Clink, clink.
As Luke finished a light meal made from the byproducts of the cooking practice and was doing the dishes, he said.
“Alright, if you work hard like this, it will be fine. It’s not something you can master all at once. Oh, and one more thing. Never stray from the recipe. Do you understand? You are not yet capable of creating your own dishes.”
“But Pyris said it was delicious…”
“…That’s because that child’s taste is unique, so just forget it.”
“Okay.”
Diana followed Luke’s words well without being too stubborn.
Honestly, he had some worries about what to do if she didn’t listen to him, but he was relieved that she was cooperating.
After finishing the dishes and wiping the moisture from his hands on the apron, Diana asked as if she had been waiting.
“Sis! What’s next?”
“Oh, right. Next, then.”
Luke thought for a moment, then quickly opened his mouth.
“Perhaps it will be about appearance. Beauty is a woman’s most outstanding weapon.”
In fact, when he experienced a transformation in the past, the Forest Keepers had even personally applied various cosmetics on him because his skin had become somewhat rough. Women were desperate about their appearance.
That incident was evidence of how women thought about their appearance.
In this era, where the variety and detail of cosmetics had increased dramatically compared to the past, where there was hardly anything worth applying other than a slimy liquid containing flower scents and slime extract, appearance was undeniably important.
“Got it!”
Diana nodded her head.
An 8-year-old child well understood that the prettier one was, the better.
After all, wasn’t there a saying that goes:
“It would be something that would make you angry, but I hold back because I see your face.”
However, Diana tilted her head.
“But how?”
She understood that appearance was important.
But that wasn’t something you could change just by trying, was it?
Once born, changing one’s appearance was difficult.
Polymorph was an extremely expensive and dangerous magic, and the costs incurred regularly couldn’t be taken lightly either.
Moreover, the range of transformations was determined by one’s skeletal structure and constitution, so it was questionable whether one could just become beautiful regardless.
“I will teach you how to take care of your appearance.”
However, while one couldn’t change their appearance, they could take care of it.
To put it metaphorically, it was like a flower.
A dandelion can’t become a rose, but it can become a more vibrant dandelion than other dandelions.
Diana, still a child, might not need to take care of herself so seriously just yet, but it would be good to start with basic care from an early age.
“Ah ha!”
Having understood, Diana nodded her head.
“Alright then, Diana. Stand up for a moment.”
“Okay!”
Diana sprang up energetically.
Luke momentarily took off his apron and draped it over the dining chair, then began to examine Diana from head to toe.
He knew a bit about body care himself.
“Okay, let’s start with how to comb your hair.”
——
Diana had hardly ever combed her hair by herself.
Long hair was difficult for a child to manage alone, and her nature didn’t particularly enjoy combing her hair.
So, combing her hair wasn’t as joyful as learning to cook.
“Ugh, this is hard.”
How could anyone do this alone every time?
Diana slumped to the floor.
Seeing this, Luke let out a sigh.
“This is the basics. I was planning to teach you how to use cosmetics to manage your hair and skin next…”
He thought that perhaps it was a bit too early for Diana to be managing her appearance. Just then, Diana, who seemed to regain her energy, sprang up and exclaimed brightly.
“Makeup?”
Girls usually showed a lot of interest in makeup.
Wasn’t it common for little girls to take lipstick from their mother’s vanity and apply it to their faces?
But Diana was an orphan.
Dayton might have men’s cosmetics, but there wouldn’t be any lipstick, so she had never had that experience, making her even more curious now.
“Ah, I wasn’t planning to teach you about makeup.”
In fact, makeup was also an unknown territory for Luke.
No matter how thoroughly he managed his own body, he had never really gone around applying makeup like women did daily.
After all, grooming one’s appearance was secondary, and he had never particularly cared about the task of decorating himself to appear beautiful to others.
He had, however, had some experiences where he relied on servants to prepare himself for occasions where such efforts were needed.
“Makeup…”
But seeing Diana’s sulky expression, he thought it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to let her experience it at least once.
Moreover, it just so happened that there were a lot of cosmetics that Yerna had bought displayed on the vanity.
That was actually a somewhat strange sight.
Because, in general, Yerna didn’t wear makeup very often.
When she had bought all those cosmetics, he hadn’t said anything thinking that she must have wanted them for herself, but now that he thought about it, he was puzzled as to why she would let them sit there like that.
It didn’t seem like a case of impulse buying, considering her usual spending habits; Yerna didn’t strike him as someone who enjoyed wasting money.
‘Well, I did say Yerna could use them freely if she wanted…’
She probably wouldn’t complain if he used a little bit.
In fact, that was the very reason for the existence of the many cosmetics on the vanity.
Those cosmetics were things Yerna had bought after noticing Luke’s interest in cosmetics worth over 500,000 gil at the World Tree of Beriton.
Generally, it wasn’t recommended for a 10-year-old child to wear makeup, but maybe the reason Yerna bought those cosmetics was that she thought it was too much to prevent a child who might die before becoming an adult from doing things they might want to do.
However, Luke was unaware of any of this.
Yerna hadn’t drawn attention to it, fearing that it might make Luke feel indebted and that he would seek to ‘repay’ that in some way.
After a while, Luke searched the computer for “how to do makeup,” “how to use cosmetics,” and then stood in front of Diana.
Diana, sitting in a chair, looked at Luke with eager eyes, and Luke bore the responsibility of meeting her expectations.
“…Then, let’s begin.”
“Okay!”
Luke, for the first time, started to apply makeup.
——
A mage, someone who pursues the truth and knowledge of the world.
A synthesis of reason and knowledge, a follower of logic, a coldly calculating harmonizer, a betrayer of nature.
And finally aiming to grasp the power to reshape the world.
Thus, they were figures of great expectation while bearing many burdens.
However, there were certain things one should never expect from such mages, and among those was ‘aesthetic sense.’
“Hmm, hmm…”
Luke frowned, making a subtle expression while groaning.
This result was strange.
He had followed the meticulously curated information from his search exactly.
But something felt off and strange, and he just couldn’t grasp what exactly it was that was wrong.
Did he move his hands incorrectly? It couldn’t be.
As a mage, he prided himself on being able to draw much better than an average person.
Although he couldn’t definitively call himself a painter, since he couldn’t make true artworks, he could accurately reproduce objects or landscapes.
Yet this…
“Is it done?”
“Ah, um, just a moment please.”
There must be something he missed.
As Luke pressed his finger to his forehead, pondering, Diana, tired of sitting still, began to fuss.
“Ugh…this is frustrating…”
Thus began Luke’s dilemma: ‘What kind of work is necessary to salvage this makeup?’
However, no matter how much he thought with a mage’s brain, he couldn’t come up with an answer.
He couldn’t think of any way to fix it, and beads of cold sweat were flowing down.
“…”
Ultimately, Luke had no choice but to give up on fixing it.
But now if Diana saw her face, she might burst into tears.
If he, a mage, felt discomfort at the oddness for reasons he could not determine, what would an 8-year-old girl feel?
This situation was better left buried.
“Let’s just wash your face. Don’t look in the mirror.”
“Hmph, I’m curious…”
“Come on, stop being stubborn and hurry.”
Luke pushed Diana’s back, but her curiosity was stronger than that.
Swish!
“Ah! D-Diana!”
Diana immediately turned her head to look at her face in the mirror attached to the vanity.
For a moment, Luke seriously considered unleashing a bright light to block Diana’s view, but projecting a powerful light into a child’s eyes was far too dangerous, so he had no choice but to watch her actions unfold.
And then.
“Gasp…!”
Diana took a breath.
It was undoubtedly shocking; her face had turned into a strange mask.
Luke clenched his eyes shut and recoiled in preparedness for the expected wailing.
However, the result was different from what Luke had expected.
“Is that…really me?”
Diana gazed at her reflection in the mirror, her eyes sparkling like little stars.
It was a new version of herself, and that captured Diana’s interest rather than instilling fear or anxiety.
With her pale complexion, rosy cheeks, thick eyebrows, and cherry-like lips, Diana found her appearance reminiscent of a princess doll.
“…D-Do you really like that look?”
“Yes, it’s so pretty…”
“Hah, haha…”
Is that so?
Perhaps it was his own aesthetic sense that was off.
Was that strange feeling just a mere feeling?
After all, he had a 5000-year gap in sensory experience.
The aesthetic standards could be different from a modern-day child.
“Ah, in any case, it’s time to wash your face. I’ve heard that cosmetics aren’t very good for a child’s skin.”
“Got it!”
With that, he sent Diana to the bathroom, and just as he turned to look to the side.
Luke was astonished.
“What now, Py? What have you done…?”
“This is fun!”
There stood Pyris, laughing and painting her entire face with bright red lipstick.
“You should come to the bathroom too.”
