"puff."
But in the end, Belmode couldn't hold it back and laughed out loud.
"Um?"
The kimonoed woman in the room didn't seem to notice her little flaw. She tilted her head and looked at her with some confusion. Then she followed her line of sight and looked at the book on her lap that was held upside down. .
For a moment, Belmode saw very clearly that the delicate face of the kimono woman showed an expression of extreme astonishment.
Soon, the shock turned into confusion. She seemed to have no idea how she could make such a mistake.
Then, the confusion turned into blushing, and then into struggle. She was probably thinking about how to make a "reasonable" defense for herself.
But in the end, the look of struggle disappeared, leaving only the self-defeat after giving up the struggle completely.
However, in just a few seconds, these expressions and reactions flashed across the faces of the kimono women one by one, leaving young Belmod stunned.
"Ah... This is really a major mistake in my life. I originally wanted to leave a good image. If I had known better, I should have gotten up earlier..."
Sighing deeply, the woman in kimono looked at herself with a trace of self-abasement on her face. She leaned back on the chair and looked at the ceiling of the room with blank eyes.
Until this moment, the ladylike image she had deliberately created before completely collapsed.
But Belmode was a little happy.
Because compared to the traditional lifeless ladies in this country, she actually prefers the image of women in kimono at this moment.
By the way, it turned out that those strange noises she heard outside the room were the noises made by women in kimonos getting up in a hurry?
It's obviously almost afternoon...
【What a good sleeper. 】
"Well, forget it."
But this self-destructive look only lasted for a short while. The kimonoed woman quickly recovered from it, straightened up, and smiled again and looked at Belmod who was still standing at the door of the room.
"Little sister Karasuma, if you don't come in, all the heat in my room will disappear?"
The old butler had quietly left at some point. Hearing this, Belmode quickly took off his boots, entered the room, then turned around and closed the shoji door behind him.
During this process, the kimonoed woman sat on the chair and looked at her with a smile.
"I heard you came from the other side of the Pacific?" the kimono woman asked.
"um, yes."
Although she felt that a kimono woman would be an easy person to get along with, Belmod was still a little nervous. She nodded and knelt down on the cushion by the fire.
It was only then that she noticed that there was only one chair in the room, and it was under the kimono woman.
Not being able to ask directly from the host, nor sitting too casually, Belmode could only sit down in the traditional Japanese female postures that she had seen a few days ago, and because she had never experienced anything like this before. Practice, so the sitting posture is actually very awkward.
But she didn't realize it at the time.
"Your hair is so beautiful and the color is very unique. Is it naturally curly like this?" The kimono woman asked again, her eyes falling on Belmode's long silver curly hair.
"Yes, it's natural." Belmode nodded.
"It's so special...can you let me touch it?" The kimono-clad woman waved to her and made a somewhat unreasonable request.
Belmod just hesitated for a moment, then stood up and walked towards her.
Then very naturally, the woman in kimono stood up from her seat, stood behind the chair, and motioned for her to sit on it.
"Well, there doesn't seem to be much difference in the feel..." Standing behind Belmod, the kimono woman reached out to hold up her hair and said seriously.
"Because it's just normal hair..."
Belmod heard the words and replied, but he seemed to feel that it was not good to just answer such a sentence, so he spoke again:
"I think your... hair is also very beautiful."
She suddenly remembered that she didn't seem to know the name of this kimono woman.
"Huh? Thank you."
The kimonoed woman accepted her compliments without any humility, and then withdrew her hand, but did not let Belmod leave the seat. Instead, she walked to the cushion where she had been kneeling by the fire, and said with a very standard The posture sat down.
It was only a long time later that Bellmode learned that the kimono woman had noticed her extremely awkward sitting posture from the beginning, but she was afraid that calling her over to sit down would hurt her and embarrass her, so she deliberately touched her hair with her The excuse allowed her to sit on the only seat in the room.
"Little sister Karasuma."
Sitting quietly in front of the fire, looking down slightly at the red coals inside, the kimono woman suddenly asked.
"Do you know why the head of the Karasuma family came here today?"
Her eyes were still on the fire in front of her, and the expression on her face suddenly became serious.
At that time, Belmod had a vague feeling that the kimono woman seemed to be saying something very important, but she was completely unaware of it at that time.
"I don't know, the head of the family didn't tell me..." Belmod shook his head and answered her truthfully.
"That's it..."
The kimono-clad woman nodded, her face flushed by the fire, but she still maintained her sitting posture with her head slightly bowed, as motionless as a sculpture.
The atmosphere in the room suddenly became a little depressing.
In a daze, Belmode seemed to see a deeply hidden emotion in her eyes.
This emotion was very complex, containing worries, expectations, doubts, and even fears. These were things that Belmode could not understand.
But eventually, those emotions all turned to relief.
"I suddenly remembered that little sister Karasuma probably doesn't remember my name anymore, right?"
As if she had put down something very heavy, the kimonoed woman breathed a sigh of relief, raised her head, and looked at Belmod, with that smiling expression on her face again.
As her mood changed, the originally depressing atmosphere in the room completely disappeared at this moment.
"Yes, yes, I heard from the old housekeeper before that we met once when we were young..." Belmode replied.
"Yes, I have indeed seen it."
The kimonoed woman nodded, then raised her hand and gestured beside her.
"You seemed to be only three or four years old at the time. I remember you were just that tall, right? Well, but I'm not much older than you... Keiko."
The kimonoed woman suddenly spoke. She was very jumpy when she spoke, and Belmod had to concentrate very hard to follow her.
"Eh?"
But even so, she still didn't react immediately at this moment.
"Hatoyama Keiko, this is my name." The kimono woman said to her with a smile.
"Can't you forget this time?"
(﹃)
(End of chapter)
