Reincarnated as an Ugly Step Sister

Chapter 27

A knock sounds from the door and a timid girl enters the room. Her hair expertly curled and her make up neatly applied. She has an air of elegance as she sits down on the couch across from us.

"Pleasure to meet you, I am Princess Miola." Her face is expressionless as she says this.

"Right... I am Prince Nicholas, it is an honor to meet you." Nicholas steps forward to kiss her hand out of formality when meeting another royale.

We sit in an awkward silence for a moment before Miola speaks up.

"And you two are?" she questions with a tilt of her head, her soft curls bouncing as she does so.

"Ah yes! I am Violet, a friend of Nicholas." I feel myself grow nervous.

"And I'm Chase, another friend of Nicholas." He states, clearly far less stressed than I am.

Miola smiles sweetly. "It is very nice to meet you." She fiddles with her fingers. "I shall request a maid to prepare snacks." She looks to the maid supervising us who nods and leaves the room to fetch the food. Princess Miola sighs in relief as her expression relaxes. "Now that she's gone, shall we get to know each other?"

Nicholas's nervousness lessens a little as he realizes that Miola is friendlier than he previously thought. "Of course! Do you have any hobbies perhaps?"

Miola smiles a charming smile. "I've taken quite a liking to gardening. Perhaps later I can show you around my rose garden."

"That sounds lovely," Nicholas says.

I begin to tune out their conversation, as it is not particularly interesting, and I try to figure Miola out. She looks younger than me, by at least a year. Too young to get married in my opinion, but not crazy for this time. She sits with perfect posture, her back straight, hands resting in her lap, feet crossed elegantly. The innocence and grace that she possesses reminds me of Cinderella. Despite her dark curled hair and fancy clothes almost everything about her reminds me of my beloved sister. Unlike Cinderella, she seems extremely intelligent, though perhaps it is her sophisticated accent or her access to education. Still, the way Miola speaks softly, as if you are a bird she wouldn't want to scare away, resembles Cinderella. I realize that, perhaps, this is how all fairytale princesses are: beautiful, graceful, kind, obedient, good natured.

Miola and Nicholas leave me and Chase out of their conversation which I don't mind much because Chase it's good at small talk and I'm still trying to evaluate Miola. However, the easy repertoire that Nicky and Miola have makes me feel a pang of jealousy. I know he doesn't want to get married but Miola is the type of girl that's easy to fall in love with.

The two converse for a half hour before they decide to go into Miola's garden. Chase and I walk a few feet behind them until Miola slows down so she can walk beside me. Chase speeds up and begins talking with Nicholas and before I know it I'm having a conversation with Miola.

"It's Violet, right?" she says, giving me a friendly smile.

"That's right, your Highness." I smile back as best I can.

"Call me Miola, just as you would call Prince Nicholas, Nicholas."

"Of course, and I believe you can call him Nicholas too," I say.

"I have to admit, I'm a little surprised Nicholas brought friends with him to meet me." She turns red as she brings up this subject.

"Oh, yes that's a little unorthodox. The reason Chase and I came is because..." I pause, unsure of how much I should tell her. "Well, my step-sister was poisoned." Miola lets out a gasp. "She isn't dead or anything, just asleep. It's a pretty common curse. Anyway, I didn't feel comfortable letting strangers kiss her so we're looking for the cure. Nicholas says there's one in the ocean kingdom and that's right next to your kingdom. We figured we might kill two birds with one stone..." I pause again to take in her expression. Her eyes are wide with the shock of what I've just said. It occurs to me that I've just implied that meeting her is an afterthought to saving Cinderella. Of course it was but she shouldn't have to know that. "No disrespect to you of course, we did want to meet you. We just figured that while we're here we could go to the ocean kingdom and get the cure too." She nods slowly as what I've just said sinks in.