While Zen and Keel enjoyed their day fishing, Elysia and Mina were having fun picking out dresses. They’d gone to a large store in Alona City’s business district. This particular store did offer rental dresses, though it primarily specialized in high-class clothing that appealed to the many demands of the wealthy.
When they got out of the carriage with Mina escorting Elysia, a female employee was already standing by to greet them and show them inside. They had four whole employees attending Elysia and Mina even though it was just the two of them.
The female employees themselves were dressed in fine attire, and you could sense their good upbringing through their speech and mannerisms.
No matter what kind of customer walked through the door and when, the employees treated them with the same polite courtesy. That was probably thanks to the shopkeeper’s thoughtful policies. When Elysia and Mina told them they hadn’t come for custom-made clothes, only to rent—and even mentioned their limited budget—the employees didn’t look down on them.
If anything, one employee remembered that Mina had paid a visit last year (What a great memory! And how professional too!), and the conversation grew more animated from there. Elysia could relax too because of that. In truth, since Elysia had been raised in the inner palace all her life, there were many things still unusual to her, including this store and employees like these.
At any rate, back when she’d been an imperial princess, it had been impossible for her to visit any shops herself. After coming to Todd Village, It’d become normal to go to the general stores, but even so, the atmosphere of this high-end store was completely different. She thought she’d gotten used to shopping, but this differed so much from what she was used to that she found it incredibly interesting.
“How do you like this dress, young miss? The color accents your hair beautifully.”
“Or would you prefer this one? You have an incredibly noble demeanor, so I think a mature design like this would suit you as well.”
Elysia giggled. “Hee hee. They’re both so pretty. It’s hard to choose.”
“Then how about...”
The employees brought out one rental dress after another from the back and held them up in front of Elysia for her to see in the large full-length mirror. (She wouldn’t try them on since putting on dresses was a difficult affair.)
To be honest, they were all quite cheap compared to the dresses she’d gone through during her days in the imperial palace. These didn’t have a single gem on them, and even if they also used silk, the textures were rough, the sewing work was crude, the embroidery and lace were simple, and the designs lacked artistry.
Even so, Elysia was having fun. She’d had no idea how exciting it was to choose her own dress for herself. She definitely wouldn’t have been allowed to do this as an imperial princess.
Elysia’s grandmother, the empress dowager, was a very kind person. For as long as Elysia could remember, her grandmother doted on her an awful lot and always gave Elysia the best sweets.
Aness would often grumble, “It’s no fair. I want to fawn on you too, Elysia, but I have to harden my heart sometimes to raise you to be a great imperial princess. The empress dowager pushes that thankless role onto me. She gets to always be the fun, smiley grandmother, monopolizing your affection. It’s no fair at all.”
However, looking at her mother’s face, Elysia knew she was just saying these things without meaning them. She could see the deep gratitude Aness felt toward the empress dowager, who treated Elysia kindly.
On the other hand, the grand empress dowager, Elysia’s great-grandmother, was a somewhat difficult person. For as long as Elysia could remember, her great-grandmother had forced an all-too-severe education onto her, and every time Elysia saw her, the woman would scold her over every little thing.
Her great-grandmother wasn’t a bad person. If anything, her feelings toward the empire were the strongest out of anyone’s, so she only gave Elysia these repeated lectures in order to raise her properly as the future empress.
Aness often grumbled, “It’s a little tough dealing with how idealistic she is. Even if I tell her it’s unreasonable to constantly demand a two-year-old straighten her posture, she’ll just keep persisting. She’ll tell me that if a member of the imperial family can’t do that much, then it’s a disgrace to the citizens. Or she’ll say that Heinri could do it at that age. On top of that, her demands always come down to her own personal idea of how things should be. I’m sure she’s simply bad at thinking logically in general.”
Looking at her mother’s face, Elysia could tell these were her true feelings. Considering the complicated hierarchy of the two women’s relationship, these criticisms were the most Aness could voice.
And in actuality, when Elysia showed herself at the parties in the Goldragon Palace, the dresses she wore were all picked out by the senior court ladies to appeal to her great-grandmother’s tastes.
To speak even more frankly, Elysia didn’t really like her great-grandmother. For example, for as long as she could remember, the empress dowager would often read her fairy tales. However, the grand empress dowager strongly opposed it. She’d nagged that if Elysia’s grandmother was going to read to Elysia, it should at least be a piece of classical literature befitting an imperial princess instead of foolish things like fairy tales.
But the empress dowager ignored Elysia’s great-grandmother with a smile and continued to read the fairy tales Elysia begged for. She would secretly boast of her superior way of thinking, saying things like, “For a child of this age, even a fairy tale makes for a good education,” or “If I give you something you can’t understand yet, you’ll only come to dislike studying,” or “I raised Heinri like this, so my methods aren’t wrong.”
Those words had made Elysia’s mother laugh a lot.
And then something happened one day. It’d been when Elysia was six years old. Back then, she’d really wanted a friend.
“Friends” in fairy tales frequently appeared as irreplaceable although common figures. However, they didn’t exist in the inner palace. No matter how many times she asked the court ladies who always took care of her to be her friends, they rejected her with cold faces. “We are your servants, Your Highness. We could never become friends.” They also scolded her sometimes, saying there must be a clear distinction between master and servant. It was unbearably lonely.
One day, a sixteen-year-old court lady who’d newly become her attendant responded in secret. “If you’re okay with me, then by all means, you can have me as your friend.” She happily said it was an honor.
When they were completely alone, they could be close and treat each other casually as friends. Elysia was over the moon that her dreams were coming true.
But that was when something else happened: That court lady was arrested by the Imperial Guards. Her crime had been embezzlement.
It seemed that that court lady had always bragged to her coworkers about how she was special for being Elysia’s favorite, and it was found that the girl would have them give her expensive ornaments and luxury consumables in the inner palace, lying that Elysia had requested them and helping herself instead.
The betrayal greatly shocked Elysia. Then the grand empress dowager rubbed salt in the wound.
“You’ve done something truly foolish, Elysia,” she said. “You neglected to draw a distinct line between master and servant. That’s why this happened.”
She lectured her for hours. “You’re not self-aware enough of the fact that you’re a future empress. What do you mean you ‘want friends’? A ruler has no need for those. If anything, you should understand that it only puts the empire in danger.”
She rebuked Elysia repeatedly, her words bordering on verbal abuse.
Her father defended her, saying, “I also have a friend I could never replace. Although we seldom meet, he is an invaluable source of support to me. His existence is an asset to the empire and is of no danger at all.”
However, the stubborn grand empress dowager wasn’t willing to hear it.
Elysia’s mother embraced her and apologized through tears. “I’m sorry you were born an imperial princess. I’m sorry that you couldn’t have a completely normal, happy life.”
Elysia didn’t bear a grudge toward her mother, but she did toward the grand empress dowager. In her young mind, she greatly detested her. It was also easy to direct her anger over the betrayal of her first friend toward her as well. That was why the uncomfortable dresses Elysia was made to wear to appease the grand empress dowager became symbols of Elysia’s hatred.
Of course, I don’t hate her now, though. After she’d turned fourteen years old, she had started to think her great-grandmother might have had a point. Nevertheless, if she had to say whether she liked her or not, she definitely didn’t.