Elise came up with an excuse that sounded good enough to not hurt Rubica’s feelings. She knew that Rubica was going to give her a few more dresses, but she was going to do as her mother said. She was going to refuse luxurious dresses and ask for a couple of dresses for everyday use.

She had thought about refusing even that, but it would be turning down Rubica’s goodwill too much, so she decided to take that and only that.

“Oh.”

Rubica looked disappointed. Contrary to Elise’s intention, Rubica felt she hadn’t been considerate enough as she had given the girl only one dress.

Elise wasn’t capable of spending money on her freely. Maybe she was about to spend her first wage for her brother training at the capital.

‘She isn’t the type of girl who will listen to me if I tell her to take care of herself first.’

Rubica knew that well because she was also that type of person. There were people who found those they had to protect burdening, but there were also people who found joy in life when protecting their loved ones.

‘I will give her as many dresses I can give.’

She found energy again when having something to do. As Elise was the family’s lady-in-waiting, she thought it would be good for the family’s reputation to do that much for her. If there was not enough budget, she could just have fewer dresses made for herself.

“Madam Khanna is here.”

Khanna arrived at the mansion earlier than promised. According to Rubica’s usual schedule, she was supposed to wait for about an hour. But today, that schedule hadn’t been kept at all.

Maybe it was okay to have such days sometimes. She was an actress playing the duchess, but she didn’t have to do her duty diligently. It would be a trouble for her if she played her part so well and Edgar decided it was better to keep her with him.

‘Maybe what happened yesterday made him think I’m not fit to be his duchess.’

To look at it that way, it wasn’t something to be so sad and disappointed about. They were not even that close. They were just pretending to be husband and wife.

It was quite funny that she had expected Edgar to listen to her and sympathize with her. Why did she have such an expectation?

“Your Grace, should I have Madam Khanna wait for a little?”

Rubica turned a little sad and Ann noticed it faster than anyone.

“No, no. It’s fine. I rather want to meet her quickly.”

Rubica quickly hid her bad mood and replied kindly. She was standing on the edge of unstable calmness.

***

“Khanna, I summoned you because I want you to make dresses for Elise here.”

Rubica introduced Elise to Khanna. As Elise had been transformed by Rubica and her maids, Khanna soon realized the beauty she was been born with.

She was a beautiful girl who might seize every men’s attention during the next society season.

However, the problem was that she was wearing a dress that was too plain. The simple blue-grey dress looked modest, but it couldn’t bring out her beauty at all.

“As it is springtime, I think dresses with bright colors would be good.”

Khanna took out a measuring tape first.

“But before that, measure her size first.”

That made the maids all approach Elise, and the girl was surprised. She hadn’t known Khanna would ask to measure her size first.

“I, I can write down my size for you.”

“No. Judging from the dress you are wearing, there’s a need to measure your size again.”

“Excuse me?”

“Doesn’t your chest often feel tight?”

“… it does, sometimes.”

Elise just instinctively answered Khanna’s sudden question.

“Doesn’t the armhole parts of your dress feel tight?”

“Yes, it’s just my body is in a strange shape, and…”

However, Khanna continued to speak firmly.

“There’s nothing wrong with your body. What’s wrong is your undergarments.”

“What?”

“I must take your exact size and make you new undergarments”

That was the signal. The maids started to move fast, not even giving the girl time to blink.

They were good at managing shy girls who didn’t want to have their size measured.

“Stay still. It’s impossible to measure properly if you keep squirming like that.”

“Don’t be shy.”

While they measured the girl’s size, Khanna offered a design book to Rubica who was sitting on the sofa.

“I prepared this for you. I wasn’t good enough last time… so I did more research on designs and embroideries in fashion.”

Khanna was excited, so Rubica was a little sorry to say no to her.

“No, I don’t want any more dresses for me.”

“Oh, but…”

I can make better dresses than the one I made before. Khanna had to swallow that. Her boutique had managed to escape the financial crisis thanks to Rubica’s order.

As long as she had the duchess as her customer, it looked like she wouldn’t have any problem with running her boutique. So, she had found the courage to contact her former pattern maker.

The man was currently receiving a high salary she couldn’t afford, but he was pretty glad to hear Khanna’s boutique was reviving. He even said he would come back if she gave him even half of what he was currently getting.

However, Khanna couldn’t even afford that much yet. Instead, he had promised to check Khanna’s patterns after his work.

“I already have enough dresses, so please, make dresses for Elise.”

Then, Rubica started to go through the fabrics laid in front of her.

“This will match her skin color, and this one’s good because it’s similar to her eye color. Oh, and this one has a pretty pattern.”

She picked about a dozen kind of fabrics in no time. All of them were the best. She was never wrong about that stuff. Then, she started to put them one by one on Elise.

“Look. It matches her, right?”

“Yes, a lot.”

“Make a dress for everyday use with this one.”

She kept putting a fabric on the girl and tossing it to a maid next to her. She ordered five dresses in less than a second.

“And this one has splendid embroidery, so we should make a dress for balls with it.”

Then, she picked the most splendid chest decoration in the design book in front of her.

“Use lots of diamonds and rubies. Oh, and Khanna, about the dress I just chose, add jewels to it without caring about money if you have any matching ones. Claymore will pay for all that, so don’t worry.”

The maids gulped in envy, but Elise couldn’t stand it anymore and yelled, “No!”

Rubica turned pale in surprise at seeing she wasn’t delighted at all.

“… but why?”

“Such splendid things are not right for me.”

“Not right for you? You look much better in splendid dresses than in plain ones. I want to see you in pretty dresses.”

Rubica really meant it. It was quite fun to see the girl who used to look ordinary, if not ugly to the others, being transformed by her. Guard knights who had never given her a look were now glancing at her, and Rubica was a little proud of that. Elise was her pride.

“No, no.”

Elise felt like a mouse in a corner. She didn’t know how to escape the situation wisely, so she just came up with what she had heard often.

“Excessive extravagance is a crime.”

“But this much is…”

“It’s an extravagance. No!”

Elise was firm, so it made Rubica shut her mouth. Elise just didn’t know how to stop that great order and said what her mother had always told her. However, that was the answer. The word extravagance was something that had to be avoided as much as possible in the kingdom. Even the king couldn’t do anything about it.

“Okay. If you think so, I will use jewels to the bare minimum.”

“And, um, I don’t want such luxurious fabrics, either.”

Dresses were supposed to please the wearer. No matter how Elise looked good with splendid dresses and jewels, there was nothing Rubica could do about it. The girl just didn’t want it.

“… okay. If that’s what you want.”

Rubica was disappointed. She had started to feel a little better, but now her mood was dropped to the ground again. It wasn’t like she was spending money for herself, it was for Claymore’s lady-in-waiting. Because of that, she had ordered to her heart content without feeling guilty, saying to herself it was all for Claymore.

But now, Elise was saying it wasn’t right. What matched her were chest ornament sparkling with jewels and expensive smooth silk…

Now the only joy she had at the mansion was gone.

***

“Her Grace has skipped breakfast.”

“… what?”

Edgar thought he knew what it felt like to be worried sick, but it turned out he had been wrong. What he had felt till now was nothing.

When Carl told him that, he wanted to jump to his feet and run to Rubica.

He wanted to plead to her and feed her soup himself.