That was the look Gertrude wanted.

The way Fanilly recoiled, the way she couldn't summon up words, the way she tried to put space between them.

The way her cheeks colored as Gertrude closed in.

[i]This[/i] was the reality of the Captain of the Iron Rose Knights. Any confidence or authority she could affect was just a façade. This woman was a weakling at the core, and someone Gertrude could feel good looking down upon. She would give Fanilly no quarter. As the Knight-captain backed away, Gertrude-

"Tch."

Gertrude clicked her tongue as the man who had 'helped' her up earlier grabbed her collar to keep her away from Fanilly. If he had known who she was, he wouldn't have dared to grab her again. She wanted to teach him a lesson, but she was outnumbered.

Not outmatched, of course, but outnumbered. Theoretically infinitely. And all the spells she was interested in were for killing, and not subduing. Gertrude kills, and they come back. Over and over. Until she runs out of mana, if they were stubborn enough, and then she dies. Gertrude didn't like pain. It had been years since she'd had to deal with it, and she wasn't about to have to deal with it now.

"I'm glad you agree with me, Gerald," she practically growled, "but that's twice you've grabbed me without my say so. Not very knightly, is it? Next time, I may not be in such good spirits. I'd be [i]absolutely ecstatic[/i] if you'd get me my damn food as recompense."

With Gerard grabbing her, Fionn glaring daggers at her, and now Nicomede stancing up next to her, it made her almost sick how quickly they jumped to Fanilly's defense in different ways.

Weaklings shouldn't be able to [i]get[/i] the amount of devotion these knights obviously had towards their Captain. Weaklings get beat down and humiliated. Weaklings don't get to [i]have[/i] affection. It was [i]infuriating[/i], and now she couldn't even kill her problem away. She regarded Nicomede.

"Hmph. As knights, you could stand to learn a little patience," she said as she side-eyed Fionn, her attitude having turned from volatile anger to simmering antagonism through her own contemplation of the current situation, "and while I won't be tricked into getting my own food, Gretchen will go along to make sure that whatever you all get for me isn't poisoned or spat in."

She turned, once more, to Fanilly.

"So, you've gone from scolding me to showing at least a little concern," she said, the barest hint of a smile creeping back up on her lips, "I'll take it, [i]mistress.[/i]"

The way she said 'mistress' was anything but sincere, but she was at least not spitting venom at the moment.

"Well, you've heard it already, but whatever. I'm Gertrude, and we're in the same boat. I don't really know what I'm doing here, either. I don't need to train or grow or anything, since I'm already great. I was just supposed to be a consultant, but I guess that's not enough for the old-"

Gertrude frowned. Could Merilia hear her here?

"For [i]Merilia[/i]. But don't even try to get in her head. Witches don't think like people do. All you can really do is take her at face value, if you wanna get out of here sane."

Gertrude smugged and crossed her arms underneath her chest as she followed some relatively good advice with profoundly [i]bad[/i] advice:

"And she said to look after me, so that's probably part of the package."