Leticia stopped the car in front of a miniature castle-like stone building at the end of Danez Avenue. The faded and weathered gray bricks only contributed to the elegant, antique appearance of the building. The deep red flowers of a rose vine creeping up the wall were the only splash of color against the desolate building. Even without a sign board, people knew what place it was; Lanstein’s number one men’s clothing store, Ramiere.
As soon as they got out of the car, Ramiere’s general manager, Atlante Sinomine, greeted Leticia with a flowery smile.
“Welcome back, Princess! Haven’t seen you in a long time.”
The manager was in her mid-thirties but her youthful face and small figure didn’t show it. Her curious gaze alternated between Leticia and Les Kishir, who had naturally taken the princess’ hand to escort her out of the car and hadn’t let it go. Leticia smiled, ignoring the question that was obvious on her face.
“It doesn’t actually feel that long Atlante, people have been singing your praises all around me.”
“I would prefer if you would say those kind words while also wearing the clothes I’ve made, Your Highness.”
“When you start making women’s clothes just as good as men’s clothes, I’ll start wearing them.”
“Ah! I’d rather you not say anything than this.” Atlante threw a wounded look at the princess.
Leticia only smiled in response and walked inside. After crossing the lobby and the long, red carpet covered corridor, they reached the main showroom. Sunlight filtered through the glass ceiling and tinted the gigantic glass statue of the sun, that hung from the ceiling instead of a chandelier, golden. In the center of the showroom was a red velvet-covered sofa and a white marble tea table. Across from the sofa was a long curtain decorated with colorful paintings and what seemed to be hundreds of clothes on hangers strewn about.
As Leticia sat down on the sofa, two servants dressed in white emerged as if they had been waiting, and set down tea and light refreshments in front of her. Atlante sat across from her on the L-shaped sofa, while Les chose to stand with his back to the wall.
“As I told you before, I want some clothes that would suit Sir Kishir over here.”
“Yes, we’ve prepared a few sample products beforehand so he can try them on. We’ll probably need to adjust the size a bit after measuring him.”
Atlante looked Les Kishir up and down, who looked uncomfortable at her perusal, then smiled kindly at him. “Our lead designer will help you. Would you come this way, please?”
Nodding his head slowly, he glanced at Leticia once before leaving the room. She watched his figure disappear behind the curtain, led by Ramiere’s chief designer who had appeared out of nowhere.
‘He didn’t seem very surprised.’ She thought to herself.
Ramiere was a place with an aura that usually made even nobles and landed gentry nervous. Each and every decoration in this luxuriously decorated showroom instigated a sort of pressure that could be felt by those who knew their value. Was it because he didn’t know anything at all?
Les Kishir seemed to show no surprise or awe in reaction to how much money she was spending on him. But the strange thing was, his lack of reaction wasn’t limited to material things; he seemed to be completely unemotional to anything in life.
Except for his reaction when she had asked him to dance at that victory banquet.
“I am already trying my best right now.” He had said. What had he meant?
“I could already tell from when I saw him in the newspapers, but… he’s even thinner than I thought he was. We might have to completely get rid of some designs here that wouldn’t suit him at all.” Atlante sighed and put down the portfolio file she had been holding onto her lap.
At her words, Leticia recalled the bony bulges of his spine that she had felt beneath her fingertips that night.
“Have you driven him too crazy over you that he can’t even eat properly?” Atlante’s playful, narrow eyes left Leticia inwardly laughing to herself at the irony of the remark. After all, wasn’t that the whole reason she was making such a fuss right now? Because he refused to ‘go crazy’ over her.
“He was like that before I even touched him.”
“Then you should take him out to eat often, or exercise together frequently. His bone structure isn’t bad, so if he were to gain just a little more weight and shape his muscles more, the types of clothes that would suit him would be endless.”
“Is that so?” Leticia’s eyebrows raised at Atlante, who was revisiting the portfolio she had planned beforehand with a serious look on her face. “It’s very rare to hear you compliment someone so openly.”
After seeing his face a few times, and especially after seeing his smile, she’d had the thought that maybe Les’ face wasn’t too bad to look at, but she hadn’t given it any further thought. He was tall, but because he was so thin, it was difficult for her to find any masculine charm in him. Even in the picture of his admission to Wünterhausen, his body had been quite similar to what it was now.
“Well, he does have good proportions. He has a clearly outlined face which gives him a good look. His face is sharp which gives an intimidating air about him. He’s slim and tall so his body frame is nice to look at. If he just puts on a bit more muscle, his bones wouldn’t stand out so much like it does. Oh! One moment.”
Atlante hopped up from her chair and ran towards the curtain, seeming to have had an idea. She called over the chief designer who had just finished measuring Les, and whispered something into his ear. Soon the two designers disappeared behind the curtain and started working on something, their voices constantly heard from beyond the screen; the sound of cloth moving over flesh and then sliding down, the sounds of them commanding Les to try something on and then take it off or them tightening it flowed from behind the curtain.
Leticia wiggled her toes, while sipping her tea that smelled of chrysanthemums. She couldn’t really hear Les Kishir’s voice. Even though she couldn’t see it, she could easily imagine that he was being played with like a doll on the other side of the curtain. After eating three cookies and emptying a cup of tea by herself, Leticia went up to the curtain holding a cup of tea and a plate of cookies for Les and crouched down in front of it.
“Sir Kishir, are you alive? Do you want some cookies?” She asked him from behind the curtain with a smile.
“Is it possible that you feel bad for putting me through all of this, which is why you’re trying to make it up to me with cookies?” Les Kishir spoke in his low baritone voice.
“Not at all! it’s just that the cookies are quite good.” She slid the plate forward and watched his long fingers appear from underneath the curtain and grab a cookie. The sound of swishing cloth was soon mixed with the sound of chewing cookies.
“It takes quite long for Atlante to do a fitting. She’ll have a lot of demands, so you’ll probably be tired by the time it’s done. I asked her to minimize the work as much as possible, but I’m sure it will still take a while.” She continued after a moment of silence when no one answered. “But that’s why Atlante’s clothes are the best. I assure you they will be worth the wait.”
“Why thank you, Princess!” Atlante yelled excitedly from behind the screen making Leticia giggle.
As her laughter subsided, she placed her chin in her hands like a little girl as she thought about what to say next.
“Sir Kishir, I know very well what some people around here have to say about me and about the people with whom I spend the night. Because I’m a celebrity, whatever I do is bound to end up splashed on the news’ front page.”
In her opinion, it was better to be the focus of idle gossip than to be notorious for incompetence and immorality, or even the opposite of it. It was because she knew her truth better than anyone else, and there were plenty of people who understood her too. Therefore, why would it matter what strangers said about her? But Leticia was aware of the fact that only she could think that way because of the perks of her position. While she did think that Les may have refused her gifts to get her attention, but to some extent she also thought that he probably felt inadequate of them. And she didn’t want him to feel that way.
“Think of all the gifts I give you, as an apology for all the nonsense you’ll hear in the news and gossip about yourself. Frankly speaking, I’m not just talking about material goods. Physical gifts only last so long, but the things you’ll experience and the relationships you’ll make while you’re acting as my lover will remain with you forever, no matter how our relationship turns out.”
She took a deep breath before speaking with a fluttery laugh.
“So you go ahead and make sure to fully enjoy all the opportunities you can as Leticia Levanstein’s lover.”
Les Kishir was silent for long enough to make her feel anxious.
“To be honest, I also enjoyed our night together. Very much so that I really wanted to see you again.”
The words that he spoke after the long pause caused the fuss behind the screen to freeze for a moment. It appeared as if no one had anticipated that he would even speak, let alone his words.
“Thanks for the compliment, I guess? But I feel like whatever you’re going to say next won’t be as nice to hear, so I’m a bit apprehensive.”
“I’m sure you’re aware of the rumors about me as well.”
“Well, of course.”
At first, she had heard, it started with negligence in the workplace. He was said to abuse the favor of his superiors, so that he could leave his station whenever he wanted, go drink at the bar in a nearby village, or flirt with his female classmates. It was said that many women testified that they had borne his offspring. He often made mistakes in his work, so he was punished more than once. People wondered if maybe he felt overwhelmed by the pressure of being expected to continue the remarkable achievements he had made in his early military career, and that was what made him go off the rails. It was also said that on the day when the 1st Special Forces, which he belonged to, was completely annihilated, Les Kishir went missing. He had apparently gotten drunk and revealed secret codes to enemy spies, and after seeing his troop being attacked, he realized his mistakes and ran away in fear only to be captured by the enemy. It was a well-known story that when the royal family recaptured the base, he was discovered in the corner of one of the enemy’s jail cells and rescued— a story that every newspaper had gleefully typed up on the daily.
“It is indeed an interesting and fantastical story, but how much of it is true?”
At her words, Les Kishir huffed out a small laughter and didn’t confirm nor deny anything.
“I’m just telling you one last time, since I’m a man with a conscience, it will be bad for you to be seen with me.” The man’s voice had lowered into a mere whisper. His dry, shaky voice sounded unstable, like that of a young boy.
From her crouching position, Leticia looked up at the curtain between them. She was confident that her judgment of people was usually pretty accurate. In her eyes, the man in front of her didn’t seem to fit the description of the person from all those rumors, but of course, one couldn’t tell that simply from looks. There might be a completely different reason why he was truly reluctant to openly accept in front of the public that they were together.
But he seemed to be worried about her. That much seemed to be quite genuine. He was worried for her and also afraid.
“Do you know who you should never worry over? The rich and the powerful.” Leticia deliberately made her tone playful and teasing because of how vulnerable he had sounded. “I’m pretty wealthy, and I’d say I’m in a position of quite a lot of power too.”
Boasting was a daily occurrence for her, so she didn’t feel any embarrassment at all as she said this. Her legs were hurting from squatting down, so she stood up, and stretched her back with a slight groan.
“I see. To you, nothing bad can happen.” Somehow, his voice had a very different tone than before. “That’s a relief.”
Overwhelmed by some inexplicable impulse, Leticia threw the curtain aside. She wanted to see his face. She felt like she needed to know what kind of expression he had made while saying that.
“Oh!” Leticia accidentally exclaimed at his revealed appearance once the curtain had been pushed aside.
Les Kishir was still the same, of course. He was still thin and sickly-looking, but…
He was wearing a loose-fitting sweater designed by Atlante. The soft white fabric covered his body, concealing his small physique, and giving an illusion of volume to his muscles. A dark brown long coat was tightened around his upper body, showing off his angular frame. His pants, on the contrary, fit perfectly on him, highlighting his long legs.
The eyes of Lanstein’s top designer had hit the nail on the head once again. The man who had been so extremely ordinary was no more. No, it wasn’t because of the clothes or the location.
The thing that had changed was his countenance.