Capítulo 27: Banquet 2

"I never knew you sent an invitation to them too."

"What? I never knew they would come, I just did it out of etiquette." Queen Hannah screamed in a whisper.

Lily pressed her lips into a thin line before standing to her feet. She had to greet the royal guests anyway.

Ignoring the attention and barely humming to the greetings of the nobles. The king and the first prince made their way to where the celebrant was sitted.

Lily stood up and with a slight bow, she greeted, "It is an honour to have your majesty here...and you, your highness."

"Your Majesty." Queen Hannah stood up, scuttling to his side.

"My queen." He smiled, wrapping his hand around her waist, as he pulled her closer.

Lily watched quietly as the third queen giggled in his majesty's arms. The attention of the nobles was now completely on them. She had no idea why those two decided to come today but she liked the outcome of their presence.

"It is my daughter's tenth birthday. How could I not come." He made no attempt to add a single word of differentiation as he had called Lily his daughter and not his first daughter. This may be over-looked by the people who had no idea, however, Lily's eyes lingered on her father's face in search of the slightest clue that could help her make out what was going in in his head. Unable to find the slightest hint of emotion, her lips stretched into a sweet smile.

"I am glad."

Meanwhile, at the door. Vianka brushed her hair backwards for the umpteenth time. She had not received a formal invitation, however, Lily had mentioned it more times than once, probably in a bid to keep their conversation going...or so she thought.

She was stumped when she saw the number of carriages outside but they was not a single one with a royal insignia, hence, she had decided to make a move. Attending, the banquet as the first princess's guardian would surely put her in the spotlight, and it would raise up the level of gratitude the young princess had towards her, hence leading to the giving up of her most priced possession.

It won't be too long before she become queen anyway.

She stepped into the banquet hall and the Lord Stewart didn't ask for an invitation of any sort, instead, he called out her name, "Lady Vianka has arrived!"

Contrary to what she had thought: Heads didn't turn at her presence, in fact, her name was drowned in the music. The eyes of all the guests were focused on the star of the party. Lily who was begrudgingly having her first dance with her older brother, and the king who stood, holding the third queen.

Her breathing hitched and the smile on her face cracked. How could that child manage to pull this amount of crowd, even the king, prince and third queen, when all she had done was sit still and quiet. This was unlike a normal family who simply spoiled their daughter, something was going on and she could not put her hands on it.

* ~ *

Lily who was suddenly swooped up by Perez in the first dance finally stopped.

The song was over and with a great sigh of relief, she yanked her hand away and went back up to sit down.

"I can't see my gift anywhere." He followed behind her, while searching the entire room with his eyes.

Lily simply glanced at him briefly before looking away.

"I heard you are taking good care of him. You must really like him even though you acted like you didn't want him at that time."

"..."

"Still, I brought you another gift." He turned to the door and Lily's nose cringed up, hoping that another chained human won't walk right through the door.

"Oh, it's here." He suddenly said pulling out a properly wrapped gift from his coat.

"Thank you." Lily muttered, taking the box from his hand.

"It is a-"

"Why are you here, Your highness?" She turned back to him, her eyes devoid of light or warmth, and her lips held no smile.

"You sent me an invitation. Why should I not honour it?"

Right

"It is simply unlike you." Lily sighed as she gazed down briefly, getting rid of her hostile look.

"You should not fret. I and father simply passed by here, we didn't even bring a carriage along."

"And you just happened to be with a gift, hmm?" Lily inquired, her eyes piercing deep into his soul.

He chuckled awkwardly and looked away, "I had plans on coming anyway. Father just pulled me for a walk all of sudden. I had no idea he was coming here." His awkward chuckle stopped as he glared sharply at the king, "I have absolutely no idea why he decided to come here...like watching a play." His voice trailed off as he muttered the latter underneath his breath.

Lily could barely make out what he said at the end, however, she still had her eyes on the king. Then in the most distinct manner, a being that she had forgotten crossed her mind as an unusual purple hair entered her line of sight.

Lily scoffed, already tired from facing Perez, now some other person was coming to contribute to her stress.

Vianka's purple hair fluttered beautifully as she made her way to Lily, holding her dress up.

"Your highness." With a graceful bow, she stopped. At this point, the guests had already given their gifts and it was time for the dance. Suddenly interrupting would not be considered if it was the king and his first son, but for a mere mistress who was still a commoner, it was nothing but a stupid move. What was she thinking?

Lily's brow arched at the woman's behaviour.

"I'm sorry I could not make it on time, Your highness."

Lily's smile faded away. Now she knew what was going on. The mistress was simply trying to assert a non-existent relationship between herself and the kingdom's first princess. With this, even if she don't get the Langsher land, then getting the support of a noble wouldn't be hard. Summing up with the king and the first prince's presence, everything would perfectly add up of Lily played along, however, she had no resolve to play along.

Hence, she remained quiet and as if on cue, Perez asked with a frown, "Should you not introduce yourself to the princess."

"Pardon?" Probably stumped as things did not go the way she had planned. Vianka bowed again, shuddering in anger and a mixture of other feelings, she gulped and introduced herself, "I am Vianka, Your highness."

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