Chapter 592: Flustered

As for Braden, his mind had simply gone completely blank.

The daughter of the First Minster!

That was like... a dozen ranks higher up the kingdom’s food-chain than even his father! Probably more!

Understanding this, Braden bowed even lower and tried to apologize, but his tongue had somehow gone numb from shock, so he failed to get any coherent words out.

Danika, who had never been that great with social interactions to begin with, was now panicking a bit and tried to explain, "I-It’s really alright! I... I... um... What I mean is... Lady Sasha and Sister Eris are always doing so much for me, so... so, that makes us like family, so... so you don’t have to bow... please?"

Nervously lifting their heads, only to meet eyes with an even more nervous young lady, Edward and Amalia suddenly felt like what they were doing was silly, even if it was technically proper protocol.

Pursing her lips, Amalia immediately recalled that this residence also normally had a princess living in it, and a Marquess frequently visited, so perhaps they had simply decided to set aside noble etiquette as trying to maintain it would simply be too cumbersome.

Thinking as such, the older woman slowly straightened her back and said, "If that is what you would prefer, Young Lady Emerson, then we shall... shall try to accommodate you as best we can."

Edward, who had also assumed an upright position by now, nodded while trying to relax his smile back into a natural one.

Braden, as usual, was the last to react, but perhaps due to his nerves, he tried to get up a bit too quickly and lost his balance in the process.

"""Ah!""" Everyone quickly moved to catch the young man, with Danika actually reacting the fastest and being the one to stop him from face-planting into the floor.

"A-Are you alright?" Danika asked with genuine concern.

Braden, now thoroughly embarrassed, could only nod before righting himself and stepping back, "T-Thank you, Young Lady Emerson."

Smiling faintly, Danika shook her head, "Please just call me Danika, that’s what everyone else here calls me."

"Uh..." Braden really didn’t know what to do here and froze up again.

Seeing the older boy in front of her acting so flustered, Danika couldn’t stop herself from giggling lightly.

She was still quite shy and reserved, but having lived together with such boisterous and confident young girls like Eris and Christina for the past few months, she was gradually starting to become a bit more expressive.

Helping out with Elly had also greatly encouraged Danika, as she found the little girl to actually be somewhat similar to her. Not in regards to the tragic circumstances that led Elly to live here, of course, but their underlying personalities seemed to mesh quite well.

As for the poor boy she was laughing at, Braden was caught between wanting to confess his undying love to the strong, pretty, and noble girl before him, or just straight up dying from complete and utter shame.

Only after getting gently elbowed by his grandfather, who was feeling a great deal of second-hand embarrassment as well right now, did Braden scramble back and proceed to bow, yet again.

This, naturally, led to Danika laughing even harder, with Amalia, having completely given up on trying to salvage any sense of propriety by this point, joining in her amusement.

After the two ladies finished their bout of giggles, Amalia motioned to the nearby couches, "Please have a seat, Young Lady... Danika."

"En, thank you, Aunty," Danika smiled warmly. She had returned early from the Rising Phoenix Guild today, having finished the mission she was on faster than expected, but she wasn’t feeling particularly tired or dirty, so she figured it would be alright to chat with these new guests before heading to the showers.

With the two women sitting down, Edward and Braden also couldn’t just remain standing without looking stupid, so they also took a seat on the opposite couch.

They tried their best to relax, but that was obviously not easy for either of them.

Amalia, on the other hand, seemed to have thrown caution to the wind and was happily chatting with the young girl, "So, what you mean is, Little Eris is constantly dragging you around town to do what essentially amounts to charity work?"

"I do get paid for it, so it’s not exactly charity," Danika shook her head, denying she was working for free. She conspicuously didn’t dispute the point that Eris was dragging her around, however.

Not having missed this point, Amalia shook her head in return, "Please forgive Eris, it seems she’s grown up to be a bit of a troublemaker."

"No no, not at all!" Danika vigorously disagreed, "Eris just likes helping others. She may be a bit quick to act, but she always does what she thinks is right. I... I actually admire her quite a bit."

This wasn’t just Danika trying to be polite, she really did admire Eris. For her, who had grown up in the capital and been surrounded by all the political intrigue someone of her position typically was, meeting a young girl who so perfectly embodied the idea of justice and righteousness was incredibly refreshing.

Most nobles spoke a lot about duty, honour, charity, responsibilities, and other supposed virtues that made one worthy of their station, but few actually took those words seriously when they conflicted with things like profit or benefits.

Even recently, when the Imperial Overseer was staying at the palace, Danika had seen first-hand how some of the girls and young women she was acquaintances with had been ’offered’, to Lord Jeremiah as ’gifts’.

At first, Danika couldn’t believe that the highest ministers and nobles of the kingdom were literally whoring out their daughters, but as time passed, she was forced to recognize the truth.

She was also incredibly grateful that her own father had refused to follow suit.

Danika didn’t think she was very attractive, at least not compared to girls like Christina, but who knows what kind of... preferences, a man like the Lord Overseer might have.

Just thinking about that episode, how it ended up with several of the older girls she knew becoming shells of their former selves, Danika couldn’t help shivering a bit.