One week later...
Aristia got up in high spirits. It was her first day of training. The Grand Duchess had gotten training clothes made for her after a little persuasion.
That ti, she had said to the Grand Duchess, "Mama, could you please get training clothes? Here is the design." She handed over a sketch of her envisioned training outfit.
"But this... This is n’s clothing," Catherine was caught off guard. How could her daughter wear male clothes?
[No, these aren’t n’s clothes. They’re practical female training pants, thank you very much.] She thought, but didn’t voice it.
"Please, Mama. I need this so I can avoid tripping and falling during training, and so I have the freedom to move. The gowns are too heavy and restrict my movent. What if I fall and injure myself?" She asked coquettishly.
Credits to her, she didn’t cringe.
[I’ve gotten used to acting pitiful and coquettish with them. If this was my world, I wouldn’t know where to hide my face.] She maintained a pitiful look, waiting for Catherine to give in.
Catherine frowned, "I will arrange for the clothes to be made. Did you design this?" She asked, surprise replacing the frown on her face.
She only truly looked at the sketch now, noticing how detailed and fashionable it was, even though it looked like male clothes. It didn’t look bad at all, she thought. She was even looking forward to seeing her daughter in it.
[Of course, I’ll make it fashionable. Who do you think I am?] Aristia thought with a confident look, wanting to flip her hair but stopping as it would be odd.
Catherine mistook her cocky look for pride and sincerely praised her adorable daughter. "Tia, this is beautiful."
"Thank you, Mama." Aristia smiled.
.
.
.
Back in the present.
Aristia smiled mischievously, thinking about her ability to persuade the Grand Duke and Duchess.
After her bath, she put on the training clothes the Grand Duchess had stuck to her word and had gotten prepared for her, with the help of Adeline.
"Ooh, princess. You look so good in this attire. No. You look good in anything and everything." Adeline gushed, cupping her cheeks in her hands as she stared at her.
She hadn’t designed the dresses she had wanted to. Two weeks later, when madam Grace and her salesgirls ca to the mansion, she just tweaked their designs a little to suit her tastes. She decided to stick with that for the ti being.
"Hehe," she chuckled at Adeline’s words. "I’m ready. Let’s go, Linny." She turned to leave the room.
On the way, she received surprised stares from the servants. They obviously did not expect her to put on ’male clothes’. Or maybe, they wouldn’t have imagined that it was possible to look good in it.
[They’re probably thinking;
’The princess looks so good in those male clothes,’
’She looks good? Stunning is the proper word!’
’Oh my, I can’t believe my eyes. Is this sexy goddess really our third princess?’] Aristia thought.
[Oooor... maybe not.]
The servants just looked surprised, but imdiately, they reverted to their normal expression as if it wasn’t their first ti seeing their princess putting on ls clothes and it was just a normal day. There wasn’t even a whispered mutter as she passed them by.
[What did I expect from these robots we have as servants?] She rolled her eyes.
She was used to the servants not having much of a reaction by now.
"Good morning, Mama and Papa," she greeted as she took her seat in the dining room. Alaric was already seated on the chair beside her.
"Good morning, Tia. Did you sleep well?" Her parents spoke at the sa ti, then paused and exchanged smiles.
[O...kay.] Aristia thought, "Yes, I did." She replied, turning away from them and focusing on her al.
"Those clothes look so good on you," Catherine praised.
She couldn’t have even imagined that male clothes would look so beautiful on a female.
"Thanks, mama. Maybe you should wear Papa’s clothes sotis. I’m sure you’d be the prettiest." She said adorably.
[Will it be bad if I introduced rocking-the-man’s-clothes association in this world?] She almost snickered.
"Ah?!" Catherine looked stunned, even Wilson looked surprised. "I couldn’t possibly..." She trailed off, glancing at her daughter’s stylish ’male’ clothes.
[Eeeh... You’re getting the idea, eh?] Aristia smirked into her cup, watching Catherine’s reaction.
Wilson glanced at Catherine, wondering how his wife would look in his clothes. Strangely, the image his mind generated made his throat dry.
"And mama, these may look like male clothes, but it’s not. I designed them just for females. Mama, why don’t you get one too? Then, we can match! We’ll be the sweetest looking mother and daughter, and mama!" She drawed out the last sentence.
That sounded very appealing to Catherine. She nodded, deep in thought. "It would be good to match."
Then, she smiled, already looking like her decision had been made.
[Yes! My plan worked. Now, I can put on pants around the house and no one would question .] Aristia celebrated internally.
"But, what about ?"
"Eh?" Aristia blurted out.
"What about ?" Alaric asked with a pout. "Do I get to match with you?"
"Of course, you do. Not female clothes like the one I and mama are getting, but male clothes. We can get you the sa colours." She explained.
Alaric’s face brightened up imdiately.
"I’ll take you to et your instructor after breakfast, Tia," Wilson inford.
"Okay, Papa." Aristia smiled and resud eating.
After breakfast, Aristia went with Wilson and Alaric to et her new trainer and Alaric’s future trainer.
Stepping onto the training ground, they saw a man dressed like the captain of a knight order. They approached him.
The man turned as he noticed them. "Prince Wilson," he bowed.
"Hugh," Wilson nodded and turned towards Aristia. "This is Captain Hugh Lancelot, my good friend. He’ll be your trainer."
"Greetings, Young Prince, Young Princess," Captain Hugh bowed, his gaze stopped at Aristia’s clothing, but he said nothing of it and averted his eyes.
"Greetings, Captain Hugh," Aristia curtsied, and Alaric followed suit with a light bow.
"Well then," the captain said roughly. "We shall begin training right now, as I see you’ve co prepared." He motioned towards their outfits and the wooden swords the Grand Duke had made for them.
It looked like Wilson had already inford the Captain of the arrangent.
[So he’s actually okay with this? I thought he’d be against the idea of training a girl.] Aristia thought. She had thought the man would refuse outrightly.
"Alright, Captain," she replied with a nod.
"I will be going then. Allie, are you coming with ?" Wilson asked.
"I’ll stay with Tia," Alaric replied resolutely, earning a nod from Wilson.
"Be careful and do not get hurt," he added as he left, but not before sparing a final glance at the Captain. He looked like he was communicating with his eyes. The Captain looked a bit unwilling.
[What was that?]
Aristia didn’t have the ti to dwell on that, as the Captain ignored Wilson and spoke,
"Even though you are a princess and the daughter of my good friend, you are my pupil. You shall train like the others. Do not expect special treatnt." Captain Hugh addressed Aristia. He belonged to aristocracy and was well aware of the usual entitled behavior of most noble children, not to talk of the third princess.
He also was not clueless about the rumours surrounding the child. He was surprised. He wondered why the little princess would want to train. It was a very unusual request for females in the aristocracy.
When she opened her mouth, he thought Aristia would refuse adamantly and throw a tantrum about being treated like the princess that she was, but instead he heard,
"That is a given, Captain. Then, shall we begin?" Aristia asked to show she understood, and the captain nodded after a pause.
"Then, we shall begin." He stated.
’I could tolerate her for this short while. She will definitely quit after a few days, but what I will not tolerate is spoilt behavior.’ The captain thought as he comnced the training.
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