Aurora seems like she wants you there early

You put on the least offensive to your eyes clothing you can, a purple tunic and pants that looked like it would only get dirty if you looked at something unclean. Compared to everything it was practically working clothes.

Heading down stairs you find a woman with two royal guards flanking her. "Lord Christopher. Her Highness has sent us to bring you to palace." The woman said with a slight bow.

You look at the dinning hall. "Is there breakfast involved?" You ask, ducking inside for a quick bite to eat won't take long and at this point you know better than to not eat when you have the chance or else you won't get anything all day.

"Do you have any requests?" The woman asked, taking your question seriously.

You stare at her for a second. You honestly don't have much of a preference for breakfast food. "Not really."

She nods. "I will have a selection prepared for you." She waved her hand at the dorm's entryway, inviting you to leave with her.

You bolster yourself for what could conceivably be a very boring morning and leave with her. The carriage ride is rather boring, you've gotten used to all the people undertaking their morning routines that you don't spend much time looking out the window. The woman riding with you seems indifferent to your presence, just sitting across from you in silence.

When the carriage reaches the palace and you disembark you wonder if you maybe should have told someone where you were going. "Hey could someone go and tell Ladies Vatarie and Asune where I am. They are likely expecting me at the academy's training ground."

The guards look at the woman and she nods. The carriage leaves the way it came and you are directed inside the palace. Unlike the last few times you are taken not deeper into the palace but to the side, through a small door into an unadorned corridor. Quickly taking you into a small room with a window to the front of the palace, a table and two chairs on either side of it. "Have a seat Sir I will have food brought to you shortly." The woman closes the door behind you and you go and sit down.

As soon as do there is a knock and the door opens. "Lord Christopher?" A new woman asks.

"Yes." You say assuming this is the scholar you are supposed to be giving details about rubber to.

"Excellent." She walks into the room and puts a shelf of paper down along with a quill and ink well. "We'll be begin with the name of the tree. It's general appearance then details on it's leaf shape, the climate and soil it grows in, how long it takes to grow, how the sap is extracted, what rate the sap is extracted at and it's properties. After that we will discuss how the sap is turned into," she looks at you expectantly.

"Rubber." You supplied.

She sounded the word out writing it as she went. "Is that correct?" She asked showing you the spelling.

You looked at the word and phonically it was correctish, though like when Aurora said it it would be pronounced as 'rubbar'. You can't really correct the spelling since there is no translation for the word that doesn't exist in this world. "Yes."

"You said rubber not rubbar." The woman pointed out. So it was going to be one of those interviews. This is not going to be fun.

"It's an accent localization." You answered with a shrug.

She made a note. "The trees name and description."

"Rubber tree." You answered, her eyes raised to look at you without tilting her head back. Glasses were not a thing in this world that you knew of yet she had somehow mastered the over the glasses look. Blushing you pushed onwards. Scrapping your mind for any details you could about the plant.

After a few minutes the door was opened and two trays were produced and placed in front of you. You started grazing at the food while you talked. The woman was as exact in everything else as she was about the name, asking for clarification. When you reached the issue of where to find the trees you had to do your best acting.

"Yep." You answered. "Though you'd find more of them around somewhere humid, hot and with a lot of rainfall." You hoped she'd accept that without any question.

She let out a 'hmmm' and wrote the note down. "Now the manufacturing process of the sap." She put one stack of papers away and started on a fresh batch.

You looked out the window. The feeling of boredom settling in. What you saw outside caught your interest. Felicaite was outside talking with Aurora and Isabelle. "What's going on?" You asked.

The woman glanced out the window. "The ambassador is leaving. Please, how is the sap converted to rubber?"

You feel like Mary not being there is your fault. Felicaite's bows to Aurora and smiles at Isabelle. She then looks at you through with window and nods. Aurora either didn't notice the nod or chose to ignore it as she see Felicaite off.

You seem to have missed all but the end of the departure as Felicaite walks away from the palace and Aurora has a short chat with Isabelle before they part. Aurora back inside Isabelle practically skipping off towards the city. She's happy, Ana must be close to arriving.

You go back to explaining how to much rubber, as much as you are able to anyway. By the time the shelf of papers has been largely exhausted the interview is winding down. The woman is deeply unhappy with how vague you'd answered some of the questions but she'd take great care to ask everything she could think of when it came to producing rubber. She even made some suggestions of what could be mixed with it to make it a lubricate. Two whole pages were filled with her notes on what materials should be included in experimentation.

You looked back out the window and stretched. There was some activity. The gates were open as usual but there were more people out there and a lot of them were busy inspecting the area. You saw a few guards taking positions outside as well. That's a little worrying.

The woman asked some more questions that you answered, focusing on the outside. Mary had arrived, wearing the same armour she'd been wearing for her parade and giving orders to several guards who ran off. That's concerning.

"My lord?" The woman asked. You looked at her and she raised an eyebrow and repeated her question. "What does the mixing machine look like?" She was referring to vats used to create latex. The last few questions she was asking were about schematics. She'd made some impressively details drawings of what a sap extraction should look like, what the storage contains for the sap looked like, and what the machines needed to turn that sap into rubber looked like.

You gave a very vague description since you only vaguely knew what the outside looked liked and had to guess at the internals. A carriage had arrived and Mary stiffened facing the approaching vehicle. There were a lot of guards around. "What's going on out there?" You asked.

"I don't know, can you be slightly more detailed?" She asked. You did your best but your knowledge was exhausted. She made the last of her notes while more carriages arrived.

You stood up and approached the window expecting something to happen that was going to need you out there, maybe you'd have been asked here regardless of the rubber.

"That will do for now then." She woman said knocking on the door. It opened and more women entered carefully picking up the papers of notes and diagrams. "Have copies of every page made, I'll inspect each before anyone is sent to find the 'rubber tree'."

You got the distinct impression you were being judged but were too focused on outside to think about it. "Are we finished then?" You asked.

The woman nodded and you left heading outside to support Mary in whatever this was. Only as you walked down the corridor did it occur that the woman had at no point asked where should could find any of trees, machinery, or storage that should be at your father's estate. You looked back at her as she left. She hadn't believed a word said about how you had this knowledge and you hadn't even noticed. You really needed those statecraft lessons from Eve because without them you are looking dumber than you are around these people. Well at least you're pretty. You aren't sure if that was an internal joke or if the sexism had managed to affect you more than you'd thought.

Turning back to the entry way you hurried. In the palace's foyer you run into Aurora. It looked like she was waiting for you. "Finished already?" She asked raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah what's going on do I need to be out there?" You asked looked out to the palace grounds and see a carriage coming to a stop before Mary who stiffened.

"If it makes you feel better to be with your fiancée." Aurora had a faint smile on her face which led you to believe you were wrong about this being a concerning moment but as you looked out at Mary's aura you saw her nerves. Mary was nervous about something which made the decision to not push back on that 'fiancée' for you.

Leaving the palace you hurry over to Mary, using a bit of magic to get there before the carriage door opened. "Christopher." Mary said, unsurprising by your sudden appearance but you can see she is bolstered by it.

"Your Highness." You reply not sure what title you should be using in this context.

The carriage door opens and you get ready, for what you have no idea but you get ready none-the-less.