Elqueeness [EN]: Chapter 336

Chapter 336

Moreover, in my case, the choices were even more complicated. I had to consider the circlet and one of the gloves that I always wore as if they were a part of my body. Since this was non-negotiable, I insisted on it from the start, which seemed to make the maids of the Imperial Palace think of me as quite particular. This was amplified by my refusal of any assistance with bathing, preferring to handle it myself. Fortunately, no arguments arose over these issues, but the limitations inevitably made the process longer.

“Oh my, you look absolutely beautiful.”

“…….”

When I looked up at the exaggerated exclamation, I saw a stranger in the mirror. It was definitely my face, but I had never seen this person before. Unlike my frozen expression, the maids’ eyes were full of pride as they looked at their handiwork.

“Your appearance is so beautiful that you shine with just a little decoration.”

“All the young masters attending the banquet today won’t be able to take their eyes off you, miss.”

“…….”

My expression naturally soured as I listened to the compliments that weren’t quite compliments. The stranger in the mirror also frowned.

The outfit, decided after trying on several dresses, was a light blue dress that didn’t clash with the gloves. The dress was designed to flatter my lack of chest (I even considered creating one like Ifrit, but I lacked the confidence, so I left it as it was). It featured plenty of frills and ribbons on the upper body, and the skirt, which flowed straight from the waist, was made of several layers of lace, giving it a very ornate appearance. The sleeves, which reached the elbows, were quite voluminous, but the slightly see-through material prevented them from looking stuffy. The texture of this part was especially similar to the gloves, giving the impression that it was custom-made from the start.

The necklace and other accessories were matched to the circlet with jewels of the same color. The shoes were also prepared in the same color. My hair was lightly styled by braiding only the circumference and letting the rest fall freely. When it came to explaining the makeup, I honestly couldn’t understand even half of what they were saying. It sounded like they were speaking a language I understood, but it felt like listening to an alien tongue.

Anyway, it felt like an eternity until this whole process was completed. An enormous amount of time had actually passed, and when I checked outside the window, the sun was already setting. I thought there was no need to arrive so early in the morning, even with the excuse of helping with the preparations, but it was worth it. Indeed, the world was vast, and the things I didn’t know were profound.

‘Women are really amazing.’

Until I experienced it myself, I had no idea that dresses were so uncomfortable and heavy, or that makeup felt this stuffy. I think I know why Lapis dragged me into this. She must have felt really wronged to do this alone. But that doesn’t mean I forgive her!

Come to think of it, Lapis had disappeared at some point. I think she moved somewhere else when I started trying on clothes, but I was so out of it that my memory is hazy.

“Excuse me…….”

“Yes, miss. Is there anything else you need?”

The maid smiled kindly, her eyes sparkling. She looked like she was about to bring the makeup tools back, so I quickly shook my head.

“Ah, no! Um, my sister, no, sis…… Haa, my sibling is……?”

“Ah, your sibling is all done too. But was that person your sibling? I thought you were younger, miss.”

“Ahahaha…….”

“Why am I your sibling?”

Just in time, a rebuttal came from behind me, as if she couldn’t stand it. As soon as I turned my head, feeling exhausted, I froze. Not only my appearance, but Lapis in a dress was also not good for my mental health. Dressed in the dress she had chosen herself, her hair was neatly tied up. The accessories and jewels were a gorgeous gold color that matched her current blonde hair. The ivory dress, which revealed her neck and shoulder line, suited her fair skin very well. Even when she was a man, I couldn’t help but admire her beauty, and now that her features were more refined and she was all dressed up, the impact was enormous. But she was still Lapis.

“……Just be my sibling.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Even if you count my age, I’m a thousand times older than you.”

“Why don’t you raise your mental age by a thousand times?”

“I think I already have?”

“Hahaha! You’re mistaken about something big. You know, people with a really high mental age don’t use the water ghost tactic [referring to dragging someone down with you] because they don’t want to do hard things alone.”

“You’re the water ghost.”

“Do you want to die?”

Dangerous conversations went back and forth, but the maids didn’t notice anything and just laughed. They seemed to see it as just a war of nerves between sisters who didn’t get along well.

“Hey, are you done? Can I go in now?”

Just in time, a voice from outside interrupted our childish squabble. As I turned around, someone opened the door, and the person standing in front of it stepped inside. It was As, dressed neatly in a dark black formal suit. Since he already had the appearance of a nobleman, he looked perfectly natural even though he was dressed more ornately than usual. His hair, which he always wore freely, was neatly tied back, which seemed to give him a sharper look than usual.

“As, you’re here?”

The moment our eyes met, As’s eyes widened. I watched with a slightly troubled feeling as his red eyes, which fully revealed his agitation, showed a succession of embarrassment and shock. It was the day I was most dressed up in my life, both in my past and present lives, but it happened to be cross-dressing. Lapis was so calm that I hadn’t even thought about it, but it was a sight that was shocking enough for others to see.

“Is it a little weird?”

When I asked awkwardly, As shook his head with a serious expression. I knew he was trying to deny it firmly, but that made me feel a little strange. His eyes, which were staring intently at me, were unusually sparkling, which was also burdensome.

“……Godparent, you’re really pretty.”

Ah, thank you.

At this moment, I couldn’t bring myself to smile, no matter how much the other person was As. I had raised my child wrong, and a sigh like sorrow arose from the depths of my heart. “Hey, kid. What about me?” Still, I was a little proud that he didn’t ignore Lapis’s question.

“Hehe, young master. Your title is wrong. You should call a woman ‘Godmother,’ not ‘Godparent.'”

“…….”

One clueless maid deliberately chimed in, making me, who was already troubled, even more troubled. Her smiling face, as if she found it amusing, didn’t show even a trace of considering the possibility that ‘Godparent’ might not have been a slip of the tongue. With that resolute attitude, As simply replaced his answer with a subtle smile. Like a wise child, he seemed to have judged that there was no need to correct the title here and incur my displeasure.

“But isn’t the miss too young to be a godmother? The two of you don’t seem to be that far apart in age.”

“Ah, well, it just happened that way. There’s a reason for it.”

I gave a rough answer to the questioning gaze and smiled bitterly. My heart ached anew at the ‘miss’ title that came out so casually.

In fact, I thought that at least one person would suspect my gender in this process. First of all, my upper body is seriously lacking for a woman. Besides, my shoulder frame is also wide and I have almost no pelvis. Anyone can’t deny that my body shape is closer to that of a man. The reason I can be sure that I am a male body is thanks to this body shape. The fact that I took a bath alone could also be interpreted as a suspicious act to hide my body. I thought I had almost all the conditions to be suspected. In fact, one of the maids even said at first, ‘Oh my, I thought you were a man.’ But that was it. No one will ever understand how depressed I was when I heard the words after that, ‘When I see you like this, you’re a heavenly woman, I misunderstood.’ Of course, it would have been much more difficult to be suspected.

In fact, it would be rude to suspect someone who wants to wear women’s clothes of being a man. The maids may not have been able to say anything even if they felt something was strange. It’s a very optimistic thought, but once I thought of it that way, I felt much more comfortable. Since I’m disguising myself anyway, it helped me to change my mood that it’s better to be perfect than clumsy.

“It seems like you should be leaving soon. Let’s go down. I have a carriage prepared below.”

The head maid, who had been looking at our fully decorated figures with satisfaction, finally said the words we had been waiting for. The darkening sunset outside the window was already filling the sky. No special words were needed. In a short moment, Lapis and As looked at me, and we nodded at the same time.

The time when darkness was really taking hold. The countdown to deciding fate was beginning.

* * *

The closer we got to the Imperial Palace, the louder the noise became. It was a chaotic mix of people’s laughter, music, and the occasional sound of celebratory explosions. All the windows of the castle were brightly lit, and the road stretching from the main gate was lined with visitors’ carriages. The sight of the Imperial Palace, shining brightly alone in a city gradually sinking into darkness, looked very out of place. It was as if time was running backwards only there.

The banquet hall was in the central hall of the main castle. Through the open double doors, we could see a scene of people dancing and chatting, all mixed together. There were mostly young people, and the atmosphere was a bit chaotic overall, perhaps because it had just started. I thought it would just be a formality since it was a sudden banquet, but the number of attendees was larger than I expected. The delicacies prepared in all directions, and the number of people in the large-scale orchestra, showed that they had put quite a bit of effort into it.

Those who were gathered in groups of three or five and chatting stopped when they saw us arrive at the hall. The noisy space seemed to quiet down a bit. In the murmuring atmosphere, the head maid handed something like a card to the gatekeeper. The gatekeeper, who had a somewhat dazed look on his face, hurriedly accepted it.

“The descendants of the Mikalan family from the Albato Kingdom!”

Soon, a path to enter the hall was opened with a loud shout. It was probably a card with our identity written on it. The problem was that even I was hearing about this identity for the first time.

“What the heck is that? What is the Albato Kingdom, and what is the Mikalan family?”

Lapis shrugged his shoulders at my words, which I whispered cautiously, conscious of my surroundings.

“You asked me yesterday, so I just made it up and told you.”

“Wow, is that okay? Does it really exist?”

“The Albato Kingdom exists. But there’s no such thing as the Mikalan family.”

“Hey, what if we get caught!”

Unlike me, who was horrified, Lapis, who had actually committed the act, was calm. The reason was that the thing that dragons do best when enjoying games is this kind of identity laundering, and they had never been caught before. It was also in the sense that it didn’t matter since it was an identity that would only be used today.

“So, the main characters of today’s banquet have arrived.”

After entering, the surroundings seemed to have become quieter. When we completely entered through the crowd of people parting like the sea of Moses, the person sitting at the head of the hall slowly rose. It was a man wearing white robes that didn’t suit the banquet alone among the people in fancy clothes. On his head was a crown that didn’t suit his clothes even more. It was Grand Duke Yukarte.

‘This person is the Grand Duke…….’

The moment my eyes met his neat face, I swallowed hard without realizing it. The Grand Duke, whom I was meeting in person for the first time, felt different from what I had been watching through the eyes of the spirits. It was like meeting someone I had only seen on a screen in person. Since what you see through the eyes of the spirits is somewhat subjective to the spirits who are the subject of that perspective, there was a difference from seeing it directly. Is that why? Even though I knew that he had such a kind impression that he couldn’t even kill a bug, and that he looked exactly like Isana, somehow that fact came as a fresh shock.

“Pay your respects to His Highness the Grand Duke.”

Only after hearing the solemn voice of the head maid ringing next to me did I finally come to my senses. What followed was a deep sense of frustration. Greetings, what should I do in this case? The fact that I hadn’t thought about the basics at all because I had been so preoccupied with dressing up all day belatedly came to mind. I had only just learned about my disguised identity a little while ago, so there was no way I could give a proper greeting. It was Lapis’s voice, which continued as if drawn, that calmed me down as I floundered, not knowing what to do.

“I greet the glory of the Empire and the son blessed by the Evil God, the one who will ascend to the seat of the sun. Razli, Ella, and Ahil of the Mikalan family greet the precious one. Thank you for hosting a banquet for us today.”

He first bowed with skillful etiquette and bent his knees, and I and As roughly imitated it and only took the action. Fortunately, it seemed plausible enough that I didn’t feel any unpleasant gazes. To be exact, it seemed that the Grand Duke didn’t care at all whether we greeted him or not. He was busy obsessively scanning our appearance. As if he was thirsty, he slowly stroked his neck with one hand.

“……This is really amazing. I heard that those who caught the murderer who shook the capital in fear were of great beauty, but now I see that the expression was far from enough? I never imagined they would be so beautiful.”

“You flatter us. I think it’s thanks to the dress that His Highness has provided for us. I was going to thank you anyway.”

This time, Lapis answered fluently. Even a humble answer from his brightly smiling face felt like a way of showing confidence, and he exuded such skillful dignity. As exclamations burst out from those who were watching, the Grand Duke’s eyes curved pleasantly.

“The young lady has a good way with words. If it’s the Albato Kingdom, it’s a place where women inherit titles as well. Is the young lady the eldest daughter? Your father must be very reliable.”

“I’m still very lacking. If Your Highness allows it, I would like to take this opportunity to broaden my horizons today.”

“Haha, it’s not just today. You can stay for as many days as you want, young lady. Come to think of it, you all don’t seem to be of age yet. How old are you?”

“If you’re asking me, I turned eighteen last month. I’m one year apart from my siblings.”

It wasn’t something we had agreed on in advance, but he was spitting out lies without hesitation, as if he had done it once or twice. It was amazing that he was answering so elegantly and politely like a real aristocratic woman, which didn’t suit his arrogant personality. The reason he revealed his age as eighteen must be to match the conditions of the sacrifice. The Grand Duke accepted the blatant bait he threw without hesitation.

“Excellent, very excellent.”

The Grand Duke’s gaze, which was examining us as if searching, was strangely glistening. As if he was happy to hear the answer he wanted, the madness he couldn’t hide was revealed on his face, which had been pretending to be fine. Then, as if that was a signal, a faint stench leaked out from among the strong perfume smells surrounding him. It was the smell of blood that had completely permeated his soul and could no longer be removed. My face was about to frown on its own, but I felt like I was going to have a seizure as I tried to hold it back.

‘By the way, he subtly made me his sibling!’

When I glared at him, Lapis countered with a sneer. It was frustrating, but I had no excuse because I was the one who had tried a similar method first. The fact that he was proceeding in a gap where I couldn’t even intervene felt like he was teaching me, ‘This is how you do a preemptive strike,’ which made me even more angry.

While Lapis and I were continuing our meaningless staring contest, the Grand Duke introduced us in front of everyone and praised our contributions. It was a long and detailed speech, but to summarize it roughly, it was a list of embarrassing contents such as we were heroes who caught the criminals who made the capital uneasy, and that we were benefactors of the Empire. The conclusion of the lengthy speech was to have everyone raise a toast. Lapis, as well as me and As, received glasses of alcohol, and thanks to that, the alcohol I drank by accident had a slightly strange taste.