"As promised," the handsome designer said, bowing about thirty degrees with a gloved hand on his chest, "we delivered within a week. Most of the simpler indoor garments are finished, as are five more elaborate outdoor gowns." This was his second visit to the estate now, after the initial browsing of the catalogues a week prior.
Rowena eyed the dress racks brought into her salon and cracked a smile. "Congratulations, you passed," she said, not caring how his face changed when he heard that. "You may take your time with the rest; I won't need them too soon."
While what she said made the man's assistants sigh in relief, he himself was still hung up on how she had said he had "passed".
"Does that mean My Lady will need my help whenever she needs a dress from now on?"
Since Rowena had just blurted out what she thought sounded right, she had to admit it now. "Yes. I will expect you to be ready whenever I call for you."
He looked up at her in wide-eyed surprise, his upper body still leaning forward.
'Was that too much?' she wondered, not showing it on her face, though.
Fortunately, he managed to snap out of his stupor just then. "I'll always find time for you, even if the only princess of this Empire were to ask for a birthday dress."
'Wait, isn't that a bit too much?' His answer shocked her, even though she knew he must have been joking.
She quickly cleared her throat. "You don't have to go that far. Just know that I won't be waiting long when I call for you."
"Certainly, I won't forget." Little did she know that the "artist" before her meant every word.
'Something as inspiring as her isn't easy to come by. Even Princess Isobel can't hold a candle to her, and after only a week, her brilliance has grown even stronger.'
He couldn't tell how she had changed so much in a matter of days, but now even those slightly hollow cheeks looked supple and healthy. Her eyes sparkled like pearls with molten silver embedded in them. She was truly a gem he had to hold onto.
Rowena, on the other hand, felt her back sting as she turned to get rid of the awkward feeling she got from his reaction. Was he really mocking her? Though it didn't feel that way, there was no way to know for sure.
'What a weirdo.' She flipped through the clothes he had made, especially the five outdoor ones. 'Nonetheless, he's really good at what he does, not gonna lie.'
They were five beautiful dresses. Even though she had seen them a week ago among the prepared work, he had made slight alterations here and there after seeing Rowena up close.
They all had the color scheme she had chosen – mostly white, ivory, lavender, silver and black in some details. They were neither too simple nor too fancy. They were simply beautiful, and she had never seen anything like it.
'If I wear this, will people even still see my face or will they just see a tomato hovering on top of a ball gown?' The thought kind of scared her, yet at the same time, she wanted them to be amazed; she wanted to leave a lasting impression.
As they moved the new arrivals into her dressing room, she scrunched up her nose. 'Again, I'm not exactly a fashionista either, but the dresses in here… Uh…' she had to think of a word that fit what she was seeing, "They stink."
Alarmed, Norina whipped her head around and scanned the room. "What stinks? Are you feeling unwell, My Lady?"
Flinching, she looked around the dressing room as if she had been caught stealing. "No, nothing, I just feel like cleaning up a bit," was her way of covering her blunder. 'How do I say 'most of this shit makes me cringe', but more nicely?'
The first time she went in there, she began to appreciate that her maids had chosen to only dress her up in indoor clothing, even when she went out into the gardens. Technically, she didn't have to change for the gardens, but she could have.
While her indoor attire entirely lacked character, the outdoor gowns had decidedly far too much of it. Rowena wore dresses in obnoxious color schemes – at least, if she didn't choose an all-black one that day. An all-black dress was strictly meant for funerals and when in mourning, as Ballinger had explained to her during a lesson on etiquette just a few days ago.
Unless the dress had a design especially fit for such occasions, wearing black was heavily frowned upon inside of a ball room or at a salon. The original Rowena didn't seem to care at all.
'I guess that was to show the world that her funky ass was sad sometimes.' Celia couldn't really understand her. 'Why did she have to dress herself like a human sized parrot?'
Even after she had resolved to live her life as Rowena – at least until someone were to say otherwise – she didn't really calm down to see who "Rowena" truly was. Did she plan to be a laughing stock, if she ever went to an event at all? For reasons unknown, the real Rowena would always wear gaudy and tacky looking dresses, even when not considering color.
And even Celia, who really didn't care much about her looks, would have chosen color combinations like pink and red only if she had been around seven years of age. Not that she would know, but she did remember wearing a pink shirt with a red jacket when she was found by VAULT, so there's that.
A child of the modern times could be forgiven for a blunder like that, but Rowena was someone who should have been making her debut as a young adult in the very superficial world of nobility. And she was the daughter of a Grand Duke to boot, one of the five most noble ladies of this whole Empire!
'When you could have everything, yet choose to look like a clown car, there's definitely something wrong with you, right?' she found herself thinking, 'I'd say her wardrobe was chosen by a Barbie doll, but even a Barbie doll would cry in agony.'
Nobles weren't very forgiving with how one presented among them. Wouldn't it have been easy for her to blend in if she had even tried a little? Lost in thought, her hand traveled to the space above her collarbone, only to stop when she found nothing there, and withdraw to fiddle with the ends of her sleeves instead.
The real Rowena should have known that her behavior left a bad impression on others, which in turn reflected on her family and her name.
'Wouldn't that also fall back on her beloved mother?' At the very least, it was to be expected that her behavior had something to do with her mother's death and the Duke's second marriage. Nothing else had happened, that's why she was so disliked as a character.
"No real agenda, just a girl who desperately refused to fit in…" she mumbled to herself, turning heads in a questioning manner, but her mind was elsewhere, 'And yet she did choose to end her life. What was going on in her mind?'
She had ended up judging the real Rowena, though she initially didn't want to judge her without knowing what she was all about.
Shaking her head and noting her maids' ongoing confusion, she let out a fake cough. "Could you get rid of all the old clothes for me? Keep only the pajamas."
She realized how huge of a request this was and was about to feel bad, when she saw Norina's face light up. Looking at Ava, who usually wore a more emotionless expression, she saw some astonishment, but no anger or annoyance.
'I thought so when she chose the new dresses, but did she really grow up? Is it not a phase?' Ava wondered; a feeling of hope budded tenderly inside of her.
She and the other servants had discussed it so much that some had even placed bets. Was she just trying to appear calmer, and more mature, to lessen her punishment tomorrow?
The lady had unexpectedly lost consciousness once, shortly after Duchess Beatrice had entered the manor. Before that, they hadn't been on bad terms, but they hadn't been on good terms either.
However, the moment the lady woke up, she threw a tantrum. Some of the newer maids, who weren't there to witness it, even say that she probably faked it, and when the Grand Duke still didn't give her extra attention, she snapped completely.
She had no special talents, unlike her outstanding brothers, so what else could she do? Just being beautiful wouldn't create a wave high enough for her father to notice when out on the battlefield. The least she could do was to carry herself with the pride and poise her status came with.
Meanwhile, Rowena, who had Norina's reassurance that someone would take care of everything, went to take a bath and get ready for bed.
The Grand Duke would arrive late that night, she knew, since the book had said that he had found out what had happened to his daughter that very night.
She let herself fall onto her bedding, not caring what the young servant next to her might say.
"What do you believe will happen tomorrow?" she asked without thinking. "No, you don't have to answer."
Norina, who had quietly followed her mistress in case she needed anything before going to bed, smiled warmly. It was reasonable to worry about such things.
"I'm sure everything will turn out just fine." Her words might turn out to be a lie, for she was aware that the temple had wanted her to apologize and atone for what she had done to the Saintess.
But Norina couldn't bring herself to say anything that would make her afraid after doing so much to lift herself up. Perhaps she realized that she had not done herself any favors with her actions?
Tears of pride welled up in her eyes, even though she had barely known her for a month. She was the one who had been around her the most. Despite the fact that she hadn't seen her train with her own eyes, the speed of her recovery was more than remarkable.
She had seen the sweat and stains after she came out of the basement facility, helped her wash off the accumulated dirt, and watched her eat the food she had brought for her with glee.
The annex chef had even watched her, though Rowena was none the wiser as she tended to lose sight of her surroundings while eating. There was no one in the building who wasn't happy.
Of course, they were also curious. Why the sudden change? And if tomorrow's trial was the reason, would she just go back to the way she was before?
Since the blonde girl had no idea what her lady had been like, she couldn't say for sure, but she liked the lady she had now. Even if she was still a bit eccentric, she wouldn't want her to change.
Rowena, who couldn't tell what her maid was thinking, just ignored the stupid grin and turned to a pair of large glass doors. "I'm fine now, so you can go to bed, Norina."
"Understood, My Lady," she said as she left the room, closing the door quietly behind her.
As Rowena looked out and beyond the terrace, she felt a strange sense of nostalgia. Had it really been three weeks already? At the same time, she couldn't believe that it was only three weeks ago that she had stumbled into this bedroom and seen this unfamiliar landscape.
Compared to that, she felt almost at home now. Still, she hadn't even thought about what would happen if she had to go to the temple in the morning.
Maybe they would send her to Lodden right away? If so, there was nothing she could do about it. She certainly wasn't strong enough to simply overpower them all, and even if she was, where would she run to?
Just like when she was Celia, she had nowhere to hide, so why bother running? It was different for Rowena, though. She technically didn't have to run anywhere.
'If only tomorrow didn't seem so far away now.' She was ready and couldn't wait to see her hard work pay off, so it felt like removing a band aid far too slowly.
As she went to bed and drifted off to sleep, she didn't notice that about an hour later someone stealthily opened the door to her chambers. He squeezed through the crack, not wanting her to be disturbed by the light creeping in from the hallway.
He hadn't seen his daughter for a long time, but the sight of her lavender hair from behind and the slow movement of her breathing comforted him. He wouldn't let the Emperor decide what to do with her all by himself.
As he withdrew from the scene and thought about what he had heard about her slowly changing, he felt his heart beat faster. 'If only tomorrow didn't seem so far away now,' he thought.