Yearning For Familial Love

Chapter Twenty-Two: Defeated by Cuteness

[Nicole]

Chapter Twenty-Two:
Defeated by Cuteness

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How has it taken me so long to realize…

She's adorable to the point. She seems to melt my walls away. Anytime we are together. My initial opinion of Cleo was a clingy, whiny brat who just had a very high pain threshold.

After already dealing with the emotions of an arranged marriage once, I can confidently say I was indifferent to it all.

Besides, I fully plan to leave long before the actual wedding. So at first, I thought Cleo was just too young to understand. That was before her emotions started bleeding over to me again. I'm not sure how or to what extent she understands but.

She's more emotional about it all than she's letting on. The sickening feelings in your gut and a sharp pain in your heart. While knowing there's nothing you can do. It's a truly crippling feeling.

Her emotions made it hard for me to stay standing. Much less, hold a pretty smile like the one she held.

Yet she never once showed a hint of any of her true emotions. This was more tragic than cute, but when I noticed she was putting on an act to make me happy at the boutique it was heartwarming.

Occasionally, when she thought no one was looking she got a pouty face. That I just wanted to pinch so badly.

To tell the truth, I'm surprised She lasted as long as she did. It was a good four hours before she finally broke down into a tantrum. And even that was incredibly adorable.

Maybe I find her so adorable. Because I'm so much older than my physical form. But I find her genuine baby-like reactions. To everything so endearing.

I was only just starting to get tired when she snapped. It wasn't as fun trying on dresses by myself. But most of these are dresses. I couldn't have even dreamed of wearing in my past life. So I pushed on…

Seeing Cleo sleeping so soundly in Mom's arms. I'd wanted to yell “No, That's my spot” Luckily I caught myself. I've never been one to get jealous. It's not like Cleo is a pet or some kinda doll. It's normal for a kid our age to be held while they nap. So why? Am I jealous…

Well, Perhaps it's because I myself have become tired? “No, I mean this lady whom we haven't met until a few days ago has been fully accepted by Cleo.” I pondered on this… why does this bother me? So what if Cleos is so accepting and forgiving… oh I see it's my guilt that's got me feeling like this.

How can she be so open to Mom? I don't have any desire to bond with that woman. It irritates me because she's taking advantage of Cleo's nature. At Least I've been around from basically the beginning. This won't do… I won't let you take my sister.

Once we returned to the palace I quickly separated them. We sat together in the drawing room waiting for a quick dinner. Cleo's constant barrage of tiny yawns got the better of me. It was early morning when I opened my eyes. We'd fallen Asleep on the couch in the drawing room. I now lay with Cleo sleeping on top of me.

I decided today marked the start of me trying to win over Cleo. The fact she's so forgiving makes me feel even worse. From the moment she opened her eyes and I began ordering her around She listened Intently. I'd begun to think she wasn't gonna take an interest in the dolls…

I'd figured there would be at least some apprehension with my sudden behavior change. But that didn't seem to be it.

Then I started to think maybe I'd come across as weird… Then seemingly out of nowhere, this little drama queen began adding fuel to the story. As she got intensely serious about the story it was quite amusing… I was caught several times… “breaking the story's lore”, as Cleo put it.

As I get closer to Cleo I get this weird sense of familiarity as if I know her from my past life. But I know that's not possible. I'd never met such an odd girl in my past life.

She remains as unwaveringly accepting of me as always. I'd never met anyone who was so difficult to bother. Maybe I can convince her to show some apprehension. when accepting affection from mother and father… At Least until our bond is a little stronger.

Once the maids showed up. We were practically Dragged away from the dolls and forced into identical outfits for school. Truly it's ridiculous what kinda of school has only one option for school uniforms...

Where's the freedom of expression... Yuri, I asked only for one thing in this life you hear me this is unjust.

I don't really want to talk about school. So we'll skip ahead to after school. Cleo insisted we sign up and at least try the after-school swordsmanship class. Unlike the core class, it's more popular amongst those who want to learn. Yet have no intention of becoming a Knight.

I have a feeling she hasn't considered who might be in this class… but before I even had time to speak she'd wrote both our names down and dragged me to the assessment.

“We… are the only girls here… Cleo must we try out?” I groaned as I whispered in her ear.

There were far more people than I'd thought there would be. Luckily it seemed most if not all of them were first years like ourselves. That didn't stop the nonsense behavior. Boys get when they see girls doing something they'd consider a boys-only activity.

“What are two girls doing here” seemed to be the general murmurs. The instructor quickly pulled us to the front once he saw us. And used us as part of his beginning intro to the lesson. Cleo is much stronger than you'd think and caught on to every tip she was given. I… Well, I wasn't so lucky. It appears we aren't identical when it comes to skills…

I spent the rest of class sparing with Cleo. And it was clear she was holding back for my sake. It's frustrating, I haven't gotten a single strike on her. Towards the end, I heard a familiar voice call out to Cleo…

Nolan?!?!? I'd expect Aeric to be here but Nolan… isn't he a hero shouldn't he be in the real class?

I didn't have time to finish the thought before I heard the sound of two training sticks cracking apart into splinters of shrapnel.

Before I knew it the instructor had tossed them metal training sticks and umm… well I can't even follow what's going on now. The sound it's making when their sticks clash is forcing me to flinch and cover my ears. I can say that Cleo isn't playing and was the one to attack first. It's still hard to fathom this side of her exists.

Nolan screamed out in pain several times near the end… when the dust settled Cleo was left standing looking around. As if Nolan had vanished. The metal training stick was severely bent up and was crushed in ways I didn't think it were possible for solid mithril steel.

After a moment she screamed, “Damit where'd you go you little coward.”

The whole class was huddled together behind me… like I could protect them from what went down. Surely that's my imagination. They couldn't think I'm capable of something like that. The awful noises alone made it impossible to keep my eyes open…

The sudden personality swap Cloe had was unnerving as always. Back to her happy normal self as soon as she decided he wasn't coming back…

The class was dismissed and we returned to the palace as if nothing strange had happened…

I Hope You Enjoyed
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[End of Chapter]