“Big Sister! Over here! Over here!!” The princess waved excitedly from the palace gates.
Yep, today’s my ‘date’ with the princess and this time, she’s not incognito.
“You sure are excited today,” I giggled.
She waved her arms excitedly, “Of course! We are going out together today! It’s all thanks to Big Sister that Papa and Mama are letting me go out!”
Well… I guess she’s not wrong to say that.
“Good morning, Young Mistress Nilm,” Aria greeted me with a bow. “Thank you once again for agreeing to this. The King and Queen would also like to express their utmost gratitude to you.”
Hmm… That’s fine and all but I thought I would actually meet them face to face.
As though reading my thoughts, Aria continued, “They also offer their sincerest apologises for not being able to thank Young Mistress Nilm in person as they are currently away from the palace to inspect the outskirts of the capital.”
She then gave me a look and I realised that this was part of the plan.
They would leave the capital so the people who were targeting Tiara might think this was the perfect chance for them to attack since the king and queen would not be here.
Of course, they were not going to make it look too obvious that this was all a set up so we were also being accompanied by a few Royal Knights.
I did a quick scan using [Screened] and damn… Their stats were all above the five hundred range…
Not as strong as Mary or Sebastian but they’re still really strong.
They were wearing full, gilded plate armour and full face helms with various weapons strapped on to them.
All of them nodded at me in greeting but said nothing so I assumed they were not allowed to converse with us.
“Well, are we ready to go and have some sweets, your highness?” I asked.
Tiara pouted at me, “Why is Big Sister calling me that?”
I nodded at the Royal Guards, “It would be improper to not address your highness by proper decorum.”
She waved her arms cutely, “Noooo! I want Big Sister to call me like usual! I don’t wanna!!”
Aria smiled at me, “Young Mistress Nilm, please do not feel like you need to stand on ceremony. It is a request from the princess herself after all.”
Unnghh… If you say so…
“Then… Are we ready to go, Tiara?”
“Yes!!! Yayyy! Cookies with Big Sister!!”
She ran up and held my hand in hers while the Royal Knights took positions in front and behind us, separating into two groups of five each before we started our walk out of the palace.
By the way… This was made into a really big affair too, which surprised me quite a bit since I thought we would be doing this quietly…
But nope, they went ahead to announce that the third princess was making a public appearance and there’s practically a huge crowd of people gathered to catch sight of her.
The good thing was that I was wearing my mask so no one would know who I was, so I didn’t need to worry about people knowing how I looked. The other good thing was that they did not reveal she would be escorted by someone from the Nilm family so most might think I’m just a servant close to the princess whom she sees as a sister.
At least… That’s what I hope so anyway…
But seriously… I’d think about half the city had turned up to line the entire path leading from the palace to the sweets shop that we wanted to go to.
You would think there was a parade or something with how everyone was arranged on both sides of the street and how big of a crowd this turned out to be.
The onlookers were all whispering amongst themselves when they saw the princess.
“That’s the third princess?”
“They said that she’s cursed isn’t it? I thought that she would look hideous or something…”
“She’s pretty cute.”
“Hey, hey… Do you think the curse was a lie?”
“Oh… You didn’t hear? There was supposedly an attack on the palace gates a few days ago. Some say that the attackers were demons or something.”
“No way! What happened?”
“Shh… I’ll tell you later. But it’s better not to get involved with the princess.”
Well… I’m actually surprised that news of the attack actually made it out to the public.
I’m guessing one of the guards blabbered to their friends who then went on to gossip to someone else outside the palace which spread that around.
I felt a weight press itself against my back and I turned to see Tiara hiding behind me.
“Big… Big Sister… Why are there so many people? There’s… Even more than the sweets shop from before…”
“Umm… Well… That’s to be expected since everyone in this city has never seen you before and they want to see how cute you are~” I chuckled.
“Uuuu… Papa is right… They want to eat me, don’t they?”
“Hmm… Not everyone, but I think there might be some of them who do want that… But don’t worry, Aria, the knights and I will be here to stop them from coming to eat you!”
She tilted her head up to look at me, “Re… Really? Big sister will protect me, right?”
“Fufu~ Of course~ You can leave it to me~”
She slowly got out from behind me and we went to board the open top carriage that was waiting for us while the knights went to mount their horses.
They intentionally selected an open top carriage so that the princess is in full view huh.
With everything prepared, the carriage started its journey towards the sweets shop that we were planning on visiting today located in the Merchant’s district.
We could have gone to one in the Noble’s District instead but they had intentionally picked the Merchant’s district to allow the most people to see the princess.
Though this might be a plan to draw out the people plotting against her, it also served as a publicity stunt to introduce the third princess to the people.
At least… That’s what Mary told me when I asked about it anyway. She said the Royal Family was taking this chance to create sympathisers for the princess or something.
Since that had something to do with politics, I decided not to think too much about it.
There was only one problem though…
The crowd was practically just silently watching us ride past.
You would have probably expected them to be cheering and waving but they were really just staring at us as we went past…
Tiara was looking at Arai and I, “Uuuu… Why are they all staring at me, Big Sister? Aria?”
Well… There’s the thing about your curse so they’re concerned about that I guess? But what could you do about that since this was already something that was attached to you…
Aria smiled at her, “I suppose they are just waiting for you to wave at them, Princess.”
Eh? I don’t think that would help though?
Tiara looked at her maid, “Wa… Wave at them?”
“Yes, your highness. They are waiting for you to wave at them,” The maid repeated.
“O… Ok…”
No, no… That’s definitely not the case, Aria… What are you making Tiara do?
Trusting her maid, Tiara turned back to the silent crowd, only to quickly turn back to look at me when she felt nervous from all the eyes looking back at her.
Her eyes were even starting to water and it made it seem like this is some kind of punishment for her instead.
“Big Sister…” She pleaded.
Oh, she wants to know how she should wave since she has never done this before.
But it’s not like I have experience with this either…
Err… I guess I can just emulate those people I saw in my old World when they went on parades?
I showed her the simple wave where you would just sort of shake your hand a little in the air.
That seemed to reinvigorate her as she turned back to the crowd, sucked in a breath, then raised her hand to do the wave I showed her.
…
Everyone just stared back at her.
Ugh… No good huh? I’m sorr–
“Uwwwoooo!! She’s so cute!!”
“The princess is ultra cute!!”
“Oh by the Gods she’s definitely the cutest!!”
“Marry me, Princess!!”
“Who’s the one beside the princess though?”
“Who cares?! The princess is cute!!”
“Yes loli, no touch!!!”
What the heck people… She’s not even a loli, come on…
The cheers spread like a wave and soon enough the entire crowd switched from being silent to cheering out loud for the princess.𝚘𝔳𝑙xt.𝓒𝒪𝔪
At first, the princess was taken aback by the sudden change and tried to hide behind me again which only made the crowd cheer even more for the cute gesture.
With my assurance that everything was fine, she slowly moved out from behind me and waved again, making everyone cheer even more.
Really? That’s all it took for you all to start liking the princess?
These people are weird…