Chapter 38

“Oh.”

I let out an exclamation of awe as I looked at the women’s undergarments right in front of me. So this was a medieval corset. As someone who usually hated anything restrictive, this was my very first time encountering one. It looked so rigid that if I let it squeeze my waist tight, I felt like I would suffocate on the spot.

Seeing my reaction, the maids bowed their heads and greeted me.

“Good day, Young Lady. Today, we will make you more flawless than anyone else in this world.”

I’m flawless even on a normal day, though.

“You can simply leave your body entirely in our hands.”

It’s burdensome, so please don’t do that.

“We studied hard for this day!”

I had no idea what kind of studying they had done, but they at least looked confident, so I gave a vague nod.

“Oh, right.”

I thought to myself as I watched the passionate, fist-clenching maids. I had originally intended to leave my makeup to Yul as usual, but Yul had shaken her head and brought these people instead.

[Unfortunately, I am not a professional, so I believe it would be best to leave such things to the experts.]

Well, the problem was that even though I didn’t see these “experts” very often, their faces were entirely familiar to me. Since when did the maids working in our mansion become makeup professionals?

On top of that, the muttering I heard from a distance while they were preparing the cosmetics one by one was driving me out of my mind.

“Haa, haa. Calm down.”

“You’re the one who needs to calm down. Even if the Young Lady’s sacred body(?) is right in front of your eyes, if you lose your mind here, it’s over.”

For the record, I was not a king. I wasn’t someone important enough to warrant terms like a sacred body. Yet they were naturally referring to me as a sacred body.

“In the worst case scenario, if we get kicked out of the club, we might not be able to see ‘those things’ anymore.”

What on earth was a club, and what were those things the maids kept talking about? I was overwhelmingly curious, but I felt like asking about it would lead to witnessing something irreversible and causing me permanent mental trauma, so I just let it go. Wasn’t there a saying that ignorance is bliss?

Anyway, wouldn’t it be fine as long as the makeup turned out well? Since they claimed to be experts, I just hoped they would finish as quickly as possible. Taking it slow, maybe it would take around 30 minutes?

Closing my eyes for a moment to wait for the makeup to finish, I finally felt a slight sense of oddity. I had thought I was getting used to things little by little lately, but some of the maids were starting to act unafraid of me. No, rather, there were faces I saw frequently, as if they were blushing when they looked at me or purposely wandering around just to run into me.

Something was definitely going on in this mansion that I wasn’t aware of. Still, well, it didn’t seem like a bad thing, so I decided to let it slide. All’s well that ends well.

“Eek! You’re so gorgeous, Young Lady.”

Really? To be fair, even I felt surprised sometimes when I looked in the mirror. Because I was too pretty. Did that mean the makeup was basically done? I could feel the maids’ hands coming to a stop.

And then, a strange sound reached my ears.

Click—

“Gasp! I forgot and left it on unmuted mode.”

“Idiot. How could you make a mistake like that? The Madam President is going to chew you out.”

The Madam President? Had I secretly joined some corporate group in this world without my knowledge? On top of that, unless my ears were just decorative, that was unmistakably the shutter sound of a camera. But was it because I had kept my eyes closed for so long while getting my makeup done?

For some reason, I didn’t want to open my eyes, and sleepiness kept washing over me. Figuring that sleeping wouldn’t interfere with the makeup process anyway, I simply surrendered myself to the incoming wave of slumber.

Meanwhile, the maids who had committed such an absurd blunder checked to ensure that Lady Armienne was fast asleep and let out collective sighs of relief.

“That was a close call, seriously.”

“Shh. Keep your voice down.”

Huddling together and whispering amongst themselves, they calmly admired the made-up appearance of the Young Lady. Then, with their cameras safely switched to silent mode, they slowly captured her image once more.

“What do we do now?”

“Wipe it off. There’s still plenty of time before the ball, so let’s try a different makeup look.”

“Right, we should?”

If Armienne had been awake, she would have screamed her head off demanding if they had lost their minds, but unfortunately, three whole hours passed before she finally woke up.

Feeling like I had slept soundly, I checked the time, realized a full three hours had flown by, and bolted upright. The maids backed away in startled panic, and while frantically sweeping my hand over my mouth just in case I had drooled, I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the mirror and froze completely.

Even though I was looking at my own reflection, I couldn’t tear my eyes away. The eyelashes were longer than usual, and a soft, not-too-overpowering red blush naturally harmonized with my features. My lips, tinted with a passionate red lipstick, looked just like a strawberry begging to be eaten right away.

“Pretty.”

At my involuntary murmur, the maids clasped each other’s hands and shed tears.

“It’s just because the Young Lady is naturally too gorgeous to begin with.”

“That’s right. The Young Lady shines even without any makeup on.”

At their words, I smiled without realizing it and replied. Strangely enough, hearing that I was beautiful didn’t feel bad at all.

“Right. Thank you, everyone.”

However, wondering if things were finally over, I looked around and froze all over again—though for an entirely different reason than before.

My spacious room was completely packed with clothing racks filled from top to bottom with dresses. Looking at them, a sudden thought slipped past my lips.

“Um, we’re not going to try trying all of those on, are we?”

At my words, the maids nodded in unison.

“Yes. We could never be satisfied with a mere handful of clothes like this. There are more outside.”

It seemed they had misunderstood my words. Hearing an answer far more horrifying than what I had expected, I squeezed my eyes shut tight.

Giving up completely felt like the easier option. In the end, without even getting to eat properly until we were cutting it dangerously close to the ball’s start time, I tried on every single dress one by one. And when it came time to tighten the corset after finally picking an outfit, I couldn’t help letting out a shriek.

It hurt so badly that a genuine thought crossed my mind: Aren’t my ribs actually snapping right now?

“Well then, I’ll be going.”

“Hmm, go ahead and head off, Mom. Ahre’s sleepy, so I’m going to sleep.”

Watching Ahre rub her eyes, satisfied with another good dinner, I gave her a tight hug and climbed into the carriage. Yul followed right behind me, and the coachman flicked his whip, setting the carriage in motion.

Watching the streetlamps flicker on one by one as evening fell, I gazed out at the royal palace looming in the distance.

Today’s finally the day.

It was time to show off the dance I had practiced so hard for.

Meanwhile, the people who had arrived before Armienne were all busy gossiping about the villainess, Armienne. Everyone present knew very well that the primary reason this party was taking place at all was due to the clout of Armienne’s mother, Arsila.

Of course, with the weather having cleared up, it was naturally getting close to the time for the royal palace ball anyway, but the fact that it was scheduled precisely on the date Arsila wanted made it feel that way to the guests.

That sentiment was especially strong among the noble young ladies chatting away in a corner of the royal palace garden. A spoiled, wicked young lady who threw her weight around, leaning on her mother’s influence and the title of a ducal princess to do whatever she pleased. That was the image of Armienne they held in their minds.

“She’s still as arrogant and insufferable as ever.”

“Seriously. Ha, just thinking about having to kiss up to that wretch today puts me in a bad mood.”

If there was one thing Arsila and Armienne were unaware of, it was that the young ladies who pretended to be close to her actually despised and resented Armienne deeply.

They were both terrified of and disgusted by Armienne, who threw tantrums and scowled over trivial matters. Moreover, terrified that her bad luck might somehow splash onto them, they kept smiles plastered on their faces while hiding their discomfort underneath.

Naturally, they could never genuinely like Armienne.

“She’ll probably bully Lady Harmiel again today, right?”

“Fufu, probably. Well, anyway, Lady Harmiel—that wretch is something else, too. Being a fellow ducal princess yet unable to fight back and just letting Armienne walk all over her every single day.”

“And she doesn’t even say a word when we tease her, either. Tsk, to think a pathetic wretch like that was born into a ducal house. If I were in her shoes, I couldn’t live like that.”

While they were passing the time by continuing to whisper behind people’s backs, a sudden creeping chill ran down their spines. This sensation was identical to the feeling they got whenever Armienne was genuinely furious, so they quickly turned around in a panic, only to let out collective sighs of relief the next moment.

“Pleased to meet you, Lady Harmiel. It seems you’ve also received an invitation to the royal palace ball. I am Krie de Shail, whom you met once before with Lady Armienne.”

The young ladies beside her also chimed in one by one, introducing themselves by mentioning Armienne’s name, but Harmiel simply swept her gaze over them without saying a word.

When Harmiel remained speechless despite their introductions, the young ladies snorted inwardly. They assumed Harmiel had frozen up in sheer terror upon hearing Armienne’s name.

Figures. Tsk.

Must have locked up because there are so many people around.

Since their numbers were overwhelmingly superior and they viewed Harmiel as a coward, they didn’t feel any worry—laughter bubbled up naturally instead. As that atmosphere settled in, one of the young ladies naturally crossed the line, stepping forward and extending a hand toward Lady Harmiel.

“Would you care to share a handshake with us, Lady Harmiel?”

The other young ladies watched the scene with avid, intrigued expressions, looking forward to seeing how Harmiel would humiliate herself.

If she shook hands right here without an ounce of pride, they felt they wouldn’t be able to stop laughing. They all covered their mouths to hold back their laughter, but a second later, they let out shrieks instead of giggles. What was unfolding right before their eyes was an immense, shocking contrast to what they had imagined.

Whack.

“Eek!”

“Hmph.”

Not content with simply swatting away the hand extended toward her, Harmiel went ahead and delivered a crisp slap straight across the young lady’s cheek, sending the completely flabbergasted victim—who never dreamed Harmiel would pull such a stunt—tumbling sideways.

Harmiel, who ordinarily should have been trembling in terror after causing a scene like this, instead looked down at the fallen young lady with icy eyes.

Yet it felt so effortlessly natural that not a single person could find their voice to speak. Right now, Harmiel’s demeanor looked exactly like that of the villainess, Armienne. Only then did Harmiel finally open her mouth.

“First of all, I apologize for failing to acknowledge your greetings properly, ladies.”

Straightening her back and smoothing down the back of her hand, Harmiel spoke to the young ladies.

“My memory isn’t particularly great, you see, so as I tried to engrave each and every one of your names into my mind, I unfortunately found myself unable to speak.”

At the bone-chilling coldness of Harmiel’s voice, they felt a creeping sensation that something had gone terribly wrong. Yet their pride as nobles refused to let them back down like this. Especially not against Harmiel, whom they had deemed a spineless coward inferior to themselves.

Throwing aside any thoughts of maintaining basic etiquette, they raised their voices.

“Ha—how could a ducal princess possibly treat us this way?”

“We are friends with Lady Armienne. Lady Armienne won’t let this slide, you know.”

At their words, Harmiel let out a soft snicker, stepped closer to the young lady who had just spoken, and swung her palm across her cheek once more.

Whack.

“Y-You wretch!”

Furious as they were, status-wise, Harmiel was a precious jewel of a ducal princess belonging to the Harun House, exactly equal to Armienne. Trembling with rage, they had no choice left other than to wait for Armienne to arrive and rescue them.

Right then. In the distance, a single woman could be seen rushing urgently toward them. Even from afar, the woman possessed a breathtakingly striking face that instantly drew all eyes—and her identity was none other than Armienne.

Seeing Armienne after such a long time, the young ladies were so stunned they momentarily forgot what kind of situation they were in. Armienne, whom they had previously thought was merely pretty, was shining brightly enough today to make someone believe an angel had descended from the heavens.

To the young ladies, it genuinely looked as though radiant white wings were sprouting from Armienne’s back. In their current predicament, Armienne was nothing short of a savior.

Before Lady Harmiel could even call out, they cried out her name.

“Lady Armienne!”

“Sob, it’s been so long, Lady Armienne! Why did you take so long to get here? We’ve been waiting for you with our necks stretched out.”

Now Lady Armienne would exact revenge on their behalf. They believed that with unwavering certainty. However, the words that dropped from Lady Armienne’s lips a second later caused them to gasp in shock and stumble backward.

“Who are you?”