Episode 16
If I hadn’t been toyed with by their methods and left neglected, if someone had given me advice about my skin—at least regrettably, I was so focused on beating Roena that I didn’t even have the leisure to have personal time with my mother—perhaps I might have been a little less unhappy.
Therefore, the sight of Marie coming to me, lying obliquely on the lead her poe, with a bowl containing ‘white flower paste’ was very novel.
She began to carefully apply the white flower paste to my face with devoted hands. And she knelt beside me and combed my hair down with an ivory comb. Waiting for the white flower paste to dry.
After time passed and the white flower paste applied to my face dried, she carefully washed it off with lotion. And wearing a thin garment like dragonfly wings, I headed to the bathroom. Marie’s role ends here. She will now go to prepare my bed.
In the bathroom, instead of Marie, the dedicated maid who attends to my bath is standing politely. The bathtub carved from stone was filled with water infused with Roman chamomile. My body becomes languid in the scent harmoniously blending fresh grass smell and rich apple fragrance.
When I leaned back in the bathtub and closed my eyes, the maid busily moved her hands to start washing various places.
Rinse the hair with liquid made from glory sage, and arrange the hair with rinse made by mixing pearl powder in wine. Of course, massaging every corner of the body with soft scented oil.
Now my age is sixteen. With two years left until debuting in high society, I planned to do my best to cultivate my beauty during the upcoming time. Instead of buying useless items, I planned not to spare money on purchasing items that make me shine.
Having keenly felt in the past how deadly a woman’s beauty can be as a weapon, it was very important how attractive a woman I could appear to others.
What allowed Roena to receive everyone’s love was not only her kind personality close to idiocy, but also her beauty with skin whiter and softer than anyone else’s.
Therefore, rather than being a crow who luckily became a noble young lady thanks to my mother, I had to become an elegant white heron comparable to them. No, I had to become a woman with beauty shining more than them.
Pure like a child, innocent like a girl, but wicked and attractive like a night seductress, such a mysterious woman. Like the prostitutes of the Filienne alley where Madame de Châteauroux once immersed herself!
If I could only obtain their mysterious charm that conquers all men, I would no longer fear Roena Wischwaltz. Rather, I could look down on her and giggle.
I could learn the perfection as a lady from my adoptive aunt Madame de Lavallier, but the mysterious magic to become a cat-like sly yet lovely woman surpassing that could not be obtained in this stuffy noble world.
To trample Roena, I needed a subtle atmosphere encompassing everyone.
Intimate like the veil of night, but dangerously so once peeled back, yet such charm that one cannot help but worship.
I needed such absolute allure that people would willingly carry oil on their backs and jump into fire for me. But how? From whom should I learn such things!
What Madame de Châteauroux, the emperor’s mistress, needs now is a ‘lady’ with noble perfection, so it’s too dangerous to discuss such contents—even assuming she replies to my letter.
That said, I couldn’t just recklessly go to Filienne alley and pick a prostitute to bring back.
Of course, before debuting in high society, we call prostitutes to the house and learn through them the methods of sexual intercourse between men and women and how to caress, but that is all done under everyone’s observation, and direct conversation is impossible.
Ah, what should I do. No matter how much I rack my brain and think, no suitable method or appropriate person comes to mind. The people I met in the past were all stuffily adhering to etiquette and rules.
With my head aching from this problem, I didn’t stop frowning until I changed clothes and went to bed. Of course, I tossed and turned all night without sleep.
The day quickly brightened, and soon it was morning. Not only did I not sleep properly due to worrying all night, but my head ached more because of Marie kicking the capsule in the next room, so I got out of bed with a haggard face.
My mother screamed at my staggering appearance like a sick person. She was scared in advance, thinking I might have been tormented by the maids again.
I had to make great efforts to reassure her. To my adoptive father looking at me with a worried face, I casually excused that I couldn’t sleep because I was excited about the things I would learn in the future.
Having no appetite, I roughly had a light soup and bread for breakfast, and to subdue my throbbing head, I went out for a walk to the nearby park.
This well-maintained place had few people, perhaps because it was early morning. It might be even more so because it’s open only to nobles.
Therefore, meeting that man, Théodore Vitraice, was almost a coincidence.
Moreover, if I hadn’t decided to cool my head by looking at the lake in the park, I wouldn’t have encountered him like this.
Goodness. Who knew that shaking off Marie with the excuse of a headache would turn out to be such a regret!
He had spread out a seat on the nearby hill and from early morning, with a woman tucked under his arm, was showing hand movements close to debauchery. Judging by the wine bottles scattered around, he seemed quite drunk.
So if he hadn’t called my name and stopped my steps, I would have ignored him and passed by.
“You are Miss Wischwaltz. Oops. Please understand that I’m drunk and can’t observe etiquette.”
Even in a heavily intoxicated state, his voice was very attractive, sparkling like jewels. It was seductive enough to make my heels tingle.
But since I had seen him flaunting an eerily sinister aura in secret, the current disheveled libertine fondling a woman felt very unfamiliar. I couldn’t tell which was his true self.
When I, shocked by the unexpected encounter, hesitated without properly greeting, Lord Vitraice smirked and tried to raise his body.
He seemed to think that I wasn’t returning the greeting because I found his behavior unpleasant. After all, nodding his head while lying obliquely on the seat with the excuse of being drunk is a very rude appearance, isn’t it.
Anyway, he moved his body to properly observe etiquette, but his intoxicated body didn’t move as he thought, creaking like a marionette caught on strings, seemingly uncontrollable. It was a comical sight like watching a comedy.
After several minutes passed, and after shedding about a cup’s worth of sweat from unnecessary effort, he seemed to finally realize that his action was reckless, as he forgot a gentleman’s dignity and desperately requested help from the woman beside him.
That too happened only after several times of slipping and almost kissing the ground with his lips.
Therefore, if Théodore Vitraice had delayed his judgment a bit more, he would surely have fallen flat on the ground like a frog.
The woman, who was the object of debauchery, wearing a dress deeply cut enough to glimpse her light brown areola, was extremely seductive and beautiful. Her reddish-brown hair shining like fire perfectly complemented the passion in her eyes.
From the hands supporting Théodore Vitraice or the faintly revealed white neckline, the aura of a seductress bewitching men wafted strongly. The hips naturally swaying with each step were truly the highlight.
Therefore, the fact that she looked younger than Lord Vitraice wasn’t even worth measuring. She was a splendid rose attracting bees itself.
I paid attention to her beautiful appearance, slender waist, exaggeratedly cute eye smile, gorgeous dress and jewelry accessories not inferior to what a noble young lady wears—it was even refined and pretty!—and on top of that, her bold behavior clinging tightly to Théodore Vitraice’s body as if forgetting shame.
She clearly heard through Lord Vitraice’s words that I was the young lady of the ‘Wischwaltz’ count family, yet she pretended not to know, waiting for him to introduce her, even possessing such audacity. She even showed a beaming smile at me.
Feeling somehow provoked and very unpleasant, I hastily refused Théodore Vitraice’s greeting.
“I will greet you again with proper etiquette.”
“No, there’s no need for that. I wasn’t standing here wanting a proper greeting. Then, I will take my leave now.”
“Oh dear, are you planning to just go?”
“Then what do you expect me to do? This situation is only unbeneficial to both of us.”
At my words, Lord Vitraice asked back as if puzzled.
“Why do you say it’s unbeneficial?”
His eyes were very cloudy like a sky covered with clouds on a rainy day, but they retained their own beauty. The dreamily distorted pupils exuded a classical charm like pictures in old illustrations. The lips soaked in alcohol were gentle like a child’s yet immature.
Théodore Vitraice grabbed my hand abruptly while grinning mischievously like a rascal. And to me twisting my wrist to escape from his hand, he began to plead childishly.
“Come sit here and talk a bit. Perinuel will be your conversation partner.”
The woman’s name seemed to be ‘Perinuel.’ As soon as his words ended, she blinked her eyes in a very exaggerated manner and pouted her lips. Then, with her cute clenched fist, she lightly tapped his chest and whined with a nasal tone.
“Oh my, asking her to be a conversation partner without even properly introducing me. How rudely will the young lady see me? Ah, that’s too much. If I’m treated like this, I’d rather go back to the shop. I turned away all reservation customers out of affection for Lord, is this really how it is?”
While saying that, she naturally looked at me. She, with an outfit lewd enough to frown upon, unreserved skinship and shop, and reservation customers. With just these hints, she seemed to think I could easily realize her occupation was ‘prostitute.’
Therefore, she seemed to believe I would look at her with contemptuous eyes and distance myself. For a typical young lady, she wouldn’t be able to endure a ‘prostitute’ daring to stand face to face with her.
Come to think of it, in the past too, young lords known for some debauchery brought high-class prostitutes to parks or lakesides, incurring the resentment of many young ladies.
As nobles with honor, they absolutely couldn’t stand in the same place as ‘stupid wenches who only know how to spread their legs,’ and just being in the same place as those who know no shame made them feel a fear as if an epidemic would break out.
How much so that the emperor, unable to endure the complaints of the young ladies, enacted a law ‘prohibiting the entry of prostitutes into places frequented by nobles’?
To people, prostitutes were such beings. Even a rat’s corpse rolling in a dark alley—dried up from being too old—would be cleaner than them, that was the accepted truth. They were just chunks of meat hanging in a butcher shop, and even cheap meat that everyone had tasted once.
In some sense, they were objects of fear. They provide the fantastic and intimate pleasure that others desire, but they also bestow equally terrible diseases—syphilis.
Above all, to noble women, prostitutes were troublesome beings who bewitch their husbands and cause major financial problems.
