Hohenfels

Katharina regretted not introducing herself at the beginning of their interaction. Though flaunting her status as the daughter of an Imperial Count just to claim a cozy corner of the library would have been a diplomatic blunder, the current situation was even worse.

She stared at her book, trying to read but failing to concentrate on its contents. The young lord sitting across from her was, infuriatingly, not suffering from the same problem. When the two of them had first turned from their conversation back to their reading material, he seemed just as distracted as she was. Unfortunately, it had taken him ten minutes at best to get absorbed again. Every now and then, she could hear him huffing softly in amazement as he discovered yet another comically gruesome ritual.

She tried again to focus on her own tome, but ‘Cultural and Economic Ties between Arvorig and Ériu’ had never seemed more tedious. She put the volume back on the pile to fish for another one – and spontaneously came up with a daring plan instead.

Her arm ‘accidentally’ collided with the stack of heavy books, causing one of them to fall on the table with a rather loud bang.

The young lord flinched, ripping a small tear into the page he was in the process of flipping over. He threw her an accusing glare before clumsily catching himself and adopting a more neutral expression.

His initial reaction actually caused a pang of guilt, something she found herself utterly unprepared for. ‘I caused damage to a book… Father would be furious,’ she forced herself to think to distract herself.

“Goodness me. I apologize for the commotion, Mylord,” she whispered quietly as if to make up for the noise.

“No harm done,” he magnanimously offered, but Katharina knew he did not buy it for a second. She could see it in his narrowing eyes.

She felt toyed with.