The Noble House of Rozen, Part 7

As promised, she was taken to a large, cream colored room, in which she supposed was the manner of bathroom that this world held. A sturdy, deep bathtub stood empty in one corner, with what looked like a spout attached through the floor. A shelf with towels and soaps stood on the other side of the room, with a large mirror on the wall aside the doorway. A chair stood next to that, throughly perplexing Rie.

It was hard to ascertain what level of technology this world had attained, given the diverse uses of materials she had seen in what she supposed was a high class environment. Mary stepped in and started busying herself with gathering towels and an assortment of what Rie assumed was soaps. 'Will she insist on bathing me herself?' Rie wondered, and realized she would have no other real choice, as she had no knowledge of how to use the facilities in this room.

Inspecting the large mirror, she saw nothing strange about this aside from her own image. What looked back at her was a small girl, with long, disheveled purple hair, cat-yellow eyes, with a slightly thin build. A set of cat ears sat atop her head, slanted slightly to the front. Her face was not too different from her first life's face, but her eyes were slanted in a sharp gaze, with cat-like pupils. Incidentally, her clothes were not so different from what the goddess had worn, but in a simpler style, and in white. It had various small stains of dirt, likely from her fall. Her left ankle was slightly swollen, though she had scarcely felt it since she had arrived.

Mary came from behind her, placing a hand on top of her head gently. "Have you not seen a mirror as large as this one before?" She asked, expression kindly. Rie nodded, supposing that it was a luxury item that might be more expensive than anything else inside this room. Mary said nothing else about it, and went to the tub. Watching her in the mirror, she learned quickly how exactly it was operated. Mary touched the crystalline shape on top of the spout, and it glowed faintly from inside. Water started to gush from it, filling the tub.

Turning away from the mirror, Rie went over to the tub, starting to pull off her clothes. As her current body was that of a child, it would not be strange. Mary helped her when she struggled with getting it over her ears, setting the simple dress aside, neatly folded.

Rie was bathed and dried in under an half an hour, and was offered a set of fresh clothes roughly her size. It was a relatively simple long-sleeved light brown dress paired with a embroidered green vest and leather belt.

"Sit down, I'm not done with you yet." Mary said, pulling over a stool, comb in hand. Complying with the stern woman, her hair was tied neatly into two braids, going over her shoulders to fall on her chest. Rie frowned, looking at herself in the mirror. Tugging on a braid idly, she wondered if this was standard here, or if Mary meant something in dressing her this way. The duchess did not dress anything like this and neither did Mary. Mary's own clothing- a simple black dress with a white apron over it- was paired with a bun, resembling the maid wear of Victorian England. She wore no cap, but it felt as if she was still being treated differently. The unease of it curled in her stomach like a poisonous snake, twisting her thoughts in unpleasant ways.

She would have to speak to someone about this world, and figure out where she stood here.