Chapter 59
At first, when Alma asked me to model, I thought it was because of Heter.
The next time, though, I thought she simply wanted to see us wearing the clothes she had made.
“Sir Knight! Place your hand a little farther onto her shoulder blade! Like you’re supporting your partner at a ball! Lady Fortune, keep the same blank expression as before!”
‘Could it be that what she really wanted wasn’t the clothes, but to see us pressed together?’
For example, like dressing up a character in a game.
‘Good grief.’
I had thought we would merely stand side by side, or at most place a hand on each other’s shoulder.
“Are you all right, my lady?”
“U-uh, yes.”
Maybe it was because I had sighed, but Heter gazed at me worriedly, and I ended up averting my eyes without realizing it.
‘How am I supposed to keep a straight face with a face like that right in front of me?!’
In my previous life, I had once heard that seeing someone handsome or beautiful caused dopamine to be released.
At the time, I thought it was just a common rumor on the internet, but looking at Heter’s face made me wonder whether it might actually be true.
What’s more, I had an arm around Heter’s neck, so I couldn’t even pinch myself somewhere to maintain my composure.
‘This is driving me crazy.’
On top of that, the lights were incredibly hot. Sweat streamed down my body.
“Excellent! Now, for the final pose, Sir Knight, sit on the floor and stretch out your legs, and Lady Fortune, climb onto his thigh!”
“What?”
Wearing clothes like these and clinging to one another in front of everyone was embarrassing, but if I thought of it as work, it wasn’t impossible.
However, no matter how I thought about it, the pose Alma was asking for was far too risqué!
“This will have to do. That final pose crosses the line.”
“Lady Fortune! Please!”
“No. Absolutely not. Forget it.”
After firmly refusing Alma’s request, just as I was about to leave the stage—
Thump.
“Heter?”
“Since you said it was the last one, I’ll take one picture with you.”
No, he hated photoshoots so much, so why was he being this proactive now?
Could it be because of the pose? Was that it?!
“Instead of Lady Fortune climbing onto my thigh, have her stand in front of me and bend at the waist.”
“But then it won’t look as nice….”
“Even like this?”
Heter took my hand and made me grasp the end of his cord tie.
As a result, it ended up looking as though I were holding Heter’s leash.
“Is this all right?”
Once we had taken the pose, I whispered to Heter in a worried tone.
He disliked showing his face, but he was forcing himself to take part in the shoot because of me, wasn’t he?
I didn’t know whether this image would be used in the advertisement, but if it was, people would look at him and whisper.
I didn’t mind people thinking Heter was cool, but I couldn’t stand him becoming the target of ridicule.
“Are you… only worrying about that now?”
“Well, this pose, put simply, isn’t very manly, is it?”
“Ha.”
Heter let out a hollow laugh after hearing me.
“If you know that, perhaps you should spend that time worrying about yourself, my lady?”
“Huh? Why worry about me?”
“Because, if we go by that logic, the poses you’ve taken until now haven’t exactly been ladylike.”
The poses I had taken until now, huh.
For the most part, I had either been held by Heter, hugged him, or put my face close to his, right?
‘…Fuck. Now that I think about it, he’s right.’
It was the pot calling the kettle black. This was no time to worry about Heter.
If it had been a solo shot, maybe, but since Heter and I had been photographed together, it could invite ridicule and damage our image going forward.
“This won’t do. Once the shoot is over, let’s tell Egmund that it’s fine for us to keep the pictures of the two of us privately, but he mustn’t use them in the advertisement.”
“In that case, there’s no harm in striking this pose now.”
“Well… I suppose you’re right?”
Listening to Heter, I found myself persuaded before I knew it.
“So now, focus on the shoot.”
He turned his head toward the magic camera and the staff.
“Will this do?”
Nod, nod.
Alma covered her mouth with one hand and gave me a thumbs-up with the other.
Judging by her reaction, she seemed to like this pose more than the one she had suggested.
Drops resembling red blood seemed to be dripping from beneath her hand, but I decided to ignore it.
***
“Good work.”
In the end, Egmund declared the shoot over in place of Alma, who had been dragged away by the other employees after losing too much blood.
“Phew, it’s over.”
“Good work, my lady.”
Feeling refreshed now that the shoot was truly over, I stepped off the stage.
‘Oh, right. I need to tell Egmund not to use the pictures Heter and I took in the advertisement.’
Since I didn’t want the trouble of looking for him later, I decided to tell him now.
Just as I moved to approach Egmund, who was checking the magic tool—
Screech.
“Egmund…?”
Was it because of the high heels I didn’t usually wear, or the long dress I wasn’t used to?
I had stepped on the hem of my dress and twisted my foot, so perhaps it was both.
“Lady Fortune!”
Fortunately, Heter hurriedly caught me as I was about to fall forward, but—
Squish.
“!”
“Ngh?!”
Unfortunately, the place where he caught me was the problem.
One of his hands gripped my waist, but the other had ended up grabbing my breast.
Of course, I couldn’t deny that my breasts were among the easiest parts of my body to grab.
Unfortunately, this had happened while I was calling for Egmund, so everyone in the studio had seen it, making the situation especially awkward.
…
Heter naturally removed his hand from my body, but the suffocating tension in the air did not ease anytime soon.
“Um… Heter, thank you for sav—”
“My lady.”
Heter stared intently at the hand that had touched my breast and asked in a serious tone,
“By any chance, are you not wearing any underwear….”
“I’m wearing a NuBra, you lunatic!”
You lunatic.
Lunatic.
Ah….
I had shouted so loudly that my voice echoed throughout the studio.
“Hmm.”
In the end, I neatly took off one of my high heels and set it aside.
Whoosh.
“L-Lady Fortune! Where are you going?!”
Like Cinderella with midnight approaching, I fled to the waiting room.
Even I couldn’t keep a poker face in a situation like this.
***
“Ah, fuck.”
That night.
I kept hurling front kicks at my blanket in embarrassment and shame.
“Fuck.”
As though I had lost the ability to speak like a human being, nothing but curses came out of my mouth.
‘A NuBra? In front of all those people? A NuBra?!’
Remembering what had happened made my head grow hot again.
“Damn it. I should drink some cold water and come to my senses.”
Then, when I reached for the pitcher beside my head—
Click.
Instead of the pitcher, my hand grasped something like a square plate made of a material similar to plastic.
“Hmm….”
My desire to drink water vanished instantly, and I stretched the hand holding the plate out in front of me.
The square plate, about the size of the cover of a small novel, bore an engraved image of Heter and me during the final shoot of the day.
Alma had brought it to me after I fled to the waiting room, but no matter how many times I looked at it, it really was—
“It looks great.”
Of course, I didn’t mean that Heter alone looked great.
I meant that Alma’s clothes, the overall composition, and even the pose Heter and I had taken all looked great.
…Of course, Heter looking great was also true.
As I looked at the picture of Heter and me, a thought suddenly crossed my mind.
‘Come to think of it, isn’t all this because of Heter?’
I understood why he had been flustered after touching my breast.
If it had been me in my previous life, I would have reacted similarly.
‘But how could he ask right there whether I wasn’t wearing a bra?’
Wasn’t that something he should have asked discreetly when there were only the two of us?
“Isn’t that right? Huh?”
To vent my anger, I kept flicking Heter’s forehead in the picture.
“You little….”
I would have to collect this debt from him properly tomorrow while we toured the capital.
He had said he would show me around the capital this time in return for my showing him around Cornet Territory last time.
What’s more, Egmund had even given me money to spend while staying in the capital.
We could have fun without money, but having money would make it even more fun!
“Heehee.”
After laughing softly, I placed the picture back on the chest of drawers beside the bed and blew out the candle.
If I wanted to have fun tomorrow, I needed to get to sleep soon.
***
Come to think of it, I had forgotten because I had hardly ever left Fortune since I was born.
‘It’s roughly May or June now….’
It was the season when it wouldn’t be strange for the rainy season to begin.
Shhhhhhh.
Besides, this wasn’t the North, so it rained instead of snowing.
“So this is rain! Water really does fall from the sky instead of snow!”
“Hahaha.”
Seeing Ruby’s eyes sparkle with delight like a puppy seeing rain for the first time made me laugh.
Right, as long as you’re happy.
That’s how it is… haha.