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It crossed my mind when people passed by us, but there was barely anyone who wore only a summer dress. It seems like their culture is to hide as much skin as possible.

Wearing at least a three-quarter sleeve and hiding up until the elbow is common practice for the upper class. You generally don’t expose your legs.
Miniskirts and sleeveless shirts are no good either. Though among commoners, there are people who wear short sleeves.

And so, Miss Leshy is currently looking at the black summer dresses with an extremely serious expression. She doesn’t need to be that serious―but that’d be difficult for her personality, I suppose. She probably wants Ciel to be happy with her choice, though she doesn’t know that picking anything black would already put Ciel in high spirits.
Also, her eyes frequently wander towards the lighter-colored dresses. She must think that those colors would suit Ciel more. I completely get her.

『Wouldn’t this look great on Ain?』
『I think you’d look better in it.』
『Then how about this one?』
『That one’s still preferable.』

Before I noticed it, Ciel had started choosing clothes for me to wear. It seems like Ciel is in the mood to make me wear adorable and frilly clothes today. While I’m not very enthusiastic about wearing those sorts of girly clothes at this age, I personally think they’d suit Ciel.

Watching Ciel mull over the clothes she just picked, Mia―who knows about me―silently watched over us with a knowing smile.

◇◇◇

「How about this?」

Miss Leshy nervously handed over a choice of clothes. Accepting it, Ciel then inquired, 「Can I try it on?」 which reached a shop assistant through a game of telephone, and the assistant’s approval was relayed in a similar manner.
I’m not really sure if this establishment actually allows test fitting, but since we were given permission, then it should be fine.

We’re probably being given the VIP treatment. If that’s actually the case, then we’ll gladly oblige.

「Mia, can you assist me?」
「Understood. Shall I set your hair differently as well?」
「That… Let’s see. I’ll leave it to you. Miss Leshy, allow me a short moment.」
「Of course, take your time.」

Being seen off by the somewhat restless Miss Leshy, we were led to a different room. Once we were left alone with Mia, I enveloped us with a barrier so that our voices couldn’t be heard outside. While there shouldn’t be anyone eavesdropping and it isn’t particularly troublesome if we get overheard, Ciel would probably feel more comfortable speaking with a barrier up.

「Now then, let us change your clothes.」

With Mia’s help, Ciel takes off her clothes.

『Mia went through so much effort choosing this outfit, and we probably won’t be wearing it again today.』
『Changing again is bothersome, yes.』
『Well, that’s true…―But Ciel, if you want to change back into it, then feel free to do as you want.』

If we want to make Miss Leshy happy, then buying this on the spot and wearing it for the rest of the day would be the best option, but I’d prefer that Ciel follow what her heart desires. It’s not good to backseat other people’s friendships anyway; and if Miss Leshy can’t respect Ciel’s decisions to begin with, their friendship won’t last long.

Nonetheless, I’m sure Ciel prefers the outfit Miss Leshy chose to the one we wore on the way, so there’s probably no need to say this out loud.

「You chose these clothes for me, but I might not wear them for the rest of the day.」
「You’ve worn it on the way here; that’s more than enough.」
「Really?」
「There are even cases where outfits would never be worn again after being used in public; there are even people who have clothes in their closet that would never see the light of day.」
「There are clothes treated like that?」

Ciel raised her voice in surprise. We only carry the bare minimum amount of clothes when traveling, so her reaction is understandable, but don’t we also have a lot of still unworn clothes in our closet at the manor?
Well, we’ll probably end up wearing it sooner or later, though.

Now, for the outfit Miss Leshy chose, it consisted of a white blouse and a black high-waist skirt. It seems like she gave up on the summer dress. They’re made of thin fabrics, making them feel breezy, but not thin enough to be translucent.
There’s a moss green ribbon at the chest area, and it also came with a yellow-green cardigan and a necklace with a yellow gemstone.

It looks expensive overall, which probably shouldn’t even need mention, and the colorful additions can be seen as Miss Leshy’s small act of resistance.
She probably wanted to dress Ciel in yellowish clothes.

As a whole, if not for the necklace, it could be mistaken for a school uniform. Not this world’s academy uniform, but my previous world’s―specifically the type you’d see in creative media.
The skirt is long, but not too long. One thing for certain is that this isn’t something a normal student can afford.

「Lady Ainsel, if you may excuse me.」

Responding to Mia, I undo the hair barrier. As I wondered how she’d style Ciel’s hair, it looks like she’s going with a simple braid on the back. With the length of Ciel’s hair, it’ll take a long time to make tight braids, so I guess that’s understandable.

With the hair interlocking into place, it resulted in a cute hairstyle I couldn’t possibly pull off, which Ciel then checked by swinging her head left and right.

「How does it look?」
「It suits you nicely.」
『How do you like it, Ciel?』
「Great! As I thought, black really is wonderful, wonderful, you know!」

While I’m glad to see Ciel overjoyed, I don’t really know how to respond. In my place, Mia answers, 「It’s Lady Ainsel’s color, after all.」 Seeing how pleased Ciel is, I’m sure Miss Leshy will be very relieved.