Chapter 57
After spending the night at the upscale accommodations Egmund had provided, we returned to Rudyard Boutique for the shoot.
““Welcome!””
“!”
There seemed to be even more employees than yesterday waiting to greet us.
Judging by the unfamiliar faces among them, it seemed that even the employees who had been off work had all been called in for the shoot.
“I’ll escort you to the waiting room, Lady Fortune.”
“Ah, all right.”
As I hesitated, unsure where to go, an employee soon came over and began guiding us.
We arrived at the waiting room on the second floor that we had visited yesterday.
There, I saw Eunha, exhausted, apparently having just finished her shoot without even having had time to change clothes.
“Was the shoot very difficult?”
“Indeed. Lord Egmund is so terribly fussy….”
Hearing that suddenly made me feel like running away.
“By the way… where is Amugae?”
I looked around the waiting room, but Amugae, who had acted as though he would always be glued to her side until yesterday, was nowhere to be seen.
‘Could that bastard have run away again because he doesn’t want to grant my request?’
It wasn’t entirely impossible.
A man who had stabbed me in the back once could certainly do it twice.
‘Tsk… Should I follow Lady Eunha when she returns to the East? But that would be a waste of time.’
“If you are looking for Beomung… I mean, Amugae, he went out to contact his homeland for a while. He will return soon, so you need not worry.”
“Ah, is that so?”
“If you are worried that he might not keep his promise, do not be. He is not a man who breaks his word. If he does break his promise, I will fulfill your request in his stead.”
“Thank you.”
Eunha’s confident declaration eased my unease a little.
Knock, knock.
“Excuse me.”
While I was talking with Eunha, someone entered the waiting room with a knock.
“Who are you?”
Heter stood between me and the people who had suddenly entered, protecting me.
“We came to help with Lady Fortune’s makeup and change her clothes, since it is almost time for her shoot. Knight, would you please step outside?”
The employees were evidently in such a hurry that they were preparing the makeup tools even as they waited for an answer.
“Heter, wait at the set. Isn’t this what we trained Ruby for situations like this?”
Since I had to change clothes as well as have my makeup done, I sent Heter outside.
“Then we’ll begin with your makeup. Lady Fortune, please sit in the chair.”
“Very well.”
Before long, I sat in the chair placed in front of a large mirror.
It felt as though I had come to a beauty salon in my previous life.
‘Come to think of it, is this my first time having makeup done since Ruby did it for me that day?’
I wasn’t the bride at the wedding, and I hadn’t felt the need to put on makeup for the tea party.
Even though Ruby had been an amateur, Heter had praised my made-up appearance by bringing up ancient myths. What would he say this time?
Would he praise my looks even more verbosely than before?
Or would he be so shocked that he could only stare blankly?
“Hehehe.”
Either reaction would probably be fine.
“Please don’t move.”
“Ah, my apologies.”
Well, I would be able to see it for myself soon enough.
***
“Over there! Make sure the lights don’t go out!”
“Yes, sir!”
At Egmund’s command, a young man refilled the lantern with oil.
‘Ugh, this is exhausting.’
After returning the oil to its proper place, the young man quietly sat down in a corner of the set where no one would notice him.
“Phew.”
For the young man, who had been carrying heavy materials and doing odd jobs since morning, this was his first break.
‘Only one left now, I suppose.’
The noblewoman Lord Egmund had personally traveled all the way to the North to scout.
What was her name… Alice Fortune?
The coworkers who had come in yesterday said she looked just like a goddess.
‘The young lady from the Eastern Continent who was photographed just now was incredibly beautiful too, so how beautiful could this one possibly be?’
The young man subtly fixed his gaze on the staircase.
The model in the waiting room would have to come down those stairs if she wanted to reach the set quickly.
And just as the young man expected, the sound of someone descending from the second floor reached him.
The first thing he saw was the hem of the dress she was wearing.
‘That dress is Design No. 17 by Lord Egmund?!’
It had clearly been completed long ago, but had never been shown because there had been no model suitable for it. Yet she had come out wearing it.
Thump, thump.
Filled with anticipation, the young man took in Alice’s figure and face as she descended the stairs.
“Gasp.”
For a moment, he felt as though every color in the world except her had vanished.
No, it wasn’t that the colors had disappeared. Just as intense light creates deep shadows, when a light as intense as hers appeared, everything else fell into shadow.
“Wow….”
“Hey, what are you doing here… wow.”
Not only the employee who had come to fetch him, but everyone on the set was unable to take their eyes off Alice.
It was as though time itself had stopped in this place.
“Huh? W-What is everyone doing?! Hurry and prepare for the shoot!”
In the end, the shoot could only begin after Egmund came to his senses.
***
‘Wow….’
After descending the stairs, I was startled by the gazes focused on me.
If gazes had possessed physical force, my entire body would already have been reduced to rags.
It hadn’t even been this intense at my debutante ball. The skills of a professional makeup artist really were on another level.
But the gazes of the others didn’t matter right now.
There was only one person I needed to worry about.
“How do I look, Heter?”
“…You are beautiful, my lady.”
Heter looked at me with a smile, just as he always did.
“…?”
Yes, ‘just as he always did.’
That meant his reaction wasn’t much different from before, even though I had dressed up like this.
‘What’s going on?’
Could I not be very beautiful?
Swish.
“!”
When I turned my head toward the people in the corner, both of them had faces so red they looked ready to burst.
Judging by their reactions, it seemed the makeup had done its job after all.
‘Why is he so unfazed?’
Could he have grown tired of my appearance?
‘That can’t be it.’
After all, wasn’t there a saying like this?
They say a handsome face never grows tiresome; it is always fresh and thrilling.
The same should apply to pretty faces.
Then why was he reacting like this?
“Is there something you would like to say?”
“…No.”
I wanted to demand to know why he wasn’t praising me like he had before, but this wasn’t the time for that.
“Lady Fortune! We’re starting the shoot now, so please come this way.”
“Very well.”
In the end, I left Heter behind with an uneasy feeling and walked toward the photographic magic tool.
The shoot began, and I first posed with an expressionless face.
“Excellent! You don’t seem like a first-timer!”
‘Of course not.’
Although this was my first time modeling, I had long been consciously practicing noble behavior and putting on solemn expressions.
‘This is easy.’
Contrary to Eunha’s description of him as fussy, Egmund readily gave me the okay every time I posed, and I thought I would be able to finish the shoot without difficulty.
But then.
“Now, shall we try smiling?”
After I started smiling, the shoot began to go awry.
“Tsk… Lady Fortune, try smiling a little more brightly.”
The first attempt.
“Not like that… Smile happily, as though you had tasted every happiness in the world!”
The sixth attempt.
“That’s too much! Natural! Give me a natural smile, as though a mother were looking at her newborn child!”
The thirteenth attempt….
‘Fuck.’
Eunha had been right.
That bastard Egmund was incredibly fussy.
“Phew, let’s take a short break and continue afterward.”
“…All right.”
In the end, even the twentieth attempt failed to satisfy Egmund, and the shoot was temporarily suspended.
I thought I had done well enough, so why did he keep deciding that it wasn’t right?
“Good work.”
“Are you all right, my lady?”
While the employees touched up my makeup, Heter and Ruby approached me.
“Honestly… this is a little tiring.”
It would have been fine if I at least knew why I was being rejected, but I didn’t even know that much.
“That’s really strange. I heard from the other employees that Lady Eunha needed several attempts when she was expressionless, but passed in one try when she smiled.”
“Is that really true?”
“The maid is telling the truth, Lady Fortune.”
I asked the makeup artist whether that was true, and she confirmed Ruby’s story.
To think she had passed Egmund’s fussy demands on her first try.
“Your makeup is finished.”
“Thank you. I’ll go see Lady Eunha for a moment.”
Unable to suppress my curiosity any longer, I headed for the waiting room on the second floor as soon as my makeup was finished.
“Lady Eunha!”
“Oh? Are you already finished with the shoot?”
Fortunately, Eunha was still in the waiting room, presumably waiting for Amugae.
“No. I kept getting rejected when I tried to pose with a smile. I heard you passed on your first attempt, so I came to ask how you did it.”
“Ah, I see.”
Eunha nodded after hearing me out.
“I don’t know whether I can teach you properly either, but why don’t you give me a smile first?”
“Yes.”
As I had during the shoot, I looked at her and gave her a bright smile.
“Aha.”
Eunha looked at my smile with an expression that suggested she had figured something out.
“Is there something you can tell me?”
“I think I may be able to help you. First, when you act out a smile, what are you thinking about?”
“Pardon?”
What was she talking about now?
What did I think about while acting? I just did it.
“Whenever I act out a smile, I always think of His Highness the Crown Prince. Whenever I think of him, a smile springs to my lips.”
Then Eunha looked at me and smiled brightly.
“…!”
There was definitely something different about it.
The movement of her facial muscles wasn’t much different from mine, but the feeling it conveyed was entirely different.
It was a smile that looked genuinely happy.
“When you are having your picture taken, why don’t you think of someone who makes you smile just by looking at them?”
Someone who made me smile just by looking at them.
The moment I heard Eunha’s advice, I immediately knew what I needed to do.
Eunha had to imagine His Highness the Crown Prince and smile because he wasn’t here, but I didn’t have to do that.
“…Thank you.”
After thanking her, I immediately left the waiting room and headed downstairs.
“Heter!”
“Yes?”
“Come with me!”
I hurried down the stairs and pulled Heter over beside the magic tool.
“Lady Fortune, what is this all of a sudden…?”
“While I’m being photographed, stay beside the camera… No, beside the magic tool. Understand?”
I bore down on Heter with a look that made it clear refusal wasn’t an option, and he nodded despite his flustered expression.
“Egmund. Let’s begin the shoot now.”
“Uh… yes, understood?”
Egmund also seemed flustered by my sudden actions.
But I couldn’t help it.
After all, a realization could vanish at any moment.
“Then… we’ll begin the shoot. Baron Fortune, please smile while looking at the magic tool!”
Soon, an employee announced the start of the shoot, and I opened my eyes and looked at the magic tool… No, at Heter standing beside it.
“Pfft.”
When I saw his expression, which seemed to say that he had no idea why he was there, the corners of my mouth rose naturally even though I wasn’t acting.
Only then did I start to notice them.
Heter’s cheeks, redder than usual.
His eyes, unable to meet my gaze.
Even his hands, fidgeting helplessly.
“Hahahaha!”
In the end, I couldn’t hold back any longer, and laughter burst out of me.
***
The moment Alice smiled sincerely.
Once again, time on the set came to a stop.