I rested really well. And woke up to find that I was not alone in my bed. I checked under my blanket. Indeed. A length of blond hair fell all around me. Judging from the pleasant sensation I had, the owner still stuck to the habit of sticking to my back when sleeping. I was figuring out what to do when a sweet voice came from behind.

“That is cold of you, ignoring a beautiful girl like me snuggling to you.”

“Celine… could you stop doing that, please?” I replied in exasperation.

“You should stop sleeping on my bed when you are already twe…”

I never got to finish the sentence, as a slender pair of hands snaked around my neck and proceeded to strangle me. It was not a serious attempt on my life. Still, it left me flailing around and choking a little.

“What could you be talking about, Father…. I am still eighteen.”

“Y-Yes. You are still eighteen. And you should stop this bad habit of yours!” I finally managed to free myself. I fell off the bed though, in exchange for the safe escape.

“So. I see that you have finally started playing Royal Road.”

I was brewing my morning coffee. If everything in my life was messed up badly, my coffee brewing skill was the only constant. I ignored her completely. She knew better than to talk to me while I was brewing coffee.

Two cups were prepared for today. I used china cups today too, compared to my usual mug. To finish it up, I put two spoons of honey.

“It is as good as usual,”said Celine. She was bad with bitter-tasting stuff. I let her enjoy her coffee for the moment.

“Daniel asked you to check up on me, didn’t he?” I got straight to the point.

*sips*

I made the cardinal rule that no rushing when drinking coffee in my house. That included talking. “Reply when you are ready!” was my motto for drinking coffee while talking. She took a couple more, before replying with the obvious answer.

“You had been avoiding him these last couple days. He was worried.”

“Kuhh…. He had to call you, of all people.”

“Hey!” She yelled indignantly.

Okay. That was my bad. Celine was not a bad daughter at all. But I do not handle her very well since she figured out my little secret.

I drank my coffee to let the atmosphere recover to a neutral state. She knew I always said a lot of things I never meant. She had not changed at all from how she looked since she was… fifteen? Sixteen? I could not say that I recall exactly.

Her body had stuck to her pre-pubescent look, though her ability to present herself had moved beyond that. Right at this moment, she was wearing my oversized sweater. One shoulder was falling dangerously low to expose the beginning of one side of her breast. I always thought she had the most beautiful hair I had ever seen. Blond like spun gold. It made a good combination with her green eyes, that shone like ambers. Her chin had always been narrow and pointed, with a delicate-looking small nose. Everything about her proportion was rather delicate anyway.

She was stuck at the height of 159 cm, and never grew any further. The rest of her bodily development stopped there too.

Did not sound like I was describing my own daughter? Well, she wasn’t. She was my adopted daughter. The eldest, anyway.

“Is it okay for you to be away from your work?”

“I am in between jobs at the moment. Next week will be earliest I am starting,” she said.

“Another movie?”

“No. Photoshoot.”

Well, yeah. My eldest daughter was a star. A damn good one too. She did plenty of teenage romance movies since she started. Her current, quite twisted personality,might entirely be my fault (Author: most assuredly it was!).

The habit of sleeping in my bed, well…. She spent plenty of time sleeping with me on rainy nights. She used to have quite an acute fear of thunder, ghosts and darkness. The habit somehow carried over too long, and she chose to not break it, no matter what I did. There was one point I thought it became inappropriate for both of us to sleep in the same bed, and I started locking the door. I quit after she got sick from sleeping in front of my door,though.

As to her claim that she remained eighteen? She was eighteen when she was worrying whether she would grow up to be a pretty woman. In my stupid moments of inspiration, I told her it was good, actually, since she would remain eighteen forever. Duh!

Her shamelessness in my presence was related to my secret, and would not be told today. Suffice to say, it troubled me greatly when she became this sort of vixen that continuously hounded me.

“What is the story here, Dad? Uncle Daniel guessed that you screwed something up.”

While speaking, she always had this habit of playing with her long tresses. Arranging them in one long bundle, stroking them. I kept drinking my coffee. For her, I might as well have shouted she was right.

“How bad is it?”

*sips*

“That bad? How could it possibly be that bad for a beginner? Did you allocate the wrong stat or something? No. that can’t be right.”

She was firing more possible answers while judging my reaction. I kept my face stony. Determined not to give her any reaction. Was it childish of me? Yes. Very much so.

I did the exact same thing to her. Firing answers while gauging her reaction. This was just a taste of my own medicine, that I had swallowed a very few times. I was much better at this than her, for your information.

After full five minutes, she gave up.

“You will not tell me?”

She asked in her most threatening manner. It was good. Her large eyes were nearly closed, with the pupil narrowing. All the facial muscles and body language said “Tell me or else….”. Too bad the effect was spoiled by the overly large sweater that drooped over one shoulder.

“No. I will take care of it on my own.”

I thought I had it until she cheated. She had to pull a trump card like that when she knew I was weak against it. What she did?

She began to slowly raise the hem of the sweater, very slowly, higher and higher. I cracked before it got a little beyond dangerous.

I told her everything that happened to me in-game.

Damn her for using my weakness.

Her mother used to be my secretary. Life was not easy for her, since she was a single mother. I was a jerk of a boss too, since I was quite young and had money to throw. No. We were not romantically involved. But she took a lot of my bad attempts at flirting and all methods of bad non-physical sexual harassment. Somehow, despite me appearing to be perverted, she saw through me and we became fast friends. It was also how I adopted her daughter when she died pretty young, from a random mugging gone wrong. At that time, she was one ten years old Celine Rose. During the adoption, I left her family name as the middle name. She was to become Celine Rose Hanover.

The little secret? It was not hard to figure out right? I chickened out when her mother called my bluff one day. Little Celine just had to catch us at a bad time too. It took some long explanation for her to get it. I think she got it too well.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

Her resemblance to her mother was simply uncanny. Sarah, Celine’s mother, not to speak ill, was rather inept, but a hard worker. Her naivety was also the reason she had Celine young. As the father, I had to teach her some of the tough life lessons. Maybe I taught her too well too.

The first time she used the little nugget of secret she knew, was our argument on the path of her education. I was set on putting her to University. You know how those heated argument can lead to you saying weird stuff? I did not recall what I said. I think it was determination to be an actress. Sometimes an actress has to do pretty risqué stuff with their body. So she began stripping. Scared the life out of me. I shipped her out to an acting school with a stern warning never to do that again to me the next day.

Our relationship actually got better. With the catch of her using the above, to get me through some difficult phase of our occasional argument, or to make a point.

“Seriously? Cursed?” She laughed until she nearly fell off the chair. I had seen her laughing in several movies. This was her real, unrestrained laugh, outside the screen. Inelegant, rough.

“I….” I could not retort. There was no argument for messing up so badly.

I could have checked the item before equipping it. I could even wait for Minalan to show up and give it a once over. The fatherly approval kind. Instead, I just put it on my arm. Still, who checks a little girl’s gift for a cursed object, right?

“Settle down already! I know I screwed up bad!”

It took her a bit longer to get herself under control. She burst out laughing again pretty soon. I should not have told her the part where a little girl whacked me left and right, stuck a gigantic finger into my behind (it was not possible in-game. But it sure felt like it!) or giving me the nutty bar between my legs. I consoled myself that she would continue using the “self-stripping” method to get it out of me. This was the less painful way.

“But, seriously. Just stick with it. This Royal Road game has a lot of very unusual quests. I think, Dad, your quest will reward you with something pretty nifty.”

She then began to tell me of her character. She obviously played. It was her that sent me the capsule. I had to endure the delivery guy’s snigger too. The wrapping of the box was bright pink with red ribbons. See a possible gay joke here?

The capsule came with a small card of her character name, level, profession and current location. It ended with “Look me up if you are ever around!” and kiss mark signed with her intial, C.R.H. Daniel and his big mouth!

The talk soon moved on to other family members who are not present. Where they were at the moment (in-game), and what they were doing in real life. Celine was doing most of the talking, since I obviously knew too little about the world of Royal Road to put a picture. Suffice to say,the closest familiar face around me would be Daniel.

“Oh. Yes. I have to leave soon.”

Celine was looking at the grandfather clock that chimed high noon.

“You have to stay for lunch,” I told her. I would not allow a rejection.

“If you promise me you will cook.”

I grumbled a little, but set off to buy groceries a few minutes away,while she prepared herself to leave after lunch. Yes. I already said I am a slob. Thank you.

“It tastes as bad as usual,” exclaimed Celine.

“Then don’t eat it!” I grumbled again under my breath. I was not a good very good cook.

“Only these scrambled eggs are perfect.”

I made three dishes. While breakfast on my table usually consist of bread and coffee, lunch must have a meat dish, a vegetable dish and my signature perfectly-cooked and rich, deep, balanced taste of scrambled egg. Every one of my kids loves those.

Another one of my kid would know delicious food since she was a professional chef. She never complained about my eggs when all dishes failed to satisfy her palate.

She wore a white sundress with cute frills around the edges. The cut was modest, yet fit the image she wanted to present well. Someone eighteen. She ate daintily in order not to dirty her dress.

*Honk**Honk*

“I think that is my ride,”she finished up the last few bites of her food. Hastily drinking another cup of sweetened coffee. The forks and spoon were crossed on the plate. The napkins folded neatly on the right hand side after she had used it. I never taught her good table manners. Her late mother did.

I finished deciding that my portion would not finish within a minute, and abandoned it for the moment.

“How do I look?” She asked me, turning her head left and right.

“Perfect.” No other answer was accepted.

The golden tresses were swaying a little from a draft, a result of temperature difference between the temperature maintained inside and hot natural air outside. I always found the long lock falling across her left eye to be especially charming.

She hugged me and whispered her goodbye.

She also licked the meat sauce I missed on my left cheek before kissing the spot.

“Take good care of yourself, Dad. Sorry I cannot make it for your birthday. I will visit again for Christmas,” she beamed me her best smile. She already knew I never liked celebrating my birthday.

“No telling Daniel. Promise me that.”

“Eh! That is no fun!”

She still had an adolescent's terrible weakness for tickling. She agreed in ten seconds flat. I was merciless!

“Okay! Okay! Quit tickling me!” She said between gasping breaths and useless effort to escape my grasp.

Another peck on the other cheek (with ear nibble this time. Damn vixen!) and she was off. I watched the black sedan she disappeared into turn the corner.

It was a good day.

Time to play again, I guess.

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Author's Note:

1. Credit to -The Slacker- for the diligent PR

2. Credit to several people that helped with bouncing ideas, being good listener, and random talk that leads to some creative process. No idea if they wanted to be credited for now. But I will leave it open.

3. Special Credit to Veresliosi, Vim1inc, Saxenas1 for bouncing stuff around

4. Do let me know of mistakes you find. Try as me and my PR to spot them, we might miss some.

5. Sorry folks. I messed up a little on the format earlier. So I had to redo it. My apology to readers that had crossed eye by accident.

6. Enjoy the chapter!