Chapter 140

40 Seconds [Part 2]

"Emma-sama's dress is looking wonderful as usual, I see." Francesca sighed deeply as she looked at Emma's dress.

The pure white dress was only decorated at the hem with a light green embroidery that matched well with Emma's eyes. Although she was more simply dressed than usual, overall, it created a neat look.

Furthermore, as the embroidery was also splendid, Francesca's eyes were mesmerized by the dress' beautiful white color. When the delicate and pale Emma wore it, it gave off an ephemeral and translucent feeling that made you not think of her as a human, as if she was clad in sanctity.

"T-Thank you... Francesca-sama."

Emma thanked Francesca, but her smile was a little stiff... She felt complicated about this. This was because the dress she wore today was hastily made, it was basically a last-resort, last-minute altered dress. After all, the family couldn't move with the cats on their laps.

The family had used up most of the dye bought from Harold, and their house ran out of money. Emma could only use the botanical dress she wore at the last evening party with the only dye left, which was white, and turn it into a pure white dress.

Of course, because neither the three siblings nor Leonard could move with the cats on top of them, Emma instructed Martha and the servants to do it for her in a small voice to not wake up the cats.

It was really fortunate that the next day was sunny because she would likely wear the dress with half-dry dye if the worst comes to worst. God, thank you for the fine weather.

Unexpectedly, when Emma was putting on the dress and talking to Martha about whether this could deceive others, Leonard, standing to the side, started trembling for some reason.

"...? Father?"

When Emma peeked into her father's face to see what was wrong, Leonard suddenly grabbed her shoulders and shouted, "NO! This dress! Doesn't it look like a wedding dress!?"

"!?"

Certainly, it was a white dress, so it would inadvertently look similar to a wedding dress.

Though, there's no helping it.

"Emma-sama! Let's get married just like this...!" Joshua, who was in a different room, was running toward Leonard's loud voice, and when he saw Emma, he slid on his knees with momentum before stopping right in front of her.

And with gestures that impressed Emma on how smooth they were, he proceeded to propose with one knee on the floor... Before Leonard grabbed him by the neck and threw him out of the room.

"Ouch!"

The sound of Joshua's cry after he fell grandly on his butt was blocked as Leonard slammed the door shut with a bang.

Joshua would later say that he could never forget Leonard's demonic look he saw in that instant.

When George and William worriedly asked what had happened, Joshua replied that he was alright, patted the place where he fell on his butt, and in a soft voice so nobody could hear, whispered, "But I still won't give up..."

♠♠♠

Leonard begged in a sad voice that made Emma and Martha doubt if he was really the same individual who had just grabbed someone by the neck and easily threw another person away.

"Emma, if you wear a dress like this, people like Joshua will come swarming! At least, at the very least, put some embroidery patterns on it!"

"Jeez, Father. You shouldn't have thrown Joshua when he, too, just said that as a joke, you know?"

"...I apologize, Master, but we don't have time to take off the dress, embroider, and put it on again. You need to depart now. Otherwise, you will be late." Martha shook her head to say that it was impossible without looking apologetic at all.

"Ugh... We will make it somehow...! Just the hem! I can embroider it here without Emma having to take the dress off!"

"As I have said, Master. It's. Already. Time. To. Leave!"

"You must not be late for the evening party hosted by the Royal Family."

Martha added that Leonard must have known too. Even here, time kept moving with every moment they spent exchanging words.

"It's alright! I can get it done and dusted in 40 seconds!"

I wasn't sure how I should feel hearing a certain mama's [1] line from my papa...

While Emma was stunned, Leonard sat at her feet and really finished the embroidery work in under 40 seconds...

[T/N 1: Reference to Dola from the movie Castle in the Sky.]

♠♠♠

Author's words: Finally, the friends got to wear the dresses...