LeChance certainly had a knack for awkward conversation topics, but he was at least being polite. Though Juli had to bite her tongue at the “perfect Theiri gentleman” comment—a career as mercenary assassin precluded that label.<br/><br/>“There’s not too much to say about my childhood. I suppose my clothes were not too far removed from literal rags. But I almost always had enough to eat and a roof over my head. My mother had previous training in educating children while she was a royal servant, so I learned of reading, writing, history, and so forth.” Juli of course kept clear of her mother’s occupation as a prostitute back then. The princess refused to be ashamed—her mother had done what she had had to in order to provide for herself and her daughter—but it had been painful constantly being sent away for hours at a time, and knowing from the taunts of other children what was happening.<br/><br/>As for tales of her activities on the battlefield—Juli very much doubted that the majority of what he had heard was factual. Most of the Ghost’s activities were classified as secret, and not to be discussed except among military officers. Granted, taverns and alcohol tended to loosen tongues, so not everything was a tall tale. “As for my military exploits, I’d prefer not to discuss them now. For me to talk about killing Prince Henrik’s countrymen—or for him to tell of killing mine—would be unnecessarily inflammatory. Don’t you agree?” There was a slight hint of warning in her question—if she found evidence of him deliberately trying to scuttle the peace process, she would not let it stand.