Chapter 112: DROPPING BOMBS CASUALLY

Chapter 112: DROPPING BOMBS CASUALLYAfter breakfast, Aristia headed to the drawing room for her history class with Viscountess Vasily Hemsworth, still in her training clothes.


Adeline opened the door to the drawing room and Aristia stepped in, waving goodbye at Alaric.

Viscountess Vasily had already arrived.

Vasily had a shawl on her shoulders because of the cold weather, especially since it was still early in the morning.

She had a cup of tea in front of her. Hot steam could be seen rising from the teacup. She smiled when she saw Aristia enter.

Adeline served tea to Aristia, then she bowed and left the drawing room.

Aristia and Vasily no longer exchanged greetings according to noble etiquette, instead...

"How are you today, Princess?" Vasily inquired, as usual, looking up from her cup of tea.

When the steam cleared, she got a clear view of Aristia.

"Ah! Oh." Her cup of tea almost slipped from her fingers, but she caught herself in time, managing to hold her balance and prevent the hot tea from spilling.

"Phew." She sighed in relief. What a disaster it would be if the tea spilled, especially on her body or on the body of the princess.



After patting her chest, she looked up at Aristia.

"P-princess Aristia, what are you wearing?" She asked, perplexed.

Aristia silently watched her reaction, both amused and unamused.

[Must you have such an exaggerated reaction?] She rolled her eyes.

"I’m wearing clothes, Viscountess."

Vasily passed her a plain look of pointed disbelief. Of course she knew what she was wearing. She had eyes to see that. What she wanted to know was...

"Why are you putting on male clothes?"

"These aren’t ’male clothes’." Aristia said, "These are stylish female clothes. Can’t you see how well it fits? How fashionable it is?" She asked, getting up and turning around slowly with her hands spread out for Vasily to see.

If Vasily wasn’t so stunned, she would have been amused at the little princess’s action.

Vasily was at a loss for words at Aristia’s words because now that she paid attention, she noticed the clothes were indeed a bit different from male clothes.

And the princess wasn’t wrong; those clothes were fashionable.

However...

"These clothes still are similar to make clothes even though you say they aren’t. It’s not made for us females."

"But I’m telling you it’s female clothes," Aristia insisted stubbornly. "I designed them myself."

Hearing that, the words Vasily wanted to say got stuck in her throat and disappeared from her mind. She couldn’t even remember what she wanted to say.

"Y-you designed them?" She finally asked, flabbergasted.

"I did. Along with the clothes we wore for the banquets on the Kingdom’s anniversary."

Hearing that, Vasily’s jaw dropped. She remembered the dresses Aristia and the princesses had worn to the banquet that were designed in a way she hadn’t seen before.

With the amount of time she had spent with Aristia, she knew Aristia wouldn’t lie just to receive praise or recognition.

That meant...

She was serious!

She looked back at Aristia, only to see a smirk forming on the latter’s face. Aristia knew she had come to the realization.

"I designed these clothes too," Aristia said again, gesturing at the training clothes. She continued, "to have better and unrestricted movement."

’Unrestricted movement?’ Vasily was confused.

"...for my sword training class with Captain Hugh Lancelot." Aristia explained.

At her words, the teacup fell from Vasily’s hand, falling on the floor and spilling. It shattered almost immediately. Luckily, the forgotten tea it previously contained had long turned cold, so it didn’t scald anyone.

Aristia gazed at the cup with sympathy. "It was a fate it couldn’t avoid." She muttered.

She looked up at Vasily. The latter had her eyes wide open, befuddled.

"You don’t believe me?" She asked with a raised brow.

Vasily ran her gaze over her. There was nothing to make her not believe it. Aristia acted and thought differently from other girls. It was not something she couldn’t do.

It was like she didn’t belong here. As if her brain was made differently.

Thinking of that, Vasily shook her head.

"I believe you. But why would you take sword training classes?"

And Aristia explained her reasons.

Vasily could only nod plainly. That meant the Grand Duke and Duchess were aware and had allowed it?

"I’m getting clothes made for my mother and myself." Aristia said.

"... Is her Highness also taking sword training classes?" Vasily asked, dreading the answer.

"No."

Vasily sighed in relief when she heard that. Then she paused.

But before she could ask what the clothes were for, Aristia opened her mouth.

"It’s for staying at home."

Vasily felt she would faint.



"Why?"

"Like I said, the dresses are too restrictive. These clothes are not only fashionable, but also comfortable." Aristia said. She was referring to the short and trousers she was putting on.

She looked at Vasily with a small scowl.

"Imagine wearing dresses all the time. How horrible."

Vasily chuckled a bit, but then her gaze at Aristia turned pointed.

"Don’t you wear dresses all the time? That has been our clothing since times past and you’ve not worn anything else, have you?"

[Uh-oh.] Aristia realized her slip up. She had spoken of dresses as if she hadn’t worn it her whole life— well, original Aristia— when it should have been the only thing she had worn before making these female version of ’male clothes’.

She looked up at Vasily, not changing her expression. "Of course, that’s what I meant. Wearing these uncomfortable dresses everyday for my whole life is horrible. I need change. Change!" She said dramatically.

Vasily chuckled.

Aristia leaned forward conspiratorially. "Trust me, these clothes are very comfortable," she said in a low compelling voice, drawing Vasily in. "And they’re not heavy. Also, they don’t require much help to put them on."

Vasily had to admit; she was tempted. But, she was still a bit hesitant.

Aristia hid her smirk. Vasily needed just a little push.

"The clothes for I and my mother are arriving in two weeks, but..." She trailed off, causing Vasily to become curious. She continued "...yours is coming in too."

Vasily choked. "Pardon?!"

Aristia nodded slowly. She had gotten an extra made for Vasily. It wasn’t so hard; she could determine Vasily’s size just by looking at her. She just had to tell Madam Grace the measurement.

"You’ll also receive yours then." In two weeks, it would be January of the next year.

Vasily was surprised to hear that Aristia had also gotten clothes made for her.

She cleared her throat. "You didn’t have to, but since you’re already getting it made, then I can’t refuse."

Since Aristia was kind enough to go through the trouble, she couldn’t refuse and let her well meant efforts go to waste.

"I’m glad to hear that!" Aristia beamed. Convincing Vasily was easier than she thought. She smirked. She was enjoying this; casually dropping bombs at Vasily.

Vasily glanced at Aristia’s clothes again. They really looked good. She couldn’t help thinking.

Unknown to herself, she was already anticipating when the dresses would arrive.

She realized that a lot of time had gone by, but she didn’t feel like beginning the lesson and she could tell that so did Aristia.

So instead, she talked about something else she liked to talk about with Aristia.

"The Vanilla Courtyard truly makes very delicious food. That young man didn’t lie at all." Vasily said.

Even after going there for a little close to two months, she still couldn’t stop thinking about the taste of the food.

Just this morning, she had had breakfast at the restaurant. She was also a frequent diner there. Almost all the aristocrats were.

Aristia hid her smirk behind her teacup.

Her business had been booming since it opened a month ago. She was now very wealthy. With the high price she had set for the nobles, she was making a lot of profit. She had long paid her father the money she had borrowed from him.

The Vanilla Courtyard had become the trending topic for the whole of the last month, both by commoners and aristocrats alike.

This had become a routine to her and Vasily; talking about topics unrelated to the lessons they had together.

Whenever they had the class, which was every weekday, she and Vasily would talk about other topics for the first hour. They had become closer.

She also found out that;

Viscountess Vasily Hemsworth loved gossip.

She knew about most of the gossip in high society, even before others got wind of it.

Aristia didn’t know how she did it. But she wasn’t complaining as she could also get useful information from her.

Aristia nodded with a smile and replied Vasily’s earlier words. "He didn’t."

"But I am quite curious about the other parts of the building. We weren’t taken there." Vasily said in thought.

They had only seen the ground and first floor. Nothing had been said about the other floors. They had just been left hanging.

Vasily itched to know the answer and she wished she could find out. None of her sources knew anything either.

Aristia kept silent.

"Oh, and he invited you to cut the ribbon." Vasily said, eyes shining with curiousity.



Aristia raised a brow. [You only remembered this now?]

Vasily had met Aristia after the restaurant’s opening the past month and the whole of this month, but it had only come to her mind now because on other times, she was too focused on talking about the food.

Aristia shrugged with a smirk and leaned forward on the desk like she wanted to share a secret.

Seeing this, Vasily also leaned forward with anticipation.

"I... am a Princess. The child with the highest rank present then. That man would have heard of my family’s presence and decided that I should cut the ribbon." She whispered.

"Oh..." Vasily raised her eyebrows. That made sense.

Aristia straightened up slowly. "Also, who else would be more eligible to open up the restaurant officially if not... its rightful owner?"

"You are right." Vasily nodded thoughtfully in agreement and moved to take out her lesson book.

The book slipped from her hands.

She only fully grasped what Aristia said now.

"Y-you...!" She looked at Aristia in shock.

"Hello. I’m AE." Aristia smiled formally.