Despite knowing his comment had been aimed at Blythe, Mira bristled at Reuben’s words.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” she demanded, casting him a sidelong glance.

  This time, he cackled, throwing his head back and looping one arm around the back of her neck. "I'm sure you know exactly what I mean, little sis."

  While she secretly concurred, given Blythe's pathetically low wisdom stat of 2, Mira was sure the real Blythe would've taken offense to that comment. Anyone would have.

  Since she didn't have any siblings, Mira channeled her inner Riley. She'd often witnessed her friend getting into heated arguments with her siblings when she was over at her house. "I'm not dumb—you are!"

  He snorted. "I know you wish that were true, but who's the one between the two of us who graduated early?"

  Taken aback, Mira temporarily ceased her attempts to pull away from his arm. He'd graduated early? That made a lot of sense. She hadn't seen him in the morning before she'd left for the academy. Otherwise, they would probably have left at around the same timing.

  She hadn't thought too hard about it when she'd checked his profile information, but he was only nineteen. In the game, Daisy was in the third last year of school. Students graduated in their seventh year at the academy, usually at the age of nineteen.

  That meant Reuben had graduated a year early. How did the duke and duchess end up with such an intelligent son and a foolish daughter?

  No, that wasn't quite right. One could be smart in academics but stupid in other things. Blythe had demonstrated a certain level of understanding in Beucian when Mira had to participate in that speaking practice. The lesson notes that were already in her school notebooks when Mira came to in this world also indicated her comprehension of the academic concepts.

  Blythe had merely been blinded and driven by her jealousy and insecurity to perform foolish actions.

  She harrumphed. "Maybe you were so dumb they just wanted to get you out of the academy. They just called it an early graduation to save you some face!"

  Reuben yelped in indignation. "Why, you--"

  Mira blinked at the two notifications that popped up successively.

  The rapid fluctuation in points threw her off. Was this because they were siblings? Riley's mood changed swiftly whenever she interacted with her siblings, so Reuben's reaction to her insult seemed par for the course.

  They made it out of the front doors, where a dark brown carriage with a polished finish awaited them. Reuben removed his arm from over her shoulders and stood by the open door, holding out a hand in front of it as an offer of support.

  Knowing better than to turn it down by now, Mira gripped his hand as she heaved herself up onto the carriage. Reuben followed her afterward, sitting down on the opposite side of the carriage.

  The seats were just as plush and comfortable to sit on as Magnus' carriage had been. Mira leaned back, exhaling a silent sigh of contentment. An idea suddenly struck her, igniting a spark of hope in her chest. It could work.

  "Man, I had such a long day," Reuben complained, looking out the window at the scenery outside.

  The sun had set while Mira was in her room, so it was dark. Tall, well-placed street lamps lit the brick walkway out of the estate's courtyard. The green topiaries looked different in the dark.

  "What happened?" She was sincerely curious.

  He shot her an odd look. "It's rare for you to ask. Did something good really happen to you today?"

  Blythe's relationship with him was so much more stable than with the others.

  She tried to think of what Riley would say to her older brother if they were having the same conversation.

  "Fine, forget I asked," she snapped, crossing her arms and turning her head away.

  For some reason, he looked thrilled. "Oh, come on! I'll tell you, if you're so eager to know."

  Either Blythe's brother was weird, or all siblings were like that. Mira pretended to be annoyed, giving him the best glare she could muster.

  "Dad was really busy today, so he threw a bunch of paperwork to me while he went to attend a meeting with the other royal advisors. But it turned out that the junior secretary had made a bunch of mistakes in the report, so we spent the next few hours going over it together. When he came back and learned what happened, Dad was furious at him because I couldn't finish all that paperwork since we were busy correcting the errors. I had to do two hours of overtime!"

  She'd half-expected Reuben to refer to their father as 'Father' rather than 'Dad', but she supposed this indicated their closeness as family members. It did sound like it had been a hectic work day for him.

  "Too bad," she said automatically, guessing that he wanted sympathy more than anything else.

  His jaw dropped as he leaned forward in his seat.

  "Tell me what good thing happened to you today," he insisted. "Don't be so tight-lipped about it!"

  "It's none of your business!" It was getting easier to come up with a response as a snarky sibling. She doubted Blythe would have answered him directly.

  "You'll be telling Mom and Dad when we're having dinner in a few minutes, anyway! What difference does it make if you just tell me now?"

  Mira found herself genuinely smiling for the first time today. Who knew that it would be because of a silly interaction with Blythe's brother?

  "You can wait a few minutes!"

  Technically, nothing good had really happened today, but she could probably put a positive spin on something and attribute her 'good mood' to that.

  "Actually, you don't need to tell me." He smirked. "It has to do with Prince Magnus, doesn't it?"

  Mira was appalled by how desperate for Magnus' affections Blythe must have come across to everyone she knew.

  If she was actually going to be Blythe, she had to shake off this perception others had of her.

  “No!” she said, her tone sharper than she’d intended. “Not everything is about Magnus, okay?”

  He boggled. “Since when?”

  “Since … since I decided that I should grow more as a person,” she declared. “I’m going to be more balanced from now on!”

  He stared at her like she had suddenly sprouted a second head. “Who are you, and what have you done with Blythe?”

  Her heart had a near seizure for a second before she realized he hadn’t meant it literally.

  She sniffed. “I’ve done a lot of introspection this past summer.”

  “Could’ve fooled me,” he said incredulously, but a pleased smile spread across his face all the same. “Well, good. I always thought you were too obsessed with him anyway.”

  “I wasn’t obsessed,” she grumbled, deciding to play defensive although she concurred.

  Reuben seemed to have a somewhat argumentative relationship with Blythe. If she acted too agreeable all of a sudden, it might make him confused and trigger more questions about what had caused her good mood.

  “Yeah, right.” He laughed. “No one’s going to believe that when every other word coming out of your mouth was ‘Magnus’.”

  They bickered a little more, and then their carriage arrived at the front doors of the main palace.

  It was bigger than the one Blythe and Reuben were living in. Mira had seen a pond with waterfowls and a beautiful garden along the way. If she really was going to stay as Blythe, she wanted to poke around some more. There was a lot to explore.

  Reuben helped her down the carriage, and they set off for the dining hall with Suzy trailing behind them. Thankfully, Reuben took the lead as they walked. She was glad Blythe had an older brother.

  Their parents were already seated at the long dining table waiting for them. Mira confirmed their names again with the game system: the father was Alasdair, and the mother was Tatiana. Alasdair had the same green eyes as his two children, while Tatiana had aqua blue eyes. Both of them had jet-black hair.

  They’re so beautiful.

  “My darling Blythe!” Alasdair exclaimed, beaming widely as he got up and pulled Mira into a big hug. “How was your day?”

  Mira had to swallow her startled squeak.

  Tatiana chuckled behind her hand. “Yes, tell us how your day has been, Blythe.”

  “Why don’t you ask me about my day?“ Reuben complained, pulling out a wooden chair to sit in it.

  “Because I already know what kind of day you had,” Alasdair replied dryly. “If you wanted a hug too, all you had to do was say so!”

  He let go of Mira to advance upon Reuben with outstretched arms. Reuben quickly rebuffed him by tilting his entire body sideways to evade his arms.

  “I’m not a kid anymore, Dad! I never said I wanted a hug.”

  A laugh slipped its way past Mira’s mouth. Her own parents hadn’t been this silly and playful with her since she’d become a preteen. Her disdain for being treated like a child had been a factor in that, but she’d forgotten how fun a dynamic like this was.

  Tatiana waved at Mira and gestured to the chair next to her. She sat beside Tatiana, who then nodded to a servant standing nearby. He strode over and started making a plate for Mira, scooping the various dishes on the table onto it. Mira’s mouth collected with drool as she watched him heap a few slices of the beef wellington onto her plate.

  “How was school today, honey?” Tatiana asked.

  She thought fast. “It was great. In art class today, Professor Newton said my brush strokes have really improved.“

  Reuben and Alasdair ceased their silliness for a moment. Alasdair dropped his arms to his sides, and Reuben straightened up to gaze at Mira.

  “Whoa, is that why you’re in such a good mood? I didn’t think you cared much about art.”

  Mira scrambled for a retort. “Of course I care about art. Embroidery is a form of art.”

  Although he scoffed, he was smiling. “That’s such a you thing to say.”

  “That’s amazing, sweetie!” Tatiana said. “I’m so proud of you.”

  “I’m proud of you too!” Alasdair finally returned to sit at the head of the table, where he’d initially been sitting. “It sounds like you’ve been doing more practice during your summer break than I thought.”

  Blythe’s parents were so supportive. Mira could only imagine their devastation should Blythe reach the point of no return and got sentenced to execution or exiled. They seemed fine as parents on the surface, but they had to be very permissive to overlook all of Blythe’s flaws so that she could continue to harass Daisy throughout the game.

  “How was your day, Dad?”

  “Oh, I had an important meeting …”

  Mira tried her best to pay attention to his words, politely nodding her head as he spoke. Apparently, he’d had a long day at the royal palace, filled with work and incompetent subordinates. Then Reuben asked his mother what she had been up to, and they learned she had placed some orders for a few flowers and plants in the greenhouse and their garden, as well as thrown a tea party for some of the other noblewomen she’d invited over.

  When there was a lull in the conversation, Mira brought up the idea she’d been stewing over.

  “Dad,” she said. “I’d like to become a boarder at Novalbus instead of a day student.”

  Everyone stopped what they were doing to look at her. Reuben’s spoon was still in his mouth, Tatiana’s hands were frozen over her cutlery, and Alasdair was in the middle of chewing his mouthful of food. Mira darted her eyes between them, her gut twisted into a bundle of nerves.

  Alasdair was the first among them to recover from the shock.

  “What?! But I thought you wanted to stay at home!”

  His words seemed to shake Tatiana out of it. “He’s right, dear. You were so against boarding when we talked about it in the past. Did something change your mind?“

  “Sophie, Jessica and I are all becoming great friends.” Hopefully, working the friendship angle would work. “I’d like to spend more time with them, especially before we’ll have to graduate. Besides, most of my schoolmates are boarders too. I feel like I’m missing out.”

  “Our little girl is growing up, Tatiana,” Alasdair said, wiping a tear from his eye. “She’s ready to leave the nest.”

  She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “It’s just school.”

  “What about your breakfasts with Prince Magnus?”

  Of course her parents would know about that. It was their estate that the crown prince was entering after all.

  “That’s another thing,” she said, bracing herself for more astonished reactions. “I don’t want to inconvenience him by insisting he drops by every morning. Could I also ride our family carriage to school tomorrow instead of getting a ride from him?”

  “Blythe, you know you can use our family carriage anytime you want. But what brought this on? Did something happen?”

  “No,” she insisted, waving her hands in front of her. “Nothing happened. But I’ve done some self-reflection, and I don’t want to keep troubling him for my own selfish wants. I’m sure he wants to have breakfast in his own home instead of constantly traveling here every morning.”

  After marveling at her ‘mature’ explanation for some time, her parents tearfully gave her their blessings to board at Novalbus. They promised to contact the principal in the morning and get the paperwork started.

  Relieved that it had all been settled, Mira continued eating.

  “You have quite the appetite today, Blythe,” Alasdair exclaimed, looking at her near-empty plate. “I’m so glad to see that. You usually eat so little.”

  Tatiana nodded encouragingly. “It’s healthy for a teenager to eat more.”

  She smiled awkwardly at them. “How could I not appreciate good food?”

  The new Blythe she was reinventing would definitely enjoy eating. She refused to eat less just because the original Blythe did.