Medinador and Elvira exchanged tender looks with each other as they realised the twins were finally properly making up. It had been around two months of cold war between them after a few thoughtless comments made by some of the upper Knights who worked with de Velasques’ Knight branch were heard by Delphina as she had happened to pass by.

It had occurred after it was announced Delphina had become the youngest Sword Master of the Family post-The Darkening, as such, she was to be the next Head of the Family. People who didn’t know better speculated that Pietro should have had the option to run for Head as well, despite not being a Sword Master just yet. As he had worked directly with the Knights from a young age.

Some even speculated that he had ‘let it go’ to his twin sister after becoming a Sword Master even before her, because his relaxed and laid-back nature was well known.

Delphina too, had been making strenuous efforts for the Family and had already built herself up to lead The Hunters alongside her Father, after working her way through the Information Network.

She had yet to establish her own Guild, as she hadn’t even come of age yet. Doing so would be illegal and could be framed as supporting factionalism within the Empire. So, as her parents. They had stopped her before things got to that.

Unfortunately, none of Delphina’s efforts were yet visible due to her age. Glancing at each other once again, Medinador and Elvira had already decided it was truly best for them to debut at the Imperial National Ball after all.

[Quest Chain; ‘Who’s the Prettiest Princess of Them All’. 20% complete.]

“Okay, I get it. I appreciate the sincere apology, so I hope neither of us has to bring this up again.”

Delphina was thoroughly embarrassed by Pietro’s actions, but at the same time. She felt deeply satisfied that he had put forward a thoughtful apology like this. The original Delphina probably would have been just as happy, too. Or at least she hoped.

But at this point, it was now her life, and she had to live with these people. She wasn’t going to drag it out when she didn’t even really even care. She had just wanted to know what had happened.

“But the excursion with the Burgess’, I want to be a part of that. It’ll be good to show myself to a few people before we head to the Capital for our coming of age. When will it be again?”

Delphina tilted her head at Pietro, who was still holding onto her hand. With this, he let it go and went back to his seat at the table. Furrowing his brows slightly, he seemed to be thinking about the timing.

“The exercises were planned for at most a month away, but they can comfortably be brought forward by at least one week, so we can celebrate our birthday at the Capital if you’d like? I would have thought you would want it to be here still…”

“But if my sister wants to socialise, then having our birthday out there would let people come to know us before even the Ball. I’m assuming you want to go to the Imperial National Ball like I was going to with the Knights, rather than hosting a private Ball at the Capital instead of here?”

Delphina was quite frankly floored by what Pietro had just said. It seems like it had taken him less than five minutes to plan a few different ways of socialising.

“I didn’t think about it too deeply, if I’m honest. If I get to know the Knights a bit better, then we can go to the Capital for our birthday. Otherwise, just having our birthday as normal would be fine.”

“Wouldn’t there not be much time in between the excursion and going to the Capital anyway? I’ll have to think about dresses now and such if we hold our birthday there. And on top of that, going to the Imperial Ball would be better. It hardly seems fair to anyone in the Family to have to plan a debut Ball at such short notice. Don’t they sometimes need a minimum of half a year of planning in advance to get materials?”

At this point, Elvira interjected.

“You wouldn’t have to worry about that, Phina. The excursion can be moved closer than just a week in reality. It just wouldn’t be great for the other Families’ Knights. Our Petit-pois is being too economical with his timing”.

Delphina shifted uneasily in her seat at this statement. True, they could wield their Ducal power and order people to suck it up. But that wasn’t a good thing. She could see that their parents were trying to get them to think for themselves and organise what they wanted to do.

“What I would like to do…”

“I would like to get to know the Knights better by taking part with Pietro in this excursion.”

“I would like to have our birthday held here rather than the Capital, so we have time for sorting things out before the Imperial Ball.”

“But I would like to head to the Capital early so that we can prepare for any setbacks that might happen logistically, or due to social issues.”

Elvira clapped her hands excitedly, and even Medinador seemed proud at these statements.

“However, I only want to do those things. If Pietro also wants the same.”

Delphina decided to be diplomatic here. Sure, doing things that way would benefit her, and especially her quest completion rate the most. But she might have recovered far more memories by that point. Going to the Capital too soon could hinder her chances of smoothly getting through things.

Delphina with 15% of her memories, and Delphina with, say, maybe 50% of her memories. Was going to behave differently in front of people.

The fact that she had managed so far in front of Delphina’s closest family was a miracle in her book. However, it seemed that her natural personality, coupled with the few memories influencing her physical actions, was close enough to Delphina’s baseline behaviour.