Chapter 39
Chapter 39: Black Hair and Lilac
***
“Mmm~~~”
A muffled sound escaped from the nostrils in the brightly lit room.
On the white soft bed, the silk cotton blanket was messily wrapped into a bundle, with a small bulge curled up inside that slightly squirmed a few times.
Then a pair of fair arms stretched out.
I tensed my body, stretching my little feet straight, and comfortably stretched out.
Then I poked my head out from the warm blanket, turned over to find a comfortable position, lightly rubbed my head on the pillow a few times, and stopped moving again.
The black hair clung to my cheeks, my eyes were still closed, with long curled eyelashes trembling slightly, and the eyeballs wrapped under the eyelids kept rolling around.
Last night I got absorbed in reading until I started dozing off before crawling into bed. Now it felt like I hadn’t slept much at all. I was like being held hostage by the bed, too sleepy to open my eyes.
After a while, there came a “knock knock” sound at the door.
“Miss Sylvia, are you awake?”
“Miss Sylvia, Madam asked me to wake you up for breakfast.”
“……”
“Miss Sylvia, are you there?”
“Miss Sylvia……”
“……Not here!”
The still dreamy face frowned in displeasure at this moment.
How annoying! Don’t disturb me!
I want to sleep a bit more!
“Uh.”
The maid outside the door was momentarily choked by my childish response, not knowing what to say for a while, and only spoke again after a good moment.
“Well, Miss Sylvia. Madam has already prepared breakfast, it will get cold if you don’t get up soon.”
“……”
“Miss?”
I suddenly pulled up the blanket to cover my head.
“Ugh—, I know!”
After shouting this, I mumbled in a muffled voice: “Let me sleep a bit more, just a bit.”
“Please hurry up, the Lord and Madam are waiting for you……”
Then consciousness gradually became hazy.
When I opened my eyes again, Madam Catherine was already sitting by my bed, smiling at me with somewhat complex emotions in her eyes.
It seemed she hadn’t just arrived, who knows how long she had been staring.
My sleepy little head couldn’t understand the situation before me. My half-open eyes blinked, just about to close again when I immediately felt my cheek being lightly patted.
“Mmm?” I made a meaningless whimper.
“Time to get up.” Madam Catherine smiled helplessly, “What time is it now? You must have stayed up late reading last night, I told you to go to bed early…… Come on, get up, wash up and have breakfast.”
“Mm, okay——”
Said that and closed my eyes again.
“Pfft.”
A light laugh came, and after a while, someone shook my body several times.
“Time to get up!”
“Mm mm……”
Didn’t move at all.
“Tickle tickle——”
“Puhahaha——!! I surrender! I’ll get up, I’m getting up! Haha——”
I desperately curled up my body and kept retreating, trying to dodge Madam’s tickle attack. After struggling and playing around on the bed, all the sleepiness had completely vanished.
Although my mind still felt drowsy and I had ten thousand reasons not wanting to get up, I could only reluctantly crawl up now.
“Ah~”
With dazed eyes I yawned, pulled up the nightgown collar that had slipped to my shoulder, and climbed to the edge of the bed on all fours, dangling a pair of fair and straight slender legs, sitting there in a daze.
Hmm…… what was I supposed to do? Get up. What should I do after getting up?
“What are you spacing out for? Take off your nightgown first.”
Madam Catherine turned around, picking through Peylo’s wardrobe, then took out a tight bodice and a lace-trimmed leg-of-mutton sleeved dress and threw them to me.
“Wear these.”
“Oh.”
I clumsily took off the nightgown, carelessly threw it aside, then put on the dress, and slowly stood up wanting to walk towards the door.
“Wait, where are you going?”
Where am I going? To eat breakfast of course.
I looked at her puzzled.
“You’re running off without pants, come back here.”
“……Oh.”
Madam took out a pair of cream-colored balloon pants from the wardrobe and walked towards me.
“Wear these today, it’ll be more convenient for you two to move around later.”
Then she smiled gently.
“You know, when you’re all sleepy like this, you look exactly like my daughter. She’s so mischievous, always refusing to listen to me, often staying up late and not wanting to sleep, then being lazy and not wanting to get up in the morning, I have to come over and wake her up just like now……”
Seeing Madam crouch down, holding the pants about to put them on my legs, I suddenly became clear-headed, quickly stopped her and snatched the balloon pants from her hands.
“I’ll, do it myself.”
Then hopping on one foot, hurriedly tried to put them on.
“Slow down, what’s the rush?” Madam shook her head, slowly walked behind me, grabbed the waist ties at the back of my dress, rustled around for a while, and I felt my waist being slightly cinched as Madam tied a beautiful butterfly bow with the long waist ties.
“How is it, too tight?”
“Not tight.”
“Such a slim waist, and the skin is so fair and smooth, beautiful.”
“It’s, alright.”
“Really. Hard to imagine such a delicate body could actually fight those terrible monsters toe to toe……”
Looking at Madam’s worried expression, she must have witnessed the horror of the Abyss.
That’s right, in the Valen Disaster two years ago, the Duke lost an arm.
“When you grow up a bit more, who knows how many hearts you’ll break.”
“No way……”
After putting on the pants, Madam pushed me to sit in front of the mirror, took out a wooden comb from the dressing table drawer, and gently combed my hair.
“Why not? Just look at yourself in the mirror. Not to mention when you grow up, even now with this unripe little apple look, you must be making men lose their minds already.”
“Re-really?”
But I’m a manly man, even if you praise me like this, I won’t be happy.
How annoying~
“Madam, I can still, do it myself……”
“Don’t move.”
Madam pressed down my restless body.
“Let me do it, as my little request, okay?”
She looked down at me, her eyes containing an indescribable gentleness.
Seeing that made my heart soften, I quieted down and sat properly, letting her fiddle with my hair.
“In the past, I used to comb Peipei’s hair like this too. That girl was always so clever and mischievous, constantly coming up with ways to persuade her two brothers to do this and that. Count Lafayette and Parsifal spoiled her too, as long as her requests weren’t too unreasonable, they would find ways to make her happy. The three troublemakers often turned Shanter Castle upside down, and I had to scold them quite a bit for that.”
“Peipei was so smart, every time she would initiate the trouble, but after causing mischief, she would just act pitiful and push all the responsibility onto her brothers. We all knew very well what was going on, but we just couldn’t resist that girl’s crying, so we had no choice but to give the two brothers a beating to vent our frustration, hoping they wouldn’t spoil her anymore in the future, but it never really worked.”
“Later as she grew up, the wild girl learned to be more restrained, but she still often acted improperly. If we weren’t paying attention for a moment, we couldn’t find her anywhere, and when she came back her hair would be all messy. And I would, just like now, hold her here and comb her hair.”
Madam smoothed out my black hair, then gathered it with her hand into a bundle and pinned it up on my head.
“Your hair is just like hers too. Black and smooth, feels just like silk. This is our family’s inheritance…… look at mine.”
As she said this, Madam tilted her head and lightly flicked her long hair a few times.
“See, isn’t it beautiful? I’ve always been proud of it.”
“……Mm, very beautiful.”
I quietly stared at the reflections in the mirror.
One big and one small, the two most beautiful women… and girl I’ve seen since coming to this world, or even including before.
The same black hair, eyes like black agates.
Two very similar faces, one mature, one still young.
Just quietly existing in this space. The mirror before me, the fragrance behind, along with… the sensation on my scalp.
This scene was like a daily routine, deeply imprinted in my mind.
And then became a habit.
A habit called mother and daughter.
“Sniff sniff.”
“Ah!”
Just as I was getting lost in thought, suddenly a ticklish feeling came from my neck, startling me.
“Hmm…… just as I thought. Miss Sylvia, you have the scent of lilac too, just like me, here smell it.”
She held out her arm in front of me.
A woman in her forties, her skin still as fair and smooth as a young girl, without a trace of wrinkles.
I brought my little nose closer, and then smelled the familiar scent on myself.
The slight intoxication of lilac flowers.
Actually, I had already noticed it long ago, no need to deliberately prove it like this.
“Alright!” Madam lightly patted my head, “Take a look, isn’t it pretty?”
Hearing Madam’s words, I looked up at myself in the mirror. The black hair was pinned up on one side of my head, giving a bun-like feeling, adding a bit of playfulness to my usual loose hair style.
Pretty.
These words turned in my throat for a long time, but ultimately weren’t spoken.
I just nodded lightly, but fortunately Madam didn’t seem to mind much.
“Let’s go eat breakfast.”
“Mm.”
I followed Madam to the dining room, the big butterfly bow at my back fluttering its wings with my light steps.
“Good morning, Miss Sylvia.”
The Duke was already sitting at the dining table, holding a newspaper to read at this time, seeming to have waited for a long time. When he sensed someone coming in, he looked up and saw me, his face beaming with smiles.
Although he showed an appearance of not minding at all, it still made me feel a bit embarrassed.
“Morning……”
“Your hair looks beautiful.”
“Thank you.”
Sat down somewhat shyly, simple but carefully prepared food was already laid out on the table.
I turned my head to look around, didn’t see Carlos and Parsifal.
“How come, just us?”
“That kid Parsifal, who knows what got into him, actually stayed up all night guarding at the door, came to the kitchen in the morning with dark circles under his eyes, even gave me a fright, then took some sweet bread and hurriedly ran back there.”