The maid who had committed the grave blunder, and it wasn't Calorie because Calorie was still standing somewhere near the bushes pretending she didn't exist, froze and the bright red of shame and embarrassment began to crawl its way up her face.
"Such incompetence," frowned B2 with her mouth twisted down in disgust. "I suppose the servants of a household really do reflect their masters."
"I-I'm so sorry. P-please forgive this lowly one, Your Highness," stammered the maid, her head practically touching the floor as she begged for mercy.
"It's okay," replied Auricularis who had not expected the situation to go from bad to worse just like that. "It's uh, no big deal."
"No big deal? To think the princess speaks so poorly!" The stains on her clearly expensive dress had evidently been the last straw for B1 who had straight up stopped trying to disguise her insults. "Your maidservant clearly knows not of her position! I demand an apology, both for myself and on behalf of the Lady."
"I agree," B2 nodded. She lifted her skirts disdainfully as she scooted away from the mess and the whimpering maid. "I cannot believe the insults that we have faced today. Even in a position as high as your own, Your Highness, a basic amount of respect must be paid to us royal vassals."
"I beg your pardon, honored ladies," cried the maid from her position on the floor. She was practically laying down at this point with how deep her bow was.
"Insolence!" B1 screeched and stabbed an accusing finger at the maid. "To speak without having been addressed first! My goodness, I almost have reason to doubt the upbringing of her master!"
At this point, Lady Bolita seemed to have recovered from her earlier shock and was doing her best to soothe B2, because B2 was so furious that she appeared to have forgotten how to speak and was simply making whistling noises like a tea kettle full of boiling water.
"It is alright. This dress was not a favorite of mine, and it will not be missed much." Lady Bolita patted her dress with one of the silken napkins in her lap in an attempt to calm the maid down and show B2 there was no reason for unnecessary anger.
B2, however, seemed to take this as a sign that she should continue to infuse even more hateful energy into her commentary.
"Unlike the lady, I will not be so forgiving as to not demand an apology outright and let this slide. Until your maids can be properly educated, I will not so much as show my face at tea with Your Highness again."
"The audacity!" Lady Citrine took clear offense on behalf of Auricularis. "You would dare speak to Her Highness in such a foul manner? Clearly all the prestige of your heritage was not enough to grant you a single degree of class!"
"I demand reparations! Do you know how much imported silk from Dondeestá costs this time of year?" B1 wailed, choosing to ignore Lady Citrine in a remarkably petty and pointless snub.
"I doubt a country wench like you would know the value of anything!" Lady Citrine exploded at long last. "Your house has nothing to speak of except for its wealth, which you clearly have no idea how to spend!"
Auricularis noted the awful amount of exclamation marks they used when speaking. There were even more than she used in her persuasive essays, and her teacher had always circled them in bright red because of something along the lines of exclamation marks not being appropriate for academic writing.
"My, I wouldn't have taken you as one to make baseless judgements based on people's heritage," snarled B2, turning on Lady Citrine. "Especially when your father bedded that savage from Theiyreh!"
"I would take you to court for your slander but that would be too cruel to your family lawyer!" Lady Citrine was foaming at the mouth in her rage. The attacks had gotten personal.
"You would feel sorry for him, wouldn't you? After all, you fall into the arms of every male creature that so much as glances your way!" B2 hissed, her face beginning to rival the garish red of her gown.
"Slander, I say, slander! And how would you know the habits of noble sons and their servants so well? I dare say you get around more than enough yourself!" An alarming amount of veins had begun to make an appearance on Lady Citrine's forehead.
"Ha! Interesting that a half-blood like you would know so much about the laws of Heareh. I wonder, what is it that you're so wary of?" B1 interjected as she laughed derisively, taking great pleasure in the purpling of Lady Citrine's face. "Her Esteemed Highness could learn from your expertise in legislation!"
Of course, she didn't forget to take a stab at Auricularis as well. Privately, Auricularis wondered if they were getting tired of making so many exclamations. She was feeling over it herself.
As if summoned, there came a loud blaring of horns from the entrance of the garden, signalling the entrance of someone important. Auricularis hoped it wasn't another touchy noble lady because she was more than done dealing with them for the entire month.
A maroon carpet unrolled across the grass up to the table as a young man dressed in clothes that were way too flashy to look good made his way over to the disaster of a tea party, flanked by a long line of armored fellows. He was decently tall, at least taller than all the girls at the party, and had hair the delightful bright red of a tomato ready to be picked.
"What is the meaning of this? I hope that I am not interrupting anything worthy of close investigation, Royal Sister and Lady Schmancy," the person who appeared to be a prince and Auricularis' brand new sibling declared.
Then as an afterthought, he greeted the rest of the ladies with a displeased nod.
"Of course not, Your Highness," Lady Bolita rose and curtsied.
"We were just beginning to bring our conversation to a close, Your Highness," replied Lady Citrine, curtsying as well. B1 and B2 followed suit.
"In fact, I believe that these ladies and I were on our way out, by your leave, Your Highness." Lady Bolita gave the trio a pointed look.
"Yes, we most certainly are. If you would permit us." All four ladies curtsied deeply and they scuttled out the garden like crabs.
Despite how she would have given them a solid punch to the face if she could, Auricularius didn't want the noble ladies to go and would have given anything to be zooming away with them.
"Dearest sister, I hope they were not troubling you."
Auricularis' head slowly turned as her brain went on full power mode as she tried to think of something normal sounding to say to this supposed prince and brother of hers that she had never even heard of. The only thing she could tell that they had in common were their pale turquoise eyes, and even that was stretching it considering his were closer to blue
"Err…," Auricularis managed intelligently.
"Well, I suppose it does not matter anymore now that they are gone," the prince sniffed.
He cast another disdainful glance toward the line of maids hovering nervously nearby along the hedges.
"Clean up this mess here. Jonald, Ronathan, go move the tables, table-movers." He waved his hand dismissively.
Two excessively muscular knights shuffled out from the line behind him and made their way over to help the maids clean up the aftermath of the tea party.
Auricularis admired their bulging biceps. She had once attempted to grow her arms to such a size, but her plans were thwarted by the size of the sleeves of her school's uniform. In the end, she was forced to opt for a nice eight-pack.
But now she was free to grow her arms to any size, considering the many assorted sleeve sizes in this strange fantasy realm. Maybe she would find some time to sneak into the training sessions of these knights to steal their weight-lifting secrets and expand her own muscles to an enviable size.
"Wait," the prince interjected, interrupting her fantasies of ripping open her shirts just by flexing.
"Stop. You there." He pointed at Calorie who had been pretending to do work because she couldn't actually do the work. "You would dare disobey a direct command in my presence?"
Calorie fumbled with the teacup she had been picking up and putting down repeatedly.
"I-uh, I apologize, Your Highness. I forget myself." She curtsied quickly then put the cup down again.
"Hmm, you are the first woman to have ever behaved so audaciously in front of me. How interesting," he chuckled, digging a hole and sticking the flag in deep. "I suppose the rest of us will be off. Benneth, Kenjamin, come along now."
Then he left with a swish of his cape, as if nothing had happened.
Auricularis and Calorie exchanged a relieved glance, having narrowly avoided revealing their identities.