Machinist of Mana Chapter 90 Games Girls Play

It took a couple of weeks but someone eventually did invite me to another party. Now, the issues wasn't that I was some kind of social pariah, quite the opposite, it was that nobody was having any gatherings at all. Since the last large one had ended in the owner of the venue and a couple of the guests dead that was quite the wet blanket on the seasonal soirees.

Then again it was carte blanche for the gossip mill, who were in full swing. I wasn't even in on that particular group as well I might have been but I was still hearing about it. For one, those two had bought items at the event, but nobody knew who they were; well, the authorities might have, but they weren't sharing. In fact, they weren't on any of the guest lists, nor were any of the known guests hurt in the explosion.

I'd personally thought they were some couple either very good at hiding their identities or connected to one of my friends somehow. That however proved to be untrue, as Ignus' people had come around asking about them. The fact that nobody had any answer was likely vexing for him, but for the ladies around town who liked to spread rumors it was a full on holiday.

All of these same ladies wanted me to come and give them my account too, or at least be around to hear it. Everyone who'd been there had a story to tell, even if most of them had left before the explosion, and being that I was there and had even fought one of the attackers they were chomping at the bit to hear what I had to say. The only reason people hadn't started showing up at my house, aside from the formidable defenses installed by my kin, was the fact that it would be socially unacceptable to do so, or push me to come out before the city's period of panic had passed.

Similarly the secret about goblins in the town was now fully and completely blown. Rumors had been building for some time, but they were just that, and disregarded as such. Now however multiple priests had been present for one of the beasts showing up, attacking them, and killing a man. Those priests were pissed beyond recognition that they'd not been informed of the danger, and were making sure everyone who was anyone was hearing about it.

“Percival, I'd like you to join my aunt for an event at her home in a few days,” Rowenna said during one of our periodic study sessions.

“And why is that?” I asked.

“Because she's pestering me endlessly about it, about that whole debacle. She's insisting to hear the story that I've already told her again and again and I'd like you to get her to leave me be.”

“I think me telling your aunt to silence herself wouldn't help,” I pointed out.

“Boys,” she scoffed. “No, I've not even told her to shut up, I just want her to.”

“If you haven't told her, how is she supposed to know?” I asked.

“She just is, and she does, she's not stupid, well, that stupid. Anyway, if you come and give her what she wants she'll be happy, and leave me be. She's been asking about you a lot too, and I think that's what she actually wants.”

“If that's what she wants why doesn't she just ask? It's not like I'm particularly busy, and she knows our relationship. It wouldn't be odd at all for her to meet with me. Goodness, she could even frame it as checking in on your potential future husband or something.” Girls really did like to beat around the bush too much for my liking, and if her aunt had just talked to me this whole thing would have been simple beyond belief.

She sighed, looking exceedingly tired. “It's not the same Percival, and it wouldn't get you at her home telling the story, where she could be the center of attention. If you don't want to go, you don't have to.”

That was both a lie and a landmine, and we both knew it. Perhaps I wasn't the best when it came to dealing with women, in either world, at any age, but I saw that for what it was.

“Rowenna, I didn't say I wouldn't go, I will. I just wanted to know why she wouldn't come to me and instead bother you. Wouldn't it be better if people didn't do that in the future?” I tried to speak calmly but it wasn't doing much.

“They will come to me, because... you just don't get it,” she huffed.

“No, I don't, but I don't want people pestering you rather than pestering me. Is there anything I can do to stop that?”

It wasn't untrue either. There were layers of social interaction, particularly among women, that I really didn't get. Noblewomen seemed to make the girls of my previous world look straightforward by comparison too, so that had never helped. They liked their games, and for some reason I thought they really got satisfaction from playing them, even if I couldn't figure out what it was.

“There isn't, it's all about... making things happen. If she comes to you forward it meant she had to, not that she wanted to. How many women in this city could make that happen? Most of them I imagine, all of them in my family even more as well. She wants you to come, but not be seen wanting you to come, she gets the credit for you showing up, without appearing to make you show up. It's like you want to be there, the first place you go to tell your story, it would be to her.”

“Then maybe I shouldn't? I mean, wouldn't that show power too? We could go somewhere else first, take that from her and make her think about being such a nuisance in the future,” I suggested.

Rowenna took a full five seconds to pick up a piece of paper, roll it into a tube, and smack my head with it like I was a naughty dog.

“How do you think she'd respond to that exactly Percival? Poorly I can assure you, and she's my aunt. If she gets it in her head to do so she can easily make the minor irritation she's been so far look like a cute little pout. She's known much of my family much longer than I have, and has her talons in them too. She wants something simple and will go about making me a pariah in our family if I'm contrarian about it. If I snub her just because she'd take every chance she could for years to do the same right back.”

“That seems needlessly petty.”

“No, it is the insistence upon proper decorum. You need lessons on it.”

“Rowenna dear my schedule for education is already packed full. I don't suppose I could impose on you to handle such matters for the time being?”

She actually laughed at that one, not much, but I'd take that over a scolding any day.

“That's exactly what I'm doing,” she said almost too sweetly.

“Then I'll trust your judgment. In the future will you tell me about this though? I'd hate to step on someone's toes for no reason.”

“Of course.”

“Anything in particular I need to wear?” I asked.

“Actually...”