#3. Beneath the Splendid Hall and the Dark Balcony (2)

The drawing room, which had long been used only by members of House Béarn, was bustling with people for the first time in ages.

Though the people gathered inside differed in age, status, hair color, and even eye color, they were all talking about the same thing.

Each of them was sharing their thoughts about the star of the day, who would soon arrive.

Etie, Olivia, and a few of the maids, who had already seen her in the dress, were filled with anticipation at the thought of seeing once more the pure, graceful beauty in white.

By contrast, Margrave Obert and Albris, who didn't even know what color Eleonore's dress was, had their hearts pounding so hard that even their usual bickering had temporarily stopped.

Lorschua, who kept sipping her tea while staring at Eleonore's empty seat, merely wore an inscrutable smile.

And the star everyone was waiting for was currently...

“W-wait, Sophie. Don't push me!”

“Oh, honestly, milady! How long are you going to keep this up?”

“I knowww! O-oh! If you do that, I'm going to fall!”

Right beside the drawing room, in front of a large pillar that completely hid her slender frame, she was in the middle of a lengthy argument with her personal maid.

“Sophie, I get it, so just wait a second. Let me mentally prepare myself.”

“No! You look so good in it, what do you need to prepare for?”

“Sophie, you wouldn't understand how I feel right now.”

“Of course I wouldn't! It's not like I ever get to wear a dress like this, unlike you, milady!”

Sophie turned her freckled cheek sharply to the side, pretending to sulk.

To be honest, she found the sight of her young lady leaning against a pillar and fretting absolutely adorable.

But if she didn't take a firm stance, her lady would surely keep resisting and refuse to go out for ages.

Eleonore's snow-white breasts rose and fell conspicuously above the dress's low neckline.

With her back against the pillar, Eleonore took deep breaths, trying to calm her heart, which was pounding so hard it felt ready to leap out of her mouth.

That's right, Juha. Standing here like this is only going to wear me out.

I might as well be a man about it and show them once and for all!

Eleonore raised her small white hand and slapped her own cheek.

At the crisp smack against her plump cheek, Sophie stared at her lady in surprise.

But Eleonore's expression had changed so completely from a moment ago that Sophie couldn't bring herself to say another word.

“Let's go, Sophie. I'll get this over with quickly and throw this godforsaken dress off.”

#.

The drawing room, which had been abuzz with anticipation as everyone waited for the star to arrive, fell deathly silent the moment Eleonore appeared in white.

Click, click.

Thanks to the heels of her silver enamel shoes, Eleonore's steps were far more feminine than usual.

The stylish dress wrapped around her slender body swayed with each step, its pleated trim accentuating her feminine curves.

The pure, graceful beauty radiating from Eleonore in her white dress overwhelmed the onlookers and stirred their hearts.

In the heavy silence that followed, the first to move was her father, Margrave Obert.

Obert jumped to his feet and immediately shouted at the top of his lungs.

“No! That dress is unacceptable!”

With his face flushed red, the margrave pushed through the crowd and strode toward his daughter.

He immediately took off the navy-blue cape draped over his shoulders and placed it around his daughter's shoulders.

As the soft fabric settled over her bare shoulders, Eleonore drew the navy-blue cape snugly around her neck.

Then the cape's owner stormed toward Olivia, the dressmaker, his face filled with anger.

“You call this a dress? Huh? What is this, some kind of barroom whore's—”

“Obert!”

Etie, who had also leapt to her feet, cut off her husband's angry voice.

“There are things you can and can't say in front of your daughter! What on earth are you saying?”

Smack.

Etie's hand came down mercilessly on the broad back of the elderly gentleman, its force matching the sharp crack that rang through the room.

Mrs. Olivia stood up in a panic and bowed her head deeply.

“Well, my lord, these styles of dresses are fashionable among young ladies in the capital these days—”

“No! Fashionable or not, not for my daughter! Why would I throw my precious youngest daughter out there as eye candy for men!”

At his words, Eleonore subtly nodded, avoiding her mother's gaze.

Mm-hmm. The Margrave does say something right once in a while.

I'd been suspicious since all he'd said so far was nonsense.

Hearing her husband's words, Etie narrowed her large eyes and charged at him in a fierce voice.

“Honestly, I've put up with this long enough! Please, stop being such a doting fool! Haa, you were like this with our eldest, too, and you never improve.”

“No, that's… You see, dear. Eli's dress, her chest is just too—”

“What about her chest! She looks lovely! And Mrs. Olivia, who's the expert, said this much was perfectly decent, didn't she!”

Just as Obert was lowering his proudly raised tail under Etie's terrifying assault,

Albris, who had come over at some point—because he was her son, after all—stood beside Obert and took his side.

“Mother, I've met quite a few women in the capital myself, but I still think this dress is a bit much.”

At her son's voice, Etie whipped her head around and glared at him with that terrifying look.

“Albris, if you've met so many women, why are you still single?”

“Well, that's… I didn't meet them for fun, but for work…”

“And yet you presume to discuss women's dresses?”

Albris, too, lowered his head with a dejected expression, just like his father.

It was a truly terrifying display of combat power.

The Margrave, and Albris, too.

One after another, they were sunk by their mother's fierce attacks and tucked their tails between their legs.

Watching the men muttering as they returned to their seats, Eleonore carefully untied and tossed off the cape around her neck as well.

“Milady, is there anything uncomfortable when you move?”

With the troublesome interruptions gone, Mrs. Olivia finally regained her usual smile and approached Eleonore.

“No. I walked around a little, but nothing felt uncomfortable or strange.”

Eleonore politely replied that she was fine, twisting her waist from side to side.

With her waist properly secured, it was indeed much easier to move than last time.

“Then it's time to see you move properly.”

And only then did the sex-crazed married woman, who'd been quiet until now, finally spring into action.

Lorschua stepped close behind Eleonore and gently brushed the back of her hand over Eleonore's exposed white shoulder.

At the sensation of the soft silk glove gliding over her bare skin, Eleonore shuddered and turned around.

“Ah! Um, madam. That tickles!”

“Hehe. Eleonore, don't push me away so much. It hurts my feelings, too.”

At the sultry, coquettish voice, as though she were seducing a man, Eleonore let out a heavy sigh,

and Lorschua, apparently amused by Eleonore's reaction, giggled and turned to look at Albris, who was looking thoroughly dejected.

“Count Albris, you promised to escort Eleonore, didn't you?”

With those words, their brief alliance shattered to pieces.

Obert and Albris, the father and son who had been quiet for a while, soon began bickering loudly again.

“W-what? Why are you the one escorting our Eli?!”

“Because Eli asked me herself.”

“What do you mean? Eli asked you herself? Eli, is that true, Eli?”

Watching her father's face contort, Eleonore shook her head.

Etie, standing beside her, had an expression no different from Eleonore's.

“Haa. I don't care whether it's Father or my brother. Whoever wants to get their feet stepped on a lot can come.”

#.

The chill in the air was slowly giving way to the warmth of spring,

and the spring flowers, their buds formed, were beginning to unfurl their thin petals.

The capital's social season ran from the first week of April until the end of June, before the sweltering heat began.

Contrary to Eleonore's—or Seo Juha's—assumptions, nobles in the capital didn't hold social gatherings all year round.

When the social season ended in June and the real heat began, the capital's nobles escaped to cool seaside resorts or mountain retreats.

Once the heat that had baked the land receded, the autumn hunting season—the men's social season—began.

During hunting season, the ladies mingled among themselves in small groups inside tents set up at the hunting grounds.

The bountiful autumn came to an end with the splendid Founding Festival celebrations.

When the cold began in earnest, nobles with estates returned to their lands to assess the year's tax revenue and make plans for the next.

The capital's nobles without estates spent the winter in their warm mansions.

That was how the nobles of the Galatea Empire spent a year, passing through the four seasons.

And today was the first Friday of April.

The day of the debutante presentation, and the day the social season officially began.

In fact, none of the schedule above had been laid down by law or formally codified.

There were only two events formally established:

the Founding Festival held in the last week of October,

and the debutante presentation held on the first Friday of April.

The debutante presentation was an event where noble young ladies who had come of age paid their respects to the senior members of the imperial family.

Parents announced to the imperial elders and the empire's nobles that their daughters were now of marriageable age,

and unmarried nobles and their sons began gathering in the capital in search of prey.

Naturally, balls and all sorts of parties where men and women could easily meet were held in the capital, and this series of events gradually took shape in people's minds as one grand occasion known as the social season.

Eleonore, who had come of age this year, was also heading with her mother in the family carriage to the detached palace where the Empress resided.

Even with House Béarn's fierce golden lion crest displayed, the guards stopped their carriage several times.

After the repeated inspections, the carriage finally entered the imperial palace grounds.

At the dramatically changed scenery outside the window, Eleonore leaned against the glass and gazed out in wonder.

The view filling her sky-blue eyes was very different from the streets of the city and the townhouses in the suburbs she had seen so far.

Long, straight roads paved neatly with bricks.

Tall ornamental trees lining them, and all manner of flowers blooming in vivid colors.

And, visible in the distance between the tall trees, magnificent buildings.

But the more she looked, the faster her interest faded.

“Even if it is the imperial palace, well… it isn't all that big, is it?”

At her daughter's disappointed voice, Etie smiled slightly and replied.

“Eli, it's not that the imperial palace is small. It's just that the townhouse we see every day is so large that it seems that way to you.”

“I-is that so?”

Etie gave a gentle nod.

“The imperial family has set legal standards for every building erected in the capital. They can't be bigger or more magnificent than the imperial palace. Only our house and the Grand Duchy of Verbritz are exempt from that law.”

She could guess the reason without even asking.

They'd gone to all the trouble of taking a hostage, so they gave the hostage a little carrot to keep them from getting angry.

The carriage, rolling smoothly along the paved road, soon glided to a stop.

The stopped carriage door opened smoothly, and a well-dressed attendant politely extended a hand to welcome the blue-eyed mother and daughter.

Etie got down from the carriage with the attendant's assistance,

and Eleonore got down while holding her mother's hand.

Looking at the Empress's palace, whose limestone-coated outer walls reflected a brilliant white, just like its nickname, the Crystal Palace, Eleonore steeled herself like a general heading off to war.