“Are you all right?”
“I’m really sorry about my mother and sister…”
“Please, don’t worry about it.”
There’s a melancholic ambience between the two fiancee as they sat at the both ends of the couch. Beyond the soft and thin curtains surrounding the window overlooks the summer twilight, a perfect time to spend a leisure summer day with the soft breeze and bask under the gentle sunlight which now painted the room in amber color.
However, both of them had ghastly expressions. The atmosphere was quite depressing, something that would make other people raise from their seats and leave. Even Aurora who’s currently embroidering was moving the silver needle in her hand with a black thread very slowly, her current progress wasn’t her usual pace.
“It sure is tough being a well-known lady.”
“No… I don’t think I could even pass mother-in-law and sister-in-law’s beauty standards.”
Aurora looked blankly at the other end of the couch after giving a reply while Felix’s disordered silver hair and half opened eyes were filled with depressing colors——and it seems he looked more shy after the mock battle.
No, Aurora heaved a sigh and shook her head. Its not that Felix was tired but in his case, it’s because of the great mental fatigue.
Just earlier this morning, Aurora and Felix had their measurements taken in the House of Clavis and as the matter of course, they had to have all of their perfect measurements from their body size, to size of their fingers, to the position of their ears, as well as being subjected to choosing of fabric’s colors that would suit them, to their head and hair accessories. For Aurora who’s been to a few social gatherings and Felix who’s not good at socializing, this kind of procedures were quite overwhelming.
On top of that, Duchess Luna Mare and Marchioness Clavis joined forces to gather hundreds of designs from various designers inside the mansion of the House of Clavis with each debating on which design they would use. Marchioness Clavis, the mother of ladies fashion and Duchess Laetus, the trendsetter of fashion for younger ladies—all fashion designers would move for these two ladies, leaving Felix and Aurora in awe.
Moreover, they will have a meeting again tomorrow so to have some peace of mind, they moved to the dancing hall and closed the door with the pretext of practing dancing while bringing in one of the Aurora’s maids to play the piano.
A maid of the House of Clavis gracefully settled some cups of tea and cakes but Aurora had no energy to reach out her hand.
“I cheered up only after you showed me something to embroider with.”
“I couldn’t even feel like cheering up…”
“Thank you for your hard work.”
“But you’ve had it harder, men’s clothing are rather easier to wear.”
“Err… Well… It wasn’t an exciting experience when I was a debutant… This was a fresh new experience.”
Felix nodded as he listened to Aurora’s casual mumblings.
Aurora’s mother is a former knight who belonged to Porta Knights. Her mother was a manly, effeminate lady far from the image of a lovely or beautiful lady and usually wears the uniform of a knight during her time as an active knight. It was due to those reason that Aurora’s mother is reluctant to wear dress like the usual norm.
On the other hand, Earl Porta was once a playboy when he was a young man and is quite good at using colourful words to ladies, although he’s not anymore as he’s now tied to his wife. Aurora had no way of learning about the latest fashion trends for young ladies. On the contrary, no matter what she wears, everyone would say—「That’s perfect for you! You’re so cute! As expected of Rora! My Angel!」—If she were to be honest, all the words they speak were quite useless.
In the end, Aurora who managed to make her own dress was quite well-known in the capital since she had personally embroidered her own dress. Although she made a dress that wouldn’t stand out, she left the party quite early after feeling how insubstantial her dress was. In fact, she doesn’t even remember well the design of her dress.
“Thanks to that, I understand that if you don’t try to make a fashionable dress, or if you don’t look so lavishly well, you’re just as ordinary as everyone else.”
“Does such a thing really matters…”
“Yes, it does.”
For this knight who doesn’t understand how prominent he is from others made Aurora sigh while shake her head. She spreads the cloth in which she was doing her embroidery and the sun’s rays dropped over the embroidery of a bird.
Felix’s attention wasn’t at her skillful needlework but it was actually on Aurora’s white fingers that’s supporting the needle and at this point, he kept his silence. Was it even possible for her to inconspicuous?
In Felix’s case, Aurora is the only lady he has gotten this close. It could because her beauty is just at his desirable taste but it could also because she knows how to handle herself well. Aurora is now an important part of his life, a lady who doesn’t get tired of being next to him. She doesn’t regard his silence which is hardly sociable, reproachful or unscrupulous to others. She was reposeful unlike his mother and sister, one who’s known as the goddess of the moon and the latter which have the aggressive temperament that always shaken Felix or the other ladies that speaks fervently at him.
Felix was so sure that if the two of them were strangers to each other, even if they were to go back and meet again in a crowded room——2 years ago, Felix imagined how adorable the 16 year old Aurora would be during her debutant evening party wearing an all white dress——had he been there, he will surely find her at all cost.
Felix, however, isn’t the kind of man who can speak a few words of praises to a lady despite being able to mutter some straightforward answers. He reached out to the teaset in front of him to cover up his lack of words, these teacups with white and blue arabesque patterns were his mother’s preferred porcelain teaset and the strong aroma of tea wafting in the room was imported from the eastern countries. In other words, all of these goods are of the highest quality but as one may observe, Felix doesn’t care much about them. He took a swig of his tea, something that would make any tea-lover furious.
“Is that a small bird?”
“Yes, a grey thrush in Porta——or perhaps I should say, it’s a song bird that’s not unusually seen in the magic forest of Porta’s territory, small enough to fit my palms and in summer. It is black and white feathers are strikingly beautiful. This bird is the standard design in any hobbies of ladies in the Porta.”
Aurora didn’t looked back at Felix as her eyes cast back at her hands. She took out another needle from the sewing box beside the couch and skillfully changed the thread, sticking a new one without hesitation. Her eyes were set on the fabric as she embroidered some pattern seriously yet she seemed to be having fun at the same time, Felix observed in the corner.
Eyelashes with the same egg-creamed color as her hair were blinking a few times over her green eyes that’s shines brilliantly. Felix looked at her jovial expression and it reminded of him of his elder sister which isn’t really fond of embroidery as she complain about her eyes stinging and her fingers are painful. However, for the lady in front of him, she all throughout enjoy the process—from picking the color of the thread, to the process of stabbing the needles on the fabric to filling in the missing thread on the needle.
“You must really like embroidery…”
“Yes!”
Felix blinked a few times as he received a quick response from Aurora.
“Although it is seen as a simple hobby among ladies, it’s like living for me. Excuse me for saying this, in Clavis-sama’s case, it would be like swordsmanship—but that is really how I feel.”
Aurora chuckles as she adds that it’s her privilege as a noble to be allowed to immerse herself in her hobbies, but she didn’t just stop there.
“Do you have any hobbies, Clavis-sama?”
This topic should have been talked about on their last meeting a month ago so Aurora decided to shift the topic. Felix tilted his head but his gaze hasn’t left Aurora’s hands. Again, silence surrounds the room with only the sounds of the birds outside echoing through the quiet room. The sky beyond the window is beginning to turn purple.
“Probably… Fortune-telling?”
——The moment Felix gave his answer, darkness was gradually enveloping the room.