The day of Ariadne’s debutante ball was a bright late summer day with high skies and fluffy clouds slightly hanging on the western edge.

On such a day, the debutante herself would usually be waiting in front of her room’s vanity to make sure her carefully applied makeup doesn’t melt with sweat drops, but Ariadne was up at the crack of dawn, commanding nearly 40 servants to decorate the hall of Cardinal De Mare’s residence and the first floor entrance that would be used as the ballroom.

“There! People holding the flowering trees, be careful not to let them touch the floor and take them to the designated places to install them!”

If Ariadne’s sense of fashion, decoration, and all things beautiful was a bit lacking, Sancha amazingly made up for it.

If Ariadne gave an honest description or explanation of her ideas for interior decoration, or more accurately, what she had actually seen in her previous life, Sancha would actualize it in the real world just by listening to the explanation.

“Please tie the fresh flower bouquets one by one at the pre-designated locations and move the branch decorations to the center!”

Ariadne completely removed the core of a typical ball, the ‘story-telling tapestries’. Instead of newly tailoring tablecloths, banister covers, chair covers, etc., she unified them with white, which every household basically has, to control additional expenses.

Instead, she sent people to the forest attached to the Bergamo estate to cut a large quantity of white crape myrtle. White crape myrtle was a type of shrub that didn’t grow tall, and in late summer, its white flowers bloomed all over the tree.

The flowering branches were cut whole and divided into artificially created planters and vases to create a forest indoors. It was a fantastic interior that made it seem as if the party-goers had stepped into a forest.

The only thing that made the first-floor grand hall of Cardinal De Mare’s residence, which would be used as the party venue, look like an interior was the De Mare family’s coat of arms hanging on the wall. The light purple dolphin emblem and the white crape myrtle branches had a slight sense of incongruity, but it couldn’t be helped.

‘I have to match the intention of the person who provided the money.’

The reason Cardinal De Mare allowed this ball to be held was not because he loved his clever second daughter, but to boast and show off the De Mare family, whose influence was growing daily in San Carlo.

A new ‘new product’, the second daughter ‘Ariadne De Mare’, has been added to the De Mare family, so everyone come and see.

Just as the brand cannot be left out when advertising a product, the De Mare family’s light purple dolphin coat of arms could not be left out of today’s debutante ball.

“Young lady, it looks really unique and luxurious when decorated as you said!”

Sancha exclaimed. The banisters were adorned with lily bouquets separately purchased from a florist to add brightness.

“Since all the interior decorations are white flowers, the family crest looks too out of place.”

As Ariadne, it was difficult for her to discuss which color combinations were good or bad, but if Sancha said so, that’s how it was.

“It would have been much more harmonious if there were more blue-toned flowers…”

“Can we get some now?”

“I searched all the flower shops in the city, but there was nowhere that could supply blue-toned flowers in large quantities. This is the best we can do for now.”

Sancha, taking note of the dejected-looking young lady, added a word.

“Still, emphasizing the pure white debutante ball is pretty. It’s innocent and fantastic. Don’t worry too much.”

As Sancha said, the sweet scent of meadow was wafting from the freshly cut flowers and trees, enveloping the entire De Mare Cardinal’s residence.

This style would become a fad the following year in the spring of 1123, which was ironically originally led by Isabella of the past.

1123 was also the year Ariadne held her engagement ceremony with Count Cesare De Como in her previous life.

For Isabella, who had to be better than Ariadne in everything to be satisfied, she became unable to surpass Ariadne financially from that point on.

So when Isabella could no longer hold a ball as luxurious as Ariadne’s fiancé, she put her mind to it.

In order to make her fairy-like appearance stand out even more, she pestered her father to cut down many flowering trees from the Bergamo estate and use them as decorations for the ball, changing the trend.

However, this trend did not last long.

As the nobles cut down the forests of their estates to use as ball decorations, the small shrubs were almost swept away, and as winter approached, firewood for the common people became scarce due to the luxury of the nobles, so the royal court issued a ban.

Even after the use of fresh flowers and trees was banned, the trend barely continued by using silk to make artificial flowers and fake trees, but the scent and vitality could not be replicated, so the trend soon changed.

“It should be fine once or twice.”

As Ariadne told Sancha the story about the ball decorations, she thought she felt a stinging sensation on her left ring finger for some reason.

‘It must be because I’m tired.’

At 8 a.m., an unexpected gift also arrived.

“Miss Ariadne, there are three carriages in front of the main gate. They say they’re from the palace…”

At the words of the butler Nicolo, Ariadne ran to the entrance. Strange, the only one she expected to receive from the palace was the prince, she thought as she arrived at the entrance, and upon seeing the delivered items, she was surprised and covered her mouth with both hands.

Purple hydrangeas filled the front of the De Mare residence.

The purple hydrangeas were delivered in three carriages with open tops, and it was a spectacular sight to see each carriage filled with a cloud-like amount of fresh flowers that could support a person if they jumped in.

Sancha, standing behind Ariadne, was also about to let out a dolphin scream.

“This is a message sent by His Highness the Prince.”

The attendant from the prince’s palace who drove the carriage handed over Alfonso’s letter. Ariadne and Alfonso had exchanged so many note-like letters that Ariadne could draw the gold-leaf pattern of the prince’s palace with her eyes closed.

“To my dear Ariadne.

With purple hydrangeas blooming among the white flowers, that scene remained in my memory for a long time. I hope you also remember the hydrangeas of that day. I’ll arrive on time, see you in a bit.

– Alfonso.”

“What is all this?”

Sancha, who followed Ariadne belatedly, exclaimed.

“It’s so pretty, Young Lady! The light purple flowers go perfectly with our family crest!”

It was Alfonso’s thoughtful gift, who learned from his correspondence with Ariadne that she had only ordered the minimum amount of lilies from the florist due to budget constraints.

Since there were no blue hydrangeas in the city’s stores, he must have matched the quantity from the palace’s greenhouse.

Her heart swelled with the warmth of his hand, which gave her what she needed each time without a word of self-praise.

However, Ariadne unknowingly put the brakes on herself, who was about to be lost in emotion. If she falls for that warmth, she will never want to return to the cold world of being alone.

The day the golden prince notices her wretchedness, she will be alone again, and the loneliness then will be unbearably painful.

So she rather jokingly teased Sancha.

“You should hate this.”

“What? Why?”

“The ball starts in four hours, and before that, you’ll have to weave all of this into the decorations, won’t you?”

“What?!”

Sancha’s mouth gaped open, and she ran around the entrance like a chick.

“If I ask the maidservants who do menial work to help, will they help willingly?”

“You have that many close friends?”

“Two or three… What should we do about this?”

Ariadne had a way for everything.

“We need to grease the wheels.”

Ariadne found the butler Nicolo. He was unloading the hydrangeas from the carriage, and when Ariadne called, he quickly ran over.

“Yes, Young Lady.”

Ariadne praised him with a smile.

“Nicolo, I have always been indebted to you, but I never had a chance to say thanks.”

“Oh my, what are you saying?”

Although he was speaking politely, Butler Nicolo was looking at Ariadne with anxious eyes. It was a look of being nervous about what kind of non-work related orders she would give after calling him and buttering him up like this with her tongue.

Ariadne reached into her bosom and took out a gold coin. It was a 1 ducat (approximately 1 million won) gold coin with 96% purity minted in the Republic of Porto.

“It seems Sancha needs to urgently borrow the maidservants who do menial work for about two hours. Please mobilize them for her and speak well to Mother for me. This is not simply a token of gratitude, but a greeting to ask for your continued favor in the future.”

Sparks flew from Butler Nicolo’s eyes. It wasn’t that he hadn’t received small amounts of money in exchange for doing various favors, but this young lady was on a different level.

Although he didn’t want to get involved with the illegitimate second daughter in the household tightly controlled by Madam Lucrezia, if she was willing to hand over a gold coin as a first greeting, he was willing to exchange goodwill.

Moreover, today was the banquet day that Cardinal De Mare was particularly concerned about. Even if he urgently mobilized some maidservants, there wasn’t much Lucrezia could do.

“Of course I should do this even without such a thing!”

Said Nicolo, who took the gold coin faster than a crab’s eyes and put it in his bosom.

“Now, Sancha! Go up to the third floor and wake up all the lazy ones sleeping in!”

While Sancha temporarily became the boss of the third-floor maidservants for the interior decorations, Ariadne returned to her room on the second floor for her grooming.

Sancha wanted to be in charge of Ariadne’s grooming as well, but it was impossible to do two things at the same time.

“Young Lady, sit here!”

Ariadne’s grooming was to be assisted by the new maidservants Anna and Maria. Anna was in charge of hairstyle and makeup, and Maria was in charge of the outfit.

Anna had previously worked as a grooming maid for the daughter of the house where she worked, and she had a bit of a knack for it.

“Your face takes makeup really well. The features are perfectly symmetrical and in place, so if we enhance the glamour with makeup a bit, it will be perfect.”

There was no need to do more for the skin expression. The skin of a fifteen-year-old was soft and full of moisture, so it was perfect as it was.

Anna arranged Ariadne’s thick eyebrows and the fine hair of her forehead line with thread to create a classic beauty look, and used pale pink to add vitality to her cheeks.

“I’ll focus on emphasizing the eyes.”

Ariadne’s original face had a somewhat cold impression. Her eyes were lively when emotions surfaced, but looked ruthless when expressionless.

Anna used eyebrow ink to lower the corners of Ariadne’s eyes and fill in the empty spaces between her lashes to draw a conventionally beautiful face.

When all the makeup allowed for a noble daughter in San Carlo was done, the appearance of a picturesque beauty was revealed.

“My goodness, so pretty!”

“I can’t recognize you, Young Lady!”

Even Maria, who was ironing clothes, took a step and everyone was surprised by Ariadne’s dolled-up appearance. Just then, Sancha, who had finished the interior decorations, came in.

“Young Lady! You’re really pretty!”

Ariadne smiled embarrassedly at the maidservants’ fuss and shook her head.

“If you keep saying that, I’ll really think I’m pretty. Flattery is also rude if overdone.”

“It’s not flattery! You really are pretty!”

Sancha hit her chest, frustrated. Ariadne, who was asking Sancha a few questions about the outside preparations, casually asked about her older sister’s condition.

“How about Isabella’s side? Is it quiet?”

“She’s getting all decked out noisily. Boxes have been coming in from the Collegione dressing room every day for a week.”

Ariadne rather looked relieved. Sancha seemed puzzled to see Ariadne not getting upset at all even after hearing that Isabella had placed a large order for dresses and related items from Collegione.

“Aren’t you upset that Lady Isabella had her dress made at Collegione? I think I’d be angry. I’m the protagonist! Why is my older sister getting a more expensive dress than me! Like that.”

Ariadne replied with a smile.

“I’m just glad she’s putting effort into something constructive. At least trying to make her own dress is an effort to make herself better. It’s better than trying to harm me.”

With Maria’s help, Ariadne put on the first debutante dress sent from the Ragione boutique last week. It was an elegant mikado silk dress with a pentagonal cut at the chest.

Although it was a bit thick for the late summer transitioning into early fall, it was an outfit that fully reflected Ariadne’s opinion that she wanted it to firmly hold the lines of her body without showing them.

Below the waist, the skirt flared softly in an A-line, and a slightly long train followed the hips, emphasizing the advantages of Ariadne’s tall height and good proportions.

Sancha took out the “Heart of the Deep Blue Sea” that she had previously taken out of Ariadne’s safe from the ebony jewelry box and hung it around Ariadne’s neck.

Ariadne dressed like this shone even from a few steps away.

“I can’t even tell if it’s the dress shining or the young lady shining. You’re so beautiful!”

Ariadne actually looked uncomfortable.

“The dress… The chest part feels strangely uncomfortable.”

“Pretty clothes are meant to be uncomfortable! It’s because you have a good figure, Young Lady.”

Sancha brushed off Ariadne’s complaint, thinking that it was because our young lady hadn’t worn many good clothes.

“The muslin cloth is wrapped as usual, right? It seems a bit loose.”

Sancha stuck out her tongue.

“You’re like a ghost. I wrapped it less than usual because the dress might not fit well. Maria said she had a good item, so I tried it once.”

Sancha held up something like an iron clamp.

“It’s called a hook. The end is sharp, so if you hang it on both ends of the muslin cloth, it gets caught in the fabric and holds it like this! Maria brought it, saying her elder sister uses it, and since there’s no need to tie it, there’s no worry about the dress wrinkling because of the muslin cloth knot! It helps so much with the fit of the clothes!”

Sancha praised Maria as if she was impressed. Maria, on the other hand, seemed a bit uncomfortable being in the spotlight.

“No, I didn’t do much…”

Sancha reassured Ariadne.

“I asked about the hook, and Lady Marini said it was okay. She said many young ladies secretly use it these days. Although the pressure from the muslin cloth may be less than tying the knot directly, the dress fabric is sturdy, so the clothes will press down, so there won’t be a problem!”

While the girls were chattering excitedly, a maidservant knocked on the door of Ariadne’s room.

“Second Young Lady, the guests are arriving one after another.”

Ariadne checked her appearance in the mirror. She turned to her close maidservants with a bright face.

“Well, shall we go out now?”

“Yes!”