COARV Chapter 17

Two days later, the year-end party's preparations were done. Right at the wire—but done.

I did it.

My worry hadn't let go of me. So I'd pulled my hat down low and come to check the hall early. I hadn't needed to worry at all.

Seeing the hall transformed to suit the season's mood, I felt genuinely proud. Two days of being hauled around on Elliot's back—it had paid off. The sweet strains of neatly dressed musicians tickled at my ears. I stood on the somewhat secluded second-floor staircase and looked the hall over.

Even before the doors had officially opened, the hall was already full of nobles. Pairs danced light steps to the music, or gathered in twos and threes, deep in conversation.

At least ninety percent of it was probably about me. The real ball wouldn't start until evening, so all I needed to do was time my arrival with Lesche's and show my face.

When I got back to the annex, Begonia was waiting for me.

"My lady. Should I be calling you 'Your Highness, the Grand Duchess' now?"

I smiled at the teasing note in her voice.

"It's a favor His Highness granted me, to save my life. You can just address me plainly."

—along with some kind of slave contract.

That being temporary lady of the house had been... a slave's role, all along.

Honestly, I was still a little busy. But Begonia had helped me in more ways than I could easily count, so I accepted her request to meet without hesitation.

"I've seen goodwill turn into fate often enough."

Begonia laughed elegantly, but her gaze stayed sharp. She was carefully examining a dress hung on a mannequin at that moment.

This pink-beige dress was the one Kallis had commissioned from Begonia, alongside the wedding gown, to be worn at the reception.

But with the reception hastily converted into a year-end party, Begonia had found herself in an emergency of her own, and had come to find me.

"A dress for a wedding reception and a dress for a year-end party feel entirely different. The former can afford to be pure and understated, since it's an extension of the wedding itself—but the latter absolutely must be more lavish than that. Get it wrong, and you risk looking shabby. Dreadfully so."

No designer wants her own work looking shabby. That would explain why the dress had suddenly sprouted so many more jewels. At Begonia's brief instructions, her assistants set to work, briskly dressing me in it.

They were braiding my hair up and pinning it in place, decorating it just as meticulously with jeweled pins, when—

"Lady Seria, would you take a moment to look at this dress in the mirror?"

Out of nowhere, Begonia pulled a dress from an angular leather bag.

"What do you think? It would suit a spring picnic beautifully."

It was a forsythia-yellow dress, beautiful enough to draw an involuntary sigh of admiration. I complimented it with real sincerity.

"It's very lovely."

"Isn't it? One of my main pieces for next season."

Begonia, wearing a satisfied expression, broke into a full smile.

"Now then—in exchange for gifting you this dress."

"Yes?"

"Would you be willing to make a small revision to our existing dress contract?"

"What sort of revision did you have in mind?"

"I'd like to change the name of the commissioning party in the contract from the Marquess of Haneton to yourself, Lady Seria. Would that be possible?"

"That's not difficult at all. It was going to be my dress in the end, anyway. Give me the contract."

"You really don't waste time dithering, Lady Seria. I like that."

She'd clearly come today prepared to raise exactly this, because she pulled a single sheet of paper from her bosom straight away. It was the dress commission contract Kallis had signed a few months back. I looked briefly at his familiar name, then drew a line through it and wrote my own beside it.

"Here you are."

She checked my signature, and her expression eased like someone who'd just had a bad tooth pulled.

"Wonderful. That's settled, then. You have no idea how much this has been splitting my head open."

"Why is that?"

"The Saint wanted to commission a dress."

"Lina did?"

"Yes. Not for the year-end party, of course—there wasn't nearly enough time for that. But she wanted a dress for when she goes to Haneton territory."

"A dress for Haneton territory?"

"Exactly. She said she'd heard there was still an unfulfilled contract under the Marquess of Haneton's name in my possession, and asked whether I couldn't simply add one more dress onto it."

Hearing that, I could be certain of one thing.

Lina clearly had no idea Kallis had requested a divorce. Otherwise, there'd be no reason for her to be commissioning a dress to wear at Haneton territory.

Once tomorrow's year-end party ends, every noble who's here as a wedding guest is supposed to leave the castle.

Lina would have to leave Berke Castle in a few days as well. As the Saint, she'd naturally be expected to return to the Grand Temple, and yet—Haneton territory?

Does she hate the Grand Temple that much?

The question surfaced, unbidden. Lina was surrounded by nothing but priests, so of course they'd only ever speak well of the Grand Temple to her. And objectively, the Holy Kingdom, where the Grand Temple stood, was a beautiful and magnificent city. The food was a little lacking, granted, but priests weren't the sort to bring up something so trivial as a flaw.

Having visited the Grand Temple once myself, after being transported into Seria's body, with the feel of a tourist checking off a famous landmark, I honestly couldn't quite understand it.

In any case, the divorce would take a fair amount of time to finalize, so until then, Lina would technically remain the Marchioness of Haneton. Given how prestigious and singular the title of Saint was, she'd likely continue being called "the Saint" regardless.

Which reminds me—I need to return it. The Marchioness of Haneton's ring.

As tradition-conscious noble families tended to have, the wives of the House of Haneton carried an emerald ring passed down through generations. The emerald ring Kallis had slipped onto my hand when he proposed was still sleeping quietly in my jewelry box.

I'd forgotten about it in all the confusion. I was just starting to think I needed to find Kallis and return the ring quickly, when Begonia let out a sigh and creased her brow.

"Honestly, it's remarkable how clumsy the Saint is with noble etiquette, and yet how lucky she is with things like this. She really doesn't seem to understand that with the Marquess of Haneton's existing commission on file, it's difficult to refuse a request from the woman who'll become his wife."

"So that's why you had me rewrite the contract."

"Yes. Now, when the Saint tries to commission a dress, I'll be able to decline comfortably."

Wanting a dress from Begonia is exactly the same, original story or not.

Fair enough. Begonia's dresses were beautiful. There was something in them that struck a genuine chord.

Knock, knock.

Along with the sound of a knock at the door, a visibly flustered maid came in.

"My lady. I—"

"What's wrong?"

"Well, we have a visitor."

"Who is it, that you're stalling like that?"

Suddenly—

A woman poked her head out from behind the maid, and the moment they saw her, the assistants were startled. They immediately checked my state of dress. Fortunately, I was fully dressed by then, but—

"Designer Begonia, you really are here! I've been looking everywhere for you!"

"Your Holiness."

It seemed Lina had regained the ability to walk on her own overnight. She came in slowly, and—given that she seemed to be attending today's year-end party as well—she'd been dressed quite beautifully herself. The pure white dress Lina wore suited her image well, but my first thought was that the nobles were going to tear into it viciously.

The design was oddly reminiscent of a miniature wedding gown.

Lina walked in slowly, then caught sight of the forsythia-yellow dress still cascading from Begonia's hands and flushed.

"Designer Begonia. Um, could you please take on my dress commission too? This dress was made from Kallis's commission too, wasn't it? If it's a matter of the deposit, I can have the priests send more!"

Where should I even start with that?

I would have bet the pretty dress in question that whatever had flashed through my mind and whatever had flashed through Begonia's mind weren't so very different.

No—if anything, Begonia looked considerably angrier than I felt. She was a designer famously sensitive about "noble grace and refinement," known throughout the capital for it.

"Your Holiness."

That familiar, severe tone emerged.

"This is Lady Seria's residence. Which means, Your Holiness, you ought to greet the mistress of this place first."

Under the sharp reprimand, Lina shrank and turned to me.

"I'm sorry. Seria, good after—"

She hurried to greet me, but it was too late.

"And, Your Holiness."

Begonia wasn't Lina's etiquette instructor. She wasn't inclined to wait patiently for a mistake to correct itself—in Begonia's mind, Kallis and Lina's reputations had already sunk about as low as they could go.

"Just a moment ago, Lady Seria was in the middle of changing her dress. What on earth—barging into a lady's chambers right before a ball, that's the kind of thing only vulgar, low-born rabble would do!"

Lina's face went scarlet. But Begonia's cold, hard expression didn't waver an inch.

"More to the point, Your Holiness. I am not a designer who reduces her dresses to a simple matter of money. Which makes talk of an insufficient deposit an extraordinary insult to me."

"That's not what I meant—"

"A blade swung once will leave its mark even on sand. I'm afraid I cannot take on Your Holiness's dress commission. I hope you'll understand."

"But that dress was under Kallis's commission too, wasn't it? Adding one more shouldn't be difficult—"

"Unfortunately, that's no longer the case. The commission has been transferred to Lady Seria. Since the contract has been revised, it's become difficult to add a dress for someone with no relation whatsoever to Lady Seria."

"What?"

Lina looked lost, stamping her feet helplessly, and then she came rushing at me. She snatched up my hand.

"If that's all it is, then it's fine, Designer Begonia. Seria and I are friends."

For a moment, a deep silence settled over my room. I pulled my hand free of hers.

"We are not friends."

"What? Why...?"

"Why do you ask?"

I creased my brow slightly.

In noble society, "friend" doesn't simply mean someone of a similar age. Only a relationship close enough to rank just below family could rightfully be called "friend."

More than that, becoming friends with Lina could easily read as forgiving what Kallis had done. And I could not, under any circumstances, forgive Kallis.

"How am I supposed to laugh and giggle my way into friendship with my former fiancé's current wife? Could you, Lina?"

"Kallis and I aren't formally married! You know that, Seria! It was only ever to save his life, we didn't have any choice!"

"That's a matter between the two of you. It's got nothing to do with me."

Lina's face turned white.

"But—but—"

"Please leave, Lina. And don't come back like this again."

"Seria!"

She grabbed at me, frantic.

"We really could be such good friends! The tutor told me everything, you know! That your mother was a commoner actress!"