Chapter 15
The debutante presentation was originally a very modest affair.
It was an occasion where a young lady who had just come of age paid her respects to her elders in the imperial family, who in turn offered her a few words of lighthearted congratulations.
Of course, if you looked at it closely, it was one way for the imperial family to keep the nobility in line through the institution of marriage.
As time passed and imperial authority grew stronger, its significance gradually faded, and the event itself became increasingly casual.
These days, one could even find young ladies grumbling that even this was a bother, sometimes at tables in the city's famous patisseries.
But this particular gathering was different.
The suffocating atmosphere filling the spacious reception room left Eleonore swallowing nervously again and again.
The Empress, Annerose, snapped at the unexpected guest with clear displeasure.
“What brings the princess to the Empress’s palace, when you normally don’t show your face here?”
“Mother. Surely there’s no reason I, too, as a woman of the imperial family, shouldn’t come to visit?”
Unlike the Empress’s sharp voice, Princess Dominique’s tone was full of ease.
“Ha! After ignoring all those invitations to events, you’re going to say that now?”
“I only mean that, since I’ve been neglectful until now, I’ll make an effort from this point on.”
As if deliberately provoking her, Dominique bowed her head with exaggerated politeness and continued speaking.
“Still, I’m a little hurt by how vehemently you’ve reacted, Mother. From now on, I’ll quietly do as you wish again.”
At the princess’s final words, the Empress, Annerose, opened her eyes wide and let out a harsh breath.
That rough exhalation sounded almost like the Empress admitting defeat.
Afraid the argument might turn on them next, Etie and Eleonore lowered their heads even further.
Meanwhile, the red-haired man standing beside the fuming Empress seemed utterly uninterested in the fiery exchange between the two women.
His brown eyes reflected only one woman before him.
Though her head was respectfully bowed, the platinum-blonde young lady seemed to radiate light, and she had taken up every corner of Louis’s heart.
‘That’s her! That’s the woman who’s going to become the Marquise of Edmund!’
Louis swallowed involuntarily.
He’d spent years idling about in the capital, seeing countless women hailed as beauties, and chatting with them and sharing their company, too.
But the girl before him was on an entirely different level from the beauties he’d met before—or rather, from the women people called beautiful.
Her platinum-blonde hair was neatly arranged.
He could hardly believe how beautifully her eyes, nose, and mouth were set in that tiny face.
The airy blouse covered in countless lace details only enhanced her fresh, innocent charm.
And beneath her short skirt, her firm thighs wrapped in white stockings had a way of making a man’s blood run hot.
As he took in Eleonore’s appearance from head to toe, Louis Edmund, the young Marquis, gave a small nod.
‘Yes. The youngest daughter of House Béarn would make a perfectly suitable lady of House Edmund. Hmm… I can’t go through the same succession troubles as my aunt, so one son and one daughter who takes after their mother should be enough.’
Before long, Louis was even making plans for children without Eleonore, the woman in question, knowing a thing about it.
Unlike his carefree nephew.
The Empress, who had been locked in a battle of wills with a princess much younger than herself, was the first to look away.
The fact that she was the one to back down was deeply unpleasant to the Empress.
She wanted nothing more than to glare at that fox of a woman until she finally lowered her eyes.
But she couldn’t keep her invited guests waiting forever.
After glaring at Dominique for so long that her own expression stiffened, the Empress relaxed her face and turned to the mother and daughter, who were still bowing their heads.
“I invited you here, yet I’ve been talking about other things. I apologize. Margravine Etie, you look much better than the last time I saw you.”
“Thanks to your concern, we’ve been well in our little corner of the west.”
The two married women exchanged a few formal words.
Both spoke as if they meant them, but they knew perfectly well it was all bullshit.
Everyone in the imperial palace knew that the Empress secretly looked down on the west.
And although the western nobles claimed to be neutral, their sympathies secretly leaned toward the princess.
Before long, the Empress’s green eyes shifted to the platinum-blonde young lady beside Etie.
“And you must be Eleonore?”
Only when the Empress spoke her name could Eleonore finally lift her head.
“I am Eleonore Arraena de Béarn.”
Eleonore bent her knees slightly, then lifted the hem of her skirt with one hand.
It was the etiquette she’d crammed in yesterday afternoon with her mother and Lorschua.
Still, perhaps because the movements came naturally to her, she looked quite practiced.
The Empress gave Eleonore a satisfied smile in response to her greeting.
“You seem every bit as accomplished in appearance and manners as your older sister—or perhaps even more so. They say a younger sibling can never surpass an older one, but it seems that saying is wrong.”
“Thank you for your kind words, Your Majesty.”
Looking at the young lady before her, Annerose thought,
Even if he’s my nephew, it would be a shame to send her to Louis.
It would be such a shame.
As she watched Eleonore straighten from her curtsy, a smile on her face,
Princess Dominique had already moved toward the red-haired man standing beside the Empress.
“Oh! Aren’t you the young Marquis of Edmund? What brings someone who supposedly doesn’t get out of bed until late after spending the night at a woman’s side here so early in the morning?”
His flustered gaze shifted from the platinum-blonde girl to the wheat-haired woman.
“Y-Your Highness. What are you—”
“Oh? I heard you were making quite a racket in the back alleys by the brothels until late last night, too.”
“I-it’s nonsense. I don’t know where you heard that, but it’s a ridiculous—”
Louis stammered, flustered,
and the Empress let out a deep sigh at the sight of her nephew’s pathetic behavior.
She’d expected as much the moment the princess walked in.
But her nephew was an even bigger fool than she’d imagined, unable to mount even a proper response.
Sigh… Well, it was common knowledge in the capital’s social circles that her nephew was a womanizer, so Lady Béarn would surely know all about it.
Still, he had a handsome face and a natural gift for charming women, so he could surely overcome a bad first impression.
“Oh, is that so? I’m sorry. I must have heard wrong.”
Dominique gave Louis a bright smile, then turned back to the Empress and dipped her wheat-colored head slightly.
“Your Majesty, you don’t look very pleased. It seems my presence is making you uncomfortable. I can’t keep imposing on you, so I’ll take my leave now.”
And so Eleonore’s debutante presentation quietly came to an end with a sigh from the Empress.
#.
If the debutante presentation was a modest affair, the ball held that evening could certainly be called one of the Galatea Empire’s major events.
Unlike the other balls held during the social season, it was hosted directly by the imperial family at the palace.
Naturally, its guests were of a higher caliber, and its splendor was on an entirely different level from that of other balls.
Moreover, every young lady who had attended the debutante presentation was required to attend.
The fresh-faced young ladies who had just made their debuts were easy prey for men, and women hoping to snare those men flocked to the palace as well.
So the palace ballroom was packed with the capital’s unmarried noblemen and noblewomen, all dressed in their finery.
Before long, a slow waltz began to drift through the noisy ballroom.
At the conductor’s cue, the musicians moved their bows smoothly,
and to the music, the young ladies who had made their debuts that day began to enter one by one.
Eleonore’s entrance was last.
By tradition, the final entrance at any event was always reserved for a member of the imperial family.
The imperial family used even little customs like that to display their authority, and appearing last like the star of the show was quite effective, too.
But today’s debutante ball was different.
The imperial family yielded that honor to the young ladies who had just made their debuts.
Among the young ladies debuting that day, the youngest daughter of the Margrave of Béarn held the highest rank.
So, just as she had been the first to meet with the Empress, Eleonore ended up being the last to take her turn that year.
In the waiting room, Eleonore waited for her turn alongside Albris.
Through a narrow gap in the firmly shut waiting-room door came the waltz’s elegant melody and the deep voice announcing each young lady’s name and family.
And every time she heard it, Eleonore’s heart pounded.
As if she were waiting for her turn to present a group project, Eleonore gently closed her eyes, trying to calm her nerves.
“Eli, are you nervous?”
A large, rough hand enveloped Eleonore’s hand.
Eleonore carefully opened her eyes.
“Yes. A little.”
Smiling brightly as he looked at her, Eleonore told Albris—or rather, her older brother—exactly how she felt.
“I’m worried I might step on your foot and make you fall over.”
“If you can joke about it, you must be feeling better than I thought.”
Albris replied with a hearty laugh.
“I mean it! I gave Lady Lorschua’s feet such a hard time when we practiced.”
Furrowing her neatly shaped brows, Eleonore puffed out her cheeks.
At the sight of his adorable youngest sister, Albris gently lifted a hand and stroked the crown of her head.
“Don’t worry so much. Do you think I’d fall over just because of your weight? And Eli, you’re so light that no matter how hard you step on me, it won’t even hurt, so don’t worry about me. Just dance as freely as you like.”
Something about this felt… off.
Resting her head beneath Albris’s warm hand, Eleonore thought.
Albris was surely a man, just like her.
If another man had done this to her original self, she would have gotten angry right away.
For some reason, she didn’t mind Albris’s hand resting on her head.
I must be going crazy, Seo Juha! You’ve really turned into a woman through and through.
After all this time surrounded by women, you’ve even gotten the whole girly act down pat, haven’t you?
Contrary to her private thoughts, Eleonore looked up at Albris with a faint smile.
“Brother, these heels are pretty high, you know? Even you would yelp if I stepped on your foot in them!”
Just as the two siblings were bickering adorably,
someone finally knocked on the waiting-room door.
“Lady Eleonore, it’s your turn to enter.”
At the attendant’s words, Albris rose from his seat.
Like a knight escorting his beloved lady, he offered the large hand he’d just had resting on Eli’s head.
“Come on, Eli. Even if you fall and make a fool of yourself, I’ll protect you to the very end.”
Her older brother’s voice sounded reassuring.
So Eleonore smiled brightly and placed her small white hand, wrapped in lace, on his large hand.
“You promise, right? I’m counting on you, Brother!”