Light spills through the new door in her room, wind howls just beyond the veranda, the morning sun shines brightly, waking everyone that it touches. Some hide to continue sleeping, others close their windows, most get up to start their day.

  Cold is the weather of today, it is overpowering and anyone it touches feels lethargic, less likely to get up.

  Perfection. This is exactly what Rontress yearned for.

  Mornings were supposed to be peaceful, there's nothing to do but y down, wait for the day to start, and maybe even pretend like she doesn't possess enough authority to run Flotol to the ground if she wanted.

  For today, Rontress followed that line of thought: her body buries itself under yers of bnkets, they keep her warm and comfortable even as the world outside calls for her, every attempt to wake her only anchors her more to the bed, the cold and the sun working in tandem could only watch as she wraps herself in fabric and sighs in pleasure.

  Spending the first part of her morning like this caused Rontress to come down with a smile on her face. Ifira was in the kitchen cooking breakfast and didn't notice her until Rontress hugged her from behind.

  "Good morning Ifira, did you sleep well?" Rontress' chin makes contact with Ifira's shoulder as she leans against her best friend. "It's a nice morning today isn't it?"

  "Maybe." Ifira murmured, she didn't stop frying the eggs even as Rontress started distracting her. "But mornings are not really for me, I mainly prefer the night."

  "Hmm. Really?" Rontress pulled Ifira close and tightened her embrace. "We should do something at night then, actually, I've been thinking of making a part of the swamp dedicated to night time activities so why not design one with me? I'd love to hear your thoughts on it."

  "Yes, I think I'd love that." Ifira rexes and lets Rontress brace her weight, the back of her head leans against Rontress' neck. "Are you gonna grow pnts that glow somewhere in Misery Swamp? Where do you wanna pce it."

  "Somewhere close to the Swampside District preferably, since the swamp isn't as deep there compared to the other areas." Her expnation earned a nod from her best friend. "You like the idea?"

  "Like it? Yes, all of your ideas are brilliant, but more than that, I know that they are well thought out and amazing." Ifira used her free hand to hold the hand wrapped around her neck. Her fingers slid between Rontress' and she smiled. "You never compin about me always cooking eggs, but I don't know if you hate them or not."

  "I'll eat anything you cook me right as long as it comes from you." Rontress rubbed her head against Ifira's neck. "You think I hate them right?" Ifira nods, Rontress chuckles. "I wouldn't eat them if I hated it, but more than that, I really like them because you put effort into feeding me. And that's more important than taste."

  "Stop fttering me." Ifira pushing her friend away only got a burst of ughter in response. She huffed, "good morning Rontress, I take it you spent your morning zing in bed again?"

  "You should try it sometime." Rontress' grin was pyful, it also has a hint of truth to it. "Rexing for a minute or two in the morning isn't so bad, you know that right?"

  "Tempting me to sleep in during mornings means that I'll hog your bed, is that what you want?"

  "Well I'm fighting you for it." Rontress' crossed her arms, unwilling to give in to the demands of her friend, who does Ifira think she is?

  "We're both fighting each other then, see who pushes the other off the edge first." With a shrug, Ifira put the fried eggs on two separate ptes and then opened the oven, slices of bread which have been baking since the early morning were taken out and pced next to the eggs.

  "Just as a reminder, I'm not really scared of you."

  "I'm aware."

  Rontress followed Ifira to the dining table, they ate their breakfast with the same silence as st night and having enough of that, Rontress broke the ice. "You said that someone will come over today? They seem a bit eager, aren't they?"

  "Now that you mention it, yes, they are." The spoon in Ifira's hand stops halfway to her mouth and she stared bnkly at her pte. "Why would she be so eager? Do you think she's gonna come here to spy on us?"

  "I doubt it would be that extreme." Rontress immediately denied the cim. "I doubt that anyone outside of your territory would try their way with the lesser nobles here, that's political suicide."

  "Our territory." Ifira corrected. "We built this pce together, even that is something I cannot deny. So it's our territory."

  "Right, ours." Rontress didn't think she'd get corrected like this, she's always been saying that the territory belongs to the Haromago and Ifira has never had a problem with it. "How would your mother react to that?"

  "She doesn't matter, and you manage everything better than her anyway, I don't see her value beyond acting as the face for being a ruler until I take over." And that's the kind of bluntness Ifira's arrogance gives her. Anyone else would be ughed at if they say that.

  "But I'm not a Haromago though? How can this territory be mine if it belongs to her family?"

  "Are you really gonna keep pushing this point?" Ifira stopped chewing to gre at her. "Why?"

  "Just asking, you know I like it when things make sense." And she also doesn't want to get an extra target on her back, she's already pnning on showing off during the gathering.

  "Then you're a Haromago now, simple as that."

  "How would that work?"

  "I say so."

  "... Oh okay." What else was Rontress supposed to say? That Ifira can't just decre something and treat it like her words are absolute? Even if the system agrees with whatever she wants to say, she can ask it to delete a sub css she hates and it would gdly do so.

  "Now that that's settled, do you have pns on what to do with the visiting nobles? They may be less than us but they are very sharp when it comes to socializing, I do not think I have the mind to fight them on even terms. Not for now."

  "Uhuh." Is this why her friend was so adamant on convincing her that the territory belongs to the two of them? No, it probably runs deeper than that. But Ifira should know by this point Rontress wouldn't want to abandon Flotol and Ghorise for no good reason.

  "Just give me an answer. Yes or no."

  "Yes is the answer, obviously." Rontress noted that the tension in her friend's body didn't loosen even after she said that. "Dealing with a bunch of nobles shouldn't be an issue, and then gossipping is gonna happen no matter what so right as long as we don't show them anything, everything will end up being fine."

  "How do you do that?"

  "You don't feel bad when they call you out for bragging." Rontress was specifically giving this tip for her friend. "And only brag about things that you can actually do, or things that have some truth to them. If the nobles talk about how they've gone around different pces, reply with your own time in the Gilded District."

  "And if they talk about food then I talk about our ice cream shop!" Ifira's eyes brightened. "Yes! I can do that!"

  "Next thing would be not to talk about killing things, they're noble girls." Rontress emphasized. "Killing isn't exactly in their list of priorities, they do however, like to talk about guys. And you have been making contact with the crown prince tely, yes?"

  "Yes I have!" Great, now Ifira is eager to meet with the nobles.

  "Don't eat too quickly, we still have time, and she's the one coming here so there's no doubt she's probably preparing a lot as well so that means it will be a while before she arrives." Rontress' expnation caused her friend to slow down. "We still have to go to Ghorise and tell your mother to prepare three rooms for them, as well as ask the chefs to start making snacks. Are the pagodas clean?"

  "I don't know?"

  Rontress sighed. Preparations will have to be done by her own hand. "It's fine, we'll deal with it after breakfast, if the girl asks about the clock tower tell her that it will be finished by the end of the year and that they should come during the Day of Piling to see it."

  "By the way, what do we do if something attacks Ghorise during their visit?"

  "... We'll hire adventurers and mercenaries, I'll set up the quest ter, if I make a bounty for aberrant parts that have a high value, everyone should be doing it."

  "What if they get captured and turned into more aberrants?"

  "Ifira, the only thing that we want from them is to buy us time, if they end up becoming a threat to us then we'll deal with it when the time comes, right now we need to focus on talking to the noble girl."

  "Okay, and you're right, whatever comes out of that forest doesn't matter, you basically wiped out an army of them already so I don't see why I'm so scared of them increasing in number." Her friend shrugged and went back to eating. "I can't believe that only one of them is visiting us! Do I have to repeat myself if this is the case?"

  "I think you do, yes." Rontress nodded in agreement.

  Much to Rontress' surprise, the only thing needed to get Ifira going again was to tell her what to do when interacting with the visiting nobles. This more or less gave Rontress an idea of what Ifira was like during childhood.

  'I mean, I already had doubts when she told me she had a lot of friends even though she could barely recognize social cues the first time that we met.' And that's basically proof all on its own, isn't it? Ifira was just bragging when she told Rontress that she had a lot of friends in the past.

  'Great, this means I have to work with a clean ste.' Which she didn't ultimately mind, becoming "friends" with noble girls wouldn't be an issue for her. 'But in the end, everything depends on how ambitious they are.'

  Rontress wouldn't want to keep such a liability even in her worst, as they are extremely prone to betraying others in exchange for the simplest of things.

  Then again, there's a none zero chance that the noble girls are scared of Ifira, making them obedient or at least less likely to make rash decisions, which is more than good enough for what Rontress wanted to use them for.

  'It makes me wonder if there are other noble families around here and Ifira just didn't invite them because their retionship with the Haromago has already gone sour.'

  But three is good. Rontress didn't mind.

  After breakfast, she rode a carriage with Ifira to the Haromago's estate. Once there, she quickly searched for Uknave and found the butler sitting by a fountain, was he on break?

  "Uknave." Rontress approached and the man barley flinched, he's one of the few people who isn't scared of her, which is interesting. "I have something for you to do ter, can you rummage through the visitor's stuff for me? If anyone sees you, just tell them to be quiet or I'll drag them to the guard towers."

  "Yes mistress." See? Uknave just agreed, he didn't compin, didn't do anything stupid. He simply agreed. "Is there something you are looking for specifically? I might be able to find it."

  "Magical devices, even if they're simple, I want you to take note of them. Make a list for me okay? I'll see them for myself ter." Once Ledesa gets distracted by Ifira.

  "Of course."

  "Thank you." Rontress smiled and left, all she needs to do now is ask Euthiel to prepare rooms.

  The woman should be smart enough to give the visitors rooms with a "back door" to them, so to say.

  Finishing that left Rontress with some time so she worked on herself physically, because while she would love to look like her usual self while meeting Ledesa, she would prefer to not give the girl any kind of advantage, including physically.

  'Then again, me looking better than her with no makeup will probably mess her up a lot.' Not that Rontress is pnning on doing that, while she knew that she was attractive, she's not so confident in her looks that she's willing to gamble with it.

  After putting on makeup, Rontress extended the length of her dress and modified it to have complimenting details.

  Tracing a line of blue around her colr was the first step, it went from the edge of her neck down to her navel, stopping just short of her waist. Her skirt widens, forming a bell shape, it reaches the root of her shin and creates a wave-like pattern around the edges.

  Green spots appear on her dress, they morph to become various shapes with root-like patterns, lines that imitate the randomness of tree bark go up her corset, with the zipper at the center mimicking the patterns shortly after.

  Finishing things off, Rontress commanded the pnt fibers that make up her dress to harden around the torso and underneath the skirt, creating a foundation that holds the shape and keeps it from flowing.

  Rontress opened the door to her room and commanded the maids waiting outside to come in, as they headed for the mirror, Rontress told them what she wanted her hair to look like. "I'm not asking for much, just a simple crown braid around my head, you can leave the rest of my hair alone, I also want a curtain behind me."

  The servants wordlessly acknowledged her command and moved to do as they were told. Rontress took a seat and let them work.

  Before long, they finished and she was able to move again, she nodded after giving her reflection a once over. "Good job, you can all leave."

  With a flourished, uniformed bow they performed in unison, the maids walked out, leaving Rontress alone to stew on her thoughts. 'Well, that's done.'

  'Now it shouldn't take long for Lady Ledesa to come over...' But just to make sure that nothing would go wrong, Rontress walked over to Ifira's room to check on how she's doing.

  When she got inside, the entire space was occupied by servants who moved back and forth constantly to fix Ifira's hair, do her dress, give her make up, and a bunch of other things just to make her friend look exempry.

  "Ifira, how are you feeling?" Rontress covered her mouth to stop any of the powder from being inhaled. "Are you okay?"

  "Why wouldn't I be?" And that was it, guess Ifira wasn't as anxious as Rontress assumed she would be.

  "That's good, I'll be downstairs, waiting by the door for our guest to arrive."

  "I'll be there in a little bit!"

  "See you." Ifira didn't reply due to the servants asking her to go still so they can do her make up properly.