That Day (4)

From masks that looked like ones I knew to masks modeled after this world's myths and great figures.

In any case, every one of them concealed the wearer's identity or status, letting them form unknown relationships with unknown people.

Correction. You could roughly tell their status.

You could get a sense of how important they were from the splendor of their clothes and the price of their jewelry.

In that regard, I was way down at the bottom of the heap here.

Though the title of countess carried weight, that was only up in the northern court. Here, I was a nobody and not even particularly wealthy.

The farther I made my way through the crowd toward the center, the more obvious that became.

Everywhere I looked, people were dressed in expensive clothes and possessed polished, refined manners.

Once again, quite apart from my connection to Derek, I realized I didn't have many merits as an individual.

I didn't have much money, and my dowry consisted of nothing but a remote estate in the North with a few mineral deposits...