CH 179

“Mm?” I let out a confused sound as I couldn’t quite make out what she said.

Julieta jerked her head up, her blue eyes shining strong without her usual timidity. In a stubborn voice, she said, “I want to wear a gray dress. No, I’m going to wear a gray dress.”

A gray dress, all of a sudden? I tried to dissuade her. “Julieta. As Bellonet said, gray is too genteel. It’s your debutante, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity…”

Bellonet instantly reacted with a grimace at that, seeming to recall how insincere I was in choosing my dress. At the time, Mayer chose a scarlet fabric in the end, with the reason being that it was the same color as my eyes. According to him, it would look well on me with some silver embroidering? But the thing was, while a debutante happened only once in a lifetime for others, it was the second time for me. I couldn’t help but lose interest. I paid no regard to the incredulity on Bellonet’s face as I continued speaking. “If it’s because you don’t like red, then there’s blue, pink, and even green. Any one of them would go well with you.”

Julieta shook her head staunchly despite my persuasion. In a strong voice seldom heard from her, she stated, “I like gray. Gray is… the color of your hair, Vice-captain. It’s the color that gave me courage, that changed my world… It’s the most impressive color in my whole life.”

I was speechless. I had never thought of the color gray in that way. It wasn’t that I hated gray, it was just… a little annoying. It was why, after possessing Jun’s body, I swore to make it so no one would gossip about the color of my hair, nor ignore support mages. But I had never once thought that my gray hair could become the color of courage and hope for somebody. It moved me more than I had expected and gave me a ticklish feeling inside.

Seeing me lost for words, Julieta looked worried if I was offended by chance. Her determined voice from a second ago was gone like a lie, and back was her small and timid self. She continued speaking in a mumble. “That’s why I want to wear gray. I feel like I can become as strong as you that way, Vice-captain.”

Sevi and Nova, who had finished taking their measures, happened to hear her words. Sevi asked, surprised, “Oh, Julieta’s choosing gray as well?”

“It can’t be that you guys are also…?”

I cast an examining look at the tailor apprentice behind Sevi and Nova. As expected, I saw gray mixed among the fabrics she was holding. Sevi shrugged as he proudly said, “It’s the symbolic color of our unit, isn’t it?”

“Don’t go off symbolizing somebody’s hair on your own now.”

“But the special unit was chosen by you, Vice-captain, and your hair is the color of your mana. It deserves to be our symbol. I bet a part of why the Dark Knights are famous is because our captain has black hair,” Nova added.

There was no relationship at all between the Dark Knights and Mayer’s hair. Putting aside Sevi, it made me laugh to see even Nova talk nonsense. Julieta was being stubborn for once, and the boys were joining in too.

Failing to bend their obstinacy, I shook my head in resignation. “Fine. Whatever. Everyone can go gray.”

“Yay!”

“You’ve given permission, then!”

Seeing Julieta smile brightly with the others, I couldn’t bring myself to say no. Well, she should wear what she wanted.

Seeing the way things were going, Bellonet swiftly stepped forward to add to the kids’ opinions. “Even among gray fabrics, materials like velvet or silk have a gloss to them that shines like silver. It’s elegant and beautiful. The fabrics supplied to the imperial palace are especially delicate and fine, which make for an even more graceful-looking attire.”

What a relief to hear, even though she previously said that gray wasn’t favored for a debutante dress. I sighed upon seeing Bellonet’s abrupt change of stance. The tailor seemed to remember her words from earlier too as she gave an awkward smile.