"Girls, girls...! Come on now, do you think our queen will wait for you?"
The chubby woman who had stepped between them had a very croaky voice. Her eyes were fixed on Lael.
Noa pursed his lips. "Did she just call me a girl?" he muttered, while Lael glanced past the woman at the people behind her.
She saw several individuals whose status as garmentmakers was made clear by the different fabrics draped over their shoulders or tied around their waists, as well as young women examining one another's dresses. At that moment, Lael realized the time had come.
She parted her lips to say something, then hesitated, remembering that this duty now belonged to Noa. She silently prayed he would not make a mistake.
As they followed the chubby woman, whose hair was tied into a bun with an extravagant pin, Lael noticed some of the young women behind her calling out to her. Forcing herself to smile, she greeted them.
One of them remarked, "Oh, your dress is so lovely."
Lael only thanked her, trying to brush the girls off politely. She glanced at Noa. While speaking with the tailors, Noa kept his head bowed, scratching the back of his neck as if trying to make himself smaller.
Then, one of the girls deliberately bumped Lael's shoulder. "Why don't you say something? Has a frog caught your tongue?" she teased.
The others joined in laughter. "Don't worry, dear. The silence rule doesn't start until a few steps ahead."
Lael realized that merely smiling wouldn't silence them, so she said,
"Your dresses are beautiful as well."
Just as the women were about to continue the conversation, a shrill cry from the woman ahead of them made them all turn toward her. She stepped between them, separating the young women into a different line. Forcing them to keep their distance, she began examining them.
"Quiet! You'll remain as silent and expressionless as if you were attending the funeral of a distant relative. No exaggerated expressions, no sounds of any kind. No smiling, and absolutely no looking at the queen's eyes. Understood?"
As Lael thought to herself, Then where are we supposedto look?, the woman stopped right in front of her, as if she had heard her thoughts, and gave her a brief scrutinizing glance before speaking.
"Your eyes will stay down. You can spend the time by staring at the patterns on the carpet. Don't make me have to tell you again."
The young women nodded in agreement, and Lael followed suit. After inspecting their outfits for a moment longer, the woman finally moved away and went to speak with the garmentmakers.
At one point, Noa looked at Lael with visible concern, but when she gave him a faint smile. He seemed to relax a little.
When the woman finished her lecture, she allowed the young women and the garmentmakers a moment to speak with one another for the last time.
Lael quickly walked over to Noa.
Seeing the tense expression on his face, she said, "Calm down. I'm the one who's supposed to look nervous here."
She cast a furtive glance at the chubby woman, who was glaring irritably at the young women.
Noa shrugged his shoulders uneasily. He always did that when he was nervous. Then he ran his tongue across his dry lips and said, "I didn't think the atmosphere would be this suffocating. I'll wait for you to come back here. Be careful."
Though Lael silently agreed with him, she only laughed it off and bid him farewell before rejoining the other young women.
They walked a while longer before reaching the manor where the queen resided. As the palace servants gazed with admiration at their dresses, Lael noticed a few men smiling at her, and she returned their smiles in kind.
When they arrived in front of the Queen's manor, the chubby woman was about to turn and say something again, but she stopped when a woman—whose authority was evident even from the dangling ornament in her bun—stepped in front of them with several attendants.
"Wait, a few touch-ups are needed."
The attendants beside the authoritative woman carried small boxes in their hands. The woman turned to them, took the boxes, and began applying essences to the young women's faces.
"You must look like a porcelain doll!"
Before the young women could understand what was happening, the woman grabbed their chins one by one and brushed the essences onto their faces. In a short while, Lael's eyes widened when her chin was suddenly seized.
The woman examined Lael's face more closely than she had the others. Lael instinctively raised her hand to push away the grip on her chin, but before she could, powder was patted onto every side of her face, forcing her to shut her eyes.
"My, my! There are so many blemishes on your cheeks."
When Lael heard this, she fixed her eyes on the authoritative woman.
Noticing Lael's angry gaze, the woman tightened her grip on her chin and added a few more strokes to her lips.
All her life, Lael had heard cruel words about the freckles on her cheeks, and for them to be brought up here —expected, yet still unwelcome— was bitter. As the insults rushing through her mind made her eyes well up, a single tear slipped down her cheek.
Scolding herself, she quickly wiped it away without drawing attention. She didn't really care whether the powder had smudged, but she didn't want to be scolded for that as well.
"Alright, move along," the woman finally said.
Lael lowered her gaze to the floor and followed the steps ahead of her. Deep down, she wanted to turn back to the woman and say the words she deserved, but having come this far, she couldn't afford to cause trouble now.
Because she had been instructed not to raise her head, she had no idea what kind of place she was in or what sort of people were before them. But it was clear the queen was only a few meters away.
While staring at her shoes, she tried to focus on the refreshing scent filling the hall instead of letting the silence around her unsettle her.
It was as if herbal tea had just been drunk; she could hear the wind blowing through the open windows and the rustle of silk curtains swaying in the breeze.
The refreshing aroma of the tea brought a faint smile to her lips, and she had already forgotten the instructions given to her. After a few hurried steps, however, she came to her senses and straightened her posture.
"Introduce yourselves to our queen in order, and state your region," spoke a foreign male voice.