Hold Me Tight, For I Am Unlovely

Chapter 9 : ...Hey, I defied death for this.

"Young miss, Duke and Duchess Medicci has departed from the estate. They asked to give this note for the young miss when they left." The maid came in with a knock, on her hands was a gold plated platter. I had grown used of seeing opulence being wasted like this, it doesn't surprise me anymore.

The servant who's face was unfamiliar to me, and oddly enough, also unfamiliar in Leticia's memories. went near my bed and handed me a platter with a letter on top of it, head lowered, and stand respectful. I spared a glance at the letter on top of the platter, peeking my face from behind my book that I was holding.

...Yes, 'holding' was a appropriate word, not 'reading' or 'looking'. Because the book on my hand was something that I grabbed without a thought when the maid knocked.

I don't even know if the book is upside-down or not.

"Just place it here." I motioned to the large table that I was occupying. The maid carefully placed the platter on the study table with shaking hands. Something that I dearly noticed but chose to ignore wholeheartedly.

When the maid left with a final bow, looking a lot like she was scurrying away from a beast and not a human. I snapped the book on my hand shut, and tossed it aside without much of a care.

Huffing when I recalled the maid's hasty retreat, the only I'm thing I could do was cross my arms and scrutinize the letter that was on the platter, not at all convinced that it was a normal. The irrational fear of the unknown came up abruptly, and with that, I had a hard time reigning in my suspicions.

Seeing that I was getting nowhere with just crossing my arms and staring, I grabbed the letter with nothing but a twitch of my lips.

After the impromptu meeting with my parents, Leonardo and Vittoria didn't hold hold me back too much and let me go inside my room, right after I asked for all related documents that had the name Leticia on it to be given to me. Along with the compensation from the king, and all the other things related to that too.

Despite how my parents exchanged glances above my head, somewhat hesitant to take all the important stuff and just give it to me just because they were asked to. They still nodded their heads towards me; after all, they couldn't say no to the Leticia then, of course they also couldn't say no to the Leticia now. 

And besides, I have a feeling that they were more worried that would go back to my room and never come out again compared to the document part of my request. Though I can't say for sure that their worries were uncounted, because it was proven and tested that Leticia would do just that if she wanted. 

I couldn't afford to be careless with these things and miss a big opportunity just because my parents withheld information from my grasp just like what happened to the past Leticia. 

There's also that, the worry of my future was always looming on top of me, ah perks of knowing my fate I guess.  It was apparent now that I am partly to blame with what's happening. And by that I meant how the story was shifting very chaotically against my prior impression. I wouldn't be able to know what would happen after this.

For the time being, even though the future was extremely blurry now because of my actions. Knowing the personality all of the major characters was enough for me.....maybe.

But all of this was shoved disjointedly in the back of my head. For it was useless for the time being.

Taking advantage of the fact that they let me back inside my room, with the promises of giving everything to my whims and desires. I took the chance to change into comfortable clothes, and not the sleeping clothes that I had on. However, my heart ultimately grew tired the moment the maids brought dresses that looked like could feed an entire village for a whole year.

'Such lavishness would get me killed one day, oh my, oh my.'

Because of course, the daughter of the Duke can only be caught dead if she wears the same dress twice outside.

Instead of growing grey hairs on top of my head of gold because of how extravagant everything was, I asked the maids to draw a bath for me instead. Although I know that the bath here was.....undesirable in more cases than one compared to their modern equivalent ( knowing this courtesy of course by Leticia's memories). I didn't realize that it was that bad; not until the bathtub that looked like it came out from straight from those Victorian TV shows was in front of me.

Needless to say I was indignant looking at the supposedly 'luxurious' bath.

I know that Leticia was already a sore thumb in this era, given her advocacy in using water in a means of cleaning amongst the people in the noble society. Whereas other nobles usually prefer getting cleaned using magic tools.

Despite preferring washing herself in means of cleaning, she only goes to bath twice a week and still use magic tools to clean herself conveniently. So that wasn't worth praising at the very least. 

Another extra thing would be; because of her going to bath twice a week, she, at the very least have the bare minimum in bath essentials.

In my thoughts, I peered at the rag and scrub made out of sea sponges without any soaps or oils and wrinkled my face distastefully.

'In their words, "only commoners use those unsophisticated ways to bathe".'

Mentally, I shudder. I made a note to myself to improve the hygiene around me if I have time.

I know that the people in his world have a vague perception of the concept of 'hygiene', but seeing the bath that I used truly was a culture shock.

Truly a culture shock.

After taking a rather unpleasant bath, the maids took it upon themselves to clean me again using magic tools. At this point i let them do as they pleased. Because right after that, they dressed me in one of those tight dresses, and I again made a note to change something about that too.