It was finally the day of the ball.
Melissa was so excited she ended up not falling asleep. When the maids had entered her room, they were surprised to see her already awake. Her eyes shined with excitement.
The maids were pretty surprised why Lady Melissa had woken up earlier than usual but decided not to question their mistress.
Melissa took a quick warm shower. After that, she dressed in some of her usual clothing, as she decided to wear the red dress later on when the party was about to start.
She arrived at the venue a few hours before the party started to ensure everything was okay.
Lady Melissa was now ready to go to the ballroom in the Shayla estate.
Lady Melissa came in the door to be greeted by the butler, Derick. He had already been organizing the items for the ballrooms.
"Put the chairs a bit to the left, no a bit to the right now. Just a bit more left now. There that's perfect."
Derick Noel Stanbury was telling the servants where to put the table chairs, etc.
"Good morning Lady Melissa."
Derick dully greeted Lady Melissa.
"GOOD MORNING LADY MELISSA!"
The servants' voices echoed throughout the ballroom.
"Good morning to you too."
"I'm currently helping the servants decided where to put the tables and chairs. Would you like to check on the food with the maids?"
The servants were shocked at how informally the butler had talked to Lady Melissa.
They thought that the butler was disrespecting Lady Melissa.
But Lady Melissa didn't care.
"Okay, sure."
Now the servants were confused. How could Lady Melissa let the butler speak to her so informally? Especially since she was a lady of a family with such high status, she could punish the butler or, worse, fire him.
Lady Melissa was merrily jumping up and down, and she was bursting with excitement. In just a few hours, she would meet those three men that would help her with her rebellion against the Crown Prince.
Lady Melissa was the epitome of optimism right now. It was as if all she saw in the world was sunshine and rainbows. Well, she never had a debut in her past life, thinking it was unnecessary and unimportant, that it would just be a waste of time.
And she never held a ball before, so this was her first debut in both her lives and the first ball she ever hosted.
Melissa was optimistic, really optimistic.
Melissa jogged to the Shayla estate's kitchen.
Finally, Lady Melissa arrived at the kitchen after a few minutes of jogging or so.
"Good morning, Larosa Scantio. How are the preparations for the ball going?"
"Good morning Lady Melissa. Me and my coworkers are currently preparing it right now, just as you speak."
"May I see the food?"
"Certainly, right this way."
"GOOD MORNING LADY MELISSA."
"Yes, yes, good morning to you too."
"I will be trying out some of the food."
Lady Melissa walked to a plate with steak in it, the steak was well cooked, and there was wine to complement its taste.
Melissa couldn't help but take a knife to cut a bit off the steak.
The.Steak.Was.Amazing.
Melissa was crying, at this rate. At the flavor of the steak, it was just SO GOOD. She had never tasted anything better than this in both her lives.
She would go through anything to taste a steak like this again.
She immediately took more and more of the steak, and within a few seconds, the steak was as good as gone.
"Urp."
Melissa burped, ah nothing was truly better than food.
And the wine.
It PERFECTLY complimented the steak and brought out its exceptional taste.
"What was the wine you put with the steak called?"
"Ah, that? It's a recent idea we got. The wine is called Cabernets, and it fits well with the red steak, bringing out more of its flavor. We were having quite a difficult time seeing what would match with the steak, and we ended up choosing Cabernets. Out of all the wine we had tested with the steak, none was better than this one."
"How interesting…. I'll tell father to raise your salary. Continue making good food, and I might give you more rewards in the future."
"Yes, Lady Melissa."
The chef was delighted as it had been a long time since he had gotten a raise in his salary.
After a bunch of more check-ups on the food, Lady Melissa finally agreed that the food was ready to be served for the guests.
Melissa headed back to the venue, only to see Duchess Noel Stanbury practically done with everything needed to be prepared for the ball.
"Ah, you've returned, I see. It looks like everything in the kitchen is ready to be served for guests?"
"Yes, it is. It looks like you're done with the remaining preparations needed for the ball."
"Yes, it's ready for the guests."
"Lady Melissa! Please come here! We need to do your makeup. We only have three hours remaining before the ball starts! If we rush, we might be able to do your makeup and everything within three hours."
It was finally the moment Lady Melissa had been dreading. The makeup, she loved it in her past life. But now, she realized how it was unnecessary and thought that it was just irrelevant. And oh god, lipstick.
She detested lipstick. She hated wearing lipstick the most out of anything. The way how her lips would taste when she tried drinking water was just simply disgusting to her.
And don't even get me started eating food with lipstick or drinking from glasses with lipstick. The lipstick would stain the glass, which was one of Lady Melissa's pet peeves. Besides, it would be harder for the servants and maids to clean glass with lipstick than a glass without lipstick. So she didn't understand what was so good about wearing lipstick.
What was so beneficial about it then practically most noblewomen would wear them?