[Episode 82] - Different from What I Imagined (2)
The time goes back to before the masquerade began, just before I changed clothes. I opened the wardrobe and looked at the “Gray Wolf” outfit I would be wearing to the ball, and at the sight of it, I gave a bitter smile.
‘A knight...? No, this looks like something a prince would wear.’
A white suit decorated with gold thread, complete with a gray fur mantle. On top of that, a black wig and a wolf mask that covered the entire face. It was true that I had asked Haley for a “male” outfit to wear to the masquerade, but...
Should I say this was a little excessive? I had never imagined it would be such a prince-like outfit. Since it was something I would only wear once and never again, I had even asked her to prepare something moderate, but it seemed that had been useless.
“Your Majesty... are you truly going to attend the masquerade in that outfit?”
As I stared at the outfit with a bitter smile, the maid standing beside me asked with a worried expression. Well, even at a masquerade, there were no nobles who dressed as men or women of the opposite sex.
Even so, the reason I had asked for this “male” outfit was—
“Yes. If I do not go this far, everyone will recognize me, so it cannot be helped. No one would imagine that the queen would attend the ball dressed as a man.”
It was truly to hide my identity perfectly. At the last masquerade I attended, even though I wore a mask and even a wig, there had been quite a few people who recognized me.
When I first attended a masquerade, it was not as though I had not held the same expectations as Titania. It would be a lie to say I had not hoped for a small deviation from the norm, hiding my face and status at a masquerade.
But although I attended the masquerade with my heart pounding like that, once I actually went, I could not even dream of such a small deviation. Even with a mask and disguise, everyone knew I was “Vivian.”
Surely, it would be the same for Titania. Somehow, everyone would undoubtedly find out that Titania had dressed up as “Little Red Riding Hood.” Then perhaps Titania would realize reality, at least a little.
The fact that a masquerade was not an event people like us could enjoy.
There was also a part of me that reluctantly agreed to attend the masquerade in order to teach her that. In any case, to prepare my cross-dressing, I was led by the maids and began changing clothes.
However, dressing as a man was not easy at all.
To begin with, the skeletal frames of men and women were different, and the maids had never once helped someone dress as a man before. They said they could manage the rest somehow, but there was one biggest problem obstructing my cross-dressing.
And that was...
“Your Majesty, are you ready...?”
“Phew... Yes.”
“Th-then we will begin on the signal. One... two... three!”
Tight—!
At the signal, the maids began pulling hard on the compression bandage wrapped around my chest.
“Ugh...!”
Truly, these uselessly large breasts were the biggest problem. In order to dress as a man, it was important to tighten the compression bandage very firmly and make the chest look as small as possible, but... were Vivian’s breasts ordinary breasts?
No matter how much the maids pulled, it only hurt as if I were dying, and there was almost no effect of reducing my chest. On top of that, after wrapping the bandage round and round, they began wrapping a large cloth from my chest down to my stomach.
If there was anything fortunate, it was that cross-dressing did not require a corset. If a corset had been added on top of this, I surely would have suffocated to death. I steadied my breathing against the pressure enveloping my chest and looked down at the bandage-wrapped area.
Even going this far could not hide my chest completely, but I nodded at the reduced chest, thinking that this much might be all right. So compression bandages did have some use after all.
I was already exhausted just from having my chest wrapped in compression bandages, but the most important thing was putting on the clothes. To make me look as much like a man as possible, padding was inserted into the shoulder area, and tall lifts were placed inside the shoes.
When I put on the prince-like clothes Haley had prepared and looked in the mirror, I saw myself with a fairly masculine build. My chest protruded a little, but not enough to draw that much attention.
Once I put on the short black wig and the wolf mask that completely covered my face, from the outside I could pass for a somewhat short adolescent boy.
Certainly, with a disguise of this level, it felt as though no one would notice that I was the queen. As I stared at the mirror and admired my disguised appearance, the maids also looked surprised, peering around me as they circled nearby.
“Certainly, at this level, I don’t think anyone will realize you are Her Majesty the Queen.”
“Wouldn’t the young ladies fall for Your Majesty instead? Looking at your outfit, you look like a prince from some foreign country.”
“Your Majesty! Your Majesty! Could you please hold my chin just once?!”
When a young maid thrust out her chin and asked me to hold it, I gave a small laugh and roughly grasped her chin with one hand. At the feeling of a scene straight out of a novel, the maids shrieked and squealed.
“Truly, if I met a young lord like this at a masquerade, I would fall in love at first sight. There won’t be a single young lady’s heart left intact at tonight’s ball.”
At the maids’ unstinting praise, I briefly removed my mask and showed the maid whose chin I was holding a very simple “coin trick.” It was the trick I had shown Titania when she was little, where a coin came out from behind her ear.
When I took out the coin that had vanished from my palm from beside the maid’s ear, the maid, startled by the coin trick, widened her eyes. Looking at her, I smiled gently.
“You mustn’t fall for me. I can’t take responsibility, you see.”
When I placed the coin on the maid’s palm, the maid blushed and covered her mouth with both hands, saying, “Oh my, oh my, oh my!” At my nonsense and clumsy magic trick, the maids burst into laughter.
In the midst of the warm atmosphere, I glanced at the clock, and it was now the time the masquerade would just be beginning. If I left right now, I would probably arrive before the dancing—the flower of the ball—began.
And so I put the “wolf mask” that completely covered my face back on and informed the maids that I would be heading to the ballroom. I ordered them not to call me Your Majesty the Queen outside.
*
“Ha... Anyway, the piece will be a mazurka. I’ll choose my partner myself, so don’t cling to me until it’s time to dance. Understood?!”
““Yes, yes! Princess Titania!””
The first thing I saw as soon as I arrived at the ballroom was Titania, shouting at everyone as though irritated. Just as I had expected, even though she wore a mask, it seemed everyone had noticed Titania’s presence.
When the young lords withdrew from around her, Titania lowered her head with an expression that looked as if she was about to cry. As a parent, it was pitiful to see her like that, but I had allowed this in order to give her such an experience, so it could not be helped.
‘That aside, a mazurka...’
The mazurka was a piece where as many people as possible danced together. On top of that, it was a piece where one constantly changed dance partners at each timing. With only a little thought, I could tell why Titania had changed it not to the prepared piece, but to the group piece, the mazurka.
‘Honestly, being too kind-hearted is a problem too.’
Surely, the young lords must have swarmed around Titania to request a dance. And the reason they asked her was not because they truly wanted to dance with Titania, but because their parents had pushed them into it.
Titania, having realized that, must have had no choice but to change it to the mazurka, where she would dance with everyone. If they danced to a mazurka, she could dance with as many young lords as possible.
‘I was sure I had filtered and filtered them, inviting only decent people...’
As expected, does wearing a mask make one’s true intentions spring out?
Seeing Titania saddened by the ugly greed of adults made me feel truly displeased. Just as I was thinking that after the ball ended, perhaps I should summon all the adults and make them smash their heads into the floor—
“E-excuse me...”
A young lady wearing fairy wings, a green dress, and a green mask. A young lady who appeared to be around Titania’s age held out one hand to me, her face flushed.
“I-if you do not mind, could you please ask me to be your dance partner...?”
“.....”
This was troublesome right from the start...
Usually, most dances were requested by young lords to young ladies. They would say a dance invitation line, something like, “Lady So-and-so, would you grant me the honor of sharing your first dance?” and the young lady would accept it.
That was why the young lady had asked me, “Could you ask me to be your dance partner?” In cases where a young lady asked in reverse, she was braving her embarrassment to make the request, so I did not want to refuse.
The problem was... I could not speak right now.
I could not say an invitation line to the young lady. In any case, to dance the mazurka, I needed a partner, and I was truly grateful that the young lady had braved her embarrassment to ask me in reverse, but...
When I gave no answer, the young lady’s face began turning redder and redder, enough to be noticeable even with her mask on. Perhaps thinking I had rejected her, she was just about to withdraw the hand she had extended to me—
I took the young lady’s hand, lifted my mask slightly, and pressed a small kiss to the back of the hand she had offered. Simply nodding would have seemed too impolite, and this was the method I had thought up to accept a dance without words. Though I had seen it in a romance webtoon long ago...
Fortunately, it seemed my meaning got across, and the young lady nodded as well.
“I-I see... So your concept is a silent, cold-blooded knight... Certainly, cold-blooded gong and affectionate shou are popular among young ladies these days... You really researched the kind of concept young ladies like, didn’t you?”
Wh-what? Cold-blooded gong? Affectionate shou? What is that...?
Leaving behind the young lady who was saying things I could not understand, I quietly nodded for now. Then, growing even more excited, the young lady continued rattling off more things I did not understand. After listening for a bit, it seemed to be about the romance novels Titania liked.
‘Does Titania talk about things like this with Viola too...?’
As a parent, I wondered if I ought to know a little about what my child liked, so I tried to understand the incomprehensible things the young lady was saying, but it was no use.
Truly, there was not a single word I could understand. It was like listening to a foreign language. As I stood there blankly listening to unknown terms like obsessive gong and whatever else, at last, the music began.
Holding the young lady’s hand, I went out onto the dance floor, and I saw Titania far in the distance. Titania began dancing while holding the hand of a young lord dressed as a pirate. Even from afar, that poor sense of rhythm of hers remained unchanged.
“Ahh... A cold-blooded gong who remains uninterested in his partner until the very end... You’re the real thing!”
I don’t know what exactly is real, but thank you for the compliment, young lady.
After exchanging greetings with the young lady at the proper timing, I took the hand of my next partner. Then the next partner, and the next partner after that. The distance between me and Titania, which had grown far, gradually narrowed, and then—
I was able to take the hand of Titania, whose lips were sticking out ever so slightly in a pout. She seemed to be trying to manage her expression in front of others, but she could not fool my eyes. Not even the crumpled forehead beyond her mask.
That aside, it really had been a long time since I danced with Titania, but...
‘She’s still so awful with her body and rhythm... I thought she would get better with time...’
Originally, I had not intended to tell Titania my identity. Otherwise, I would not be able to keep watch. But did she truly intend to dance? She kept missing the beat. Her body moved stiffly and awkwardly.
Originally, in a mazurka, matching everyone’s rhythm was important enough that, when viewed from above, it created the illusion of a splendid flower blooming.
But as though she had no intention of doing that, Titania continued dancing halfheartedly with a sullen expression. Since my daughter was showing such a sight in front of everyone, how could I not say something?
“Haa... You are still terrible at dancing. Just when will your poor sense of rhythm be fixed? What are you going to do if you still move so awkwardly even in this simple dance?”
“Huh? Huh? M-Mother..?”
When I spoke to her, Titania’s eyes widened in surprise. Seeing that expression, I laughed without realizing it. See, who told you to ignore my advice? Truly, I wonder who you take after... My foolish daughter.
“So? How is the masquerade? It is not as fun as you thought, is it? You want to go home right away, don’t you?”
“Mother...”