Fooling History?

After reading these letters, Altair finally understood why so many had arrived at once.

They had basically all sent their letters when the Royal Family's notice arrived, only to find that he/she had already left Bexland. As soon as he/she returned, they mailed their inquiries about timing to schedule lessons.

They also wrote down when they themselves would be free.

Altair, relying on his/her memory, grouped similar course content together for the same day, such as:

Monday: morning etiquette, clothing, jewelry... Tuesday: dance, music, piano... Wednesday: painting... ...

These courses stretched all the way to Friday, with three or four teachers coming each day to give lessons.

Since he/she had already drunk the Potion that enhanced memory, it was just a matter of speed-running through everything.

Saturday and Sunday were reserved for heading to the Army Club to learn firearm use, practice combat skills, and follow Vivian for mysticism training.

After handing the letters to Hahn for mailing, Altair went to Vivian's place as agreed.

Once on the carriage, Altair passed the time by meditating, since there was really nothing else to do—too boring. After a twenty-minute ride, the carriage finally arrived at the address Vivian had given: West District, No. 3 Wellington Street.

Seeing the villa before him/her, Altair's first thought was, Are all Witches this rich?

A servant led Altair into the villa, where he/she finally met Vivian.

"Little Kexin, I didn't expect you to come so quickly. Looks like I'm pretty charming after all."

Hearing Vivian's teasing, Altair replied, "Of course—you're the only one who can make me drop everything I'm doing."

At that, Vivian covered her mouth with a light laugh. "Then should I give you a warm hug?"

Altair directly scooped Vivian up in a Princess Carry and carried her over to sit on the sofa.

"You're asking for it, you know."

Looking at Vivian in his/her arms, Altair shot back, "Didn't you just say you wanted to give me a warm hug?"

Thankfully, he/she had drunk the memory-enhancing Potion—it let Altair directly recall all sorts of tricks from his/her past life, enough to handle Vivian. He/she had her completely charmed, her eyes curved in delight.

As for flirting and chatting up a Witch?

What's that experience like? I can only say, "That last guy was absolutely right." Even without a real trial, just holding her—that feeling alone was indescribable.

After a round of small talk, Vivian led Altair into a room and pointed at five large chests.

"These chests are the clothes I want you to take back. Make sure you bring them home safely, and don't do anything naughty, okay?"

Seeing the five huge chests Vivian mentioned, Altair was a bit stunned. "That much?"

"Of course! This is just part of my wardrobe for this season. Autumn's coming soon, so I'll need to switch out later. But those clothes aren't ready yet—only these for now."

Altair knew women had a lot of clothes and had prepared when he/she heard about moving them, bringing two carriages. But now it still felt like it wasn't enough. Five chests, each nearly two meters long and about a meter wide.

While Altair was still thinking about whether to hire more carriages, Vivian spoke up.

"Stop staring. Follow me."

Hearing Vivian's words, Altair turned back in surprise and followed her out of the room into another one.

Looking at chests similar to the ones he/she needed to take, Altair asked curiously, "What's in these? Are they your clothes too?"

Vivian smiled directly. "Of course they're clothes, but not mine. These are your clothes and jewelry for this season. The autumn outfits will be sent straight to Your Family later."

Hearing this, Altair froze on the spot. He/she had thought about this happening eventually, but why so fast!

Vivian said slowly, "Don't worry. Considering your feelings, most of these are relatively conservative clothes. But only relatively."

"You'll have to face it sooner or later—might as well take it slow."

"Come over now. I'll help you change."

Vivian's words made Altair come to terms with it. There was no escaping this fate. He/she followed Vivian and picked out a set of "normal clothes" from the room that didn't show much skin.

"Hurry up and take off your clothes. I'll help you change. These outfits can't be put on alone without a few people assisting."

At Vivian's instruction, Altair stripped off his/her outerwear and started putting on the "new clothes." With Vivian's deft work, he/she was successfully dressed.

The era setting of Lord of the Mysteries is the Victorian period, and for women of that time, the unavoidable items were the Corset and the Crinoline. Though the latter wasn't mandatory anymore, the Corset was a must.

And that bastard Rochelle with his inventions! He didn't push industrialization forward properly, but he went wild with Stockings and High Heels!

Vivian looked at her finished work and said, "Mm, now it finally shows off your charming figure. Remember to grow your hair out later—it's a shame to keep that beautiful Blonde Hair short. For now, we'll have to make do with a Top Hat to compensate..."

At that moment, Altair felt like a doll being played with in a dress-up game.

And she was that doll!

After changing clothes, seeing herself in the mirror, all she could think was, "Gotta say, I'm gorgeous."

Still lost in that thought, Vivian directly touched Altair's waist and said, "This waist is thinner than mine."

Seeing her current appearance, feeling like she was being teased, Altair reached back and touched Vivian in return, earning a startled shriek.

Sticking to the principle of never taking a loss, Altair started teasing Vivian back.

At six in the evening, Altair left the West District and returned to Queen District, choosing not to stay and have dinner with Vivian.

On the way back, the accompanying carriages had increased to nine.

They were all passenger carriages—big boxes, but each could only fit three large crates at best. No cargo carts were found, so they had to use passenger ones.

The most valuable crate was placed in Altair's own carriage. According to Vivian, the total value of all those clothes wasn't even a third of that crate.

Inside were all kinds of precious gemstone jewelry: various colored diamonds, sapphires, emeralds, rubies, and so on.

Hearing this, Altair's first thought was, I want to give up the "arms" business and just go straight into the "synthetic gem" trade—it should be more profitable.

The technology was already there; it wouldn't take a month to replicate. Then, after stockpiling a few months' worth of production, she could add a new vein to the world.

Pull off a "Kashin Gem Mine" incident—wouldn't that be messing with history?

But considering that arms might help her digest the Potion, she decided on arms first, gems later.

Arriving home in the evening, she had Hahn assign people to help Altair sort the crates.

The servants were told to organize the clothes, jewelry, and other items from the crates.

What belonged to her went into her own dressing room, which directly added two more dressing rooms to the house.

At the same time, she ordered a spare room to be cleared out and kept cleaned daily, putting Vivian's clothes into her room.

After handling everything, Altair changed clothes and only then sat down for dinner.

Because of the "Corset," Altair could barely eat anything!

It was so uncomfortable—who came up with this thing?!

Even after taking off that outfit, she still felt miserable.