Timid and Shy - Chapter 1

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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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1.

The hand holding the teacup trembled. Sophia set it down and drew a deep breath, then slowly released it.
‘Don’t lose your nerve. There’s nothing to be anxious about. I didn’t come here to beg. I came by invitation.’
Sophia picked up the teacup again. It still shook slightly, but far less than before.
While she waited, she tried to organize what she might say to this aunt she was meeting for the first time. Yet her eyes remained restless, darting about the Reception Room.
The sunlight pouring through the great windows, the lustrous sheen and intricate pattern of the heavy curtains that held it back, the exotic vase holding flowers—even roses the size of a fist.
Sophia kept roses in the greenhouse back in the Ariel Territory. But she had never seen blooms as full as these.
‘They must be imported roses. Is it really true that flowers can be imported from other countries if one pays enough?’
Sophia couldn’t tear her gaze away from the valuable, elegant objects scattered throughout the Reception Room.
She had worried beforehand about how to conduct herself with an aunt she was meeting for the first time. Yet at this crucial moment, her attention had scattered not to her aunt but to what her aunt possessed—to the things surrounding her.
After surveying the Reception Room, decorated with beautiful and expensive furnishings, Sophia could do nothing but examine herself.
She looked at her hands holding the teacup. The delicate, beautiful pattern of the teacup seemed at odds with her own hands.
The sleeves were neatly hemmed, but if one looked closely, the color where the wrist met the cuff was slightly different from the rest.
‘I thought it looked new, and I was so pleased the hemming didn’t show…’
What bothered her most was her own hands. Compared to the teacup, they looked remarkably dark and rough.
‘Isn’t it true that the young ladies of the Capital always wear gloves when they go out?’
Sophia swallowed her tea.
‘Don’t compare. How could I wear gloves every time I stepped outside in Ariel? Besides, House Wiscom is one of only two ducal families in the entire empire. Wealth is only natural. They must have chosen even the teacups with such care.’
Sophia looked around the Reception Room again. As she studied it, she felt something beyond mere wealth—a new and transcendent refinement.
She recalled a magazine article she had read some time ago. It had mentioned that noble families employed specialists solely to decorate their interiors. Before entering the Wiscom Duke’s Residence Reception Room, Sophia had found that notion absurd.
‘It’s just placing furniture and objects in appropriate spots. To think families actually pay money for someone to tell them where to put things—such wealth it must be rotting away.’
Only now did Sophia understand how foolish that thought had been.
The article had been right. She was experiencing firsthand that a room’s decor was the finest way to convey both the master’s taste and standing to visiting guests.
‘Now I’ve understood just how magnificent House Wiscom truly is.’
Despite the nervousness of meeting her aunt for the first time, Sophia found herself enjoying the sight of the well-appointed Reception Room. But as the wait stretched on, her energy gradually drained. The hopes she had carried with her to the Capital faded rapidly.
Sophia spoke quietly, her voice hollow.
“Ah… so that’s how it is. That’s how it really is.”
Like a novel where life is transformed through the kind assistance of a wealthy relative, Sophia had harbored the hope that meeting her aunt might be exactly such an opportunity. But novels were novels, and reality was reality.
More than three hours had passed waiting in the Reception Room. Now Sophia was more curious about why her aunt had summoned her to the Capital than about actually meeting her or easing her nervousness. Her aunt—rather, the Duchess of House Wiscom—didn’t seem particularly eager to welcome her.

***

Margaret, Duchess of House Wiscom.
Sophia’s aunt was the Duchess of House Wiscom. She had married the second son of the previous Duke of House Wiscom.
Sophia’s uncle, once merely the second son, had inherited the ducal title upon his older brother’s death, and Sophia’s aunt had become a duchess.
From the time she married Sophia’s uncle when he held no title, her aunt had been renowned, but after becoming a duchess, she became a figure symbolic of Cinderella’s tale.
In contrast to her aunt, who enjoyed advancement and glory, Sophia’s mother had married Baron Ariel, whose lands bordered Seatern. Seven years after Sophia’s birth, her mother had died at a young age.
‘Mother was too delicate to endure life in cold, impoverished Ariel.’
When Sophia’s mother passed, none of her few remaining relatives had come to Ariel to pay respects. After her mother’s death, Sophia’s family had forgotten that such a thing as maternal kinship even existed.
That was the case until two months ago. Two months prior, her aunt, the Duchess of House Wiscom, had sent a letter to Ariel. She proposed that Sophia, who had not yet had her debutante ball, should make her debut alongside Isabel, the Duchess’s daughter, who was soon to present herself to society.
Taken aback by the sudden proposal from an aunt with whom they had no contact, Baron Ariel and Alex, her brother, suspected the Duchess might have some hidden intention.
To the Duchess of House Wiscom, Ariel was nothing more than a poor and unremarkable relation.
Even knowing this, Sophia accepted the proposal. She believed that securing her debutante was the priority, whatever price House Wiscom might demand in return.
‘I can’t waste money on just a debutante. Ariel doesn’t have the means.’
Though both Baron Ariel and Alex objected, when Sophia persisted, they eventually consented to her making her debut alongside the young lady of House Wiscom.
This journey to the Capital brought not only Sophia but also John Malloy, the administrator of Ariel, and along with him came Jack, John’s son, to run errands. To cut costs, their party numbered only three.
After dropping Sophia at the Wiscom Duke’s Residence, John rushed straight to the Central Administration. There he would have to engage in a power struggle with the bureaucrats in hopes of securing budget appropriations for Ariel.
Whether that would take one month or two remained uncertain. If the Administration denied the budget, Ariel would inevitably fall into deficit this year.
It was only three years ago that Alex, her brother, had married into House Pinegard, a merchant family, which had eased Ariel’s financial situation somewhat. Now that their circumstances had improved, Alex had wanted to arrange Sophia’s debutante first.
But Sophia, who knew their territory’s struggles well, had kept refusing. The purpose of a debutante was singular.
Marriage.
A debutante was a rite of passage into High Society. Its most vital purpose was to announce that a marriage-age young lady was available and to draw forth suitors.
Sophia had believed that even if she went through with a debutante, marriage would still be impossible for her.
Even in this age when free love was fashionable, a bride’s dowry remained essential. Alex and Ellie had united through love, yet the dowry Ellie brought was immense. House Pinegard, being one of the wealthy merchant families of the Capital, had sent their daughter’s dowry without hesitation. For Ariel, that dowry had been a tremendous help.
During his time at the Academy, Alex had gained a name for himself in the Capital with his looks. Ellie was the victor among countless women in claiming him.
Unless Sophia could, like Alex, make a name for herself with her appearance and ignite fierce competition among suitors, a dowry was an absolute necessity for marriage.
Sophia knew well that a marriage like Alex’s—or like her aunt’s—where the other party loses their senses and assumes everything, was simply not possible for her.
‘No one knows better than I do that I have neither beauty nor the skill to seduce a man.’
Given Sophia’s circumstances, she would have no choice but to become a second or third wife to an aging gentleman, or to marry a poor man without a noble title.
Sophia despised aging men and paupers alike.
So for Sophia, a debutante ball was an expenditure not worth making.
Yet Baron Ariel and Alex refused to give up. People still considered it shameful for a noblewoman not to make her debut, so the two men persisted in their persuasions—if only a modest presentation.
It was then that a letter arrived from her aunt, as though Margaret already understood Sophia’s predicament.
The House Wiscom had two children: Philip and Isabel, siblings. Philip was twenty-three, two years younger than Alex, while Isabel was eighteen.
Considering that young ladies of the Uranos Empire typically made their debut at fifteen or sixteen, Isabel’s presentation was already delayed. For twenty-year-old Sophia, too, this was her final opportunity.
Ordinarily, debutantes spent at least three years in high society afterward, seeking a suitable match from an appropriate family, before marrying. In her letter, the Duchess asked Sophia to make her debut alongside Isabel and help support her cousin through the experience.
Isabel, the Duchess’s daughter, had already drawn considerable attention from society—an embarrassment of interest for a young lady who had not yet even been formally presented. Worried about the shy Isabel, both the Duke and Duchess had postponed the ball until now.

***

By now the afternoon sun had crept near Sophia’s feet. As the day wore on, the Reception Room grew warm. In that early spring heat, Sophia found herself thinking of her mother and her aunt.
‘Would it be too cruel to compare the two?’
Sophia did not think her mother had been unhappy. But sitting in a room so splendid it made her feel shabby by contrast, she found herself naturally drawing comparisons between Ariel and Margaret—between the starkly different lives of two sisters—and her thoughts had grown heavy.
All the more did Sophia wonder what sort of person her aunt, the Duchess, truly was.
As the afternoon light began to fade, a maid entered the Reception Room and spoke respectfully.
“The Duchess regrets that an urgent matter has arisen. I’m afraid she will be unable to receive you today.”
Sophia rose from her seat without hesitation. She had seen enough of the Reception Room in any case.
“Then please show me to my room. I’m still unfamiliar with the house—I’m not sure I’d remember the way back on my own.”
The maid led Sophia away. Sophia had become certain of something.
‘The Duchess did not summon me to help me.’
She had to release the expectation that her aunt would naturally aid and care for her simply because of blood.
‘An aunt surely has far more pressing matters than meeting a niece for the first time.’
Now Sophia understood the worry that had preoccupied her father and brother.
After a long walk, they arrived at Sophia’s room. The distance between the Duchess and Sophia within the same residence was considerable enough to require such a journey.
The Wiscom Duke’s Residence was a two-story building that spread left and right from a central hall. Sophia’s room was at the far end of the right wing’s second floor. Conversely, all the rooms of the Wiscom family were clustered in the central section and the left wing.
The advantage of Sophia’s room was that it proved quieter than expected; the disadvantage was that she would have little chance of encountering the Duke’s household while coming and going.
Before leaving, the maid spoke to Sophia.
“Due to preparations for the debutante and work on the house, the central staircase is closed to use. You may use the staircase at the right end, the one you just came up.”
Sophia nodded. She had already observed that the Duke’s family and guests made good use of the central staircase. When she had left the Reception Room, she had seen them ascending it.
With the maid’s words, Sophia’s hope sank once more.
‘Did my aunt plan all of this to crush my expectations? Or does she simply show no consideration toward a shabby relation?’
No amount of speculation on Sophia’s part could penetrate the heart of someone she had never met. She could only lower her own expectations.

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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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