The Maid With a Child - Chapter 45

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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45. An Adjective, Not a Noun
“No, a dress like this cannot be worn more than once. You’ll become a laughingstock.”
“Huh? This, this, this magnificent dress is single-use?”
“At formal events, yes. But at casual gatherings, you can wear it several times. Some ladies have them altered slightly for casual occasions, or keep them as keepsakes and pass them down to the next generation. Wearing something your predecessor wore is actually considered tradition, so that’s perfectly acceptable.”
“So there are separate dresses just for casual gatherings……?”
“Indeed. Even the nobility can’t commission a new dress every single time.”
Dresses came in different varieties depending on their purpose. The world of the aristocracy was vast—vaster than Adlen had imagined.
Adlen’s expression turned vacant as she encountered the rules of this new world, entirely foreign to her.
“For grand events at the Royal Palace or occasions where you’re the main guest, you wear it only once. For small private gatherings or regularly held parties, you can wear it several times. But you cannot wear the same dress more than three times in a single year, and never on consecutive occasions. You also cannot wear the same dress to two different parties hosted by the same house.”
Why was it so complicated……? The rules seemed endless.
High Society was truly not a forgiving place for the nobility.
Stepping into it carelessly, one could be reduced to dust without a trace.
“Does everyone actually follow this?”
“They do. If someone accidentally wears a dress that doesn’t conform to the rules, gossip spreads like wildfire through the whole circle. You’d be utterly unable to show your face.”
“……The world of the nobility is truly formidable…….”
“It’s High Society that’s formidable. That’s precisely why many people choose to keep their distance from it entirely and avoid it altogether.”
The Tailor tried to comfort Adlen in her own way, but it did nothing to ease her mind. Adlen was under a royal command to enter that very circle of High Society.
“How can you look so gloomy in such a beautiful dress! Think of your expression and posture as part of your outfit, and present yourself beautifully.”
The Tailor patted Adlen’s sagging shoulders, smoothing them out.
The dress was already fully on. The assistants had removed the maid’s headband and arranged her hair this way and that.
“Your bare face is too plain—I don’t think it does the dress justice. Let me do some light makeup to get a sense of the overall image.”
“All right…….”
Adlen held her face still as the assistants descended upon it, dabbing and brushing various products. Unused to makeup, her facial muscles twitched involuntarily.
Working as a maid, there was no occasion for makeup. She wore it only rarely when she went out, and even then Adlen had never felt it particularly necessary. Besides, cosmetics were expensive.
Since she didn’t wear makeup every day, any cosmetics she bought would barely be used before they expired. The waste made her reluctant to purchase them at all.
Without cosmetics on hand, she stopped wearing makeup altogether.
Now she couldn’t even remember what her face looked like with makeup on.
“There. Open your eyes.”
Light, they’d said—yet it took quite some time to apply and blend.
Adlen opened her eyes, curious to see what they’d created.
The moment her gaze met the reflection in the mirror before her, she thought it wasn’t a mirror at all. A strange young woman was looking back at her.
Perfectly sculpted brows without a single flaw, eyelashes that fluttered like songbird feathers, eyes with a depth that drew you in, cheeks so fair and translucent you wanted to bite them, with only a gentle blush artfully applied.
She looked like a pretty young woman, fresh as spring fruit.
“Oh…….”
“My, how lovely.”
She’d heard that same compliment countless times over the past few days. But this time, she felt no embarrassment, no self-consciousness. Because it wasn’t a jest.
To be captivated by one’s own reflection was absurd, perhaps, but that was exactly what was happening.
Adlen’s features, at first glance, held nothing particularly striking.
A round face, clear complexion. Most people’s assessment was that she looked innocent and kind.
Even Adlen herself had always thought of her face as unremarkable, plain enough to be pretty with proper care. Nothing more.
Yet her face held such hidden potential. Or perhaps these people possessed god-like powers to create beauty from nothing.
“Is this……me?”
Adlen touched her own cheek tentatively, murmuring to herself.
The face was too unfamiliar to stir any sense of vanity in her.
“If you dressed yourself like this every day, you could make every man in the world weep.”
“Aha ha……. Ha ha.”
Adlen simply laughed at the Tailor’s kind words. She didn’t protest. It seemed entirely possible now.
“Kyaaaagh!”
Just as the compliments seemed poised to continue indefinitely, Baby’s shriek cut the conversation short.
“Oh, again already!”
Baby, who had been set on a stool near the Dressing Room entrance, had vanished.
While Adlen was putting on the dress, Baby had been transfixed by all the glittering things, eyes fixed on the Dressing Room. But the moment Adlen closed her eyes for makeup, Baby was gone.
Adlen sprang out of the Dressing Room.
“Baby! You mustn’t!”
When she couldn’t see Baby, her first instinct was to forbid whatever Baby was about to do.
This was the same Baby who had once climbed the walls and used the Chandelier as a swing. After that incident, the route to the Chandelier had been blocked, but accidents happened in places you never anticipated—that was what made them accidents.
Baby had a knack for causing trouble in spots no adult would ever think to worry about. What would it be this time?
“No……!”
As Adlen swept her head around searching for Baby, she came upon a peculiar scene in the Living Room.
Racalt and Baby were at a standoff.
“?”
Surprisingly, it really was a standoff.
Baby was half-risen, glaring at Racalt with a huff, while Racalt gazed down at him with an expressionless face. Yet his eyes held the same cold intensity as one regarding a rival in combat.
What on earth was happening? Adlen couldn’t make sense of the situation, much less intervene.
“This is my room. Move.”
“Shrieeeeek!”
Good heavens—was Baby actually blocking the master from entering?
But why?
The reason eluded her, but one thing was clear: she had to stop this.
Adlen dashed forward and scooped Baby up in one swift motion.
“Oh, welcome back, sir. I was changing clothes, and the moment I looked away, he disappeared on me.”
“Ah, I see. He was keeping watch quite diligently then.”
“?”
It didn’t seem that way at all, but if the master wished to interpret it so, that was probably for the best.
Adlen forced a smile and carried Baby out, his small body wriggling against her chest.
“My lord, you’ve arrived. I was trying on dresses with her to help her choose.”
The Tailor and her assistants emerged from the Dressing Room and bowed to Racalt.
Racalt acknowledged them with a slight nod and settled onto the sofa.
“Choose?”
His eyes fell upon the two remaining Dresses that hadn’t yet been tried on.
“Yes, sir. We were rather ambitious and ended up making three. Of course, you need only purchase whichever one pleases you most. The others were made at our own insistence—the young lady is simply too lovely.”
Racalt turned his gaze toward Adlen at the Tailor’s words.
Blink.
The moment her full figure came into view, he blinked without thinking.
He was genuinely startled.
This was not the Adlen he knew. And more than that—she was beautiful.
Of course, Adlen had always been beautiful.
When she wore his mother’s Dress before, when she wore the Hair Ornament he’d given her—she had always been beautiful.
But today’s Adlen was something else entirely.
To Racalt, beauty had always been merely a category—like triangular, square, or round.
Yet now, Adlen felt different.
Now, her beauty was not a noun but an adjective.
Impossible to look away from. Glimmering. Dazzling as sunlight. Tantalizing. Warm. Tender.
It was a constellation of sensations that no single word could contain.
Faced with this fresh, shocking feeling for the first time, words abandoned him entirely.
How had he managed to say “beautiful” before?
How had it been so easy?
A word so laden with meaning, so heavy it barely fit upon his lips—how had he spoken it so lightly?

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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