Julietta's Dressing Up

Translator: Khan

Editor: Aelryinth

Simone looked at Dian hesitating and continued coolly, "There is nothing to harm you. You just have to tell me what you think is weird."

It was an irresistible order. Dian didn"t know why she wanted to be briefed about what was going on in the mansion. But she wasn"t told not to report to someone, so she thought it would be okay to tell her if she heard news of Julietta or this madame.

What was more, she said it was for Julietta. She wanted to follow what her heart told her, and so she nodded, "Yes, ma"am. I"ll do as you say."

At Dian"s consent, Simone spoke soothingly with a soft voice again. "I"ll make sure to make amends for what you"ve done for me."

"How should I report to you?"

"When you"re out on holiday, go to the post office in town and leave a letter to a woman named Mrs. Eldira. I"ll send someone to retrieve it."

Simone decided to use the name of the street where the mansion of the Duke was located as a fake name.

"And if you have to send me a magic message in a hurry or if you have to find me, come to this address instead of the mansion of Duke Dublin."

Simone went into the room, took out the whole bag of gold coins from the luggage bag, and held them out to Dian with a piece of paper with Julietta"s dressing shop address.

"n.o.body should know that you"re contacting me, so be careful."

Dian nodded at Simone"s request, covering up her uneasiness.

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The next day, Simone was out of Tilia at dawn, without meeting anyone. Tilia mansion, which had been her home for decades, was so uncomfortable and p.r.i.c.kly that she no longer wanted to stay even for a moment. She left the mansion without seeing her brother the Duke, or her niece Regina.

Thanks to her great haste, she was able to arrive at Dublin the following afternoon, after a day at the Baden Land.

---

"Gibson, let"s go straight to the Eileen Theater."

"Yes, ma"am."

Simone looked out the window from the carriage on the way to the theater, arranging how to talk to Maribel. Yesterday, she thought she couldn"t be treated by the Duke this way, but her heart was stuffy because she could do nothing. First, she would ask Maribel about the Marquis of Anais and seek her advice on how to act.

Simone recalled the t.i.tle transfer of the dressing shop building that she had tried to get her brother to sign directly. Her brother didn"t sign it in the end. He didn"t seem to be willing to let Julietta go after this.

She shook her tiring head to erase the thought that had been cautiously recalled since yesterday, and looked blankly out of the window.

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As Simone, arriving in Dublin, was heading to the Eileen Theater, Killian was observing the gla.s.s door of the dressing shop that Oswald had described. "This is the gla.s.s door."

"Yes, Your Highness, you can see clearly inside, and if it were a busy street, It would certainly have caught the eyes of people coming and going."

At Oswald"s answer, Killian nodded as he looked into the wide hall inside the transparent gla.s.s door.

"They just changed the door to gla.s.s, and I think it will have a better effect than putting some signs on it. If this front wall is all gla.s.s, the effect would be even greater."

"That"s right, Your Highness. I can understand more easily what a gla.s.s building is, which Julietta had talked about, after seeing it with my own eyes. Of course, it"s going to cost a lot of money, but it"s going to be a huge hit."

Killian looked from side to side at the landscape of the three-story building, sculptures in dresses installed inside the hall, and the quiet streets all about, only one or two carriages occasionally coming and going. His eyes, standing still and looking around the building without a word, were as sharp as a predator blocking a fleeing retreat and seeking prey.

Oswald asked Killian, who seemed unwilling to enter after his arrival, "Your Highness, aren"t you going in?"

Killian winked at the pa.s.sing wagon at Oswald"s urging. The fast approaching wagon slowed down visibly as it got closer to them, and it pa.s.sed the front of the store at a very slow pace. Killian, who had been watching the wagon without an emblem disappear far away, answered Oswald, "I"m going to stay a little longer because more people need to see me enter this dressing shop. Keep the carriage on the road as it is. And until I leave, keep others from coming into the dressing shop."

Oswald looked at the purple carriage the Prince had ridden and the imperial knights surrounding him, and then at the ivory-colored three-story building pitifully.

"Ah, Princess Kiellini. Do you know that after this hour, your fate is irrevocable?"

Oswald couldn"t help but feel sorry for the fate of the innocent princess who knew nothing. Killian said nothing but an incomprehensible word at Oswald"s sympathy, "Let"s go in. I wonder what she"s going to be like today."

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At that time, Julietta was admiring the doll laying on the workbench in the dressing shop. The doll she had ordered a few days ago looked like Julietta, wearing the same green dress she had worn at the tea party.

"Oh, my G.o.d, that"s perfect. She must be a very skilled person. Has she agreed to work with us?"

"Of course, she did. It would be better earnings and more stable than to make a doll and sew at home when she sometimes has an order. But she was worried she could not work in this professional dressing shop with her skills. She knows nothing about the dresses of the n.o.bility, because the only thing she"s ever done to repair or make dolls."

"Please tell her not to worry at all. Looking at this doll, I know that her skills are good enough. Please ask her when she can start working, and make room for her to work in the workshop on the second floor."

When the payment came in from the Kiellini family, Julietta immediately started construction on the second floor.

There were a total of eight bedrooms, four on each side, around the middle stairs. Since the main workroom on the first floor had to be renovated as a fitting room, the second floor was divided into a tailor"s room, a sewing room, a fabric storage room, a prop room, and a lounge for the employees.

She decided to make an employee"s dining room on the second floor. Since she could not make set up a dining room on the first floor where guests would come and go, the area with a small hall on the first floor was planned to be a small cafe where guests could drink tea.

She had to be seriously worried when all the money for the clothes she received this time was put into the construction. She still needed a lot of money to spend, but didn"t have any guests. It was time to find investors in earnest.

After looking around the dining room on the second floor and the café on the first floor where the construction was finished, Julietta picked up the doll lying on the workstation again, returning to the main studio with Amelie and Sophie. Looking at Julietta, who was measuring the head size of the arm-length doll, Sophie asked, "But what the h.e.l.l are you going to do with these dolls?"

"It"s hard to place hats, umbrellas, and gloves on the children in the hall that we"ve named Victoria, Elizabeth, Diana, Mary, and Kate. To show the overall harmony, looking at the real thing, even this small doll will create both interest and desire to buy."

Sophie was affrighted by Julieta"s description of the ugly things in the hall as children, even naming them. She was afraid that they were going to come alive and move around, but she now would set out even human-like dolls. Now she thought she would not enter the hall at night.

"By the way, we didn"t have any other customers but the guy who stopped by yesterday. Is it okay with us?"

Sophie sighed anxiously. Of course, she was busy making clothes for Princess Kiellini, but she was worried that they had not responded even after almost a week had pa.s.sed since her debut. Apparently, she heard that everything Princess Kiellini wore was a hot topic of conversation, and Julietta laughed as she looked back at Sophie, who was wondering why they had no customers.