Read The Main Characters' Child (novel) :: Problem 9: How to adopt an introvert in one lesson.

The affirmation of Jade (which was "I'LL BE YOUR BRIDESMAID" for those with a hazy memory of Problem 5) made the audience mutter.

"What? A bridesmaid?"

"This princess is for sure the funny type!"

"Couldn't she support that momentarily lack of attention?"

"Her parents just announced a great new, and since it wasn't about her, she couldn't resist to talk."

"Well, she's a child. It was previsible."

Yikes, she already vowed to flee out of the hall.
All these people were commenting in live, and it was honestly disturbing.

"Can you have two bridesmaids, Xanda?"
Harlow, who was closer to Xander amidst the crowd and didn't have to yell, interfered, a naive smile across her lips.

Her oldest brother wasn't knowing where to turn anymore. "I guess I could... but both of you are too young—"

Harlow's face shifted from happy to outraged under a second.
"MOM!" She, this time, yelled. "XANDA SAID HE DIDN'T LOVE ME!"

"WHAT?" Their mother instantly turned away from her conversation with Disŝiri Ulv. "XANDER!"

Oh.
This was getting out of hand.

The nobles were muttering harder than before, and although what they uttered was a bunch of brainless thoughts, it was crawling on her nerves.

How to stop a social bomb?
Lesson 1: I do not have an idea.

Just with the time Jade had to think that, her father had reacted, crouching to talk face-to-face with his daughter.
"Harlow, are you a big girl?" He questioned with his loving tone.

Of course, Jade's sister, holding onto her oldest pants, energetically nodded her head.

Every feature darkened after the third nod. "Then don't spread lies." He said with a dead serious face.

His daughter humbled her figure, mumbling intelligible words.
"Yes, Father." She finally managed after flushing three times at her own dumbness.

How to stop a social bomb?
Lesson 1: Let the others do it.

Grateful to have such a family, Jade still didn't have her answer and had to ask to her nearby mother.
"Mom, can I help with the marriage?" She tried the puppy eyes until her mother spun to her.

The brows furrowed but the grin on the face sent two different messages. She uttered. "We'll see later, dear, OK?" Was a menace, not a question.

Jade contented herself with a nod since getting an angrier mom wasn't a good idea.

The crowded room continued her chittering, progressively undirecting their interest from her family.
Our writer just had the chance to see Xander escape by a bay, chased by Harlow.

"Good luck, brother." She couldn't restrain.
A grateful sigh escaped her lips.

She made it through the wave of the hand and the dirty mutters.
She had survived this shit.

●●●

She had took three breaths before that the Disŝiri from before appeared in her vision.

The first general possessed something frightening, unexplainable, that met you want to take your heels and run as far as possible.
Like a wolf, and like all the Ulvs, he wore his steel at any time, seemingly ready to attack anyone at the first move.

He slowly walked towards her, as if he had something stuck to his right leg, making the unexplainable fright feel a little out of place when he beamed with all of his normal teeth out.
"Greetings to the Star of the North, Princess Jade." He clumsily curtseyed.

He was a tall man with wide shoulders.
If Jade's father was scary by his violent glare, this man was absolutely scary with enormous stature.
Yet, that wasn't quite the reason of the fright; Jade just couldn't place a finger on it.

She hesitated to run before remembering she had the luck to have a higher rank and the right to order him, not the other way around.
"Lord Ulv." She curtseyed gracefully, trying to regain her calm after her internal panic.

"Please do not feel the need to bow at me." He waved his hand, bending to her height. "I'm gonna be real frank, if it wouldn't be a bother to you, I'd wish to present you someone, Princess Jade." He cocked his head to the right, like he tried to look at something that wasn't quite in his sight.

"Present me someone?" She asked like it could answer the question itself.

Who wasn't she already presented to? Before accidentally causing this scene, she had met the Caradines, the Orions, the Edilians... everybody!

Was the universe going for a future Whodunit with all those families for her?
Will she have to say something like, 'It's the Romarin clan in the southeast who destroyed the village'?
(If she knew...)

"Yes," the first general beamed again. "I'd like to present you my niece, Vilma Ulv."

Then, the general slid to his left (or made a tentative) to reveal a girl, as little as Jade, hiding her face with her own palms. The girl threw a glance between her fingers while her uncle tapped her back in a supportive manner.

First, Vilma opened her mouth.
Second, she closed it.
Third, she gibbered her presentation.
It was something like 'greetings Star of the North' mumbled frantically like she was already uncomfortable with her presence here.

"Nice to meet you, Miss Vilma," Jade put a convenient smile to soothe the atmosphere. "I'm Jade, tenth princess of Menless. Talk isn't mandatory with me." She curtseyed with a wink at the other girl, who peeked at her, finally removing her hands from her face for good.

Her visage was minute, her bloody eyes wide-opened and surprised, and she possessed a light gold for hair.
She seemed disarmed in front of Jade's welcoming expression.
"Your name was Princess Jade, right?" She asked, the conversation having entered by an ear and exited by the other.

Disŝiri, grinning, nodded like an old man nod at a thing he values as 'good'.
"Well then, I'll leave you together ~"

He flew away under Vilma's 'Eh?'

●●●

They had been alone for at least a dozen of minutes since Jade proposed to her new acquaintance to go in the garden.

She was silent as a dead, but Jade had too many thoughts to care about conversation.

Now that her mother announced the marriage, Xander will go the following day for Lumurus. And Jade wouldn't have the chance to breathe.
As her plan of trailing her brother stood still, she had to convince her mother—because convincing her father was impossible—to let her come with them. Or... she could hide and go with them without their realization.
She could hide down and then come out of the lower deck after a few hours, thus they couldn't deviate from the trajectory.

"Your Highness?"

People really had the talent to cut her reflections.

"Call me Jade, please." Our girl asked, grinning at the Ulv kid. "I have a few questions for you."

Vilma stiffened.

"No, not anything bad!" Jade added swiftly. "Just some basis, like how old are you and what do you like, for example?"

"Uhm... twelve." the Ulv girl answered, intrigued like no one ever asked her that. Her words were no more after that.

"Aaaaaand don't you have any pastimes?" Our writer tried to gulp away the awkwardness, as if it would be enough for it to disappear.

"I like to read." Vilma flatly said.

But Jade grew already all excited. "You do?"

"Yes," Vilma attested her brows creeping up to each other. "I guess I like quite a lot—"

"YOU REALLY DO?" Jade's breath was inexistent for a second.

"Yeah, I do!" Vilma claimed, starting to be irked by this mindless repetition.

"YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAH!"

Jade was so excited by a new book mate that she didn't control anything anymore. (Did she control something before? Here's the real question.)

《And you might be wondering why our writer makes such a cult for people appreciating reading. Simple, all her siblings hate it (apart Gilbert, but he's an exception), and she wasn't going to go brag about it to her parents, so she had no one to chatter with. For ten years. Torture for our chatty girl.》

Stars were aligned for her.
Today she had also met another girl, Sun, who liked books.
The thought grew fast.
She'll make them meet.

It was settled; she'll drag young Vilma into the Fate's bookstore.

"VILMA!" Jade exclaimed, clasping the girl's hands in hers, nearly giving a heart attack to her new victim.

Wait, she couldn't go any sooner than one week at least, until Xander's marriage problem would be solved...
Anyway, a detail (for her) in conclusion.

"Will you support me to go in the city with me?" Jade finally managed to say with a normal voice and not a scream in front of the stunned frost-blonde girl.

"Eh?" Was all that escape the stunned lips.

"I'm asking you to go on an excursion with me." Jade tightened her grip around Vilma's hands. "Am I appreciable enough for you as a person, and not as an imperial," she muttered in an irritated tone, "to support me throughout a whole day?"

The Ulv girl shook her head, the hallucination of a princess begging weighting on her poor, exhausted brain. "Your Highness, please—"

"Jade." She corrected instantly.

The small Ulv hesitated a while. "Jade... uhm," she fidgeted hard on the edge of her sleeves. "I don't quite consider the idea as good."

Our writer already felt sadness crippling.
She rejected, and Jade wasn't going to insist, forcing people always being the worst but— Wait, why would she stop trying?
Of course, she wasn't going to drag her by the heels all the way to Fate's bookstore yet...

"Vilma, do you like libraries?" Jade shook her victim's hands with energy.

"What? Your Highness—"

"JADE!" She snapped. "Goddammit, I won't throw you there, but would you like to visit the imperial library," she paused before recalling she was barking on someone else than her sibling for once, and adding like an excuse, "V-Vilma Ulv?"

There, on the other side of the bench, linked to Jade by the palms, the twelve-year-old Vilma maintained that opened-mouthed, eyed, and every feature widened at their maximum, perfectly.

Jade didn't hold the silence well. "If that didn't show, I'm a little invasive." She filled with her biggest smile.

"Little wouldn't be the term." Her eyes had slightly folded into two thin wrinkles of amusement.

Wait, what did she just say?
THIS INTROVERTED GIRL JUST USED SARCASM WITH HER?
OK, Jade was now the happiest girl on Telin.

Our writer burst out in laughter.
Sarcasm and introversion were the best and deadliest combo ever.

"Can we be friends?" She finally asked after a few successful tries of inhaling.

The emotional rollercoaster resulted in a brain shut down for the poor Ulv victim. "Why?" Only crossed her trembling lips.

"Why?" Jade chuckled one last time. "You're crazy, and I like it." Her grin would have compete with the Sun on the shiny level.

"Oh." Vilma managed; the expression of a golden fish activated.

Vilma being an Ulv simplified Jade's life.
Ulvs were hostile to magicians. If someone in the family had magic, they'd be sent to the street.
So Vilma couldn't clearly be the one to kill her!
As they say, one's loss is another's win.

"Come with me." Jade declared, grasping her wrist. "The library is always open."

●●●

In the Fate's bookstore, not much noise could travel from the back of the shop to the outside, through the books and thick shelves of the library. That was one of the reason higher-ups had chosen this place in Bymen—capital of Menless—to locate a head quarter for an important mission.

"I don't want to kill a child." Serhan said, his blue eyes flickering as he looked at his spirit's one.

"Of course," Sun's eyes rolled. "But I don't ask you that." The spirit paused, glancing at his hard glower. So it corrected. "Yet. I don't ask you for that yet."

"Alright." Serhan melted into the mellow couch, the frown still the identical to before. "Then what do you ask for?" He cocked his head to the left where it met the only pillow of the room. Serhan instantly buried himself there.

"You heard the Chancelier by mirror like I did, right? We," it stressed and sat in the seat too small for anyone else, "need to find a way out without waves. And she is a wave." It took a cookie on the table, filled with the rare honey of Yka, taste of home for Suncicek the spirit and her five hundred of living there. "Anyway, we just need to find a solution and come back home as fast as possible."

"I know—"

"We have to go home?" Einar came in, its comfort plushie in the arms.

Suncicek stiffened and bolted across the room to pat him.

Spirits are born when nature conquer a zone and no Telinians steps into it for years. The oldest spirits appeared when Telin was still tranquil, without the ooga-booga humans all around. However, after the centuries passed and people, settled everywhere, not many spirits were able to rise naturally from elemental energies anymore.

In extremely rare cases, two spirits appeared at the same time—those called Links and sharing an unexplainable connections.

So, when you were both at the same time, like Suncicek, it was normal to be the next in line for the role of Chancelier of the Republic of Yka. And, it was normal to have responsabilities that may go in the other way of what your Link wants.

"Einar," Sun hugged its Link with care. "I know you want of a normal life here, but—"

"We have to go back to usual." Einar's eyes lowered with pity. "I just hoped I could meet and see more humans before." Its tearducks were getting slowly filled.

Cicek tagged a strand of its hair and got it sat in the couch next to Serhan. "You already met Almos, Thyme, Eldoria, Idril, Zora, and... another handful of people." Sun failed to remember the last name of the person in the washhouse. "Yet, that's already a full lot of people. I only know Serhan!" It smiled as Serhan nodded and chuckled.

"So Lavin isn't a human anymore?" Einar asked, the comfort plushie (a capybara by the way) tightened into the choke.

"No..." Sun tried as Serhan proceeded to oddly cough, "but don't worry. We still have a bit of time before going back." It starfed him with a glower heavy of meaning. "We still have time."