The sun shines brightly, blue skies and white clouds, the weather is so good that it lifts everyone’s spirits.
On the outskirts of Paris. It’s King’s Avenue again, the same one the Two Sicilies princesses arrived on, and once again it’s welcoming esteemed guests.
This time, the decorations on both sides of the road have barely changed, but the soldiers on guard duty have all new faces, and there are many more than last time.
Due to the influence of the “bandit attack on the Crown Prince” incident half a month ago, Queen Mary has even summoned the King’s Swiss Guard to escort her arriving niece.
For a time, the white-clad Paris Legion and the red-clad Swiss Guard take turns standing on both sides of the road, alternating red and white to form another scenic view.
Inside the carriage, Clementine bats her large eyes that somewhat resemble Joseph’s, her gaze sweeping over the dense ranks of guards, her head held high with pride, as she says to the Ambassador of Tuscany in Italian, with a smile, “Count Farnano, did you see? His Highness the Crown Prince personally brought almost the entire army of Paris to greet me!
“Hmm, he must have heard about my cuteness from many people, haha.”
The square-faced middle-aged man frowns slightly and shakes his head, thinking to himself that you’ve heard about the attack on the Crown Prince of France not long ago, the enhanced security is probably not for you…
Suddenly, a high-pitched trumpeting sounds from ahead.
The Grand Duchess of Tuscany quickly puts away her joking demeanor, fumbles to tidy up her dress, places the feathered hat on her head, and then begins to quietly rehearse the words she is about to say.
The carriage stops, and Ambassador Farnano bows to open the door. Clementine, with her most dignified appearance, steps down from the wooden platform.
However, when she reaches the second step, her foot suddenly slips, and she loses her balance, tumbling down with a shriek.
Fortunately, a guard nearby is quick to react, lunging forward to catch her, just barely preventing an embarrassing face-plant in the dirt, although that lovely feathered hat has already flown more than ten steps away.
Clementine’s face turns slightly red. She looks up to see the handsome Crown Prince looking at her, quickly frees herself from the guard’s hand, picks up her skirt and approaches, kneeling to perform a curtsy, and says in not-so-fluent French, “I am honored to meet you, respected Crown Prince!
“That is, cough, I just saw everyone looking so serious, I pretended to slip to make everyone laugh, hehe…”
Joseph looks at the little girl in front of him speaking with a strange accent and can’t help but feel a mix of amusement and sympathy. He quickly follows suit with his own bow and responds, “I’m also very glad to meet you. You are quite the comedian, haha.”
“Oh, right, as a token of my gratitude for coming to meet me, I have a special ‘farewell’ gift for you,” says the little girl, as she takes a small wooden case from behind her.
“‘Farewell’ gift?” Joseph asks with confusion, “Do you mean ‘gift’?”
“Oh yes, gift,” Clementine scratches her head and laughs, “My French isn’t so fluent, please don’t mind it. Here, this is for you.”
“Thank you so much,” Joseph takes the wooden box and opens it, to see inside is a somewhat yellowed paper folding fan, “This is… a folding fan? For me?”
With a look of profundity, the little girl waves her hand and says, “No, dear cousin, this is an antique. I heard you’re very interested in ‘studying’ Eastern culture, so I specifically bought this for you. Oh, it’s said to have been used by a very famous scholar from the Far East called ‘Confucius’!”
“Confucius? A folding fan?!” Joseph touches his forehead in resignation, a paper folding fan from the Spring and Autumn period… That would be like a Ming dynasty blue and white porcelain plate marked “Microwave safe,” or if the four sheep on the Bronze Square Vessel of the Four Sheep were Happy Sheep, Beauty Sheep, Lazy Sheep, and Fiery Sheep…
Although he knew it wasn’t quite polite, Joseph couldn’t help but ask, “May I ask how much you spent on this antique?”
“Not expensive at all, 120 ducats,” the little Lolita said gleefully, “as long as you like it, that’s all that matters.”
120 ducats was nearly 800 livres. Oh my! To spend so much money on a counterfeit… Joseph hesitated about whether to remind her or not, but considering the girl’s good intentions, he decided it was best not to embarrass her.
He accepted Clementine’s gift, exchanged a few pleasantries with her, and was about to invite her back into the carriage to return to the Palace of Versailles when he saw her already bouncing over to Kesode, with a bright and cheerful smile: “This is a ‘farewell’ gift for you, I hope you like it.”
After that, she gave Eman a gift, then gifts to the head steward accompanying them, to the officers of the Paris Legion…
Joseph facepalmed again. This little niece of his, wasn’t she a bit too social?
Clementine was merrily handing out presents when suddenly a dark cloud covered the sun, and the weather, which had been clear until then, turned into a light rain.
Joseph hurriedly took this chance to get his sociable cousin into the carriage. The convoy then set off again. Stay updated via m-v l|-NovelFull.net
However, before they could get to the Paris City area, Clementine’s carriage axle suddenly broke. Watching the raindrops leap off the ground, Joseph quickly had Eman invite his cousin into his own carriage.
The little Lolita dabbed the rainwater off her arms and face with a handkerchief, laughing merrily, “The carriage just broke down out of the blue. But no worries, I often encounter such unlucky situations, haha. One must always stay optimistic.”
As she spoke, she pulled out a handful of candies from her person, as if by magic, and placed them on the wooden table in front of her, tilting her head towards Joseph, “Cousin, I’d like you to have some candy. This vanilla mint candy is a specialty of my ‘tan’ point teacher, you can’t get it anywhere else.”
…
Fortunately, the rest of the journey went smoothly, and by the time the carriages had arrived at the Palace of Versailles, the rain had also gradually stopped.
Queen Mary, with a face full of warm and affectionate smiles, and Louis XVI were waiting outside on the marble square at the main entrance.
The little Lolita got out of the carriage, bouncing up to the King and Queen and curtsying, then dove straight into her aunt’s embrace, quietly slipping her a handful of vanilla mint candies: “These were made by Monsieur Reynaud himself.”
“Oh, thank you so much, my sweetheart! This is indeed the taste of home.”
When Clementine made her rounds of curtsies and came to Princess Therese, seeing the blue-gray Chartreux cat in her arms, she was immediately excited: “Wow! It’s so beautiful and cute! May I pet it?”
“Wow, it’s so well-behaved. Oh, and I have a cat too. I love it so, so much, it’s called ‘Monsieur Mustache’.”
“Oh, you must want to see Monsieur Mustache as well. I’ll go get him, teehee!”
Therese watched, somewhat befuddled, as the little girl turned and ran to the servant’s carriage, then came back holding a black and white long-haired cat.
“Look, isn’t it adorable too?”
Joseph barely kept from laughing when he saw Clementine’s cat—its head was essentially pure white, except for a small tuft of black fur at the “philtrum,” making it look like a certain failed art student.
No wonder it was called Monsieur Mustache.
Unnoticed by everyone, Monsieur Mustache’s eyes were fixated on Therese’s Chartreux cat, suddenly stretching out a paw to air swipe and meowing continuously as if in flattery. Therese’s cat responded by seductively twisting its body and returning the gaze.