"I'm sorry Mother, I forgot myself," you apologize. From your mother's acerbic expression you don't quite think a mere 'sorry' will make up for it. More than that, it occurs to you that you're not the only one in trouble either. If you *did* screw up again it'd be Chiaki's fault for not preventing it.
"I'll endeavor to make up for this by dedicating myself to the tutors Autumn has chosen for us," you solemnly pledge.
Hmm. Justine takes a breath from her pipe in consideration. You feel your stress rise, wondering if that would satisfy her.
"That would be a nice silver lining to come out of this sordid affair," the ferocious matriarch of the Claudius family admits.
"I look forward to seeing the fruits of your efforts, Grace." Good, she's not using your full name again.
((()))
"Thanks again for helping to calm down Justine-I mean Mother yesterday," you correct yourself as you thank your maid as she helps you dress for the next day.
"It's my responsibility to assist you, Young Mistress," Chiaki insists. "So it's only natural I take some of the responsibility, your failings reflect on me as well."
You fall silent at that, feeling a little guilty.
<Sporty> "It's natural to respond to a challenge! She's the one who wanted to fight us."
<Sensible> "It's unseemly for someone of our background, let alone in the presence of Prince Alteisen. Fighting his sister could be seen as assaulting Royalty!"
<Emo> "The villainess character is always found guilty by the heroine's capture targets of grave crimes against her. All routes lead to doom."
That it caused trouble for Chiaki…well, you'd just have to do better next time. "I meant what I said to Ju-Mother," you say.
"About forgetting yourself?" We all understand you're a little more scatterbrained than usual after your head wound," Chiaki explains.
You begin to nod in agreement before realizing the embedded insult. "I'm not that scatterbrained! I can focus on one thing."
"Saying you have tunnel vision isn't the best defense, Young Mistress," your friend teases.
"I meant the part about doing my best with any tutors you get me," you clarify pouting.
Chiaki pauses taken aback. "You were serious? I just thought you were trying to get out of trouble."
"It's not that surprising! And yes that was part of it…" you admit. "But I don't like causing trouble for you C-Autumn. Besides, like I said I should give it my all on everything."
"I'm lucky to have such a dedicated Young Mistress," your personal servant says pleased. Hehehe you probably sounded really mature right then!
As your maid resumes dressing you, you notice that while similar the dress your maid is having you wear isn't quite the same as the one before.
Oh, it's similar having the same color scheme, but some of the frills are in a different pattern and the ribbons are subtly different shades.
"It wouldn't do for the Claudius heir to wear the same outfit in a row," Chiaki intones. Oh, that makes sense, you think she said something about that yesterday. "It's being washed, but will be available for you to wear again tomorrow.
<Sporty> "This marks us out as the protagonist! Similar but distinct outfits is the sort of attention to detail only the main character gets."
<Sensible> "There were dozens of outfits we didn't try on, presumably this was one of those-"
"Anyways Young Mistress what would you like to focus on today? If you're feeling more athletically inclined the ballet and fencing instructors are available, as are the magic and rhetoric tutors-."
"Magic! Did you say Magic Chiaki?!" You interrupt her. You knew Fall from Grace and the Our Bloody Valentine had magic systems, but it was a secondary mechanic to grind money and unlock the DLC without spending money. Hardly anyone did it in favor of focusing on clearing all the routes.
But with the prospect of actually wielding magic, you could feel all your chuuni moments from middle school come back to you and you strike a pose. "Darkness blacker than black, I your summoner call out to you. I hereby swear that I shall be all the good in the world, and with thine own hands defeat all evil in the world. Upon your true name Maximus Draco I call you forth. If you head to the covenant appear before me-"
"Ouchies!" You cover up your forehead where Chiaki flicked you.
"Mou, Aachan, that isn't even the right magic system," your maid sighs. "Also 'Biggest dragon' you couldn't come up with something more original? Don't think I didn't notice you cribbing games and manga there."
"It's called paying homage to the originals!" You protest. Besides, I'm a Claudius from a family of renowned dragon slayers." Among other things.
Sadly your friend just rolls her eyes. "I for one don't want to consider the mess that'd make of the manor even if you
did summon something. Imagine if you snagged some deer or alligator, let alone a dragon."
"Oh," you said meekly. Maybe you should wait till you meet the teacher..."
((()))
"We can enchant our outfits!?" You cry out excitedly to your magical tutor.
"Of course, that's the bit you focus on," Chiaki facepalms to your side.
"Magical girl outfits Autumn!" You counter.
"Ah, yes that's right," your arcane teacher answers. She's in her late twenties with dark hair wearing a pair of glasses not too dissimilar from Chiaki's, if colored a light blue. "While fireballs and the like might be the more *eyecatching* spells, there's a much less appreciated field of applied enchantments and runesmithing. You can enchant fabrics with any number of effects from enhanced durability to greater resistance to fire or other elemental attacks.
<Sporty> "She'd sound more authoritative if she had a proper staff and witch's hat. That way she could whack people even if they came in close!"
<Sensible raise an eyebrow at Sporty> "Surprisingly that makes some sense. That isn't just because of our dropping intelligence score is it?"
"Would defensive-oriented clothes be blue?" You wonder aloud. That was pretty common in games. "Red for offensive power, or maybe fire resistant?" You guess.
The teacher's eyebrows go up. "My, that's rather knowledgeable of you Lady Claudius. While the convention isn't a hard and fast rule, it's common to use color or other visual shorthand to communicate the type of enchantments an outfit has. You see this is helpful when working in Adventuring parties, particularly for new groups…"
<Sensible> "Either our IQ just went up, or we dropped it enough we've somehow glitched back into high values."
<Emo> "With our luck we'll run into a fatal glitch."
"Now typically the expense of enchantments limits mage casters to a few basic ones unless they find a patron. But I imagine your family won't have this concern." The teacher's eyes twinkle.
That's right! In the game, there was all that DLC content of outfits offering bonuses. You never paid much attention as you lacked the money and didn't have the patience to grind through it all. But there were a ton of effects you could choose from.
Ohmygosh. Not only could you have magic clothes, but you could add in all kinds of different effects and combos. With the wealth and prestige your family commanded, money would be no object. Yet another reminder that being rich was a superpower all its own!
"With the difficulty of adding enchantments goes up exponentially the more you try to include, it's often considered preferable to use overlapping layers of enchanted fabric. That way you can 'stack' multiple effects without them interfering with each other."
"So that's why magical girl outfits get more elaborate the stronger they are," you murmur aloud to a facepalm from Chiaki. It was all making so
much sense now.
"While I don't think I've heard it phrased that way before-" Whoops, you had to be more careful about letting terms like that slip through. "Yes, for those investing in enchanted clothing, there is an association between ostentation and capability. Aesthetically pleasing and also providing more volume of material to attach enchantments too. My, it's quite a pleasure to have such a learned student."
You felt vindicated in your choice of outfit. You initially choose your frilly dress because of how pleasing it looked, but with what you learned you could anchor spells to make it a
battle dress. You imagine yourself charging across the battlefield absorbing blows, or even it letting you move faster.
"Young Mistress Claudius is eager to prove her family proud." You puff out your chest proudly. Hah, and your parents said you never learned anything from playing otome games or watching magical girl shows!
"While a wide range of fabrics can of course be enchanted, silk remains one of the most efficient materials to imbue. Enough that production of it is considered a strategic resource for the kingdom..." Your teacher continues.
Really, enchanting clothes reminded you most of barrier jackets from Magical Girl Nanoha, except the outfits weren't composed entirely of magic. Those could manifest in a variety of shapes and styles best matching the combat style of the wearer.
Thinking of Justine Claudius something occurs to you then. "Wait, are my mother's clothes enchanted?"
"You have a good eye, indeed, Lady Claudius's garments contain considerable defensive enchantments. Only fitting to have such protection for a pillar of the kingdom." Wow, and with how frilly her gown was, not to mention the train, she was probably the next best thing to a walking tank!
Internally you squealed, your new mom was even awesomer than you thought! You wanted to be like her even more. Being that resilient in enchanted clothes sounded great, and while you could still probably lift up your skirts to run you'd imagine you'd be slower carrying all that clothing.-Wait maybe there was magic for that-
"Is there speed magic?" You wonder aloud.
"Mages can cast haste spells," your magic teacher agreed. "Speed enchantments are a thing as well but are considered some of the most difficult runes to enchant. You see the degree of speed improvement is more linear than multiplicative…"
Gah, you're even happier you didn't try to run from Justine! Rather than an early slow tank, she was probably more like a lightning bruiser! If her weaponized Mom Voice was one thing, you could imagine just how devastating an ear or cheek grab from her might be.
Now that you thought back to it, her gown had looked quite pretty too. You hadn't much of a chance to appreciate the aesthetics as much at the time, on account of having an angry lion staring you down, but it did look nice.
From your trying on outfits earlier, the frillier the gown the more you seemed to like it so this was just a step in that direction. And with the outfit not only looking great but letting you be even more of a powerhouse? You're liking the thought of dressing like her more and more!
<Sporty> "Outfits making you even better at fighting? Sign me up! Imagine being able to go totally on the offensive, holding back nothing as you devastated foe after foe."
<Sensible> "I don't think she'd be happy with us getting into more fights but I do like being well protected! And maybe Justine would take it as a compliment we were taking after her? She was disappointed in us before…"
In your prior life you'd shy away from dressing like either of your parents, but then neither of them had quite the same presence or persona Justine did. It was like she was like a combination of model, high-class CEO, and politician and was stylish, confident and overwhelming all at once. Like in mirroring her you might echo a small amount of her coolness yourself.
If what you wore now was the kind of thing to make you take first place at a con, dressing like Justine would be like those private model shoot images that you could mistake for game CGI!
You feel a prod in your side and look over to see a flat expression from Chiaki mouthing 'pay attention'. Shifting your attention back to your teacher she doesn't seem to have noticed your daydreaming, talking about synergies from different enchantment layouts.
You wrote down your thoughts on the parchment in front of you so you didn't forget. You had a good feeling about this idea!
