There have been many loud door knocks in the past twenty four hours. But this time, I’m not the one calling for the person, whoever they are, to enter.

“Come in!”

The door creaks, though I cannot see it. Instead, dividing me and the rest of the large room is a finely woven screen that can be divided into about five folded parts. It’s amazing how expensive and high quality nobles want everything to be, be it their beds to the folding sheet that shields you when you are changing. The silhouette of Lariette, the maid who I’ve recently discovered the name of, is hardly visible from the other side of the screen, but she bows quietly. The dense click of footsteps weigh onto the polished wood flooring, before being considerably muffled by the—equally—expensive carpet.

“How is it going, so far?”

“I would also like to ask that question, Your Highness,” I respond stiffly. In the span of about forty minutes, perhaps fifty, I’ve been rushed to a room I’ve never heard of and have met a very enthusiastic young woman who appeared to be in her mid to late twenties. At first she looked at me and my clothes, the temple dress and boots I had been wearing since yesterday, with great almost offended pity before rushing like a storm and transforming the room instantaneously. Proceeding, a handful of maids had been called in with some carefully handling bundles of cloth and fabric which I now know are dresses.

And for the past thirty or so minutes since then, I had been stripped and dressed multiple times by a total of three maids interchangeably with the strange woman simply watching with a variety of expressions. 

“Frankly, you had about twelve, give or take an additional two or three more hours, to tell me all about this beforehand,” I chastise as a maid fastens clips up my back. My hair has been tied up and maintained into a rather large messy bun with a giant clip as it kept getting in the way. That was the only thing I could process as the minutes ticked by. 

The crown prince from beyond the screen offers a quiet and albeit awkward chuckle.

“Sorry about that. I did tell you I had to write a formal letter to the temple. That, as well as arranging a time with Madame Varda to get your ball gown situated on short notice took quite a bit of time.”

“Your Highness, while I did say I needed a dress, that did not mean I’m going to require an entire wardrobe change.” As a separate maid tightened the corset to what I hope was to finish this dress, I continue, “Any spare dress on hand in the palace would have done fine.”

“... Your Holiness, as I am the sole, unmarried, heir to the Ouranos Empire, we do not have any ball gowns befitting a noblewoman of this decade simply lying around. My mother had long passed when I was a child, so any of the keepsakes we own of hers likely wouldn’t be the easiest to repair on short notice.”

“Which makes creating an entire new array of dresses better…?” I question.

“Given that the ball in question is in less than three days time, a new dress is entirely impossible,” the Madame a few feet in front of me answers. She eyes me up and down carefully with a pondering expression with her arms crossed. “As it is extremely short notice, my job today is to find what trending styles and colors suit you best, as well as your measurements to alter a preexisting dress we have in my boutique.”

The woman stares and hums to herself in great thought.

“You may not know of this, Your Holiness, but as this is your first official appearance in public this by all means would be the equivalent to a young girl’s debutante. You have been quite the hot topic as of late, so many eyes will be on you as well.” She meets my gaze with her garnet-like eyes. “This is why, while you are inexperienced in social etiquette, your dress must be just as extraordinary as you are. In high society, appearance is everything.”

I stand uncomfortably with my arms stiffly raised to my side. What nobles think matters little to me. All I wanted was to be presentable enough so that I wouldn’t disrupt anyone, nor draw attention to myself. After all, I just want to find Shivani. But… there’s very little I know about nobles in general. In addition, there’s the possibility that this attempt to find Shivani will fail. If I ruin something the nobles consider valuable, I may destroy my chances to find them again. And if I’m going to draw attention to myself no matter what, I have no choice but to comply. 

“... Continue as you like, then.”

Delight reflects in the woman’s eyes as she claps her hands together.

“Marvelous! Though I would have done so without the Saintess’ permission regardless,” she exclaims. Great. The Madame turns to the notebook she had set aside on a spare stool along with a simple graphite crayon. With a short moment of recollecting her thoughts, she quickly scribbles down more words into a list she had steadily been building since she had arrived.

“Now that we are partly finished, there are a few things I must discuss with Your Highness in regards to Her Holiness’ dressing in the foreseeable future.”