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Jelena did her best to dance with the marquis, but knew herself that she was doing awfully. That said, she grinned happily and did her best. When the man said his compliment… Jelena laughed out loud.

[color=a699ad]‘We both know that’s not true, but thank you for the encouragement! You’re a proper gentleman! Thank you for the dance! I had fun!’[/color] Jelena chuckled but regardless smiled. In her previous life, she’d never had dared to do anything like this, but somehow she felt like any experience she had here didn’t matter, it was utterly impossible for her to ruin her reputation because she had none, so why not, really?

Then this sir Mathias Hatwington showed up, and talked about something that Jelena wasn’t interested in in the slightest and had absolutely no knowledge about. He was discussing about this dude’s theory of something or other, and for the amusements of it, Jelena held up a finger. [color=a699ad]‘It is an interesting subject, I must admit. But, and consider the following carefully… What if he’s wrong?’[/color] she asked, sounding supremely serious as she asked.

With the hopes that the academic now was mentally imploding, Jelena used her metal control to make herself gracefully hover right above the floor as to not make noise while walking and also probably make Harry think ‘and why on earth did she not do that earlier while dancing’ if he saw, because Jelena wanted to attempt sneaking near to eavesdrop on that conversation. Now, Jelena has, like, zero stealth skills, but she still wanted to hover in somewhere close where she wanted to hide to listen in, just because. And also prepared to defend herself, just in case.

Mariette, meanwhile, recognized the nature of the game and concluded she didn’t need to focus as much as she’d done on arm-strength, and more on her mental strength, which suited her much, MUCH better. She quickly became much better at the game and perhaps even started having a degree of fun while playing. Albeit… 

She was nowhere near prepared for the queen’s next couple of reactions.

Mariette’s eyes widened in surprise as she got hugged, and the queen finished her sentence… and then a whole bunch of tentacles appeared, out of fright, trying to undo the hug and stood ready as if to attack. They didn’t, but the chance was that they’d be taken the wrong way.

[color=077ae6]‘I-I…’[/color] Mariette stuttered. [color=077ae6]‘I need an explanation,’[/color] she said, completely lost for other words. There was no way this was actually her mother, right? Last she knew, her mother would still be living with her abusive father, short one daughter… not that Mariette had been keeping track of them… but it couldn’t be. Did she mean metaphorically? But then… what was the name “Alice”? Because, Mariette’s name hadn’t been Mariette… but it hadn’t been Alice, either.

Mariette was still, awaiting words.’

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Mayra, indeed, didn’t really hear Penny. She was far too focused on Kiyome’s replies. Mayra looked just a little disappointed when she heard her new friend (according to herself) wasn’t a dragon turned into a girl like herself, but Mayra quickly brightened herself up. [color=fc6828]‘That’s alright! Nobody’s perfect!’[/color] was her thoughts on that.

All those spells and precognition were more than enough to teleport out of Mayra’s claw’s range. Mayra excitedly turned towards Kiyome’s new location, where the girl talked about doing this later.

[color=fc6828]‘Later!? But I’m excited NOW!’[/color] Mayra replied, still grinning happily.

Taking cover behind Penny seemed to give Mayra pause, however. Mayra was about to just happily launch herself after Kiyome, but with Penny suddenly being there, she didn’t.

[color=fc6828]‘Oh. I can’t attack you now, because this is not the right time to attack Penny.’[/color] … and apparently that was the only reason she couldn’t attack Kiyome right now. [color=fc6828]‘Whelp, guess I’ll just fight the current enemy. Sooo, where do you want me? Hey, let’s all attack at the same time! With the power of our trio, it’s gotta be awesome!’[/color] Mayra laughed, and turned to face the same direction as Penny, ready to battle, amused by the idea of super-fighter-trio herself, Penny and new girl.

[color=fc6828]‘Hey, green dragon friend! I’m Mayra! What’s your name?’[/color] Mayra asked, preparing to dash into battle. Because green dragon friend hadn’t told her name.

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[color=55B7AA]‘Woah, we need to speed up!’[/color] Ronin called about the incoming artillery.

[color=DC9495]‘Keep a personal shield up, sister!’[/color] Miko called, and the two of them kept going. They followed Lily’s instructions of leaving the villagers in the front yard, while otherwise hurrying to grab civilians and get them out of the respective houses. All the while, they kept personal Reinforcement shields ready just in case they got unlucky with the artillery.