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“Ugh, Lorenz, are you sure I have to wear this dress? It’s so damn tight I can barely move in it!” Leonie asked, looking over at the purple haired noble on the other side of the room as best as she could, her garments restricting her movement.
Lorenz turned over to look at his friend, seeing her struggle with the admittedly ill-fitting dress Hilda had chosen for her. She could’ve at least gotten something orange. He sighed, seeing that she hadn’t put it on quite correctly. She really needed help with this. “I’m afraid so, even a commoner must look presentable during these discussions if they wish to be taken seriously,” he explained. “Though you put this on wrong, Let me help you with that.” He walked over, finding the source of her problems being the laces she’d tried tying herself.
As he undid the laces, she let out a breath of relief as her chest no longer felt constricted. “I still don’t get why I have to wear something so fancy for a simple conference. It’s not like they’re holding a ball or something.” she said.
Lorenz looked up at her, meeting her confused gaze before returning to fix the laces. “It’s simply common courtesy,” he said, still focusing on the task at hand. “A noble is expected to look their best for any occasion after all, no matter how mundane it may be. And while you are not a noble yourself, you are still expected to uphold those standards.”
“Even though I don’t know those standards?”
“That is why you asked for my assistance, did you not?”
“Well, yeah.” Leonie had to speak with the Alliance Roundtable about issues affecting her village, and she’d come to her friends for help on the matter. However, she didn’t know doing so meant having to go through so many steps to be presentable. At least her time at the Officer’s Academy had given her noble connections, so she’d gone to the one person she knew would be able to help her, which had been Lorenz. The past few weeks had been spent on learning the proper way to speak, how to act, even how to dress around the nobles. While each lesson felt stranger than the last, she knew it was all for the good of her village. Plus without Lorenz’s help, she’d no doubt make a scene at the discussions. And the last thing she wanted was to be kicked out over something like that.
“There we are, you should be able to move much more freely in it now.” Lorenz said, having finished with the laces. To her surprise, she found she could move without struggle. Why did noble dresses have to be so tricky anyway? The dress itself was still uncomfortable, but she could handle it for now. It was nothing when she remembered why she was here.
“Thanks, this is much better. Though I’m definitely taking this thing off the moment we’re done in there.” she said with a smirk.
“Remember, you are here as a guest of House Glouscter,” Lorenz reminded her. “I have no doubt that my lessons went to waste of course, but remember that you have to keep yourself in check. I can help guide you, but you must be clear and collected when you make your points.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember. Besides, it’d look bad on you if your esteemed guest lost her temper, right?”
“I, erm,” Lorenz stammered as he was caught off guard by her statement. He cleared his throat before he attempted to speak again. “I wasn’t going to say that. The reputation of my house would need more than an outburst from you to suffer significantly.”
Leonie chuckled. “I was making a joke anyway.”
Lorenz felt his cheeks grow warm. “Ah, I see. Right. Good one.”
“Well, might as well get this over with. The sooner we deal with it, the better.” Leonie made her way towards the door, stumbling only a bit on the shoes she had to wear. Why her shoes even bothered when her dress covered them up was a question that bothered her to no end.
“Indeed. I have no doubt that you’ll do splendidly. You’ve only been instructed by the definition of a proper noble after all.”
Leonie just rolled her eyes at his comment. Some things never changed. The two of them left the room, making their way to the conference hall. “So you’re going to introduce me, right?” she asked, making sure she remembered that part.
“Yes, I will be introducing you as none other than my dear friend Leonie Pinelli.”
“Your friend? Not your guest or acquaintance or anything like that?”
“Of course not! You are my friend, it’d be rude to address you as anything less.”
Leonie smiled, his behaviors would never not be strange to her but she was glad for it. “Whatever you say, my good friend.”