“…Anyway, what I’m saying is that it doesn’t resemble at all.”
Estribal, who had been scrutinizing the picture for a while, turned around with a fake cough. That awkward back view, what’s with that? Ciello tilted her head.
“What’s with my parting…”
Ciello rubbed her head. As she said, her bangs were parted from the opposite side.
“Really?”
Ciello looked at the door he had left with a flustered expression.
“Why did you scrutinize a person so diligently? Really.”
Contrary to her words, Ciello’s cheeks were also slightly tinged with pink. No matter how much she thought about it, his attitude pointed in one direction.
“It’s not that it’s really not, it seems right, but honestly, this is a bit…No? No, but…”
Ciello muttered, glaring at the innocent bread. Then, the servant approached Ciello.
“Miss.”
“No, it doesn’t really seem right, does it?”
“…?”
The servant, who had half of their face covered, tilted their head with a puzzled look. Ciello hastily put out her hand.
“No, no, I mean…does this dress fit well?”
“…I can’t see you, miss.”
“Ah.”
Ciello scratched her cheek as if embarrassed.
“If the Duke chose it himself, then it must be right. You must be very beautiful.”
“What…You guys, I didn’t know you could say things like that?”
Ciello asked with a bewildered expression. The corner of the servant’s mouth twitched slightly.
“It’s time. You should get ready.”
“Ah. Yes. Right.”
Ciello quickly stuffed bread into her mouth and stood up.
Today was the day to go to the magician’s street to meet Reposa.
Since there was no one in this mansion to help her dress up, Ciello prepared herself simply. Just before leaving the mansion, Ciello checked the mirror one last time.
The pearl-colored blouse with frills was luxurious with a suitable gloss, and the deep green pencil skirt that reached down to her ankles highlighted Ciello’s tall height. With a wide-brimmed hat on top, anyone would see a sophisticated noble lady.
“What did he say…a color like a deep forest?”
Ciello glanced at the mansion with a regretful face as she fiddled with his skirt. She didn’t expect to go together, but she wanted to show this look.
It’s natural to want someone who observes her so diligently to remember her dressed up, not shabby.
Moreover, Estribal’s words at that time were really affectionate. The deep sea, the brightness like spring flowers. It was a compliment that Ciello couldn’t even imagine. It was incomparable to the obscene words that the thugs in the back alley babbled to her as a temptation.
Thanks to that, Ciello floundered in her imagination for several days. What kind of flower did he think of, could she go to the sea someday?
“What…is he probably sneering now?”
Of course, at that time, it was a situation where he had to pretend to be a lover, so he would have laid out compliments…
“No, but do people usually talk that much?”
No matter how much she thought about it, it wasn’t. Ciello was not that oblivious. He was sweetly persistent in praising her dress, but there was a desperate feeling somewhere.
The most strange part was…
“Sunlight in the autumn field.”
Ciello muttered as she got on the carriage. Why couldn’t he think of the color of his own eyes when he heard the words, sunlight in the autumn field?
Cielo, who got on the carriage, watched the mansion covered with withered ivy vines getting farther away and thought about his eyes for a long time.
The carriage arrived at the magician’s street in no time. Ciello moved as before and stood in front of Reposa’s lab.
“Phew…It’s okay. I can do well.”
Ciello took a deep breath and knocked on the door. Was Reposa also aware of who the visitor was? The lab door opened awkwardly slowly.
“Come in. Sis…uh, sister?”
Reposa’s eyes widened. It seemed that her appearance looked different to Reposa, even though she just wore new clothes.
“Reposa. Have you been well? I’m sorry about that time. Were you surprised?”
Ciello smiled brightly and spoke as she had memorized. Then, Reposa’s face turned red.
She remembered the dispute with Estribal.
[Do I have to say I’m sorry?]
[Are you really sorry because you’re sorry? If there was malice in that magician, I would feel ridiculed by that word.]
As Estribal said, Reposa’s face was already grimacing.
‘The Duke was right.’
Ciello walked in without showing her feelings and put her purse on the table.
“What, what is it?”
Reposa asked, shrinking her shoulders. She had even put on shoes, so her eye level was much higher, as if she was dealing with Reposa when she was young.
“I got scolded by my guardian that day. I did something stupid.”
For some reason, Ciello felt melancholic, but she continued to speak haughtily as she had practiced.
“The guardian said you should use it. He said that freelance contract magicians are having a hard time these days.”
Reposa licked her lips with a stunned expression.
“What, a guardian? But back then, even a maid wouldn’t even get to wear those clothes…”
“I told you. It’s top. Secret.”
When Ciello spoke sharply, Reposa fell silent.
“Right. You must have had a hard time to even change your hair color. You must have been trying to pretend to be an imperial person at least.”
Ciello took off her hat and drove a wedge.
“Anyway, cooperate with me. Reposa.”
Reposa closed her mouth tightly and only glared at Ciello’s hat. Then she turned her body around and started to stack bottles and magic books on the desk.
Ciello, who had been nervous inside, sighed a sigh of relief. Now that she saw it, she felt a little pitiful, but if she showed a sorry look here, she would definitely be caught by the tail.
‘Girl. So you should do well at first.’
After all, she was like a younger sister. If she had sincerely apologized and returned the money, she wouldn’t have been so humiliated. But the situation had already turned. Ciello straightened her waist to hide her pitiful feelings and sat down on the guest chair.
Reposa, who had been preparing magic for a while, asked as if throwing it.
“Sister. Did you become an adopted daughter somewhere?”
It was finally the last line of the script.
If Ciello nodded at that, the play was over. Because the original script that Estribal gave her was to pretend to enter as a noble lady dressed up splendidly.
But the sense of victory that she had made it this far, a bit of greed, and the strange behavior that Estribal showed shook Ciello.
“Hmm, it’s a bit different…but similar?”
Ciello gathered her hands in white gloves in front of her pounding chest and smiled.
‘This should be enough to end it.’
Ciello thought.
But from then on, Reposa’s mind started to spin quickly. She has a guardian, but she’s not an adopted daughter. Then there was only marriage.
“…It must be nice. Where are you going?”
“You keep asking. It’s top secret.”
“I see…”
Reposa moved her hands with a nonchalant face and thought hard.
If she can pay such a consultation fee and even dress her in luxurious clothes, then it must be at least a baron’s family. No matter how top secret it is, if there is a scandal with a commoner at that level of position, the rumor cannot be stopped.
A page of gossip passed through Reposa’s mind. A red-haired maid who seduced a nobleman.
The corners of Reposa’s mouth rose as if she found it amusing.
“Sister. By any chance…”
Reposa turned her body and looked at Ciello.
“Are you that Ciello?”
Ciello’s shoulders twitched. Reposa laughed outright.
“I guess it’s the right answer?”
Reposa put down the bottle with a thud and approached Ciello.
“I thought you were entangled with some crazy nobleman. But it was a really crazy nobleman? So you can’t speak.”
“No, no! It’s someone else!”
Ciello shook her head in a hurry. The problem was not that she couldn’t press Reposa’s nose. She was more worried that something might go wrong.
But Reposa crossed her arms and laughed at Ciello.
“Sister, you can’t lie to me. It’s all over your face.”
Ciello rubbed her thumb and index finger like crazy.
‘Why did I get greedy at the last moment? Should I just turn back time now?’
But turning back time in the magician’s street was a very dangerous thing. If she wasn’t careful, the fact that she had contracted with a spirit could be revealed to all the magicians in this street. Then the plan would be ruined.
“A fool, a dunce who only knows about plants, a disgrace to the nobility who ruins everything by himself, Duke Trepe! You’re trying to flatter me while meeting such a man? Wow.”
“Hey, no! The Duke is…”
“What about the Duke? Is that crazy Duke going to marry you? What are you, sister?”
Ciello was at a loss for words. The only sure thing in her relationship with Estribal was a contract worth 600 million gold.
But Ciello felt from the Duke’s attitude that it wasn’t all. Others might dismiss it as a trivial hunch, but Ciello’s intuition was always accurate. That mere hunch kept Ciello, who had a loose personality, safe in that vicious street, and allowed her to find the body of the spirit and make a contract.
Somehow, she felt like she was becoming something to him. Just that feeling was shaking Ciello fiercely.
“Sister, you seem to think you’re special because you contracted with a spirit, but get a grip. If you separate that, do you think you’ll be treated like this? You’d be lucky to be made a maid!”
Ciello clenched the hem of her skirt. Reposa was right.
The power of the spirit that Ciello had would go to the emperor whom the Duke was loyal to, and Ciello had agreed to receive 600 million in return and never return to this land again. So anyone could see that Ciello had dreamed an impossible dream with a useless feeling.
“Maybe he mistook your head for a tomato? Is he trying to plant it in his garden?”
Reposa laughed and stuck out her tongue.
The shame of digging her own grave, the anger from the insult. All of that came together and Ciello’s face turned red. Reposa, who had completely gained the upper hand, lifted her chin and said.
“Sister, let me give you some advice as a younger sister. We commoners should never get involved with nobles…huh?”
A long shadow cast over Ciello’s head. Reposa looked behind Ciello with a puzzled face.
“What, sister. Didn’t you lock the door?”
“I advise.”
Ciello raised her head to check the visitor. At that moment, Ciello’s face brightened.
“That you should be more careful with your clients.”
“Who are you?”
Reposa aimed her wand with a full of caution. But the visitor opened his mouth without changing his expression.
“I’m your employer. I came out myself to see if the work is going well.”
Reposa hesitated as if she was flustered and then shouted.
“Don’t lie! Sister Cielo definitely…”
“Ah. Did you call me, Duke Trepe, a fool?”
The visitor glanced at Ciello and replied coldly.
“You’re the fool. I hired a contemptible magician like you.”
