Chapter 28: CH 26

The tea party is being held in the rear garden of the castle.

Unlike the dignified and elegant front garden that is adorned with well-maintained lawn and shrubs, the rear garden has many colorful flowers such as roses and the like which give it more of a gorgeous impression.

Six round tables are set up here with seven seats surrounding each one. The total number of invitees is 31 but they have set up extra seats in case some guests might want to move around for socializing.

At the table in the center, bite-sized sweets are arranged on a big three-tiered tray.

Aside from those, there are also tables with name cards on them set a distance away. There are sweets and food along with the maids that are on standby nearby.

The weather turned out nice on the day of the party and the blue sky was nice to see but to be honest, the clear sky made the venue quite hot. That’s why clothes were hung between the trees and the tables were set nearby to lessen the heat.

After taking the temperature into account, it was decided that the party will be held in the morning. After all, they can’t allow the guests to suffer heat stroke for attending.

For this summer, chiffon dresses, which are made by layering thin breezy fabrics are in fashion. Although the design seems a little too young to suit women of the Queen’s age, Olivia and the young noble ladies are all wearing these chiffon dresses.

This is natural considering that someone like Olivia, who is soon to become a member of the royal family, can not afford to fall behind on the latest fashion.

She’s now wearing a cool mint green chiffon dress and a wide brim white hat. Most of the guests are wearing some kind of hat as well because they have notified them in advance that the party will be held outside.

In truth, this white hat was designed by Olivia herself in consultation with her tailor. Since she is unofficially engaged to a prince, she can not only be in fashion but be someone who sets the trend as well. It may sound bothersome but since she has reflected on her negligence when she was engaged to Alan, she decided to do it seriously from now on.

She used to wear a small hat with a narrow brim that couldn’t cover her entire head but she thinks that wearing a hat like that is like not wearing one at all. That’s why she decided to design a hat with a wide brim to combat the heat———and a cute design that would attract young ladies.

The white hat that she is wearing has a slightly thin brim. She had many prototypes made to make sure that the brim doesn’t just bend out of shape. With a brim made of a thin fabric, it allows some light to pass through that prevents the brim from casting a dark shadow on the wearer’s face. The design also incorporated a thin and light ribbon wrapping around the hat.

With all other ladies wearing the small brim hats which are in fashion right now, Olivia’s hat really stood out but to combat this, she has asked the queen to wear one of the same designs but in a different color. The queen’s hat has aquamarine color and is attracting a lot of attention from the ladies both young and old because of its unusual design and soon everyone started talking about the hat.

Princess Florencia is also wearing a hat designed by Olivia. Hers is a bright sunflower-colored hat with mint green and navy blue ribbons adorning it. This design choice that matches the color of her ribbons to the Queen and Olivia’s hats is to show that the princess is welcome in Brior.

Princess Florencia was so nervous about socializing that she immediately took a seat at Olivia’s side.

Then while pulling down the brim of her hat, she anxiously shifts her gaze toward her right. When Olivia followed her gaze, she saw a tall man standing in the distance. That man is the leader of Princess Florencia’s escort knights, if she recalls correctly, his name should be Legion.

Legion was young for a knight. He should only still be in his mid-twenties. According to the princess, he is her exclusive escort knight and has been around since before she was ten so it seems that he was knighted in his teens. Since that is quite an early age for someone to be entering knighthood, he must be quite skilled.

Princess Florencia may have many escort knights aside from Legion but the one who always stays at her side is only him. The other escort knights are currently relaxing in the rooms assigned to them in the castle. Since they mainly act as her escort in her travels, it is almost like a vacation for them during her stay at the castle.

She seems to have placed a lot of trust in Legion as she always looks at him whenever she feels uneasy. However, even if she is bad at this, Olivia still needs her to go through with this tea party. After all, if she truly ends up marrying Alan, this will be required of her as the future queen of Brior.

(……I was told to get in the way of that though.)

Olivia internally sighed to herself.

She was requested by the King to get in the way of Florencia and Alan’s relationship but at the same time, she was also instructed by the Queen to help the princess get used to this country. But what should she do?

From what she saw, it seems that Princess Florencia isn’t all too excited about marrying Alan either. If so, going through with the King’s request would benefit the two of them as well but things would be more troublesome in terms of international relationships. From Olivia’s perspective, considering Brior’s relationship with Levanor, letting their marriage happen would be better for the country overall. Of course, she can say this because she doesn’t particularly care for the title of the queen herself but due to the unwanted expectations that were placed on her, Olivia doesn’t know what to do with Princess Florencia either.

There were 5 other ladies at Olivia and Florencia’s table. Olivia remembers all of their faces and names but she still needs to somehow introduce them to Florencia.

As Olivia called and introduced them one by one, each of them gave a friendly smile to Princess Florencia. The ladies here all came from reputable ducal and marquis houses. Naturally, there’s no way to tell what they are actually thinking inside but she’s glad that Florencia was not subjected to open malice. As expected of the queen candidates. They know how to act in this kind of situation.

“I prepared Levanorian table cloths for today’s party. I think that its pattern is really beautiful and to be honest, I take quite a liking to it.”

Following Olivia’s words, the ladies’ eyes all turn to the tablecloths. In turn, Princess Florencia gently speaks up.

“Since these are hand weaved by our weavers, although they may look similar, there’s actually none that are the exact same. I’m glad that you like them Olivia-sama.”

As expected of a princess. Even though she is scared of socializing, she still manages to hold proper conversations. Her voice may be a little too quiet but she does promote the appeals of her country which seem to pique the ladies’ interest.

“How wonderful. It feels so smooth to touch.”

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“I heard that the fabric thickness is different for the ones that are meant for summer and winter as well. The thin ones for summer are smooth to touch while the richer winter ones give off a warm feeling. Even the type of the threads and the weaving methods are different too.”

When Olivia added that little trivia, Princess Florencia seemed surprised.

“It is exactly as you say, Olivia-sama. You are quite knowledgeable about this.”

“I heard them from the store owner when I was out choosing the fabric. I’m glad that I got it right.”

Hearing that, one of the ladies immediately jumped on the topic.

“My, Olivia-sama. May I ask where this store is? I heard that Levanorian fabrics are quite hard to find and there aren’t that many places that sell them.”

“There’s a new store recently opened near the castle. It may be a little presumptuous but my house offered some help to the owner when he set up his shop so I was able to get preferential treatment for my purchase. I will relay the location and name of the place to your maid then.”

Saying so, Olivia used a table bell to summon Taylor. After she told Taylor to give the store information to the lady’s maid that came with her, Taylor nodded with a smile. Seeing that, the other ladies joined in, and eventually, the store information was distributed to all of their maids. It seems that she successfully promoted one of Levanor’s commodities.

Incidentally, she also urged the other ladies to try the Levanorian sweets which were included among the sweets on the three-tiered tray at the center table. It looks like a kind of pie with plenty of pistachios which is leaning toward the sweeter side. It goes quite well with the bitter taste of coffee so Olivia took quite a liking to it when she tried it for the first time.

Coffee is actually in trend right now so three of the ladies came back with a cup of coffee in their hands. They also added a lot of sugar and milk to theirs since it seems that women are not particularly fond of black coffee. And as Olivia expected, the Levanorian sweets were quite popular among the coffee enjoyers. As for Princess Florencia, although she doesn’t say much about herself, she’s actually having conversations with the other ladies perhaps because she finds it easier to talk when the topic involves Levanor.

After she was mostly finished with melting the ice between Princess Florencia and the ladies at her table, Olivia and Florencia were called by the Queen. When they left their seats and headed to the Queen’s table, two ladies stood up and gave up their seats to them.

Olivia thanked them and took a seat.

“How did it go? Are you enjoying the party?”

The Queen asked Princess Florencia with a smile. In return, Florencia lightly smiles and gives a positive reply in a quiet voice.

Hearing that, the Queen smiles satisfactorily and introduces the princess to the ladies at her table.

After Olivia greets them, she politely stands up and excuses herself, saying that it wouldn’t be good for the hosts to all concentrate on one table. Then, she felt her sleeve being pulled. When she looked down, she saw Princess Florencia anxiously looking up at her while grabbing her sleeve.

(Maybe she’s not good with this kind of environment……..?)

Certainly, unlike the group of young ladies earlier, these ladies are quite eager to get acquainted with Princess Florencia since she’s a candidate for the future queen of this country. However, this is quite suffocating for the princess.

Noticing that, Olivia takes the princess with her saying that she has to introduce her to the ladies at the other tables.

Princess Florencia smiled in relief and followed Olivia. As the rumors say, it seems that she is indeed quite a shy princess.

When they moved on to the next table, Olivia noticed that the princess’s eyes were attracted to the flowers on the table. The flowers adorning the sweets table are the colorful roses picked from the garden. For this table in specific, the name of the rose is La Porte, a species of rose commonly bred in Levanor. It is a middle-sized rose with petals that gradation from light green to pink color. The inside of the petals is green as it turns into a darker shade of pink toward the outside. The origin of its name seems to be taken from its original breeder, Countess Porte. It seems that her name was Laibel Porte so the rose was subsequently named La Porte.

“Do you like this rose?”

When Olivia asked, the princess bashfully smiled in return. For the first time, the princess who has been so tense all this time is finally showing a natural smile.

(La Porte huh. Let’s tell this to His Highness Alan later…….he probably won’t find her one though. Let’s give up.)

Alan seems to have his qualm against engaging himself with Princess Florencia. However, since the Queen wishes for it and the Levanor side also wish for the same thing, there is a high possibility that things would proceed against his will.

(I didn’t want to get in their way but, should I go with His Majesty’s request here?)

Political marriages often ignore the involved parties’ feelings but it would be cruel to force two people who don’t want to marry each other into one. Alan must have a lot of his own feelings to process about Tiana so he’s probably depressed and the shy Princess Florencia probably can’t voice her feelings properly.

Thinking so, Olivia suddenly feels a gaze on her back. When she turned to look, she found a queen staring at her with a smile.

(That face…….does she know what I am thinking right now?)

Guessing that she will be summoned by her later, Olivia let out another sigh internally,

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