Chapter 7

“Lillian, don’t I look strange?”

“Peacocks are colorful to find mates too. First you have to stand out before you can tempt anyone.”

“Even so…… this feels a bit too much.”

“It’ll be over before you know it. Trust me, Ellen.”

I shouldn’t have trusted those words.

After getting down from the carriage, Ellen stepped forward carefully, clutching the buttons of her tightly fastened overcoat. Even though the sun had not yet set, drunken men and women were already twining around each other in the streets like snakes.

Should I turn back even now?

That thought crossed her mind again and again at the embarrassing sight, but she could not stop walking. Better to do something than to become the wife of some man who might be a first husband or a second and live in a loveless marriage just like that.

“Hoo…… I can do this, Ellen. Let’s not be afraid.”

Having arrived at her destination, Ellen slowly steadied her breathing. The only places she had ever gone before were the royal ball held by the Imperial Palace at the beginning of the year and the debutante ball she had attended several years ago. Even then, she had always been with her family, especially Felix, so the place beside her had never been empty. It said everything that the only person she had ever danced with in her life was Felix Mendel.

“He’s no help in life at all.”

Swallowing the anger rising in her, Ellen clenched both fists tightly. Even though she had resolved not to blame him, the more she thought about it, the more unfair it felt. Just as she was forcing down the urge to turn back, even for a moment, and was about to step into the salon, someone caught her by the shoulder.

“Oh my! Well, if it isn’t you?”

When she turned her head, she saw Asiel, a classmate from the instrumental department, standing there with a delighted face. She was also the very one who had spread the word about the Belnua Salon to their classmates in the ensemble room yesterday afternoon while sharing bedroom tips.

Ellen had deliberately come early in the afternoon to Belnua Salon to avoid the busiest hour, and yet she had never dreamed she would run into a familiar face before she had even gone in.

“You’re Ellen Sawyer, the practice maniac from the instrumental department, right?”

“Ah…… hello, Asiel.”

Ellen slowly greeted her, trying hard to hide her flustered expression. Asiel, on the other hand, seemed rather pleased by the situation and took charge of the conversation with a broad smile.

“Did you come out for a bit of sightseeing for a change?”

“Mm, I thought I’d get some air too.”

“Really? This whole area is full of bars, so I didn’t think there’d be anywhere around here that suited you.”

At the question that followed, Ellen laughed awkwardly and fiddled with her platinum hair braided to one side. On her head hung the flowers and ribbon decorations Lillian had pinned there, rather cumbersome and conspicuous. To anyone looking, she had clearly dressed herself up for a party.

“Don’t tell me, Ellen, you’re not planning to go here too, are you?”

Asiel narrowed her eyes and looked Ellen up and down. At that strangely belittling gaze, Ellen deliberately lifted her chin stiffly and faced her.

“That’s right. I’m going to the party too.”

“I didn’t think you had any interest in places like this. That’s unexpected.”

“I-it’s just, I’ve had such a hard time studying all this while.”

“Well, for me, I’m just glad I managed to graduate at all.”

“I…… I’ve really lived very diligently. So today, I wanted to give myself a little reward for all the effort I’ve put in until now. And if I happen to meet a good match while I’m here, even better……”

With an interested expression, Asiel listened carefully to Ellen’s words. Under the burden of Asiel’s gaze fixed on her so intently, Ellen found herself adding things she did not even need to say, as if making excuses.

“That’s good, then. There are lots of students from other departments inside too. Since you’ve come all this way, you should enjoy yourself properly.”

As if checking whether she was qualified before some test, Asiel smiled and walked past Ellen. Then, after stopping for a moment, she turned back to the still-blankly-standing Ellen and asked another question.

“Do you have anyone with you, by any chance? If you don’t mind, we can go in together.”

“Um…… no, but it’s fine. I can do well enough on my own.”

“This isn’t the academy, you know. Effort alone won’t be enough here. It’ll be awkward to be by yourself. Are you really sure you’ll be okay?”

Contrary to her words that she was fine, Ellen bit her anxious lips and hesitated before answering. Unlike Asiel, who looked accustomed to nightlife, Ellen really was an exemplary student who knew nothing but study, no, more like a sheltered innocent.

A kind but strict father, brothers who protected their only younger sister with desperate intensity, and Felix Mendel, who watched over her at those brothers’ command. Within that flawless web of surveillance, Ellen had never so much as tasted even a common glass of wine.

For someone who did not even know her own tolerance, and whose only conversations with the opposite s*x outside of family had been with Felix Mendel alone, this place was little different from an unfavorable battlefield, a fight she was bound to lose.

In this situation, rather than wandering the party alone, it might not be such a bad idea to attach herself, even somewhat uncomfortably, to someone of Asiel’s caliber. And perhaps she could also ask about those bedroom tips she had not managed to hear yesterday……

“Are you sure you’re fine being with me? This is my first time at a party like this, so I might be a little stifling.”

“We’re classmates from the same department in name, aren’t we? Do you think I wouldn’t know that much? It’s not like we’ve known each other for only a day or two.”

Asiel lightly tugged Ellen’s arm and opened the salon door. As befitted the most popular party venue, before even entering the main hall there was a separate area prepared where guests could leave simple belongings, including outerwear.

“Ellen, your dress is so pretty.”

Once she took off her coat, Asiel’s voice came from behind her, laced with laughter. The dress Ellen wore was a piece by a famous designer, one she had debuted several years ago at her debutante. Since Madame Mendel had visited the designer for several days in a row to obtain it after the Madam had refused, saying all reservations were full, it was only natural that admiration would spill from Asiel’s lips.

“Well, it’s a party after all. At least this much is only right.”

Needlessly puffing up with pride, Ellen turned around, her full skirt swirling. Then, in the very moment she crossed her arms for show and faced Asiel, the confidence-filled eyes of Ellen wavered like waves.

Contrary to her expectation that Asiel would naturally be wearing a dress, once her coat came off Asiel was still dressed in the academy uniform.

“Ellen, did you by any chance mean to go to the royal ball and come here by mistake instead?”

At that question, Ellen could only blink with a stiff face. Asiel, who usually loved dressing up, would wear different clothes even on academy event days, or thoroughly cover her academy uniform so that it would not show. So why, on a day this important, was she wearing that……?

“Asiel, why are you the one wearing your academy uniform? Do you perhaps have remedial class afterward?”

“Pfft, remedial class. That really does sound like something an exemplary student would say.”

Whatever she found so funny, Asiel let out a laugh and repeated Ellen’s words. Soon, tilting her head as if asking whether Ellen truly did not know, she moved closer.

“You really don’t know?”

“Hm? Know what?”

“Ellen, you really don’t know, do you? Then again, there really isn’t anyone around you who would tell you this.”

“What…… don’t I know?”

“It’s the graduation party. At a graduation party, isn’t it obvious that you come wearing your academy uniform? It’s the dress code, the dress code.”

“Ah……!”

She hurriedly tried to compose her face as if she were not embarrassed, but it was not easy. Ellen slowly uncrossed the arms she had just folded so boastfully and quietly drew them behind her back. Why had she even come wearing lace gloves that reached all the way to her elbows? Ellen felt as though she wanted to crawl into a mouse hole if one existed.

“It’s okay. If you didn’t know, then that happens. No one will even care.”

Asiel smiled brightly and said it as though it were no big deal. Then she beckoned blankly standing Ellen to come along already.

Should I just go back?

For a very brief moment, a homesick urge rose from a shame she had never before felt, but today was her only chance. She might somehow manage to stay at the party tonight, but once daylight came, word would naturally reach her brothers. Which meant she could not retreat like this.