/
Chapter 448 – The Sad Little Lion
George calmed down and thought he had misheard, so he continued to ask.
“That person called Lin Xiao… is he one of our ministers?”
“No, he’s just a boy.”
“Boy? Is he royalty?”
“No.”
“Is he a descendant of a famous general? Or a distant relative of royalty?”
“No.”
“Then he must be a reliable subordinate?”
“No, he’s not my subordinate.”
“No? Then who is he? He can’t be some stranger you just picked up outside, right?”
“Uh…”
Claire’s eyebrows twitched and didn’t answer because her father hit it on the mark.
Lin Xiao was indeed some stranger she just picked up outside, but it’s not like she can actually say that, otherwise her father would surely be angry.
“Lin Xiao is my friend, he’s two years younger than me. He’s an investigator from Lombard Kingdom and a really smart and strong magician.”
So Claire briefly introduced her beloved… uh no, the bastard she had in her mind to her father.
“What? Two years younger? Doesn’t that mean he’s not even an adult? … How could you trust a brat like that? … Wait, he’s not a swindler, right? Should I send someone to arrest him!”
George wasn’t able to relax after hearing her, rather, he got more nervous and was afraid his daughter met a bad person.
“Father, please let me finish! Lin Xiao is really amazing, although he’s younger than me, but he’s mentally mature and deals with things calmly and is really strong, he even saved me in Yellowstone!”
“What? Saved you? Cough… how come I never heard about that?”
It was just shock after shock, George suspected that his daughter was trying to anger him to death.
Actually, Claire didn’t hide it intentionally, she was just so busy and didn’t have time to tell her father the truth. Since she had the opportunity to now, she told her father all about Lin Xiao.
Starting from the beginning of how they met and almost got into a fight, to the non-stop arguing during the travel and in the end where she almost got dishonored and Lin Xiao saved her reputation and life. In the end, Lin Xiao lead everyone to defeat Darkness and saved Caesar.
Claire described everything in great detail and her father listened very attentively, even if he has never met Lin Xiao, he already had a vague impression of him.
A story couldn’t be exactly retold as how it happened, it will always be biased by the narrator. If Claire wanted to purposely defame Lin Xiao, she could easily describe him as an annoying bastard that was lazy and perverted to give her father a bad impression, but she didn’t do that.
She did the opposite, in her story, Lin Xiao wasn’t a bad guy, he was a hero!
Lin Xiao’s intellect, level-headedness, and strength were unfathomable!
“What? He was able to casually cast seventh-level magic so easily at such a young age? Also, what’s the enlightenment society? Oh, a cult… then how does he know about their inner workings? I don’t even know… oh? Saintess Snow is his little sister? Even Princess ShenDai Ying from the Great Qin Empire is accompanying him? My word…”
George couldn’t hide his shock after listening to his daughter’s story.
“I can’t believe you experienced so much… Lin Xiao completed the mission, defeated the enemy and even saved you… if you aren’t lying to me, what kind of person can they be if not a hero?”
George shook his head and made his own judgment after listening to the story, but the storyteller Claire was stunned.
Was Lin Xiao really a hero?
She didn’t know, because to her, Lin Xiao was not associated with the word hero at all.
It was strange, she clearly hated Lin Xiao and insulted him and called him a coward earlier, and lost all hope for him, but when telling the story to her father, her attitude completely changed and she praised him and only told him the good parts.
Such as him flirting with his maid, badmouthing herself, or teasing her when she was almost sullied. She didn’t mention any of that, of course, she also didn’t mention how she kissed him after he saved her.
In this case, King George who only heard the stories would naturally think of Lin Xiao as a great hero.
“So that’s why you want him to help you? … Hm, that’s not a bad idea.”
Even though he may be young and is just a poor kid from Lombard Kingdom, and they shouldn’t get an outsider like that involved with their internal politics, but Lin Xiao is different, he has exceptional ability and more importantly, he saved Claire’s life!
From how Claire described Lin Xiao, he was sure that Lin Xiao was a kind and upright person! With Lin Xiao’s help then he didn’t have to worry about his daughter being bullied by those old bastards!
So… the problem came back to the beginning.
Since Claire invited her hero for help, she should be happy, so why is she crying with injured ears?
“Then, did he agree to help you?”
“Uh… no, he rejected me,”
“… Why?”
“Why else, he’s lazy, has other things to do, doesn’t want to help me.”
“He doesn’t sound that heartless from how you described him… was it because you didn’t have a great attitude with him? Did you take a strong tone of voice with him?”
A father obviously knew his daughter the best, and he saw right through a mistake that Claire would make.
“I, I-I-I-I didn’t…”
Her attitude was a bit strong… but so what? It’s not like she could kneel in front of him and tearfully beg him!
“Okay, I admit I didn’t have a great attitude… but he was even worse! I said I was going to grant him land and a title and begged him to help, but he just ignored me and said a bunch of heartless stuff to purposely piss me off!”
“What, he still wasn’t willing after that? He’s not normal…” George was once again shocked by Lin Xiao’s character.
Claire only saw Lin Xiao’s heartlessness, but George saw his outstanding character, and how he didn’t care about fame and fortune. George couldn’t believe that he was just a child and suspected that he was possessed by some old monster…
“I understand… you had high expectations for him, but he ended up rejecting you, so you think he’s heartless and ended up crying?”
“Hm…”
Claire silently nodded and she also told her father about how she did her make-up and wore beautiful earrings but ended up ripping them off to throw it at him and injuring herself. Her father didn’t know whether to laugh or cry and sighed.
He wasn’t sighing about their argument, but at Claire’s change.
His manly daughter actually dressed up today and cried because of a man…
“Claire, did you know? You’re an extremely strong girl, even more so than many men.”
“Eh?”
“When we went out to play when you were young, I was worried something would happen to you so I wouldn’t let you climb mountains, but you just had to and even snuck out in the middle of the night and ended up breaking your leg after falling off a cliff. Do you still remember what you did after that?”
“Uh… of course, I remember. After that I tied up my leg then found a stick to use as a crutch and limped back, I didn’t even say anything all the way until you noticed during breakfast the next day. You even scolded me a ton for that.”
“Right! You actually just endured it and walked back like that after breaking a leg! My daughter sure is tough! Did you know? At that time you were still a child, but you didn’t shed a single tear after walking that far while dragging your broken leg. Your eyes were firm and you clenched your teeth like a little lion that wouldn’t yield…”
George suddenly changed the topic and gently patted Claire’s hand.
“So I want to ask… you didn’t even cry then, so why did you cry now?”
“Eh?”
“Hehe, are you crying because Lin Xiao rejected you? Or because your ears are injured? No, right, how could your ears hurt more than a broken leg?”
Seeing how Claire remained silent, he reached out with a finger and pointed to Claire’s chest and sighed.
“You’re really hurting here, right… your heart.”
“Father, I don’t understand what you’re saying…”
Claire was shaken when she was faced with her father who could see right through her, she stumbled up and denied it but couldn’t find any excuse.
At that time, there was some noise outside that interrupted their conversation.
“I’m Saint Nick, I have important matters to discuss with Princess Claire. I have to see her!”