Chapter 463 - The Origin Story Of VC
"Who is VC?" Howard's query brought everyone's attention towards him.
Earlier, Old man Valente and everyone else was appreciating Rutherford's present for the little girl but when they heard this, they turned towards the little boy.
In Howard's hands were the documents which held the Certificate that they had been discussing until now.
The young boy pointed at one corner of the document where it read 'Owner name' and below it was the initials VC written in a large font.
This made them turn towards the girl and her father who were chuckling.
'I merely mentioned it to him once and he already did it.' Yvonne shook her head at her attentive father who never missed anything she said.
During the time that she was still worried about how she would find her stand-in, her father had mentioned something interesting.
"What if the man whom you name as the owner of CLOVER tries to cheat you at some point in the future?" He placed a theoretical situation before her.
At that time, Yvonne was stunned as greed made people do despicable things.
She had not yet decided on who her stand-in would be but she could not risk such a thing from taking place and ruining her dreams.
Therefore, the father and daughter had come to a decision when Howard was still in the Royal Academy during his final exams for this academic year.
The remedy for this, she had muttered to herself.
"What if I use an alias?" She wondered out loud but surprisingly her father had heard and accepted it right away.
In her previous life, she had seen many stars using stage names to hide their true identity.
They were not doing anything illegal by doing so and only wished for privacy.
Wasn't that what she was looking for in this life? Therefore, her suggestion of using an alias for her identity as the Business owner was finalized upon.
The next issue was what her alias would be?
If it was completely unrelated to her real name then there might be a problem of proving her identity as the owner if ever this matter needed to be revealed.
But at the same time, she could not use something too similar to her name as that would gain suspicion among the nobles.
Therefore, she had finally come up with an idea of using parts of her real name.
Yvonne St. Claire's initials would be YSC however, that would become too predictable so she decided to omit a few letters.
"That was how my new alias as the Owner of CLOVER became VC. For Vonna Claire." She explained why just those two letters were mentioned in the certificate.
With this, she would not have to worry about anyone else claiming the business as theirs.
'And whenever it is that I find a suitable stand-in, he will be the second-in-command and my representative before the public.' She nodded as that was the plan she had made a long time ago.
Howard sulked that he was not informed about this but Yvonne managed to coax him by promising to spar with him whenever he desired.
The sword junkie was appeased with this simple suggestion which made the family have a good laugh.
Once the St. Claire's family had completed bringing out their presents, it was too late to continue.
However, it appeared that this was what the Valente family had planned for as they had no intention of revealing their presents right away.
"Vonny, let us go out and play." Knox suggested and pulled his elder brother with him.
Marcus gave him a sly nod which Rutherford had noticed but decided to speak up once the children all left the room.
As soon as his children along with the twins were out of sight, the Earl glared at his brother-in-law.
"What are you planning?" He interrogated as he did not like the smug look on Marcus' face right now.
"You think that only you can bring out good presents?" Marcus scoffed and raised his chin haughtily.
Raylene and Trisha sighed while watching their childish confrontation while Old man Valente was pondering over when he should send his present to her.
Rutherford also did not miss the secret glance Marcus had shot at Raylene which further intrigued him as to what was this sly Viscount's plan.
Right on cue, Raylene hugged her husband's arm and asked him to take her to view the flowers in the back garden.
While he wished to spend more time with his wife, he could not let Marcus succeed in his tricks to win over Yvonne's favor.
However, his wife's charm won over as he gave up resisting and escorted her to the garden.
"Vonny will be safe. Trust me." Raylene whispered as she stuck close to his body and dragged him away.
'I'm not worried about that!' He sulked in his heart, fretting what might happen if his daughter liked Marcus' present better than his.
While Marcus and Trisha were giggling in the dining hall, the old man shook his head at his wicked children ganging up on the poor Earl.
___
Outside the mansion, the four youngsters were standing in a circle as they glanced at the little girl.
"We brought you out here to reveal what our present would be." Knox exclaimed with a joyous smile.
Roman nodded in agreement as this was their plan all along.
Howard and Yvonne were surprised that their combined gifts had something to do with the outdoors.
"What is it, Big brothers?" Yvonne inquired while tilting her head, wondering what it might be.
The twins shared a look and pointed in a certain direction as they revealed what their present was.
Turning in the direction they had pointed at, the St. Claire siblings only found one figure standing there.
Blinking her wide amethyst eyes, she turned around to face her cousins with an unamused expression.
"That is my etcher, Brothers." She reminded them as the figure she had seen was none other than her Demon who was now walking towards their position.
The twins had pointed towards her pet and declared him as their present for her.
This made her wonder whether there was something wrong with them.
Howard snickered when he saw the blank look on her face which was contrary to the awe-filled look she gave him after taking a look at the Obsidian Dagger he had prepared for her.
The twins collectively rolled their eyes and waited for the horse to come close enough.
"The present isn't your etcher." Knox sighed as they had been misunderstood.
This piqued Yvonne's interest as she waited to hear what it might be.
"It is a horse ride outside the mansion." Roman revealed what they had planned for her today.
The twins had visited their Aunt Raylene to seek help in what they might give Yvonne for her birthday.
They inquired about her likes and dislikes and this was how they had figured out that the little girl had never been allowed to ride her horse outside her estate in Amarthea.
She could only use the woods behind the Mansion and never leave the estate with her horse.
With this new information, they had just exited Raylene's room when they found their father eavesdropping to hear the same information that they had obtained.
This made the parent and children collaborate as they wished to make this birthday memorable for the little girl.
When Yvonne heard that their gift was a trip outside the Valente estate with her pet, she was overjoyed as it was true that she was never permitted to leave the estate with her etcher.
In the Capital, numerous eyes were on her and this information might put her in danger.
However, she was safe here as her identity was unknown and her twins would accompany her in case she got into trouble along the way.
This made her nod in eager agreement as she liked their present quite a lot.
The twins were glad they had asked Aunt Raylene for help as she had given them the perfect idea to implement.
Howard noticed this and sighed after taking in the overjoyed look on his baby sister's face.
While he was annoyed that the twins had redeemed themselves so quickly, he could not act against them especially after seeing how happy she was.
Demon had arrived by now and after hearing this news, he neighed as his dream was also to ride freely with his Master.
However, his joy turned sour the next moment when he heard a sound coming from high up in the sky.
*Squawk*