Chapter 67
Brrr... It’s cold.
I took about five photos too, then immediately sat down next to Eloise and warmed myself by the brazier. Shooting in spring clothes really is hard when it’s winter.
“H-hello...?”
“Yeah, hello.”
Eloise Whitmore had a really chic vibe, so it was hard to strike up a conversation with her. Even if I look like a kid right now, I’m actually an adult, you know. I don’t really know what kids like, either. I was seriously wondering how I was supposed to start talking to her.
ㅡBeep!
“Huh? What’s wrong, Doggo?”
ㅡBeep...!
Doggo, who had been on top of my head, hopped down onto the grass and, with its little butt sticking up, glared at Eloise and growled.
“Ah, what’s wrong?! Come here, quickly...!”
“Hmm.”
Even though I kept joking that Eloise was my rival and my worthy opponent, that was just a joke. I wasn’t exactly treating a kid as a rival to begin with, you know? Showing your hostility this openly right in front of someone is amateurish.
Eloise watched Doggo and me intently from the side, and when I put Doggo back on top of my head, she spoke again.
“What’s that thing?”
“Ah, this...? This is Doggo... my pet robot...?”
“Really? Where did you buy it?”
“I didn’t buy it... I guess you could say I made it...”
“You can do that too?”
“Well... a-actually, I’m an Awakened. Or rather, it’s my Awakening ability...”
“Ah... I see.”
Eloise reacted as if she had no interest, then deliberately pulled her chair even farther away to the side. There was a warm brazier right there, and yet she moved her chair away for no reason at all. No matter how I looked at it, that had to mean she was deliberately showing her dislike... right?
‘Darn it, what’s up with her. Is it because she thinks I’ll beat her up or something?’
I’m a good Awakened, not a villain, so I don’t hurt good people. Doggo climbed back up onto the crown of my head and tapped my forehead with its short front paws, then came back down onto my lap and kept trying to say something.
ㅡBeep...!
“Huh? What is it?”
ㅡBeep, beep-beep...!
[Magic detected]
“Magic? From where?”
A message saying magic had been detected appeared on Doggo’s screen. I’m not sure if it’s because it’s a dog, but Doggo seems really sensitive to magic. When I asked where it had sensed magic, Doggo quietly turned its head and peeked at Eloise.
“Gasp... Eloise is an Awakened too..?”
ㅡShaking its head
“What do you mean...? You said you detected magic...”
ㅡNod nod
I picked Doggo up and whispered to it. It detected magic from Eloise, but Eloise herself isn’t an Awakened? What does that even mean?
“Then... um, I don’t know.”
While I waited a bit, sipping the hot chocolate the staff member handed me, Ms. Eleanor came over and nodded.
“Eve, you’re not too cold, are you?”
“Ah, no! I’m fine because I’m sitting by the fire.”
“Hehe, good. The photos are turning out beautifully. Since the schedule is pretty loose, I don’t think you’ll be changing into any more outfits today, so shall we go get changed?”
“Really? Then I’ll change.”
We change clothes in a makeshift dressing room set up next to us. It’s a circular metal frame with curtains hung around it and heaters set up nearby to keep it warm, and Ophelia helps me change. After that, the stylists help with the more specific styling.
“Ah, Ms. Ophelia. Would it be all right if I took a quick look at Eve’s hair? It seems her hair is very fine but also very full, so if I want to style it properly, I may need to bring in new equipment tomorrow.”
“I see. If it’s all right with you, I’ll help.”
“Would that be okay?”
But my hair was the kind even a professional stylist would have a hard time handling. If it’s styled properly, it can deliver top performance, but if you mess it up, it turns into a total mess. In other words, Ophelia’s skill was at top-tier stylist level.
“Princess, I’ll help you change.”
“Okay.”
It seems the contract explicitly states that Ophelia can be present as a guardian and provide all sorts of help. But did Eloise not bring her parents? I don’t really see anyone who looks like a guardian; it just feels like the staff are taking turns handling things.
“Ophelia, I took good photos, right?”
“Yes. It was still a good result, though not enough to capture the princess’s charm perfectly.”
“Hehe.”
* * * * *
That was it for today’s schedule. Had we been on set for about three hours? We weren’t originally even supposed to try on clothes, but they suddenly asked us to put one on, so it took a little longer. We headed straight back to the hotel in Ms. Eleanor’s car.
It took an hour to get there, an hour to come back, and three hours on set, so even though we didn’t really do much, it still took five hours.
We left around 11, and now it’s a little past 4.
“This takes longer than I expected.”
“We usually start at 9, but we started a bit late today~”
“Ah, I see.”
Anyway, I only had about five outfits to try on, and the period was nice and long at one week. The people on set rest when there’s no work, and once work comes in, they work hard, so they don’t even have weekends. The models are the same.
“You worked hard today. Get inside and rest well, and I’ll see you tomorrow~”
“Yes! You worked hard too, Ms. Eleanor!”
“Have a safe trip home.”
And so, after coming back to Claridge’s, I took off all my clothes and flopped onto the warm, fluffy bed, rolling around. From what I heard from Ophelia, Suri and Minyum were also relaxing and playing around to their heart’s content. I asked them if they wanted to come visit London, and they said to call them if anything dangerous came up.
Are these guys actually not machines..? Do machines normally like taking breaks too?
“Oh, right, Ophelia. About Eloise...”
“Yes, did something happen?”
“I was talking to Eloise and told her I’m an Awakened... but I think Eloise disliked it a little. How should I put it? She suddenly pulled her chair to the side and moved away, I guess.”
If anything, Eloise seemed to feel a bit of resistance when I revealed I was an Awakened. It was winter, so it’s cold when you’re shooting in spring clothes, and yet she even went so far as to move her chair a little farther away.
“Is that so.”
“Could Eloise possibly be jealous of me..?! Because my skills are just too outstanding?!”
“I don’t think that’s it.”
“Waaah.”
Well, if not, then there’s nothing I can do... But aren’t kids around that age usually like that? They can be quietly jealous and stuff. Of course, if you asked whether there was anything about me today that was worth being jealous of... um.
I’m not sure.
But didn’t Eloise bring her mom and dad? She’s a kid too, so wouldn’t her parents come to help or something? Come to think of it, at that time her parents would be at work. Doesn’t she have a manager or anything like that?
* * * * *
“It looks good on you. You pull off this kind of outfit well too.”
“Hmm.”
The next day at 10 a.m., after getting ready from 9 and eating brunch while riding in the car, we started the photo shoot quickly. The sunlight was much stronger than yesterday, and the daytime temperature had gone up by about 3 degrees, so it was warmer than yesterday.
Eloise wrapped up one of yesterday’s shoots early this morning, and then my shoot started.
“Eve. Your poses feel a little stiff. I think you could be a bit bolder.”
“I-Is that so?”
Director Charles Montague, who was in creative mode, came over to me for a moment and demonstrated the pose himself.
“Like this.”
“Ah, I’ll try it!”
It was a little funny seeing a gray-haired old man strike a pose. Still, maybe because his expression was so serious, I couldn’t think of anything else.
While we were taking photos, I couldn’t keep Doggo on top of my head forever. My hair had been carefully styled by the stylists too, so even if Doggo was light, if it climbed up there and rolled around, all the volume they’d worked to create would collapse.
ㅡClick!
“Mm. That’s good.”
“Brrr... It’s chilly.”
The moment the okay sign came through, I went over to the heater beside me and warmed myself up. That little Doggo was just chewing on something like a dog treat and sitting in front of the heater, watching me work.
But even so, it was still working. I bought a wireless earbud and paired it with Doggo, then turned on the real-time translation function so it would keep translating even if Doggo came down from my head.
“You little thing, do you enjoy playing by yourself while the princess is working?”
ㅡNod nod
“You like it? You little...!”
When I was taking a break, Eloise was the one shooting. Unlike me, Charles the old man didn’t often come over in person and demonstrate poses himself; he’d just say, “How about this or that?” and Eloise would go, “Yep,” and handle it. Kind of a pro vibe?
The rhythm of the camera shutter was much faster than mine, and she changed poses in the blink of an eye.
“Hmm, not bad... could I beat her?”
ㅡBeep...
“Don’t even dream about it? Give me that dog chew! I’m going to eat it.”
But Eloise worked yesterday too, and today too, and apparently started before I got here and will keep working even after I go back to the hotel. Isn’t she tired?
Today Ms. Eleanor wasn’t there, so I rode in a car with someone I didn’t know, and Ophelia had suddenly gotten friendly with the stylists and was chatting away about all sorts of things.
The main event was the stylists trying to strike up conversations with the insanely skilled Ophelia so they could learn her techniques.
“Maybe I should look at my phone for a bit too.”
[Ssangkaldak : Heaven Above and Earth Below, I Alone Am Supreme
(photo)
The GOAT among B-rank bruisers has arrived]
“Oh...”
For the first time in a while, someone posted proof of Awakening on the gallery. But they messed up the censoring on the test photo, and when they increased the transparency, the person’s name and home address were fully revealed—a complete disaster.
Our newbie gallery poster, frontline B-rank Awakened Ssangkaldak (real name: Ahn Daeho), had his post shoot up to the hot posts and was getting absolutely roasted.
-ㅇㅇ : lolllllllll you can’t even censor properly
-KimHeukgan : You’re not even allowed into the current Hunter Gallery now lol
-Gyahong : Damn, this bastard is freaking hilarious
-ㅇㅇ : Our Daeho lives in Sillim lol, I might run into him on the street
-ㅇㅇ : You can’t censor it like that, Ahn Daeho~~
ㄴ ㅇㅇ : lolllllllll
ㄴ RamsCabilGOA : Fucking hell lolllllllll
ㄴ TwinBladeDdak : Stop it
-Elreuel : Anyway, now we know for sure you don’t have any vision-related skills lol
-ㅇㅇ : Awakening at 21 means a bright future lolllllllll
ㄴ ㅇㅇ : Go to the district office, change your name on the record, and come back with a fresh new account lolllllllll
This was some fun gallery drama, and I couldn’t sit it out.
[Insaenganmanghaetda : Daeho, nice to meet you
Having you here is reassuring]
-ㅇㅇ : Wow, a Londoner has appeared
ㄴ MyLifeIsntRuined : What the heck;
-Elreuel : Daeho-hyung is really the guardian of the gallery
ㄴ MyLifeIsntRuined : For real
-KimHeukgan : To be fair, if you’re B-rank, you’re already in the top 1% of Awakened people lol
ㄴ MyLifeIsntRuined : True lol
After that, the topic got so heated that a green mod came in and declared the thread off-limits.
[Hustar : Let’s stop with the doxxing bait from here on out, yeah
You seem young, so I think the welcome part is enough by now.. Nice to meet you, Daeho]
-ㅇㅇ : ㄴㄱㅁㄷ
-ㅇㅇ : ㄴㄱㅁㄷ
-ㅇㅇ : ㄴㄱㅁ
ㄴ Hustar : ?
While I was happily browsing the gallery like that, lunchtime came and everyone took a short break, and Eloise also came over and sat by the heater.
“Ah, good work.”
“Yeah.”
Such a cold, stiff reaction. Was Eloise really that averse to Awakened people? If she looked at the gallery once, she’d probably change her mind.
“Eloise, aren’t you tired?”
“Not really.”
“It looks like you’re working a ton, so how many outfits do you have to wear?”
“That’s rude to ask.”
“Ah, sorry.”
Was that not something you were supposed to ask? I had no idea—I’m new to this...
As I got a little dejected, Eloise glanced at me and quietly said.
“Twelve outfits.”
“Huh?”
“I said twelve outfits.”
“Gasp, that’s a lot... That must be hard.”
If there are 12 outfits, wouldn’t that mean taking 1,200 photos? Eloise was a pro, so maybe she’d just rattle them off in a burst.
Later, Eloise also got some food from the staff and ate a little, and I rested up during lunch while Ophelia gave me a leg massage. But Eloise really doesn’t seem to have a guardian.
No way...
‘She’s not an orphan, is she...?’
She’s just a kid, and being alone on set makes me worry a bit.