Chapter: 10
I was horrified.
“Whaaat?!”
My eyes shook as if there had been an earthquake.
Am I already getting rejected?!
B-But… today’s atmosphere wasn’t bad at all, was it?!
The young lady even smiled several times!
Just then—
The young lady declared coldly,
“I can’t even make someone dressed that unfashionably my temporary friend. This is a matter of my pride.”
Ah…
I sighed inwardly.
Well, of course my clothes wouldn’t meet the young lady’s incredibly high standards.
Up until now, I’d always worn dull-colored dresses so Seraphina would stand out.
No matter how thoroughly I searched my wardrobe, a brand-new dress wasn’t going to magically appear.
Still…
“W-When I came to see you today… I wore the nicest thing I had…”
“The nicest thing you had?!”
At my timid defense, the young lady’s eyes flared.
“That gloomy gray dress is your idea of nice?! Even my late grandmother wouldn’t have worn something like that!”
“…”
Unable to withstand her overwhelming presence, I quietly shrank back.
But her outrage wasn’t over yet.
“And your hair!”
“M-My hair? What’s wrong with it?”
“You haven’t taken care of it at all! You just let it hang there!”
“…Is that bad?”
“Of course it is! You were born with such thick, beautiful hair! Doesn’t it seem like a waste to you?!”
Her blue eyes gleamed with near-maniacal intensity.
“Honestly, does Lady Lopes think all she has to do is make herself look pretty? That’s why people laugh at Lady Ansi even more! What kind of friend does that?!”
By now, the young lady was practically stamping her feet in anger.
“It’s so obvious Lady Lopes keeps you around on purpose as a foil! Just so she can stand out more! It’s downright underhanded!”
Wow…
She really saw straight through Seraphina’s true intentions.
I couldn’t help feeling a little surprised.
A little while later…
After finally calming down from her tirade, the young lady pressed a hand to her forehead and shook her head.
“Sigh… What’s the point of having a decent face if you don’t make any use of it?”
Huh?
I blinked in surprise.
“R-Really?”
The question slipped out before I could stop myself.
The young lady narrowed her eyes at me.
“What do you mean?”
“You just said… my face was decent…”
I trailed off awkwardly.
She didn’t even try to hide her incredulous expression.
“What? Are you about to put yourself down again?”
“N-No. Not exactly…”
Seraphina and Gregory had always told me the same thing.
That there was no lady uglier than me.
That someone like me had no business wearing luxurious jewelry or beautiful dresses.
That I should know my place.
After realizing I was inside the original story, I’d understood that everything Seraphina had said was filled with hypocrisy and malice.
Even so…
Words that had been drilled into my head for years weren’t so easy to forget.
“Do I seriously have to spell out something this obvious?”
The young lady clicked her tongue before counting off on her fingers.
“Lady Ansi, your skin is clear, your figure is slender, and your features are well-balanced. More importantly, your posture is straight and elegant. It’s obvious you’ve received a proper upbringing.”
Then she frowned and pointed straight at me.
“You should at least know your own strengths. Otherwise, how are you supposed to emphasize them?”
“I-I see.”
I nodded blankly.
Hearing someone tell me…
“Actually, you have these good qualities…”
…felt…
So this is what it feels like.
It was as though the deepest part of my heart were being gently brushed by soft feathers.
It left a warm, ticklish feeling inside me.
But I didn’t have long to savor it.
“Anyway, we’ve gotten completely off topic.”
The young lady planted both hands firmly on her hips.
“If you’re going to be my temporary friend, then not only your clothes and hairstyle…”
She glared fiercely at me.
“But that habit of constantly putting yourself down, too!”
Her eyes blazed.
“You’re going to fix every single one of those things!”
“I-I’ll remember that!”
I straightened my posture reflexively.
Then the young lady spoke decisively.
“Tomorrow morning. Ten o’clock.”
“Huh?”
“I’ll come pick you up at your townhouse. Be ready.”
“Huh?”
…I couldn’t follow the flow of this conversation at all.
As I stood there doing nothing but repeating, “Huh?”, the young lady clicked her tongue loud enough for me to hear.
“What? Didn’t you say friends go shopping together and eat delicious food together?”
“I-I mean… I did say that…”
But…
This suddenly?
“If you stand me up, you won’t get away with it. Understood?”
Only after firmly warning me a second time did she finally let me go.
“Then I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Y-Yes… See you tomorrow.”
Still dazed, I climbed into my carriage.
The carriage slowly began to move.
Behind me, the magnificent townhouse gradually disappeared into the distance.
“…”
Before I knew it, my gaze had drifted downward.
The bouquet of roses resting on my lap gave off a sweet fragrance.
I carefully picked it up and buried my nose among the blossoms.
“…It smells wonderful.”
For some reason, these roses reminded me of the young lady.
Even though they were covered from head to toe in sharp thorns…
Their fragrance was so sweet and their petals so soft that you couldn’t even be bothered by those thorns.
A lovely rose…
One anyone couldn’t help but love.
Through the large window, Dietrich watched Evangeline briskly making her way back into the townhouse.
Still watching her, he casually called out,
“Eva.”
“Oh, Brother.”
Evangeline blinked and looked up at him.
“Well, this is unusual. I actually saw you spending time with a lady your own age. Did you finally make a friend?”
“F-Friend? No way!”
Evangeline shouted at once.
“She isn’t my friend! She’s just a temporary friend! You don’t know anything!”
“…”
A friend was either a friend or not.
What on earth was a temporary friend?
Dietrich wore a rather complicated expression, but decided to give her credit anyway.
At the very least, she seemed to be trying to form something resembling a friendship.
“More importantly, you looked like you were having a lot of fun earlier.”
“Fun? As if!”
“I could hear your laughter echoing all through the garden. And you’re saying you weren’t having fun?”
“I-I just laughed a little! It’s not like I laughed that loudly…!”
“All right, all right.”
Waving his hands in surrender, Dietrich asked curiously,
“By the way, wasn’t that young lady from the House of Ansi?”
“So what if she was?”
“I’ve heard Lady Ansi is close to Lady Lopes. But you don’t like Lady Lopes, do you?”
“Well… that’s true, but…”
Puffing out her cheeks, Evangeline suddenly turned her head away.
“Well… she’s not as narrow-minded as I expected.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. We talked about my hobbies today and… it was actually pretty enjoyable.”
Dietrich was surprised once again.
Coming from the notoriously prickly Evangeline, pretty enjoyable was incredibly high praise.
That practically meant she’d had the best time imaginable.
“Lady Ansi is the type who really listens when other people talk,” Evangeline continued cheerfully.
“She was easy to talk to.”
“But Lady Ansi doesn’t seem to have any hobbies.”
“No hobbies?”
“That’s what she said. I actually thought, Wow, I didn’t know someone could live such a boring life.”
With a prim expression, Evangeline added,
“So I thought maybe we could try doing all sorts of things together from now on.”
“So you really are friends after all.”
“We’re not friends! I told you, she’s just my temporary friend!”
At her brother’s indifferent reply, Evangeline immediately shot him a fierce glare.
