Chapter 50: Live To Sienna Pt.50
“It’s big enough to look like a floor rug, but it’s definitely a garment. Still, you’re stepping on a woman’s skirt, aren’t you?”
“Oh! I’m sorry.”
Maybe he didn’t know that it was a real skirt, but Carl stepped back a couple of feet. His footprints were clearly stamped on her white dress. He examined her mood as she sighed. The act now was his fault, and he had to look at it.
“If you’re going to come to see me soon, then how come you’re here already?”
Sienna said nervously. Carl didn’t even say he’d come today.
“Why? Did you want me to show up at the ceremony and hold hands with you?”
“Isn’t that possible? I’ve never thought of joining hands with you or have the prince enter the ceremony with me, to begin with.”
“…”
“It’s terrifying to know that someone who’s going back and forth between life and death on the Castro border shows up at the ceremony to marry me. If that had happened, then the look on Queen Arya’s face alone would have been worth seeing.”
“I’m sorry. I guess you must have really hoped that I’d show up at the ceremony to see her crumpled face.”
“It’s regretful, but you’ll have to promise me to do that next time. Could you bring me that glass of water over there, please?”
Carl looked at her with a puzzled look. As a prince, he had never had to run someone’s water errand. There was a twitch in his attitude as he laughed out since she was asking for it as if it was nothing.
“There must be a dragon planted into your heart. I thought it was weird since you were just sleeping on a day like this.”
It was a long time ago that he arrived in this room. Stepping up on the edge of Sienna’s skirt was also done by watching her sleep in a strange position. He handed her a glass of water, even though he was grouchy.
“I haven’t had a good sip of water since this morning because I had to wear this crappy dress.”
Before the parade began, Jane tried to pass her some tea, but her tailor deprived her of that tea. For half a day, she literally couldn’t drink a sip of water, so she took the glass from him and gulped it down. She swallowed the glass of water so pleasantly that she looked as if she was a satisfied general.
There must have been a reason why the tailor wouldn’t even let her drink water. The corset tightened so hard that the water seemed to have stayed up within her chest.
“But I’m glad you’re here, Your Majesty. Ah! I guess it’s okay to call you Carl now.”
“You’re used to calling me Carl anyway.”
“When did I ever got used to it? I called you the Crown Prince over and over again, tediously.”
“You mixed my name, Carl, around with your lord, your king, and your prince.”
“Oh… did I do that? If I did, please forgive me.”
Since she was a part of the royal family now, she didn’t have to attach formal titles to the royal family. Sienna was married to Carl. Currently, she is an imperial nobility, which had given her the right to call him more comfortably and to sing about like this.
“I was desperate for Carl’s help anyway.”
“My help?”
“Yes. Please take off this wedding dress!”
“…”
When he had given no answer, she continued, thinking no.
“In fact, it’s my husband’s duty to strip me of this torture outfit. I know quite well that you didn’t want this wedding. Who would like it? Honestly, you didn’t even show a booger at the wedding, so do you think I felt great as well. I had a hell of a hard time. I’m so tired after the wedding and the imperial wedding ceremonies.”
“I didn’t want this marriage?”
“With all due respect, why would you even want to marry me?” Sienna added as an excuse. “It was a marriage Carl didn’t want. I don’t want to impress someone who doesn’t like me. I mean… more than that, are you sure that you’re really not going to take this off for me?
“How do you take it off?” Carl said with a deep sigh.
“Please unbutton the back. I can’t reach it because of my hands.”
Carl looked at her awkwardly. Sienna noticed that he was agonizing over how to unbutton her skirt without stepping on it. She then spoke with her head lifted.
“You can step on my skirt and come closer. If you just untie the shackles of my back, I won’t blame you even if you spit on it, let alone having your footprints on my skirt.”
“I’m no rascal, and I don’t go around spitting as I like.”
“It’s just a metaphor. Jeez!”
At her urging, Carl took a seat behind her with a helpless expression. He reached out and handed Sienna’s drooping hair forward.
“Why would you think that I don’t want this marriage?”
Carl was curious as he arranged her hair. He never said he didn’t want this wedding, but Sienna always said it as if it were obvious.
She brought up such a remark before.
‘I feel sorry for having to hold a wedding alone, but I think Carl is not in a comfortable position either. Even though you have your beloved Fair Duchess, you need to tie the knot with someone like me whom you don’t know much about.’
Carl felt strange when she said those words.
‘Why does she keep pressing on that I obviously love Bluebell? She could argue that it’s purely for political reasons? Then again, how can she be so sure? No, does she want me to have feelings for Bluebell, so she’ll think I’ll keep my promise in five years?’
Carl straightened Sienna’s hair with a complicated-looking expression. As his cold hands touched her back, Sienna squirmed in her spot immediately and let out a sharp sound in surprise. Carl felt sorry for her reaction. Sienna then spoke as an excuse.
“Have you been outside for a long time? Your hands are like ice.”
“Is that so?”
He then lifted his hands to touch his cheek. Still, he wasn’t sure if it was cold or not.
Sienna heard a sarcastic sound. She looked back, and Carl was rubbing his hands like he was trying to start a fire. She spoke in a soulful voice.
“Sir Carl is a person I can’t figure out.”
“You’re the one whom I can’t make out, let alone try to grasp.”
“Is that so?”
Carl turned Sienna’s hair forward again to see how hot his hands were. This then revealed her pale nape.
Behind her were buttons tightly clasped on her back. The buttons were so small that it slipped through his fingers. As Carl moved his wrists, Sienna turned her head to see what the itchy sensation climbing up her spine was.
“Stay still.”
“That’s why you should stop wiggling about and take it off quickly.”
“What on Earth?”
Carl focused on the small buttons as his breath swept Sienna’s back, tickling her neck.
“There’s a lot attached.”
“That’s right. What in the world was the person who invented this thing thinking? Why would he think that a person could wear this?”
Sienna had no reason to grumble. Still, her nerves were all over him as he unbuttoned her dress.
Carl was also wary of this situation. After less than ten minutes, they felt like they were being intimidated.
“I’ve undone all of it!”
When Carl tried to get up, Sienna grabbed him.
“Please untie the strings inside, not just the buttons.”
“What?”
“The dress is fine, but there’s something even more terrible within it.”
She blamed the corset for still tightening her breath. When Carl untied the cord of the corset with a solemn expression, Sienna started taking a few deep breaths and lowered her head.
“Oh, I think I’m going to live.”
He glided cautiously down the hem of her dress.
“Sir Carl!”
At Sienna’s call, Carl peered at her with an agitated gaze, ‘What now?’
“I’m sorry, but could you look for a change of clothes?”
He looked everywhere in the room, even though he was grumbling about as he did it. However, no matter how much he searched, there seemed to be no clothes around.
“There’s none. Like, at all?”
“Well, there’s those curtains and tablecloths.”
It was true. Usually, following the right ways, the maids did not have to set aside a set of clothes in this room, to be exact. Sienna sighed again. She couldn’t stay like this forever. Thus, she asked Carl to bring her a tablecloth.
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