.

That was her whole day for tomorrow set then, she would go meet them with everyone and then move to the theater and finally, the dreaded feast would come right after.

She would bring everyone with her to watch the play but maybe not to the feast?

She questioned the others about what they felt and she heard mixed answers. Eda felt really nervous about being surrounded by nobles and having nothing to wear so she didn't want to come, Galana just didn't want to see any faces that might recognize her and Harriett said that it wasn't proper for a servant to attend the party with the nobles. Aza on other hand would probably...

Calla looked around the room but didn't find her sister. Thinking about it, she hadn't heard anything from her since the start. Where was she? She started to worry right away and her heartbeat accelerated tenfold.

"Where's Azalea?" She asked the others.

"Don't worry, Calla. We noticed she wasn't there so I had people look for her. Apparently, she felt like exploring the place for a bit. I left some knights with her to protect her." Kaisla assured her on a soothing tone.

"She's your elder sister anyway, she shouldn't get in trouble like a small kid even if you're the more responsible of the two." Lanavera added.

They were right, as long as she was watched over properly, she shouldn't worry too much. Aza was an adult too, she could take care of herself. She promised her father she would keep an eye on her though. She'd go look for her right after they were done talking about the feast.

A few more ideas were thrown around after that and the more interesting one ended up being the strangest one too. They decided that it would be for the best if the news of her being lowborn was spread in advance. The nobles would end up learning about it eventually and might use the knowledge for some ploy Calla couldn't imagine. If everyone was aware of the fact first, the value of the information would go down and the shock value of it would be greatly lessened.

The others explained that the usual reaction would be to try their best to hide it for as long as possible because they might look down on her if they heard about this. This time though, they didn't care if anyone thought less of Calla here because they didn't really matter and if they said anything bad about her, they'd get the Muracier house angry. They'd be careful of not putting too much pressure on her instead fearing they might get in trouble if they got her to trip.

With that being the case, they chose Harriett to spread the information. All she had to do was speak to the castle servants about Calla and they would spread the rumor on their own thinking it was some interesting gossip.

Aside from that, there wasn't much else the girls could think about to ease Calla's worries. This was plenty enough for her. She was thankful that they tried so hard to find something to help her. She would definitely thank them later somehow.

She shared a small hug with each of them to express her gratitude and then led everyone outside of the room to search for her sister.