Chapter 486: Most Beautiful In All The Land!
Rolling her eyes at this clearly exaggerated remark, Celestina actually walked over and flicked the Third Queen’s forehead gently, "Stop trying to get rid of that title. I know you’ve never liked it, but it’s yours, Cynthia, and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon."
Flashing a mischievous grin in the next moment, Celestina turned her eyes towards the source of all this trouble and continued, "Besides, once you get your own dresses from this little brat, I’m sure you’ll look far more beautiful than me."
Hearing this, both Cynthia and Marianne laughed heartily.
The two of them may be queens, but they were also women who grew up listening to stories about Celestina Balfour’s deeds, and neither of them had ever stopped looking up to her as an idol and role-model. They were certainly envious of Celestina’s new outfit, but much more than that they were simply happy they could interact with her essentially as equals right now.
"Although..." Celestina shifted her gaze once more, to the last person in the room, the one who hadn’t spoken yet and had simply watched this whole farce play out with a wry smirk on her face, "Perhaps this little girl will be able to dethrone you in the near future, Cynthia."
In an instant, everyone’s attention shifted, and the two queens swiftly shifted from cheerful young women to doting mothers, Cynthia even dashing over and embracing her dear daughter as she nodded repeatedly, "En en, my little Tina is definitely going to be the most beautiful girl in all the land!"
Christina wasn’t sure whether to be happy, proud, embarrassed, or some combination of the three, but she did know one thing, she was glad that her mother was here in Misty City to celebrate her 16th birthday together with her.
Tina had been taken completely by surprise this morning when, in the middle of her usual training routine, the doors to the training room had been thrown open and a blur of silver hair burst into the room, practically tackling her to the ground in the next instant.
In a moment of shock and confusion, she had almost attacked the ’intruder’, but when Christina caught a whiff of a familiar, nostalgic scent, and felt the soft tender arms that had always comforted her as a young child wrap around her, she knew who had come.
Needless to say, Christina and Cynthia had been far too emotional to say anything and simply held each other tight, the latter even shedding a few tears after not having seen her child in so long.
One might think that 9 months in the 300-year lifespan of an Initiate Realm Cultivator like Cynthia Morgan wasn’t a particularly length period of time, and a year ago, the Third Queen would probably have agreed, but ever since she was forced to send Christina away to protect her from the prying eyes of the Imperial Overseer, Cynthia had felt like time was passing agonizingly slowly.
As the Rockwell Kingdom’s chief diplomat, Cynthia had naturally spent time apart from her child, but their longest separation had still barely lasted a month, and even then, the Third Queen had known she could rush back home at a moment’s notice to see Christina if she wanted to, or if, Heavens forbid, something were to happen to her daughter.
On top of that, Christina had been with Cynthia’s marital sisters, her husband, and their other children who were living in the palace at the time. In other words, she was in a familiar, safe environment, surrounded by people who loved and cared for her.
The Third Queen of the Rockwell Kingdom didn’t doubt that Marquess Balfour would look after and protect her precious daughter, but as a parent, Cynthia Morgan couldn’t help worrying regardless.
When her Second Sister, Natasha, had returned to the capital with so many stories about how much Christina had grown, both physically and mentally, Cynthia almost couldn’t stop herself from hopping on a flying mount and making her way to Misty City.
In fact, she couldn’t stop herself, it was her First Sister who had to do that for her.
Cynthia had tried to sneak off or make up excuses to visit Christina multiple times after that, and had only stopped when her husband and sisters promised her that she could be there for her daughter’s 16th birthday celebration.
Originally, King Nathanial, who doted on his daughters excessively, was also supposed to accompany his Third Wife to witness Christina’s big day, but the business of the kingdom had, as usual, gotten in the way.
What’s more, the Imperial Envoy, Lord Alexandros Ateo, was still loitering around the palace, making it difficult for Nathanial to leave lest the man from the Empire try something outrageous and a critical decision about how to respond needed to be made at a moment’s notice.
With Nathanial stuck in the capital, First Queen Marianne offered to take his spot on the trip, which was how she wound up accompanying Cynthia to Misty City.
All of their other children were now grown up and at least somewhat independent, leaving Christina as the baby of the family, so Marianne also had a soft-spot for the girl, despite them not being blood related.
The First Queen had thought this would be a nice relaxing break from all the recent chaos in the kingdom and the increased training the army was currently undergoing, and so far, it was proving to be much more fun than she originally anticipated.
Not only were her Third Sister’s antics amusing to watch, all the new innovations and inventions in Misty City had also caught Marianne’s eye and she would be lying if she said she wasn’t extremely eager to take a tour of the facilities which had developed and produced them.
For tonight, however, both Queens were simply looking forward to their youngest daughter making her official debut into society as an adult.
They were also interested to see just how many hearts Christina could steal tonight when she appeared in her revolutionary new outfit.
Cynthia and Marianne had no doubt that once they caught a glimpse of her, the young men and boys at the party would be falling all over themselves to get close to Christina; however, neither of them was worried about that. After all, their little girl could handle any random rogue who tried to get fresh with her.
As for Christina actually reciprocating those advances... seeing their daughter quietly sneaking glances over towards her ’escort’ for tonight, a strange little boy who was currently pulling at his collar uncomfortably, the two Queens couldn’t help snickering.
Every time they had asked her, Christina had vehemently denied it, but seeing them together now, how could her mothers not recognize the truth?
When they were badgering Lucas earlier, while most of it was just them teasing the boy, Cynthia and Marianne had been absolutely sincere when they told him to think of them as family, because as far as they were concerned, that would certainly be the case in the near future.