Chapter 70 — A Private Invitation
Chapter 70 — A Private Invitation
Translation: Godtl
The next day, about an hour after lunch.
Among Julianna's attendants, a young lady named Cecil came to visit Lelia.
She couldn't even meet Lelia's eyes and spoke with her gaze lowered, as if shy.
"Princess Julianna wishes to invite Sir Raymond to a tea party. Could you come to Her Highness's palace in about an hour?"
"Ah... a tea party..."
As Lelia hesitated, the attendant grew anxious, worried she might hear words of refusal.
"I understand. Oh, may I go with Sir Lute?"
When Lelia asked this, the attendant breathed a sigh of relief but quickly shook her head.
"No, you may not. Today's tea party is a very private, small-scale party. We want Sir Raymond to come alone."
"...I understand."
As Lelia reluctantly nodded, the attendant gave a small smile and left.
'A private, small-scale tea party.'
Just hearing those words felt burdensome. But it was an opportunity.
She was already feeling quite harassed by Lute, who had visited that morning.
He came early in the morning and burdened Lelia with several books.
Looking at the titles: "How to Capture a Woman's Heart, " " Speech Techniques to Captivate Women's Hearts, " " Women Hate These Types of Men," and so on.
They were all similar books.
Lute gave her these books and earnestly requested.
"Sir Raymond, you must absolutely capture the hearts of Princess Julianna's attendants. Like a very, very lighthearted playboy."
"...I understand."
"Oh, wait! However, that doesn't mean you should cross the line. If you harass any ladies or deeply wound their hearts, I won't let it slide!"
Lute suddenly glared at Lelia with righteous indignation, as if she had become some scoundrel.
What is this...?
Lelia was so dumbfounded that she was speechless.
"......"
"Of course, Sir Raymond, you don't seem like someone who would do that. I'm just saying this in case."
She wanted to curse at him, but Lelia held it in.
If she had her way, she wanted to make a baldness potion from the 'Alchemy Lottery' item recipes and feed it to him. Imagining Lute going bald and being rejected by Princess Julianna made her feel a bit better.
Anyway... Lelia had no intention of actually seducing the young ladies.
'But I can pretend to be a playboy.'
She could just brag about having met many women in the past.
'As long as I don't get caught.'
This was an opportunity. At a small-scale tea party, she would have plenty of time to talk with Princess Julianna.
If she praised Lute a lot, Princess Julianna would probably come to like him more.
After returning from the tea party, she could urge Lute on.
'I'll tell him I praised him a lot to the princess today, so he should go confess right away. I should tell him now's his chance.'
Lelia made up her mind firmly and was about to head to the wardrobe. Just then, someone else knocked on the door.
Going out to check, it was Romeo and Kalix.
From their attire, the two seemed to be on their way out somewhere.
"Where are you going?"
"We have some business. We wanted to let you know in case you were looking for us."
At Romeo's words, Lelia nodded, then suddenly said"Ah!"
"Could you help me for just a moment? Princess Julianna invited me to a small tea party... Could you help me pick out some clothes?"
"What kind of clothes? Playboy-like clothes?"
Kalix asked while trying to hold back a chuckle, and Lelia glared at him.
"Fine, I'll pick them for you."
Romeo walked confidently to the dressing room and picked out some clothes.
The clothes he chose had a neat yet elegant feel.
When Lelia came out after changing, Romeo even tied her cravat himself.
Kalix leaned crookedly against the doorframe and watched. In the middle of doing so, he narrowed his eyes.
No matter how he looked, Lelia had many similarities that overlapped with Leo's appearance from childhood.
That firmly pressed line of her lips, or that tense look in her eyes.
'Do cousins normally resemble each other like that?'
Kalix recalled his uncle's children from his memories, then erased the thought.
It might differ from person to person, but he himself had no resemblance to his cousins at all.
Neither in appearance nor personality.
In the first place, they weren't on good terms like Leo and Lelia. Kalix and his cousins were worse than enemies.
'By now they must be rejoicing that I've gone blind.'
He scoffed internally.
"How do I look?"
Just then, Lelia finished dressing and asked with a nervous expression.
"You look like a playboy who'd captivate noble ladies."
When Kalix said that, Lelia narrowed her eyes.
She looked just like an angry squirrel. Kalix snickered, trying to hold back his laughter.
Lelia seemed to suppress her anger for a moment, then thanked Romeo. Finally, she asked the two who were about to leave the quarters.
"You two are popular with women, aren't you? How can I look like someone who's dated a lot?"
It was a question she asked because she had to put on such an act at the tea party right away. After all, the two were popular enough with women to be featured in private magazines.
"We're popular, sure, but..."
Romeo trailed off.
Kalix had a sullen expression.
"Unfortunately, I've never dated anyone, so I don't know. And that guy is actually a bit afraid of women..."
"Hey!"
Kalix shouted. His cheeks started to redden.
As Romeo laughed like a villain, Kalix grew annoyed, grabbed him by the back of his neck, and dragged him away.
Lelia swallowed her laughter as she watched the two walk away.
She heard that many people had secretly grown close while going through hardships together during the war with the Guanglong.
It seemed her friends were exceptions in that regard.
'Kalix is still afraid of women.'
No wonder.
Kalix seemed to treat her a bit more comfortably than before, after she started dressing as a man.
Before departing, just in case, Lelia prepared and consumed a voice-tone altering medicine from the 'Alchemy Lottery' recipes.
Changing her voice to be slightly lower than usual brought a sense of calm.
Yesterday's party had been fairly large, so she hadn't needed to speak much. Just short answers here and there.
'But with a small-scale party, there will probably be more conversation.'
After confirming her lowered voice several times, Lelia picked up the bouquet she had requested from a servant and made her way to Princess Julianna's palace.
'Goodness me.'
The residence where Princess Julianna stayed was a newly constructed building in the West Palace section, and it was exceedingly extravagant.
The exterior alone was enough to make one click their tongue, but the interior decorations were even more so.
'It might be even more ornate than the main palace.'
Lelia felt somehow intimidated.
Especially when she saw the massive crystal statue at the entrance hall, she nearly took a step backward.
It was a statue of a knight holding a sword, seemingly a symbol guarding Princess Julianna's palace.
For some reason, Lelia felt as though the eyes of that knight statue were glaring at her menacingly, and it frightened her.
They probably made it that way with such intention.
"Please come this way."