The wall met his back after she pushed him one more time, tone equally disappointed and furious. Third? He wondered, perplexed. Honestly, the whole thing caught him off guard. Why did she seem… hurt? Mayhaps her feelings ran a bit deeper than it seemed, this was a far cry from her usual annoyance.

The answer hit him, making his heart skip a beat once again. She liked him in turn. Why else would she be so upset at what would otherwise be a minor social faux pas? Besides, she read far more into what he said than he meant. “I was just informing you of my interest, trying to set it in motion. Of course I know how to treat a lady. If I were here to ask you on a date, this would be different.”

A moment of silence fell as she realized that she had in fact jumped the gun, and the anger turned into embarrassment. “...O-oh. Right. Well, my apologies. In my sphere of things, you don’t bother expressing feelings you aren’t intending to be acting on in short order, so…,” she rambled. She wanted to throw on her helmet and close the visor. Not to mention completely internalize her energy. She got so swept up so fast that he’d do something so disrespectful… why? Because it genuinely hurt her.

Her internal processing froze there. Ridiculous. Why should…? Why would she have made something out of nothing? There had to have been a reason… After thorough ruminating, she came to the conclusion that he spoke the truth. And even if that were the case, why should it bother her so much? He was known to be rude and crass, this would be honestly middling on the list of offensive things he’s done. Yet it struck such a nerve. “I am sorry, Lord Takrok. I don’t rightly know what got into me there. If I could make this transgression up to you, do tell me how,” she said through clenched teeth.

If Maple were capable of blushing, she’d be positively radiating heat from the blood rushing to her face. If only she could disappear into a black hole somewhere, she’d be quite pleased with her fate. “If you can think of any favor at all, I shall weigh the equality of your request with my mistake,” she continued, giving a deep bow from the waist, only hoping he didn’t do anything obscene with the amount of power she’s given him…

But he gave her the worst response; a smirk and a “I will give it thought. I must admit it is so odd to see you so out of sorts. Have you any idea why that might be so?”

She gave a stiff shrug, eyes averting from his, “I have speculation, but nothing confirmed. I’d hate to misinform you.”

“No, that’s okay. I know it’s just a guess. But I’d love to hear your thoughts.”

“I feel it would be ill mannered to bend your ear with but an unsubstantiated claim,” she said, voice perfectly stable. The same could be said of her energy field, and that was especially suspect. She was obviously holding back reactions. But he could take a hint… sometimes… so he stopped there.

“Very well… if you insist on silence, I’m sure it’s for a good reason,” he teased, brushing his shoulder against hers when he pushed past where she had shoved him. Not that he didn’t make the contact take longer than was strictly necessary. “Though I would love it if you could get back to me on that once you find out,” he said as he walked out of the room.

“I will take that under advisement…” she said, fighting off both anxiety and embarrassment. There was going to be a fair amount of introspection done, that was for sure… which would surely have no small amount of cursing herself for attracting the interest of such a being. For not knowing how to respond when he expressed interest. And that miscommunication! If there were embers of rumors about herself and Takrok, they would have surely ignited after such… bountiful fuel.

"Laven, dear?" She called, seeing Laven standing in the corner of the room. She had been so upset she failed to defeat the , and the purple haired/eyed girl had snuck in. Damn. Maple had mana vision, but that didn’t innately beat a high sneak skill every time. Laven was the oddest young maid that Maple had ever seen, with a constant sneak skill and cognition filter that made it difficult to look for her to begin with, skills that helped her greatly during her role as an assassin during the civil war. That she was only thirteen at the time of her involvement bothered Maple… but so did much about the war. No small amount of which was done by Maple herself.

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The maid just about jumped out of her skin and cleared her throat, doing her best to preserve her dignity. “Yes, Lady Maple?”

“You weren’t the only one to hear that, were you?”

“No, ma’am.”

Maple groaned and face palmed, “Lovely, that’s a wildfire then… and we can’t control its spread, here…”

“I’m afraid not, Lady Maple,” the maid mumbled.

“...Please contact Duchess Alliana and Lord Reese. Inform them I’d like this information to be… limited as much as possible.”

“And as to the matter of payment, my Lady?”

The slime just waved that off, “They know I’m good for it. Besides, such people can do more with an open promise than they can with coin. Consider such vague wording part of the payment. Now, go quickly. Every moment you take is one where some information broker gathers details.”

That got a look of skepticism from the maid, albeit a submissive one, “I shall see to it, ma’am.”

“Now then…,” began Maple as she used Find Person on Her Majesty Queen Isabella. She could feel her spell get registered and tracked by a local controlled antimagic field. It was these little things that awed Maple about Takrok’s capabilities. An antimagic golem, using magical coding to create a massive field that covered everyone in and near the castle grounds. Not a single instance of magic went off, of any variety, without Takrok’s direct screening and approval… a literally impossible feat. It was simply not how antimagic worked. Yet, all of this he did while in a lesser form and carrying on civil conversations. A massive flow of information passed through his head at any time. This wasn’t even considering the medley of other awareness abilities and constant effects that he had going! He was quite the impressive specimen… in terms of capabilities, of course.

As infuriating as his pride was, it was very clearly not for no reason.

Maple nearly jumped as she opened the doors to one of the dining halls, where Queen Isabella sat reading something. She had gone right into . It was a skill that gave control of your body over to a lesser state of consciousness and freed your mind to speculate any number of things. She was so good at it, she used it in battle to free up her mind to observe her surroundings and begin the casting of complex, ritual scale spells whilst still performing close to mid range combat with her spear.

The downside to this was that she entered and exited the state so freely, she sometimes didn’t notice at all. That meant that sometimes events you yourself instigated could catch you off guard.

The entertained smile that briefly crossed the queen’s face worried the slime knight, who knew that a smile was not always a good sign with Isabella. It meant something had just occurred substantially in her favor… that was not always a good thing for the subject in question.

Given that look, it was probable that Queen Isabella was in fact reading about Maple herself. A knot of anxiety twisted in her abdomen. The queen was the kind that made a good friend, and had been a caring figure… but she kept dirt on friends and enemies alike. It was her duty as queen to take every advantage she could for her people. This was commonly understood among the nobility. It was never personal with Isabella… but damn if her business couldn’t get dirty.

At the end of the day, she was the realist between the king and queen, and as much respect as Maple had for King Augustus… the man was a goofball. He could be serious when he needed to, but he was all but oblivious to the games of intrigue being played around him. That left a lot of slack for the queen to be picking up.

“Ah, Archduchess Maple! What interesting timing you have,” she said, her smile becoming a downright grin, “Please, take a seat. I do believe that a conversation is due… lady to lady, as it were.”