Chapter 25: Ladies Day Morning.
I woke up earlier than usual.
Today was Ladies" Day.
I just said that but it"s not like it"s a special day or anything.
It is only called Ladies" Day because of lectures such as manners and dances which are taken on this day. They are necessary for the female aristocrat children of this Kingdom.
And that is why I am up earlier than usual.
I thought that I wouldn"t have to wear a specific dress because I wasn"t going to a ball or anything, but the people around me wouldn"t allow it.
Specially my dance teacher and the maids.
The teacher thought that it would be better for me to wear dresses and get used to them. Therefore I am obliged to wear a dress whenever Ladies" Day came around.
I felt like the maids were just simply having fun dressing me up.
However I did agree that I had to get used to dresses, so I spent the whole day in a dress on Ladies" Day.
I didn"t just wear dresses on Ladies" Day, I also had my makeup and hair done; everything from the top of my head to the bottom of my toes, so it took time to prepare in the mornings.
Therefore, I must get up earlier than usual and head to the Royal Palace.
I wake up, dressed in something simple and then go to the Royal Palace even before the sun had risen.
The maids stood in wait at the room that was prepared for me.
There were also different coloured dresses, shoes and accessories in the room.
The people at the Royal Palace had prepared all this.
I was surprised that the dresses and shoes fitted me perfectly.
I wanted to believe that they already had these things on hand and didn"t just prepare all these it just for me.
I wanted to ask the Civil Official about it but I had a feeling that I"d be forced to accept all this just for asking so I didn"t ask because I was afraid.
For the time being, I decided that the outfits were a loan from the Royal Palace.
The maids seemed to be happily consulting with themselves about which dress would be perfect for today as they were looked over the rental dresses.
"It looks like everyone"s having fun."
I said with a wry smile to Marie-san, the head maid standing by my side and she replied with a bitter smile:
"It"s fun to choose out what outfits to use out of this large mountain of clothes."
The maids who were helping me on Ladies" Day also attended to me when I was summoned and helped me prepare for my audience with the King.
Somehow, it felt like they were my personal maids.
Amongst the maids was Marie-san, who was a little older than me and have been working at the Royal Palace for a long time.
She was a sociable person who sometimes strictly guided the newer maids.
She was closer to me in age so she was probably the person closest to me amongst the maids.
Today too, while they were choosing the dresses, they were talking about popular dress designs in the Royal City and also about things such as confectionary.
"How about this dress for today?"
They seemed to have decided on a dress after a short while and a maid came up to me to show it to me.
The dress presented to me was a fluffy saffron dress.
It wasn"t a showy dress and I like it, but the colour was too pretty. I"m worried it might be too flashy for me.
"Isn"t the colour a bit too flashy for me?"
"It"s not. See."
I was worried so I asked Marie-san for opinion, she told me that it was no problem.
It certainly didn"t look that flashy when I looked at it through a mirror.
As expected of the choice made by the Royal Palace maids.
"If you match these together then it won"t be so flashy, right?"
"Do you want to try these?"
"Yes, please."
Once the dress was decided, next was the makeup and hairdo.
I left these those to the maids.
It would turn out better if I left it to them instead of doing it myself.
I just hope that they wouldn"t make my makeup too dark.
The maids also prepared shoes and accessories to go with the dress while they were doing my makeup.
I closed my eyes for a long time so that they could apply my makeup, and because of that I didn"t know which shoes and accessories were being chosen for me.
I could only tell that from the maid"s voices that they were having just as much fun as when they were picking the dress.
It was certainly fun to choose things out from the mountain of things here.
I couldn"t go shopping for clothes or accessory in j.a.pan because work was busy, but the rare chances that I had to go shopping were fun.
The maids must feel the same as I do at that time.
However, it was a different story if you wore the things yourself.
The outfit prepared for me suited my preferences and there were a lot of simple items.
But that was to this kingdom"s standard, if you compared it to j.a.pan"s standard"s it was quite gorgeous.
I was once again reminded of j.a.pan as I wore the clothes and I was filled with dread and winced.
Well, I had the option of not wearing the clothes but I couldn"t refuse when I thought about the happy maids who picked out the outfit for me.
So I gave up and decided to think that the jewel was an imitation.
But then the biggest problem wasn"t the dress or the accessories.
I was finally going to put on the dress when they finished my makeup but there was a problem.
"It looks like everyone"s having fun."
"It"s fun to choose out what outfits to use out of this large mountain of clothes."
I said with a wry smile to Marie-san, the head maid standing by my side and she replied with a bitter smile.
The maids who were helping me on Ladies" Day also attended to me when I was summoned and helped me prepare for my audience with the King.
Somehow, it felt like they were my personal maids.
Amongst the maids was Marie-san, who was a little older than me and have been working at the Royal Palace for a long time.
She was a sociable person who sometimes strictly guided the newer maids.
Today too, while they were choosing the dresses, they were talking about popular dress designs in the Royal City and also about things such as confectionary.
"How about this dress for today?"
They seemed to have decided on a dress after a short while and a maid came up to me to show it to me.
The dress presented to me was a fluffy saffron dress.
It wasn"t a showy dress and I like it, but the colour was too pretty. I"m worried it might be too flashy for me.
"Isn"t the colour a bit too flashy for me?"
"It"s not. See."
I was worried so I asked Marie-san for opinion, she told me that it was no problem.
It certainly didn"t look that flashy when I looked at it through a mirror.
As expected of the choice made by the Royal Palace maids.
"If you match these together then it won"t be so flashy, right?"
"Do you want to try these?"
"Yes, please."
Once the dress was decided, next was the makeup and hairdo.
I left these those to the maids.
It would turn out better if I left it to them instead of doing it myself.
I hope that they wouldn"t make my makeup too dark.
The maids also prepared shoes and accessories to go with the dress while they were doing my makeup.
I closed my eyes for a long time so that they could apply my makeup, and because of that I didn"t know which shoes and accessories were being chosen for me.
I could only tell that from the maid"s voices that they were having just as much fun as when they were picking the dress.
It was certainly fun to choose things out from the mountain of things here.
I couldn"t go shopping for clothes or accessory in j.a.pan because work was busy, but the rare chances that I had to go shopping were fun.
The maids must feel the same as I do at that time.
However, it was a different story if you wore the things yourself.
The outfit prepared for me suited my preferences and there were a lot of simple items.
But that was to this kingdom"s standard, if you compared it to j.a.pan"s standard"s it was quite gorgeous.
I was once again reminded of j.a.pan as I wore the clothes and I was filled with dread and winced.
Well, I had the option of not wearing the clothes but I couldn"t refuse when I thought about the happy maids who picked out the outfit for me.
So I gave up and decided to think that the jewel was an imitation.
But then the biggest problem wasn"t the dress or the accessories.
I was finally going to put on the dress when they finished my makeup but there was a problem.
"Well then, here I go."
Marie-san signal and then the ribbon was tightened.
I inadvertently wanted to groan "Oof", but I managed to hold it down.
The maids were tightening the corset ribbon.
The ideal image for women in this country was narrow waists that looked like it would easily break. The aristocrat women wore corsets to constrict their waists.
Well, I did come from another world and even though the dress prepared was to this country"s standards, my waist still appeared to be thick.
I was also not accustomed to corsets so the maids didn"t tighten it too much.
Even so, the sound wanted to escape from my mouth.
I could painfully understand why people in the old days would faint from this.
I"ve slimmed down since coming to this world so I thought I would be fine with wearing a corset.
I had the corset tightened a little.
I didn"t think it would be this painful……
I got used to it after a while and it wasn"t as painful as before but my breathing was more shallow than normal.
If I get used to it a bit more, would it become less painful?
"Are you alright?"
Marie-san asked when the ribbon was tied and I was tired from having the corset tightened.
"Yes."
I wanted to shout out that it was impossible but I endured it.
I overcame today"s challenge while praying that I would get used to it one day.
The next thing to do after the corset was tightened was to wear the dress.
It was quick from here on out.
Then I could finally head towards my lecture after everything was finished.
The morning lectures were about mannerism.
I studied various things such as how to walk and how to greet people. I was surprisingly good at it.
To the eye, my gestures were beautiful and I used muscles I didn"t normally use.
My leg muscles started trembling while my posture was being corrected in the middle of bowing.
It was a bit hard for someone like me who didn"t exercise.
It was probably consuming a lot of energy because my waist was tightened with a corset.
The teacher in charge of the lecture is a first cla.s.s teacher who taught high ranking aristocrat children, so her teachings were a little strict.
It was worth following her strict instructions because I was able to move gracefully and beautifully.
"You"ve improved a lot."
"Thank you."
The teacher praised me while she was teaching me how to curtsy.
I was all the more happy to be praised by someone who was usually strict.
I wondered if it was necessary to do it so thoroughly, but once I started I couldn"t stop. It was inevitable since it was a trait of mine.
But I thought that it must have been difficult for the aristocrats of this kingdom to live every day with this in mind.
This might not be so if they were used to it.
In the afternoon there were dance lessons.
We started off with how to stand. Then I learnt steps for beginners and recently on occasions, I"ve danced with the teacher as my partner.
According to the teacher, we were rushing this lecture.
Because of that I was secretly revisiting the room every day.
My muscles were in pain the first time because I wasn"t used to these postures.
The moves weren"t that vigorous so I moved my body less than I thought I would but I don"t know if this was the same for skilled dancers.
I think it"s better to put some strength into my moves.
The teacher and I were the only ones in this wide room.
Today as well, we started by reviewing the steps and I danced with the teacher.
I heard a knock at the door when I was moving to the beat of the teacher"s voice.
No one has ever disturbed my lessons before.
We stopped dancing and the teacher headed towards the door.
I looked wondering who it was and the person that appeared was the Captain.
Translator: Blushy