YM778.TV Chapter 96 Celebrations (2)
"Lady Emily is at the door, master," he said.
"You can come in, Emily," Richard said to his daughter, who gently opened the door and went inside the office.
"Why did you call me dad?" she asked innocently.
"I just wanted to give you some news. I don\'t know if you are aware of the recent changes that New Alexandria\'s high school made," Caiden asked.
"No, Amber told me nothing, what are you talking about?"
" Well, basically, they changed the rules regarding the annual spots to join the Red Palace. Previously, they were automatically assigned to the top students, as you are probably aware."
The school\'s habit of giving the most powerful students a spot to join the Red Palace was well-known throughout New Alexandria. Despite not attending the place, Emily knew it well.
"So?" Emily asked.
"Amber was one of the few people the school decided to send to the red palace," Richard said.
"Really? I had no idea. She didn\'t tell me anything about it..." Emily said with slight disappointment, but nevertheless happy for her.
"But you talked about some changes, right?" she then asked.
"Yes," Richard said. "Apparently, the school changed the rules this year, and to get that spot, you had to join a small tournament, and Amber joined," he added.
"Did something bad happen? Did she lose?" Emily worriedly asked.
"Lose? Not at all. Today she will have the match that will be decisive to make her win a spot at the Red Palace. Since his father was sure about her win, he decided to host a party, and we are going," Richard said.
"Oh, really? I better start dressing up then," Emily said with a smile so radiant as to make snow melt.
"That\'s what I thought..." Richard told her.
Emily went to her room and started dressing up for the party that would be held later in the morning. Later, she, her father, and her mother went to their car and arrived at the Joyce mansion. They were obviously greeted by Caiden, Amber\'s father.
"Richard!" Caiden said with a smile. The two were childhood friends who decided to work together and served in the army during the same period. The two were sworn brothers, always covering each other\'s backs and sharing everything they could.
"Caid! How nice of you to invite us over. It seems like there will be a lot of fun today," Richard said, smiling broadly.
"How could I not invite you, Richard? Such a joyous occasion had to be shared among friends," Caiden said with a huge smile.
"You are right," Richard replied. "I did bring my wife and my daughter with me," he added.
Caiden proceeded to kiss Lucy\'s, Emily\'s mother, hand.
"Lucy, you are radiant as always," Caiden replied with a smile. "And look at who we have here, Emily. Every passing day you are prettier than ever. It\'s a pleasure to see you," he then said.
"It\'s good to meet you too, Mr. Joyce," Emily said politely while doing a curtsy.
"Please, come to the garden and sit down. You can have some wine or tea if you wish..."
"Of course..." Richard said.
As the stone family walked through the garden, many people started staring. Most of them knew them personally, but some didn\'t, and meeting them was an important affair.
"The stone family was the backbone of Frant\'s nation, as they were solely responsible for 74% of the food production inside the nation. It was thanks to this family that General Becker was able to gain enough resources and powers to take control of the country. Messing with Richard meant messing with Becker, and messing with him meant messing with the whole nation.
Though, despite Richard being the second most important person in the nation, it wasn\'t him at the center of attention, but rather his daughter Emily.
She was said to be the most beautiful girl in the nation, with looks that could push people to topple whole nations. The young woman didn\'t usually go out of her mansion, as she was said to be extremely reserved. Seeing her at such a party surprised many people.
Though, her heaven-defying beauty wasn\'t the only thing that made her unique, as the power to peer into the future was an even more eye-catching feature of the young woman.
Many people tried to woo the young woman, and many more asked her to see into their future, but Richard turned all of them down.
"Richard!" a man said, and Emily\'s father immediately went to him to chat. They were apparently old friends, but Emily never saw the man.
As Lucy and Emily were left alone, a woman and her daughter approached them.
"Miss stone, what a pleasure to see you here!" the woman said while laughing loudly. Emily knew these women very well; the first was Natalies Smith, Mayor\'s Calvert wife, and the young woman accompanying her was her daughter Scarlet.
Though, despite knowing them, she wasn\'t very fond of them, especially Scarlet. The young girl was impossibly spoiled and rude toward others, and she treated everyone around her with disdain.
As a result, few people liked her. Despite this attitude toward everyone else, she was polite toward Emily and usually bootlicked her. Clearly, Emily saw right through her since the first day they met and tried to avoid her company as much as possible.
"Hi, Emily!" Scarlet said when she saw her.
"Hi, Scarlet. How are you?" Emily politely replied. Scarlet looked up at Emily and smiled. "I\'m good. How are you instead?"
"I\'m fine..." Emily said.
From there, Scarlet did her best to impress Emily. The young woman could swear that scarlet would lick her boots if she asked her to do so. Emily was disgusted by this kind of people, and she had many of them around whenever she went out.
Twenty uneventful minutes went by, and finally, Amber arrived back home. Emily didn\'t expect her to come with some friends, as the three people she came with were also announced.
As the names got declared, she heard the name of Floyd Valdez, the son of minister Lucas Valdez, of Gwen Lindsay, the daughter of Major Martha Blanchard, but the last name she was truly unfamiliar with, Erik Romano.
She had never heard of this person and wondered who he was and how he could be friends with someone like Amber, who was known to be highly selective with her friends. It was clear they knew each other because of school, but aside from that, he was a total mystery.
As the four people walked in, Emily didn\'t approach Amber, and she was right since her father quickly called her to the podium where he was standing.
"My lovely daughter," Caiden said, starting a speech.
Emily observed the three individuals standing in front of Caiden and his family. He could see the resemblance between Floyd and his father and could see that Gwen, despite looking a lot like her father, got her mother\'s stoicism. Then, her eyes trailed to the last one, the unknown Erik.
He was not particularly tall, being only 1.7 meters tall. Muscular and athletic, Erik had black raven hair and chocolate brown eyes that, coupled with his squared and now chiseled jawline, made him look rather attractive.
If only Emily knew him, she would find his physical appearance rather shocking since not even a month prior, he was chubby and sickly looking. Now he was toned and had tanned skin, the result of his work on the farm.
Despite having sharp features, Erik exuded a contradicting aura, he looked like a shy person, but there was something wild inside of him that attracted the young woman. This was a first for her since she used to be on the other side, the one receiving attention.