Elizabeth stared at her friend's indifferent visage as she stared at the candle in front of her. The girl's lilac eyes flickered from the candle to the blonde as her long lashes fluttered because of the brightness. The two of them stayed silent as the flame flickered once and became stable for the following seconds.
"Aren't you going to make a wish?" The silver-haired girl raised one of her eyebrows as pushed the cake in front. "You're a year older. That means a year nearer to your death."
As Elizabeth thought her friend was becoming sweet for once, the Astor girl began saying nonsense. She pretended to glare as she tucked her blonde lock behind her ears and blew the flame on the candle. "You're not giving me the entitlement I deserve for this day, asshole," she said deprecatingly as she leaned back and crossed her arms.
"Thank you for the praise," the silver-haired girl replied dryly as she glanced at the gifts on the table.
The blonde girl was celebrating her sixth birthday inside their own mansion. Elizabeth could not help but feel weird since her family invited well-known families from different social stratum and stages of life to a six-year-old girl's birthday. These people were not even connected to her in any way so she could not help but temporarily hide inside her room with her friend.
Elizabeth knew that the Astor wouldn't say no anyway since she disliked attending these kinds of social functions.
Recalling a rumor she heard the other day, she stared at Ingrid's face for a very long time. As expected it did not take too much time before the silver-haired girl glanced at her, irritation visible in her eyes.
"Do you want me to poke your eyes?" Ingrid nonchalantly told her as she took a pastry from the table.
The blonde as if did not hear her, continued to watch her bite into the cookie and replied, "You know, Ing. I heard a very unusual hearsay."
"What does it have to do with you boring your eyes into me?" Ingrid mumbled as she regretted taking a bite out of the cookie, it caused her mouth to be dry.
The blonde rubbed her nose and wanted to bang her head against the wall. She forgot how indifferent her friend was to everything. The only way to get a reaction from her was to directly involve her to something so that you could get her to normally respond. The birthday girl thought about it for a long time while staring at space. She tried to reconsider options but in the end, concluded that both telling and not telling the rumor would have the same effect.
Ingrid would not give a damn both ways.
Slowly enunciating the words, Elizabeth finally decided to talk. "I was in this gathering uh... with... uhm—"
"Why are you having trouble recalling the godforsaken name?" The Astor threw a cold glare her way getting impatient at the blonde's indecisiveness.
Elizabeth gave her a 'don't-be-so-impatient' look. "That's because I'm deciding whether I should tell you the names of the people I am with but then—" noticing how the silver-haired girl was being so distracted and whispering at how she did not bring a book, she snapped her fingers in front of Ingrid and continued, "—I realized you could easily forget people's name when they don't leave an impression."
The Astor only rolled her eyes at her words. "Why should I remember those people who wouldn't matter in my life?"
"Then maybe you should start taking notes since 'those people that wouldn't matter' might be useful to you in the long run." Elizabeth frustratingly breathed out as she pinched the bridge of her nose.
"That is why I befriended you, is it not? If I start remembering their names then what is your use?" The Astor satirically smirked as she carefully pushed the plate of bland cookies away from her.
Seeing her actions, the blonde kept it mind not to serve that cookie next time when she was with Ingrid. "Stop hurting my fragile feelings."
After being degraded to a mere assistant that only remembers names, Elizabeth finally managed to keep their conversation on track after a few deviations from the topic. "As I was saying, while I was in a tea party with this certain family, I heard them say that maybe the reason why the only daughter and heir of the Astor family was not shown to the public was that because you're ugly."
"Huh." The Astor rested her chin on her palm as she indifferently gazed at the blonde. "Thought it would be worse."
Burying her face on the palm of her hands, the Bellay girl realized that she should not expect her friend to spout normal reactions from an average child. In truth, Ingrid was far from what the rumors said. She was astoundingly beautiful knowing that her mother and father were both gorgeous people. Nevertheless, what attracted people to the silver-haired girl were not her face but her attitude and aura. Elizabeth could not really describe it in detail but it was like she was a moth drawn to a flame.
She was perfectly aware that she would be subjected to countless insults and yet she stayed beside Ingrid.
"Should I be worried at this gossip?" The blonde warily questioned the girl in front of her as she thought of asking her mother ways to remedy the situation.
Leaning on her chair, the Astor crossed her little legs as she reached for the tea on the table. "You don't need to be. The stories born from children's mouths usually doesn't last that long. Give it time, it will disappear."
"Aren't you forgetting something?"
"Hmm?"
"We're children too."
"What of it?"
• • •
Ingrid wanted to curse out loud if not for her ongoing etiquette lessons and her willpower.
"Would it hurt you if you would just shut up for a moment?" The Astor irritatingly remarked as she tried to glare at Elizabeth who was laughing nonstop.
The blonde managed to speak in between her giggles as she bit her lips. "I-I'm very sorry, Ingrid. Just- just let me laugh this out, okay?"She said with her face turning red from laughing. "Hearing you lisp right now gives me hope and reminds me how you're not exempted from things like these."
It was a sunny afternoon when the girl from the Bellay family decided to pass by the Astor's mansion to say a few words to her friend. However, what she found was a little girl without her front tooth. Every single time she took a peek at Ingrid's indifferent face and seeing the space on her teeth made her want to laugh out loud.
Deciding to cover her eyes with her hands to prevent her from giggling because of her face, what made her burst into laughter was the lisping. Elizabeth a little bit teary-eyed, wiped the lone tear on her right eye as her giggle filled Ingrid's room.
The blonde peered in between the spaces of her fingers and said, "Okay, okay. I'm back on track. I won't laugh as much."
"Tell me your business and get the hell out of here." The silver-haired girl remarked with irritation on her voice as she tried not to open her mouth as much.
The Astor recently lost her teeth when she sparred with her own mother. Initially, it was starting to come off but after being brutally pushed to the floor, slapped on the wrist and hit on the neck, the wiggling teeth decided to remove it self from her gums. Ingrid knew it was a natural biological reaction since she was in a child's body and it was replacing the baby teeth with permanent ones, nonetheless she could not help but have bitter feelings during this process.
"Don't worry, my mother told me it's normal and I already experienced it. It would not take a long time for it to grow." The blonde finally calmed down with a 'know-it-all' look that made Ingrid want to slam her on the floor. However, before she could do anything, the Bellay raised a paper bag in front of her. "On the other hand, I am here to give you this."
Ingrid's lilac eyes observed the brown paper bag as the blonde placed it above her coffee table. "What is that?"
"Something we bought overseas. It reminded me of you so I decided to buy it." Elizabeth reached inside and took out a porcelain doll with pale features wearing some sort of kimono clothes Ingrid recognized from her past life. "This doll has a frozen face and you do too. Tell me, isn't the similarities uncanny?"
"What will I do with a doll? You know I don't play with toys," the Astor remarked as she sat on her bed observing the blonde.
Rolling her eyes, Elizabeth placed the doll back inside. "It's not for playing. I obviously know you don't play with toys so I bought something that is used for display. Your room could use a few of this." She then observed the room and nodded when she did not see some decorations.
"If that is what you believe," the silver-haired girl nonchalantly replied but she still carefully brought the porcelain doll out and carefully placed it on her bedside table. Glancing at her friend, she realized it was a long time ago since they last saw each other.
The Astor family departed the Bellay's party earlier than expected because of an emergency on their family business. The girl did even have a chance to meet the capture targets which she was thankful for. She was not good with social interactions namely, social interactions with children. On the contrary, she met his father's associates which piqued her interest in business.
After that, her mother told her she might not see Elizabeth for a while (that 'a while' took two whole months by the way) because they would be having a vacation overseas.
Elizabeth sat beside her and then decided to lie down on the soft mattress. "I've been meaning to ask you about the 'drills' your mother wanted you to do. Was it strenuous as it seems?"
Ingrid momentarily glanced at the blonde beside her and said, "Ten times more arduous than what you make it out to be. Watching and doing it are two different things."
The exercises had been ongoing without a hitch. It even became more excessive when her mother realized she was interested in knives and now Alicia had been teaching her daughter how to defend herself while using it. If Ingrid was right on her conjecture, it would not take too long before her mother realized she could force her daughter to use guns.
Which she would agree to, since having one weapon more on your arsenal was another card up your sleeves. Ingrid couldn't say no to that.
"Eh." The blonde sat up straight in an instant and asked her a question that crossed her mind, "Will you teach me how to defend myself if I ask?"
Ingrid did not even take a beat before replying. "No."
"Why not? You seemed good at it," the girl beside her replied showing implications that she would bother her nonstop if she did not say yes.
Sadly, the silver-haired girl could not teach her even if she wanted to given that her performance when she was doing the drills was not exactly as perfect as it looks. Alicia would often say she look like a rag doll because she could not control her bodily functions properly.
Ingrid could not really blurt out that she was not used to using a small body since she was already an adult in her past life. She could only patiently train herself to be more familiar with her small visage.
In reality, it did not take quite long for her to persuade Elizabeth to get out of her room and go home. The girl had probably known that she was occupied about something that she was thinking about so she left her alone.
Clicking her tongue, she decided that for now, all she could do was take baby steps to properly integrate herself into this world and be more familiar with it.
There was also this tugging feeling at the back of her mind reminding her of her blurry past life. It bothered her at first, but after a while, it started to fade.
On another note, she had to remember the things that would happen in the far future. The contents of the game were a little blurry and she could not recall the minute details thankfully, she could get the gist of it. From what she recalled, the timeline would start a few years later so she should not have problems with it.
There are more problems bothering her.
The capture targets could wait.
• • •
Alicia flicked her daughter's forehead and gave her shoulders a tap before finally letting go of her death grip. "Tag, you're it."
The silver-haired girl tensed under her mother's stare as she straightened her posture and formed a fight or flight stance. The mother and daughter pair had been training all morning after Alicia decided it would be fun to play an extreme version of tag. Although Ingrid could see that her mother was letting her off easy since there were a large disparity in their physical prowess, the girl was still taking it seriously since she was against an adult.
However, out of her expectations, the red-haired woman only smiled at her and threw her a towel. "We'll end it here. I need to go somewhere later and you should probably come with me."
Ingrid could feel all her muscles throbbing and her breath hitching. The adrenaline was slowly coming off and the pain from her body started to appear. Doing some stretching, she followed her mother's figure inside the house as she uncomfortably wiped the sweat off her face and body. The tights that she was wearing started to feel hot and added to the shin guard and knee pads, it was twice the heat so the girl could not wait to change.
Her silver hair was tied to a ponytail as she brushed it using her hand to remove the knots that formed. She entered her room to change her clothes and told the maids that followed her to prepare her dress. Since Ingrid was a child, it did not take long for her to get change so she decided to go down to the living room of the mansion to wait for her mother.
Ingrid remembered when she was a child, her mother and father did not even bat an eyelash when she started speaking at an early age. She guessed they assumed that it was only normal for children her age since Alicia and Ralph had never experienced watching a child grow before. It also helped she also took some considerations by delaying her learning speed so that people would not consider her as an abnormality.
Alicia entered the living room after a few moments and Claud guided them outside to assist them in entering the car.
"My dear, do you want us to buy your school supplies or would you like to leave it to Claud?" The red-haired woman strapped her with a seatbelt as she tried to attach her own.
The silver-haired girl did not even think for a moment and agreed. "Then I would leave it to Claud then." Only thinking about going to the crowded mall again made her wince considering it was out of the question.
After checking if their seatbelt was properly locked, Alicia straightened her daughter's dress. "We are meeting a friend of mine from another country. She's staying in her villa temporarily while she's doing her business here. That woman did not marry anyone, I wonder how she's doing now," she wondered out loud as she smiled to herself.
The silver-haired girl recalled how her mother was from a military family. If she could guess, then she would bet that the person they were about to meet was more or less connected to military life. From her experience, Alicia never acquainted herself with ordinary people and with Elizabeth's mother as an example — the woman was as shrewd as she could get – she should not be surprised if the person they were about to meet had some quirks too.
The travel to the villa did not take long and surprisingly, Alicia left her on the garden on her own devices. Following her mother's figure as she entered the villa, she decided to take a stroll. The place was huge, not as big as their home; nevertheless, it was still larger than normal. There were all kinds of flowers in the garden and trees that she could not find in their own home.
Everything felt new and the place gave a comforting feeling of sort.
After a moment, Ingrid realized that she should have stayed where she was instead of wandering alone. If she just remained in place then she would not meet another person in the garden.
With an indifferent face, the silver-haired girl's gaze landed on the boy before her. His features were prominent and his dark hair served as large contrast to the greenery around them. The boy's deep black eyes met hers as she stared at his small visage.
Both of their gazes stayed at each other for a long time. No one wanted to break the silence as they observed each other.
"You look like an idiot without your front teeth." The dark-haired boy was the first to break the stillness as he lazily pointed at his own.
Ingrid blinked for a few times feeling offended. "You look like an idiot with or without your teeth."
The Astor girl felt that the boy was eerily familiar; nonetheless, she decided to think about it later and decided to hurl insults at the child instead.
There's no such thing as old bullying the young. She got a pass for bickering with a child since she's currently a child too.