The Maid With a Child - Chapter 46

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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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46. The Most Important Criterion
The Tailor watched Lacalte’s eyes as they fixed on Adlen, and asked carefully.
“What do you think? This is the first one, after all.”
Lacalte blinked again. His vision flickered—click—and the world that had shimmered with light snapped back into focus.
For a moment, he’d forgotten that the Tailor and Assistants were even there.
“……I see.”
Lacalte offered an ambiguous response rather than a clear judgment.
But the Tailor and Assistants, who had been doing this for years, caught the shift in his eyes at once.
Customers like this came by now and then. The kind who were jumping with excitement inside but showed nothing on the surface. The kind who believed the world would end if they let it show.
“I see. Then allow me to present the second one.”
Having read his reaction to the first dress carefully enough, the Tailor led Adlen back into the Dressing Room.
“I’m not making the master feel burdened by three dresses, am I? He’s not angry because I went ahead without being asked, is he……?”
Of everyone present, only Adlen was worried.
The Tailor shook her head with a confident laugh. “Heh heh heh.”
“What are you saying? Even if it were ten dresses, he wouldn’t feel that way. If anything, he might be upset that there aren’t enough.”
“……What do you mean?”
Adlen was bewildered by the Tailor’s mysterious confidence. But she didn’t get an answer.
The Tailor hummed to herself, saying this sort of thing was only fun if the lady didn’t know about it. Her hands moved faster, energized by her own amusement.
“The second dress. This one emphasizes the shoulder line a bit more, and I’ve arranged the lustrous fabric to flow naturally.”
“Mm.”
This reaction too was muted.
But the Tailor wasn’t troubled. Because the glimmer in his eyes, the time it took for that sound to emerge, the direction his gaze shifted, the way his fingers unconsciously tapped against his knee—all of it was answering for him. That was enough.
And when the third dress was presented,
“Mm. I see.”
That was all of Lacalte’s response.
What in the world did “I see” mean anyway?
Adlen had begun to dread the master’s reaction. She almost wished he would just say it plainly—this doesn’t suit you, take it off—so her mind could rest easier.
“Well then, which of the three will you choose?”
Lacalte stared directly at Adlen. He remained silent for a long moment.
Completely exposed under his gaze, Adlen’s breathing grew shallow.
His stare wrapped around her like rope, coiling tight. He was only looking at the dresses, choosing among them—yet somehow she felt herself standing on a judgment stage, and tension began to creep through her.
“……Mm.”
After looking for so long, Lacalte let out a soft sound.
The Tailor smiled knowingly. She hadn’t been in this business a day or two.
Of course it would be difficult for him to choose. They all looked beautiful.
If they looked this lovely to her own eyes, what must it be for him?
In cases like this, waiting a long time was fine. Watching him struggle not to show it, yet have it show anyway, was simply too entertaining.
“If it’s difficult to choose, shall I have her try each one on again?”
“……Is that allowed?”
“Of course. Ten times, twenty times if you like. As long as the young lady has the stamina for it.”
At the mention of ten or twenty times, Adlen’s face went pale.
So there were harder jobs in this world than playing with a baby. Changing dresses was grueling labor in its own right.
At least she was grateful for one thing: the baby had been so smitten with Adlen’s dress that she didn’t need to entertain her with anything else.
“Aduen! Pretty, pretty……!”
Just then, the baby toddled over to Adlen.
She grasped at the hem of the skirt and toyed with the Jewels hanging from it.
“Do you like the Jewels, little one?”
“Shiny, Aduen! Pretty…….”
“The Jewels are pretty?”
“Aduen pretty!”
The baby had expressed herself with remarkable clarity.
“My goodness.”
The Tailor covered her mouth and laughed. “Heh heh.”
Color rose to Adlen’s cheeks.
The master, who was supposed to be giving his assessment, remained silent…….
“It seems the little one likes this dress best.”
As if to second the Tailor’s words, the baby burrowed into the folds of Adlen’s skirt.
Adlen found the sight so endearing that she laughed even as embarrassment flooded through her.
And then she made her decision solemnly.
“Master, can’t we go with this one?”
“……Why.”
In truth, Lacalte also thought the last dress was the most beautiful.
Only the word itself had gotten stuck in his throat, refusing to cross his lips.
But then that Baby had beaten him to it. He’d been wavering between other choices, rankled at being outmaneuvered.
“I thought if you wore this dress to the party, Baby might conduct himself a bit more decorously……. He does tend to draw attention, after all.”
Keeping the Baby in line at the party was nearly as important to Adlen as ensuring she and Sigeliohn and the Baby maintained their dignity through impeccable appearance.
The Baby making a fuss about balls at the party, the Baby rampaging through the party, the Baby transforming into a wyvern at the party, the Baby hanging from the chandelier at the party…….
The roster of imaginable disasters was plentiful beyond measure.
“That’ll do.”
Lacalte had little choice but to compromise.
After all, it was what he’d been leaning toward anyway. Or so he told himself quite earnestly—that this choice was made for no one’s sake but his own.
“Ah, ah…… No, but still…….”
Only the Tailor, who had been savoring this turn of events born from her own creation, was caught off guard.
Really? Truly? It ends with just the Baby’s choice like this?
The Baby had grown genuinely interested in the dress, clinging to it.
While she’d gaped at the previous two dresses, she’d never come close enough to touch them—this was the first.
“This one. Definitely this one.”
“That one. Absolutely that.”
The two had hardened their resolve with finality.
“Ah, I understand…….”
The Tailor, now deferring to the final decision-maker—the Baby—began clearing away the two previously worn outfits.
“Then for the third dress, we’ll make minor adjustments to fit your measurements and assist with dressing on the day itself. We’ll take care of the other two.”
“No. Keep those too.”
It was then that Lacalte voiced an opinion for the first time.
Not the “beautiful” she’d hoped for, but his announcement that he’d buy all three dresses delighted the Tailor even more.
“You’ll have occasion to wear a dress again soon enough. Since we’ve made them, you might as well keep them and wear them.”
“Ah……! I see. In that case, since they’re too similar as they are, what if we gave each some distinct variations so we can provide you with finalized versions?”
“Do that.”
“Understood, thank you so much!”
“Are we finished with the dresses?”
“The dresses are done. Only your formal attire and the Count’s remain.”
The Tailor’s feet shuffled with disappointment.
Pity—she could’ve poured her artistic soul into five more. Ten, even, wouldn’t have been out of place.
“Bring them out.”
Adlen’s dresses had numbered three, but the formal attire for the two of them was simply one piece each.
Lacalte’s formal attire had nearly sparked the Tailor’s artistic fervor as well, but men’s garments offered fewer outlets for such passion than dresses, so she’d settled on a single piece.
Dressing the Baby in formal attire fell to Adlen.
Lacalte went to the Dressing Room and was attended to as he dressed. Unlike when he’d seen Adlen’s dress, he cast an indifferent glance at the mirror before looking away.
“It fits well.”
“Thank you. Is there anything uncomfortable, or any aspect you’d like changed?”
“No, there isn’t. I’ll wear it as is.”
“Understood.”
A stark contrast to their exchange over Adlen’s dress—just a brisk, perfunctory conversation.
Lacalte changed back into his original clothes and emerged into the Living Room.
“Our Baby looks just like a prince! Absolutely lovely! No—magnificent!”
In the mirror, Adlen was fawning over the Baby now dressed in formal attire. The Baby, delighted by her fuss, clung to her with gleeful laughter.
“You’re really so adorable. How can you be this cute!”
“I’ve never seen a baby this cute in my life. Truly too precious……. With a baby as charming as this, there’s real meaning to the work. I’d want to make a hundred outfits for you.”
The Assistant, who’d remained in the Living Room to help dress the Baby, was also swept up in the fawning with starry eyes.
To Lacalte’s eyes too, the Baby in formal attire was rather endearing. It occurred to him that even an enemy Crown Prince would be too cute to torment at that point.
But there was something that had captured Lacalte’s gaze.

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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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