That was an empty threat. One that, although sounded quite empowered when uttered in the small space that composed the interior of the carriage, had no practical effect once these three individuals arrived at the von Rosenwald estate.

Évelyne knew that while Victoria might not be the best conversationalist in a social gathering, she also wasn't one to purposefully make herself disagreeable in the eyes of others. And her theory proved to be true when, just as they crossed the threshold of the building, the scientist fell silent as a tomb, simply observing her surroundings without making any attempt to steal the spotlight from the creature or any other guests.

No. Georg had offered his arm to Évelyne as soon as they entered, a gesture of courtesy that also aimed to prevent them from getting lost in the crowd. Victoria, initially, followed them at a prudent distance several steps behind, using them as a human shield, since most of the greetings would be directed at them. Évelyne, who had spotted the group of acquaintances they would be staying with for most of the evening, turned to invite her, only to realize that the scientist had already disappeared, taking advantage of a moment of distraction to slip away unnoticed.

Perhaps the image of her using some side door leading to the service area and then back outside wasn't far-fetched, considering how many times she had complained about having to attend the ball. However, after a quick scan of the room, Évelyne soon spotted the scientist again.

Victoria seemed to have found Professor Waldman and company—because, although she didn't know them personally, Évelyne doubted that Victoria would willingly strike up a conversation with a couple of strangers for more than five minutes—and now she was engrossed in a conversation that, judging by their expressions, wasn't going badly.

So, having made sure that her creator hadn't fled as threatened and wasn't in danger of socializing too much, she mentally noted to leave her alone, trusting that things would continue to go well for at least another half hour: Évelyne was going to invite her to join them, perhaps even to introduce her to some more people she had met in the last few days. But that could wait until she finished talking with the academics.

For now, Évelyne would simply enjoy the evening, aware of the achievement that despite it being the first of the days she didn't wear a veil inside a venue where so many hundreds of people gathered, no one had said anything disrespectful about her appearance.

On the contrary, quite the opposite. More than one of Georg's friends complimented her on her dress, asking about the cut and where they could acquire a similar one.

Évelyne was delighted to share the information. Never before had she had something she considered valuable information at her disposal—excluding, perhaps, any triviality that Victoria might think of to jot down in her imaginary agenda but, since being curious by nature came as part of the profession of a scientist, the creature didn't think that counted—so she was delighted to be able to participate in these everyday conversations, which only served to further involve her with the villagers of that small town that was already beginning to feel like home.

"Well, who do we have here?" inquired a familiar voice, shortly after Évelyne finished giving instructions on how to get to a certain little shop to a couple of women she had just met. "I knew you were coming, but frankly, I didn't expect to find you here. The entrances are already jammed, I can't even imagine the ballroom."
Upon turning around, Évelyne found herself face to face with Franziska. Who hadn't come alone either, as she was hanging onto the arm of one of what the creature identified as one of her sons, whom she had briefly met on another one of those days she accompanied the old woman to her doorstep.

"I should say something similar," pointed out Évelyne, unable to hide her smile; it was always nice to see Franziska again, although they didn't usually do so outside the park. "It's nice to see you here, although I had no idea you were going to show up."

"Oh, I had no intention. Originally, I was spending the day at one of my daughter's homes but, after dinner, the kids thought it would be a great idea to come here and hang out," the old woman declared, pointing to a group of people, among children and adults, who were nearby and who must be part of her family. "I wasn't very keen on coming, being that it's late for me and this property is already quite far. But they insisted, and I didn't want to stay home alone..."

"What are you saying? You were the first to indulge the children when they showed interest in the dance," her companion protested, almost indignantly at such a public exposure that Franziska had just made so freely. "We were the ones who didn't want to. We would have much preferred to stay chatting around Charlotte's table until we got bored or were kicked out, whichever came first."

"True, this is Richard," the old woman proceeded, without much interest. "He's the youngest of my five children and, as you may have noticed, the most cheeky. So, please, don't hold it against him."

"See if I purposely lose you in the crowd..."

"Do it without remorse, now that I'm with Évelyne, I'm convinced I'll be in much better hands."

Neither the threat nor Franziska's subsequent response seemed serious, which led Évelyne to understand that this type of exchange was usual between the two of them. However, perhaps because she didn't feel like losing that battle, Richard didn't accept the invitation to leave, but stayed where he was, silently observing.

The old woman didn't seem to mind, so Évelyne decided she wouldn't make any comments about it either.

"I was going to ask if you've been around for long, or if you came in company," Franziska continued. "Because, whatever the case, I would like to take this opportunity to invite you to our group and introduce you to some people."

"I just arrived with some friends, my roommate included, and one of them has decided to introduce me to another bunch of people who belong to his circle. So yes, it seems like I'll be quite busy tonight (although I still don't know exactly why). Which, on the other hand, doesn't mean I wouldn't want to be even more."

"Great. That's what these events are for, right? For young people to have fun in society and meet like-minded people they can be friends with... or more."

"These parties are also good for scoping out the territory and knowing where one can easily steal," murmured Richard, who, although he didn't look like a thief, seemed to possess the cunning necessary for the job. "Have you noticed the amount of jewelry adorning the necks of most women here? Not to mention the bracelets and rings. I hope at least the hosts have a good safe."

"It wouldn't make sense to come to a dance without one's best attire," Franziska defended, although she herself wasn't wearing any expensive adornments. "And if for some that means carrying the equivalent of the royal treasure, so be it. In any case, this is still a charity event; it's up to them and their conscience and wallet."

"That makes sense. Although it doesn't change the fact that one can't help but see the irony."

What the hell Richard did for a living was something the creature would love to know, but her elderly friend distracted her from asking the question.

"Speaking of clothing and assorted paraphernalia, Évelyne, darling, that dress you're wearing is gorgeous, you have to tell me where you bought it. Oh, and has anyone asked you to dance yet? I heard they've recruited the local orchestra to liven up the evening and such a thing must be taken advantage of."

And yes, that was precisely what the creature and the others did next.
Évelyne had been asked previously to grant them a couple of dances, either by Georg or some of the acquaintances he had encountered amidst the function. So, finding Franziska now, along with her own little group of relatives who had chosen to come here to have fun, only added another task to Évelyne's list of social interactions she should engage in.

And, to be fair, Évelyne was delighted to suddenly find herself surrounded by so many like-minded people whose intentions aligned so well with her own!

She soon got to know all the children and grandchildren of her elderly friend. She spent a good while on the dance floor, while the orchestra played two or three classics of that time of year, and finally ended up sitting around the tables where much of the crowd was concentrated, enjoying a banquet that, while not extraordinary in terms of quality, had enough quantity to feed an entire army.

Perhaps, at this point, easily over an hour had passed since Évelyne arrived at the von Rosenwalds' house. More than an hour since she separated from the scientist, and maybe it was time to inquire where the hell she had disappeared to: They were supposed to have agreed that Victoria would return with her and Georg's group as soon as she finished talking with those professors of hers... Unless they were keeping her for the rest of the night —which was unlikely, on the other hand, as Évelyne didn't see Victoria as someone who would easily be swayed by the whims of others, be they her immediate superiors or any other ordinary person, especially not that evening—. But everything was possible.

Évelyne had stayed chatting with her people at one of the tables, trying to make herself heard over the sound of a nearby piano, and after much searching with her eyes, she managed to spot the pair of intellectuals Victoria had been talking to at the beginning.

However, there was no sign of Victoria around, and Évelyne briefly considered the possibility that she had taken the opportunity to flee through the nearest door and take a carriage to her apartment while no one was watching.

After all, she only agreed to be here because she had a pending matter from her university at hand. If it weren't for that, it wouldn't have even crossed her mind to come. And if Évelyne had to be faithful to the facts, Victoria's return with her and the rest was only perhaps a somewhat naive wish of the creature. Since, although she asked her creator as a favor to meet back, she never committed to anything and expertly avoided that conversation.

In truth, Évelyne didn't even understand why it mattered so much to her that Victoria was there, sharing the same table as her, but the truth was that it did.

Perhaps the appropriate thing in this case would be, having seen and analyzed Victoria's previous behavior, to let it go. Évelyne didn't think it was right for the scientist to be on her own, fleeing from crowds as if they were going to burn her, while preaching that the creature should be the first to expose herself to the public eye. But she was also aware that she wasn't anyone to impose on other people's way of life.

So maybe it would have been best to wait until they got back home, to when they were together again in the privacy those four walls provided and, once there... Well, not to voice her irrelevant complaints one by one. Évelyne didn't want to become that kind of person. But maybe, she thought, she could take a little more interest in Victoria, in how she had fared with those professors. Not out of curiosity about her studies —Évelyne hadn't changed one bit in this regard, she still couldn't care less about what was going on at that university—, but out of concern for the scientist's well-being.

When had she developed such concern? She wasn't sure, to be honest, but that wasn't something she planned on dwelling on at that moment.

Excusing herself to her companions, Évelyne stood up, ready to take a stroll around the hall.
Since Évelyne was fairly certain that Victoria wouldn't be there, she barely wasted a moment to search for her amidst the crowd, deciding to go straight outside to some gardens that stretched for a few hundred meters until she stumbled upon the stone wall that separated them from the rest of the city.

It was cold outside, enough to have dissuaded most of the staff from staying inside the building for the duration of the event. Outside, around the property, only a few couples who didn't seem to fear the weather, solitary guests taking the opportunity to smoke a cigarette, and a few children who, surely behind their parents' backs, took the opportunity to run around in a larger space remained.

Évelyne didn't belong to any of these groups but, she thought, she could still make good use of the alone time: she loved being in a group where she was welcome. However, and perhaps because she still wasn't quite accustomed to so much positive attention, it could end up overwhelming her if she didn't take a break from time to time.

Therefore, deciding not to choose a seat among the benches scattered around, the creature simply took a stroll along the path that surrounded the mansion, enjoying the scenery but with no intention of stopping.

She had exited through a door located to the east of the property and planned, eventually, to return through another one located at the opposite end, so that she would have about a good five minutes of introspection before giving up and returning to her group before they missed her.

And yes, she spent half of that self-imposed timeframe without much inconvenience, forgetting about the people she had come with and focusing her thoughts on seemingly more irrelevant matters, until a ball landed at her feet, making her stop.

It seemed that a handful of those kids who went out to play were in the middle of an improvised game, much to the dismay of the watchers who had to supervise the playground, and the ball had escaped from the corner they had chosen as their playfield. Évelyne, therefore, picked up the object with the intention of returning it to its owners. However, she had barely walked a couple of meters toward the children before one approached her and, after looking her up and down suspiciously, snatched the ball from her hands.

"You're welcome, I guess," muttered the creature, ready to leave.

"What happened to your face?" inquired the child, who couldn't have been more than eight years old.

"I don't know what you mean."

"It looks ugly."

The child didn't seem to have said that out of fear or in an accusing tone, as if he were simply stating a demonstrable fact.

What did the child want Évelyne to do about it, then? Tear off her face? In another time, when she felt more vulnerable, she might have bowed her head at the comment. But now that she had spent weeks finding out that it was possible to maintain a civilized relationship with the vast majority of the humans she encountered, she only felt plain indifference to such a direct insult.

"Better said, what happened to yours?" someone inquired from behind Évelyne, before she could come up with a civilized response. "That doesn't look good, it's as if you've been hit in the face with a ball."

"That's not true!" the child protested, instantly forgetting about the creature, now focusing on Victoria. "I'm very good at this game, it's impossible for something like that to happen to me."

"Ah, it must be the lighting then."

The kid didn't insist again, nor did he try to defend his point. Instead, he stuck his tongue out at Victoria and, after hearing his friends call him to continue the game, he ran to join them, thus ending an encounter as untimely as it was irrelevant.

If he had found Évelyne so horrifying to look at, it seemed he forgot about it the moment the scientist distracted him.

Had Victoria done that on purpose? It seemed so, and although Évelyne didn't feel bad about the inappropriate comment and was fairly certain she could have handled it alone, she still felt that it was a nice gesture to be thankful for.

The only problem, perhaps, was that Évelyne wasn't used to thanking Victoria for whatever she had done in her favor. And definitely, that warm feeling in her chest upon meeting her again was also new.
So, in the end, instead of uttering a few words of appreciation, the only thing that came to the creature's mind was:

"Do you feel no shame in arguing with a little kid?"

Évelyne wanted to bite her tongue as soon as that question slipped from her lips. Victoria, on the contrary, seemed visibly amused by such a remark.

"If he's old enough to be saying nonsense to strangers, he's old enough to face the consequences," pointed out the scientist, with a smile that Évelyne had learned was not really dangerous. "In any case, I wasn't fighting. I was winning. And that's honorable."

Évelyne couldn't help but laugh at that realization, as if going around throwing sharp remarks at strangers' children was the most natural thing in the world, if they bothered her first. Then, having relieved herself of the initial tension, she proceeded with what she originally wanted to say:

"Whatever happened in that interaction, I appreciate you showing up so opportunistically. But where had you been hiding? I thought you had escaped from the event."

"I was about to, but neither Professor Waldman nor Doctor Fuchs are easy people to get rid of. And when I finally saw the opportunity to leave, I realized that the dances were starting and there was an alarming number of individuals looking for a partner for the next piece. So I gracefully retired to a quieter place, waiting for the crowd to clear the main entrance."

"You didn't hide in the bathrooms again, did you? That's the only place I didn't check."

"Excuse me, what do you mean 'again'?" Victoria asked with feigned indignation; it seemed that having gotten the alone time she so desired had somewhat restored her good humor. "Have you been gossiping with Henry behind my back again?"

"It wasn't necessary, it was obvious by how you're acting: If you couldn't sneak out earlier to the outside, the second-best option is to lock yourself somewhere. And the bathrooms are the only ones with a lock. Now," she added, thinking of one of the last times she spoke with the aforementioned, "Henry did tell me about a certain incident during an exhibition..."

"You didn't have a large group of friends to return to inside?" Victoria interrupted, opting for this as a healthy way to prevent Évelyne from voicing the anecdote in question aloud. "You should go back before someone misses you."

Victoria wasn't wrong. With all the fooling around, at least fifteen minutes must have passed since Évelyne separated from the others. There was no doubt they would eventually come looking for her.

"Will you come with me? I wanted to introduce you to some people," she added, not that she believed it would be a major incentive, but she was tempted to add, "You'll like them."

"If I said no, would you still insist on me going back to the room?"

Honestly, Évelyne had intended to do so until shortly before arriving at the charity event. At this moment, she didn't feel like forcing Victoria to do something she didn't want to.

Therefore, all she could do was negotiate.

"Thirty minutes," she suggested. "Thirty minutes in there, while I make the introductions, and then I'll escort you myself to the exit and get rid of whoever is blocking that door."

"Fifteen minutes. And if anyone even suggests that I stay longer or, worse, grant a dance, you'll have more than one guest to get rid of."

"That works for me, I can manage with just fifteen," Évelyne wasn't in a position to raise the stakes any higher: she wasn't going to tempt fate any further. "But... weren't you the one who always tells me that I shouldn't use violence against innocent beings?"

"That's not violence, it's serving a noble purpose."

The purpose of saving those people from the scientist causing a massacre, if they didn't let her return home in peace, probably.

Évelyne recognized the joking tone that the conversation had taken and didn't dislike it at all.

"Shall we then?" Victoria urged, starting to walk towards the door through which they had entered the gardens. "The sooner you introduce me to those people, the sooner I can return to my precious and very quiet apartment."