I'm Only a Stepmother, but My Daughter is Just so Cute!

Ch 20

Blanche asked this question shyly. I felt that sore, tingly ache in my nose when I saw her like this. No matter how much of a little adult she seemed, she was still only eleven years old. It was a given she’d want attention from her parents. “Of course, Princess Blanche. I’m sure His Majesty would be happy as well.”

“Do you think he’d dance with me as well?” She asked hopefully.

Mm, I don’t know how to respond to that. It’s not like I can just come out and say, “Sorry man, your dad just sucks balls at dancing.”

I admit to being a bit surprised when Sabelian had told me he sucked at dancing. To think he had a flaw like that… I thought he was perfect in pretty much everything. Well, I guess no one really is perfect. As soon as I’d heard him say that, I gave up on the dance. I don’t want to force someone’s hand just for a dance. I’d much rather hear Sir Moize complain. “Perhaps when you grow up a bit more, Princess Blanche?”

“I see…” I tried to soften the blow for her, but the girl still seemed rather dejected. It looked like she was very much looking forward to the festival. I pondered possibilities for a second. “Would you like to dance with me instead, then?”

“….What?” Blanche looked at me in utter surprise. Her soft, rabbit-like eyes widened into full moons before curving upwards in a smile. “Yes! I’d love to dance with you, Miss Abigail!”

Eh? Isn’t she a little too happy about this? And here I’d just said it to distract her for a bit… As I was searching about for my next words, Clara popped into the conversation herself. “What a great idea! You two would look amazing together!”

Norma nodded in agreement. Well… I was planning on refusing, but now everyone’s just setting the stage for me. I coughed in embarrassment, “A-ahem, all right then. Would you like to practice together, then?”

“Of course…!” She gave me a huge smile, her little pearly whites gleaming. I carefully held her hands in mine. We couldn’t dance like a normal couple because of the difference in our heights so instead, we decided to do a group routine together.

The music box started to play and I moved my feet in rhythm with Blanche’s. The me of my previous life had never danced. At all. Dancing was…a shameful thing for me. Getting stared at, even more so. It was worse since people weren’t actually staring at my dancing skills. They were too busy making fun of a pig that danced.

Well, thankfully, I get to live in a beautiful person’s body now. Abigail was beautiful, liked to dance and was actually quite talented at it. My body remembered the rhythm and moved accordingly to the music, almost instinctively.

One, two, three. One, two, three. I stepped forward and looked at Blanche at the same time. Our eyes met, and the tiny little girl smiled.

Yeah, so what if I can’t dance with Sabelian? Blanche is willing to dance with me anyway! I felt like I had the world in my hands at this very moment. I felt I could dance till my feet exploded. Blanche was bouncing up and down in happiness as well. She was energetic even after the song had ended. Clara came up to us with a face full of tears, saying on a sob, “You two…looked…so…so…beautiful…! Miss Abigail looked cool, and Princess Blanche looked cute… Ahh, so lovely!”

This kid…is a woman of culture, isn’t she? I can easily give her the position of vice president of the fan club. “Thank you, Clara.”

“You two look perfect together. Everyone will surely be amazed on the day of the dance!”

That much? I should ask Verite to show me later on.

“Now that it’s come to this, how about you two wear matching dresses? I think it’d look splendid!”