Chapter 47
By now, her head might have already been severed. The falling flowers looked like severed heads, so Daisy turned her eyes away from the window. From now on, whenever Daisy smelled flowers, she would think of Merai.
"How is it? Are the children adapting well?"
"Yes. It seems so."
Unlike what Daisy had worried about, the children melted into the mansion easily. At the Rohanson mansion, the staff found Evangeline the most difficult to deal with, but perhaps because the children had been brought by Evangeline in the first place, they adapted particularly quickly.
Yulma was good with her hands and went into the kitchen. However, perhaps from the habit of making multiple meals at the orphanage, she said she got scolded for always making too much.
Ranen went under the butler. It was already well known that he was clever and good with numbers, but no one expected him to catch the butler's eye to this extent. The butler had initially dismissed him because Lady Evangeline brought him, but now he practically kept Ranen by his side at all times.
'Mary is...'
Mary was living as if she had become Mary Rohanson, not Mary Gold.
Since there was no work for a young child to do, they just let her roam around the mansion, and Mary especially stuck close to Melek, who had been trapped underground with her.
Melek had volunteered to work as a stable hand to earn his keep, and the fierce horses would tuck their tails and obey him well, so he was welcomed. Mary was given the task of giving carrots to the horses beside him.
As Lady Evangeline promised, when they get back the children the director sold, they would have one or two more people.
"Are you satisfied?"
At Evangeline's question, Daisy nodded.
When they left the mansion in fear, she thought they would never return.
"Very much so."
She didn't expect to feel such peaceful sentiments while looking at the fibrous tissue spread like a net across the entire wall and the protruding eyes.
***
Damn, this is perfect weather to die... I should probably exhale some smoke stylishly.
My whole body felt languid, and I wanted to just lie down and eat grapes that Kanna gave me.
Normally, lying around like a bum wouldn't be a problem at all, but right now, this was the only relaxing time I could enjoy.
After Gabriel suggested going to the banquet together, I became someone who needed ten bodies to handle everything.
That damn debutante was the problem.
Evangeline, the pinnacle of high society? She hadn't even debuted yet, so there was a lot to prepare before she could properly attend balls or banquets.
"The young miss was too weak to even complete her debutante presentation."
Daisy said Evangeline couldn't go out into society because her body was too weak, but seeing as she had enough energy to torment others, it seemed the Count had stopped her from going because he was afraid Evangeline would act like a villainess again.
When I sent a telegram to the Count saying I would debut, saying he couldn't stop me even if he tried, he replied telling me to do as I pleased but begging me to please act normally.
And along with the reply, tutors came attached. I guess they still had enough awareness that I had amnesia and wanted to re-educate me.
But there should be a limit... Etiquette, dancing, painting, horseback riding, embroidery, and I don't even know why I need to learn poetry. There were six tutors in total. At least they didn't try to teach history, so that's fortunate.
The tutors weren't exactly helpful either.
The poetry tutor, perhaps because her major was literature and she was emotionally sensitive herself, left behind poetic metaphors saying the Rohanson mansion was a fragment of hell that sprouted on earth, a demon's playground where demons ran wild, then threw her resignation letter without even looking back at the main gate. Simply put, she was scared of Evangeline's notorious reputation and fled.
The embroidery tutor, when my hand was pricked by a needle and bled, pleaded and begged saying please don't kill her, then fainted. For reference, my embroidery skills were judged to be impossible to improve.
For horseback riding, there was no need to learn since the horses listened to me so well that the tutor said there was nothing more to teach after just one day and told me to leave.
The art tutor asked if there was an atelier, so I guided her to the storage room next door, and perhaps because the room was gloomy, she seemed a bit scared. When she asked if she could see my painting skills, I showed her all the canvases even though I didn't paint them myself, and she was horrified and ran away.
But there was a reason for that. Everything Evangeline had painted was the same person.
The same woman looking straight ahead in the same composition was somehow chilling. It felt like the eyes would move like in a horror movie. It seemed somewhat familiar, but who was it?
"Do you know who it is?"
"It's likely the late Madame."
Cold sweat suddenly broke out. I made a slip of the tongue for a moment. Looking again, it wasn't a horror movie but rather like an actual film. Evangeline had created art. The familiarity must have been because she resembled Evangeline.
Daisy explained that she also came to the Count's household after the Countess passed away, so she had never actually seen her.
In the diary, she was someone who always spoke curses to the Count, desiring death and despairing at herself, but in the painting, she was faintly smiling.
"She was a beautiful person."
She wasn't my mother, but I missed my mother. It was a relief that she at least showed a smiling face to her daughter.
I covered the paintings again with cloth so they wouldn't be damaged by sunlight.
Anyway, the art tutor was scared after seeing the paintings and threw her resignation letter saying she couldn't do it either. The butler must have been at his wit's end, as he pleaded with me to please behave since it was hard to keep the tutors quiet. I didn't do anything, so it was unfair.
"You said you had amnesia, but fortunately, your body has retained its habits."
At least the etiquette tutor, perhaps due to her strong professional dedication, took responsibility for me until the end. Whether the possession buff applied here too, etiquette was passively ingrained, so I didn't need to learn it again.
This is what they mean by muscle memory. No wonder I sometimes spoke in such an unladylike manner—my tongue must remember that too.
"Good work, Dorine."
"It's all thanks to the young miss following along well."
I was grateful that she taught me without running away, so I told the butler to give her a generous bonus.
Dorine broke the cliché of strict etiquette tutors and was quite oblivious and kind. She didn't seem to know about Evangeline's reputation either. Was that why she didn't run away?
"Soon it will be time for the dance tutor. I heard your body is weak, but is it okay for you to dance?"
My body was not the problem. The problem was the dance tutor, as usual.
I quickly learned the dance movements too, but when we tried to practice by dancing together, the tutor refused to dance, saying she couldn't bring herself to touch my body.
"Young miss, excuse me. Have you finished the lesson?"
Hena asked from outside the door while knocking. When I told her to come in, Hena greeted Dorine and handed me a letter.
Looking at the recipient, it was from the dance tutor.
"Don't tell me?"
That assumption was correct. Stripping away all the long-winded excuses written, it said that since I had already learned all the movements and there would be no problem, she had done enough and was quitting.
"Is she quitting too?"
"Yes."
With this, all my tutors had quit, leaving only Dorine.
No, the dance tutor was funny too—I don't know why she taught everything she needed to teach and then snuck out in the middle. Still, I'm thankful she at least taught me the movements.
I told Hena to tell the butler to pay the tuition in full without deducting anything. If we didn't pay them even though they quit midway, who knows what kind of rumors they might spread later. Who knows if they'd twist it saying Evangeline learned everything then fired them without paying. All we have is money, how stingy!
"Yes. I'll convey that."
"Hmm... I should be going too."
Dorine, who was observing the atmosphere, gathered her things and stood up.
"Do you know how to dance, Dorine?"
"I can do the basics. But to be the young miss's partner, I would need to take on the gentleman's role, right? I only learned to dance as part of refinement."
So she's saying she doesn't know the male part.
"How about asking Sir Gabriel to be your practice partner?"
Is that so... I'll be dancing with Gabriel anyway, so should I just ask Gabriel?
Dorine left some advice and departed, looking very apologetic.
After Dorine left, my afternoon suddenly became free. When I collapsed on the bed in my room, Pudding gave me a massage with her cat paws. It was cute but not satisfying at all...
Jelly, watching that, transformed into a human and gave me a massage. It felt like all the fatigue in my body was melting away. Jelly had some expertise in massage too.
"Did you learn separately?"
"My previous owner sometimes ordered me to do things like this."
I asked where she learned it, but only ended up rubbing salt in the wound. Right, while I sometimes forget, Jelly was a former beastkin slave...
"To make me do something like this, pretty twisted taste, isn't it?"
It sounded like she was saying it to make me, who was receiving the massage now, feel stabbed. So I told her she could stop and sent Jelly away. Sorry for having twisted taste.
"Jelly, do you know how to dance?"
"Do you think I would know human dances?"
No. You're a werewolf who was captured and escaped from a slave trader, so there's no way you would know. But since she said she learned massage from her previous owner, I thought maybe she learned dancing too, so I just asked...
"Do you know?"
When Jelly asked, pulling Pudding's tail, Pudding scratched Jelly with her claws.
"What a nasty temperament. If you don't know, just say so."
No. That's your fault for asking a baby who can't even talk yet. Pudding must want to answer so badly too.
"Why do you ask about dancing? Did the dance tutor run away too? Humans really are all such cowards."
Tell me about it. I don't know why everyone is so cowardly. The world has too few talented people like Dorine.
"Still, it's fortunate Dorine remains."
"How much longer do you hope she'll last? A day? A week?"
"Well."
This Jelly kid, she's practically holding a memorial service for her quitting. If left alone, she seemed ready to bet on when she'd quit.
"She should last at least two weeks, don't you think?"
"Two weeks? Understood."
My debutante is scheduled for two weeks from now. It's already the season when balls and banquets are in full swing, so it's a bit late...