Early Tuesday morning, Charlotte awoke to warm sunlight and her maid's gentle calls.
Unlike when she had first transmigrated into this world, she no longer resisted being waited on. She naturally extended her arm and accepted the handkerchief soaked in warm water from her personal maid, Lila, then let her help with washing, styling her hair, and changing into clothes for going out.
According to the memories this body had left her, traditional noblewomen in Intis often wore elaborate, layered gowns on formal occasions, with skirts so wide at the sides they could almost block a doorway. Topped with towering wigs adorned with feathers, pearls, and flowers, they resembled walking gardens.
Just imagining the sight made her feel suffocated.
Fortunately, Intis no longer considered complexity and extravagance the essence of elegance. The flourishing salon culture, the spread of Enlightenment thought, and people's distaste for excessively elaborate etiquette had gradually led aristocratic circles to rediscover the beauty of the body's own contours. After their defeat in the "Three Years' War" against the Loen Kingdom, the Loen fashions introduced to Intis had further forced the nobles to admit that simple, practical clothing suited to movement could also look respectable.
Moreover, the Sauron royal family had long had a tradition of taking pride in women wearing more masculine clothing. As this custom spread down through successive layers of aristocratic society, it gradually influenced many provincial nobles. These days, outside of balls, many young ladies chose fitted dresses that emphasized their figures rather than simply piling on fabric, or outfits with a masculine-style jacket above a long skirt, much like what Charlotte had worn on her last visit to the church.
Of course, women wearing men's trousers in public was still considered improper, so today she once again wore a long skirt that fell to the tops of her shoes. On her upper body was a fitted, light-colored jacket with modest lace trim at the collar and cuffs. Its high waistline further accentuated this body's already slender proportions.
Before putting on the skirt, she also had to don stockings with her maid's help and secure them with garters.
As Lila knelt before her to straighten the tops of her stockings and the hem of her skirt, the intimate contact soon made Charlotte's ears burn. She could only turn her face stiffly aside and look out at the garden.
Only once everything was finished did she realize that, even without being tormented by a hoop skirt or a wig, she had still spent an entire hour before the dressing table.
So this is a noble girl's everyday life... No wonder I remember getting so little actual work done in a morning. Putting on and taking off this "equipment" is a major undertaking every day... Grumbling inwardly, she left her bedroom and descended the carpeted stairs to the ground floor.
Baron Sauron was already waiting in the entrance hall.
Raoul wore a dark red coat today, with the family crest pinned to his chest. A few silver strands threaded his striking red hair, and a rapier that served more as an ornament hung at his waist. A manservant was helping him straighten his silk cravat.
As Charlotte approached, she noticed a faint trace of blue lingering on the tip of the thumb he had rested against his sword hilt.
"Father," Charlotte reminded him quietly, "there's still paint on your hand."
Raoul paused, glanced down, then smiled and said:
"I stayed up rather late last night and didn't notice."
As he spoke, he took a handkerchief from his pocket and rubbed his fingertip vigorously.
Stayed up late... Was he painting in the studio? Charlotte recalled the oil paintings hanging throughout the house, especially the portrait of their family of five behind them, and felt a brief swell of emotion.
Her father was not skilled at managing the family's affairs. Judging by the current results, at least, he could hardly be called competent.
Baron Sauron had once owned several well-situated properties and businesses in Trier. Although they could not compare with the main branch of the family, which held real power, they had been more than enough to sustain a highly respectable life for the baron's household.
Unfortunately, over the past few decades, finance and commerce in Intis had developed at an ever-increasing pace. Private capital, various industries, and profits from trade with other countries had gradually diminished the value of traditional landholdings and property.
After losing one family member after another, the devastating blows had robbed the baron of all interest in Trier's social scene and power games. He had left the capital in a less than dignified fashion, taking his sole remaining daughter back to Suhit City and the old house his aunt had left him.
Life here moved more slowly than in Trier, without frequent dinners and balls. It was a good place for the dispirited Raoul, but that did not mean he could simply live out his aristocratic life free of worry.
The household of Baron Sauron now had an annual income of roughly five thousand gold louis, including rent from his remaining properties in Trier, rents from the barony's land, and the royal family's allowance for members of the Sauron Family's collateral branches.
That sounded like a considerable sum, but the problem was that maintaining aristocratic respectability cost even more.
Repairing the house and maintaining the estate cost money. Employing a butler, cooks, a pastry chef, a secretary, maids, manservants, coachmen, and gardeners cost money. Attending necessary social functions, maintaining relations with the Church and city hall, and upholding the local prestige of the Sauron name all cost money as well.
Once fixed expenses were deducted, very few gold coins remained each year. Yet the respectable baron preferred to stay home painting and reminiscing about the past rather than lower himself to seek new sources of income.
Respectability really is a killer... Charlotte grumbled silently as she straightened the expensive dress that had likewise been purchased out of that budget.
If it were up to her, even if she did not go into business herself, she would at least cut expenses and find ways to invest in more stable industries, rather than live off rents and royal allowances while spending beyond her means for the sake of aristocratic dignity.
No wonder he came slinking back from Trier... Just as that somewhat disrespectful thought surfaced, she saw Raoul raise his head after wiping his fingertip clean and look at her warmly.
The faint disdain she had just felt immediately softened.
Never mind. At least he really does treat his daughter well... And it's precisely because the family doesn't have much ready cash that I need to find a way to make money. I can't pat myself on the back over a few gold louis in pocket money... With that thought, Charlotte quietly strengthened her resolve to improve her life using the knowledge in her head.
Unfortunately, she had yet to recall the details of that knowledge and technology. Several nights spent thinking alone at her desk had all ended in a sigh. Even the idea of plagiarizing a bestselling webnovel had been abandoned because she could not remember any details. All her money-making ambitions remained in the earliest planning stages.
The carriage soon headed west along the broad streets. After crossing the bridge connecting Saint-Roc District to the peninsula, the view outside the window gradually grew livelier.
Unlike the Old District, whose constant expansion had left its layout in disarray, Saint-Roc District was one of Suhit City's oldest and most respectable neighborhoods. The cathedral, monasteries, old aristocratic residences, and numerous Church properties were concentrated here. Stone walls, neatly arranged trees, and courtyards with ornate wrought-iron gates lined most of its streets.
Bols District lay in the middle of the peninsula, adjoining Lower Korus District to the south and the Old District to the north. To the east, it faced Saint-Roc District across the Sona River; to the west, it led toward the Rhine River and the Harbor District, which handled most of the city's waterborne transport. In both location and practical function, it was the true heart of Suhit City.
The streets here had been renovated several times and were paved with smooth stone slabs. Drainage channels ran beneath stone covers along the roadsides, and the shop signs were cleaner and brighter than those in other districts.
Especially after it followed the example of Trier's wealthy neighborhoods by banning the dumping of sewage and rubbish in the streets, Suhit City's newly wealthy, lawyers, doctors, merchants from elsewhere, and provincial nobles eager to follow Trier's fashions all favored buying homes in Bols District.
That included Baron Leon Gustav's family.
Through the carriage window, Charlotte saw merchants in tidy coats speaking to people outside their shops, ladies in broad-brimmed hats entering perfume shops accompanied by maids, several young people carrying books past a bookshop, and a few finely decorated carriages parked outside a café in the distance.
The people here were clearly more at ease than those in the Old District, and livelier than those in Saint-Roc District.
Before long, the carriage stopped outside the residence separated from the bustling street by dark brown wooden gates.
Since someone had been sent ahead to announce their visit, a servant was already waiting at the entrance. Upon seeing the Sauron family's carriage arrive, he immediately stepped forward and bowed, then led Raoul and Charlotte into the courtyard.
The last time Charlotte had fled here late at night, she had had no chance to look around carefully. Only now did she notice that this residence was newer than her own home and more in keeping with recent fashions. Its exterior walls were pale, its windows tall and wide, and simple stone columns flanked the porch. It lacked the heaviness and gloom common to the old buildings in Saint-Roc District.
She followed beside her father into the main building adjoining the courtyard. As soon as they stepped into the carpeted main hall, she saw Baron Leon Gustav coming out to greet them.
Today, he wore a well-tailored heavy coat with a turned-back collar, a powdered, curled wig, knee breeches, square-toed shoes, and stockings. With a composed smile on his face, he looked entirely different from the man who had hurried out of bed that night.
Behind him stood Roselle Gustav.
Unlike the young man who had leaned out from the second floor that night, used a vase to stop Etienne, and then seemed somewhat dazed by the sudden chaos, Roselle looked noticeably more normal today.
He wore a dark green coat with a slightly shorter hem than his father's. Its open front revealed a cream silk waistcoat and a white cravat, while below he wore the breeches and stockings common among male nobles on formal occasions.
His bow to Raoul was proper and natural. Only afterward did he turn to Charlotte.
Their eyes briefly met in the entrance hall.
Charlotte dipped into a slight curtsy and offered the young man who had saved her a courteous smile.
"Good morning, Mr. Roselle."