"Excuse me?!" snapped the small, gray-haired girl, narrowing her eyes, "What is that supposed to mean, exactly?!"

While the girl was certainly irritated, the knight didn't say a single thing. They stood stock still, like a statue, the shove to their shoulder not causing them to budge even a single centimeter. The only sign the armored figure was even a living being was the slight shift of those barely-visible eyes.

The gray-haired girl folded her arms across her chest.

"I am Lady Veileena Cal," she introduced herself, "And you are a drunkard I haven't the time for. I will have Haelstadt find somewhere far more suitable for the likes of you if this harassment continues."

Veileena Cal, the daughter of Phoran Cal, the sole living direct heir to the Cal name. She had refused to bury her father's remains in the family tomb, instead choosing to have his corpse dumped in an unmarked grave in the wilderness, and this was hardly an unknown fact.

That probably said everything, really.

[hr]

"... Ah, um, very well, Sir Gerard," Fanilly said, scratching the back of her head lightly as she did. To be honest, she wasn't sure she was the best when it came to gleaning how to behave at a ball. Honestly, whenever she was at one when she was younger, she tended only to talk to a small amount of people and was usually rather quiet. It wasn't that she didn't like parties, she just always felt a bit overwhelmed by them. Still, she was doing her best.

"Not at all, I'd love the chance to speak with more of the knights!" declared the Princess, brightly, smiling towards Sir Gerard as she did.

Things seemed to be going well, for now, but...

Fanilly knew something was going on. Even if none of the knights had yet told her...

"Watch to your right."

It was a little girl's voice, in her right ear. Fanilly immediately turned, wide-eyed. Who said that? Where-

Somehow, a tiny female figure seemed to materialize from the crowds. Small, perhaps a little over a meter in height, with a hood. Fanilly thought she caught a glimpse of pale skin and crimson eyes between scarf and hood, but more importantly...!

The figure raised a pistol crossbow, took aim and-

Fanilly grabbed the princess and immediately yanked her down, as the bolt sailed over both of their heads and embedded itself in the distant wall! Before she could rise and try and give orders to her knights, the assassin had already adjusted her aim, squarely at the downed, surprised princess and preparing to loose another shot...!

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