Fluvia 96: Chapter 96: Fluvia and Another Tea Party

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Chapter 96: Fluvia and Another Tea Party

“You’re wearing such a lovely dress today, Lady Fluvia!” a tanned Baron’s daughter from the Lilian Earldom said with an exaggerated squeal.

“Oh yes, your dress during the Cotillion was absolutely stunning, too! As expected of the Rosetta Atelier, it was like starlight scattered on snow!” another Baron’s daughter, exclaimed.

I smile as pleasantly as I can as the daughters flattered me.

While some of the flattery is fake, it’s also true that there is some real admiration and envy in some of these noblemen’s daughter’s eyes.

Currently, I’m at a tea party with quite a few other noble daughters, all of them from Baron or Earl families.

More specifically, all of them are daughters between the ages of 8 and 15 from families that are most interested in setting the trends in high society.

Baron Valentine rules over a territory within the Margot Earldom, just north of the Gladston Viscounty, and is both in an alliance and a rivalry with the Viscount over the import and export of goods.

Unlike the Gladston Viscounty, the Valentine Barondom focuses mostly on luxury goods, given that it filters most of goods that depend on the Margot Earldom’s through it.

In the fields of jewelry and metalworking, they’re unrivaled in the entire country. They also have many different types of furs and flax-like plants, giving them unique fabrics.

Of course, Father and Edgar did mention the problems with over-hunting for furs, but whether or not the Margot Earldom listened to them… well, even in my previous world, where furs were frowned on, there were greedy people all over the world who would poach and kill animals illegally.

Anyway, the Valentine Barondom was known for luxury and trends, hence the tea party hosted by the 14 year old Clarissa Valentine had invited the daughters of the most prominent trendsetters in the country.

Still, it’s just a tea party, so although I’m wearing one of my nicest, personally designed tea dresses, I had to be careful not to push my outfit into the ‘high fashion’ side of things.

And, although it is very natural for most of these Barons’ daughters to flatter and suck up to me as the newly debuted daughter from the Dellarose House, it’s not good to turn Lady Clarissa’s tea party into a Fluvia-flattering party.

In the first place, these daughters are also daughters from families that need to be flattered.

“I thank you for your kind words, but aren’t your dresses just as lovely? Isn’t this dress the work of the Starstone Pavilian? I see Master Korlas’ delicate embroidery surpasses what I’ve heard, and is that the latest shoes from the Solestone Atelier? How absolutely enchanting they are,” I said, smiling behind my lace fan.

“Oh my!”

“Mah! Master Korlas is my favorite designer these days! I’m so happy that Lady Fluvia recognizes his work!”

The two young girls blushed, delighted with my reply before going on to ramble about their favorite dresses and tailors.

You may be a few years older than my current self, but don’t think that I can’t handle this level of sweet-talk.

Well, my age inside might eclipse theirs by quite a bit…

Anyway, although I should let these girls flatter me due to social hierarchy, it won’t change the fact that this is Lady Clarissa’s tea party.

It’s tough to be both in the spotlight and yet not-hogging it…

Although we, the Dellarose twins, held our (extremely lavish) debut party early on in this Debut Season, our obligations to present ourselves as new debutants at various social events will continue on for a while yet.

Luckily there are two of us, so Brother and I can split up and take care of these events.

Honestly, I’m not sure how other debutants are dealing with this, when there are so many obligatory visits and parties being held simultaneously.

Right now Brother is attending a horse riding event over at Earl Margot’s estate while I have tea with these noble girls from the Dellarose territory.

I suppose ordinarily we would have to refuse Baron Rugle’s invitation to this tea party, but with my ‘poor health’ (honestly, my health can be considered much better than the common eight-year-old noble daughter, but compared to Brother I’m still the ‘weak one’), we’ve excused me from the more physically involved horse riding so that I could attend this tea party instead.

Although I can’t say it’s actually ‘easier’ to be at the tea party.

“… Yes, Lady Fluvia’s dress was certainly eye-catching,” a clear girl’s voice called out from across the table, barely containing a scoff. “But it’s the style is too old. These days, isn’t a slender dress more trendy? That sort of ball gown is much too … gaudy.”

… … Very good, little girl. Only eight years old and you already know how to irritate this old lady.

Your mom’s gaudy – ahem.

Pasting on my customer service smile, I can’t help but turn my head towards the girl who said it.

A Baron’s daughter from the Hortence Earldom. Rogia Trianne.

If I remember correctly, she’s ten years old, and could be considered a leader among the younger ladies around her age.

Ah… I see.

She’s upset a newcomer has come to squeeze her out of her Queen Bee seat.

Just to be clear, I don’t intend to be purposefully become a queen in high society. I have no interests in policing who interacts with who, or keeping track of factions.

I also have no intentions of suppressing other people who want to be in the limelight.

It’s just that people will naturally flatter the daughter of an Earl more than they will a Baron’s, and there’s nothing she or I can do about it.

Nor do I want to do anything about it.

After all, there is no reason for an Earl’s daughter to purposefully lower herself for a Baron’s daughter’s vanity, and more importantly, I don’t really want to accommodate a braindead fool.

Gaudy? She actually dared call my beautifully designed princess dress GAUDY?!

What is an idiot like you trying to say, huh? That a classic silhouette with gorgeous details isn’t fit for one of the highest of high fashion events and that I should use a dress with a more slender silhouette?

The cotillion’s dance is a ballroom dance! Of course we need a ballgown!

Is your brain stupid? Or is it because your parents gave up on teaching you the correct way to see things in society?

Not that I’ll actually say such a thing. The best thing to do is just keep smiling…

There’s a brief, awkward silence as the other girls at the table didn’t exactly know how to react.

On one side is Baron Trianne’s daughter, who was trying hard to rule over the trends of high society, if only over all the debuted noble girls who were still underage, and on the other is the newly debuted Earl Dellarose’s daughter.

Dellarose, Trianne, and Valentine – these three names are synonymous with setting the trends.

Even Queen Ria comes second to these three Houses, although that may be more to do with the fact her Majesty’s interests are in other things, so she usually just asks for advice from Mother or follows the trends of Lady Trianne and Lady Valentine.

Because of this, everyone usually flatters Rogia Trianne in order to avoid looking like they don’t understand trends.

Among me and the Valentine sisters, Lady Rogia us probably the only one who doesn’t understand that this sort of flattery doesn’t actually carry any weight behind it, though.

Not to mention, insulting an Earl’s daughter while being from a Baron’s family is really very improper.

Forget how disrespectful it is to me.

It’s ridiculously disrespectful to the hostess of the tea party to insult the guest with the most political power she invited.

She may only be ten years old, but Lady Rogia Tirianne really did something improper that most noblewomen wouldn’t do.

Sure enough, Lady Clarissa Valentine has a very bitter look on her face, despite the fact that she’s doing her best to remain cordial.

Seeing that nobody was jumping in to agree with her for once, Lady Rogia Tirianne became upset.

“Am I wrong?” she asked with an air of superiority. “These days, who doesn’t know that a mermaid tail dress is much more stylish? Instead, Lady Fluvia wore such a large skirt, forcing others to have to copy her!”

“… …”

I suppose that’s the key point. She’s upset that everyone was ‘copying’ me when they should be copying her, but …

“… I think it should be pretty difficult to dance in a mermaid dress,” Lady Clarissa Valentine said dryly. “Rather, if I’m remembering correctly, Lady Rogia’s debut dress was … also very grand. I can’t say it was gaudy, but I seem to recall it being much louder than Lady Fluvia’s.”

The barbs in Lady Clarissa Valentine’s words are very obvious.

So far I’ve remained silent in order to allow Lady Clarissa Valentine to rebuke Lady Rogia Trianne herself, but now that she’s so openly displayed her opinion on Lady Rogia’s tactlessness, I smile.

“Goodness, isn’t the current fashion scene in Valed all about having a variety of styles to choose from? Although I’ll admit I did choose a dress that would probably be a bit too much to wear on a day-to-day basis, but a dress that suits day-to-day wear wouldn’t suit an event like the Cotillion.”

“Wha-!” Lady Rogia’s mouth gaped open and shut like a fish for a few seconds, but before she could say anything else, I turn to the other ladies.

“But strictly speaking, I don’t really know much about the Capital’s daily affairs. Lady Clarissa, are there any interesting rumors these days?”

I quickly switch the topic – and the limelight – back to Lady Clarissa Valentine.

Lady Clarissa, who is much more aware of the propriety necessary for interacting with others in high society, gratefully jumped on the subject change.

“Interesting rumors, well, of course the debuts of Prince Anthony, Sir Mattias, and Lord Fedor and Lady Fluvia were the main highlights of the rumors,” Lady Clarissa said, making her displeasure with Lady Rogia and support for me known indirectly. “However, if it’s rumors… I heard that Lady Mira has been courted by two different noblemen.”

“Oh my! Is that Lord xxxx and Sir xxxxx? I also heard that -”

“But if Baron xxxx and that merchant form an alliance then…”

“I heard that recently, the knights of the Capital have been patrolling the north much more often -”

“What? But isn’t Alibrand to the south having some unrest -”

The ladies at this tea party might all be underage, but don’t underestimate how much pure gossip they can pick up on a day-to-day basis.

Although a lot of it is gossip about romantic relationships.

It seems these sorts of rumors about love affairs are popular among gossiping ladies no matter if it’s the previous world or this one.

Even so, there are still other rumors that make their appearance.

Among this 8-15 crowd of children, to be honest, there isn’t any truly new rumors, aside from the family affairs of much more low profile, minor nobilities or other prominent families, but there’s no loss listening to them discuss the things I already know.

There will always be distorted facts and different impressions depending on who’s telling the story.

It’s … interesting to hear about how people from different parts of the Baronry think about the same events, after all.

And then, there are also little local rumors that don’t make their way around the rest of the Baronry.

“I heard there have been disappearances in the Capital recently,” a Baron’s daughter whispered. “The Adventurer’s Guild here has been in a frenzy all about it.”

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<a/n: *$#%!#$
This is the last ‘roadblock’ for me for Fluvia, and it was a damn stubborn one. I think I rewrote it 20 times and it’s still… … well, sorry for such an unimpressive chapter. I tried QAQ

But now I can finally get on with writing the story I wanted to tell in the first place!>