The Crown Prince of France - Chapter 151

Chapter 151: Little Lolita and Her Mr. Mustache

The sun was shining brightly, the sky was a clear blue with fluffy white clouds, and the weather was so pleasant it made one’s mood lift along with it.

In the outskirts of Paris, it was once again the King’s Avenue, the same avenue that the two Sicilian princesses had traveled down. Now, it welcomed yet another distinguished guest.

This time, the decorations along the road had remained mostly unchanged, but the soldiers responsible for the security had been completely replaced, and there were many more of them than before.

Due to the "bandit attack on the crown prince" incident that occurred half a month ago, Queen Marie had even called in the King’s Swiss Guard to escort her niece, who was soon to arrive.

For a moment, the white-clad Parisian legions and the red-clad Swiss Guard alternated along both sides of the road, with red and white creating another picturesque scene.

In the carriage, Clementine, with large eyes that bore a resemblance to Joseph’s, glanced over the guards in front of her, proudly lifting her chin. In Italian, she smiled at the Tuscan ambassador and said, "Count Farnano, did you see that? The Crown Prince himself has come out with almost the entire army of Paris to welcome me!"

"Mm, he must have heard of my cuteness from many people, hahaha," she added.

The middle-aged man with a square face sighed and shook his head slightly, thinking to himself that she had heard about the Crown Prince’s attack not long ago, and the heightened security wasn’t just for her...

Suddenly, a loud horn blared ahead.

The Grand Duchess of Tuscany quickly wiped the grin off her face, hurriedly adjusted her attire, put on her feathered hat, and began to quietly rehearse what she would say later.

The carriage stopped, and Ambassador Farnano bent down to open the door. Clementine put on her most dignified expression, stepped down from the wooden steps.

However, when she reached the second step, her foot slipped, and she lost her balance, letting out a startled cry as she fell.

Fortunately, a nearby guard was quick enough to catch her, preventing her from falling flat on her face. The beautiful feathered hat, however, flew off and landed more than ten steps away.

Clementine’s face turned slightly red. When she looked up and saw the handsome Crown Prince looking at her, she quickly broke free from the guard’s hold, lifted her dress, and walked forward, curtsying and saying, "It is an honor to meet you, Your Royal Highness!"

"Um, ahem, I saw everyone looking so serious, so I pretended to slip and make everyone laugh, hehe..."

Joseph looked at the little girl, who was barely over ten years old and speaking in a strange accent, talking to herself. He couldn’t help but chuckle helplessly and pressed his hand to his chest in return, saying, "I am also very happy to meet you. You are truly amusing, hahaha."

"Oh, by the way, to thank you for coming all the way to welcome me, I have a special 'departure' item to give you." The little girl said, taking a small wooden box from behind her.

"'Departure' item?" Joseph asked, confused. "Do you mean a 'gift'?"

"Oh, yes, yes, a gift," Clementine scratched her head and laughed, "My French isn’t that good, so don’t mind me. Here, this is for you."

"Thank you so much." Joseph took the wooden box and opened it, only to find that inside was a slightly yellowed paper folding fan. "This is... a folding fan? For me?"

Clementine gave a mysterious look and waved her hand. "No, dear cousin, this is an antique. I heard that you are very 'studied' in Eastern culture, so I specially bought this for you. Oh, I was told this was used by a very famous scholar from the Far East named 'Confucius'!"

"Confucius? A folding fan?!" Joseph couldn’t help but facepalm. A paper folding fan from the Spring and Autumn period... It was like a Ming dynasty blue-and-white porcelain plate with a "microwave-safe" label, or the four sheep on a bronze vessel, each named "Happy Sheep," "Beautiful Sheep," "Lazy Sheep," and "Boiling Sheep"...

Although he knew it might be impolite, Joseph couldn’t resist asking, "How much did this antique cost you?"

"It wasn’t expensive, only 120 ducats." Clementine smiled brightly. "As long as you like it!"

120 ducats, about 800 livres. My goodness! To spend so much money on a counterfeit... Joseph was torn about whether to remind her, but seeing that the little girl had meant well, he decided it would be better not to embarrass her.

He put away Clementine's gift and exchanged a few pleasantries with her. Just as he was about to invite her into the carriage to return to the Palace of Versailles, he saw her bouncing toward Kessold, smiling brightly, "This is for you, a 'departure' item. I hope you like it."

Then, she went on to give gifts to Eymond, to the Grand Chamberlain traveling with them, to the officers of the Parisian legions...

Joseph once again facepalmed. This little girl, she really is a social butterfly.

While Clementine was happily giving out gifts, a dark cloud suddenly covered the sun, and what had been a sunny sky turned into a light rain.

Joseph quickly seized the opportunity to usher his social butterfly cousin into the carriage. The procession began moving again.

However, before they even reached the outskirts of Paris, Clementine’s carriage axle suddenly broke. Joseph watched as the rain splashed on the ground and quickly had Eymond invite his cousin into his carriage.

The little girl dabbed at her arms and face with a handkerchief and laughed, "The carriage broke down suddenly. But it’s okay, this kind of bad luck happens to me all the time, hahaha. You have to stay optimistic in life."

She said this while, as if by magic, pulling out a bunch of candies from her clothing and placing them on the wooden table in front of her, tilting her head toward Joseph, "Cousin, would you like some candy? This vanilla mint candy is a special skill of my 'Tan' teacher, and you can’t find it anywhere else."

...

Thankfully, the rest of the journey went smoothly, and by the time the procession arrived at the Palace of Versailles, the rain had mostly stopped.

Queen Marie was waiting at the marble square outside the main gate, her face filled with familial warmth and a kind smile.

Clementine hopped out of the carriage, skipped up to the King and Queen to curtsey, and then immediately threw herself into her aunt's arms, secretly slipping a piece of vanilla mint candy to her, "This is made by Mr. Reyna."

"Oh, thank you so much, my sweet! This really is the taste of home."

When Clementine, still curtsying, reached Princess Thérèse, she saw the blue-gray Chartreux cat in her arms and immediately became excited. "Wow! It's so beautiful and cute! Can I pet it?"

"Wow, it's so well-behaved. By the way, I also have a cat! I love it very much. It’s called 'Mr. Mustache.'"

"Oh, you must want to see Mr. Mustache too, right? I’ll go get it, hehe!"

Thérèse stood there in confusion, watching as the little girl ran to the servants’ carriage, and returned holding a long-haired black-and-white cat.

"See, isn’t it cute too?"

Joseph, who was watching on the side, nearly laughed out loud when he saw Clementine’s cat—its head was nearly all white, with only a small patch of black fur in the "philtrum" area, making it look like a failed art student.

No wonder it was called Mr. Mustache.

What no one noticed was that Mr. Mustache’s eyes were fixed on the Chartreux cat in Thérèse’s arms. Suddenly, it stretched out its paw and waved through the air, repeatedly meowing as it tried to charm the other cat. Thérèse’s cat responded with a flirtatious twist of its body, meeting Mr. Mustache’s gestures.

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