Prince of Light, Duchess of Darkness

Never again shall I let royalty use their social and political weight to force me to take them seriously in a practice bout. Prince Geordo, you have my ceaseless, everlasting and unending enmity for this situation that you have forced me into. You cruel, black hearted, sadistic prince!

My lady was right! 

I cannot help but believe that I am being insulted, as well. Little do I care about seeming feminine to those who observe me, but ultimately, I reflect upon my lady and her house, as her foremost servant, and now my lady's own friends have all agreed that I make for a handsome prince. The nerve... I am a maid, I am not supposed to be sexually desirable to women, I am only supposed to arouse the master of the house's libido!

...

Wait, why am I complaining about that?! 

The stress is making me lose my mind, and even worse, I couldn't memorize any of the lines to this stupid play. Curse you, Prince Geordo, and your fragile shins!

"Alright, Tanya - that's your cue!" 

What cue!? "But - my lines, I-"

"There's no time, ad lib something! The character was written with Prince Geordo in mind, so just- just try to act how he would!" Sophia Ascart spoke, pushing me to the stage.

...

...

The turmoil of Tanya's mind became too much to truly follow it, and as her mind raced a mile a minute, from the outside, it looked almost like she was perfectly confident and bearing a large smile. Some of those in the audience, those who knew her, flinched at the sight, though she was thoroughly unaware of this.

Indeed, many an old soldier or veteran knight recognized the look of a warrior walking to his death and trying to pretend everything was fine... and so everyone observed as the scene truly began, one that would go down in their memories.

Tanya stepped into the light, letting everyone see her, already knowing that any more stalling would reflect badly on her mistress. Unfortunately, she had also been roped into this mess, as a last minute replacement for the actress that was meant to play the antagonist, who had suddenly come down with a bad cold. 

Immediately, Tanya tried to put on her best impression of Geordo's demeanor, confident yet observant. Her hair, while not cut, had been tied in such a way as to reduce its presence, and emphasize its slightly spiky and messy natural state. No hair spray to give her a typical shonen hero's spiky locks, but a facsimile of hair cream to give her a slightly more masculine hairdo would do.

She wore a white suit, and was shocked to find that it fit her almost perfectly with minor adjustments. She would have to ask why and how there was a suit tailored to her sizes, but now wasn't the time. A few steps forward saw her coming into the scene, which was already underway.

"Oooh ho ho ho!" the mistress of darkness, the Duchess Lamont, laughed openly, raising her right hand and opening her fan to cover her face as she did. Katarina Claes had almost entirely transformed into this role, and was almost unrecognizable. Her hair was slightly glossier than usual, her features were trained on a devilish smirk and her eyes carried a hint of amusement and darkness to them that sent chilling reminders of the monster she had been, more than a decade ago. 

Duchess Lamont closed her fan and pointed it at the girl before her, who was on the ground, the blonde Maria Campbell, wearing a wig that covered her distinctive hair with a less attention grabbing brown that was oddly similar to Katarina's hair. She had the role of Ariadne, a poor girl who had been accepted into the royal academy of magic due to her unexpected talent.

The story itself was disturbingly close to an otome game storyline. Tanya wasn't too familiar with those, even when she had free time she had always preferred more... war related games. Some would even go as far as to say that in her first life, she had been a military otaku, but she would dismiss such things... after all, her knowledge of the Great War had been a lifesaver many times before.

"This is where you belong, little girl," the duchess spoke, "on your knees before me, rather than getting in my way. It is I, and not you, who is the Prince's perfect partner and future wife, and I won't allow an upstart commoner the likes of you to usurp my rightful role!"

Right. She had some degree of knowledge of the plot. Tanya played the Prince Benjamin, undercover as Benji, son of a Baron. This was the scene where the prince would meet the Heroine, and save her from the bullying of the Duchess, establishing their bond. 

She stepped in as she remembered the instructions said to do, but then she realized a rather distressing detail.

Right. Her line. 

Her line. Which line? The one that she didn't memorize.

Right, right right, what to do now... She said act like Geordo, right? But... that wouldn't do. Geordo in this situation... It wouldn't be grand enough for theater, would it?

She needed to be bombastic, loud and enthusiastic, that was one of the rules of theater, it was better to overact than underact. She couldn't even see the people due to the lights, but she knew they'd be groaning in boredom and hoping for something, anything, to get her off the stage if she couldn't transmit the energy that a good actor could!

Admittedly, all of this was spitballing she did in her mind within moments, and only when she noticed that the other two were looking at her, did she finally make a decision.

She could not be a handome otome love interest... but she could be a military officer. And that would have to do.

"What is the matter here?!" she demanded, as she stepped into the scene between the two girls, gesturing grandly with her arms. "What harm has she done to provoke a noble lady to such acts?"

She hoped that sounded noble enough.

"What gives you the right to stand up to a noble lady?" the Villainess sneered. A hint of doubt passed between Katarina's eyes, and only the most eagle eyed of observers could've noticed it.

Tanya decided she needed to reassure her lady, even if she adlibbed a few things, they would need to be in synch. She got on her knees and put her hands on the heroine's shoulders, making her stand up. "Are you alright, miss?"

It was when Maria, no, Ariadne looked at her that Tanya started to get into it. It was a very convincing hopeful gaze. "Oh! Please forgive me, I did not mean to get you involved, I made a mistake, please allow me to apologize," the young commoner begged, turning to the duchess.

"Apologize," the duchess sneered. "For offending me, I shall have you expelled from this great and wonderful institution. Rabble such as yourself never should've been allowed to spread its filth in our sacred halls," she said. "And the same goes for you," she said, looking at Benji. "I know not your name nor your face, you must be such a low and pathetic noble that you might as well be a commoner, no different from this dog."

Benji was incensed by the cruel sight. It brought up memories of a bratty, shitty child that would drive her- him up the wall, and needed constant care and attention. A traumatic memory, to be certain. 

"No matter how high and mighty your house, this behavior is inexcusable," Benji argued.

"What is inexcusable is your attitude towards me," the lady spoke. "You will know the weight of my family's name when it falls upon you, cretin!"

"No, please - not over me," Ariadne begged. "If I must face punishment for offending a highborn lady, then let it be me and me alone!"

"So be it. A duel for honor!" the duchess shouted. "We shall decide your fate upon a duel, should you be defeated, then you will be expelled!" she crowed, in triumphant glee. 

"B-But, I cannot fight, I've not yet learned magics to-" 

"Then you shall have to make do with your fangs and claws, as all other beasts do!" Duchess Lamont laughed.

"No, I cannot allow that," Benji replied, firmly. "Allow me to be the first to defend your honor, I will stand for you," he said, resolutely, putting a hand on his hip, where the decorative prop sword rested. "I will stand for her, and be her champion! Who will stand for you, oh duchess!?"

"Stand for me?" the Duchess scoffed. "One such as I needs no one to stand for her," she shouted, making a grand sweeping gesture. "If you would stand up for this filthy commoner, lowborn noble, then let me show you the might and power of my family and my name!"

Tanya pulled the prop sword, and was just in time to receive the impact from the hard wooden fan that Katarina struck her with. It was an incredibly powerful attack, and it carried the force that one would expect from a woman who did hard labor every single day of her life, and received a significant amount of physical training besides that, simply to burn off the calories of the massive amounts of food she ingested.

It actually managed to make her arm feel the impact as the blonde was forced back.

Tanya raised the sword again and parried the follow up attack, twisting her hand and cutting at Katarina's neck, but the lady was quick and much too practiced to let such a basic trick work on her... and unfortunately, she had learned far too well from the trick bag of her primary teacher and master, dodging the cut by diving under it, slamming her shoulder onto Tanya's midsection, knocking them both to the ground, the sudden impact causing Tanya to let go of her weapon when she hit the ground, gasping for air.

She proceeded by immediately punching at Tanya's face, forcing the blonde to raise her hands to block, and as soon as Katarina let up for just a mere instant, to breathe, Tanya bucked her off and rolled towards her sword.

The blonde grabbed the weapon, just in time to see the duchess grabbing onto one of the prop arming swords that the fake armors used as decoration for the 'hall' the scene was taking place in and pulling it out of the armor's grip.

Immediately, the two were onto each other, and anyone who watched could tell that they'd forgotten where they were, and instead both of them were very noticeably, and visibly, going for the kill with every strike. In fact, some would even argue the method through which the two of them fought might even be called excessively and unnecessarily lethal.

Rather than a honorable duel with swords, the showroom fencing that many of the nobility were used to, Katarina instead used her sword as a distraction, making Tanya block a horizontal slash at her midsection and following up with an elbow to the face, though the blonde was able to twist out of the way and step on the puffy dress to arrest her movement, throwing a punch that connected with Katarina's face and forced her back, though as she rolled with the hit, she managed to avoid great harm.

Katarina huffed, and demonstrating that a blunt prop sword was not a harmless toy, stabbed it into her dress and tore the expensive looking garment apart, cutting off most of her skirts. 

Tanya tried to capitalize on this by stepping for an attack, but Katarina threw the fabric onto her face and sword, and though Tanya was able to avoid getting tangled up, she was not able to capitalize on the opening, and so the two were once more engaged in a violent and impressive melee, legs, fists and swords flying as the two of them tried to inflict grievous bodily harm on one another.

At the end, however, the master was the master, and the apprentice had not quite overcome her yet. Despite her extremely impressive strength and speed, Katarina simply lacked the skill and experience of a real fight, and eventually, she made a mistake, opening herself up for a kidney punch that doubled her over, and then she was kicked to the ground, her opponent's sword at her throat.

"'Twould seem your defeat is at hand, oh duchess," Tanya, no, Benji, right, get in character, Benji taunted.

For her part, the duchess laughed. "So it be!" she called.

However, it was at that moment that the two of them realized...

Right.

That fight scene wasn't in the script! The duchess wasn't even supposed to be able to fight, the duel was never meant to happen, the duchess would call for someone to be her second but nobody would pick up the glove, and she would be disgraced and shamed for it... 

Oops.

Everyone was looking at them now. 

Maria walked up to Tanya and threw her arms around her, getting close enough to whisper in her ears. "Sophia said to just roll with it!" she said.

Tanya and Katarina looked at each other, and it was at that moment that perhaps they connected on a deeper level that any physical affection they might have shared over their years as lady and maid.

Unconsciously, they both realized...

This was just the story of their lives. Just improv and hope for the best...

Well then.

Katarina dusted herself off. "So be it! I shall back off for today, but now you've piqued my interest," she spoke, getting back on her feet. "And you girl - you better cling to your savior, if you know what's good for you," she warned. "You know not our ways nor our customs, it would do you a world of good to learn them, if you do not wish to find yourself in this situation once more."

"I, I thank you for the advice, Lady Lamont," Maria replied. "I shall endeavor to do so, as you've adviced."

"Perhaps I judged you too harshly," the duchess spoke. "Mayhaps we may speak another time..."

Tanya sheathed her prop sword. 

Katarina turned to her, then bowed, lifting the shredded remains of her skirts to curtsey. "I am the Lady Rina Lamont, Daughter of Duke Mario Lamont," she spoke. "It is always a pleasure to make the acquaintance of a man of strength and honor."

"I am Benji Princeton, of the house of Princeton, son of a Baron," Tanya replied, immersed enough not to question the obvious alias. "I cannot deny that our bout was a most stimulating one."

"Indeed! Perhaps next time, we may duel not as foes, but as friends!" the Duchess Lamont spoke, grabbing her slightly busted up fan from the ground and opening it, though it had a few visible cracks, fanning her face and covering it as she threw her head back, giving another "Oh ho ho ho!" laugh as she did so. 

And so did the scene end.

There would be much yelling from Sophia... but she was able to throw something together during the time they'd been out, and they would carry out the current plot to its conclusion, not the condemnation of a villainess and the declaration of a happily ever after between the prince and the commoner girl, but instead, a tale of a most unlikely friendship...

It would get positive reviews, though people could tell much of it was improvised on the spot, for the passion of the actors, and most importantly, phenomenal reviews for the fight choreography. Some would even say that they were afraid the actors might actually kill each other on stage.

Needless to say, neither Katarina nor Tanya wanted anything to do with an acting career after that, though they did agree to consult and work with the drama club for fight scene choreography...