| Author: Starving Wind | Original Source: Joara | Word Count: 3314 characters |
| Translator: Anonymouss | English Source: Re:Library | Word Count: 1942 words |
| Editor(s): Silva | ||
And the 3 days passed by extremely quickly. Katalina put all of her efforts into preparing for war, and desperately tried to pull any of the neutral guilds into joining her forces. However, her efforts didn’t seem to bring many results.
Although she tried to say something to me multiple times, she would end up closing her mouth after a thought and not say it in the end. Although I already knew what she was thinking, so there was no need for me to probe if she didn’t want to talk about it. Perhaps she was concerned about pulling me into the war? That was probably what she was worried about.
The mansion wasn’t busy, but many of the employees were in high spirits. They must be highly anticipating the fact that the seat for the official ownership of the household that had been empty for such a long time will finally be filled.
“My lady, it really fits you well!”
While looking at myself in the mirror wearing the clothes that I’ll be wearing to the coronation, Sara came over and lathered me in praise.
“Is that so?”
But since I wouldn’t feel happy about hearing that a woman’s clothes fit on me very well, I replied with disinterest in my voice.
“Aww, my lady, your reaction is very moot. Is it not to your taste? It seems that my lady is much pickier about clothing than I thought.”
“Much pickier than you thought?”
“Yes. My lady, you usually only wear easygoing clothes. That’s why I thought that way. Well, I guess it’s different this time since it is a very important day.”
It was obvious that Sara was in a very excited mood than usual today. In any case, why was this dress so uncomfortable?
“I feel that it’s way too uncomfortable moving in it.”
“Of course it will be uncomfortable to you, my lady. It’s a dress after all… You should be thankful that we’re not still in the medieval age, my lady1. Hoho!”
Medieval age, huh. If it was like back then, I would be sweating heavily right now wearing a full corset. I was already wearing innerwear that felt tight around my body like a brace, which was making me slightly difficult to breathe.
“Now, since you finished wearing the clothes, we should apply some makeup on you. Please wait for a moment, my lady. Hmhm~”
Sara left the room, even humming to herself happily.
My gaze turned towards the full body mirror again. My dress had an overall simplistic design with slim-fitting in white color, which made it look comparable to a wedding dress. However, there was a difference in that I had an emblem symbolizing the family crest on my left breast as well as a number of decorations that I didn’t know the significance of.
Overall, the dress was very beautiful. Although there was the downside that my shoulders being completely bare made it look very revealing, any 3rd party who laid eyes on me would definitely say that it looked beautiful.
The problem was that the person who’s wearing it was me.
“Man I feel restless.”
I wouldn’t’ know since I had never cosplayed a character of the opposite gender, but the feeling of having to wear clothing of the opposite gender probably wasn’t the best feeling in the world. Of course, since I was in a very peculiar situation, I could say that it was beyond my control to wear what I wanted to wear, but that didn’t make me feel any better.
“Oh yeah, the butler told me to memorize the register list…”
I opened up the memo that had been tossed carelessly onto the table. It was a memo that allowed me to easily see the entire royal family tree as well as all the registered noble families and their relationships. I didn’t want to particularly memorize them. Prince, princess. The words that didn’t seem like it would matter in the 21st century had completely filled up the pages. Knowing that I would be looking at the people that I’ve only seen through TV in real life made me feel slightly weird. I guess it was similar to the feeling of nervousness before being able to go meet a celebrity from TV.
Knock knock.
“My lady, it’s Sara.”
She must have finished her preparations already, as Sara knocked on the door.
“Come in.”
Hearing my voice, the door opened and several people came in along with Sara. Even at a glance, I could tell that the people who came in with her weren’t servants of this mansion.
“These people are professional makeup artists. Now, please give your greetings everyone, this is Duchess Elizabeth.”
“It’s nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you.”
As they courteously bowed towards me, I replied only with a simple nod. It was the result of the butler spending many days focusing on brainwashing my mind with the proper manners of the nobles.
After exchanging greetings, the makeup process started. Just to make sure that the makeup products didn’t get on my dress, they put on a small robe around my neck made of smooth silk materials as I sat on the chair leaning back before they started their work.
Of course, I did nothing but simply lie down there and let it happen, since it was the first time I was ever receiving makeup on my face. Honestly, it wasn’t that much different than having my hair done at a hair salon. The only difference was that it was on my face rather than my hair.
Numerous brushes, as well as various unfamiliar makeup tools, were laid out like watercolor tubes ready to begin painting.
They would put on a thick eyelash, paint something, apply something… Frankly making it difficult for me to stay still…
“You are so beautiful that you don’t need much makeup at all.”
“Your skin is so elegant…”
“Your hair is so smooth as well, looks like you are taking care of it very meticulously2.”
They kept asking things as if they were curious about every part of my body. If it were from a guy, I would have just ignored them without any care, but in the end, I answered each and every of their question in a friendly matter, fitting as a Korean man who was known to be weak towards women. My personality was also like this in the past.
Though it didn’t mean that I was able to properly answer any of them.
“Now, it’s all done. Please check if it’s to your liking.”
One of the makeup artists pulled up a mirror and watched me with high anticipation in their eyes.
“Hm…”
With a slightly uninterested expression, I took the mirror and looked at the reflection, to which I couldn’t help but gasp lightly at the sight.
Although I knew that I was on the prettier side even without putting effort to apply makeup, this was much more than I ever thought. As the makeup they applied was basically invisible to the naked eye, there was no massive difference but my white skin seemed to be shining even more brightly than before. And the eyeliner which made my eyes look sharper helped me achieve a dangerous yet beautiful appearance.
‘So a person’s impression can really change just from some makeup, huh…’
I knew that with enough makeup some of them could completely change their appearance, but it was surprising to see it actually happen in front of my eyes.
“Is it to your liking?”
“Yes.”
It wasn’t bad at all, and since they would end up trying to do my face again if I were to raise any problems, I finished it there instead.
“Then we’ll be leaving, Duchess Elizabeth.”
They gave a courteous bow again as they did earlier, it was then one of the makeup artists came over to me and spoke while handing me a business card.
“Please give our makeup shop a visit when you get the chance!”
She was the youngest woman amongst them, a young lady with short auburn hair and extremely attractive smiling eyes.
Even as she was getting slightly stinging glares from the other makeup artist employees, she still didn’t lose her smile even up to the very end when she left.
“She’s a real hard worker, isn’t she.”
Sara had a worried expression on her face the whole time, thinking that I could be unsatisfied with the job done, but once she heard my words, she became relieved and relaxed her face.
“Now, since the preparation is complete, let us go outside, my lady. The Buckingham Palace has sent a limousine.”
“A limousine?”
“Yes! A limousine dedicated to the royal family.3”
Royal family limousine4, huh. While wondering just how interesting of a toy it could be, I followed Sara outside.
“You look beautiful.”
“Mesmerizing.”
The employees all showered me with seemingly genuine praise every time they saw me, but I wasn’t happy at all.
It didn’t matter if I was beautiful or not, it wasn’t like I could actually date myself or anything.
I heard that praises could make even dolphins jump for joy, but every time I heard one I just felt even worse.
“Wow! Ellie, you really look beautiful.”
Wearing a light yellow dress that exuded feelings of innocence, Katalina saw me and gave me a thumbs up.
“No way, you look more beautiful, Lina5.”
There was a difference between complimenting someone genuinely and otherwise. Since I obviously couldn’t date myself no matter how beautiful I looked, I was instead genuinely amazed at the innocent beauty of Katalina’s dress, and she also seemed equally amazed at how I looked.
“R…Really?”
She even stuttered in her reply.
“Yeah, really.”
“Ugh, Duchess Elizabeth, please don’t even joke about it. We had to do so much for our lady such as… Mph!”
As one of Katalina’s exclusive maids that followed her here from home started to complain, Katalina covered her mouth to stop it.
“You…!”
She was being all shy and embarrassed a moment ago, yet now she’s back to her old rude and crude self as she glared at the maid.
“Now now, we’ll be late. Let’s go already.”
“Ah… Yeah.”
I felt that I would end up getting the innocent maid into trouble with my words, so I quickly changed the topic and got on the royal family’s exclusive limousine together with her.
The only difference that the limousine had compared to other limousines on the outside was that it had the British monarchy symbol, while the difference in the interior blew me out of my mind.
“Wow…”
It was reaching the extremities of luxury, with gold decorations and beautiful jewel ornaments lining up and down the interior. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it a moving treasure box.
“I did hear that the royal family exclusive limousine was amazing, but I didn’t know it would be this much.”
As Katalina entered from the other side of the door into the car, she was also amazed at the luxury.
“We’ll be leaving then.”
We weren’t sure just how silly we looked gawking at all the decorations, but the driver still spoke to us with a broad warm smile on his face.
“Ahem.”
“Mh…”
Katalina only then realized that it wasn’t just the two of us in the car, as she quickly adjusted her expression while making a dry cough.
She really cared about her dignity, didn’t she?
As the engine started and the car began to move, it was received by numerous safety escorts as it left the mansion and headed to Buckingham Palace.
