MPBAGS Chapter 70

What a perfect day to die... I should probably blow out some smoke dramatically.

My whole body felt languid, and I wanted to lie down and eat grapes that Kanna would feed me.

Normally, lying around acting like a slacker wouldn't be a problem, but now this was the only leisure time I could enjoy.

After Gabriel suggested we attend social events together, I became someone who would need ten bodies to keep up.

That damn debutante ball was the problem.

Evangeline was supposedly at the pinnacle of high society, but since she hadn't even debuted yet, there was a lot to prepare before she could properly attend balls or banquets.

"The young lady was too frail to even have a debutante ball."

Daisy said Evangeline's body was too weak to enter society, but considering she had the energy to torment others, it seemed more like the Count had prevented her from going out, worried she might act like a villainess again.

When I sent a telegram to the Count saying I was debuting, he replied that he wouldn't stop me since I wouldn't listen anyway, but please, please behave normally for once.

Along with the reply came tutors. I guess he was aware that I had amnesia and thought I needed to be re-educated.

But there were way too many... Etiquette, dancing, painting, horseback riding, embroidery, and poetry - I don't even know why I need to learn poetry. Six tutors were summoned. At least they didn't try to teach me history, which was fortunate.

The tutors weren't much help either.

The poetry teacher, perhaps because his major was literature, was quite emotional himself. He left some poetic metaphor about how the Rohanson estate was "a fragment of hell sprouting on earth, a pandemonium where demons frolic," then threw in his resignation without even looking back at the gate. Simply put, he got scared of Evangeline's reputation and fled.

The embroidery teacher fainted after begging me with tears not to cut her throat when my hand accidentally got pricked by a needle and started bleeding. For reference, my embroidery skills were judged to be beyond improvement.

For horseback riding, there was no need to learn since the horse listened to me so well that the instructor said there was nothing more to teach after just one day and told me to go home.

When I asked the art teacher if there was a studio, I guided him to the storage room next door. He seemed a bit frightened by how gloomy the room was. When he asked if he could see my artistic skills, I showed him all the canvases (though I hadn't painted them), and he was horrified and ran away.

But I could understand why. Everything Evangeline had painted was of the same person.

The same woman looking straight ahead in the exact same composition was somehow chilling. It felt like her eyes might move like in a horror movie. It also seemed somehow familiar - who was it?

"Do you know who this is?"

"It must be the late madam."

I broke out in a cold sweat. Wait, I misspoke. Looking again, it wasn't like a horror movie but like a movie. Evangeline had created art. The reason it felt familiar was probably because it resembled Evangeline.

Daisy explained that she had joined the Count's household after the Countess passed away, so she had never actually seen her.

In the diary, she always spoke curses at the Count, wished for death, and despaired over herself, but in the painting, she was smiling faintly.

"She's a beautiful woman."

She wasn't even my mother, but I missed my mother. Still, it was fortunate that she had shown her smiling face to her daughter.

I covered the painting with cloth again so it wouldn't be damaged by sunlight.

Anyway, the art teacher also quit after being frightened by the painting. The butler was so troubled that he pleaded with me to please stay within bounds since it was hard to keep the tutors quiet. I hadn't done anything wrong, so it was unfair.

"You say you have amnesia, but fortunately, your body remembers the habits."

At least the etiquette teacher had strong professional ethics and took responsibility for me to the end. Whether it was some kind of possession buff, etiquette was like a passive skill that I didn't need to relearn.

This is what they mean by the body remembering. Sometimes when I speak, I end up talking rudely - I guess my tongue remembers this too.

"Dolly worked hard too."

"It's all thanks to the young lady following along so well."

I was grateful that she taught me without running away, so I told the butler to give her a generous bonus.

Dolly broke the cliché of the strict etiquette teacher by being remarkably oblivious and kind. She didn't seem to know much about Evangeline's reputation either. Is that why she didn't run away?

"The dance teacher should be coming soon. I heard you were frail - is it okay for you to dance?"

My body was fine. The problem was, similarly, the dance teacher.

I learned the dance moves quickly, but when we tried to practice together, the teacher refused to dance, saying he couldn't bear to touch my body.

"Young lady, excuse me. Have you finished your lesson?"

Henna knocked and asked from outside the door. When I told her to come in, Henna greeted Dolly and handed me a letter.

Looking at the recipient, it was for the dance teacher.

"Don't tell me?"

That "don't tell me" was right. Cutting through all the lengthy excuses, it basically said that since I had already learned all the moves, there should be no problem, and he had done enough so he was quitting.

"Is he quitting again?"

"Yes."

With this, all my tutors had quit except for Dolly.

The dance teacher was really funny too - he taught me everything he was supposed to, then why bail out in the middle? Still, I'm grateful he at least taught me the moves.

I told Henna to go to the butler and tell him to pay the full tuition without cutting it. If you don't pay someone who quit halfway, who knows what rumors they might spread later. It might get twisted into Evangeline learning everything then firing them without pay. All I have is money, and they're calling me a miser!

"Yes, I'll tell him that."

"Um... I should get going too."

Dolly, who had been reading the mood, packed her things and got up.

"Dolly, do you know how to dance?"

"I can do the basics. But to be your partner, I'd need to play the gentleman's role, right? I only know how to dance as a lady's accomplishment."

So she can't do it because she doesn't know the male part.

"How about asking Lord Gabriel to be your practice partner?"

Right... I'm going to dance with Gabriel anyway, so should I just ask Gabriel?

Dolly left her advice and departed with many apologies.

After Dolly left, my afternoon schedule was completely empty. When I returned to my room and collapsed on the bed, Pudding gave me a massage with his cat paws. It was cute but not refreshing at all...

Jelly saw this and transformed into human form to give me a massage. It felt like all the fatigue in my body was melting away. Jelly was quite skilled at massage.

"Did you learn this somewhere?"

"My previous master sometimes made me do this."

I had asked where he learned it, only to touch on a sore spot. Right, I sometimes forget, but Jelly was a former beastman slave...

"Making me do this kind of thing - what bad taste, right?"

It sounded like he was telling me off for receiving the massage. So I told him it was fine to stop now and shooed Jelly away. Sorry for the bad taste.

"Jelly, do you know how to dance?"

"Would I know human dances?"

No. You're a werewolf who was captured and escaped from a slave trader, so of course you wouldn't know. But since you said you learned massage from your previous master, I wondered if you might have learned dancing too...

"Do you know?"

When Jelly asked while pulling Pudding's tail, Pudding scratched him with his claws.

"What a nasty personality. If you don't know, just say so."

No. That's your fault for asking a baby who can't even talk yet. Pudding must want to answer too.

"Why dancing? Did the dance teacher run away too? Humans are all such cowards."

That's what I'm saying. I don't know why they're all so scared. There are too few talents like Dolly in the world.

"Still, it's fortunate that Dolly is staying."

"How much longer do you think she'll last? A day? A week?"

"Who knows."

This bastard Jelly is practically holding a ritual for her to quit. He looked ready to bet on when she'd quit if I just left it alone.

"Still, she needs to last at least two weeks, right?"

"Two weeks? Got it."

My debutante ball is scheduled for two weeks from now. It's already late since we're in the middle of the season when balls and banquets are being held…

The season had already begun with the formal court presentations where debutantes are introduced to the royal court, but two weeks from now is the Crown Prince's thirtieth birthday, so the timing was perfect.

Gabriel said he'd take care of getting the invitation. He'd also make the dress and arrange for a chaperone. As expected of a romance novel male lead, his skill at taking care of everything from A to Z is excellent...

Now he'll have to teach me to dance too. I felt a bit sorry for dumping too much work on him, but then I realized this was a disaster Gabriel brought upon himself, so I shook off the guilt.

Right. Gabriel was the one who asked to be my partner first. That's what love is like. The person who loves more loses.

Come to think of it, how did Dolly know Gabriel was my partner?

I never told her. Has the news that Gabriel asked to be my partner already spread everywhere? As expected, gossip travels fast in high society.