The charged moment crashed down in the next instance.

By which I mean, there was a literal loud crash that pulled all of us out of the zone. And a few shrieks that followed it. All heads turned to the door, a few servants shifting.

Crash!

I had to twist my entire body to turn to the door, frowning. That didn't sound good. Was something happening out there? (Well, yeah, probably. But what?)

Bam! 

"It's getting closer," one of the maids at the side of the room whimpered. My face pulled tight in worry. She was right, it was getting closer.

More shrieks. Another crash, like a cart had been overturned.

CRASH. BOOM.

"Help!" someone screamed, sounding like they were right outside the door. I shared an alarmed look with Lady Mildred. What was happening, and did we need to hide?!

Footsteps dashed closer and closer. "C'MON!" someone roared in a guttural shout, the sound growing only louder. "CHOP CHOP, PEOPLE!"

I paused. That... sounded familiar. Right, that sounded like something--

All of a sudden, I couldn't breathe. "Oh no," I moaned, almost completely silent. The vague fear that had been eating away at me disappeared, only to be replaced by a quiet sort of despair. My face twisted into one of agony.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a maid look at me with concern. Yes, miss maid, you should be concerned.

Still, "Please, don't let it be," I whispered faintly, half-unaware I was even speaking out loud. I clutched at the back of my elaborate chair. "Just this once," I prayed, a sick anticipation sinking in my stomach, "don't let it be her, please don't let it be--"

The door burst open at the same time I uttered her name.

"--Rosa."

"Filian!" Rosa yelled, standing at the doorway looking like a warrior. Her hair was mussed up and blown all over her face, and her uniform was a bit askew. Her beautiful clothes (no, they were such Good Clothes!) were spotted with a light shade of pink, as if she'd overturned a cup of rose tea on her sleeves and skirt on her way here.

"She probably did," I murmured to myself.

Her narrowed eyes swept the room before zeroing onto me, and her tense shoulders immediately relaxed. "Oh, thank goodness you're here, Fi. I thought you were kidnapped!"

"So suddenly?!"

Rosa slid down to the floor, wiping away nonexistent sweat from her brow. "Whew!" she huffed, still heaving. "That was some exercise."

Behind her, maids, chefs, and butler-looking guys were all rushing back and forth. I eyed them warily. "Some exercise. Right."

A couple scenarios ran through my head, and I thought back on what we had heard. I frowned. "Um, no offense or anything, Ro, but... Are you in any danger of being sued by the school?"

She scoffed. "Sued? I should be suing them!"

My eyebrows rose, and my eyes darted back to Rosa. "What? Why?"

"They tried to burn me!"

My eyebrows rose even higher. "Like a witch?" What had she done?!

"Oh," she answered, furrowing her eyebrows. "I see what you mean. But no. Not like that. More like--" She curled up her hand and made a sort of throwing motion. "That kind of burn. You know?"

No, I didn't know, but I had more important things to ask. "Then why were there so many crashes? And screams?"

Rosa shrugged, fluffing her hair with her hands in leisure now. "I barely did anything." She flashed me a grin and said, with pride, "I only flipped one tea table."

"You flipped a table!?"

A servant in the back probably gasped. Or maybe it was me. I was kind of not okay right now.

She gave me a dirty look. "Wow, friend, thanks for all your support. And before you start blaming me, that was in defense! They tried to splash scalding hot tea on me!" She made that throwing motion again.

"Ohh, so that was you pretending to throw tea."

"What else could it be?"

I threw my hands up. "Oh I don't know, anything else but that?"

She made a pshaw sound and flipped her hair over her shoulder. "Anyways, I wasn't going to let myself be burned like a foolish cow, so of course I used whatever nearest to me as a shield." Which was a table. "Common sense, obviously."

"Obviously," I echoed sarcastically. I slumped down, sighing. At least she wouldn't be sued. Or worse, expelled! (I frowned for a second. Now why did that sound so familiar...) "I'm glad you're fine, but could you not wreak havoc wherever we go?" 

Rosa patted down her skirt and gave me a look. "What part of my story told you I was wreaking havoc? I was acting in self-defense!"

"Yeah, but nobody else flips tables in self-defense, do they?"

"Not my fault nobody else can calculate the most efficient way to lift a table in a moment's notice," she shot back.

That... well, that was probably true, but that was also probably not the problem most people had when trying to flip tables. I fought back an incredulous smile.

"Ha!" She tossed her head back, grinning. "You think it's funny too. I know you do."

I rolled my eyes, but the grin broke through.

"Besides, I even made sure nothing would hit them, but they started screaming like I tried to give them second degree burns. Geez. But anyways, the table made beautiful circles once it was on its side, and they started jumping all over the place. It was crazy, so I ran away."

I suppressed a snort. Rosa, running away? That was actually pretty funny.

"Even though they should've known that with legs that short and a table top diameter of that size wouldn't be able to roll for that wide a circumference," Rosa was muttering, shaking her head.

"Well, as I said, I'm glad you're fine now," I said dryly.

Belatedly realizing whose room we were in, I turned around to give Lady Mildred a wry smile, and she returned it with a small roll of her eyes. Miss Mary, who had been standing in front of Lady Mildred (she had rushed forward to protect her when the crashes started), turned around at that very moment, then proceeded to look properly scandalized. Ha-- was this the first time Lady Mildred had rolled her eyes? If that was the case, I was very honored to have been the recipient of it. My smile widened into a delighted grin.

Miss Mary whirled around to glare at me, and my grin died down. Great, she hates me even more now. Too bad, since I'd thought we would be getting along more with our mutual appreciation for Lady Mildred.

"Lady Rosa," Lady Mildred said, her eyes shifting to the crazy girl. "A cup of tea, perhaps."

"Oh, hey Lady Mildred," Rosa greeted, raising a tired hand. "Glad to see you safe as well. I can't stay long, though."

Once she was seated, she frowned at me over her biscuit and told me, "You don't know how worried I was."

My jaw dropped open. "Excuse you? You were worried?"

"Why else do you think I was running around for?" She shook her head. "I thought maybe the green-haired sadist did his kidnapping event on you."

"His kidnapping event?" I repeated, bewildered.

"Oh, you don't want to be caught in his kidnapping event, unless you go that way." Rosa shivered, bringing her cup closer to herself. A couple of the maids near her shivered as well, looking scared. "Beware the green hair, as I always say."

"No, you don't always say that."

"Then I better start saying it now." She sipped her tea and leaned in close. In a conspiratory whisper, she added, "It even rhymes."

I gave her a dry look before drawling, "Yes, the most important part." 

One of the maids who had ran here behind Rosa knocked on the opened door, probably to catch Rosa's attention. When Rosa nodded, the maid slid to her side and whispered a few words to her.

Rosa's grip on her cup tightened, and she looked at me with grim eyes. "We have to go, Filian. He's coming this way."

"He who? Glitcherman?"

"Oh, him too." She sighed, and suddenly she looked like a battle-worn veteran, grimly choosing her battle plans. Even her voice lowered into a more guttural tone. "Looks like it's back to the front lines. Thank you, Lady Mildred. Let's have lunch tomorrow." Then she stood up, set the tea down, and nodded sharply at me.

Using my certified Understand Rosa skills that I'd refined and honed my entire life, I took that to mean, we're going now, so say goodbye and let's beat it. "Thank you very much for your hospitality, I really enjoyed the tea," I said, turning to Lady Mildred with a smile. I almost said see you later, but then I realized maybe we wouldn't be meeting anytime soon, so I defaulted into generic Customer Service endings. "I hope you have a great day!" I said cheerfully, then cringed. Ugh, how much more unoriginal could that get?

Lady Mildred dipped her head gracefully still, and I put a hand to my heart, moved at how she'd let me get away with that awful phrase.

"Thank you, Lady Mildred," I said again, this time with tears in my eyes.

Rosa rolled her eyes. "No tears allowed in the Fancy Room," she announced, then reminded me, "Chop chop, my friend." She then darted out with hands behind her back, looking very much like how a ninja with blonde hair and orange clothes from another world in which ninjas exist might look like... if there was another world like that. Since there wasn't any in my world, I just blinked and thought that was a weird way to run, of course.

The maid (spy?) nodded at me, too, so I nodded back at her and sped down after Rosa. In my quickest walk, not a run like Rosa had done, thank you very much. Like a proper person in front of nobles should do, probably.

The scene outside was worse than what I had imagined. Some noble ladies (and a few butlers) were bawling, chefs were grimly dishing out some finger food to accompany those without tables, and maids were mopping things like mad. So I did what was most natural: keep my head down and pretend I didn't know Rosa.

"C'mon, Filly!" barked the oblivious girl, looking straight at me.

I cringed and looked away, trying to blend into the walls. Some of the maids were now shooting daggers at me with their eyes. I gave them a watery smile and shook my head at them, trying to tell them telepathically that I had nothing to do with this girl. They only narrowed their eyes back.

I knew I shouldn't have worn blue! I should've worn, uh, marbled white! Then I would've blended right into the walls and nobody would've known that Filian the commoner had ever walked here.

Once we were out of the cafeteria, we went straight for that one parking lot for carriages and jumped into Rosa's silver-and-blue carriage. I finally let myself breathe normally. "Whew! I thought I was going to die!"

Rosa gave me a weird look. "Wow, you need to exercise if that was enough to kill you."

I gave her a sunny smile, then yelled as I delivered my signature kick at her side.

---

A/N: Lowkey late but not really! I might also go back and edit the writing style of the past few chapters... I am sort of stylistically lost right now ahahahaha