''Trouble, trouble, toil and trouble', wasn't it?' She messaged her temples as she thought about the situation.

It would be her debut, which would change things in terms of future events, but she could still safely say that everything would be fine. Now that they had decided to make it her debut after all, it meant that they wanted to marry her after all, or at least leave that door open.

But there was no one but the Imperial Prince of Lodden who could take her, and she had just established some friendly relations with their Imperial family. So if he wanted to learn about Mana Utilization from the Church first, she might be able to persuade him to say he didn't want this marriage to happen.

"Not that I think he wants me to marry him that badly, but it's a good deal that will be hard to refuse," she muttered to herself, picking up her cup of tea again as she thought, "In the end, they have to establish stable relations with Arlen. But what about Neuhaus?"

They could indeed still marry off their eldest daughter, who was about the same age as Rowena herself. It seemed like nothing to worry about, if only she could talk to Lucan first. With one hand on her drawer, she gathered her writing materials with the other, ready to fix a letter to the Lodden Empire.

'Is there enough time?' Their messenger birds wouldn't take nine days, so they had ample time, considering the Victory Banquet would be ten days later.

It might be a futile endeavor, but she had to try to use the little connection she had established to save herself from the hardship. With a bit of haste, she scribbled her words in her most legible style, asking him to reject any proposals that might reach the Lodden Imperial Family regarding her.

"Great," she said, looking at her work in the sunlight pouring in through the windows, "I wrote 'please' pretty nicely, didn't I?" She was quite pleased indeed.

'They won't be pleased.'

'Shut up, they said I didn't have to get married if I didn't want to. I basically had the Emperor's backing.' Needless to say, if the Emperor of Arlen decided to put pressure on them after they broke their age-old agreement with the Church on her recommendation, they would probably do whatever they had to do.

But until that happened, she remained calm. As for her dress, she wasn't worried, since an occasion like the Victory Banquet was already extremely grand, and the dress she had ordered, knowing that it would be coming soon, had been ordered safely and securely. It was one of the dresses that hadn't been finished when she left, as it was of a more elaborate and fancy nature.

To her, it was just a dress. She hadn't worn dresses as Celia, but it wasn't as if she didn't know what it felt like.

'I did get used to it fast, though,' she thought as she leaned back and took a sip of her now lukewarm tea, 'but it's not as if I had never worn a dress before. Like when I was invited to Sarah Dent's wedding.'

Sometimes she wondered why she had invited her. She had changed a lot of people's lives by saving them, but most of those saved people saw the VAULT Executors through the lens of a spectator in a theater.

To them, they all looked the same, it was all unreal, and they preferred not to be reminded of anything that had happened during their rescue. With their monsters beside them, the Contractors felt as alien as the Visitors who had taken the lives of their loved ones or threatened their own.

And even that one occasion felt surreal to Rowena. If she hadn't been keeping a video of it on her phone, she would have thought it was a dream instead of an old memory. And she hadn't done much during the party itself.

Sometimes, when she tried to recall specific memories from her original life as Celia, it all felt so distant and fuzzy, like a dream she was beginning to forget.

Surely, she would never forget the life she knew, but sometimes, just sometimes, she wondered if it was all in her head. That kind of self-doubt was nonsense, of course. She had Pan by her side and everything she knew.

She knew that she was Celia, the no-name, the stone rolling in from the street. It was a life she couldn't have imagined, even if she wanted to, because she wouldn't have had the imagination.

Scoffing, she put down her now empty cup and shook her head vehemently. "That's not the point anyway." She hadn't been a very good bridesmaid then and had only seen Sarah once since. "And that dress was pretty ugly, too." In fact, it was she who didn't fit into the dress at all.

'What am I thinking? I should send this letter as soon as possible.'

Ultimately, her plans hadn't been disrupted at all, she would still be there for a few more days. Maybe she would leave a day or two earlier than expected. Nothing much had changed except her perception of what this event could entail. And as far as that was concerned, there wasn't much she could do but take whatever life threw at her and hope for the best.

With that thought, she straightened her dress after getting up for the first time in a long time and hurried to find the man in charge of the entire chateau, Humphrey.

Iris blinked in surprise as she opened the door to greet a now familiar face. "I didn't expect to see you so soon, Young Lady Rowena."

"I know, I just thought you might be interested in my opinion since I won't be able to see the finished product anymore." It was now her last day, as she had decided not to stay the whole week after all.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

In her letter to Lodden, she had mentioned that they should send a message to the Varnhagens' mansion in the capital if they were to respond at all. But not knowing if there would be a response already made her nervous. It would be better to arrive as early as possible anyway, as she still had a dance lesson or two to attend.

It hadn't occurred to her at all, but now that she had become one of the main acts of the evening, she would have to dance with someone, even someone who wasn't from her own family, if she didn't want to become a laughing stock. The one no one wanted to dance with.

Frankly, it wouldn't have mattered to her either way, but her desire to at least try to make a better impression on society in order to gain her family's good will stood in the way of that.

She was annoyed just thinking about it, knowing that one or two lessons wouldn't turn her into the queen of the dance floor, but not getting lessons wasn't the better option. She would have to talk to her teacher first, no matter what, so maybe he could help her with that as well.

While she was asked to come in, followed by her young maid, her head was still spinning over what was about to happen. Ansgar entered the room shortly after the door shut out the harsh air from outside.

"Has something happened?" he asked in advance.

"You needn't worry," Rowena said, "something urgent has happened, so I am to return earlier than planned. I will be leaving in the early morning hours tomorrow."

The married couple exchanged glances for a moment, and Rowena began to feel as if they could actually communicate, as she and Pan could. In a way it was wholesome - but in another way she felt left out of their silent conversation.

Especially since it seemed to involve her, as Iris looked back at her with a sad smile.

"Has something happened?" the noble asked with a furrowed brow.

"Nothing happened, my lady," the older woman replied in a warm voice as her husband left the room without a second glance. "We are just glad that we were able to finish in time."

With her words, Ansgar returned, beads of sweat shimmering on his forehead, a box about a meter long in his hands.

"What do you think?" he asked, proudly revealing what was inside the box after removing the lid and the velvet covering its contents.

She stared at it for a long time before she realized that what she saw was indeed a sword in a delicately designed ivory scabbard.

Her hand moved to touch it, but stopped in mid-air. "If I may?"

"We would be honored if you were to have a look."

"I'm the one who would be honored," Rowena replied, afraid to break something so beautiful, but at the same time thinking that it had to be held in order to fight.

When she touched the intricate floral patterns, she felt something beyond the smooth surface. There was a protective varnish of sorts, and she the energy of a Mana Stone.

They weren't able to reshape an entire Stone yet, but grinding it wasn't the problem. Like a diamond, one stone was used against the other. This method could not be used to forge a sword, but it could be used to make all kinds of other artifacts and refinements.

"What is the outer layer made of?"

"I knew you could tell," Ansgar said before turning and looking at his wife. "My lady," he added quickly.

"It's covered with a mixture of clear resin from the trees of the Gloria Forest and half of a ground up Mana Stone we had left to work with, young lady." Iris smiled as she saw her lord's daughter's eyes bright with awe. "It will be almost indestructible."

"It certainly will be." Even though it sounded rather arrogant, she wasn't wrong at all. Even the great "Ragnarök" had a sheath made from these ingredients.

"Bruno was able to get his hands on some of the resin that was delivered just this week."

Rowena could only nod as she picked up the sword and pulled the blade out of its confinement for the first time. Brandishing it, she felt the perfect balance of a master's sword in her hand.

'That's what a sword should feel like.'

'Wouldn't they all feel the same?'

'What the fuck, Pan?' He wouldn't understand, as he had never needed a specific weapon, but that sort of remark was akin to blasphemy to her.

No, the clarity, the balance, the ratio of how much of the materials they needed, it was all perfect to her. They had taken her original blueprint as well, but they must have trained themselves to death with inferior products during her trip to Lodden.

A straight, westernized tanto blade, completely foreign to this world, but so perfectly replicated from her drawing alone. At the same time, the hilt had the same style as other swords of this Empire.

She would have to whip out a ruler, but even without it, she could tell it would show an exact length of ninety centimeters - thirty centimeters hilt and sixty centimeters blade. The Master from Europe she had worked with as Celia was also very particular about these things, and she would guess that Ansgar and even Iris were close to him in that regard.

Another thing she noticed was a rose carved out of a gemstone, dangling from a thin chain at the end of the hilt. It felt like a tassel, but even when she moved it, it wasn't too short or too long, so it didn't get in her way at all.

It felt like a decorative sword, but at the same time, it wasn't. This incongruity led her to swing the sword around in the empty space of the room until someone cleared their throat and brought her back to reality.

Her attention turned to the noise as she sheathed the sword in embarrassment. "A fine piece of work, I must commend you." With a feigned cough, she put it back into the wooden box.

"We are pleased to hear that, Lady Rowena," Iris said, gently placing a hand over Rowena's that was still holding the sword. "We hope it will help you on your journey from now on."

There was this one image that came to mind when Iris thought of her young mistress. When the great wave had hit her, all she could do was stand there powerless as the girl had reached out to her for help.

In reality, that wasn't what Rowena had intended at all, as she had accidentally tried to summon her chains when she obviously couldn't. But seeing it had broken the older woman's heart.

'It may be a mother's instinct that I have retained,' she thought, 'but I doubt this was the last time she will be in danger.'

They had also heard about what had happened in their neighboring Empire.

"For saving us, we hope to save your life with this one day," Ansgar said with a more stoic expression than before.

It was Iris who had designed and carved the florals and roses, she also carved the "tassel" from an amethyst she had kept from her jewelry making days. Like her husband, she couldn't throw it away or sell it, so it had been gathering dust in a box tucked away where no one saw it.

But now it finally served a purpose, and that made the old artisan feel relieved.

"Even if it's just for once, we hope it will keep you out of danger, even if we can't keep you out of danger ourselves."

It seemed to them that the lavender-haired teenager was the kind of person who could get into trouble without even looking for it. Their child would have been the same age as her - and they wondered if the two of them would be the same in that respect. Would they have had to worry as much?

Rowena looked at the sword with a complicated expression. Had she not originally come here to have a sword made? She had, but then she had realized that she didn't need a sword.

Her old habits had gotten the better of her, so she had asked for one at first, but she didn't seek to fight. She didn't wish to fight. On the other hand, now that she was involved, she would need a weapon again, there was no denying that.

There was so much she wanted to say, but instead she felt tears in her eyes. There was still a warm hand on hers, and even the sword beneath her fingertips didn't feel cold anymore.