Chapter Text
A soft melody pervaded the drawing room, a woman humming a lullaby as a young maid servant tended to her hair, which stood out with an unusual crimson hue. She was dressed to perform before the nobility, in a red and white suikan , her delicate, heart-shaped face painted with white powder. The servant finished combing the woman’s hair; the wavy, crimson locks were pulled back into a loose ponytail and fastened with a silver hairpin.
“It is done, Lady Gio.” The maidservant bowed low to the floor, the girl’s slight frame trembling imperceptibly, and presented her mistress with a hand mirror.
Gio pursued her reflection, her critical gaze lingering over each feature of her appearance in an almost longing manner, before cutting back to her servant.
“How do I look?” she ordered, “Tell me.”
Terror seized the maid servant’s expression, wide eyes filling with dread. Her voice quivered. “B-beautiful, as always, Lady Gio.”
“ Wrong ,” Gio countered sharply, and she reached up to pull the silver pin from her hair, crimson tresses coming undone and spilling over broad shoulders. Before the maid servant could react, Gio drove the silver hairpin through the girl’s hand, piercing flesh and drawing blood. A scream of pain, the servant clutched her injured hand, lurid crimson sprouting from the open wound. Casting the hairpin aside, Gio criticized the maid servant’s work, “It’s sloppy.”
The servant whimpered.
Cruelly, Gio commanded, “Do it again.”
“Yes, Lady Gio.” The servant retrieved the silver hairpin, and set to work again with trembling fingers. Blood dripped down the back of her hand and around her wrist, crimson rivulets mixing with the striking hue of Gio’s hair, two reds indistinguishable from one another.