Born As The Emperor’s Daughter - Chapter 192 Bloom 1

5 days have passed, 2 days left before the celebration of the winter star.

The palace became busier than it used to as well as Alexandra as her lessons and sessions with her new instructor, Vivienne, increased. As the palace was preparing for the celebration and the banquet that will be held, Alexandra was busy preparing for the ball that will happen weeks from now and for the coronation a month after that. Exhausting and tiring but she learned some new things from Vivienne and thinking about the ball on her brother’s birthday, she could endure this hell just for that.

Her brothers weren’t that busy, to be honest, but they were also preparing especially Calixander. They have to get measured for the clothes that they will wear for the banquet. Alexandra heaved out a sigh and her shoulders slumped, her features softened.

“What’s wrong, young miss? Are you tired? Should we take a rest before we continue?” Vivienne spoke in a gentle tone of voice, grabbing her attention as she gave her a worried look to which Alexandra responded with a smile and she opened her mouth to speak, “No, let’s just continue. I apologize for zoning out while I am in the middle of my lessons,” Alexandra said in a soft voice.

“Well, our session is about to end and after this, let’s call it a day. You look exhausted and tired as you keep on sighing, it’s bad for a young girl like you. You might get wrinkles at such a young age. You should rest in your room after this,” Vivienne smiled at her right after she spoke, Alexandra nodded silently as a response. It was true, she was becoming more and more exhausted as days passed by, she wasn’t sick or anything. She was getting busier as days passed by. Her previous life was much worse than her current one and never had she ever felt tired and exhausted after working for hours non-stop every day.

Was I taking this life easy that such simple things would already tire me out or am I just not used to this? Well, practicing and learning proper manners and greetings are better than talking with angry costumers who wouldn’t understand how many times she has said ‘The manager is not here at the moment’. That thing is stressing as they kept on demanding where your manager is and they want to see them when in the first place, they aren’t there.

I should work harder.

I’m sure that my efforts wouldn’t be wasted and it would pay off, she thought inside her head to motivate herself. She mentally gave herself a high five. Motivation, an unseen force within us that pushes us to strive and reach for the goal that we have set. It’s like that hand that pulls us during the morning when we’re in bed and we don’t want to wake up yet. In order to do anything, to achieve something, we need motivation as well as the energy to do so. If you don’t have energy but have the motivation, you wouldn’t do anything and just think: ‘I’ll do it tomorrow or later, I’m sure my motivation would still be there.’ and the cycle repeats over and over again until you have both the motivation and energy.

But if you have energy but no motivation, it’s just nothing. You’ll get bored trying to look for something to do. Goal, that one thing that people are reaching for, the object of their motivation. A person’s target or aimed result. Right now, Alexandra is trying to boost herself with motivation while having no energy to do anything at the moment. It’s like being forced to wake up early in the morning. Exhausting and tiring, she badly wants to go to bed to sleep but at the same time, do all of her tasks today.

Alexandra heaved out a sigh once again and copied what Vivienne did, how to pick up a teacup properly. Even picking up a teacup has a right and correct way? Unbelievable. Well, you can’t just pick it up carelessly, or else you would look disrespectful or not graceful in everyone’s eyes. Since she was going to be a princess, a pure-blooded Everly, a royalty, everyone’s eyes would be on her. One wrong move, one wrong mistake, and they will judge her whole existence as if she murdered someone just by picking up a teacup in a wrong way or manner.

The Pros and Cons of being a Princess and a royalty.

Moving on, Harrison for the past few weeks rarely visits her. He’s probably either asleep or dead by now. Well, she could communicate with him through the mind because of that mark but she figured that he might not respond since he might be asleep or doing something. She doesn’t want to bother him continuously. He would usually visit twice a week and would just vanish into thin air after stealing her cookies and talking to her for a few minutes. Well, it’s not like she minds, she’s busy every day and she would just go to her room to sleep. However, Harrison, that guy, eating all of those cookies as if it was his and would disappear right afterward. What is he? A thief?

Just the thought of him eating all of those cookies that Diana made while thinking of her was making her angry to the point that her grip around the handle of the teacup tightened. Nevertheless, her expression says otherwise. She looked calm and gentle.

“Let’s call it a day, young miss,” Vivienne spoke in her usual tone of voice and grabbed Alexandra’s attention. Snapping her out of her thoughts and pulling her back to reality. Alexandra stood up from her seat and bowed at Vivienne, “Thank you for teaching me as always, Miss Vivienne.”

“I should be the one who will bow and speak first.”

“Ah, right. I apologize.”

“No, it’s okay. It’s just something small and I don’t mind.”

“I see.”

“Then, Blessings and Glory for the Queenilia Empire. I hope that you will have a good rest after this, I’m worried about your health.”

“Thank you, I appreciate your concern.”

—

It was already past afternoon, her session with Vivienne lasted for almost 2 hours. One hour and 45 minutes to be exact. Usually, their sessions would last for like 2 hours but it was cut short since she noticed that Alexandra was looking tired than usual. If you could describe the expression on her face and how tired she looks, you could say that she was like Arthur when the last time that she saw her which was 5 days ago. Even though there were no bags underneath her eyes since she didn’t lack any sleep but would always wake up early, you could still tell that she was tired.

She made some small mistakes while she was with Vivienne and thankfully, Vivienne was kind enough to understand that she was just tired and she kept on zoning out with her thoughts. Right now, she has the motivation but she doesn’t have the energy. I just hope that tomorrow, I wouldn’t be much more tired.

It was already 4 in the afternoon and dinner is still a few hours away. She’ll just spend her time resting. Alexandra, along with Carlos, is walking up back to her room. Their footsteps resonated inside the place as they walk up the stairs, his footsteps sounded heavy and louder than hers while her footsteps sounded light and barely heard. It took them more than 5 minutes but less than 10 to arrive in front of the door of her room which was opened by Carlos and she entered inside, closing it behind her.

Harrison rarely visits her nowadays and one of those rare times was now where she discovered him sitting on one of her couches with scattered books everywhere, on the carpet, on the table, on the couch, and he was holding one as if he was reading it with a serious face. The usually fully packed bookshelves inside her room were now half-empty as he took them all out and scattered them everywhere in her room. A few words are written on its cover which reads ‘Wilted Flowers’. Alexandra heaved out a sigh as she stared at the raven-haired man.

“Here I am thinking that you were dead but now you are sitting on one of my couches with scattered books surrounding you as if it was something normal.”

“Oh, Alexandra. You’re finally here, I was bored while waiting so I decided to read some books that are heard. They were boring, only this one caught my eye and made me interested,” Harrison spoke in his nonchalant tone of voice while looking at her and watching her walk towards her direction, he closed the book and placed it down but still holding it, one of his fingers inside serving as a bookmark. “At least, put them back from where they belong instead of just scattering it all over the floor, they are my most precious ones, you know?”

“Yeah, I’ll do it later,” He said and he continued reading his book. That’s unusual to see him read silently because usually he would curse and spat out some words and comments about the book that he was reading before. Alexandra walked towards the couch in front of him and sat on it, slouching as if she wasn’t taught by Vivienne earlier that she shouldn’t slouch as it would ruin her posture. She sighed before she spoke.

“Where are the cookies?”

“There were no cookies.”

“Then why are you here?”

“Is it bad? I finally escaped from Jerich and Luke’s grasp as they kept on dragging me to somewhere I don’t know like they were kidnappers. Don’t you want to see my handsome face after not seeing it after a long time?”

“Please get out of your imagination. It’s bad for you to stay there.”

“How mean.”

Alexandra just rolled her eyes and watched him read the book that he was holding. Knowing that she can’t hold another conversation with him unless he will be the one who will do so, she bent down and decided to pick up one of her precious books that were on the ground. Sweeping off the dusk that covered the tile with her palm, she read it: ‘Crimson Moon’

Ah, this book that talks about a person who is going out on an adventure just to look for that crimson moon when that crimson moon was him all along. It was weird and she didn’t understand it when she was reading it but she liked the style and how it was written so she decided to add it to her precious collections of books. The writer or author of this book was unknown and to think that someone was able to publish it without revealing who the writer was.

A sigh escaped past her lips and she placed down the book. “That’s the third time that I heard you sigh. You look tired,” She heard Harrison say and grabbed her attention. The gentle expression on her face crumpled, “I have heard that many times today. You are probably the 5th person who told me that,” Alexandra replied and stood up from her seat and walked towards her bed. She came here to sleep yet she was having a conversation with Harrison. Well, she can’t help it, it has been like days since they last saw each other and it turns out that his friends kept on dragging him somewhere and he can’t escape.

“You know, the title of this book that I am reading is quite similar to your current state.”

“What do you mean?” She asked in a confused tone of voice as she climbed up her bed, the softness of the mattress engulfed her as she laid down. She was sure that her dress would be crumpled but she was too tired to give a care about it.

“You’re a flower but a wilted one.”

“Thanks for the compliment but why wilted?”

“Because you look dead tired.”

He said in a dead-pan voice and she couldn’t tell if he was joking or not. She sat up and looked at him, giving him a judging look. He just gave her a grin before he spoke once again, this time in a teasing tone of voice whilst not removing the grin on his face.

“Would you like me to make you bloom?”

Alexandra stared at him without saying anything for a few seconds before she spoke, “Shut up and just let me sleep,” Alexandra replied and threw a pillow towards his direction to which he caught as always. But hearing what he said, she couldn’t help but smile and her mood became slightly better than before. She laid down once again and she could hear Harrison’s soft laughter that sounded soothing to her ears. Like a lullaby.

“Then have a good sleep, you deserve it.”

“Before you leave, return the books to their previous places first.”

“Yeah, sure.”

“If I woke up and I still find them there”

“Just go to sleep already, would you?”

And she heard his laughter but it was short yet it kept on ringing inside her ears.