Chapter Text
“... so?”
The transmigrator blinked in confusion at the contextless prodding.
“Hm?” Rok Soo peered down at Cale, curiously. Hoping that the little redhead would elaborate.
“What’s your real name?” The kid deadpanned.
“... what makes you think I’m using a fake name?”
The level of judgmentalness contained within Cale’s answer did hurt a little:
“This cover story is way too intricate for you to screw it up by using your birth name.” He elaborated, matter-of-factly.
Well, that assumption was on point.
“So?” Pressed Cale.
“... Kim Rok Soo.” Immediately reminded of the cultural differences between their worlds, the dragon added: “the place where I was born uses a reverse order for names, so the last name comes first.”
Cale hummed. Although it was the first time he heard a name like that, he didn’t think it was strange. Rather, his first thought was—
“Mom misspelled it, didn’t she?”
“Cough, cough!”
Kim Rok Soo almost laughs.
Of all the things he would have expected, Jour slander didn’t even make it to the list.
“... something like that.” She was still Cale’s mother, though, so the dragon tried to save her some face in front of her son.
Jour had, in fact, misspelled his name as a child. In her defense, she was too young and even the simplest words got accidentally butchered by her back then.
It was a helpful mistake, even. As ‘Ross’ was a western name as well, Rok Soo didn’t have to waste time thinking of aliases. Thus, ‘Ross Thames’ was born.
“Ah, mother is here.” He observed, their focus quickly switching back to the gathering.
As if on cue, the footman stationed outside the room knocked twice on the door. Naturally, this was a premeditated action intended to gather the attention of all the ladies and madams in attendance.
Originally, there’s no place in the Henituse Estate that Irin didn’t have access to.
「Madame, your special guest is here!」
「... well?」Jour asked, adding some strain to her voice for theatrical purposes.「Let her in.」
Irin didn’t have to put on pretenses, for she was magnificent by nature. Her natural gait was more elegant than any noble’s.
「I didn’t think you would come.」 Jour easily lied in front of her guests.
「And yet you saved me a seat.」His mother calmly observed.
「... haha, you got me!」
In the ensuing quietness, Irin’s footsteps echoed across the room. She didn’t waste her breath by introducing herself, nor did she acknowledge anyone aside from Jour.
Cale didn’t give her any other guidelines beyond ‘do whatever you want, as always!’ and her usual self wouldn’t bother with people that didn’t catch her attention.
The favor the little rubellite requested was simple: please be my model.
In other words, all Irin needed to do was to show up all dolled up, tone down the dragon fear a little, and everything would naturally fall into place.
A dragon’s beauty was no joke. If she put on a potato sack and then threw it at someone’s face, that person would cry tears of joy, clinging to it while declaring it a family heirloom.
But if the garment in question was already beautiful? The effect would be increased a thousandfold.
Hearing the soft gasps starting to break in the background, Cale nodded, knowing his plan was working as expected.
“As expected, everyone is mesmerized by my mother.” Observed Rok Soo, his expression was indifferent yet the smugness lacing his tone was unmistakable. He resembled a proud cat.
“What a curious thing to say, hyung.”
Shrugging, the dragon added:
“It is normal for a child to see their mother as the most beautiful woman in the world.”
Cale couldn’t disagree.
“Though, in my case, I’m merely stating a fact.”
... Cale couldn’t disagree.
「Everyone, allow me to introduce you to my sister-in-law, Irin.」 Jour snapped the dazzled invitees back to their senses.
The madams and ladies’ looked eager and full of questions, their eyes glued to the polymorphed ancient dragon, yet no one dared to speak.
It was lady Aster who took the lead and, smiling beautifully, asked:
「How shall we address you this afternoon, madame?」
Irin spoke for the first time:
「... I’m staying as Countess Henituse’s sister and Cale Henituse’s aunt, so I hope you treat me as such.」
“Hmm.” Kim Rok Soo hummed in thought.
“... I didn’t imagine it, right?”
The Hessonite and Aster families were both marquis rank, yet neither of the women hailing from those houses were common.
The Hessonite had too much sway in the eastern continent, and Lady Aster did not have a simple background either. This made figuring out the hierarchy between them a total hassle.
That’s probably how it looked for the other guests.
However—
“That lady asked auntie pointblank which name she’s going by.” Cale answered his own question with a snicker.
As expected, his mother’s pick didn’t disappoint.
“Mn.” Rok Soo wordlessly agreed. “Mother has never gone out in public as a Hessonite, so it is unlikely for Lady Aster to know something, but her instinct seems pretty sharp…”
He felt the child’s gaze and waited for the question, but it never came.
‘What? Now you’re shy?’ The red dragon chuckled, thinking that it didn’t suit this little punk in the slightest.
— Iridiana.
“... huh?”
Cale’s head snapped towards his cousin.
Kim Rok Soo didn’t look at him, his eyes fixed on the communication orb, but his voice kept flowing in his mind:
— Mother has beautiful, iridescent scales, which is unheard of among dragons. Her birth name reflects that.
There was a beat of silence.
“... Mommy also misspelled it, didn’t she?”
This time, Kim Rok Soo did, in fact, burst out laughing.
The atmosphere was somewhat warmed up by Jour’s inherent talent for saying whatever she wanted and moving on. Lady Aster, who also made a notable contribution along with Baroness Chetter, Countess Wheelsman and Viscountess Ubarr, brought the other guests back to their senses and the chatter began anew.
They talked about this and that for a while, but their eyes kept sneaking glances towards Irin’s direction— Rok Soo could tell his mother was infinitely bored given how expressionless she was, yet her stoic face gave off an air of sophistication.
「... Madame Thames.」
Irin lazily glanced towards the guest who called out to her.
「What is it?」
Finally, the subject Cale was waiting for came up:
「Y-your dress is really beautiful!」
The other women all jumped at the opportunity to add in a word.
「That’s right! I wanted to compliment it before, but I was shy.」
「Me too!」
The ancient dragon stared blankly at their babbling group, probably saw a bunch of rambunctious little chicks instead of functional human beings, and decided it was worth humoring them.
「... my rubellite chose it for me.」
A whole line.
“Huh, mother was unexpectedly generous.”
「Yes…?」
Just when the ladies on the younger side were getting flustered—
「Right!」
Jour intervened at the right time, drawing everyone’s attention back to her.
「You probably heard the rumors about my son looking for a tailor. Well, my son’s favorite made the dress that Irin is currently wearing.」
「Was the countess’ dress also designed by them?」
「Oh, no! Mine was made by a different tailor, though it was also picked by my cutie; this is just a personal design, though, because I like this kind of out-of-style fashion. Irin’s dress is the real deal, though!」
Leaning slightly forward, Jour built the atmosphere.
「See—」
And then, with skills that a shut-in like her shouldn’t have, her words made their way into the attendees’ ears as if they were the devil’s whispers.
「Cale’s favorite will be opening an Atelier soon. Since our family sponsors her, she gifted us a piece of her upcoming limited spring collection as a gesture of gratitude. Unfortunately, it is not my style; however, thankfully, my sister in law can wear anything so it has found a suitable owner.」
「Limited edition…?」
「Mn. I’m not privy to all the details, as I’m not directly involved, but I believe that Lady Thatcher plans to release five or so dresses for this first series— ah, no, my bad. I suppose that it will be only four, as the first dress already has an owner.」
Far from ruining the mood, the excitement only grew after the redhead finished speaking.
「Oh, my!」
This was, of course, deliberated.
The fewer the dresses, the more exclusive the collection would feel. If something struck a noble’s ego, that was thinking that they were special in some way.
Thus, they would be eager for the launch than before.
「Is there any estimate for the release date?!」
Cale’s plan was a success.
“Viscountess, this way.”
“... yes.”
As the guests filed out of the Henituse Castle, Popelina was approached by the head butler and told the Countess would like to have a word with her in private.
Understanding that they would be talking about business, she followed mister Ron towards the Drawing Room.
“The Madame will meet you shortly, please let the footman know if you need anything in the meantime. I will bring you some refreshments.” With that, the butler bowed and left, leaving her alone with her thoughts.
Truth be told, Popelina hadn’t expected to receive an invitation to the Henituse Estate.
Although their families were allies, she was not as close to Jour Henituse. Not that that was strange.
Jour Henituse had something that attracted people, but she was a very mysterious woman who didn’t let others get too close to her— personally, Popelina thought that the countess was simply someone very private.
There was nothing wrong with that.
Viscountess Ubarr was also not a very social person— rather than unfriendly, Popelina had more important things to worry about than tea parties and gossip, so she only attended gatherings that she saw as opportunities.
Her family had enough money to avoid becoming a laughing stock in society, but if it were not for the support of the Wheelsman, many of the projects in her territory would not have been carried out.
She was both grateful and embarrassed by it. She was grateful for their help, yet ashamed that she couldn’t help her own people with her own strength, but kept taking their hand because nothing good would come from being stubborn or prideful.
“Sorry for the delay, some of the ladies had quite a few questions.”
Countess Henituse apologized as she entered the room.
“I understand.” Popelina rushed to greet her, but was told to stay comfortable in her seat. Clasping her hands over her lap, she said: “thank you for making time for me in your schedule, countess.”
“I could say the same about the viscountess.” Jour replied, sitting down as well. “Well then, let’s get down to business. My son will be happy once he hears that the Ubarr territory has agreed to supply us with some of their pearls.”
“Countess,” her guest began, cautiously, “before proceeding, may I ask something?”
Curious eyes fell on her.
“You may.”
“The dress we saw today,” Popelina was aware of how absurd it would sound to others, however— “Is young master Cale the one behind this business venture?”
Otherwise, it didn’t make sense for the Henituse to meddle this much. If Madame Jour wasn’t directly involved, that only left two possible options: this business was led by either lady Hessonite, or the young master Cale himself.
As the request for pearls came from the latter, she was inclined to believe that he was the mastermind behind it.
Call her crazy, but Popelina’s instincts had never been wrong before.
“—haha!” Whatever she expected, Madame Henituse bursting out in laughter was not within the cards. “Viscountess, I quite like you.”
“...”
“Well, to answer your question—” Jour smiled, mischievously, “my son has quite the eye for new markets, you see. No one saw this coming when my sister gave him a diamond mine.”
What?
“Would you believe this all started because he was dissatisfied with his grades?” She chuckled at the end of her own question.
… the Viscountess was left speechless.
“Now then,” the redhead cheerfully continued, “let’s get down to business, shall we?”
In the meantime—
As Jour met with the Viscountess Ubarr, Cale had his own guest to attend.
Kim Rok Soo walked leisurely behind the noble child. Although he didn’t know what Cale’s aim was this time, he did promise to see this little punk’s mayhem through.
That said, the dragon wasn’t surprised that Cale made his move as soon as the gathering was over.
See, when they were keeping an eye on the invitees, Kim Rok Soo at one moment said the following:
— Mother seems interested in that one.
He dropped it in a seemingly casual fashion, but Cale understood the meaning perfectly.
Irin had an eye to discern talent, she didn't show interest without a reason.
Cale, Hans and now this person.
Selena Aster, Jour’s pick. Former First Princess of the Kingdom of Roan.