[h2]Royal Box[/h2]

"It [i]might[/i] be more comfortable, but the heart is [i]kind of important[/i] in vampirism—"

And then Gertrude loudly repeated her words from the hunt.

The pronouncement was followed by absolute silence, and everyone's gaze tracking immediately over to the paladin in question. A paladin that, even without Gretchen leaning on her chest, was steadily going almost as red as her eyes from the sudden attention.

"D-Dame Tyaethe, is this all true…?" Elisandre asked, unable to keep her voice from creeping towards the [i]excited[/i] rather than simply scandalised.

"I–I don't know!" were the first words out of the vampire's mouth, against all odds, and the princess's brow was already furrowing in confusion, "I couldn't really [i]see[/i] him! I just remembered what was going on the last time! Well, what Cyrus [i]said[/i] was going on to start…"

"Ooooh," the princess nodded, even though she didn't [i]really[/i] get it. Maybe Rozenalt was particularly hard to see? Or… well, the vampire [i]was[/i] short, maybe that was the problem.

Fortunately, Maletha spared her any more immediate interrogation over the all-but confirmed crudeness by wondering about the [i]second[/i] thing Gertrude had brought up: "Umm… did Tyaethe really look that scary? She looked so nice when we were playing…"

Haizea gave a happy little hum and leaned into the ruffling, tail swishing, "Are you sure? Everyone we talked to said that it was too strong to do anything about… would your Auntie really know better than the college?"