The three Royals weren't in the dorms with the rest of the students. The Academy repurposed the top floor of the faculty building into a set of three big apartments for the princely pricks and their fucking entourage.
As the classes went by, I was more and more annoyed at their presence in the classroom. They fucked up with the whole lecture dynamics and cowed the students into staying silent. It would be better to redistribute the twelve of us in the other Classes and keep Light-1 exclusively for the three Royals.
One had to wonder. Who were these bodyguards supposed to protect their wards from? The faculty? Another student? From each other? I had no idea why and the only reasonable reason was that they were window dressing. The little "sovereign leeches", as Izaro liked to call, strutted along the corridors with the entourage of bodyguards because they could.
Maybe the statement wasn't for the students and general public but for the Academy. The Royal families were telling the faculty, "We don't entirely trust you to keep our precious sons and daughter safe, and we will inconvenience you with all sorts of trouble to remind you of that."
It was still a kind of window dressing.
Windemere's institutions were slowly crumbling. As they lost power and prestige, the other groups within and without filled the void and pressed the former into an ever-accelerating downward spiral.
I needed to push my plans forward. After this stupid tea party ended, I needed to dive into the Dungeon. Not to level up but to capture one monster that met very specific criteria.
----------------------------------------
"I was there, sitting with Duke Ivanesh, discussing very important matters of state," Princess Mirina spun her tale, "when the door bursts open. I'm surprised to see Lady Ivanesh barge into the room. 'Grandpa, we need to talk!' The uncouth waif demanded like she owned the place! Such outrageous behavior!"
We and the ladies sitting at the round table giggled and nodded, directing our polite scorn at this Lady 'whatever' Ivanesh. Once our outburst of support for the [Princess] ended quickly, she resumed her harrowing story.
"'Astria, mind your manners,' Duke Ivanesh scolded her brash granddaughter. 'We have an esteemed guest here!' He nodded my way and I graciously smiled."
Oohs and Ahhs were thrown around like wilted yellowed lettuce at the end of the Bazaar workday.
"The little trollop put her arms akimbo like this," Mirina imitated the gesture making a slightly funny face, "and demanded, 'Grandpa! Is this guest more important than me?'" She giggled. "I was so appalled by that impudence that I was left speechless, can you imagine!"
In unison, we expressed sympathy for the tea party host's dire plight. Under the table, I pinched Marisol to keep her from rolling her eyes.
"The most polite thing I could do was to ignore her and pretend I didn't hear her insult. I mean, I was in my right if I ordered her a good beating, but I thought it was too much to have the Duke's granddaughter flogged in his own house."
"Oh, Your Highness is so generous, Princess," a noble lady from the third year cooed. "I wouldn't display the same composure as your gracious self."
What's good for the goose is good for the gander, I guess. If the Royal families sent their princes and princesses to study here, of course, the Counts, Marquises, and other nobles would send their children too. The tuition was expensive and someone had to pay the bill. Mirina filled her tea party table with no less than twelve noble ladies from four nations and two plebeians.
That had two side effects. One, it forced her to seat us on the other side of the table, across from her just as we feared. Any other arrangement would offend one of these highborn ladies as it would tell them they were inferior to commoners. Two, it made us the butt of every commoner joke the acrid ladies tossed around like fireworks on the fourth of July. If I earned a copper for each harsh glare, cold stare, and leer they gave us, I would've funded my months' tuition.
I felt like window dressing. Just some barely interesting stray pet Mirina found shivering in the curb during winter and now was openly on display.
"But Haru," one Tanya, daughter of a Count hailing from Lonid addressed me without any honorific at all, to drive home the fact I was less than her. "I must say, your makeup looks so natural! I can see your skin through it and yet it is so vivacious. You must tell us your secret!" She finished with an excited but delicate clapping of hands, superfluous and diaphanous like a butterfly's third pair of wings.
"It's a Perk," I replied curtly.
The girl squealed, "A makeup Perk! How marvelous. Do tell us, dear Haru, what are the requirements?"
"I need a moment to check my Status, please."
> ACKNOWLEDGED. Processing query. Found 1 match: Chameleon Skin: Rank 1, Furtivity 50, Willpower 20, Magic 20. Restricted to a list of Species and Classes.
A restricted Perk would be no good. Especially one that denounced me as someone with such proficiency.
> ACKNOWLEDGED. Processing query. No matches. Evaluating suggestion. Creating Perk.
>
> Makeup (unranked): Allows minor cosmetic changes to skin color on the head, neck, and decolletage. Gives a +2 bonus to Charisma tests regarding seduction or appearance.
> Requirements: Charisma 35. Species must have exposed skin covering most of the head, neck, and decolletage.
>
> The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
>
> Making preliminar evaluation of rarity based on the subconscious reaction from the target user base. Temporary rarity assigned as [Rare]. Adding Perk to species lists.
I sighed with relief. It was a shit-crap Perk. Nevertheless, I completed my mission. "It's called just 'Makeup', [Rare]. Its requirements are thirty-five Charisma and a compatible species, which we all are."
My last statement earned more coppers for my imaginary tuition fund. How dare I compare myself to them?
One of the ladies, the daughter of a viscount from Leondirac and a second-year student, if I'm not mistaken, squealed. "I got it! I got it! Oh, I can't wait to test it!"
"Hurry, Lady Persimmon, read the description for us!" Another one demanded, her rudeness forgiven and forgotten in the heat of the glorious moment.
While the ladies ignored me for their new System-given toy, I could only lament inside while keeping my poker face straight. The "lady tax" existed in this world and it was a harsh one. A Perk to stop bleeding every month. A Perk to save hours sitting in front of the vanity peacocking oneself for the visual delight of others. Another to keep fur from growing on one's limbs. Some women ignored these but as peer pressure increased, most of the 'civilized' ones would cave in and spend their limited allotment of Perks on such frivolities.
I made a decision to spoil Marisol after this. She was enduring this gruesome torture exemplarily.
"Miss Haru is such a delightful and resourceful person," [Princess] Mirina took the reins of the situation. As the host and sun of the afternoon, she couldn't let a measly Perk obfuscate her. Her move was a calculated one. By praising me, her pet guest, she would suck some of the prestige for revealing the Perk to herself. After all, the world stood still when Her Highness wasn't paying attention, or so the saying went.
"I am most grateful, Your Highness, but your kind words are wasted on someone as lowly as myself," I replied graciously.
"Oh, you don't need to be humble, my dear Haru. I still shiver with delight when I remember the marvelous expertise which you displayed during professor Ibarin inaugural lesson! McGrath, my retinue's [Wizard] couldn't help but lay praise at such a promising young magician!"
I could hear the coins falling in my virtual piggy bank. Some looks appeared to be donating silvers instead of the ordinary 'you're not worthy of my attention' coppers.
"I'm speechless at your magnanimousness, Your Highness," I lowered my head.
Mirina squealed, "Oh, Miss Haru. You're going to make me swoon!" She joked and drew another round of giggles and another hat pass for my tuition. "I see now what the fabled [Saintess] saw on you."
"Oh! The [Saintess]?" Cried a first-year girl from Lonid, daughter of a Marquis. She spoke out-of-turn and almost over the Princess. I guess she also needs help funding her tuition because she stole a lot of my imaginary coins.
"Indeed, Lady Frostcoat," Mirina smiled from the nose under, her eyes glaring. "Ladies Haru and Marisol are scholarship students sponsored by the [Saintess]," Her Royal Cunt diminished us by hinting at our alleged financial situation.
"Is it so?" Lady Persimmon invested some of the social capital gained for being the world's first to waste a pick on the new Perk to peck at us. "I wondered where they obtained these marvelous gowns in such a short notice."
Another one that would shrivel and dry before getting another invitation from the Princess. Marisol was about to answer but I pushed down on her thigh.
"It's a local product, one of Windemere's specialties, Milady Persimmon. The tailor is a bit shy and deals mostly with wholesale, she was kind enough to make an exception for us so we wouldn't embarrass ourselves much by muddying such a wonderful flower garden," I made sure to make eye contact with everyone ending on the Princess while I delivered my metaphor. Back to Lady Persimmon, "I could recommend you to one of his business partners if you are interested in trade. I highly recommend it. The fabric is superb, much better than the scratchy rags we're used to. I'm really grateful to Her Highness for granting such a boon for us. After we received her gorgeous invitation card, it was as if the world brightened up in her wake. We are indebted to you, Your Highness."
Mirina was beaming, but her smile had predatory undertones. I added the last sentence on purpose, to bait her into acting fast.
"I heard Lady Haru has other appointments with that brutish Isengar and the lily-livered Euric," Tanya the Count daughter from Lonid attempted to win some cookie points from her Princess by demeaning the other two Royals. A risky gamble.
"That's correct, Lady Archuleta," Mirina took the floor. "But I would refrain from using such uncouth adjectives toward Royalty in the future, for your own sake," she lightly scolded the woman, making her indebted to the [Princess]. "However deserving they may or may not be," She added after a pause, drawing another round of fake giggles around the table.
All eyes fell on me. It seemed that Mirina's interjection was just to rectify the slight but she'd allowed the question to pass. I had to answer.
"Oh, that's true," I sighed briefly. "A duel and a debate, it seems. His Highness Isengar of Leondirac wants me to be bullied by his retainer [Wizard], and His Highness Euric of Ekar wishes for more details on Archmagister Marlowe, who gave me a primer on wizardry and spellcasting before the term started."
"Marlowe!" One prickly rose exclaimed out of order.
"I heard he was dead," Another added.
"Ladies, please," Mirina curbed their excitement. "We have no reason to cast doubt on Miss Haru's claims of being trained by a spectral [Archmage] from beyond, do we?"
Instead of staring at the [Princess] for her snipe, I immersed myself in my teacup and sipped slowly. The giggles flowed around me and some ladies grunted their slight irritation at my blasé attitude.
Mirina politely waited for me to rest my cup back on the saucer to continue, "The reason I invited you two here, Haru and Marisol," she eschewed the honorific this time, "is to offer you the opportunity to work for me. I want to hire you two as my servants."
The girls squealed and cheered for us. They seemed to me like those scammer helpers that play the game a few times winning a good sum to draw in easy marks to be ripped off. I shifted my demeanor and glanced. Marisol was waiting to reply on my cue.
I stared at the [Princess]. "We are grateful for your Highness generosity, but we believe ourselves to be beneath entering your service. My starting proficiency is a fluke, that's the truth. I have no doubt I'll need an insurmountable amount of effort to raise my [Spellcaster] proficiency by a single point, and at the end of the year most of the Class, Your Highnesses included will have surpassed that lowly threshold of eighty points easily. The same is true for Marisol here. We beg your pardon but we'll decline your offer."
I didn't stop staring at her. I could sense the tiara-wielding bitch was very pissed at me but she barely let it transpire. The other ladies stopped grousing and squawking altogether, reading the mood and staying the fuck away from whatever was about to happen.
> Center Stage
I activated a [Diva] Perk that forbade enemies from targeting my allies, shielding Marisol unless I was hit by that particular enemy first. The "Attacks" mentioned in the descritpion included mental and social hostile interactions too. I did it because I suspected the [Princess] would next attempt to rope us in forcefully. All attention fell on me, even from the guards and servants waiting at a reasonable distance.
The air was thick as if one could cut it with a knife.
"Miss Haru, I must insist. Someone as talented as you must work for me, I insist!" the fucking bitch dared use {Royal Order} on me.
> Royal Order automatically resisted. This Ability doesn't work on Royalty.
I narrowed my eyes but kept staring at her, unblinking. Mirina's face was drained of all color as she probably read her own notification.
> Contested Charisma test Won. Intimidation successful.