"..."

For several moments, as her eyes fell upon the stuffed frog-knight, Velvetica found herself unable to articulate any words.

Cute.

It was cute. It was really cute. Honestly, she'd managed to hold back her admiration for the doll back in the crypt, but now that there wasn't anything else to occupy her attention...

For a few moments she didn't actually manage to say anything at all.

It wasn't as if anyone who had never been to her room would know this, and simply intruding on the Steel Princess's private quarters was practically unfathomable.

But if anyone had gone in there, they would discover her collection.

The variety of stuffed toys she possessed.

Her brother was grinning.

No matter how she admired him, her annoyance at how amused she was exceeded it.

"... A-ahem, I... I certainly admire the craftsmanship," Velvetica began, trying to navigate the situation as best she could, "Plus, it's ad-aesthetically interesting."

To reveal the leader of the Hraeslag Lions so adored cute things would... what would people think, in the heat of battle?! She simply couldn't!

But at the same time, she couldn't ignore the cute look of the armored frog.

"I shall gladly accept this gift."

Her brother stepped forward, nodding his head and still smiling.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Lady Lirrah," he began, "I'm Velvetica's elder brother, Elroy. I think you may have picked just the kind of gift my little sister finds [i]aesthetically interesting[/i]."

Admiration didn't stop Velvetica from shooting him a brief glare as she moved to accept the frog.

[@Octo]

[hr]

Ah, she hadn't even had time to put it away...

Later that day, once she had returned to her office, the frog knight was still seated on Velvetica's desk when Kayliss emerged from the corner.

Certainly, she understood the assassin's desire to keep things under wraps when it came to matters such as this, but at the same time she hoped this would never occur with her own personal quarters.

So, Sir István appeared to suspect that something had happened to the Crownsblades? That was difficult, given that the organization was all but destroyed.

"Hmmm... I see," she began, crossing her arms as she leaned back in her seat.

"To begin with, I would prefer if you didn't do anything that could lead to his death," she continued after a moment. To be honest, she would have hoped that those in her employ would also trust her judgement in terms of who she accepted into her service, but that was unfortunately something she simply couldn't count on. Especially given that someone had so clearly desired those who had served as the Crown's assassin's dead.

"As for the nature of your employment," she continued after a moment, "I don't particularly like the idea of lying about my own dealings with the crown. That is not the behavior of a champion of Velt and its people. Rather, I believe simply omitting some of the details if the best course of action."

It was the first possibility that came to mind, at least.

[@Psyker Landshark]

[hr]

It was around that moment that the door opened once again.

The figure who stepped through it was a dark-haired woman who appeared to be in her early twenties, her blue eyes possessing an odd luminscence and her pale skin almost ethereal. Her slight features were not out of the realm of humanity, but the slight point to her ears implied ancestry outside of it. She wore red and gold robes over a frilled dress, and currently wore an irritable frown on her face.

It was likely that both of those present would recognize her as the mage employed by the Hraeslag family, Liletta Venn.

In her arms was the doll, Anisette, who had a slight scowl on her face.

"The report did say she could speak, didn't it?" began Liletta, exasperated, "Because she won't answer a single question I ask her. You were the one who got her name, do you-"

She paused on sight of smouldering paper, and the other sheets.

"What have you been [i]doing[/i] in here?"

[@Raineh Daze][@Eisenhorn]