As she said this, Pietro's cheeks puffed out slightly.
"Is that why you suggested the interdepartmental training? Were you hoping they would turn up?"
Raising an eyebrow quizzically at his leap in logic, Delphina could only express her confusion at his answering her question with another question.
"No? I only just heard them coming now? I was asking because I assumed you knew beforehand?"
Pietro paused for a moment before replying.
"You… Heard them coming?"
As the twins each pulled equally bewildered faces at the other, a series of loud shouts came from the left-hand side of the field.
Snapping their heads towards the noise at the same time, they saw that a large team of Knight-laden horses was now visible on the horizon.
"See, there they are."
Pointing towards the steaming horses, who had clearly been pushed to get to their destination as fast as possible. Delphina could hardly contain her bemusement at Pietro's reaction.
Watching him look at the floor and then back to her a few times in succession, he clearly couldn't figure out how she'd heard them.
"Brother, you've been a Sword Master longer than I have. Are you truly trying to tell me you don't know how to enhance your senses with your Life Energy!?"
Tilting her head practically ninety degrees as she said this, Delphina was almost short-circuiting at the realisation.
"By the God's, is this why Valour's Call didn't work properly? These Knights must barely qualify as 'Knights' by my and the skills standards… Yikes."
Clearing his throat at Delphina's utterly dumbfounded expression, Pietro shiftily looked away.
"Let's talk about this later, right now let's focus on the issue at hand."
Oh yes, the Burgess Knights were still riding towards them.
At the front rode a flag bearer, pompously fluttering a green and black striped banner laden with rampant bears and swords- behind which approximately twenty Knights could be seen trotting over in a formation of three at a time, leaving only two people to bring up the rear.
As they drew to a mere few metres away from the twins, the flag bearer stopped and positioned his horse off to one side, allowing the accompanying Knights to align themselves and dismount in turn.
Delphina could feel her eyebrows almost reach her hairline as the pomposity continued.
The flag bearer had proceeded to ride away in the opposite direction, the clearly well-trained war horses following off after him.
But the Knights remained stationary; from the back, they were turning themselves to face inward one by one, on the spot, leaving the ones forming the central column to face forward.
All of this was to allow the two Knights who had made up the rear-most row to pass their way along to the very front by Delphina and Pietro, unhindered.
"One of those has to be Hayle, right, brother?"
Flicking her eyes off the peacock-like display occurring nearby, she focused on Pietro's current state instead.
Somewhat still in disarray from her earlier statement, he had pulled himself together only to be visually assaulted by this nonsense, alongside her. So he seemed somewhat withered, despite trying to let the nonsense pass by as he had done earlier.
Letting out a cavernous sigh, he only replied with one word.
"Yup."
My Lady, I have… My Lady, are you and the young master okay?
Once again, Jenkins seemed to have appeared from nowhere.
Though this time, Delphina felt the situation could be excused. With so many Knights around, he had most likely walked directly up to them, and she was too overwhelmed to notice in the current situation.
Or, more likely, he had replicated the earlier situation to make the original 'belt' excuse seem more plausible to her.
"Sneaky."
Gesturing towards the Burgesses, Delphina decided to simply ask what was on the forefront of her mind.
"Hey Jenkins, do they normally do this?"
Shaking his head at her, Jenkins replied that he only knew the Burgesses did similar displays during formal parades.
Both she and Pietro nodded absent-mindedly before exchanging glances with each other.
"Sister, do you want me to…"
He shook his fist behind his back.
She wasn't quite sure what he meant by the action, so she simply shook her head in return.
"Just back me up if they do anything weird. I doubt they'll try anything so openly, but I can't let them walk all over me."
Plastering a political smile back on her face, she turned towards the front where the two Knights had almost reached them.
"The armour types they're wearing must represent their position in the squad or their skill level. The Burgesses are definitely more regimental than the de Velasques, that's for sure."
The distance hadn't made it obvious, but the Knights who had arrived were huge.
The one in lighter armour was taller than Jenkins by a head, making him at least a foot and a half taller than Delphina herself.
The other was only slightly taller than Pietro, but his shoulders alone looked like they could take up a whole door frame.
The black armour he was wearing most certainly didn't slim him down.
"Shoulders wider than the Pacific Ocean or whatever the saying is. Never thought I'd see it in person…"
As they took their helmets off, Delphina knew immediately that the shorter of the two was Hayle.
Short curly brown hair with the sides clipped away, skin that was golden brown- a few shades darker than her and Pietro's own, and eyes so richly gold in colour, they looked like honey would pour out of them.
Shame his personality was the complete opposite.
As a twisted smirk spread across his face, Delphina braced herself for the inevitable.
"Well, if I live and breathe to see the day. The infamous Delphina de Velasques finally deems us mortals worthy of her presence. I should be honoured."
Sarcastically throwing a bow, sweeping his arm out to one side like some dandy actor, Hayle Burgess briefly dipped his head. Making sure he never actually went lower than her own.
Delphina felt a vein jump in her temple, gritting her teeth, she maintained her smile. Not noticing that Pietro's fists had begun to subtly shake.
"Well, Mr Burgess, we weren't exactly notified of your arrival, but I'm glad to see you managed to arrive in one piece. You are uninjured, aren't you?"
Oh, if venom could be spat right now, then Hayle Burgess would merely be bone. Unfortunately, Delphina was in human form and couldn't spit in a guest's face, but she did get to see the lovely visage of his face twisting in confusion.
"I'm very well, as are my Knights, no thanks to your wishes, I'm sure."
"Hang on a second, does he think those assassins are ours?"
"Oh, is that so? Well, seeing as you're unable to bend your head or shoulders properly, I was concerned for a moment."
Pietro audibly sucked in a breath as she said this, flicking her eyes over to him for a brief moment to check on him. She could see he was, in fact, trying to hold back laughter.
Letting out a snort herself, she continued.
"Are there any wishes I could send? Last I checked, this is the first time we are meeting in person. But I'm glad you think so highly of me."