Chapter 1.5

“How unfortunate.”  

Stop it!  

“I, too, am fond of beautiful people.”  

I get it!  

“I like beautiful people.”  

Aaaah!! I get it already! Stop it!  

Even the next day, his words echoed in her ears, and she found herself clutching her head in frustration.  

It was as if he was telling her to give up early, as he judged her by her appearance just as she judged his.  

‘This is too much. There’s nothing I can do about this on my own.’  

“Young Lady, is something troubling you?”  

Anne, who had been tidying up the room, cautiously asked, perhaps because she found it strange to see her tearing at her hair.  

“Anne, what do you think defines beauty?”  

“Beauty? Well, I guess if many people think someone is beautiful, then they’re a beauty, aren’t they?”  

“What about me, Anne? Do I look like a beauty to you?”  

“Hmm, Young Lady, you are extremely cute.”  

“Ha, being cute isn’t enough. I need to be a beauty. Maybe being reborn would be faster.”  

“What’s troubling you, Young Lady?”  

“No, no. It’s something I can at least try to work on.”  

She suddenly sat upright, springing up from the sofa where she had been sprawled.  

“Anne, are you good at makeup by any chance?”  

“Makeup? But you’re already wearing some, Young Lady.”  

“No, this won’t do. I mean, I need to look more like a beauty. Something that makes my features stand out more. Can you do that?”  

“I’ve never done professional makeup before, so I’m not sure if I’ll do well…”  

In the Grand Duke’s residence, which lacked a mistress, there likely hadn’t been any occasion for her to apply makeup for someone else.  

Yes, she was aware of that. So she hadn’t set her expectations too high.  

“How is it? I think I did pretty well.”  

“Hmm… Hmm…”  

Seeing Anne eagerly waiting for her reaction with sparkling eyes, she couldn’t bring herself to say the next words.  

“It’s fine, but isn’t it a little too heavy?”  

“Makeup has to be bold to make the features stand out.”  

“It does make them stand out, but… perhaps it’s too three-dimensional?”  

Three-dimensional. That was the most refined term she could come up with after racking her brain.  

“Does it look strange? Let me try again. Please, just one more time.”  

Anne seemed momentarily disappointed by her lukewarm reaction, but her enthusiasm reignited almost immediately.  

“How about this time?”  

She had asked Anne for just two things: to make her look like a beauty and to make her features stand out.  

But once again, Anne had focused entirely on the latter.  

Her face now boasted features more defined than those of any stage actor.  

The problem, if there was one, was that her eyes, nose, and every other feature seemed overly assertive.  

“Hmm… It doesn’t look bad.”  

From about 200 meters away, that is.  

In the end, she couldn’t bring herself to disappoint Anne.  

How could she tell her it looked strange when Anne was looking at her with such hopeful eyes right next to her?  

“Really? Do you really like it? I thought this one turned out pretty well too. Oh, I was so nervous!”  

Was it my eyes that were strange? Or Anne’s eyes?  

Or could it be that makeup like this was popular in Castia…?  

She wondered if she should test her theory by meeting someone else, but there was no way that could be true.  

“Ahh! Goodness! What happened to your face?”  

Dean, as if he had just seen a ghost, jumped back in shock.  

Well, human eyes are all the same, after all.  

“Is it very strange?”  

“Pardon? Uh… hmm… hmm…”  

Dean’s reaction was exactly the same as hers earlier.  

Yes, it must have been difficult for him too.  

“Is makeup like this trending in the capital by any chance?”  

“No, absolutely not.”  

She had almost given him the wrong impression about the capital’s sense of beauty.  

“Whew, right? But then why…?”  

Dean, seemingly relieved, took a deep breath but couldn’t finish his sentence.  

“This is, well… just a mood-lifting thing. A change of pace? Something like that.”  

“Ah… You must be having a hard time because of His Grace these days.”  

Receiving Dean’s pitying gaze, she had no choice but to return to her room.  

***

“Young Lady, how did they react? What did everyone say?”  

Aside from Dean, the other attendants and maids she encountered in the hallway didn’t say a word about her face.  

Every single one of them simply flinched in surprise whenever they saw her.  

After all, they wouldn’t dare openly say that something looked odd to the Marquis’s daughter.  

“They were all startled.”  

“Really? Oh my, I didn’t think my skills were startlingly good!”  

Anne grinned contentedly, her face glowing with pride.  

‘Well, if she’s this happy, then so be it.’  

There was no way Anne had done this makeup to tease her. The trembling of her hands had shown just how much effort she had put in.  

“I think I’ve got the hang of it now. Tomorrow, I’ll be able to make you look even prettier.”  

What? Tomorrow too?  

“Oh, no, it’s fine. I need to know how to do my own makeup when you’re not around. I’ll study based on what you did today!”  

“Huh? But I can do it for you every day.”  

“Really, it’s fine. You’re busy too, Anne.”  

Anne looked visibly disappointed, but this was something she couldn’t compromise on.  

‘This… I don’t think I can just wash it off right away.’  

Even if she decided to do her own makeup starting tomorrow, she figured she should honor Anne’s efforts by keeping this look for today.  

After all, it wasn’t as if she would run into the Grand Duke unless she sought him out herself.  

…Or so she thought. 

Why? Why was he in the dining hall now?  

Even though he hadn’t come last night or this morning no matter how long she waited!  

“Mmmpf.”  

The Grand Duke, who had been sipping his aperitif with elegant movements, immediately covered his mouth the moment he saw her.  

Well, of course, he must have been surprised. She herself was startled every time she looked in the mirror. It would have been stranger if he hadn’t been shocked by this face.  

“Th-that… ahem. Ahem. What’s with… your face?”  

If he was going to react like that, it would have been better for him to just laugh outright.  

The Grand Duke’s expression hovered somewhere between laughter and a grimace, an ambiguous middle ground.  

In this situation, losing her composure would mean losing entirely.  

Since things had already come to this, she decided to act brazenly.  

“I was trying to look beautiful.”  

“Beautiful… Ahem. Your sense of beauty is certainly… unique.”  

“This is makeup that’s trending in the capital.”  

“Sure it is.”  

He didn’t believe me, did he?  

“You know how experimental art has been trending in the art world lately? This is part of that. You could call it an innovation in makeup.”  

“Are you trying to make enemies out of the entire art world?”  

“All innovations require pioneers, after all.”  

“Of course they do.”  

His tone was still sarcastic, but somehow it felt slightly different from before. It didn’t seem to carry the same hostility as before.  

“…I thought you wouldn’t come again this time.”  

At her now calm voice, the Grand Duke lifted his head and stared at her intently.  

There it was again.  

Whenever he looked at her like that without saying a word, she always felt as though he could see right through her.  

If only he truly could. Then he would know just how much she liked him.  

After silently gazing at her for a moment, the Grand Duke finally opened his mouth and spoke slowly.  

“Why would I avoid you? This is my dining hall.”  

“But you didn’t come last night or this morning.”  

That morning, she had waited in the dining hall for over an hour, thinking he was just late again. But then the head chef came to inform her that the Grand Duke had already finished eating in his room.  

“I just had a lot of work and ate quickly. I plan to continue living my life as I always have. There’s no need for me to change my routine because of you. So, as I said before, you should live as you please.”  

Perhaps he didn’t like the idea of giving up his space to someone who had just arrived.  

Or maybe he had already given up early on after her declaration that she would visit him every day.  

Whatever the reason, she felt happy. Because it meant he wouldn’t avoid her anymore.  

“You’re not planning to wear that makeup again tomorrow, are you?”  

“I think I was a bit ahead of my time, so I’ll end it with just today.”  

“A wise decision.”  

The Grand Duke’s expression was one of genuine relief, as though a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders.