Vera and Afternoon Tea with Dad
From the perspective of an ordinary girl, Vera was a bit too mature. More precisely, she was a bit too mature for a child. When she and her sister were mesmerised by the story of a brave Prince fighting an evil dragon and then starting a romance with a Princess, which her mother told them, Vera acquired a new view of love. She knew those stories were all fiction. She knew a Prince, who’d battle an evil dragon and then take the Princess home in such naïve stories, didn’t exist. She was a Princess herself, but she knew no evil dragon would capture her. After all, she ate dinner with an evil dragon daily. The evil dragon was unlikely to harbour any ulterior motives towards her… Further, if the dragon did kidnap her, he would definitely be the Prince who came to her rescue.
Vera wanted a lover who could stay with her forever, which meant he, at least, needed to actually exist. Her requirements weren’t excessively strict. As a Princess, it was natural for her to want a husband who was relatively handsome and very competent, both in terms of wits and physically, to ensure her offspring were blessed with superior genetics. He also had to be gentle enough. He, at the very least, needed to be able to put up with her ever so slight wilfulness… When Vera combined those traits together, she discovered a man who fulfilled her criteria existed right by her side. Such an unrealistic man actually existed.
Vera’s line of sight stopped on her dad. Troy was the King of the North. He was gentle, considerate, kind and fair. Vyvyan and Elizabeth blessed him with a splendid appearance; he just didn’t realise it. In reality, women who met him for the first time all had very good impressions of him. His physical prowess and wits were also excellent. His mana wasn’t inferior to her grandmother, Vyvyan, and he was smart enough. He had the blood of a dragon, thus was impervious to blades. Most importantly, her dad was tolerant man. He always looked at her with an affectionate gaze regardless of how she was or what she did.
Vera already decided on her fiancé, and that candidate had to be her father. She didn’t care that her dad already belonged to her mother. On the surface, she respected Lucia. Truthfully, she was very unhappy whenever she saw Lucia and her dad being intimate. She couldn’t quite comprehend why such a powerful King would marry Lucia, who was an ordinary elf. She also couldn’t understand why her father’s gentle and affectionate gaze that should’ve been reserved for her was being wasted on Lucia!!
Vera always thought, “Dad also kisses Mom first before hugging me whenever we welcome him together. I look forward to Dad returning so much, yet I can’t do anything but watch him give Mom a smile. It agitates me. Also, Dad keeps saying I’m his daughter when I don’t want to just be his daughter! I need to grow and become mature!! She’s just a bit over a dozen years earlier than me! I’m certain I can definitely steal Dad from Mom!”
Vera was a very mature young girl; hence, she didn’t forget things after mentioning them the way Nona did. She could already tell she had other enemies besides her mom, who was her primary antagonist. Said other enemies were Nona, Daisy and Liu Yue. Mommy Lucia and Mommy Nier saw each other every day, but they weren’t all that friendly. So, despite them being her younger sisters, she was not going to give up when it came to her father. If it was about the share of a pear or something, then she didn’t care, but her dad was a one and only!
Vera silently pondered, “I don’t need to be concerned with Nona and Daisy. Those two can’t match wits with me. My most worrisome opponent is Liu Yue; she’s not me. She lives outside of the Imperial Palace. I’m always in the Imperial Palace, so I don’t understand the relationships between men and women. Liu Yue, on the other hand, lives outside, so she’s very informed about men and women dating, and she also knows about fashion trends. Whenever she comes over, she’ll tell me, Nona and Daisy about what’s popular outside at the moment.
Liu Yue always follows behind my father as if she was some creepy stalker, whenever she comes over. She knows very well what my father likes. Even I sometimes have to obtain information from her. She’s the biggest threat to me. If she gets ahead of me, I won’t be able to be with Father. Hence, her return this time isn’t good news.
There’s an empty space for Dad’s afternoon tea tomorrow. I managed to get this information from Luna, but Liu Yue also knows about it, which means I can’t let her come over. I must win this opportunity to accompany Dad the way an adult would. Who knows, Dad might not treat me as a daughter again. Additionally, I’ll be able to get closer to Dad. So then, how am I going to drive off Liu Yue?”
Sitting opposite Vera was Liu Yue, who still had her head down as she bit into her rabbit.
“It seems that she’s not paying attention to me. Daisy and Nona are still fighting over how much dessert they get each. I can ignore those two idiots… Wait… Wait. I can’t leave those two idiots out of the equation. They might come in useful,” realised Vera, gaze stopping on Daisy.
“Daisy seems as though she doesn’t like Dad on the surface, acting as if she’s a young girl in her rebellious stage every day. The reality is she’s very attentive of Dad. She pretends to run into Dad every day and walk with him to the office, when the truth is that she gobbles breakfast as fast as she can, even if she has to stuff her food down so fast that she chokes just so that she can run over to the path Dad must take and then wait there. She also wakes earlier than others, which means that she’ll do everything in her power to get that empty spot for afternoon tea with Dad tomorrow if she finds out about it.
I can’t let her have her way. If she wants to go have afternoon tea with Dad, she’ll do everything she can to stop others from taking the spot, nonetheless. That means she’ll get rid of Liu Yue, then. Liu Yue is actually very assertive, which means that I need somebody who takes more action than her to deal with her,” reasoned Vera. She then cleared her throat: “Okay, my Sisters. Since you have all finished eating, I need to tell you about something.”
Vera knew what she had to do. The three of them looked up at her, puzzled. Vera cleared her throat before gesturing for the three of them to lean in closer. She whispered to them, “I heard from Sister Luna that Dad has a spare spot for tomorrow’s afternoon tea. We can go, but… only one of us can go.”
The two of them glanced at each other with stunned expressions. For the three of them, being able to have afternoon tea with their father was a blessing. Not one of them would be willing to pass up the opportunity. Although the three of them had yet to express anything, they were, without doubt, already thinking about how to eliminate the others.
“I’m very sorry, but I have piano lessons tomorrow afternoon, so I can’t go with Dad. You can compete fairly for it amongst yourselves. There’s one more thing, however, and that is you mustn’t disturb Mom and Dad tonight! The same rules as usual apply. Whoever goes to Dad tonight might convince Dad to agree to their request first, so their right to compete shall be nullified!” declared Vera.
Daisy looked toward Liu Yue. Liu Yue’s gaze lingered for three seconds. Vera revealed a smile of victory when she saw their exchange.
“I have to first avoid the chances of being eliminated. Then, I’ll have Daisy and Liu Yue keep tabs on each other. The two of them will unquestionably go to Dad at night, which will them eliminate for sure,” reasoned Vera.
After dinner, everybody went back to their rooms. Before Nona left, Vera pulled her over and whispered next to her ear, “Nona, take a present to Dad at noon tomorrow. That way, Dad will definitely take you with him.”
“Really?!”
“Uhm. I have something to do at noon tomorrow, so I can’t go. Nona, you’re my sister, though, so it’s only natural for me to sneak you some advice. You can go and ask Sister Luna what Dad wants recently. Actually, Dad has wanted to have some truffles lately; therefore, you should sneak over and ask Miss Xia for one.”
“Got it! Thank you, Sister!” Nona nodded with excitement. After giving her sister a deep bow, she quickly ran off.
Vera sneakily chuckled, and then turned around to return to her room.
At night time, Vera carefully woke up and cast a wind spell on herself. She sneaked over to Nona’s room and stole a small box of truffles to take to the piano practice room. She then made an imitation that was the exact same using magic and placed it there. Everything looked normal, but it’d disappear at noon, and it’d be impossible to get back. Nona wouldn’t check food over and over, either. She’d feel reassured as long as she knew it was still there.
The next day, Daisy and Liu Yue were both eliminated right away. At noon, Nona discovered her truffles were missing. As a result, she quickly began a frantic search for them. Vera whispered to her that Luna might know. However, Luna was going to be by her father’s side all day today. In other words, if Nona didn’t go to where he was having afternoon tea, there’d be no way of seeing Luna, and without her truffles, the stubborn Nona wouldn’t dare to go and see her father without them.
Thus, the only one who successfully reached the flower garden was Vera. She could finally go for afternoon tea with her dad. She could finally lean on her father’s chest and watch the butterflies fly about. She could enjoy a fragrant tea that would refresh her mind, plus enjoy the reassuring warmth of her father that filled her with bliss.
Of course, that was “afterwards.”
Nona found the truffles she prepared in the piano practice room and cried, for the piano teacher ate them. The piano teacher thought Vera prepared them for her as an apology for skipping lessons. As a consequence, she didn’t tell Lucia that Vera skipped her lesson. As her elder sister, seeing Nona hug the box and cry slightly made her heart ache and made her feel a guilty. Still, in comparison to the bliss of having afternoon tea with her father, it was negligible.
“Mom will comfort Nona anyway. All that matters is that nobody finds out what I did…” justified Vera.
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