Lucia

She had entangled with him countless time but his energy and size was still unmanageable. Lucia lay on his body, completely exhausted. Hugo had positioned her on top of him and enjoyed feeling her warmth all over his body.

His hand swept down to her back thigh, touching her plump behind and stroking the slender curve of her waist. It was a soft tough and at the same time, it was persistent. Lucia couldn’t even move her fingers so she just left his fondling alone.

“The coronation day has been chosen. It’s in about a month.” (Hugo)

“That’s...later than I thought. Does coronation usually have to be extended that long after a national funeral?”

Lucia didn’t remember exactly how it went in her dream. While the situation in the capital suddenly changed with the death of the king, the national funeral and the accession of the new king, her detached palace remained quiet, like it was in another world.

“There are some useless customs.” (Hugo)

It was not virtuous for the new king to unhesitatingly ascend to the throne after the passing of the previous king. The nobility goes through the ceremonial crowning of the king and then formally requests for the new king to ascend the throne.

The new king courteously refuses three times and accepts the fourth time, showing his acceptance of their sincere intentions. After the announcement of the rather obvious statement, the coronation ceremony was held. To Hugo, it was all very useless.

“If it’s in a month, then summer will be almost over. Then, the dress I bought...”

“There will be many occasions to wear it to. The fact that you are in the capital has already begun to spread. Invitations will start coming in soon.”

As his hand gently caressed her back, her eyelids began to grow heavy. She enjoyed listening to his deep reverberating voice.

Lucia blinked her eyes to chase away the sleep.

“What invitation? Aren’t parties not allowed?” (Lucia)

After the king’s death, it was forbidden to hold a party until the new king is crowned.

“Officially, yes, but in the first place, parties are more informal. Even now, parties are held here and there, every day. The tea party ones are almost unrestricted.” (Hugo)

“Tea party...”

“If you don’t want to do external activities until the coronation, you don’t have to.”

“...Is that okay?”

“If you aren’t willing, yes.”

“If I stay at home for an entire month, don’t you think there will be rumors that I caught a deadly disease?” (Lucia)

Hugo gave a low laugh.

“It’ll give you trouble.” (Lucia)

“There is nothing in the world that can trouble me.”

Except you. Hugo added inwardly.

Lucia pondered over it in her mind. In any case, she couldn’t live hiding herself away. Even though being exposed to people’s gazes and attention was burdensome, she wasn’t afraid of it.

Adding her north experience onto her dream experience, she wasn’t a young lady that would tremble helplessly about what to do in her first social debut.

“For the first, it is better to go to a tea party and get a feel for the atmosphere, rather than to a big stage like the coronation.” (Lucia)

Lucia wondered how different a tea party atmosphere in the capital would be from that of the north. In the dream, her main stage was at balls. Because Count Matin urged Lucia to attend balls, it was difficult to attend a tea party in the day and a ball in the night and she was unable to assimilate the two schedules.

A tea party, especially a small tea party that had about 10 or so attendees, expected one to attend regularly if one has attended once. If she got an invitation and didn’t attend a few times, she did not receive another invitation.

So from time to time she would go to event-like tea parties (like Lucia’s garden party) that were thrown occasionally and invited a lot of people. And it was at these occasional tea parties that she was able to witness a party break.

And thanks to that, she was able to address the party break in the north without panicking.

“But still, the dress...” (Lucia)

“No more about that topic. Just as you say, rumors will spread everywhere if it is refunded. Something like the Duke of Taran will soon be bankrupt.”

Pfft. Lucia burst into laughter.

“I heard from the designer that you went all the way to the boutique?” (Lucia)

That was the biggest reason for Lucia giving in to Antoine. Hearing that he went to a place like the boutique that didn’t suit him at all, only to request for a dress for her, made her feel touched.

She was swayed by Antoine continuous remarks of being envious of the Duchess that would grow old with an affectionate husband.

“Why did you do that?”

“Do I need a reason for what I do?”

“If you don’t tell me, I’ll think whatever I like.”

“...Which is?”

“That you did it because you were worried I would disgrace the ducal name with my shabby appearance.”

“No. I don’t care about that sort of thing.”

Hugo realized that her idea of ‘whatever I like’ was definitely not advantageous to him.

“Then what?”

“Does there have to be a reason? I wanted to buy it for you. Can’t that be it?”

Lucia smilingly replied with, ‘It can.’ After a moment, he gave a sigh.

“Sometimes when I talk to you, I feel like I need an interpreter in the middle. What could be the problem?”

“I’m not sure. I don’t feel that way but what could be the problem?”

“...”

He went silent, making a sour face and Lucia giggled.

“Don’t do it too much.” (Lucia)

“What?”

‘Because...I could misunderstand and think that you might like me more than I thought...’

Lucia didn’t reply so maybe he thought that she had fallen asleep because he didn’t say another word. And after a while, Lucia really fell asleep.

***

Just as Hugo said, invitations began to fly in and after a few days, it was a bit of a stretch but, enough invitations to fill a sack poured in.

Lucia had not yet made her official debut in the Capital’s high society. Since an official party could not be held until after the coronation, no matter which party she attended, it was not an official debut.

Her debut would be at the coronation celebration. But this would be the first place to start off her social activities. Lucia carefully looked through the invitations to choose a place. She excluded locations with a lot of people and mainly looked through small tea parties.

She scoured through her memories from the dream, selecting places hosted by people whose name she had heard before. Even then, she was still left with dozens to filter through. Finally, she was helped by Jerome.

The tea party hosted by Countess Jordan was chosen. The Countess was a famous figure in the Capital that liked small scale intimate activities. So, Lucia had never been to the Countess’ tea party in her dream.

“Countess Jordan often arranges small scale activities because she prefers having conversation with people she is close to. The noblewomen around her also prefer quieter activities.”

Jerome simply conveyed the information about the Countess. To put it bluntly, he was saying that it was not a place where the so-called, ‘wild women’ gathered.

“I believe there is no risk for Milady’s first occassion to be one for getting acquainted with noblewomen of the Capital.”

The date of the party was in a week. Lucia sent a letter to the Countess, indicating that she had accepted the invitation.