"Your Majesty? I've brought Princess Mira."
"Come inside you two."
As the door to his office opened, Pyron expected to see his second daughter being escorted inside. But instead Shira came inside cradling the girl in his arms.
"My apologies, your Majesty, no matter how hard we tried there was waking up the princess."
"It's alright. Set her down by the couch."
Pyron gestured to the couch in the center of his office. Shira gently put down the girl and lightly massaged his shoulders.
"Was she heavy?"
"No your Majesty. It's simply old age catching up to me. Not quite like what I used to be."
"I'll say. How'd you get the door open with your hands full?"
"Lady Kara was with the princess in the library when I came to get her."
"I see. Well, since you carried her all the way here, I'm assuming you couldn't wake her up?"
"Apologies, your Majesty. We'll get the smelling salts from the kitchen."
"There's probably no need for that. I'm sure she'll wake up before dinner."
Pyron looked at his watch and furrowed his brows. It was halfway past five so it was just before dinner.
"Actually get the smelling salts Shira."
"Right away Your Majesty."
With a simple bow, Shira exited the office to get smelling salts. Now the only one awake, Pyron looked at his daughter sleeping on the catch.
'To not wake up even after all that. You must be really tired.'
There was no reason for him to suspect that the girl was actually awake given that everyone said that she was asleep.
Staring at her sleeping face, Pyron smiled.
'Cute.'
"Hmm…"
Though the more Pyron stared at her the more he felt that he was missing something.
'Has her hair always been this light?'
He remembered his daughter having much darker hair than the borderline ashen color that she had now. Was it his memory failing him?
Pyron sat down next to the girl and moved her head onto his lap. He was going to ask her some things, but with how she was now that was going to be difficult.
He patted the girl's head as she laid down in front of him. It had been a while since he spoiled her so even if the girl was asleep, he would enjoy the time they were having.
As he continued to stroke the girl's hair and stare at her, he started feeling sleepy himself. As the emperor it was normal for Pyron to stay awake for days at a time. However, seeing someone sleep so peacefully in his presence, his drowsiness skyrocketed. The warm atmosphere mixed with the crackling sound of the fireplace reinforced the feeling.
"Haa…"
As a yawn escaped his lips, he could feel himself wanting to give in.
'Shira's going to bring some smelling salts anyways so a small nap wouldn't hurt.'
Convincing himself that this would only be a small nap, Pyron closed his eyes. Soon enough the sound of him snoring filled the office alongside the crackling fire.
Not long after, the girl broke her facade and propped herself up against her father.
"Huu…"
Her heart was beating like crazy the entire time. She wanted to get up in the beginning but then she heard Kara speaking to herself about her.
The girl was a bit hurt by her words and was building up the resolve to pretend that nothing happened before "waking up". But then Shira walked in and her lie snowballed out of her control.
The thought of them finding out that she was awake the entire time was terrifying. It would make things needlessly complicated if she woke up halfway.
Luckily they were too occupied with her father's sudden orders to pay attention to her actual state. Had they did, the cold sweat at the back of her head would have definitely given her away.
"Haa…haa…"
Now that the situation had passed and she was somewhat safe, the girl began to calm her beating heart. With her heart steadied, she took a look around the office trying to find some clue as to why her father suddenly wanted to see her.
Though after checking the papers around his desk, the girl almost dozed off as she tried to understand them. Shaking her head to drive off the drowsiness, she goes back towards her father sleeping on the couch.
Sitting next to her snoring father, she wondered what this was all about. Not that she could ask him right now though.
As she scanned her father's sleeping body, her eyes landed on his lap. Though brief, the feeling of using his lap as a pillow was rather nice. It was so comfortable that it almost actually put her to sleep.
"Hmm…"
She stared at his lap intensely. She wanted more of that feeling. They were already under the impression that she was asleep so surely it would be fine if she actually did.
Her father already tasked the butler to return with smelling salts and by experience she knew that those things would be effective. The more she thought about it the stronger the urge grew.
Although they had attributed it to her big sister, she had been working hard. Even though that was the case, it still seemed like they wanted more from her yet they gave her no reward to continue such behavior.
If no one was going to give her a reward, she might as well take this. At least that's how the girl convinced herself as she laid her head on her father's lap and moved his hand to her head.
"Let me be just a little selfish."
With those words asking for understanding from no one, the girl's consciousness faded.
Some time later Shira came knocking on the door.
"Your Majesty?"
He called out first but with receiving no response after multiple calls, he had to just come inside the office. It was Pyron's orders after all, so he had little reason to worry.
"Excuse me, your-"
Seeing the parent and child fast asleep, Shira stopped mid sentence. He contemplated on whether he should give them the smelling salts Pyron requested and wake them up. Considering he was only gone for five minutes at most and Pyron was already asleep, he decided not to disrupt Pyron's sleep.
Shira stepped inside and left the smelling salts on the table and wrote a note addressed to Pyron. Putting down the note, Shira walked back outside to attend to his other duties
****
"Ngh…"
After an indeterminate amount of time, Pyron woke up from his power nap and tried to stand up. Though with his daughter laying her head on his lap, he decided against it. He stretched his upper body and wondered where Shira was.
Looking around, he spots a small pill bottle that was presumably the smelling salts that were for his daughter. Grabbing the note that was attached, he was surprised at what it said.
"Apologies for not waking you your Majesty. You seemed to be in a real deep sleep with the princess and since there was nothing urgent to take care of, I made an executive decision to just leave the two of you be."
'Deep sleep? How long was I out for?'
Pyron looked at his wristwatch with half open eyes. Reading the face of the watch he doubted his eyes. Rubbing his eyes, he reads the watch's face again. The face on the clock stayed the same.
Half past seven
"Oh shit…"
He had been asleep for two hours. He thought it was just half an hour at most. But for him to suddenly clock out for that long, he was probably more tired than he felt.
"Ngh…"
As Pyron was trying to figure out how this happened, his daughter moved her head on her lap trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in.
"Ah… That's why."
He was influenced by his daughter. Seeing her sleep so soundly made his mind loosen more and fall asleep himself.
"Damn it."
They might not be urgent but there were still things Pyron needed to do. He picked up the small pill bottle and snapped one of the pills. He used the pills and woke up his daughter.
"Ngh…"
Sniffing the salts, even the deepest of sleepers would wake and his daughter was no exception.
"Hmm…. Good morning."
"Good morning Mira. It's seven thirty."
"Huh?"
Seemingly still half asleep she looks for a clock. Her reaction upon seeing the face of the clock was almost the same as his own.
"That clock's not wrong Mira, we should get up."
As they just came from a slightly long power nap the two only needed a little time to tidy themselves up. With somewhat acceptable looks, Pyron made his way to the dining hall with his daughter.
It was way past their appointed dinner time. Though they were always busy with domestic or international affairs, they always made an effort to at least have dinner as a family.
With it being seven thirty already, there could be two outcomes that were waiting for them in the dining hall. One was that Jyllene and Mira already ate and are not going to be there at all, which would probably be the best outcome. Or the two were still there waiting for them to arrive.
A bead of cold sweat ran down Pyron's neck as he hoped that the two already ate without them.
They stood in front of the doors of the dining hall for a while as Pyron was trying to prepare his heart when it suddenly opened.
The one to open it was a clearly visibly annoyed Jyllene.
"Ah so nice of you two to finally come down. I was beginning to think that you two were going to sleep all the way to tomorrow."
There was a smile on her face, but Pyron felt fear as she talked.
"H-hey Jyll, did you eat already?"
"Oh of course. Did you see the time, love?"
"Ye-yeah…"
Would telling her that Shira made the conscious decision to not wake them up help?
"Shira told me how tired you guys were."
'Damn you Shira.'
"Um…"
Pyron scratched the back of his head and racked his brain trying to think of something to say in this situation.
"It's alright, it's alright. It's just one dinner."
Maybe seeing how hard Pyron was thinking, Jyllene let him off the hook.
"I know you've been working really hard lately, these things happen."
Jyllene put her arms around his neck and smiled at him. Contrary to the one earlier which seemed to be a front, the one she was showing now looked sincere.
"Take it easy alright? After you two eat, get some rest. I'm sure it'll be a long day tomorrow."
"Ok…"
"Good. Rest up, we all have a long tomorrow."
Jyllene gave Pyron and the girl a quick kiss before disappearing from the halls.
"Ha… at least she wasn't too mad at us. Come on Mira, let's eat."
The girl nodded at his words and followed him inside.
****
Though they were almost always within each other's company during dinner, rarely would they actually talk. That was less because they had no desire to and more because it was rather disrespectful to the food served.
After eating, they would often stay a while to chat with each other.
"Right speaking of tomorrow, you… understand why we're going where we're going, yes?"
It was a somewhat touchy subject for Pyron to talk about. Death was often immutable and difficult to deal with. The girl nodded at Pyron's words.
"That's good. That's good. Uhm… do you want to go with us? You don't have to if you don't want to."
Truth be told Pyron would rather that the girl stay home. No parent would want their child to see a dead body so young, even if it was a funeral.
"I do."
The girl was stern in her voice. Clearly determined to accompany them tomorrow.
"Alright then. Head to bed early ok? And tomorrow… don't be too shocked."
With those final words and a kiss goodnight, Pyron left his youngest at the dining hall.
Now in the empty dining hall, the girl was having thoughts of her own.
'Why doesn't he want me to go?'
Her father's action confused her. She could understand why her big sister was asked if she wanted to go or not, but why ask her as well?
Leaving the dining hall her mind was still trying to figure out the reason. The girl went to her room with her mind at unease.