Chapter Five: Royal Engagement Tea Party

The week after the invitation arrived the Von Drake family descended from their family carriage in front of the Palace. Lumere aided Bella as she left the carriage, while Chris aided Celeste. Both males escorted their respective partners to the left side garden where the tea party was being held.

On arrival, Lumere and Bella led the way to the King and Queen to make their greetings. Lumere and Chris bowed deeply. While Bella and Celeste dipped into a low curtsy.

"Duke Lumere Von Drake greets your majesties."

"Duchess Isabella Von Drake greets your majesties."

"Christopher Von Drake greets your majesties."

"Celeste Von Drake greets your majesties."

Queen Elizabeth was suitably impressed with Celeste's gracefully controlled curtsy. She had received plenty of much less graceful curtsies that day from much older girls.

"We greet the Von Drake family. You may rise." King Albert waved his hand.

Queen Elizabeth excitedly pulled Celeste towards her. "Now that the formalities are out of the way let me greet my son's new fiance. You are certainly a beautiful girl. Your curtsy was also impressive for your age. I can see why Theodore is so attached to you."

"I like Celeste for more than her looks and etiquette, Mother." Prince Theodore appeared from behind his parents where he had been talking with Peter and Hughes

Celeste dipped back into a curtsy. Fiance and friend aside, the tea party was a formal event first. Her family followed suit behind her.

"Celeste Von Drake greets his highness." Her families greetings followed after hers.

"Theodore Michaelise greets the Von Drake family." He drew her back into standing and raised her hand to kiss the back.

"I'm happy that you have finally arrived, Celeste and Chris. Come, the others are waiting. Please excuse us, Mother, Father, your grace."

Prince Theodore tucked Celeste's hand into his arm and escorted her to where their friends waited, followed closely by Chris.

"Celeste, Chris, you're finally here!" Peter greeted them.

"It's about time!" Hughes shot at them.

Peter and Hughes took turns kissing the back of Celeste's free hand.

"We came as fast as we could." Chris shot back with rolled eyes.

Celeste could feel a number of menacing gazes on her back. Looking behind her, she found a number of girls glaring at her presumably because she was the only girl surrounded by the four boys. "Can we move? If looks could kill I'd have died a few dozen times by now."

The boys glanced around curiously, noting the glares of the other girls before they realised the boys were looking. Their glares quickly switched to welcoming smiles as they met the boys eyes only to receive frowns from the boys in return.

"Ignore them. They aren't worth our time." Prince Theodore dismissed them.

"You say that, but three of you still need to settle on your own fiances. I'd at least like to live long enough to actually make friends with your prospective brides." Celeste answered him sarcastically.

The boys faces in question drained of all colour at her statement and looked around them curiously. None of them had given much thought to their own prospective engagements. The number of girls staring back scared them. It gave them the impression that they were prey under the gazes of predators.

Celeste laughed at their freaked out faces. Prince Theodore could only grateful that his engagement had been settled so easily.

"May I have your attention please."

King Albert's voice rung through the tea party. Everyone turned to face him. Prince Theodore wrapped Celeste's hand back into his arm and led her towards his parents.

King Adam continued once Prince Theodore and Celeste had joined them.

"It is our greatest pleasure to announce the official engagement of our son, Crown Prince Theodore Adam Harris Michaelise to Celeste Anna Marie Von Drake, second child and only daughter of Duke Lumere and Duchess Isabella Von Drake."

The crowd clapped at the King's announcement. Although the girls at the party were doing so somewhat reluctantly. There were a lot of jealous looks directed towards Celeste in that moment.

"Thank you all for joining us today to celebrate Prince Theodore's engagement. We ask you to enjoy the remainder of this party." Queen Elizabeth followed her husband once the clapping had died down.

....

A little while later as the five friends chatted around a table filled with finger foods, Celeste's white and blue lolitta dress was suddenly covered in pink punch.

"Keeyaa! I'm so sorry! Please forgive me! I didn't mean to!"

A pink haired girl the same age as Celeste stared up tearfully at her from the ground with large aqua coloured eyes, a now empty cup in her hand.

Celeste looked down at her in confusion as she activated her cleanliness spell to clean to dress. "It's not a problem. Are you OK?"

"Huh?" The pink haired girl looked confused at Celeste's response. She hadn't expected Celeste to know magic for cleaning and was expecting the silvery blue haired girl to abuse her for it. Quickly she changed her confused expression back into a tearful one as if she was being bullied. "I'm... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. Please forgive me."

Celeste continued to look confused at the girl before looking back at the boys. They looked just as confused at the pink haired girl's strange behaviour.

"Celeste has already said that it wasn't a problem. Why are you still apologising?" Chris asked her bluntly.

"Unless, you tripped on purpose to spill your drink on her?" Peter asked with a frown.

The pink haired girl suddenly lost it. "Wha... What's going on here? Why are you supporting her? She's the villainess!"

"I'm sorry, I'm supposed to be what?" Celeste asked confused. 'What is this girl talking about?'

"The villainess. The spiteful class loving girl who nags her parents until she gets engaged to the Crown Prince and then gets jealous of the pretty, clumsy light magic lower class heroine who gets close to her fiance, her brother and their friends and so she begins bullying her. In the end the Crown Prince breaks his engagement to her and sentences her to death for trying to kill his beloved and re-engages himself to the heroine. I'm the heroine of this story!"

The boys began laughing so hysterically that tears began running down their faces as they bent over trying to get their breath back. Celeste folded her arms and glared at them unamused.

The pink haired girl looked confused at this turn of events. "I don't understand! Why isn't this anything like the game?"

Celeste suddenly turned back to the pink haired girl at that. "A game? Do you mean like a video game?"

"Yes! This whole world is an otome game called Doki Doki Love Me Truely. At this event, I was supposed to trip over and accidentally spill my drink on you. You were supposed to get angry at me for ruining your dress and bully me. The newly engaged Prince and his friends would look at you, his fiance, in disgust and help me." The pink haired girl cried out.

Now the boys looked on in confusion as Celeste burst into laughter.

"I've no idea what a video game or otome game is." Prince Theodore commented.

"Right... Anyway, this isn't a game. This is real life. People are not 2D characters that you can manipulate into whatever way you want them to act. I have no idea what this otome game was you mentioned but I highly doubt any of us are anything like the characters you thought we were. By the way, what is your name?" Celeste finally asked her.

"What? Oh! It's Holly Diane Voltier. I'm the newly adopted daughter of Baronet William Voltier."

"I have a question." Hughes interrupted. "How did a Baronet's daughter get invited to a tea party specified for rank Earl and above?"

Holly blushed and looked away. "Um... I don't know that I was technically invited? My father just kind of snuck me in?"

"Right..." Peter looked angry at that. "I need to have a word with my father about that. The guards appear to be slacking in security."

Peter's father, Marquess Thomas Bolton, was the Commander of the guards. He wouldn't be impressed that uninvited guests had managed to enter a private event at the Palace. Celeste could only imagine the number of punishment and harsh training that the Palace guards would be in for when he finds out.

"Anyway Miss Voltier, as amusing as this whole conversation has been, I think it's time for you to leave. You've intruded on our engagement party long enough, don't you think?" Prince Theodore had also turned harsh on hearing that she was an uninvited guest to start with. He waved towards a guard who was waiting in the background to escort the pink haired girl out before turning back to his fiance.

"So... What is a video game?" He asked Celeste. The other boys looked at her as well, curious to her answer.

"Erm... That's kind of hard to explain. Do you know anything about reincarnation?" Celeste deferred the question.

"You mean the theory of living multiple lives by a cycle of being reborn after death?" Hughes asked.

"That's the one. The cycle itself is real. This is the second life that I've experienced or at least have memories of. My previous memories gave me a life in a completely different world to this one. No magic. We used science instead.

The tools in that world would use something called electricity to power them... Um... I guess lightening magic would be the closest representative of that? A video game is a kind of entertainment. It was particularly popular with teenagers and young adults? It's played on a gaming console with buttons and a screen. I'm not really sure how to explain it."

Celeste's explanation was kind of garbled. It was difficult to explain something when she couldn't show them a physical example of it.

"So would that girl also have reincarnated then, since she mentioned that this world was a game?" Peter mused.

"I guess so? I have no idea what game she said it was. I didn't really play much of them in my previous life. I spent most of my time studying or working or helping my younger siblings. I was only 17 when I died. Carrion did tell me that this world was like a game but I didn't realise he meant it actually was one." Celeste confirmed.

"You met the God Carrion?!" Prince Theodore exclaimed.

"Well not physically. He talked to me while I was in the process of being reborn."

"Wow! That's so amazing! I bet the priests at the temple would be jealous to hear that!" Peter was amazed.

Celeste looked amused. "So let me get this straight. You're not fazed at all on hearing that I have memories of a previous life. But you're excited over me talking to Carrion before being born?"

"Heck yes. I mean, you having previous life memories just explains your strange speed of learning as a baby. But talking to God Carrion is every person's dream!" Chris explained.

"OK, I got it. Either way, I'm still me, so please don't treat me any differently?" Celeste was a little worried about that. After all, they had just learnt her biggest secret.

The boys laughed at that.

" " " "Like we ever would have treated you any differently anyway." " " "

"You're our precious treasure, Celeste." Prince Theodore continued.

The rest of the party was spent with Celeste trying to explain various things about her previous world.