From the whispers of the people around Svetlina, other people seem similarly surprised. The judges of the field also look surprised and caught flat-footed, so this knight must have shown up as a surprise just now, having armoured up and arrived from parts other than the tents the other knights set up the previous evening.

And then the unknown knight has ridden across the tilt, and the knights that follow him have hidden him from sight.

Ahuh.

Well.

She would normally try to figure out that interesting mystery with the power of ~gossip~, but half of the people she normally gossips with have abandoned her for her low status match, and the other half are not allowed anywhere near her.

Svetlina does, actually, attempt to small talk with Lord Aliev about it, because it's a fun mystery, come on, but all she gets is a harrumph of displeasure at the failure to follow protocol. ("Some wet whelp has got it in his mind to make a fool of himself in front of His Majesty, we'll see how well that goes for him," is his exact phrasing.) Yeah, that was about what she was expecting.

Well. She will continue being here, decoratively. Maybe the mystery will reveal himself at some point.

Well, she's not just decoration. Betrothed or not, she's technically still a lady, so after all of the knights have galloped past the stands they all go stand in a canopied area so that the ladies can go examine them and have the opportunity to denounce them for any impropriety they might have caused, she could go join them. 

What's her father going to do, deny her the tradition just because she's no longer available?

... True! He clearly wants to, of course, he's giving her that 'Don't you dare' look, and if there weren't a tempting mystery she might pass on it entirely to slip ever so much further beneath notice so that a dragon could more easily swoop in and steal her. But there is one, and on a practical level, she should probably give some knights reason to save her besides the dishonor upon the king.

Admittedly it's mostly that there is a tasty mystery present, and she wants to figure it out.

The knights are arrayed side by side, and the ladies are walking past them in ones and twos and threes, murmuring to each other and occasionally to them. Every now and then one of them threatens to touch a shield, draws a bit too close and lifts her hand as if to do so, but these have all been bluffs so far, and no drama has happened yet. Just some harmless fun with the possibility of completely ruining a knight's reputation and exposing him to a beating by the other knights.

Ehhn. There was a reason she didn't immediately think of joining in this tradition, and it's because this kind of thing is not to her taste. It's one thing if the knight was actually terrible and deserves some kind of justice, and it is nominally good that there's a way for ladies to police the often unkind ways of men, but this sort of thing often is more about the assertion of power than the correct usage of it. The playful 'get to know your knights' time is typically yesterday. Or before, if the knights happened to interact with the ladies in other contexts, which: they very well might have. Instead, this is the 'giggle and banter with each other and look at the knights up close, and maybe threaten them a little' time. Which, as mentioned: not to her taste.

Anyway, she is off the market in the games of courtship, to a little nowhere vassal house that doesn't have any real power anyway, and so everyone is politely ignoring her as much as possible. For once, this suits her just fine.

Because she's going to be the sweetest most adorable little princess these knights have ever seen. Many of them know her or of her already, and while she is known to have a temper and a sharp tongue, she's certainly not seen as cruel. She's curious and clever and warm to strangers and servants alike. With her near obsession with things working efficiently and effectively, making sure everyone is doing okay is quite normal for her.

"Have the accommodations been to your liking so far?" she asks the first knight in the line. "Any unwarranted trouble or problems among the knights?"

"No problems to speak of, Your Highness," he says immediately, before visibly reconsidering it then amending, in a softer tone: "The, ah, mystery knight wasn't there. Last night."

Ah, yes, the obvious assumption is that she is only asking this as a way to figure out the fun mystery. Which, well, she is, but she has the manners to be polite and acknowledge this man as a person while figuring out the interesting mystery. She can multitask, and act subtly.

She nods agreeably, "I heard. But I was more concerned about refreshments and the like being stretched thin - nothing like that? You and your retainers are all well cared for so far?"

"We were very comfortable, Your Highness," he says, and there's something in him that seems to relax when he says that. He's not wearing his helm, so she can see the small smile forming on his lips and fighting the proper formal scowl for dominance on his face. "Certainly much more comfortable than were this war, so we really couldn't complain."

"I am glad, but please do if they trouble you. Having better refreshments than a war camp is hardly the high standards worthy of your service." But she'll leave it there, of course, and inclines her head towards him. "Good fortune to you in the joust, sir."

And she goes on like that down the line, politely addressing each knight, often by name, asking if they're well, having something fetched for them if they need it, or personally apologizing if she can't. Asking after their families, their squires, their horses, treating them all as people instead of doing any kind of petty line skipping towards the attractive ones or the mystery knight.

As her narration said: the sweetest, most adorable little princess they've ever seen.

One of the ladies just in front of her, the wife of a lord slightly more relevant than Aliev, is walking down the procession slightly ahead of Svetlina with her lady-in-waiting in tow. And as Svetlina happens to be looking her way, she hums thoughtfully in front of a knight and pauses one fingertip two inches away from his shield, a mischievous smile playing on her face.

... Okay, maybe not a spineless adorable little princess.

"Lady Azovskiya," she calls, rather loudly. So everyone can hear. "Are you well? I hope the heat hasn't gotten to you yet, you seem to be stumbling a little."

She withdraws her hand quickly and schools her expression but turns petulant when she notices the source of the disturbance. "Ah, Your Highness, I hadn't seen you there! Have you been hiding? It is most generous of you to ask after my welfare, but I am quite well. And you?"

"Well enough, thank you," she says with a gracious little curtsy. "Hiding? No, though I'm sure many of ill intent hope I have been. It's truly sad, when someone bullies someone just because they can, you know? It is good to be among company who knows better."

"Why, though I certainly agree, I can't imagine whyever Your Highness would be bringing up such a topic mid festivities. Surely no one has been acting so crass? It would be unseemly."

(The knight is staring straight ahead and looking like he dearly wishes he were instead facing a dragon.)

(The knight is so reasonable and valid. Sorry, she'll try to hurry this up.)

"You'd be surprised! Many take the opportunity of festivities to pick at old wounds and cause strife towards those they imagine they have histories with. Old grudges, bitter rivals..."

And her expression changes to something very cold.

"Suitors who spurned them."

Yeah, she knows your relationship with this guy, lady. You are trying to get him in trouble because of your history with him.

And then it's back to smiles.

"But of course, we are above such things, are we not? I am so glad to be in good company."

Her back stiffens almost imperceptibly at the veiled accusation, but her face does not betray surprise. "That would indeed be quite inappropriate for the occasion. Such disputes ought to be resolved in private, ought they not? But we are of agreement that all of us here are above such things, of course. Now if Your Highness shall excuse me, we have a tradition to attend," she finishes, with a curtsey.

"That we do. A pleasure seeing you again," and she curtseys back.

And back to what she had been doing before! Perfectly innocent little princess, right here, all sweetness and light.

The knight shoots her a very thankful glance before she's gone.

And then, of course, there is the mystery knight. He's not the only one wearing his helmet, but coupled with the pure black shield and with how you can't see his eyes through the lowered visor, he looks almost comically like one of those staged characters from some of these jousting tournaments, except this tournament was not one meant to have such mummery, so it's mysterious indeed. And while the ladies aren't exactly swarming him—it's impolite to linger overmuch after determining that you have no quarrel with someone—they're often circling back to him after reaching the end of the line and staying at a distance that is not quite sufficiently plausibly deniable about their hopes that he might say something revealing to someone else.

"Hello, sir," she says to him, cheerfully, having taken her sweet time getting to him and making no real obvious attempt to directly figure out the mystery.

(But the knights don't know him either. Not in a 'Covering for someone' sense, but in a 'Are just as confused as everyone else' sense. They're not trying to protect him. And he knew the exact right time to show up and ride with the others, and make himself inconvenient to dismiss, which is another interesting piece for this puzzle. He's been seen as a rider by all, and there will be implications about her father's efficiency of management, that someone snuck in and then was thrown out, versus that they just happened to not know of all of the knights present.)

"Have the accommodations been to your liking so far?" she asks, the same way she asked every other knight in the line for how they were doing. How does this one react to being just another guy to this princess, hm?