Who Made Me a Princess

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I cried even louder as the dense warmth landed on my back.

“D—Dad…”

“Yes.”

“Dad…”

“I’m still here.”

He, having lost memory, told me that he wasn’t my dad. However, he kept replying to my cries, calling him “dad.”

Oh, how foolish we both are…

My crying didn’t stop probably because I’ve been holding my tears back in numerous situations. Claude smelled of something very familiar with his warmth telling me as if it were okay to stay here and that I deserved to.

I eventually realized that I finally met him as I wept in his arms.

Ah, I’m back home. After all these years. Back to whom I miss.

I cried until I couldn’t anymore with his slightly awkward pats.

= = = = = = = = = = =

“Lili, did you know about that charm?”

I prepared to go to bed in the Emerald Palace as Lili assisted me for the first time in a long time.

Her eyes were still semi-moist from talking with me and crying. My eyes were red too but because I started to cry not too long after I came into the palace.

“His majesty admired the portrait every day you drew together.”

Lili smiled as she covered me with a blanket.

“He would keep the Video Stone playing in his room for the days he hadn’t.”

I closed my eyes momentarily and opened them as I felt her caring touch. Claude’s face surfaced on my mind and gradually sank.

“He didn’t explicitly tell but he had been regretting and remorseful about his past doings.”

Lili was right. Claude really did look like an imbalanced Jenga tower about to collapse at any moment. Plus he made himself throw up blood because of that stupid charm… What a fool he is.

“Of course I was mad at his majesty because you are the most important person in the world for me.”

“No, no… It’s me who caused all this anyway.”

“Parents and children are supposed to be different. It may be because I’ve dared to think of you as if you were my very own daughter.”

A thin giggle with a sigh echoed above my head. I twitched my nose as I felt the calming touch on my body and heard the soothing whisper.

“But I believed that he wouldn’t hurt you.”

Her heartwarming hands and voice continued to console me.

Then I suddenly realized I’ve never had a peaceful night’s sleep ever since I’ve left the palace. My eyelids fell as I kept on reminiscing about it.

“Sleep tight, my lovely Princess.”

I finally closed my eyes listening to her soothing angelic voice.

I could finally sleep in complete tranquility that night.

* * *

“Your highness, don’t you want to go meet his majesty?

I resumed my ordinary life inside the palace.

“Shall we get dressed?”

“Not now.”

The people in the Emerald Palace gave me a warm welcome. So I was enjoying my ever-so-comfortable new-ish life in the palace with their care and love.

“Your highness, don’t you want to see his majesty?”

“I do, but not now.”

To speak for myself, I was going through late-blooming puberty.

“I’m sorry about the problems my father and I caused and I’m really thankful for your help. But from now on I think we’re going to get our matters settled by ourselves. So you guys don’t have to keep worrying about everything, you know.”

Lili and Felix were baffled when I left the room after my unexpected statement.

They seemed worried about the fact I had never met Claude since the tearful reunion at the Emerald Palace.

To be fair, they were probably expecting us to show off our father-daughter relationship, and me just not giving a damn about Claude might seem a bit off for them.

But I had no plans to visit Claude like they wanted me to. We had some matters to discuss beforehand.

“What a wise decision, your highness.”

It was only Seth who supported my plans.

“The desperate always give in first. Playing hard to get is key in every relationship. It may sound rude but I think his majesty deserves a little more suffering. Even with his excuses, the way his majesty treated your highness is unacceptable…”

“But Seth, what if his majesty gets angry again?”

“Hannah, don’t you know how hard his majesty’s been looking for her highness? And a lot of people say that parents can’t win over their children.”

But I wasn’t trying to play hard to get.

Umm… I mean it kinda is?

Even though I had a makeshift make-up with Claude, I was subconsciously trying to avoid contact with him.

But it wasn’t because of the horrid experiences of the past nor the so-called ‘playing hard to get’ to keep Claude on the edge by not wanting to meet the man who literally tried to kill me.

Honestly, I don’t know how to describe the feeling I’m going through right now.

But to put it into words somehow, it would be best described as “trying to change the relationship between me and Claude.”

“What are you doing?”

A few days went by and Claude eventually showed up at Emerald Palace.

“Oh, hi dad!”

I greeted him at the Rose Garden where we often had tea times.

“What’s that letter for?”

“It’s an invitation to the tea party.”

I told him like it was strange he didn’t know it. At the moment Claude frowned a little.

“I invited you to the tea party and you just showed up in response.”

It’s that easy.

TL Notes: The original author intended a Bob Ross reference. I followed suit.

I explained every single thing to Claude, ignoring his reactions. He had the “Do you think I asked you because I really didn’t know?” look but I couldn’t care less and offered him the seat in front of me.

“Please, sit. My neck hurts.”

Claude told Felix to tell me to come to visit the Gannett Palace a couple of times, but I stayed at the Emerald Palace.

And today I sent him an invitation and thought to himself ‘Is this kiddo playing with me?’ which might have killed him on the inside a little bit.

But the invitation explicitly said ‘If you so desperately want to meet me, come here yourself!’ so he had no choice other than to come over.

And he actually shows up! So let’s wrap up the unnecessary initiative arguments and have some tea. Sound good?

“This place, it’s not as strange as I thought it’d be.”

Claude squinted at me for a moment and eventually gave in, taking the seat I offered.

“Have I been here often?”

A green leaf rustled over my head. I poured some tea for Claude, who was looking around while sitting under a tree shadow.

“I’d say so—you used to visit here 3-4 times a week.”

Drip…

A clear liquid with a subtle scent poured into the teacup, drawing a thin line into it. When I was alone last time I poured tea rather barbarically, but I can do it with elegance too, you know!

“It’s Lippe tea. I brewed it myself this time.”

Clink.

I even set the teacup in front of him. The tea maids were gone somewhere for today upon a request I made earlier.

The scent from the flowers and the tea filled the garden inhabited by just the two of us, me and Claude.

Moments later, Claude, at last, moved his hand towards the teacup. I watched as his hand lifted the teacup and move it before his mouth.

Claude sipped the drink in the teacup. I began to talk as I watched him do so.

“Aren’t you worried? I might have poisoned it.”

It was because of a small obscure compulsion that I asked him. But Claude showed little disturbance in return and asked me back.

“Did you?”

“No. Why would I?”

“Problem solved, eh?”

‘Problem solved?’ What if I actually did poison the tea? You said you don’t even remember me! Aren’t you supposed to be cautious and doubtful of virtually everything I do?

“But I’m a stranger to you, dad. Don’t you think it’d be safer to be a bit more cautious?”

I must be very thick-skinned to say that to my father. Claude stared at me blankly. A yellow streak of sunlight shined on his contrasted pupils.

“I’m not sure.”

He whispered to me with a deep voice soon after.

His answer was rather vague. It was either that he was unsure of whether to be cautious of me or not, or why I asked that question in the first place, or both.

When I heard what he had to say next, I briefly paused my hand holding the teacup.

“But I would have drunk it anyway, even if it indeed had been poisoned and if I knew about it.

“…Why?”

“Because you gave it to me.”

I didn’t know what to say at that moment and Claude immediately frowned like someone who realized what embarrassing thing they just said.

“What the hell did I say?”

Uh, I—I don’t know!?

Maybe he said it subconsciously. Claude’s face was in disgust as if he were about to hear all sorts of silly things.

But on the other side, he looked like he was regarding himself as being utterly stupid to let himself say those unbelievable words. But the funny thing is that it was Claude himself who spoke of the unbelievable in the first place.

I was at a loss of words, then I put the teacup I had been holding down on the table and held it with both of my hands. I fidgeted my hands and told him.

“Well, I wouldn’t drink poisoned tea even if it were you who handed me it.”

Of course, I knew for a fact that Claude wouldn’t poison my tea. But for some reason, I don’t think I could’ve kept the agitation inside me if I hadn’t said something like that, especially because what I heard was embarrassing.

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