Second Arc: Seventeenth Chapter

"Madam Zamus has arrived."

"Show her in, please."

One early afternoon, as I was enjoying a cup of tea, Sissi came to announce Madam Zamus's visit. Gazing idly out the window, I drained the last of the tea in my cup.

Knock-knock-knock! Bang!

No sooner had I set the cup on its saucer than there came a furious knocking at the door. Before I could even answer, it flew open.

"Milady, it is Zamus — zamasu!"

"Good day, Madam Zamus. Thank you for coming all this way."

At the Founding Festival, there would be a tea party, and Madam Zamus had taken personal charge of my tea-party dress as well. Truly, something to be grateful for. Mm. But somehow I couldn't be simply glad of it. Madam Zamus is a bit overbear— …no, never mind.

While I was still spacing out, she had briskly spread the dress out. This time I'd left everything entirely to her, so I was seeing it for the first time myself, too.

"This dress uses the very latest fabric — pink thread for the warp, silver for the weft, zamasu. The design takes its inspiration from the flowers of autumn, zamasu."

"This is… wonderful!"

The dress, once Sissi had helped me into it, clung to my body like a second skin. …Though it did feel a touch too slim.

"…I don't think I'll be able to eat much."

And the sweets served at the tea party had been what I was looking forward to most. The corset, cinched to its absolute limit, was locked in a razor-thin battle with the flesh of my belly. For now the corset — which Sissi had gone red in the face tightening — held the upper hand, but I rather thought any sweet would be shoved right back out of my mouth the instant it reached my stomach. Full of sorrow, I murmured: pear tart…

The latest fabric Madam Zamus recommended really was magnificent. Pale pink and silver mingled together, throwing off a strange play of color with every sway. The skirt — modeled on the cosmos flower, most likely — looked delicate, and for all its volume it moved light and soft, flowing as it swayed.

"Milady! So delicate — like a fairy! …So long as you don't speak."

"Thank you, Sissi. But your inner voice is leaking out all over the place."

Sissi praised me as if genuinely moved. Madam Zamus looked satisfied too.

"Splendid, zamasu. Until the party, do not let your figure change by so much as a millimeter, zamasu."

"Down to the millimeter?!"

A shocking truth, delivered plainly. Was this my punishment for reducing the last dress to tatters?

"Tart…"

"No, zamasu."

"Cake…"

"No, zamasu."

"Juice…"

"No, zamasu."

"Seriously?!"

Oh no. The shock had gotten to my manner of speaking. Oh-ho-ho, do forgive me.

"…A joke, zamasu."

Your face is far too straight for that to sound like one, though.

"That reminds me — I hear you designed a pair of riding boots, zamasu?"

"Hm? Ah, yes, I did. I thought it would be nice if more women took up riding."

"…And for riding, one needs a lovely riding dress, zamasu."

As I blinked at the sudden change of subject, Madam Zamus's eyes gave a glint.