Perhaps they also thought something was strange; they exchanged whispers while their eyes darted at each other, the dress, and me. ‘This was canceled before.’ The slightly taller of the two rebuked the shorter one. ‘The navy blue dress is for the browned-hair lady, you idiot.’
Apparently, Bolton ordered someone else’s dress before he ordered mine. Judging by the fact that they called me a brown-haired lady, it seemed the other girl had a different hair color.
I took a good look at the pale yellow dress they brought. Small pearls were sewn into the lace delicately wrapped around the chest and sleeves. The skirt, which scatters according to the movement and exudes a subtle scent, is embroidered with realistic-looking roses that can be mistaken to be real flowers.
Aha. I understood everything in an instant. It was for Rosemary Blossom.
As far as I know, Blossom’s partner was Nadon. Since she was from Illestia, like Bolton, she couldn’t partner with him. Nevertheless, he seemed to want to give Blossom a dress as a gift. Seeing that it was canceled, it seemed like he couldn’t give it in the end. Maybe Nadon beat him to it while he was still agonizing about it.
I was not close to Bolton to the extent that I only met him three times outside of the sword training ground, but I knew he was not the type to act quickly in these matters. There was one time when Nadon took Blossom to the student council room when we were cursing at each other and engaging in an act that was more like a fight than a dance. Bolton, unlike the master of dance he was proclaiming himself to be, stepped on my foot while peeking at Blossom, and could not even say a word.
Blossom’s dress, unable to find its owner, went into the box again. When the scolded short dwarf hurriedly went to get the brown-haired lady’s navy blue dress, the tall dwarf climbed onto the stool and took my measurements.
When I complimented her on their pale yellow dress to break the awkward silence, she got smug and boasted that it was the very elaborate work she had done. She also said that she did not understand Bolton, who canceled the production before its completion after paying an astronomical amount.
I wanted to catch any of the hateful Marquis Bolton’s weaknesses, but I didn’t want to use his pitiful, unrequited love. When I went silent after that, we got awkward again. It was better.
***
On the day of the banquet, the dormitory was as busy as always. The servants called by the students often walk through the hallways carrying their employer’s clothes, shoes, and accessories, but they weren’t used to the classless atmosphere of Fitzsimmons, so a fight broke out every time they bumped into each other.
When I was still Dalton’s tomboy, it was my nanny, Maddie, who helped me dress up. She was almost sixty now, and it was difficult for her to cross the mountains and seas to come to Fitzsimmons. So I finished all the preparation by putting on the dress Bolton sent me and applying rouge to my lips.
Bree was not officially treated as an aristocrat, but it was not so difficult to buy loyalty with excessive capital, so she was already under the care of five to six attendants. Brianna, who was checking the back of her perfectly straight hair, spotted me standing in the doorway and shouted.
“Ariel Dalton! If you go even one step further from there, we will no longer be friends!”
Soon, Brianna’s servants surrounded me and sat me down on the bed, so I couldn’t escape. They instantly splashed scented oil all over my neck and chest. The rouge I loosely applied was wiped clean under a rough hand, and the oil from the crushed flowers was applied to my cheeks and lips. Someone sprinkled glitter powder on the hem of my clothes. It shone like stars on the glossy dark blue fabric, making it look like I was wearing the night sky.
After fixing my hair in a tight braid on the back of my head, I was finally free. Brianna showed a satisfied smile on her lips as she saw me drooping like an old laundry.
“This is my friend.”
Bree seemed proud of her achievement, while I was proud that Bree had called me a ‘friend’. So we walked out of the room, arm in arm.
In front of the girls’ dormitory building, a group of male students paced around like ghouls. They were waiting for their partners. I left Bree with Brennan and looked for Bolton’s figure, but I didn’t see him, which surely dressed up like a peacock.
Instead, I saw Edgar Ramos place Anais O’Brien’s handbag under his armpit. I quickly approached him and kicked his shin. For me, who gets her steps tangled even in school shoes, Bolton’s carefully selected shoes were not only low heels but also very fancy. Its sharp toe was densely packed with jewels, so it surely caused quite a bit of pain.
“Ouch— what’s the matter? What did I do wrong?”
Ramos grunted, clutching his shin.
“Is that what you mean by trying to fix it on your own? A fucking interview?”
The Fitzsimmons Times published yesterday featured an exclusive interview with Edgar Ramos. It was him speaking about our scandal with his mouth, but it was full of lies from beginning to end.
Ramos never said a word about Cleveland or Walsh. He instead explained his erratic taste in women, the subtlety of some of the techniques he uses to flirt with them, and how I turned him down after trying to seduce me during the ‘lost eight hours’.
In other words, he insisted that he had imprisoned me and him in the practice magic tool storage room, that he did it out of impure motives, and that despite this, Ariel Dalton, who had a noble character, never fell into his trap. It was an absurd statement, but reading how well the story was told, even I, the person involved, almost believe it.
So what happened next? Just as Ramos intends to take all the blame for the whole scandal alone, Fitzsmons didn’t mention me or Kyle anymore. All they did was talk about what a scumbag Edgar Ramos was. Some people from Nadon openly said that they were fortunate that it was Ramos’ side, not Nadon’s, that gave up the right to the throne.
That’s not the ‘patching up’ I expected from him. I wouldn’t be so pissed off if he had roasted the butts of the kids for talking nonsense. I would have applauded him for doing well.
“You know that if I hadn’t done that, they wouldn’t have published it, let alone put it on the front page.”
Ramos said disapprovingly. His words are right. Christa Edwards, whose conviction was firm that unprovocative information means nothing, would not look at us even if we revealed the dark truth.
“Nevertheless, it is. Your reputation is more in the gutter than before.”
“So you’re saying it was in the gutter before?”Ramos crossed his arms and muttered menacingly.
I left with the excuse that my toes might fall off because of the heels that weren’t too high. He suddenly shouted at the back of my head as I turned around in a hurry.
“Dalton, you look pretty today, by the way!”
***
I didn’t see Bolton until I saw off Brianna and Brennan, Elizabeth and Walsh, and Kelly and her banjo. I got a little sad.
Of course, Bolton and I were neither lovers nor very close, so he had no obligation to escort me to the banquet hall. If we had to put it mildly, we could say that we were on each other’s bad side because we had mocked and criticized each other in the last few days of our meetings. We became partners not because we really wanted to. I had no choice, and Bolton was just following his boss’s orders.
But even so, I never dreamed that Bolton would not have good feelings for me to the point of skipping to escort me, which even Walsh, who doesn’t have an ounce of gentlemaness, would do. I recalled our time together as I watched the distant sky, where the curtain of night was beginning to fall. Would it be excessive if I told him to wear that underwear at the banquet?
“What are you doing here, Ari?”
Hearing the familiar nickname, it was undoubtedly Kyle Villard. For some reason, his usually scattered red hair was neat, exposing his forehead. Clinging on one of his arms was a schoolgirl I wasn’t familiar with. She seemed to be a first-year student, judging from her youthful, petite, and above all, arrogant expression.
She introduced herself with a very long name before I even asked. I liked to tease first-year students who, like her, were still accustomed to being treated well, so I reciprocated her expectations by being polite by almost kneeling to the ground.
“Don’t make fun of her. She’s Norman’s cousin.”
“Is Norman Casey going to let you skip on training again?”
I whispered in his ear, and Kyle gave a thumbs-up instead of answering.
“Why did you even join the Griffon Cricket Club when you hate training?”
“You said it was cool.”
“Using me as an excuse, really? Weren’t you just trying to be popular with the girls?”
Kyle shrugged and turned around.
“By the way, isn’t that your partner?”
As Kyle said, Bolton stood to where he had pointed. Blossom and Nadon were together. I gave my exaggerated greetings to my childhood friend and Casey’s cute cousin again and moved on.
Bolton was wearing a dress made of the exact same material as my dress. His suit pocket was full, but not from his partner as other boys do. The boutonniere, made by the accessory artisans of Finnigan Street, was still in my hands.
Marquise Bolton’s new boutonniere had neither the lavender flowers nor the snowy owl feathers he had asked of me. It wasn’t even blue, but his smile as he kept looking down at his chest was gentle. I could almost bet that the person who gave him the boutonniere was Blossom.
“Bolton!”
He didn’t even appear to notice that there was a person named Ariel Dalton until I yelled at him. As if he had just woken up from a dream, hazy eyes landed on me.
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Hazy eyes… Hm