Chapter 403: Not a Compet.i.tion
Approximately eleven years ago.
Because that day is Sophia"s 10th birthday, Michael allowed her mother to visit her. Together with Eve and her siblings, they made a modest family lunch, without Michael, needless to say.
Sophia smiled all the time; then, after lunch, Eve approached her with a beautifully adorned box in her hands. "Happy birthday, little sister."
"Woah!!" Sophia"s eyes sparkle with expectation as she quickly opens that box.
Inside the box, she finds a beautiful dagger with a red handle like her hair. Lucien and all his sisters are trained with all types of weapons, but Sophia focuses on healing skills, and so she is not really good with weapons besides not having much physical strength. However, a dagger is a perfect weapon for her because it is small, light, and not very complex to use.
"Thank you, big sis!!" Sophia hugs Eve while she is really happy for the red dagger.
Eve smiles at her. "That is a gift from all of your siblings. We had to work as a team to get it without our father noticing."
Sophia quickly thanks all her siblings, then smiles at Lucien. He also smiles back at her, but timidly and hesitantly.
Then her mother, a beautiful mature woman with long red hair, takes out a big box of her storage necklace. Sophia"s eyes again sparkle with expectation as she keeps the red dagger in the scabbard that Eve also gave her.
Quickly opening that box, Sophia finds a s.h.i.+ny red silk dress. That shade of red is so beautiful, and that fabric is soft; Its color perfectly matches the color of her and her mother"s hair, which is also the same color as Lucien"s hair.
"So beautiful!!" Sophia comments as she takes the dress out of the box to see it close.
She is surprised to find that the dress is too long. She starts to walk backward while pulling the dress, but it looks infinite, only coming out of the box completely after she has walked three meters back.
Not only being very long, that dress is also not for children of ten years, but for an adult woman. Then Sophia looks at her mother with a curious expression.
Her mother lovingly smiles at her. "My mom gave me this dress for me to wear on the day of my wedding ceremony..."
Then her expression turns to sad. "But I didn"t do that... Michael never deserved my love, and I kept this dress for you, my dear."
The mature woman"s eyes blink and move towards Lucien for less than a second before she continues talking to Sophia. "I would like you to wear this dress on the day you marry the man you love. This is a beautiful dress that my mother made for a happy occasion and not to be kept by me for no reason."
Sophia looks into her mother"s eyes as she embraces the long red dress. "I"m going to wear this dress on my wedding day, and I"m going to be the most beautiful bride ever thanks to it."
"I"m sure of that, my dear." Her mother responds as she smiles at her.
Sophia and her sisters spend the next hour enjoying every detail of that dress until Lucien shyly approaches her.
"Sophia... I... I... just... have... a gi..." Lucien hesitates while making a timid expression.
While Eve laughs at his expression, Donna kicks his a.s.s. "Go ahead, and do it."
Under the gentle encouragement of his sisters, Lucien extends his hand to Sophia. She sees in his hand a small wooden pendant in the shape of a flower and adorned with a small red band.
"It"s just something I made for you... not a big deal..." Lucien comments while still hesitating. After all, that wooden pendant is a gift that cannot be compared to the beautiful dagger and that majestic dress she just got.
However, the sparkle in Sophia"s eyes is even brighter as she looks at the pendant with a shocked expression. "Did you... really do this only for me?"
Lucien quickly nods. "Yeah... I wanted it to be a red rose... but I didn"t find a way to paint it."
As he looks away, not to see her supposedly disappointed expression, he feels her delicate hand touching the pendant, also touching his hand.
Sophia doesn"t take the pendant but instead holds Lucien"s hand tightly, keeping the pendant between their hands, so she quickly hugs him so tightly.
"THANK YOU!!!" Sophia exclaims as tears of happiness fall from her eyes. Lucien has been more and more depressed and distant from her, so she is so happy that he still likes her to the point of making a gift for her.
"Did you really like it?" Lucien asks while he is confused but enjoying that warm hug anyway.
Sophia kisses his cheek while her cheeks flush. "Of course that I loved it; it"s the best gift!!"
While she continues to hug him, preventing him from running away, their sisters and her mother laugh. They understand that their gifts, although very good, are inferior to that wooden pendant because they were made by others, while Lucien"s gift was made by himself, especially for Sophia.
After hugging Lucien for ten minutes, Sophia takes a line of her storage ring and joins it with the pendant, creating a necklace. Then she gives it to him as she smiles and turns her back to him. "Can you help me put it on?"
"Sure." Lucien wraps the necklace around her neck and ties the ends of the line together.
Sophia strokes the pendant on her chest while smiling and thinking aloud. "I"m going to wear this, as well as the dress and dagger on the day of my wedding... with y..."
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Now.
While Amelia and Envy walk over the flower corridor, receiving more applause than the other girls, even though they are not demi-humans, Lucien looks at the third carriage with a thoughtful expression.
Then he sees Sophia slowly descending the stone stairs. He notices that she is wearing a red clog and quickly notices her beautiful red dress as well.
The beautiful s.h.i.+ny fabric of her dress is unique, and Lucien quickly remembers that he saw her receive that dress from her mother.
Storage treasures are very useful tools, but even to transport them to another world, more energy is needed in the portals, so he can"t help but be shocked that she has brought that dress.
Eve smiles while also recognizing that dress. "Sloth must have used a lot more demonic energy to bring that dress."
"That was worth it," Lucien responds.
In addition to the beautiful red dress, Sophia has her red dagger tied around her waist by the same red band that Lucien used to decorate the pendant, which obviously is on her neck with the same line of that day.
Wearing almost no makeup, Sophia"s face is still naturally pinkish, which highlights her natural beauty. Her beautiful red hair is braided and decorated with ornaments that Laure has prepared for her.
Most fox-people are still focused on Amelia and Envy, but those who see Sophia can"t stop gazing at her. As beautiful as Amelia, Eve, and Donna, Sophia does not have a naturally arrogant expression but a gentle one. She looks as kind as Angela and adorable as Kara while also being too s.e.xy.
Still, Sophia"s most charming features are her beautiful red hair and captivating big blue eyes, really very similar to Lucien.
People had no doubt that Amelia is Lucien"s sister, and now they think Sophia is his twin sister, which makes them very confused as she is not only holding a ceremonial bowl but has two others floating around her.
And not unexpectedly, even full of doubts, everyone applauds and praises Sophia while they can"t help but think that she is definitely the most beautiful woman today, due to her incredible beauty and that amazing red dress.
As Sophia descends from the stone stairs, everyone realizes that her dress is really long. The dress slides across the ground while the carriage begins to turn to dust.
Then that dust quickly turns into stone bridesmaids, who begin to hold the back of Sophia"s dress as she walks down the flower corridor.
On the stage, Lucien smiles at Daisy before receiving Amelia and Envy with kisses and hugs. The moment he kisses Amelia on the lips, everyone understands that she is really his wife, as well as his sister.
Incest is not a common thing, but it is also not a crime, especially in superior worlds where people live for thousands of years.
Seeing that Sophia and Amelia are Lucien"s wives, the fox-people also begin to wonder about his relations.h.i.+p with Donna, and especially Eve; after all, they govern that continent together. Not only as King and Queen siblings, but they can also be lovers.
While applauding and praising Sophia, the fox-people are now more curious about the other two bowls with her. Then they start to think they are for Eve, Donna, or Pride, as l.u.s.t is still in Lucien"s soul after appearing briefly.
Sophia continues to walk while the stone bridesmaids carry the back of her long dress. Her eyes sparkle like never before while her heart beats as fast as that of a frightened doe.
Flashes of when she received that dress and Lucien"s pendant continues to come to her mind as she remembers that she was certain she could only wear that dress for him.
She always loved Lucien as her brother, best friend, and she doesn"t remember exactly when she started to love him as a man too.
And even though she already belongs to him and is pregnant with his child, this ceremony is something that Sophia has always wanted. She could be happier if her mother was seeing her now, but that doesn"t make this moment any bad.
On the stage, still hugging Lucien, Amelia smiles at Sophia. "She looks so beautiful... I"m jealous that my mom didn"t give me a dress like that."
"Are you jealous? No way!" Lucien speaks sarcastically, making Amelia pout.
Then he takes her chin and lovingly kisses her lips. "You look wonderful in this dress, too, even though I"m looking forward to taking it off."
Amelia blushes as she smiles sheepishly. "It was a gift from Laure, so you can"t tear it up."
Sophia walks up to the front of the stage, then Lucien gets down from it and smiles as he looks into her eyes. "Did you foresee this eleven years ago?"
She smiles at him. "I had no way of knowing that what I most wanted was going to become true, mainly because our father always said that we had no right to have dreams because our goal was just to win his d.a.m.n war..."
"But I knew that I would never give up being with you in every way possible." She finishes talking, and he quickly kisses her on the lips.
"I don"t deserve a woman as perfect as you." Lucien comments on her mind as he kisses and hugs her pa.s.sionately.
"There is no man more perfect for me than the one I love and want as my husband." She responds as they continue to kiss.
The fox-people applauds and praises even more as everyone feels their hearts warmer by the romantic scene between the two siblings.
The two bowls that were floating around Sophia move towards the center of the stage. Then l.u.s.t and Sloth materialize their bodies and take the bowls, shocking everyone.
Sloth is wearing a beautiful green dress, and l.u.s.t is wearing s.e.xy armor that matches Lucien"s suit. Both beautiful sins leave everyone confused about who is the most beautiful woman of the night, a question that cannot really be answered because they are all extremely beautiful in different ways.
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