Watching over Obelia's Precious Jewel // WMMAP fic

Chapter 35

  "Princess! Look at all these invitations!"

  Days had passed since the debutante party. It was a bright day in the Obelian Empire and the Emerald Palace was already in chaos because in front of the princess was a large stack of letters from various noble houses.

  Ces picked up a couple of letters and examined them. "Are these all invitations?" she asked.

  "Yes. And more will arrive from now on," Hannah said with a smile on her face.

  Lily chuckled. "Ah, I'm so happy to see this day."

  "Aww, our daughter's already quite popular among the nobles," Diana said. Noticing how Claude didn't say anything, she stroked his soft blond hair. "Claude, at least try and hide the fact that you want to kill the nobles who invited her to their parties."

  "Diana, I literally haven't said or done anything that would get you that idea," Claude said. "... Am I that predictable to you?"

  Diana sighed. "Oh, Claude. You're so adorable, I swear to God..."

  Athanasia flipped through the invitations one by one, slightly surprised by the amount of them.

  'Ever since the debut, invitations requesting my presence at parties have started flooding in.'

  "Of course they would invite Athy," Jennette said. "Who wouldn't want to invite the empire's one and only princess who is absolutely the loveliest person in terms of both appearance and personality, smart in the academics, gorgeous... Did I already say lovely?"

  "... Jennette, is there something you're not telling us?" Anastacius asked, slightly worried about his daughter and her admiration for the princess. Now that he thought about it, Jennette didn't seem to be interested at all in boys... Actually, Anastacius had never seen his daughter talking about boys like any other girl her age would.

  "What do you mean by that, father?" Jennette tilted her head in confusion.

  "Nothing. Please forget what I said." Anastacius forced himself to smile.

  '... He must think that Jennette probably likes girls, isn't he?' Lucas thought. '... I don't know why but she gives me more... asexual vibes. An asexual who's more attracted to girls maybe... Hm."

  Ijekiel raised a confused eyebrow. Even though Lucas didn't say anything, the silver-haired boy could feel the other thinking about something absolutely ridiculous.

  'So this is what happens when Claude escorts me himself,' Athanasia thought. 'Athanasia from the novel was ignored by everyone.'

  "Well, that definitely won't happen again now." Felix flashed a smile. "Right, Your Majesty?"

  For some reason, Claude had a feeling that Felix's smile hid a lot of... unspoken emotions. Feeling uneasy by his smile, the emperor nodded. "Of course, Felix."

  Lily snorted. 'Well, at least Felix knows when to act intimidating subtly.'

  "Which house's invitation will you accept first?" Hannah asked.

  "Well, I don't really know yet," Athanasia mumbled her answer, still too busy reading the contents of each invitation.

  "How about Marquess House Irain?" Hannah suggested. "House Irain is known to have a very handsome son." As she said that, a vague image of that boy appeared. The maid smiled dreamily and sighed.

  Lily ignored her colleague and continued to sort out the invitations. "She hasn't even opened all the invitations yet," she told Hannah, causing the latter to giggle.