#2. Getting Ready Is Always the Hard Part! (4)

The jolting carriage had made Eleonore's already aching back feel as if it might snap in two.

Throughout the ride, the Margrave kept watching his daughter's expression and asking if she was all right.

Honestly, she could barely even open her mouth.

But if she kept her lips pressed shut any longer, the Margrave's questions would give her a headache. So Eleonore hid her true feelings and answered politely.

“Yes. I'm quite all right, sir. And have you been well?”

What if some harsh words slipped out before she knew it?

Eleonore put on her best manners and imitated a line she'd once heard in a historical drama.

But the Margrave across from her seemed displeased by his daughter's polite answer.

No, it wasn't merely displeasure. The Margrave's face had turned red, and he huffed as he kicked Albris hard in the shin.

“Aagh! F-Father!”

Albris's short scream rang through the otherwise quiet carriage.

Grimacing in pain, Albris rubbed the shin his father had kicked.

“Look at you, Albris! You—you couldn't even take proper care of our precious Eli!”

The elderly gentleman, with white showing in his hair, glared fiercely at Albris, his voice thick with indignation.

“Our Eli! Our adorable Eli, who always came running to me, calling me Daddy! Look what she's become!”

“How is that my fault?! Eli's just grown up after getting sick once.”

“What did you say, you little—!”

The Margrave kicked his son's leg hard once more.

Another rather undignified scream filled the carriage.

The Marchioness of Béarn gave a sharp shake of her head, as if she couldn't bear to look at the two men bickering, and turned to her daughter.

As if to say, Let's ignore those idiots, she took Eleonore's hand and placed it on her lap.

Unlike the Marchioness, however, Eleonore found the scene rather entertaining.

There was no way she could let this fun end here.

Suppressing the laughter bubbling up at her brother's expression, Eleonore watched the two men argue.

At the Margrave's scolding, Albris glared at him and cried out indignantly.

“Hey! I tried everything I could! I even found a famous doctor in the capital—”

Eleonore cut Albris off.

“That's right, Father. I think my brother did everything he could, too. So please, stop being angry now.”

It was a line she'd once read in a web novel.

Imagining the demure young lady who'd spoken those words, Eleonore sat up straight and looked at the Margrave.

The Margrave had calmed down a little after kicking Albris in the shin, but his daughter's words made him flare up all over again.

“Just now! Our baby! Hm? She didn't call me Dad, or even Father. She called me ‘sir’!”

“Ow! Father, that really hurts!”

Albris got kicked in the leg again.

Once again, Albris's short scream rang out.

Watching that slick face crumple, Eleonore giggled to herself.

Mm-hmm. This is what a proper brother-and-sister relationship should look like!

But, Lord Margrave, isn't calling a grown young lady a baby a bit much?

“Eli. That's enough teasing now.”

As she watched the two men engage in their petty squabble right beside her—

Suddenly, the Marchioness's gentle voice tickled Eleonore's ear.

Eleonore slowly turned her head to the side.

Those sky-blue eyes, identical to her own, were full of worry.

Seeing the Marchioness's expression, Eleonore gently lifted the corners of her lips, still red with rouge.

Hiding her pain, she smiled brightly at the Marchioness to reassure her.

“Mother. I'm really, really all right. I've just been cooped up at the estate the whole time, so being somewhere crowded for the first time in ages has made me a little tired, that's all.”

“Is that really so? Is anything else bothering you?”

“Yes. Other than my back feeling a little stiff from sitting in the carriage for so long, I'm fine.”

“All right. I'm glad to hear it. We'll have you get a massage for your back when we get home.”

While a warm conversation passed between mother and daughter—

The father and son beside them were still shouting at each other.

“Ha! It's all your fault our sweet Eli turned out like this!”

“Why is it my fault?! Ow! Father! I said it really hurts!”

Albris's screams continued for quite some time, all the way until the carriage reached the townhouse.

#.

The hectic day had been dramatic right up to the very end.

Eleonore was certainly a young lady who'd finished growing—in other words, a grown woman.

From both Eleonore's perspective and Seo Juha's, her reflection in the mirror looked like a grown woman.

But perhaps parents still saw her as a child.

Just as the Margrave had done in the carriage, the Marchioness of Béarn came to Eleonore's bedroom and declared that she would spend the night by her side.

In the carriage, Eleonore had playfully gone along with that atmosphere.

But in truth, the emotions the Margrave and Marchioness directed at her were far too heavy. As Seo Juha inhabiting Eleonore's body, she simply couldn't handle them.

That was certainly what she thought in her head.

Yet before she knew it, her body was snuggling up to her mother, who had climbed onto the bed.

Her slender back, which had suffered so much during the carriage ride, still ached despite the careful massage.

The pain in her lower abdomen, which had eased somewhat after dinner, had somehow started to throb again once she lay down.

Without even realizing it, Eleonore had wrapped her arms around the Marchioness's waist and ended up nestled against her mother's warm, soft chest.

That night, Eleonore spent a cozier night than usual in her mother's arms.

And today.

With the lady of the house finally back after so long, the Béarn townhouse was filled with a liveliness that had been missing from the great residence.

After a light—though far too lavish for Seo Juha's tastes—breakfast, the Marchioness tucked Eleonore's arm under hers and walked around the estate.

The Marchioness didn't seem to care much for her son's interior-design sense.

She checked each of the dull curtains, faded carpets, and old pieces of furniture, then placed new orders with the merchants following right behind her.

Meanwhile, Eleonore, dragged along by the Marchioness, watched the whole thing with boredom.

Saying that it would come in handy when Eleonore became the lady of the house someday—

The Marchioness explained every little thing to her daughter in detail, from color combinations for fabric accessories to the market prices of furniture made from different materials and tips for bargaining with merchants.

As a result, Eleonore's condition, which had improved somewhat after that cozy night, sank right back to rock bottom.

The morning passed in a flurry.

The Margrave, who had come to the capital for the first time in a long while, left the townhouse to meet people in the capital, bickering with his son the whole way.

Thanks to that, the Marchioness and Eleonore had a pleasant lunch together, just the two of them.

And now, the two of them were enjoying tea beneath the balcony parasol, basking in the warm spring sunshine.

Just as Eleonore was trying to quell the ache in her lower abdomen with a sip of unfamiliar tea that left a rather bitter aftertaste—

The Marchioness sitting beside her spoke to Eleonore in a low voice.

“Oh, right, Eli. Someone's coming this afternoon to take your measurements for a dress.”

“P-pff! What? A dress?”

At the sight of her daughter spluttering out even the tea she'd just sipped, the Marchioness's brown eyebrows twitched upward.

“Goodness, what's gotten into you? Why are you so surprised? Your debut ball is less than two weeks away.”

“N-no, that's not what I meant.”

Eleonore accepted the white handkerchief the Marchioness held out and dabbed at her mouth.

To be honest, since she'd possessed the body of a woman in a romance-fantasy world, Eleonore had been prepared, at least, to wear dresses someday.

It was just that in the world of the novel she'd possessed, one didn't have to wear dresses every day, and thanks to that, Eleonore had been able to get by quite comfortably in blouses and long skirts so far.

Of course, she hadn't exactly been at ease wearing airy blouses covered in lace and fluttery long skirts.

Anyway, since she'd been living like that, she'd unconsciously spat out the tea she'd been holding in her mouth when she heard the word dress.

As her daughter's expression turned cold, the Marchioness spoke in a worried voice.

“Eli. What's wrong? Are you still feeling unwell?”

That was the thing.

Of course, the dress was one thing, but her health, which had been poor since the day before yesterday, was still no better.

On top of that, sitting in the swaying carriage for so long yesterday had made her back hurt even more.

Her whole body felt heavy, and in particular, she felt a sharp pain in her lower abdomen, as if something were poking at it from inside.

But, just as she'd done all morning, Eleonore hid her expression and subtly lifted the corners of her mouth.

“No. I'm fine. I was just a little surprised that they're coming here to the estate instead of us going to the dressmaker's.”

It was a hasty excuse. Fortunately, though, it seemed to work on the Marchioness.

The Marchioness gave her a kind smile, her expression tinged with nostalgia.

“That's right. When you were in the territory, the two of us used to go to the dressmaker's together.”

With a nostalgic look, the Marchioness gazed at her daughter.

Uncomfortable beneath her mother's gaze, which seemed to see her as she had been in the past, Eleonore quietly turned her sky-blue eyes aside.

Before long, a familiar hand came to rest over her chest, on the lace-covered front of her blouse.

“W-wait. Mother?”

With a gentle touch, the Marchioness lifted her daughter's breast slightly from below.

Startled by the touch, Eleonore put a hand to her chest and looked at the Marchioness.

“They've certainly grown a little since I last saw you. And you've gotten taller, too. I used to joke that I ought to marry you off. Our daughter really is ready to be married now.”

Her platinum-blonde hair, shimmering silver in the bright spring sunlight, whipped from side to side.

“M-married? I want to stay by your side forever, Mother.”

I mean it, Mother—no, Marchioness!

I really don't want to get married. I'll live alone forever. Like that famous woman from the island nation, I'll marry my country!

Perhaps sensing her daughter's feelings, the Marchioness shook her head.

“One old maid is quite enough, and that's your older sister.”

The Marchioness burst into laughter and elegantly lifted her teacup, from which steam still drifted.

“Honestly. I'm worried about when our Eli gets married someday. How could I possibly send off this adorable baby?”

Exactly. Don't marry me off.

I'll stay in Mom's arms forever, like a kangaroo!

Hiding those words, which she couldn't bring herself to say, in her heart along with the ache in her lower abdomen, Eleonore flashed the Marchioness a bright smile.