“Hmm… What colors do you like to wear? Or perhaps we should decide on a certain style of dress, first…”
Eris wandered through the large open closet that held all of her clothes, occasionally pulling out dress after dress and pressing them against Siffia, only to quickly put them back after a brief disapproving glance.
Siffia, for her part, just stood there quietly, blinking in confusion, as she had from the moment that they’d arrived at Eris’s family's mansion. Even as the servants whisked her away, bathed her, and then deposited her in Eris’s room in only a bathrobe, Siffia could only blink and murmur out broken, baffled words. It took quite a while for her to finally focus her shaken mind enough to choke out a reply to Eris’s question.
“Um… I-I like muted colors best… But um, Lady Eris?”
“Yes, Lady Siffia?”
“Why… are you pressing your dresses against me?”
“Hmm?”
Eris pulled back the dress she’d just been studying against Siffia, quirking up an eyebrow as if she didn’t understand the question.
“You need a dress to wear to the secondary banquet, do you not?”
“Huh? B-but I already have a-”
Siffia’s eyes quickly swept around the room in embarrassment, searching for the dress that she’d arrived in. Although it was seen as distasteful and crude amongst the nobility, she’d had every plan to simply clean and repair the dress and wear it to the banquet next week. After all, it wasn’t like anyone would care about her enough to notice such a faux pas from her… except, perhaps, the trio that always bullied her.
For a moment the thought that Eris might also notice or care popped into her mind, but she quickly swatted the idea away. How could wearing one ugly dress again be more disgraceful than all of the other poor showings of herself that she’d let Eris witness this night?
“Um… May I ask where the dress that I arrived in is?”
Eris lowered the dress she was holding absentmindedly, her eyebrows slightly scrunching together as she looked off to the side in disgusted remembrance.
“Oh, that tacky thing? I disposed of it. Such a dress wasn’t proper, either for the occasion or the person wearing it.”
Though she bit her lip and looked down in shame, Siffia couldn’t help but completely agree with Eris’s assessment. If her father hadn’t given it to her as her only option, she would never have worn such an unsuitable thing.
“I…”
“That’s why I’m going to give you one of my old dresses to wear. Otherwise, I might have to scrap yet another dress at next week's banquet.”
Eris’s piercing gaze left no room for argument, seeming as if she might really just do something to the next awful dress that Siffia showed herself in.
Siffia awkwardly looked away, fully aware of how kindly she was being treated, even under such a meanly worded disguise. It was something that she wasn't used to, something that she couldn't quite calmly accept. She couldn’t stop herself from questioning the unwarranted kindness.
“...But Lady Eris, my father gave me that dress…”
“Then express my apologies to him for me later. And take one of these dresses to wear as an apology as well, while you’re at it.”
“That’s... awfully kind of you, but these dresses all belong to you, My Lady. I couldn’t possibly-”
“Yes, it’s quite kind of me; Otherwise who knows what kind of dress you’d end up wearing to the banquet next? ...Why in the world did you even think to wear that one in the first place?”
“Because-”
Siffia pursed her lips for a moment, fighting back her surging feelings before honestly admitting the truth.
“...Because I didn’t have anything else to wear. That’s the only fancy dress my father gave me…”
Ever since Siffia grew into such an unimpressive and unappealing omega, her father had given up on her, refusing to waste his money on anything expensive for such a disappointing child. She was actually already quite lucky that her father hadn’t burned all of her everyday clothes after she’d ran away to join in the war.
“Oh my… I see. No wonder you wore such an unsuitable dress… I feel I’ve been slightly insensitive, then.”
Eris hung back up the dress that had been drooping half-forgotten in her hand, gracefully folded her hands in her lap, and gave a swift bow of her head in apology.
“If that’s the case, then giving you one of my old dresses simply won’t be good enough. Besides, I doubt you’d even know what to look for with such a lack of experience, and I’m not cut out to choose something for others anyway.”
“Ah… Um, y-yes, if you say so, then... I suppose you must be right…”
Siffia couldn’t help the sad smile that formed on her face as she looked down at her feet. She felt ashamed for telling the person she looked up to the most such a pitiable story and ruining the mood. The fact that she’d blown her one and only chance to talk more with the Lady Eris made her want to pound her head against a wall.
“...Well, then, if you’d just kindly give me something simple to wear, then I'll-”
“Oh don’t worry, we’ll get to that in a minute. But for now-”
Eris crossed over to another door near the closet that she’d just left from, opening it to reveal yet another closet full of clothes.
“Go in and pick something to wear home, as well as something to wear when you go out with me tomorrow.”
“E-excuse me?!”
For a moment Siffia doubted her wide opened eyes, as well as her ears. It was already astonishing that Eris was going to give her such extravagant looking everyday-clothes, let alone two of them. Just a rough look inside of the closet already confirmed that the clothes held within were already equally as expensive, if not the tiniest increment less, than the party dresses that she’d just been shown. Just one outfit would be enough for someone to buy a large villa.
“Y-you’re telling me to choose two pieces from this?!”
“Of course. You can’t go home in just a bathrobe as you currently are without tarnishing the reputation of both of our houses... and you can’t wear the same thing when you meet with me tomorrow without being improper.”
Siffia grimaced, realizing how accurate Eris’s words were. Should she do anything that might affect her family’s reputation more than she already had, her father might finally outright disown her. From what she’d heard before, becoming a commoner after being kicked out of one’s house was seen as one of the greatest disgraces of them all. She’d be thought of as worse than a simple commoner, and be no better than a beggar. Her already harsh life would become all the more unbearable.
With these thoughts pressing on her mind with the weight of an anvil, Siffia couldn’t help but nod her head, immediately making her way to the closet and looking through the outfits along with Eris. It wasn’t until one had already been selected and Eris’s servants were helping her to put it on that she suddenly came to her senses and remembered the latter half of what Eris had said.
“Ah, wait! Lady Eris! Y-you said we’re meeting again tomorrow?”
“Yes. We'll be meeting promptly, in the morning. I’ll send a coachman when it's time to take you to where we’ll be going, so you won't have to worry.”
“O-oh, yes… I see.”
Siffia sighed, both in relief and regret. Knowing that their meeting tomorrow must be for the purpose of returning the expensive clothing made her feel a bit better, but thinking that she would likely never be able to interact with Eris again afterward made her feel greatly disappointed. If she could find another way to still keep in touch with the amazing woman then she gladly would. Perhaps she could even find a chance when she went to return the second set of clothes-
Suddenly Siffia's eyebrows scrunched up, and she leaned out from behind the dressing curtain, settling her eyes on Eris. She couldn’t help but find that something wasn’t adding up with the amount of clothes that she was being given.
“Excuse me, but, this meeting… It is to return these clothes, isn’t it?”
Eris’s gaze slowly dragged to meet hers, wearing a look as if she were both confused and disappointed at how Siffia had even come to such a conclusion.
“...How could that possibly be the case if I expect you to show up in those very same clothes to the meeting? What, did you think I’d send you back nude afterwards? After what I just said about tarnishing both our house’s reputations?”
The more Eris talked, the more Siffia felt absolutely moronic for thinking such things. She quickly hid her embarrassment by ducking behind the curtain once more, earning a low chuckle from Eris. Though she was still confused, Siffia did her best to sew her mouth shut, unwilling to possibly say yet another dumb thing in front of Eris.