Link in my bio for release schedules/status of my novels. I’ve tried a few different methods for keeping readers updated, and I’ve failed at them all. Hopefully this one sticks…
A couple dress. It was definitely a dress that couldn’t be worn without permission from both parties.
Dolorosa carefully observed Rachel’s reaction.
“How do you feel, Lady Rachel? Are you still uncomfortable?”
Before she could answer, Graham interrupted and shouted.
“No! Why do you get to wear the same clothes as my mom, she’s my mom!”
“Ugh. I’m sorry, Graham. I wasn’t thinking…”
“I want to wear the same clothes as my mom, I want to wear a dress too!”
Graham burst into tears of frustration, and Dolorosa couldn’t help but feel sorry for him and didn’t know what to do.
Rachel tried to calm them both down.
Carol was ecstatic. She admired herself for having made clothes in advance for a situation like this.
“Master Graham, then how about this? I have some more clothes that aren’t exactly the same as the dresses but are made for pairs.”
“Huh, clothes made for pairs?”
As Carol clapped her hands, the wardrobe staff brought in two more mannequins from behind the curtain.
Men’s suits, large and small, were hung on the mannequins. They had the same color and decorations as the dresses she brought out earlier, only the shape had been modified into a suit.
All together, they looked like a family outfit: an adult man’s suit, an adult woman’s dress, a boy’s suit, and a girl’s dress.
“Voila, a men’s set for dad and son, brothers, or uncle and nephew!”
Graham’s eyes, that’d been wet with tears, sparkled.
“Wow! Great! I want to wear this too! Mom, wear it with me!”
Carol smiled inwardly.
‘I’ll be able to sell three pieces all at once!’
During a recent visit to the shop, Dolorosa couldn’t take her eyes off the couple’s dresses that Carol had made as a test.
After realizing that Dolorosa liked the dress set, Carol hurriedly made a men’s suit for Cian. She couldn’t pass up the opportunity to sell children’s dresses and adult men’s suits at the same time.
While she was at it, she also made a matching boys’ suit, just for practice, not realizing how useful it would be.
Graham’s reaction made Dolorosa smile.
“Lady Rachel, Graham likes it, too! I’ll buy this dress and suit as well and we’ll wear them together, okay?”
Rachel smiled softly and nodded.
“Okay. It would be so pretty if we all wore them together.”
“Wouldn’t it? I’m so excited! Carol, I’ll buy all four of those!”
Not three, but four?
Carol let out a happy squeal and Rachel’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Wait a minute, princess. You’re buying four, not three?”
Dolorosa, bouncing with excitement, quickly replied.
“Yeah! Of course, my dad must wear it too! I think he’d be disappointed if we all wore matching outfits and left him out!”
“Is that so…?”
Archduke Cian didn’t seem like the kind of person who would be upset about something like that, but Carol didn’t say anything.
Graham threw his arms up in the air in delight.
“Wow, Master is going to dress up too, that’s exciting!”
“It’d be great if the four of you dressed up together, you’d look like a tight-knit family.”
Rachel looked back at Carol, wondering how she could say such a thing, but Carol didn’t care.
She’d sold four outfits at once!
* * *
Dolorosa familiarly signed the papers, saying she’d pay when she received the clothes.
Rachel was dazed as Dolorosa and Carol hummed and filled out the paperwork.
‘You’d look like a tight-knit family.’
She wasn’t wrong, the four of them were going to be family in the future.
But even though they would be family, the only ones close were Dolorosa and Graham. In-laws sounded close, but in reality, they weren’t!
‘Imagine your maternal grandmother and your paternal grandfather wearing couple’s clothes. It would be so weird, it’d look like an adulterous couple!’
But Graham and Dolorosa were having too much fun, she couldn’t bring herself to tell them they couldn’t wear the clothes.
Rachel and the kids came out of the dressing room. Cian, who hadn’t been able to join them inside because of his concealed identity, greeted them outside.
“It took you quite a while. Have you seen the dress?”
“Yes, I saw it.”
As he was deciding what to say, Dolorosa intervened and shouted.
“I bought it! Da… No, Alias, I bought four!”
“Four?”
After hearing the whole story from Dolorosa, Cian asked Rachel.
“Lady Rachel, are you okay with this? If you were forced to order the dress because of Dolly, please be honest.”
“I’m perfectly fine. I’m even looking forward to wearing something of the same color and embellishment as Princess Dolorosa and Graham, but I’m worried that His Highness might be uncomfortable.”
“If Lady Rachel doesn’t mind, I don’t mind.”
Cian smiled brightly.
He doesn’t mind?
Cian said that Rachel might feel uncomfortable because it was definitely not something that just anyone would wear.
It meant that he knew if they wore them together, they would look like they were special to each other.
‘’I felt it when I saw him sneaking around as Alias, but Archduke Cian really is a considerate man. He doesn’t even mind if he and I are seen as a couple.’
Both Dolorosa and Graham jumped at Cian’s response.
“I’m so excited that Lady Rachel and Dad are going to be wearing the same clothes! I’ve always wanted to try wearing the same outfit as someone I like!”
“Me too, me too! I thought I had to pass my knighting test to wear the same clothes as teacher, but I’m excited to wear the same clothes as you and my mom even if I don’t pass my test!”
“Hehehe, Graham, did I do well?”
“Yes, princess, you did well, it’s amazing!”
The entire street seemed to brighten up with the children’s joy.
‘If the children are having fun, does it really matter if others misunderstand?’
Rachel nodded.
‘It’d be weird if it was just Grandma and Grandpa, but it’s not weird if it’s the whole family, so let’s just think of it as a family outfit!’
Once she’d convinced herself, she relaxed. Rachel’s smile widened.
“Thank you, Princess, for the lovely dress. I hope we have a chance to wear it together.”
“Thank you for accepting! Let’s go out together someday soon!”
“Of course, and as you asked at the beginning, I will do my best to help you finish ordering the other dresses as well.”
“Okay!”
Graham, who had been looking up and down the street while the two were talking, exclaimed.
“Oh, look, there’s an ice cream shop!”
Dolorosa beamed with delight.
“Wow, Graham. You like it there too?”
“No, I don’t like it, I was just curious.”
“Oh really? Why don’t you like it? Isn’t that the store with the best ice cream in the imperial capital? It’s soft, refreshing, sweet, and delicious!”
Graham puffed out his cheeks sullenly at Dolorosa’s praise.
“I don’t… know because I haven’t tried it.”
Rachel felt like she’d been hit on the head by Graham’s words.
It was Graham’s first time out on a shopping street in the heart of the capital.
Before the possession, Theodore had been preoccupied with Jane, and Rachel had been so preoccupied with Theodore that she hadn’t taken care of Graham.
After the possession and the breakup with Theodore, she’d been too busy worrying about money and revenge to take care of Graham.
‘Wow, really. I should be disqualified as a mother. I should’ve worried about Graham before I worried about money.’
Rachel quickly lowered herself and hugged Graham in her arms.
“I’m sorry I didn’t bring you to the best ice cream shop in the capital, Graham, and I know you’re upset. We’ll eat lots of delicious food and do lots of fun things in the future, I promise.”
“Mom is busy with work, so you don’t have to worry about me.”
“I want to do it as well. Why don’t we start by eating ice cream together?”
“If my mom likes it, I like it too!”
She was overwhelmed by his enthusiastic response and hugged Graham tightly.
Dolorosa, who was watching Rachel and Graham from the side, tugged on Cian’s finger.
“Let’s eat together too. Okay?”
Rachel looked back at Cian.
Even though Cian was busy, he had to go along.
Lylus said that today was ‘an important day when something creepy happens.’ Nothing serious enough that the left hand of Yenis would deliberately warn him had happened yet.
Cian nodded.
“Of course we should go together.”
“Wow, I’m so excited! I’ll have the sparkly mango lemon ice cream!”
“Me too! I want that!”
“Graham, you know what? They keep changing the flavors of ice cream here.”
“They change flavors? Why?”
“Because in the summer they have blue sea flavored ice cream, and in the winter, they have white snowflake flavored ice cream!”
“Wow, is there really such a thing?”
“Yes! So, you have to come back often. I really liked the rainbow ice cream last time, but they don’t sell that anymore.”
“Ah. I also want to eat delicious ice cream. So, what ice cream tastes best right now?”
“Right now, I think it’s the sandy beach ice cream. It’s got candy in the shape of seashells!”
“Then I want to eat that! The most delicious one!”
“No, I’m going to eat that! You eat another ice cream!”
“Why! No, I do not want to! I’m going to eat the most delicious one!”
Graham and Dolorosa walked toward the ice cream shop, bickering about who was getting the better ice cream, and Rachel and Cian followed behind, smiling happily.
There were about ten steps away from the ice cream shop.
“Rachel?”
Someone called out to Rachel.
The corners of Cian’s mouth that were curved upward, stiffened. Graham, who’d been stomping his feet in joy, tensed. Dolorosa stopped in her tracks, eyes wide.
It was a voice Rachel hated hearing, even in her dreams, and a voice she thought she’d never hear again.
Rachel jerked, turning her neck, which seemed to have stiffened and not be working well, to look in the direction from which the voice was heard.
“Rachel! To meet in a place like this, we must be destined for each other!”
Theodore, that damn adulterous man, was approaching Rachel with a smile on his face.
Thank you for the update