Vain

31. Missed Birthday

How were her relaxed days going?

Aileene could confidently say it was all going very well, besides the fact that her parents, unfortunately, had to leave for an emergency in their fief today, a few days before her birthday. It was a cause of disappointed for her, but it wasn't as if her birthday was the most important in all the world. They could celebrate it later.

Though the only thing that does really worry her is the fact that when her parents had left on such short notices. The catalyst was a letter that had been delivered to them, which she wasn't told the content of. But from her guesses, the letter must have brought disastrous news, since no matter how hard her parents had tried to hide their downtrodden mood from her. She had quickly figured it out, her parents, though important nobles holding great power, didn't necessarily involve themselves in much politics, relying on their profitable business on the side and their old wealth.

Thinking about it, Aileene couldn't remember of a time when they had been panicked about anything, and even if this time was a first. Before they had left, they had assured her everything was fine. And of course, she believed them, she knew who her parents were. No matter how nonchalant or carefree they were. No one innocent would be able to hold onto so much power, never mind compete with the two other leading houses.

Now, all they needed was to come home soon to celebrate her birthday a little late. At that point, she was sure everything would smooth itself out.

❅

Aileene had never once thought that she would be missing her daily lessons, afterall even if they were tedious and some subject had been mind-numbingly boring to her. It was something productive for her to do, now that she was just left to her own devices. Having completed almost all the basic study needed before she would start at the academy.

All she could do now was self-study, fed Lumi, work on her garden, or sit and do nothing. It was boring her to death, but even so, it wasn't as if she had all the energy in the world to constantly visit her friends to chat. And with her parents having been gone for a few days already, today was the uneventful day after her birthday.

Aileene sighed, face planting onto her bed, crawling on, she sat down. Grabbing a pillow near her, she started punching it in an over dramatize fashion.

"Ha, take this world system! And this!" It all ended with her trying to produce an effective evil laugh, which resulted in a coughing fit.

"Miss, there is an important matter that needs her presence." A maid knocked on her down, before opening it to notify her of where she's needed. Aileene hearing the voice at her door immediately stopped all of her actions and got off her bed. Acting as if she had been prim and proper the whole time.

"Okay, I'll be downstairs shortly." Aileene coughed into her fist and curtly said as she started walking out of her room. Following along the halls to the stairs, she headed down to the lounge area, only to find her grim-faced butler unable to meet her eyes, holding an unopen letter.

Aileene's eyes turned cold at the dark atmosphere, she took the letter in his hand and opened the waxed seal. Skimming through the words on the letter, she felt her legs weaken under her.

'Bandits attacked.'

'No survivors from the Lovell house.'

❅

29.) What element of a story makes you love it, instead of just liking it, or reading it for the sake of reading it?

Answer:
No matter how good the plot, the world -building or the creativity of a story is, the part that truly wins me over is the characters. If I hate the main character or if I can't relate to any of the character. I won't enjoy the story and I would most likely drop, or simply read it to finish. But afterwards, I would have already forgotten everything about the story.

30.) How do you feel about this turn of events?