Chapter 365: Busy Days
As expected, not long after, Armand received another invitation letter at home. This time, the invitation was for Rachel. It seemed the old King really wanted to meet all the current political figures and their families after making his public return.
Of course, Armand didn’t want Rachel to appear in public too often. In the future, if something ever forced him to send her away, he wanted her to live as an ordinary child, not be known as “the former adopted daughter of the Captain of the Royal Knights.”
Rachel herself, however, didn’t worry about this at all. She was much more optimistic than Armand.
Unlike him, she didn’t imagine all the ways things could go wrong. She only thought about the ways she could succeed.
Perhaps it was because Rachel had already lived for so long that she had become calmer about many things.
Naturally, she wanted to succeed, so every thought she had was directed toward that goal.
She believed in her own abilities, and she gave herself confidence.
Maybe it was a form of self-hypnosis, but she was a genius alchemist after all.
If she decided to do something, then she had to make it happen.
There were only a few days left before the New Year’s party. Evelia decided to have her dress custom-made. Since Rachel had also received an invitation, she went along with Evelia to the clothing shop they often visited, Anna’s shop.
But to be honest, instead of saying they went to “order” something, it was more like Evelia was just going to pick up a dress from Anna. Even though she hadn’t gone out for a while and hadn’t visited Anna’s shop recently, Anna often made her new dresses. As long as Evelia needed something, she could just pick a few suitable styles from Anna’s collection.
“Hm? Miss Evelia?”
Unexpectedly, the person who came to greet them wasn’t Anna, nor was it Clund, who was usually busy in the shop. It was Anna’s cousin and Armand’s friend, Carle.
“Mr. Carle.”
Even though Evelia was now considered Armand’s fiancée and was technically of similar status to Carle, her years of habit made her give him a polite bow.
“No need to be so formal.”
Carle quickly bowed a little in return until Evelia stood upright again.
“Why is Mr. Carle here? Are you helping out?”
“Sort of. I originally came to buy some new clothes for my wife, but I ran into Anna, who’s very busy right now. I was too slow to leave, and she ended up keeping me here to help.”
Carle smiled as he spoke, then guided Evelia and Rachel to sit on the sofa. Acting as the temporary “shopkeeper,” he poured a cup of hot tea for each of them.
“…Busy?”
Evelia politely accepted the tea and looked around the shop.
She knew Anna’s business had been doing very well lately, but the store was quiet. There were no customers in sight. The only sounds came faintly from the back room, where Anna and Clund were noisily doing their accounting.
“Yes. The orders for this season are fully booked. After all, she’s also a businesswoman. Right now, she’s calculating the materials, time, and final profits. Around New Year, she plans to go home and report her results.”
“I see…”
Perhaps because Anna had never charged Evelia for her dresses, and because Evelia had little concept of money to begin with, she had almost forgotten that Anna was a businesswoman. Only now did she realize that Carle, who was “helping out,” was also a businessman.
At the end of the year, of course they were busy. Just hearing the faint sounds of calculations and bookkeeping from the back room made Evelia feel that Anna must be extremely busy.
“In that case, if everyone is busy, I should leave first…”
“It’s fine. We’re not too busy. Sit here for a while.”
Carle shook his head, took a small sip of tea, and then stood up.
“Anna, Miss Evelia is here.”
Evelia’s status to these two wealthy merchants was basically that of a VIP customer.
Anna really was busy, so busy that she had left her cousin to manage the shop. But as soon as Carle called out toward the back room, the noisy sounds inside suddenly went quiet. The next second, click, the door unlocked from the inside.
“Miss—Evelia—!”
A pale-white figure burst out of the doorway, full of excitement from not seeing her for so long. She skillfully dodged past Carle and Rachel, rushing straight toward Evelia. Right before she reached Evelia, she made a neat, quick stop and gave her a gentle hug that Evelia could accept. She even reached out to affectionately pat the little Rachel on the head, who was staring in surprise.
"I told you that you're suited to be a knight. Look at that stance. it's very impressive."
Seeing Anna’s energy, Carle muttered under his breath in a teasing tone. His words instantly made Anna’s gaze turn sharp as a knife, stabbing straight at him.
“…I didn’t say anything.”
Carle only shrugged, completely unfazed, and turned around to head into Anna’s little back office to sort the account books for her. As soon as he opened the door, they could faintly hear Clund’s voice from inside. ‘Thank goodness you’re here, Mr. Carle!’
“Miss Evelia, have you been doing well these days?”
After a short pause, Anna held Evelia’s hand, her eyes full of concern.
“…I’m doing alright.”
Evelia nodded lightly, not saying much about her life these past days.
Anna, of course, knew about Armand.
She didn’t know as much as Carle did, but from the little bits of information she heard from him when he visited, she could more or less guess the situation.
“I see… As long as you’re alright, that’s good.”
Evelia didn’t say more, and Anna didn’t press her. Showing concern was important, but so was respect.
The wedding dress Anna had prepared for her was still lying in the storage room, waiting for the day she could finally share her happy news.
“So, Miss Evelia, you brought Rachel here because…?”
“Clothes.”
Evelia’s hand rested on Rachel’s shoulder.
“I believe you still have plenty of clothes for me here. Any suitable one will do. This time, we mainly came to make a dress for this child.”
“Oh?”
Anna looked closely at the little girl in front of her. While Rachel hadn’t crafted this body to be as perfectly beautiful as Evelia’s, she still had good taste. This version of Rachel had a face that was cute and pretty for a child.
“This child is going to…?”
“The ballroom.”
Evelia’s golden eyes shifted slightly, a complicated feeling flashing in her heart for a moment.
She worried just like Armand did. She worried that this party carried “ill intentions,” and naturally didn’t want a child like Rachel to attend such an event with unclear purpose.
But… since it was an invitation from the King, it was essentially a royal order. They had no choice but to obey.
Even though they longed for freedom, it seemed that no matter how they struggled, they could never escape the royal family’s control.
“Mr. Armand and I have to bring this child to the royal New Year’s party. Do you think you’ll have time to make something for her?”