***
***
Ian also told her personal maid in the mansion that they were going out in advance, or at least before the carriage arrived at the mansion. The maid dressed Rachel in a beautiful dress, and brushed her hair.
Rachel looked awkwardly into the mirror while the maid got her ready.
Where was she going?
She didn’t know why she had to wear a dress like this, or why she had to wear makeup on her face.
Rachel was very uncomfortable, she’d never been attended to by a maid, and didn’t know how to feel about being touched by her.
She felt sorry for the maid as well. Seeing that she was being called a lady, she seemed to think that Rachel was a woman from a noble family.
In reality, the maid who was brushing her hair was probably of higher status than Rachel.
She felt like she was deceiving her, and felt bad for when she found out the truth.
She glanced towards the maid, and turned back towards her reflection in the mirror.
“….”
A beautiful dress, which would have easily been worn by a young lady from a noble family, looked ridiculous on her. She looked like a person who was being forced to wear someone else’s clothing.
She couldn’t look at herself in the mirror for long, and quickly looked down.
Rachel gazed at her unremarkable brown hair, her slightly tanned skin, and her hands, which weren’t soft like the other noble ladies, and quickly closed her eyes.
Rachel deliberately erased her expression because she was afraid that she would appear strange to the maid.
Rachel looked beautiful, which overshadowed her worries.
Her tightly closed mouth and upturned eyes made the woman in the mirror look a little cold, but the edges of her lips were slightly raised, so she didn’t look unsympathetic.
“My lady, you’re ready.”
However, Rachel didn’t look her age.
Maybe it was because her calm eyes didn’t have the excitement that a young noblewoman’s eyes would’ve.
“Thank you.”
She thanked her and blinked her eyes slowly, which still looked a little weary even with the makeup.
“But your throat looks a little empty. Would you like a necklace?”
Rachel hesitated for a moment at the maid’s question, and soon nodded. She thought it would be better to follow the maid’s advice.
“Well, my lady. Which one would you like?”
“…I don’t know.”
Rachel looked at the necklaces for a while, then quickly bowed her head in response to the maid’s question.
“What about this? I think it’ll look good with your dress today.”
Only then did Rachel raise her head and nod. For some reason, she felt her face flushed.
Rachel sat still as the maid put the cold necklace around her neck. The gemstones, which were usually a bluish green in the sunlight, didn’t seem very bright today.
“You’re so beautiful, my lady.”
After she finished dressing Rachel, the maid carefully checked her clothes once more and praised Rachel.
“Thank you.”
Rachel raised the corners of her mouth and thanked her again, but she was curious about something. She wondered what this woman thought of her.
Did she really think that she was a lady? Did she really think that this dress looked good on her?
Rachel wondered if she would still be smiling like she was now after she left the room.
But she couldn’t ask, and just curled her lips up.
***
When it was time, the carriage that Ian told her about arrived in front of the mansion.
Rachel didn’t know where the carriage would take her, but without any hesitation she climbed inside.
The sky outside the window of the carriage was turning red as the sun was about to set.
A few clouds floated leisurely in the sky, and a cool breeze was telling everyone what the current season was.
Rachel stared at the sun in a daze, leaned her head against the carriage wall and closed her eyes.
Did we drive for a long time? The sun had completely disappeared and the sky was now black.
Neigh
The carriage stopped slowly with a small cry from the horse.
The door to the carriage opened in front of a magnificent building. Ian stood out in front of the build with an indifferent expression.
The sky was already dark, the only light that illuminated Ian was the lamp from the carriage and the faint light leaking from the building, but he was very beautiful even in the darkness.
It was the first time for Rachel to see Ian in a tuxedo.
He would look good wearing a uniform or rags, but he looked really handsome wearing a black tuxedo with his hair swept back to reveal his forehead. Like a prince, who’d walked out of a fairy tale book.
Ian reached out to Rachel silently.
As if to help her off the carriage.
“Ah…”
Rachel blinked as if embarrassed, but stepped off the carriage with Ian’s help without saying much. The moment she held his hand, Rachel felt her face burning.
The emperor was escorting a maid. It didn’t even make sense to her.
In addition, Ian was dressed well, and was holding her hand now. Did he wear it just to meet with her?
No, she was sure he had something else he’d had to do, because there was no way that Ian wouldn’ve worn that tuxedo just for her.
What should she say?
“It looks good on you.”
“…Thank you, Your Majesty.”
“Oh, let’s stop.”
She thought Ian wanted to talk some more, but he quickly stepped inside the large theater, as if he had nothing to say.
A large door was visible at the end of the first floor hallway in the grand theater.
From the small amount of noise she could hear coming through the door, Rachel glanced around and swallowed a sigh.
There was no one in the hall, she was becoming increasingly anxious because she couldn’t get a sense for what this place was for.
“Let’s go.”
Then Ian took hold of Rachel’s hand and led her upstairs.
Rachel took a small breath and followed him. As they walked up the hallway with the railings, another door appeared.
“We greet His Majesty the Emperor, Sun of the Empire!”
When Ian stopped in front of one of them, the person guarding the door greeted him with a bow.
Ian nodded his head slightly and the man quickly opened the door. Rachel hurried past the man who’d also greeted her.
It was obvious that the man had mistaken her for a noblewoman. Rachel’s face heated up once again.
At that moment, applause could be heard through the open door.
“Follow me. It’s dark, so be careful.”
Except for the light that was illuminating the stage, there was only darkness inside. Ian skillfully led Rachel to their seats and helped her sit down, then he sat down in his own chair.
Rachel sat down, then looked down at the stage and auditorium on the first floor.
‘This is the place you wanted to take me to?’
Rachel thought for a moment about why he wanted to come here with her.
However, her worries didn’t last long as a man walked on stage and waved.
“Wow.”
On the stage, the flowers in the man’s hands disappeared in an instant.
The audience on the first floor clapped their hands in amazements, and Rachel gave a small exclamation of surprise.
When she saw the magician on stage, Rachel’s eyes, which had been lethargic until she sat down, sparkled.
Magic had long since disappeared in the Levskaya Empire.
It was said that magic was common a long time ago. Now, after such a long time, magic couldn’t even be seen except for magic tools that were made in the past.
Sometimes there were people born with mana, but every year the number was decreasing. The amount of mana they were born with was also decreasing, so there were practically no more wizards.
This wasn’t just a problem for the Levskaya Empire, but a global trend. As wizards gradually disappeared, magicians started to appear.
Some ignore it, saying it was just a trick of the eye, but most people were amazing and interested in the magic tricks.
Rachel belonged to the latter. The first time she saw a magic trick was during her previous life.
After she encountered it for the first time, Rachel fell in love with it and followed the person, who showed her the magic trick, for a while.
The trick he showed her was how to make a small object disappear, but Rachel clearly remembered that moment.
When the magician on the stage waved again, the flowers reappeared in his hands.
“Wow.”
Again, a small exclamation flowed out of Rachel’s mouth.
She focused on the stage with her eyes wide open.
Her occasional clapping, and the sparkle in her eyes made her look her age.
At that age where everything was fascinating and enjoyable.
Ian smiled quietly as if satisfied with Rachel’s happy expression.
He poured the wine that was next to him, handed it to Rachel, then took a sip of his own.
Ian leaned back after he’d poured Rachel a glass of the byzantine wine. He seemed disinterested in the performance, but he was satisfied with the current time he was spending with Rachel.
He had a smile on his face until the end of the performance.
It would’ve been very surprising to Rachel if she’d turned her head during the performance and seen his face, but Rachel was so preoccupied with watching the magician that she didn’t have time to look at Ian’s face.
The carriage that Rachel and Ian were riding in moved as they left the theater.
Rachel, who had a childlike smile of innocence on her face when she watched the magic tricks, was now awkwardly looking at Ian’s face again.
“Did you like it?”
“Ah… Yes.”
Rachel felt a small pang of regret that she might’ve been too absorbed in the show.
“Thanks to Your Majesty, I had a lot of fun. Thank you.”
Rachel wasn’t too happy that she had had a good time with Ian, but she thanked him sincerely.
“Huh? But where are we going?”
Rachel looked at Ian in surprise as the carriage passed by the road to the mansion.
“It’s late, so you have to eat dinner.”
“…What?”
Rachel turned her head to the side and looked at the road leading to the mansion where the carriage had passed.