After making sure that things were set according to her requirements, Emilia didn’t linger in the control room for too long, and left along with Dixie to go attend the event herself.
Crystal and Koko were already there, along with their mothers, just like most of the other students. Unfortunately, no one in Emilia’s family was able to clear off a whole week from their schedule, and her parents had only promised to attend the events she was participating in herself.
Of course, Sam had wanted to come anyway, but there was no way Noelle would allow that given all the work that was still pending, especially since this was a critical juncture for their plans.
”Are you going to watch the show?”
Emilia hummed. ‘Of course. If Alexander finds out I wasn’t even there after inviting him, it might make him think everything through twice, which is no good.’
Just when Cynthia was about to nod in agreement, however, the crimson-haired girl smiled. ‘Plus, Penny told me there are quite a few of my ‘knights’ involved in this one, so I can’t break their hearts by not even showing up, can I?’
Cynthia could only groan. “I should have known.”
Dixie obviously didn’t have so many concerns over why her princess wanted to attend the event, and thought it was only natural for her to want to see it.
What she was curious about was only the show itself. “I heard it was titled ‘The Princess, The Frog, and The Witch’… I wonder if it’s just going to be the same old princess and frog story.”
If so, Dixie worried that her princess would be bored, but she couldn’t think of anything to entertain her either. Messaging Crystal on their group chat didn’t help either, as the girl only assured her that the show would be fun.
Emilia just smiled thoughtfully. “I’m sure they’ll make it fun. And if I’m bored, I can always pass my time teasing you.”
Dixie rubbed her nose in embarrassment, but didn’t refute.
It didn’t take them long to reach the venue and find their seats with the help of two extremely enthusiastic volunteer girls. Of course, Emilia already knew all about it, since she had Noelle change a few things to suit her needs.
Her seat with the first one on the second row from the front, and Dixie’s position was right next to her, with Crystal, her mother, and the rest of her friends on the other side.
Since Dixie’s mother was busy consolidating her gains after the fiasco with Black Tiger and couldn’t attend the event either, the dark-haired girl was very happy as well.
Naturally, Alexander was about as far from them as he possibly could be, and it was likely that it would take him some effort just to be able to spot Emilia.
At this point, most of the people who planned to attend were already there, with Emilia being one of the last to enter. Since she was in her uniform, not many people turned to look at her carefully.
It wasn’t long before the spotlights came on and a student walked in front of the red curtains, his hair slicked back and a nervous smile on his slightly chubby face. “Hello everyone, thank you for coming to see our show! Today—”
His introduction was clearly well-practiced, though he still stuttered because of being overly nervous.
Of course, other than the boy’s own parents, most others were only half listening to him while waiting for the ‘real show’ to start, hoping it would be more entertaining than they expected.
”—so please enjoy, The Princess, the Frog, and the Witch!” Fortunately, the boy didn’t stumble on his way out, and the curtains were lifted to show the scene of an old castle.
There were a few gasps from the crowd at the beautifully painted background and the ornate costumes of the actors. Clearly, they hadn’t expected the production quality to be so good.
Of course, the audience watching from home was even more shocked.
”Did these students blow their lifetime’s allowance for this one show?”
”Well, given that this is a rich people’s school, they can’t be lacking in money, right?”
”Hush! It’s starting!”
On the elevated stage, a beautiful girl in a gorgeous blue princess dress and a lush red wig with a crystal crown on her head was standing with her hands folded in front of a boy with an artificially enlarged ‘belly’ and a golden crown. “Daddy, I refuse to marry that Prince Whateverdale, he even cried when I hit him!”
The ‘man’ with the golden crown sighed. “That prince was six years younger than you, how could you hit him?”
”All the more reason for me not to marry him!”
The king looked helpless at her outburst. “Okay, then don’t marry him. But you can’t just reject everyone forever.”
The princess huffed. “I’ll marry whoever I like. Anyway, there’s no point in marrying someone if they just run away like mom did, right?”
The king’s lips twitched, though no one could tell if he was annoyed or just exasperated. “S-She didn’t run away. She just… missed her home kingdom.”
The princess rolled her eyes, and the king could only sigh in defeat. “Emily, you cannot just play around with swords and pikes forever, you know? Give me at least one condition I should look for if I want to find you someone suitable.”
Emilia turned to look towards Penny’s seat in surprise, but the girl seemed too absorbed in the play to notice. ‘Could that name be a coincidence, or is this princess character based on me? Also, is it just me, or does that girl look like Hazel with a wig on?’
But she didn’t have the time to think about it too much as the ‘princess’ finally compromised with her father. “T-Then… I just want to marry someone whom I cannot beat!”
”But why?”
The princess grinned. “Daddy, do I look like a very reasonable person?”
”…”
The haughty and adorable princess earned quite a few chuckles from the crowd, and even Emilia soon forgot about her previous guesses and decided to simply enjoy the show.
The kingdom was portrayed as a small, town-like place with everyone knowing everyone, and the princess also mingled with commoner boys and girls of the same age, though they didn’t dare to offend her.
Perhaps it was due to the absence of her mother, or due to her overly doting father, but the princess was ferocious and unreasonable with both nobility and commoners alike.
Fondly called the tomboy princess, she continued to tease and bully all the suitors that were sent her way by her father, often beating them to the ground if they dared to accept her challenge for a ‘duel’.
Of course, unreasonable as she was, the princess soon got bored of making fun of her suitors, and started to find their persistence more and more annoying.
One day, after rejecting yet another noble son, the princess left the castle in a huff and rode deep into the forest on her trusty horse.
Emilia couldn’t help but giggle. ‘Was it really necessary to include a rocking horse? I feel sorry for the girl, but she looks like she’s having fun?’
The curtain fell, and soon reopened to show the princess dismounting in a vastly different scene.
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