Chapter 34: 34

A lovely girl was depicted in the design drawing.

The child, who had wavy hair let loose down to her waist, eyes slightly drooping, chubby cheeks and an innocent smile, seemed likely to jump out of the picture at any moment and burst into laughter with a high and clear sound like the small bell in the church.

What the child’s wearing wasn’t a corset or high-heeled shoes, but a very comfortable-looking dress.

A small, dense lace was strung along the edge of the round collar embroidered with flowers, and a blue ribbon was tied neatly in the centre of it.

The sleeves,  pleated, took the form of bishop sleeves, so it’s looser the closer it got to the wrist. And the buttons on the cuffs were rose-shaped.

The tailor, who brought her some of her designs, smiled and began to explain them.

“Do you like it?”

“Pardon? Yes…”

“I was thinking about putting two pintucks in this part and embroidering the Miss’ favorite flowers with a ribbon underneath it… Or would you prefer a different design?”

Elizabeth blinked her eyes blankly. It was very different from the clothes she wore at the back Duchy.

“Um… Aren’t there too few jewels or lace… ?”

“Oh, do you find fancy dresses more preferable, Milady?”

The tailor asked in surprise. At the tailor’s question, Elizabeth also shook her head in amazement.

The dress she was wearing was a dress that the maids of the Crown Prince’s Palace had bought from the finest boutiques since early morning.

A dress that didn’t require a corset nor a pannier to make the dress look like a bell. Also, it was not laced with heavy jewels, which stung when it touched the skin, and was very mobile and light.

Elizabeth liked this outfit so much that she would want to wear it forever if she could.

She never wanted to wear a corset that tied her waist or high-heeled shoes ever again.

“If you want, there are designs like this, but…”

The tailor quickly drew a dress of a design similar to that Elizabeth wore at her duke’s residence.

“I don’t like that…!”

Elizabeth hurriedly shook her head.

The tailor was puzzled by her reaction and presented the design that she had brought again.

‘She asked for jewelry and lace, yet she doesn’t like flashy things?’

The tailor wondered if the young girl was trying to request something along the lines, ‘It must be simple, but adorned with much jewelry and lace. The collar line must be cut deep enough to reveal my collarbone, but doesn’t look vulgar. And it should make my waist look thinner, but please take care of it so that it doesn’t feel uncomfortable when I wear it’?

The tailor looked at Elizabeth firmly.

“… Can I wear clothes like this in the Imperial Palace…?”

To Elizabeth’s words, the tailor answered with a tone implying the obvious.

“Of course. Especially for young people like the Miss, flashy design doesn’t really suit them.”

“Really?”

Elizabeth’s eyes widened. Astonished, her mouth was slightly agape. Seeing that, the tailor realised that she had somehow misunderstood her.

“By any chance… Can the lady tell me what you usually wear?”

“Uh… A corset over a chemise, with a pannier, and…”

Oh my dear god. The tailor closed her eyes and touched her forehead.

With just two words, a corset and a pannier, she could already guess what Elizabeth would normally wear.

“Did you always have jewels on your dress?”

“(Gasp)! How-, how did you know?”

“Were you always uncomfortable with the lace embroidered with silver hanging on the sleeves that came all the way down here?”

The tailor pointed a little above her elbow. Elizabeth nodded vehemently with a truly shocking look.

Seeing that, the tailor let out a deep sigh.

The little girl in front of her didn’t want a fancy dress with jewels and lace. Rather, she was worried she might have to wear something like that again.

“What’s the use of lace woven with silver and splendid jewels? There is something here that sparkles more than the most beautiful jewels and gifts in the whole world.”

“Here?”

The tailor smiled and held out a small hand mirror in front of Elizabeth.

“Sapphire, pure gold stone, no, even the rarest blue diamond in the world will not be as blue and gorgeous as the young Miss’ eyes.”

At the tailor’s words, Elizabeth felt the tips of her ears burning. Glancing at Elizabeth as she slightly turned her body, smiling bashfully at the embarrassment, the tailor then patted her silver hair.

“The silk thread freshly made from the cocoon takes a little more work by the craftsmen to become the smooth, shiny white silk thread that is commonly thought of. Miss’ hair is much thinner, softer, and shinier than the finest silk threads. They’re like threads made out of a crystal.”

The moment the tailor looked at her silver hair and blue eyes, she felt a bell ring in her head.

The maid who came out of the Imperial Palace early in the morning said, ‘She is an eight-year-old girl with silver hair and blue eyes. She likes the colour blue.’

She didn’t give any explanation other than so the tailor moderately brought the designs that were popular among young girls these days, but it seemed like she had to restart from scratch.

“Then… Can I really wear these clothes as they are? Even in the Imperial Palace?”

“Of course!”

A blush crept across Elizabeth’s face. The tailor continued her explanation with a broad smile.

“The lace will only run along here, at the skirt’s hem. It is a soft cotton lace that does not feel uncomfortable even when rubbed against Miss’ skin.”

Elizabeth imagined herself wearing the dress in the design.

The tailor rose to her feet, watching Elizabeth’s cheeks flush with excitement and anticipation.

“What kind of headdress would you like? A bonnet, a hairband, a ribbon would be nice, or a small mini hat would be nice too!”

The tailor who met a guest who made her heart pound after a long time, also had a look of excitement on her face.

Biting her lip so as not to be to accessive, the tailor put a bonnet decorated with blue flowers, a hairband laced with rosettes, a bow-shaped ribbon, and a small slanted hat over Elizabeth’s head one by one.

“Um… uh…”

As she was sure that whatever the young lady chose would suit her, the tailor waited anxiously for her decision.

“… I do not know.”

Elizabeth replied in a feeble voice. All of a sudden, her little face was filled with fear, as if the tailor would get angry with her, shouting, ‘Why can’t you decide on such a small thing!’

Contrary to Elizabeth’s concerns, however, the tailor smiled widely, picked up the paper and pen again, and began to draw some other designs with quick hand movements.

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“Then you can have it all! Bonnet, hairband, ribbon, mini hat… A straw hat with a ribbon would be nice to keep your fair skin from getting tanned in the sun! You can decorate it with  different flowers every day until summer, and in the fall you can put on it a branch full of ripe red berries or a brooch in the shape of a leaf.”

Excitement began to show on Elizabeth’s face again. With a proud face, the tailor left a short note next to the design and asked another question.

“What kind of shoes would you like?”

“Do I have to choose the shoes too?”

The words coming out of the tailor’s mouth were so enchanting that they sounded like a fairy song to her, who had to wear only the stuffy, heavy dress that her mother had chosen for her all her life.

But Elizabeth sighed when the tailor told her that she had to choose the shoes, all the accessories, and even socks.

The tailor, noticing that she was not accustomed to choosing her own clothes, quickly realised that she was already exhausted. She held out a catalog of her nearby partner, a shoe workshop, saying all that was left for her was to decide slowly.

The catalog was full of low-heeled shoes and boots that a child would wear.

Elizabeth looked at the shoes curiously. They were all designs she had never seen before.

‘So there are shoes like these… ! But why did mother only let me wear high-heeled shoes?’

“Is it hard?”

“Pardon?”

The tailor, who had taken the design drawing and a piece of paper with Elizabeth’s measuring, made eye contact with her again.

“I like beautiful people. And I like to see them become even more beautiful in the clothes I made. But do you know what I like the most?”

“What is it?”

The tailor answered with a faint smile and in a somewhat shy tone.

“The moment when the person wearing that dress is smiling with satisfaction. I want the Miss to wear the clothes I made and smile the prettiest.”

The tailor’s eyes crinkled like a crescent moon as she smiled. Shortly after, she rose again.

There was a lot of work to be done back in the studio. In addition to sending the clothes she had made in advance, the clothes she had to make and design from now on were endlessly popping up in her head.

“It’s been a long time since I last held a needle in my hand. I wish you all the best in the future, little muse.”

The tailor opened the door to leave the room with a polite greeting.

“Ah!”

“Bowgh!”

“Kya!”

“Leon… Your Highness the Prince?”

When she opened the door, Leonhardt rolled into the room while cradling a white, fluffy puppy in his arms.

“Your Highness! Are you hurt anywhere?”

The maids, who were watching the conversation between the tailor and Elizabeth with happy faces, ran to him at once.

At the same time, the tailor’s face turned pale. However, Leonhardt calmly got up and patted the dust off his clothes.

“… It’s the first time you meet with your master officially, so be polite!”

“Woof!”

The puppy in Leonhardt’s arms was struggling to get out of his arms.

“From now on, this is your home! Don’t bite my sleeves, ah, seriously!”

Shaking his sleeves covered in dog saliva, Leonhardt put the dog down.

“I’ll-, I’ll just go. Excuse me, then!”

The tailor couldn’t take her eyes off Elizabeth, the dog, and Leonhardt until the very end, as she forcibly moved her feet.

***

“Lizzie.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Leonhardt preferred that Elizabeth call him Leon rather than the strict title of the crown prince. He wished she could call him Leon in front of the maids as well.

Leonhardt pouted inwardly, then stuck out his chest and ordered the maids in a dignified and solemn manner as his soul remembered.

“I have to talk to her for a moment, so all should get out of here for now.”

The maids desperately bit their lips as they left the room in order not to laugh in front of the 10-year-old Crown Prince, who pretended to be dignified, solemn and mature as if he were the Emperor.

“Now… Lizzie.”

“Yes, Leon.”

“… You can call me Leon in front of other people.”

“But you told me to do it when we are alone, didn’t you?”

How could a kid be so inflexible? Leonhardt groaned inwardly and withdrew the order.

“Cancel that! Cancel. After all, we haven’t even gotten engaged yet, so Lizzie is my friend. Isn’t it weird that you meet your friend and say ‘Your Highness, is your welfare functioning at its best state today?” (T/n: translating word-by-word since Leon is using hard korean words instead of a simple ‘how r u’  )

“Welfare, function, best state…?”

“One way or another, same thing! Anyway… I wish Lizzie could treat me a little more comfortably. Alright? Can you do that?”

‘So that if I ever treat you badly, do feel free to grab a hold of me and kick me without hesitation!’ Leonhardt prayed earnestly.

“But in etiquette…”

‘Ugh etiquette!’ Leonhardt sighed deeply, then grabbed the puppy who was interested in the hem of Elizabeth’s dress and handed it over to her.

“It will protect you when I am away. So, give it a name.”

“A name?”

“Yes, anything is fine. Well, it’s white, you can name it white stone. Or, since it was born in the Imperial Palace, so you can call it by elegant names like Sebastian, Benedict, Edwardian, Gregory, Franz…”

“Um…”

Elizabeth was in trouble. White and soft fur, warm fluffy body, a round belly that rose and fell with every breath, slightly droopy eyes as if sleepy, a tail that can’t still for a moment, and even the soft soles of the feet as if they could make no noise.

There were too many other lovely things to call it white stone just because ít fur was white. Leonhardt then put his hand on his waist and smiled happily.

“I have work to do, so I’ll go back. Tell me its name later, okay?”

As soon as Leonhardt left the room, the maids returned. Elizabeth asked, holding the adorable puppy tightly in her arms.

“Would ‘Leon’ sound weird as a dog name?”

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