Birthday celebration

A few months later, I was startled awake by the sound of heavy foot traffic coming from outside my room, 'What the hell's going on out there?!'

Before I could guess what was happening outside, three maids rushed into my room. Two of them went to my closet and jewellery case and started going through my dresses and accessories, while the other came over to me and picked me up.

My head was starting to spin from everything, 'Why are these maids in my room?!? Normally, Crimson's the one who comes and picks me up!'

When the maid saw I was looking confused and concerned, she said to me, "Please don't worry, young Miss, the Duchess is busy setting up for today's ball, so she didn't have time to prepare to collect you herself."

Her words caught me off guard, 'She's busy with a ball? She's always put off all her work to spend time with me in the past. So this must be for something important.'

The two maids picked out a matching dress and accessory for me while the maid carrying me changed me into them. After they were done, the maid who changed my clothes took me to the dining room.

The room was much like the sitting area that Walter and my brothers spent a lot of time in; only this room was half the size and was around 30% table with how large the table was.

The maid placed me inside my highchair before standing back and ringing a small bell she had in her pocket, and almost right after she rang it, a butler entered the room holding a silver tray in his right hand. He put the tray on the table before me and then left the room.

Then, the maid walked back beside me, lifted the bowl off the tray, and put it in front of me. She then took the spoon provided with it and started trying to feed me.

I tried my hardest not to eat it. I even managed to knock the spoon out of her hand. The maid pulled a dishearted expression while she grabbed a second spoon from the tray, "Please, miss, you have to eat your meal. Otherwise, I'll be in trouble with the Duchess."

Seeing her sad expression, I reluctantly started eating it, 'This baby food is gross... I thought that when I was old enough to live off of anything other than this, they would give me real food, but they still give me this! It's nothing but white mush with an ok taste and terrible texture! I wish I could have chicken. Or any meat for that matter...!'

I forced each spoonful down as they kept coming in endless waves. Thankfully, before long, I managed to finish the bowl, but I felt slightly sick from how much I didn't like it, the maid pulled out the little bell again and rang it, and the butler came back into the room and took away the empty bowl and tray.

As he left the room, Crimson walked in after him. When I saw her, I reacted before I even had time to think, "Mommy!"

Within moments I realised what I had just said, 'I didn't think and just blurted out my first word! When did I start to think of her as Mom and not Crimson?'

Crimson and the maid stood there entirely still as if they had turned to stone from shock. Then, managing to snap out of it, Crimson ran over to me and kneed beside me with stars in her eyes, "Say it again! Say, Mommy!"

I felt utterly embarrassed by what I had just said, and Crimson only made that worse by asking me to repeat what I had said. However, seeing Crimson's smiling face while she waited to hear me speak again made my resolve to stay silent waver. Reluctantly, I smiled through my embarrassment and repeated myself, "Mommy!"

Crimson made a weird squeal of joy after hearing me repeat it. Then, she quickly picked me up from my highchair and rushed out of the room with me, "We have to go and show Walter!"

I quickly regretted repeating myself, 'Why did I have to repeat it?! Now she's gone crazy...again...'

Before long, we arrived at the training ground. Walter was giving Dan a magic lesson. Crimson, without hesitation, called to him, "Walter! I have something amazing to show you!"

Interested in what she had to show, Walter, paused Dan's lesson and walked over to us while Dan watched and listened from a distance out of curiosity. Standing before us, he asked, "What is it you wanted to show me?"

Crimson smiled intensely, "Sash, could you show Daddy?"

I huffed at her request but ended up obliging her, "Mommy."

Walter looked shocked at the sound of me talking, "That's wonderful! Can you also say, Daddy?"

The idea of calling him that felt 10x more embarrassing than saying Mommy, but I still replied, "Mommy!"

"Not Mommy, Daddy..."

"Mommy!"

Walter started to look less than pleased that I wouldn't say it. Crimson giggled at the situation, "Don't worry, I'm sure she'll say it eventually! I spend more time with her, so it's not surprising that she said Mommy first."

Walter didn't look convinced by her words, "What do you mean? I spend most days personally teaching her how to change forms and fly. I spend plenty of time with her."

Crimson simply agreed to move the conversation on, "You're right. Either way, I'm sure she'll call you Daddy soon!"

Walter started to sulk a little and looked away in a huff. Crimson couldn't help but smile nervously, "Anyway, I've done most of the important preparations for the ball later. I've left the rest of the setup to the maids."

"You always do an amazing job creating decor for events. I look forward to seeing it."

A couple of hours later, we headed down to the ballroom. I hadn't been there since I was reborn into this world, and the room seemed almost like a repeat of the first time. It looked like there were just as many people as last time. Only the decorations were different.

As I looked at the decorations, I could see what Walter was talking about when he said Crimson created amazing events. All the decorations were perfectly placed and looked fantastic.

As we walked to the ballroom stairs, the events after that played out almost the same as my first ball. Walter took Crimson and me to nearly the top of the stairs, where he started to give a small speech.

"Thank you all for attending my birthday celebration today. I'm grateful that you all accepted the invitation. I would also like to thank my wife for organising and designing the decor for today's ball. Thanks to her, the venue today is immaculate. I hope you all enjoy the celebration and have a great evening!"

We started to head down the stairs, and halfway down, I was thinking about his speech, 'So today's Dad's birthday? Why am I only finding out now? You would think someone would have mentioned it around me before now. This looks like it took at least a month or two to plan...'

When we got to the bottom of the stairs, Walter got swarmed by aristocrats. I couldn't help but feel a strong sense of Deja Vu, 'With this crowd at the bottom of the stairs, it feels like I'm reliving my first ball...'

Much like last time, one of the aristocrats stepped forward and talked to Walter. It was Marquis Laseus again, "It's nice to see you again, Duke. May you have a blessed day! If I recall, today marks your 371st birthday."

My shock at hearing Walter's age was huge, 'Did he just say 371!? How long do dragons live?! That must be why he keeps telling me he won't let me get married until I turn 300...' When looking at the Marquis, Walter had contempt for him in his expression, "Thank you, Marquis Laseus, and yes, I turned 371 today. Now, excuse me, I have some other business to attend to."

After saying that, Walter went to walk away from the conversation. Noticing this, the Marquis quickly acted, "Duke, before you leave, I would like to bring up the topic of your daughter's future marriage again! You mentioned last time that you didn't feel it appropriate to discuss it since she was only a day old. However, since she's now six months old, would you be willing to discuss it now?"

I couldn't help but feel annoyed hearing him talk, 'Why is this guy so obsessed with me marrying his son!'

Walter gave him a death stare at hearing the topic he brought up, "Marquis. Never bring this topic up again."

Seeing Walter's fierce glare and hearing his tone drained the colour from the Marquis's face. After that, Walter continued walking away from him with Crimson and me.

Feeling the tension in the air from Walter's bad mood, I tried to think of what I could do to calm him down, 'He gets like this every time someone mentions the idea of me getting married. Obviously, I don't want to marry any noblemen's sons. That would just be weird! But I need to figure out a way to calm him down when this happens.'

As I tried to think, an idea suddenly popped into my head, but it wasn't an idea I was too happy with. So, ignoring my personal feelings, I decided to put my plan into motion to try and get rid of that scary expression on Walter's face.

I reached out and just about managed to grab Walter's sleeve. When I did, he looked over at me, "What is it, Sash?"

I smiled at him, pushed past my resistance, and blurted out, "Daddy!"

Walter's scary expression quickly disappeared as though it was never there. Instead, it was replaced with a look of pure shock, "Say that again..."

I couldn't help but feel embarrassed at his request to hear it again. I almost shouted it out again to fight my embarrassment, "Daddy!"

Walter looked at me with a pleased expression. Then, he leaned over and kissed my forehead, then continued walking, "Let's continue on. We have a lot of important guests to greet."

I couldn't stop myself from going bloodred from him kissing my forehead, 'He might be scary, like 80% of the time, but I'm actually happy he's my Dad.'

The rest of the event mainly consisted of greeting almost everyone who had attended the ball, but at one point, Crimson handed me over to a maid for a little while and had a dance with Walter. Later that day, Walter insisted on putting me to bed that night and personally took me back to my room.