I Wish You Well In Your Next Love, My Love

Then, when Gerard’s coming-of-age day arrived, he turned down the grand banquet being held in his honor and rushed to my house.

Wearing the dress I had bought, I spent the night with him for the first time. I cried, and Gerard cried too. It was a complete mess, but it was an unforgettable night.

“The dresses are toward the back over there.”

At the indifferent clerk’s directions, I headed to the farthest corner of the shop.

Perhaps the area hadn’t been maintained in a long time, because dust billowed everywhere.

‘Good. A sign that they’re cheap.’

It was a dress I would only wear once anyway. There was no need to spend a lot of money on it.

When I turned the corner of the shop, an enormous mound of clothes rose before me. Judging from the colorful lace sticking out here and there, those seemed to be the dresses.

Apparently, even hanging them up had seemed like too much effort, so they had simply been tossed there.

“…This is my first time choosing clothes like this too.”

I crouched in front of the mound and pulled out whichever dresses came to hand. But every single one was in terrible condition. Being covered in unsightly wrinkles was the least of it, and the fabric was ragged like an old cleaning cloth.

This one is completely torn… Ugh, what is this yellow stain?

It was a luxury to worry about the design or color here. I only needed to find one intact dress. After rummaging through the pile for quite some time, I finally found one in relatively decent condition.

It seems a little big for me, but I think I can alter it and somehow make it wearable.

My crouched legs had just begun to go numb, so I braced my hands on my knees and stood. But then,

“…Why is it so expensive?”

For a moment, I thought I had seen it wrong. I checked the price tag, lifted my head for a moment, and checked it again, but the price hadn’t changed. It was more than ten times what I had expected. Just in case, I asked the clerk, but all I received was,

“It’s written right there.”

I stood there deliberating.

Should I pay this much for a rag or not?

There probably wasn’t anywhere cheaper than this. But its condition was far too terrible for the price. After agonizing over it again and again, I eventually left the shop empty-handed. The clerk’s weak “Goodbye” followed me as I trudged out.

* * *

The air was chilly, but the sun was hot, so the weather was bearable.

I sat on a bench and idly swung my feet. I didn’t want to return home without accomplishing anything.

Even if I went home, I would only be unable to do anything because I was worrying about the dress again.

“It must be expensive because this is the capital.”

Having been born and raised in the capital, I had thought prices were uniform throughout the empire regardless of region. But whenever I traveled to other regions for temple volunteer work or went on trips with Gerard, I realized it.

Prices in the capital were uniquely insane. It was an unbearably difficult place for a commoner like me to live.

Had it not been for Gerard, I would have left the capital long ago.

While we were dating, I hadn’t accepted the expensive gifts Gerard showered me with, but it was true that I had relied on his financial means to some extent. Now that I was alone, I had barely managed to hold out for three years, but I was slowly reaching my limit.

It was also true that, as everyone said, there weren’t many things a fourth-rank could do.

“Miss Louize?”

At the voice calling me, I lifted my gaze from the tips of my feet. A large man was blocking the blazing sunlight as he looked down at me in surprise. He seemed familiar. That silver hair and those bright, round eyes…

“Ah!”