It was a nice pot of tea.

  Dried leaves bought in Port Azuru that came in a large canvas bag that the servants took heaping spoonfuls of into a ceramic teapot. Carefully they would wash out the debris with small servings of boiling water (a series of three, Sophia noted), before filling the container to the brim to let it brew.

  Guardsman Mori Fushimi, now the official poison tester of the house, takes a long sip of tea from the small ceramic cup.

  A very long sip, savoring the taste.

  “Nice tea. I love jasmine.” She concludes with a satisfied sigh, the drained cup placed back onto the table. “Wait actually, it might be poisoned…”

  Her charge keeps a neutral expression, waiting for her punchline which she delivers without any comedic pause. “Ok one more sip just to make sure~”

  Zai strikes back at her with his usual sternness. “If you want your own tea, Mori, then brew it yourself.”

  “Alright alright.” She takes a step away from the table, giving a long wink to Sophia. “I’ll be here reading on the couch if you need me~”

  The Fourth Princess watches in slight surprise as this bodyguard ever-so casually strolls over to the far end of the living room; pulling a book out from one of her pockets and settling onto a well padded chair outside of the view of the two royals sitting at the dining table.

  They aren’t alone.

  Witnesses in the form of the Guardsman and the occasional maid passing through this central room that practically all hallways were attached to, but the space has enough privacy that Zai feels comfortable beginning this lesson. “Sophia, how much of the Tiancin alphabet do you know?”

  Pride, arrogance; an instinctive answer from the Fourth Princess coming out to a lie. “Enough to get by, sometimes.”

  Good save. The internal monologue glares at the celebrating thought processes. You’ve screwed us.

  Zai nods, reaching into one of the loose papers within his now full spread of books and articles of reading.

  A passage of four lines thick with language, of words that ranged from the somewhat simplistic with three letters all the way to a monstrous twelve geometric patterns that seemed to punctuate each sentence in a poetic mess of structure.

  Its title, written in Tiancin, stares back at Sophia.

  “How much can you understand?”

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  Aw crap.

  None of it, we understand none of it. The internal monologue slams its hand on the speaker’s stand of the chamber. Now we gotta tell him that we just lied to him too, alongside the fact we’re completely illiterate in his mother tongue!

  Sophia takes a sharp glance at the words, her soul reaching into the depths of the spiritual realm in a desperate attempt at a divine intervention.

  Isn’t dad like a quarter Tiancin?! Sophia’s mind races as she now picks up the paper, bringing it towards her. Come on, that means I’m an eighth at minimum. I’ve gotta have some genetic memory here somewhere!

  Genetic memory?

  Sophia grimaces, bringing the paper even closer to her face in an attempt at buying the precious few seconds. I mean, it’s a long shot, but people inherit eye color, right? Maybe I inherited perfect literacy.

  That’s not how it works.

  And after a full twelve seconds of agonizing silence, Zai gently takes the paper from her, his tone betraying a small dose of sympathy. “How about we… table something that advanced for now. Let’s go over something simpler first.”

  Sophia nods, proudly brushing her fake glasses up in an attempt at keeping this incredibly flimsy image of an academic intact.

  Another page, this time having much simpler wording and a straightforward sentence structure. A list of seven, written by hand on a crumpled bit of paper.

  Hello, we still have the same problem. Can’t read the alphabet! One of the thought processes is the first to admit it. Yeah, maybe we should come clean and say we can’t actually read anything in this language.

  By now the page was once again up to Sophia’s face, picked up by her deft hands and brought inches away from her eyes as she tries to not spill her guts onto the table.

  Zai takes a confused glance alongside a deep breath as he observes this… phenomena. Even when downgraded from the old poetic texts of Lady Akemi Tianci to a small shopping list he had written earlier last week, his wife was still struggling severely. And more strangely, she was pushing this receipt paper to her face as if some incredible knowledge could be physically absorbed through a shortened distance.

  Sophia Elise needs to come clean now, to fully admit to her earlier deception; to salvage this currently fifteen minute long study date. Something incredulous but completely believable. Something foolproof that would work with someone this close to her. Something…

  A deep breath, this young ensolian woman turning to her husband in a longing look of guilt. Her piercing blue gaze staring into his dark brown abyss, her words curated in a solemn tone. “I apologize, my vision is not very good and these reading glasses aren’t fitted to me.”

  Zai keeps an utterly deadpan face as he takes the proverbial knife, driving it deep into Sophia’s chest and into her heart. “Sophia… I’m quite certain those glasses don’t have any lenses.”

  The Fourth Princess takes the easy way out, simply letting the silence sit for an ungodly amount of time as she adverts her eyes to the floor in embarrassment.

  Without any words, Zai hands her a poured cup of tea. Soft hands barely touching as she takes the hot beverage from him; sipping upon the slightly flowery and bitter taste of jasmine.

  Like failure. Jasmine tea tasted like failure.

  Oh, and humiliation.

  Failure, and a lot of humiliation.

  She almost cries the words out in a whisper. “I can’t read Tiancin…”

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