Irene's jaw clenched and her eyes widened slightly but the apprentices who so easily talked badly about someone she thought was nice struck her. She felt the need to defend Alix even though she didn't know him very well. The judgment seemed unfairly biased.
However, as she saw Sir Gunnar enter the dining hall at the same time as Sir Sven, she merely settled down, realizing it wasn't worth the argument. Her eyes then drifted to the Crown Prince who was being fawned over by multiple maids and she realized she really needed to get it together before she got herself into trouble.
As Irene looked around, one thing she noticed was that there wasn't food at any of the tables except for the one where the Royal and Ducal families would sit. It was clear that no one else was allowed to eat yet who was lower ranked than the Princess who hadn't made her presence known quite yet.
