Hunter and Mad Scien Chapter 97

The butler ca down not long after. However, he had nothing in his hands. Cider frowned.

"Count, the sumr formal wear you wore when you were fourteen is too small."

"That can't be right?"

"I'm certain. You grew more than a span from that fall until the following spring."

Was that so? Cider, searching his mory, soon agreed. That's why he had to have all his sumr clothes newly tailored the following year.

"Fortunately, there are clothes that the previous count wore that would fit."

The previous count? Cider showed clear displeasure, tapping the armrest with his finger.

"Who are you trying to dress in such rags?"

"Rags!"

"What else would you call clothes over 40 years old if not rags? Esperanza, you wouldn't want to wear 40-year-old relics, would you?"

"They're so well-maintained they could rival clothes from 10 years ago!"

The butler pushed back, seemingly hurt in his pride. But Cider was equally stubborn.

"Fine, let's say they're as clean as new. Anyway, bring sothing from my clothes that's small in size. If it's clothes tailored in advance around that ti, it should fit reasonably well. We can make quick alterations as needed."

The butler, unable to overco his master's command, turned around with a displeased face. Even then, the sound of the door closing was barely audible. Esperanza glanced at the closed door and asked.

"The previous count—isn't that your father? Why do you dislike him so much?"

Cider answered with a smile.

"I don't like you wearing my father's clothes."

"Ah, I see."

Sohow it seed awkward again. Cider appeared unbothered, but Esperanza found it difficult to treat him as she used to. And Cider didn't seem particularly regretful that Esperanza was being awkward. She wasn't sure whether this was sothing to be disappointed or relieved about. It seed better to give up thinking deeply about it.

A maid who managed the clothes ca down and took Esperanza away, saying she had found clothes. Cider waved his hand cheerfully. He looked delighted.

Ah, right. This is fun.

Esperanza, who had been swept along frantically, also decided to just enjoy it.

'When else would I get a chance to try cross-dressing if not now?'

Her steps quickened slightly. It wasn't like she was a manga protagonist infiltrating a school in disguise. And at the age of twenty-seven, no less! It was embarrassing yet amusing.

"You suddenly seem full of enthusiasm?"

"It's fun, isn't it?"

"Wearing n's clothes? Miss, is this really alright?"

Is it not alright? Esperanza, who had lived in this world as a Hunter with more freedom in dress than even 21st-century modern tis, was actually quite ignorant about social taboos regarding clothing. She knew that 'a lady wearing tight pants' was considered improper by the standards of this era, but if she cross-dressed, she'd be treated as a man, so wouldn't it be fine? As long as she wasn't caught.

Joan of Arc was burned at the stake for wearing pants, but wasn't this an era where airships and warships flew using magic power?

"Miss Esperanza, just because you wear n's clothes doesn't an you'll look like a man."

The maid said, shaking her head.

"Well, let's try sohow."

If she didn't look like a man, that would be fun too. It's not like they'd capture her and burn her at the stake. Even if they tried to catch her, they wouldn't be able to.

The clothes the maids brought from Cider were so clean it was hard to believe they were from 10 years ago. They showed almost no signs of wear.

"These are clothes he never wore even once. They were tailored in advance, but he grew too much..."

The maid giggled as she laughed.

The clothes were quite large on Esperanza's body, but thinking of Cider wearing them, they felt amusingly small. Like drama protagonists do, she wrapped bandages around her chest and changed clothes.

"Do I look sowhat like a man?"

"With your hair hanging down like that? I brought a wig too!"

It was Annie who brought the wig. Word must have spread, as all the maids with spare ti had gathered. Everyone was very excited.

"They're enjoying themselves too, yet they lecture ."

"If you're going to do it anyway, it's better to enjoy it. Wait a mont."

Stuffing the long hair into the wig made her head look a bit large. Esperanza thought as she touched the curly blonde wig.

Actually, it was surprising that this house had wigs. Though the mansion lacked nothing, there was no way the master of this house with his biased tastes would have sothing like a blonde young man's wig.

"It was the previous countess's hobby."

One maid said solemnly. Ah, the previous countess. Esperanza sighed lightly. She owed quite a lot to that person.

"Now, Miss. I'm going to pin the clothes. Please stay still."

Annie ca with clothing pins. Though Esperanza wouldn't blink even if soone held a knife to her face, sohow the clothing pins seed a bit scary.

The clothes were overall large, so there were quite a few places to take in. Even though she was roughly the sa height as Cider from that ti. The shoulders were broad and the sleeves were a bit long. The vest needed similar alterations, and they decided to shorten the jacket sleeves and length as well.

After finishing the top, the pants remained. Annie busily pinned around the waist. They had to take in the right thigh and cut the length too. At this point, it seed no different from making new clothes.

"Do we have ti to do all this? Don't you all have other work to do?"

"Mrs. Lux excused us. She told all the girls who are good at sewing to co here."

The maids around Esperanza's age chattered about how nice it was to get out of kitchen work while performing magical alterations. Esperanza, who at twenty-seven had never progressed beyond fumbling with a sewing kit during middle school ho economics class, couldn't take her eyes off their fairy godmother-like sewing skills.

"It's done!"

The maids with free hands had found a gentleman's hat and dress shoes from sowhere.

With the blonde curly wig and Cider's formal wear, she felt like she could be Cider's younger brother. Though she wouldn't go for such an easily discovered setup.

When she pulled the hat down low, the maids giggled and adjusted her outfit.

"Do I look sowhat like a man?"

"Hmm. Umm. First, go see the count."

"Right. Ask the count about that."

So do I look like a man or not? Grumbling, she strode down the stairs when Annie's voice—whether cheering or teasing—ca from behind.

"Miss, your walk isn't like a gentleman but like a knight!"

Of course, Esperanza had always walked like this.

Standing in front of the reception room door, she felt oddly nervous. Should she knock? She repeated placing her hand on the doorknob and taking it off, pondering sothing she wouldn't normally consider.

"Aren't you coming in?"

Cider asked from inside the room.

"How did you know?"

"Your footsteps are distinctive."

Right, like a knight. In thirteen years' ti, they would have said 'like a Hunter.' Esperanza shrugged and opened the door.

Cider sat with his chin propped up, quietly watching. The sight of Esperanza wrapped in his clothes—though clothes he had never worn—entering his reception room. It was indeed a good choice not to dress her in his father's rags. Esperanza suited young Cider Claiborne's clothes quite well.

"More thorough than I expected. You even wore a wig of unknown origin."

"They say it's from your mother's collection."

"Ah..."

Cider, rarely at a loss for words, let out a hollow laugh. Esperanza grinned.

"Do I look sowhat like a man?"

"Hmm."

Cider, avoiding an answer with a short throaty sound, approached with a cravat from the side table. Gentle fingertips lifted the shirt collar. Esperanza pulled her head back.

"I can do it myself."

"Indeed."

She shut her mouth. There was no way Esperanza, who had only ever dealt with elastic school uniform ties, could tie a cravat with complex knots.

"Stay still. I'm doing sothing I don't even do for my own neck."

Cider, who casually boasted without boasting that he was tying a cravat he didn't even wear himself, tied a pretty knot with delicate and careful touches for soone doing sothing he didn't do for his own neck.

Esperanza, who had been glancing at eyes shadowed by thick eyelashes, was startled and pulled back when he suddenly looked up with just his eyes and smiled.

It felt strange to hear soone else's heartbeat so close. While his face looked cleaner and more relaxed than when flipping through books, his heart a span away was beating constantly.

The hand that finished shaping the soft silk cupped Esperanza's cheek and lifted her chin.

"Pretty."

Cider said to Esperanza, who tried to avoid his eyes while pretending not to hear, deliberately curving his lips upward.

"It's fine. There are many n prettier than won. We can call you a beautiful boy. About seventeen years old?"

Knocking off ten years in one go. Her half-departed senses returned.

"Don't you think that's too unconscionable?"

"While deceiving even your gender, over just ten years? As long as no one asks, it doesn't matter."

True enough.

As long as she wasn't caught, it didn't matter. After all, she had cross-dressed just to enter a university lecture hall.

However, when Esperanza arrived in front of the lecture hall on the second floor of Pilson Hall at the Royal Magical Engineering University, she changed her mind. It did matter.

There are won here?

Several female students in simple attire of blouses and dark skirts passed by carrying thick textbooks. Though very few compared to male students, it wasn't to the degree that they couldn't even enter the lecture hall.

Esperanza, dressed as a seventeen-year-old blonde beautiful boy, thought: Cider Claiborne is a fraud.

'No wonder he smiled too much when talking about cross-dressing.'

If she had known this, she wouldn't have cross-dressed from the beginning! Esperanza clenched her teeth, completely forgetting that she had enjoyed it halfway through. She resolved that once she returned ho, she wouldn't let this slide.

But right now, she had to enter as a student to attend Professor Cider Claiborne's class. Esperanza threw open the lecture hall door.