45. An Adjective, Not a Noun
“No, you mustn’t wear a dress like this twice. You’ll become the subject of ridicule.”
“Huh? T-This incredible dress is a one-time use?”
“It’s only for official events. However, for smaller gatherings, you can modify it slightly and wear it again. Some people keep it as a memento or pass it down. If it’s inherited from a previous generation, that’s considered tradition, so it’s acceptable.”
“So… there’s a separate category of dresses just for smaller gatherings?”
“That’s right. Even nobles can’t afford to commission a new dress for every single event.”
To think that even dresses were classified into different categories based on their purpose… The world of nobility was vast and complex.
Adelen stared blankly, overwhelmed by the new rules of this unfamiliar world.
“For grand royal events or occasions where you’re the main figure, you must wear a dress only once. For casual private gatherings or regularly held parties, you can wear it multiple times. However, you can’t wear the same dress more than three times a year, nor can you wear it twice in a row. Additionally, you must not wear the same dress to multiple parties hosted by the same household.”
Why is this so complicated…? The rules seemed endless.
As expected, high society wasn’t an easy world to navigate. Jumping in without understanding the rules could leave one utterly ruined.
“Do people actually follow all these rules?”
“Of course. If someone makes a mistake and wears an inappropriate dress, gossip spreads like wildfire, making it impossible for them to show their face in public.”
“…The world of nobility is truly something else…”
“It’s the social circles that are intense. Many people choose to stay far away from high society for this very reason.”
The tailor tried to comfort Adelen, who looked thoroughly overwhelmed. However, it was no comfort at all. After all, Adelen had no choice but to step into this world—by royal decree.
“You can’t be wearing such a beautiful dress and looking so dejected! Your expression and posture are just as important as your attire. You must carry yourself elegantly.”
With that, the tailor straightened Adelen’s slouched back with a firm pat. Before she realized it, the dress was fully on, and the assistants had removed her maid’s headband, tidying up her hair.
“You look a bit too plain like this, so let’s do a light touch-up, just to check the overall image.”
“O-Okay…”
Sitting still, Adelen let the assistants apply various creams and powders to her face. Unfamiliar with makeup, she felt her facial muscles twitch involuntarily.
As a maid, she never had any reason to wear makeup. On rare occasions when she went out, she sometimes considered it, but ultimately, she never bothered.
Spending money on cosmetics seemed wasteful. Since she didn’t wear makeup often, any products she bought would expire before she got much use out of them. In the end, she stopped buying them altogether.
Because she never had makeup, she wore it even less. Now, she couldn’t even remember what her face looked like with it on.
“All done. Open your eyes.”
They said it would be a light touch-up, but they had spent quite a while applying and blending everything. Curious about how she looked, Adelen opened her eyes.
The moment she met the gaze of the girl in the mirror, she almost mistook it for someone else’s reflection.
A stranger was staring back at her.
Perfectly smooth, refined eyebrows. Eyelashes fluttering as delicately as bird feathers. Deep, expressive eyes. A complexion so fair it looked as if it would melt, with just the right touch of rosy blush on her cheeks.
She looked like a fresh, radiant fruit—an absolutely stunning young lady.
“Oh…”
“My, how beautiful.”
It was the same compliment she had been hearing for days, yet this time, she couldn’t even feel embarrassed or flustered. It wasn’t an exaggeration.
It felt ridiculous to be mesmerized by her own reflection, but that was exactly what had happened.
Adelen’s features had never been particularly striking. A round face and clear complexion that most people simply described as gentle-looking. That was the general consensus.
She had always thought of herself as having a smooth, unremarkable face, pleasant enough when properly styled. Nothing more, nothing less.
But to think that her face had this kind of potential…
Either that, or these people were miracle workers who could create something out of nothing.
“Is this… really me?”
Adelen murmured, cautiously touching her cheek.
Her face felt so unfamiliar that it didn’t even seem like narcissism.
“If you always dressed like this, you could break the hearts of every man in the world.”
“Ahaha… Haha.”
Adelen could only laugh at the tailor’s compliment. She couldn’t even bring herself to say, ‘No, that’s not true,’ because, looking at herself now, it actually seemed possible.
“Kyaaah!”
Just as the flood of praise seemed endless, a baby’s shriek cut through the conversation.
“Oh, not again!”
The baby, who had been seated on a stool near the entrance of the dressing room, had disappeared.
Just moments ago, while Adelen was putting on her dress, the baby had been entirely mesmerized by all the sparkling things in the room. But in the brief moment she had closed her eyes for makeup, the baby had vanished.
Adelen bolted out of the dressing room.
“Baby! No!”
If she couldn’t see the baby, the first thing to do was shout no preemptively. After all, this was the same child who had once used a chandelier as a swing.
The path to the chandelier had since been blocked, but accidents always happened in the least expected places—because that’s what accidents were. Babies had a way of causing chaos in ways adults couldn’t even imagine.
What disaster was it this time?
“No…!”
As Adelen frantically searched for the baby, she stumbled upon an odd scene in the drawing room.
Rakalt and the baby were locked in a standoff.
“?”
It was, quite literally, a confrontation.
The baby was half-standing, puffing his cheeks angrily as he glared at Rakalt. Meanwhile, Rakalt, looking down at the baby with a blank expression, had a gaze as cold as if he were facing an actual opponent.
What on earth was going on?
Adelen was so confused by the situation that she couldn’t even step in.
“This is my room. Move.”
“Siyooohhh!”
Oh my god. Was the baby actually blocking the master from entering the room?
But why?
She had no idea what the reason was, but she knew she had to intervene.
Like the wind, Adelen dashed over and scooped up the baby.
“O-Oh! Master, you’re here. I was in the middle of changing, and the little one wandered off while I was momentarily distracted.”
“Ah, so that’s what happened. He was standing guard quite well.”
“?”
That… probably wasn’t the case, but if that’s how the master wanted to interpret it, then fine. That was probably the safest option.
Forcing an awkward smile, Adelen held the baby tightly against her chest.
The tailor and assistants emerged from the dressing room and greeted Rakalt.
“Welcome, Count. We were fitting her dresses.”
Rakalt acknowledged them with a slight nod before collapsing onto the sofa.
“Fitting?”
His eyes landed on the two remaining dresses that had yet to be worn.
“Ah, yes. We got a little carried away and ended up making three dresses. Of course, you only need to purchase the one you like best. The extra ones were simply made out of our admiration for how beautiful she is.”
At those words, Rakalt turned his gaze to Adelen.
Blink.
The moment his eyes took in her full figure, he unconsciously blinked.
To be honest, he was surprised.
This wasn’t the Adelen he was used to seeing.
And that wasn’t all—she was beautiful.
Of course, Adelen had always been pretty. She had looked beautiful when she had worn his mother’s dress before. She had looked lovely when she had adorned the hair ornament he had gifted her. She was always pretty.
But today’s Adelen was on an entirely different level.
To Rakalt, “beauty” had always been just a type of shape—like a triangle, a square, or a circle.
But today, Adelen’s beauty wasn’t a noun. It was an adjective.
She was dazzling, shining, radiant like sunlight.
She was heart-fluttering, soft, warm.
It was a beauty that couldn’t be confined to a single word.
This all made him feel a new, startling sensation that left him speechless.
How had he ever just said, She’s pretty, before?
How had he said it so easily?
This word, now heavy with meaning—so full, so overwhelming—felt too burdensome to even utter.
