༺Rune Knights Yule Formal༻

“Your mother?” Serilda asked, her eyes going wide with happiness for the general. “That’s wonderful!” She listened with rapt interest as Gisen explained the incident, with a little bit of shock and interjection on Silvia’s part. Serilda noticed the Sylph’s confusion, of course, but since she didn’t know as much about Gisen as Silvia did she was hard pressed to put a finger on what exactly was throwing the other woman off. Whatever it was, Silvia seemed to decide that now wasn’t the time or place to ask the questions she seemed to have.

Before she could really get the chance to respond, Serilda felt a body moving in a bee line right toward her. She turned in time to see a familiar friend, and a bright smile lit across her face. “Nes!” The other woman practically threw herself at Serilda, causing the typically composed field marshal to laugh and return the hug. “Thank you!” she said as Nessa let go and complimented her attire. “You look amazing yourself! I utterly adore this dress on you!” Serilda wasn’t the biggest fan of the color pink, but it suited Nessa perfectly, drawing out the brightness of her eyes and complimenting her pale skin.

Realizing that she had burst in the middle of a conversation, the starlight maiden was quick to apologize to Gisen and Silvia and introduce herself. Or rather, reintroduce herself. It seemed they had met before during the chaos that was Nessa’s birthday party a while back. Serilda hadn’t recalled seeing Gisen there, but frankly there had be a ton of people. Since they hadn’t known even a quarter of the people at the party -- and had been dealing with Lux and Victoria to boot -- Serilda and Mythal had mostly kept to themselves for the event.

She waited until the pleasantries were over before speaking up again. “I’m so glad you could make it! Did Markus come with you?” Serilda managed to mask it well, but she was a little worried about things between Nessa and the chaos mage. A lot of things had happened recently with Markus that Serilda was sure he hadn’t talked to Nessa about yet. The only reason Serilda even knew was because she’d been forced to arrest him not long ago. Things had worked out, in a sense, but the field marshal had made it very clear that if Markus didn’t talk to Nessa on his own within a reasonable amount of time that Serilda would. She didn’t feel comfortable keeping secrets from the woman who was quickly turning into her best friend.

No matter the answer, she would make sure to encourage a more carefree conversation between all of them. “This is hardly ladylike of me, but are you ladies hungry? Because I am starving and all this food that Beaux got catered has been calling me since I walked in.” The heightened senses of a slayer were both a blessing and a burden. She knew of course that Gisen would likely stick with her carrots as the elemental’s diet was a bit different than most people’s, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t enjoy a little girl time.

Unable to resist as they made their way over to the buffet tables, she shot the other three ladies a sly grin. “Have you seen Mythal tonight?” she asked, keeping her voice low. “He’s dressed in his new Director’s uniform. It’s the most formal, decorated thing he’s ever worn in his life, and I’m pretty sure he hates it.” Finishing off the comment with a little giggle, she started scooping a few appetizers onto a plate.

The ladies all moved over to one of the tables with food, happy to simply chat and relax together. Serilda inquired as to if Markus had come with Nessa, and was informed that they hadn’t traveled together but that the Chaos mage should probably be there by now. The two of them giggled together over Mythal’s new title, with the Starlight Maiden admitting how fancy it sounded and how much she was looking forward to teasing him about it. Already she was turning to search the room with her gaze, spotting him a ways away with a few others, chatting.

Serilda was focused on carefully placing a few items to munch on a plate and didn’t notice Nessa’s smile falter, but the second the Fairy Tail wizard piped up about seeing something that had obviously ruffled her feathers, she looked up. Her pale gaze found Markus standing with Mythal, and another dark haired woman that wore a tightfitting black dress. Serilda had yet to meet Lilith Kadokawa personally, though she’d heard plenty of stories from Mythal… and read more than enough reports from her missions to know that the woman wasn’t exactly her cup of tea. Add to that the few bits of information she’d gathered from her brother Shen, whom Serilda had started to take under her wing, and there was more than enough information there for her to shake her head.

“No, don’t worry. That’s just Lilith,” she told the Starlight Maiden. “I mean I can’t say anything about other women pining for him. Honestly it happens a lot with Mythal too. Must be something about quiet broody men… but Lilith flirts with everyone. And I do mean everyone.” Serilda was fairly certain that the first time she found herself having to chat directly with the Spec Ops operative that it was going to be an uncomfortable experience for them both. Uncomfortable for Serilda because she didn’t have the same kind of flirty and seductive personality that Lilith did; uncomfortable for Lilith because she would probably not be ready for the unamused and disinterested reprimand that she would receive from the marshal for any familiar behaviors or remarks.

Thankfully, Mythal had made it clear that he could and would deal with Lilith for her, and Serilda wasn’t worried about him doing so. He had no interest in Lilith. Before she could get the chance to ask how things were going with Markus, however, Nessa drew her attention back to Mythal, stating that the darkness mage had moved himself. “Hm?” she asked looking up from the plate again, looking around until she found the man heading back up onto the platform and toward the podium. Serilda frowned in confusion. “What is he doing?” she murmured, though not so quietly that the women in their group wouldn’t hear her question.

Had he prepared a speech of some kind? That would be weird because they’d both agreed that he hadn’t needed to. Mythal utterly hated public speaking of any kind and Serilda was more than happy and prepared to handle such things on his behalf. But even if he’d felt the need, surely he would have consulted her about it and let her know. It was very unlike him to do something like this, especially without telling her first. She could see how nervous he was about it, too.

The Voidwalker stood there, head tilted a little with curiosity as he spoke into the mic and drew everyone’s attention, letting them know that he wasn’t there to speak any further on the things that Serilda had already gone over at the start of the festivities. She did chuckle with the rest of the crowd as he admitted that she was better at public speeches, but the joke did nothing to lessen her uncertainty of what exactly was going on. The feeling intensified when he admitted he was wanting to talk about something more personal to him, which was added to the quickly compiling list of things that was so far out of Mythal’s realm of comfort that she was at a complete loss for how to interpret the situation at hand.

He talked a bit about his past in vague details, though sparing no punches at the type of man he used to be, opening up about how far he’d come from being a penniless drunk on the streets to the second in command of an entire country’s military force. Of course, that had started with him being so desperate for cash and shelter that he’d joined up with Fairy Tail, all without the intention of making any friends or doing anything other than working and getting by. But against his plans, he’d found a friend in Markus, a sister in Nessa… and then also found Serilda.

As soon as he said her name, a small part of her started to get an inkling of what could be happening here, but it was shut down swiftly and violently by stern denial. A slight blush rose to her cheeks and she smiled a little softly, doing her best to maintain composure while eyes began to flick back and forth between herself and the man at the podium. Their relationship wasn’t a secret, of course. The Council had been aware of their romance before placing them in charge of the Rune Knights, already agreeing that the two of them could work just fine with one another, even with Serilda technically being Mythal’s boss, without it being a complication. But the two of them were still very private people that rarely, if ever, put parts of their relationship on display with people who knew them well, let alone a group full of their employees and strangers.

It wasn’t until he got to some of the more deeply personal things, lifting his gaze to find hers in the crowd, that she started having a really difficult time hiding her inner struggle to figure out what the hell he was doing. The noblewoman was typically unflappable at even the worst of times, always able to hide her emotions behind a firm mask of neutral disinterest, but right now everyone would be able to see just how confused she was as to what was happening here. He described to her just how much he believed she had influenced his life, how he’d found the strength and courage to rise above the hand that fate had dealt him, now able to say that he had good friends, a prominent role in a respectable job, a loving partner, and even two girls that were basically unofficially adopted daughters to them by this point. Despite her uncertainty of what the reason behind all this was, she couldn’t help but be touched by his words, smiling softly, if shyly, at the compliments and affirmations of what their relationship meant to him.

By the time he finished speaking he had gained an awful lot of confidence in the face of a task that would have otherwise been annoying to him at best, daunting at worst. But he stepped back from the microphone suddenly and made his way down and toward her. Serilda’s eyes went wide, her jaw dropping just the slightest bit as her head started to swim. “What are you…” she started to whisper, unable to even finish the sentence before he cut her off in the single gesture of getting down on one knee. He reached into a spot on his uniform and pulled out a small box.

The sight of it caused Serilda to lose her grip on every shred of dignity and poise that she had as reality swam up and slapped her in the face. With fully wide eyes she gasped softly and the plate dropped right out of her hand from shock, the food spilling to the floor. Her knees gave out from under her and she dropped. The only reason she didn’t fall to her ass on the floor was a purely instinctive move from her magic that allowed her to harden the air beneath her to form an invisible flat surface for her to sit on, like she’d fallen into a chair even though nothing was actually there. She was utterly floored, even as he spoke her name one last time and asked her to marry him.

“Really..?” Serilda asked him quietly, as if she couldn’t believe the words she’d just heard from him. They’d never discussed marriage before. A large part of her had hoped it would happen some day, and knew that eventually her family at the least would probably expect it of them, but she knew his history and his origins and didn’t want him to feel pressured into that kind of social construct. She had been content to know that they were together and not going anywhere, essentially being married already without it being legalized. But it seemed that Mythal had been giving it more than enough thought where even she had only allowed herself to idly day dream about it from time to time.

Then, almost as if she realized she was taking too long to answer due to being completely overwhelmed with shock, Serilda hurriedly said, “Yes!” It came out a bit louder than she meant it to, causing her to now have to reel back the other direction again. “Yes, Mythal. Oh my gods..” The marshal practically flung herself at him, having barely even looked at the ring yet, eyes too focused on him and the insanity of what had just transpired. All she wanted to do was embrace him, arms wrapping around his neck tightly as a huge smile broke out on her face which she promptly buried in her shoulder once people started cheering and reminding her how very not alone they were for this moment. Not that she was bothered by it, but she wasn’t used to it and needed at least a quick moment to compose herself again, if only a little...