[Your Highness, thank you for granting my request last night. I have urgent matters to attend to and must rise early. I will contact you again soon. Until then, could you think about what your wife might want? I hope our night continues.]
The note left by Elise was dry, but Karan’s smile deepened.
“It wasn’t a dream.”
Of course.
The sensation of the delicate skin in his hand, the incessant sound of moaning that flowed into his ear, the smell of sweat that was soaked in his neck, the rickety feeling of thighs that were wrapped around his own waist, everything was so vivid.
Karan placed the note left by Elise on his face and took a deep breath.
He didn’t want to miss even the faint scent that might be on the note.
****
Regina came in when she was rubbing his sore waist.
“Are you ready, Miss?”
Elise smiled faintly and got up. Her forehead wrinkled with a tingling pain from her tailbone to the back of her head.
“Where does it hurt?”
Regina noticed without fail and approached. Elise raised her hand.
“I twisted my back in bed.”
“In bed?”
It’s a strange thing to say, but it’s not a lie. Elise recalled last night.
Would all the Tetris people be like Karan?
He tormented Elise all night.
‘It wasn’t just torment.’
As the heat of the night rose again, Elise’s cheeks turned red.
Elise quickly fanned herself to get rid of the heat, hoping the wind would take away the memories of last night.
“Everyone came early and is waiting.”
The butler said.
Around that time, the calm Elise ordered to open the door.
At Elise’s command, the butler’s eyes twitched.
‘Doesn’t want to take my orders?’
In the Warton estate, Elise’s position was miserable.
The servants didn’t openly show it, but they looked down on Elise, the daughter of a gypsy. (TL: metaphor for a person who leads a wandering life.)
And then Viscount Warton himself ignored her, and she was swept up in the atmosphere.
In the past, she was intimidated by their gaze and was careful.
So she often did the work that should have been done by the maids herself. She didn’t even know that it was more humiliating.
‘I won’t live like that in the future. I can’t let my friends and I be ignored because of me.’
“Open the door. What are you doing?”
She coldly rebuked the butler who didn’t immediately comply, he coughed and ordered the servant next to him.
“If you can’t even open a door, you don’t need to be in this house. Isn’t that right?”
Elise stared coldly at the butler and entered the room.
The butler’s gaze lingered on her upright and confident walk.
It was unlike the usually timid Elise.
‘Has she changed? It must be a temporary arrogance.’
The butler ignored Elise’s change.
But he changed his mind when he saw Elise entertaining the guests.
Elise has changed. Perhaps a big wind will blow for the Self-made Viscount.
Butler was an opportunist, and because of that, he was sensitive to changes around him.
His intuition was telling him. He had to be good to Elise.
****
“Welcome. Thank you for responding to the sudden tea party invitation.”
The reception room where people gathered was Iris’s private reception room.
This place, which gets more sunlight than Elise’s room, was filled with furniture made by a famous craftsman.
The tapestry was as delicate and vibrant as a painting by a miniature painter.
And there was something noticeable.
Golden flowers made from well-refined gold were placed in vases here and there.
It was a part that revealed the vanity of the Viscount Worton.
‘Always in a hurry to show off, always in deficit.’
Elise sneered at the sight of the golden flowers and quickly composed her expression.
“I should be the one thanking you. I was so curious about this room. I heard Iris hides it and only shows it to close friends, but I was expecting more.”
Patricia, whose eyes were sharply torn upwards, tilted her lips to the left.
Patricia was one of Iris’s followers.
She tried hard to get close to her, but she couldn’t even catch Iris’s eye.
Then later, the reason she got closer to Iris was Elise.
‘Iris found out that I vented my anger and gave me her side.’
How nice it must have been to have someone appear to vent Elise’s grievances on her behalf when she couldn’t do it herself.
And so, Patricia became a close aide to Iris, becoming a representative figure who manufactured all sorts of rumors and slander about Elise.
‘She doesn’t even know that she almost received poison from Iris, and she will live the same way in this life. As a follower and tool of Iris. Unfortunately.’
It was heartbreaking to see her being used and then discarded as if she were not human.
But after all, Patricia is Iris’s person. Elise quickly folded up her worries about Patricia.
“It’s not as great as I thought, but it does have a luxurious taste.”
Hearing Patricia’s words, Elise quickly brushed off the regretful feelings she had before she died.
“I’ll prepare the tea. And as promised, coffee too.”
Coffee had just begun to be distributed in the Kingdom of Bedrokka.
In Bedrokka, which only revered tea culture, coffee was one of the despised beverages.
But what is not common always receives a precious reception.
So it was special to serve coffee that has not yet been popularized.
“Who would be interested in that crude stuff.”
Patricia grumbled. Then Deboa, who had been sitting quietly next to her, flinched.
‘Deboa likes coffee. She is interested in new things.’
Deboa becomes the first woman to open a coffee salon in the kingdom.
Although it opens under her husband’s name, everyone knows.
That Deboa is a coffee expert.
But that happens about 5 years later, and now Deboa has not properly encountered coffee.
“Coffee brewed with good beans has a more diverse taste than tea.”
Elise gestured towards Regina.
Elise brewed coffee directly using the beans Regina brought.
The savory scent quickly covered the reception room.
It was an appetizing scent that was unbelievable from bitter coffee.
There was something else that caught their attention.
The sight of brewing coffee with a thin and long spout was a sight they had never seen before.
People said they didn’t like coffee because it was different from tea, which is drunk with eyes, nose, and mouth, but if you enjoy coffee properly, your eyes, nose, and mouth could feast.
Elise first handed the coffee to Deboa.
“Would you like to taste it first?”
Deboa immediately took the cup and looked at the color and hesitated.
She felt repulsed by the black coffee, unlike tea, which is clear and transparent but gives different colors depending on the type.
But Deboa’s hesitation was momentary.
She blew a breath to cool the coffee and tasted it.
And then her eyes widened.
“It’s delicious. It’s sour and it tastes like beans…”
“Try it again. It should also have a subtle floral scent.”
“Huh, even if you cheat, it’s oily. What kind of floral scent from that crude stuff. I would understand if it was a rotten smell.”
Patricia picked on as if she was talking to herself. Deboa glared at her.
The two were like oil and water.
Patricia, who is negative and prejudiced about everything, and Deboa, who wants to break the prejudice about the world.
Elise pulled in Jasmine, who had been marginalized, before the two started fighting.
“How about Jasmine tries it first?”
At Elise’s attention, Jasmine’s plump cheeks blushed with joy.
Jasmine Orlean.
She was far from the standard of beauty represented by Iris in Bedrokka.
She was plump, had brown skin, and was short.
Perhaps because she had been ignored since she was young, she was dispirited.
So she was ignored even more by people. At every party, Jasmine was eager to hide in the corner.
‘No one knows how much sense Jasmine has. And she knows the heart of a woman who wants to be beautiful.’
So later, Jasmine goes into the beauty business.
Although she didn’t get much attention, it wasn’t because the things Jasmine made were bad.
‘It was because there was no model.’
If there had been a model, if there had been someone to properly utilize her products and spread them, Jasmine would have been successful.
Elise knew how important packaging was more than the product.
It was Elise who made Chase look like a perfect prince.
‘I will make Jasmine’s products unsellable.’
If Jasmine accepts Elise’s proposal.
“Huh? It’s really delicious! It really smells like flowers? At first, I thought it was just bitter, but it’s sour too.”
Jasmine’s eyes widened.
When she agreed, Patricia also became interested in coffee. Patricia sipped her coffee quietly and pursed her lips.
“Well, it’s edible.”
After saying that, Patricia emptied two cups of coffee.
It was their first time together, but the conversation never stopped.
Thanks to Elise, who knew the three people well, leading the conversation.
When the boundaries of the three people were somewhat loosened, Elise brought up the main topic.
“Do you know about the gossip magazine that the maids read? How many interesting stories there are. The name is…”
Elise trailed off and looked at the reactions of the three people.
“It’s called Alleycat Times.”
“Alleycat? The name is quite unique.”
Patricia responded immediately. Jasmine responded in an indifferent tone. Elise scrutinized her as she continued.
“The publisher is veiled, but it’s probably a child with no experience who made it as a joke. It seems like a story made up with eavesdropping.”
“Why do you think so? Oh, I’ve read it a few times too. I think differently from Elise.”
It was Deboa.
“The part that describes the subtle and strange atmosphere between men and women is awkward. Especially recently, the content dealing with the scandal of a street singer and a slow nobleman was so awkward that I was surprised. After the kiss, the process of representing the feelings of the slow nobleman was described as pollen flying? It’s not something that can come out if you’ve talked to the slow nobleman or that female singer. Even if you’ve only had the experience of kissing. Kissing isn’t that sweet, is it?”
“What is it like?”
It was Jasmine. She listened to Elise’s words with her eyes shining brightly.
‘Is the publisher Jasmine?’
Elise’s eyes narrowed.
Thank you for the wonderful translation!❤️
Thank you for the story.