Nine looked at the pile of gifts that was stacking up everyday somewhat speechlessly. While she had thought there would be some benefits to accepting the emperor as her father, she didn't think it would be like this, nor that he would send them everyday. She rolled her eyes.
Not to mention, her silly little hidden guard had joined in on the fun, as if competing with her father to see who could give her the gift she liked the most.
Nine felt like a young woman trapped between two rich men who were throwing things at her to win her favour. Only, in this case, one was her father, and the other was more like a puppy bringing a bunch of bones for her to approve.
Nine really felt speechless, but what really made her feel speechless was that... she actually rather liked the way they were showering her with gifts!
Nine let out a low laugh. Such behaviour was really funny. She'd seen similar behaviours in her past life both towards her and towards others, but at that time she resolutely refused them because she already had a lover. Now, she just let them bring the gifts. They weren't anything expensive or rare, but more like little trinklets.
Hmm if she had to describe it, it was more like she liked the fact that they cared enough to try and win her favour in a platonic way.
Blue eyes flashed as she thought. The emperor probably had some ulterior motive for acting this way, since he'd been sending things even though she had been in closed-door contemplation and cultivation. Perhaps he had something to ask of her that he was afraid she wouldn't agree to.
Shade on the other hand, was just being silly. He probably had his competitice side worked up after looking at the growing pile of things the emperor had delivered.
Nine's eyes narrowed as she thought about this. She had a feeling she knew what it was. Frowning, various thoughts flew through her mind as she contemplated what she should do.
He would probably be coming any moment today, since he hadn't sent anything yet. He would bring it personally so as to endear himself to her before asking her something so she couldn't refuse. Nine's eyes cooled. So this was why he had been acting so nicely to her. She laughed coldly.
She was foolish to even have a tinge of hope that perhaps he really wanted to be her father. Nine stomped on the little bud that had grown without her knowledge. Well, what he didn't know was she wouldn't do anything she didn't want to, no matter how much she was coerced.
The temperature in the room sank as her good mood disappeared. Honestly, what had she been expecting.
As if on cue, Shade appeared to announce that the emperor was here.
Nine laughed coldly. So he really was here. She would watch and see how he behaved. He could only depend on hinself. As a former intelligence gathering expert, it wasn't so easy to fool her. Not to mention that she had that little cheat called Magic Sight.
With a chilling aura, Nine walked out to meet the emperor.
Emperor Destan waited nervously in his daughter's residence, trying to hide his emotions. As an emperor, when had he ever been nervous upon facing a person? He was experiencing a lot of firsts with his new daughter.
Somehow, he couldn't help but want to dote on her, but yet couldn't help but feel grief every time he thought of his real daughter that was gone. Her appearance was exactly the same. Some might even argue that they were the same person as before, and he almost wanted to lie to himself, but he hated liars with a burning passion, so he couldn't even lie to himself.
"Nine," he said with a deceptively calm voice. Anyone but Nine would have been fooled.
Narrowing her eyes, she took in all the signs he was unconsciously giving off.
"Your Majesty," she said at last, her cold air subtly relaxing.
Emperor Destan frowned. "Daddy," he said faux angrily.
Nine's lips twitched. "Father," she compromised.
The emperor's aura seemed to sink into a pout, making Nine feel speechless. She felt like between the emperor and her hidden guard, they discovered more and more ways to render her speechless everyday.
For now, she tentatively trusted him, but until she felt like she knew for sure, she would never relax her guard. In this life, she wasn't going to live a lie anymore. She'd already lied to herself more than enough and countless times in the previous life. Loving the wrong person had led to her death, so in this life she was going to discard all non-platonic relationships.
She would never marry. It was just as well that she was acting as a crown prince here. No man in their right mind would chase after a guy openly.
The emperor dawdled around, lying down on the fluffy sofa. He felt a brief urge to steal it back for himself. If Nine knew his thoughts, she would eye him and wonder if he was really an emperor. Didn't all those emperors in books carry themselves with a lofty and noble aura? Why did it feel like he was a complete fraud?
Nine waited with infinite patience for him to get to the point and bring up his request. Want to out wait her? She's afraid he was a hundred years too early!
The blue-haired teen thought back about the hellish training she went through when she was merely seven years old and promptly shoved the dark thoughts to the recesses of her mind. Her expression darkened and the emperor scrambled up from his lying position as he thought his improper positioning had been so unsightly that he displeased her.
"Darling - son," he said, correcting himself with remarkable quickness. There was hardly even a stumble as he replaced the word 'daughter' with 'son'.
Nine raised an eyebrow at the pandering tone the emperor was using. Somehow, the more she got to know him, the more he was shattering the image of him in her mind.
"Don't you think it's time for you to start school?" he said hesitantly, looking anywhere but her.
Nine's expression darkened even more the more he talked.
"You're already thirteen, so you have to go to school. School isn't so bad, you know. I went when I was your age -"
Nine cut him off instantly. Her expression was already as dark as a bottom of a pot. She radiating such a cold and dark air that she made the surrounding temperature experience a sudden drop even though the room was temperature regulated.
"I refuse." What a joke. As a modern twenty-nine year old, this emperor her wanted her to go back to school with a bunch of tempermental and hormonal teenagers?
"But -"
Pissed, Nine silently cast magic whilst glaring at her father, sending him out.
Stunned, Emperor Destan stared blankly at the surrounding water as he choked on his sentence. He huffed inwardly as he hurriedly threw up his public facade, inwardly cursing about unfilial daughters.
He left with a blank expression as he anxiously thought about how else to send her to school.
Nine watched her father leave with a similar blank expression, inwardly feeling that this father was a bit cute?
Smirking, she thought about how else she could torment him. There was no way he was going to give up that easily.