Cursed Heroine

Chapter 9: Day before the party

“Are you still sulking about last night?”~Sophia

Sophia decided to break the silence between us as we made our way to her magic lesson. It’s not like I’m not staying silent for a reason other than I don’t really have something to say.

“Not sulking, Mistress. Last night was...strenuous, but not really bad. I do wish you would let me assist you during the night as well, it bothers me that I’m the only one receiving such intimate treatment.”~me

“Geh, don’t you already find enough opportunities to take liberties with my body?!”~Sophia

“This and that are different things. You’ve never let me take you all the way. I feel stifled.”~me

“Wow, that was brutally honest. And why is it that I’m wearing heels today instead of my usual flats?”~Sophia

“I threw them away. They didn’t look good.”~me

“Even so, I remember that I surely had more than one pair of flats. They couldn’t have all look bad.”~Sophia

“All bad. A princess should always be stylish.”~me

“Hoh, you’re just trying to get back at me for laughing at you earlier, aren't you. Two can play that game! From now on, we’ll both just have to suffer being stylish.”~Sophia

“Ah!”~me

I just about tripped over and fell thanks to my newly remodeled three inch heels which are also much narrower now in back. Quickly adjusting my steps, I rush to catch up. It was a spur of the moment decision just as she said, that has definitely backfired. I do my usual cultivation while Sophia is doing her training with Sven. It is looking good on my cultivation progress, but the sp is coming in way too slowly. Surprisingly few deaths happen in the vicinity of the castle, I’ve learned that the dungeons(prison) are actually located in the guard barracks in the noble district with a tunnel connected for secret visits. I should hit stage two for mind cultivation on the same day that the hero party leaves. Getting the required sp to increase my attributes after that is the issue I’m worried about. Done with the lesson, we head back for lunch and I take the time to ask a question I’ve worried about since I was told I would be attending the party as an attendant.

“Mistress, will attendants be required to dance at the party?”~me

“Only if you want to and I don’t recommend you accept any invitations to do so.”~Sophia

“Good, I don’t actually know how to dance. You shouldn’t have known that though, so why did you say I shouldn’t dance with anyone?”~me

“You’ll be my dancing partner for my next two etiquette lessons, so you will learn to dance. The tutor decided to give a refresher lesson when she heard that I will be attending the party tomorrow night. Likely, you will get invitations to dance from numerous young men. Accepting their invites will lead to potentially disastrous results for them. Remember what happened to those two foolish apprentices?”~Sophia

“Ah! The effects of my clothes, I didn’t even bother to check them last night during our dress up session.”~me

“Thankfully for you, I did take a peak. I don’t actually have any control over the effects, those just kinda happen depending on the purpose of the clothes. The outfit for the party from last night all have the self-cleaning effect and one other. Pretty much all of the items in similar places as your current attire have the same exact effects. Necklace takes place of collar and the dress’s effect: dress for success(increased ability as a maid) became: party girl(drop the beat). If party girl is anything like what I think it is, you’ll do fine with any party related stuff including dancing. The gloves give you elegance(wearer’s mannerisms are optimized), the earrings give enhanced hearing and the set of hair pieces give you a clear headed effect.”~Sophia

“Wow, does that mean I can chug down the wine and can’t get drunk?”~me

“I think you’d still feel it, just that you will still make sound decisions regardless. The hangover would probably suck more than usual. Time for archery.”~Sophia

Sophia heads to her archery lesson while I cleaned up lunch and meet her there shortly after. Along the way I ran into the other girl hero, not the one I had pointed out as the smart girl. She cornered me and started asking me questions about why I was different from the rest of them, why I chose to serve the princess and how I was doing. She seemed genuinely concerned for me so I wrote out some simple answers about the curse, that I deemed Princess Sophia the only one worthy of the royal family’s females and that she treats me well. She suddenly hugs me and tells me in a low voice that if I have any problems, I can tell her. When she releases me, I give her a nod. A sudden thought occurs to me and I grab her hand, pulling her along to the archery range.

“Who’s this?”~Sophia

“My name is Alice, Princess.”~Alice

“Why did you bring her here with you?”~Sophia

“Ran into her on the way and spontaneously decided to bring her along. She seemed nice and I wondered if she could join for your dance lessons. She might need it more than me.”~me

“You are only telling half the truth, trying to conveniently get out of dancing at all. Not gonna happen! She can join us today, but you still have to practice dancing with me.”~Sophia

“Can I wear the party dress?”~me

“No. That wouldn’t be your own skill.”~Sophia

“Wow, I really didn’t expect that your relationship is so good that you can talk with your eyes. I’ve gotta say that I really saw you wrongly, imagining that you had somehow tricked her into some sort of slave contract behind our backs. I apologize for my slight.”~Alice

“Apology accepted. Did my father not tell the other heroes anything? You saw her status after your summoning, right?”~Sophia

“I do remember that she had much lower status than the rest of us including some curses, but I was too confused myself at the time and didn’t pay too much attention to other people.”~Alice

“With just her low status alone, she would have made a lousy hero, yet she had a hidden curse as well. One that required her to designate a master for her to serve. From what she told me, the curse locked her attribute control at one until she activated the curse by choosing a master.”~Sophia

“What, that’s awful! Why is such a good girl stricken with so many curses?!”~Alice

“We’ve gotten a bit off topic. I was going to ask why you are here? I think perhaps she brought you to be my dancing partner in etiquette lessons, perhaps for you yourself to learn?”~Sophia

“Geh! Why is everyone trying to teach me how to dance. I don’t want to dance with anyone!”~Alice

“Well, it doesn’t hurt to learn, even if you refuse to dance at the party. And if you don’t learn with me, Lilia here will be forced to be my partner for lessons instead.”~Sophia

“Huh, wait. Are you telling me that she brought me here to pawn off her responsibility on me? She’s not troubled in the slightest by her situation is she?”~Alice

“Exactly! Let alone being taken advantage of, she takes every opportunity to get what she wants on the sly. Well, we’ve already talked through most of my archery time. Let’s head over to my etiquette lessons, the tutor should already be there if we’re only this early.”~Sophia

“Oh fine. Maybe I’ll end up stepping on her toes.”~Alice

“I wouldn’t, not on purpose at least. She’d find a way to get back at you.”~Sophia

While the two are chatting we arrive at our destination. Dancing goes pretty well. None of us stepped on any toes, although me and Alice did stumble quite a lot at first. It was actually pretty fun. We danced while they chatted. I managed to get the low down on the other heroes and their abilities. Alice is set like the typical rogue with numerous detection skills and terrain buffs. Her primary weapon is a crossbow with daggers for backup. The other girl’s(smart girl) name is Maria. She is a mage of course, has magic related skills and uses a staff. Idiot trio(the boys) all agreed when one of them said ‘swords are romance’ and they all ended up as melee fighters regardless of skills. One uses a two-handed sword, another has a shield-sword combo, and the last one is fumbling around trying to dual-wield two swords. The crown prince, who is going with them, is skilled with a bow and magic. He’s pretty much a mage-archer. Not a magic archer, that would suggest he knows how to combine magic with his archery, not just doing two things.

“That was more fun than I thought. See you tomorrow Sofy. You too Lilia, thanks for inviting me.”~Alice

“Mm, see you tomorrow Alice. Bring some heels tomorrow so you can practice with those. It’s a different feel and I don’t want you to trip if you end up dancing at the party.”~Sophia

I wave Alice goodbye and head over to bring dinner back to the chambers while Sophia goes back before me. I’ve been escorting her everywhere less and less to be more efficient. It’s not like I could walk from place to place for her. There’s no trouble along the way, rumors seem to have spread not to mess with me. We finished eating and head to the bath. She drops a bomb once we have scrubbed ourselves clean.

“It’s your turn tonight.”~Sophia

“My turn?”~me

“I’ve been thinking about what you told me this morning, so I decided that we will do whatever you decide on for tonight. I won’t try to stop you at all.”~Sophia

“Yes! We’ll start with a massage.”~me

“Okay, maybe not everything. I still need to be able to attend my lessons on time.”~Sophia

“Oh, I know. I obtained lesser heal days ago!”~me

“Crap! I had forgotten you are a priestess. Wait, if you had lesser heal this morning, why didn’t you use it? I’ve been tricked!”~Sophia