[ WATER ] "There you are..." Forde gives a weak smile when he finds her, handing her a glass of water. "I um, thought you'd be a little parched after all that dancing..." He sits next to her, taking a sip of his own glass. "I didn't realise that outfit was so important to you... I'm sorry."
“Sir Forde…” Her voice trails off, not knowing quite what to say, or where to even begin.
The water might be a good start, actually, she has not realized just how parched everything had made her. Not just the dancing but… everything afterwards too. She is sure Sir Forde knows, and is being quite polite for her sake.
She starts with a tentative sip, only to quickly guzzle the whole thing down as relief hit her aching throat. She cannot help but exhale some air in some form of twisted amusement; she is probably making herself look even more ridiculous than she already had.
Latona above… she really had made a fool of herself. There are so many people she feels she ought to apologize to. Poor Flayn, for dimming her victory, the judges who… well, no, she is still a bit mad at the judges.
More importantly, however, she really ought to apologize to the one currently in front of her. The fact that he is apologizing feels… wrong, to L’Arachel. She is more than happy to take an apology from someone when they have overreached, overstepped or otherwise offended her. But… that is not what happened here at all.
“It is quite alright.” She begins, her voice strained. “You could not have known.” She sighs. That is not necessarily true, but she supposes it may not have been clear enough. This entire ensemble cost a lot of money and effort; she had hoped some more appreciation would come her way for the quality of the outfit.
“Do you remember the mirror mission, Sir Forde? This has been meticulously recreated from the world I had found myself in. It was… it was a brilliant world. So many wonderfully bizarre inventions. The corn and the movies they are presenting as new today? Those were both part of regular, every day life in that world.” She lets out a slightly bitter laugh.
“I suppose I am wearing this outfit for two reasons. The first is to keep the memory of that beautiful world alive. It was so wonderful, Sir Forde. And now it is gone.” She lets out a long, weary sigh. She still, still cannot help but wonder whether that mission should have happened at all, or if it would have been better to leave things as they were.
“As amazing as that world was, however… it was also terrifying. There was a popularity contest at the academy we went to, for someone to be crowned the 'Rose Royal'; the entire school took it with the utmost seriousness. The person who won it, a lovely lady named Katarina, she ended up in serious peril because of it.” She still remembers the mad scramble through that forest, desperate to save her friend.
"I... I know that this contest was meant to merely be fun. But... I wanted to prove myself, Sir Forde. Prove that I could have been the Rose Royal. That I DO have what it takes. That I can make sure no-one else needs to get hurt." She finds herself shaking again. It is stupid, so very, very stupid. But... even now she cannot help but worry; what if something goes wrong with the White Heron Cup?
"All of this is no excuse, however. I acted awful and I feel awful about it. I... I am so deeply sorry, for ruining what was supposed to be lighthearted fun, Sir Forde." She can feel her eyes starting to water again.
