Chapter Thirty-five: Recovery Celebration
“I’m looking forward to today, Sister Karen!”
Sieg, who said this sweetly, was dressed up in a charming tailcoat that fit him perfectly.
The day of the recovery celebration party had finally arrived.
Karen, too, had been polished from head to toe since morning and changed into a dress. After having her makeup and hair done, she came to Sieg’s familiar room.
This dress was another new one that Alise had made for her. It was even more luxurious than the previous dress, with mysterious sparkling stones sewn all over it. Karen was too afraid to ask what kind of jewels these light blue stones were.
The smooth light blue fabric was adorned with gold decorations. The golden thread embroidery depicted thorns and dragons. Though the shape looked like a bird, the dressmaker who helped Karen into the dress explained it was actually a dragon design. It represented the achievement of their ancestor who earned the title of Earl Ehlertt by venturing into the Thorny Forest and slaying a dragon—the Ehlertt family crest.
“Since I’m your partner today… Master Sieg, I’m afraid you’ll have to accept some compromises regarding the quality of the dancing.”
“Haha, Sister Karen, you’re so nervous.”
Sieg laughed elegantly. Recently, she had been staying at the mansion almost full-time for dance practice. Though she had learned to dance somewhat adequately, performing in front of people completely differed from practice.
She had been briefed on the procedure. First, Sieg would introduce her as the alchemist who healed him. Then, only Sieg and Karen would dance in front of everyone. Though she initially thought being made to dance in front of so many people felt like being put on display, apparently in noble society, it was a gesture of courtesy and respect toward honored guests.
“By the way, we had to send invitations to the Royal Knights as well. It seems Uncle Julius received their help during a dungeon expedition. Well, I thought it would be a good opportunity.”
“A good opportunity?”
“Yes, but it doesn’t matter if you don’t understand.”
She had heard that many second and third sons of noble families joined the Royal Knights. However, since it was based on merit, there were commoners too. The concentration of nobles might be slightly lower.
Just as she wondered if that meant Lyos would come too, there was a knock at the door.
“Are you ready, Sieg… Karen?”
“Ugh…”
When Julius entered Sieg’s room, Karen groaned. Looking down at her, Julius smiled amusedly.
“What do you think, Karen? Is my appearance today… distracting?”
At this familiar teasing remark, Karen blushed and looked down. Julius peered at her face and smiled.
“You look very beautiful, Karen. As I thought, the color of the sky suits you perfectly.”
“Master Julius, did you choose this?”
She looked up reflexively and caught her breath when she realized his face was closer than expected. Every time she came to the mansion for dance practice with Sieg, Alise had asked about her preferences, but Karen had desperately told her she knew nothing about dresses.
The dress that was prepared for her with complete trust was breathtakingly beautiful. The sky-blue fabric was especially lovely, seeming to shimmer as if silver threads were woven into it. Thinking that it was chosen to match her eye color made her own eyes appear even more radiant than usual.
She had thought Alise had decided everything, but apparently, Julius had chosen it. Come to think of it, she remembered Alise wearing a meaningful smile.
“That’s right. I asked my sister-in-law to let me choose your dress.”
“W-Why would you do something like that…?”
“Because I wanted to see you wearing a dress I chose.”
Julius’s golden eyes sparkled mischievously as he said this. Karen wanted to hold her head in her hands but remembered she couldn’t mess up her hair styling, so she just squirmed instead.
“Please stop teasing me! I’m already at my limit!”
Julius was also wearing a tailcoat. His regular knight’s training uniform was impressive enough, but seeing him in a perfectly fitted tailcoat was almost brain-melting. With his styled hair revealing his forehead and what appeared to be light makeup, she couldn’t find a single flaw no matter how hard she looked. She had wanted to find some imperfection to remind herself that Julius was human too, and calm her heart.
“If I’m occupying your thoughts completely, that makes me happy.”
“The dance steps I memorized through cramming are about to fly out of my head!”
“Oh, that is troubling.”
Julius, for the sake of his nephew’s success, finally stopped leaning in so close.
“Even though I’ll definitely be the one to fail, if by any chance you make a mistake, Master Sieg, feel free to blame it on me.”
“No, a lady’s mistakes should be blamed on the man leading the dance.”
“No way. My mistakes are my own, and your mistakes are mine too. I absolutely won’t give them up.”
For Sieg, this was an important party that also served as his debut as the heir of the Ehlertt family. While she felt it was unthinkable to bring a total amateur like herself to such a party, the fact that everyone knew she was a mere commoner probably meant her mistakes were already anticipated.
As she developed this reverse psychology theory, Julius chuckled.
“You two seem so close; it makes me a little jealous.”
“You’re jealous of me, whom Master Sieg calls sister!?”
As Karen insisted on this interpretation, Julius just smiled without answering and then signaled to Sara, who had been waiting. Sara brought over a silver tray and removed the lid. Inside was a box containing a set of earrings and a necklace with golden jewels.
“This is thanks for the sachet you gave me. I’d like you to accept it.”
For a moment, she couldn’t remember what he was talking about, but then recalled giving Julius her portion of the sachets they had made with Sieg.
“This is completely disproportionate?”
Even if she made a hundred more sachets, it wouldn’t come close to matching this, but Julius just smiled warmly and didn’t back down at all.
“Then consider it a personal gift to the alchemist who helped my dear nephew.”
“The alchemist…”
While Karen was muttering this, Julius took the necklace and moved behind her. Before she knew it, she felt a weight on her neck as the necklace was fastened. While Karen was still stunned, he attached the earrings as well.
When Julius gracefully returned to Karen’s front, he narrowed his golden eyes as he looked at her.
“They suit you very well, Karen.”
“…Is it my imagination that these jewels’ color closely matches your eyes, Master Julius?”
“Well, what do you think?”
Giving jewelry with the same color as one’s hair or eyes to someone of the opposite sex had significant meaning. If Karen were to honestly answer Julius’s leading question about what she thought, she would be the only one getting flustered.
After all, she’d been the one to propose marriage but had made a fuss about not wanting to compromise. Though she had resigned to being teased, at this moment, she wanted to do everything she could to avert her eyes and avoid burdening Sieg.
“It must be a coincidence!”
“If that’s what you want to believe for now, that’s fine.”
“Maybe it matches my hair color, Sister Karen!”
“Yes, that’s it!”
When Karen eagerly jumped on Sieg’s lifeline, Julius finally gave a wry smile.
“You’re a tough one, Karen.”
His tone was sweet, as if saying, "I’ll let it slide just this once." Karen desperately tried to calm her racing heart.
Karen couldn’t shake the feeling that Julius was seriously trying to make her fall for him as payback. Make her fall in love, then cast her aside—a perfectly calculated revenge against Karen for her stubborn refusal to compromise.
After all, she had done enough to deserve it… Karen swallowed her tears.
No comments:
Post a Comment