The next day . Lilia opened her eyes after being awoken by Alisa . To Alisa who greeted her with a `good morning` while lowering her head, Lilia also plastered a smile on her face .
“Yeah . Morning, Alisa . What a nice day . ”
“Yes . The weather is absolutely wonderful today . Will you be having breakfast in here?”
At Alisa’s prompt, Lilia thought for a bit . Perhaps her brain wasn’t spinning properly due to not having fully woken up yet, but for now, she felt that she wanted to avoid the dining hall .
“Very well . Can I leave it to you?”
“Understood . ”
With a respectful bow, she departed from the bedroom, and seeing off Alisa’s back with her eyes, Lilia took a small sigh .
—Morning, Lilia . It’s the first day of school, huh! Looking forward to it aren’t ya!
—Morning . I’d appreciate it if you didn’t remind me, actually .
Honestly, even now, just thinking about school made her melancholic . However, this was the one thing she couldn’t run away from . All the more since she already spent the last day avoiding it . Letting out another small sigh, Lilia slipped out of bed .
She opened the closet in the corner of the room . Five sets of the school regulation uniform were prepared there, all perfectly in Lilia’s size . From those, Lilia grabbed a set and nimbly changed into it . Then, giving the appearance of being in thought, she promptly stood in front of a mirror .
—Really… Is it fine just like this? What about make-up?
—If it’s you, then there’s no need . You’re already super cute just like that, you know? If anything, the heavy cosmetics you’ve used up until now just made things feel worse .
—Is… Is that so…
Lilia staggered all the way to the bed, before sitting down, perplexed . To Sakura, who had asked what was wrong,
—It’s nothing… Just that I’m a little wounded from that .
Perhaps not understanding, Sakura gave off a puzzled impression, and without saying anything, Lilia let out a heavy sigh .
Sakura’s advice that her make-up was no good actually came right as she arrived . When heading to the school, just in case, she had put on her usual make-up before getting on the carriage . Thus, the words Sakura had told her right when she was preparing to retire for the night stung her heart even now .
—Lilia . That make-up is unpleasant . It’s gross . It’d be better if you stopped doing it from tomorrow onwards .
Nobody at all had let her know before . That was why she had thought that it was fine like that . At some point, she had started to imitate her mother and put on make-up by herself, but had the people around her been thinking the same thing this whole time?
That said though, Sakura was still Sakura . It would have been great if she had let her know back at the estate . But for some reason or other, rather than doing that, why was she telling her right before she headed to bed the night before . It was like she was procrastinating until the last minute out of spite .
There was a knock on the door . Following that, Alisa revealed her face .
“Mistress Lilia, I’ve come with your breakfast . Have you finished your preparations?”
“Yes… I’m going now . ”
When Alisa saw Lilia, who had exited from the room, her eyes went wide . When she tilted her head to the side at Arisa, who was staring fixedly at Lilia, Alisa flusteredly lowered her head .
“Please excuse me . Because that was somewhat unexpected…”
“What was?”
“I see that today you will be going without make-up . ”
Lilia’s face froze over . She asked Alisa, who was tilting her head to the side .
“Alisa . I’d like you to answer truthfully here, but . ”
“Yes?”
“The make-up I’ve always done until now… how was it?”
This time it was Alisa who froze over . She seemed to be trying to say something, but kept shutting her mouth every time she opened it to speak . With just that, Lilia could already guess at Alisa’s feelings . Whether to answer truthfully and abide by Lilia’s command or to try and save face for her master, she was certainly lost for a decision . However, the fact that she was having trouble responding already made the answer here quite clear .
“It is fine . Thank you . ”
“Ah… Um, my deepest apologies . ”
“I said it’s fine . Alisa, I wish to change . If there is anything, please properly let me know . ”
Alisa replied with a ‘certainly’ and bowed . Nodding in satisfaction, Lilia went to the seat where breakfast was prepared .
This was something that she only heard afterward, but Lilia’s back looked terribly small .
Having finished with breakfast, Lilia left her room to head towards the school building and descended down the stairs . Perhaps not aware of Lilia’s return, every single student passing by showed great surprise at seeing her . Lilia showed everyone who met her eyes a smile .
Before, she would only scowl at anyone she saw . She was actually intending the same as usual today as well, but she was stopped by Sakura .
—Lilia . Get Along .
Since it couldn’t be helped, she followed Sakura’s instructions and plastered the forced smile that she was confident had improved drastically over this week . According to Sakura, it was a smile that still had a ways to go, but everyone on the receiving end had their faces redden, looking away .
—We should hurry to class . We might end up running into that girl .
—I dunno, I think it’s pointless though . From what I know of that girl and her personality… Well whatever . We’ll see when we go .
Lilia frowned dubiously at Sakura’s words . Then, she quickly came to understand the meaning of what was said .
“Mistress Lilia . It’s Mistress Tina . ”
As soon as she descended to the first floor, Alisa, who was walking in front, informed her of this arrival . She raised her face with a ‘huh?’ Perhaps due to the early hour, the entrance was still mostly devoid of people . And so, she quickly noticed .
At one of the tables arranged at the entrance was Tina . On the table, three cups were prepared . Perhaps she was talking to someone, or rather… Overcome with the feeling of a dreadful premonition, she was seriously wondering if she should go back or not . However, she definitely couldn’t ignore her here, either . After all, Alisa was continuously staring as if expecting something .
—Your friend’s here .
—Ugh…!
It was as if Sakura’s words were completely voicing Alisa’s thoughts on her behalf . With no other choice, Lilia approached Tina and placed a hand on her shoulder .