To Live Again, For the First Time!

"Now tell me, what do you think of me?"

Grace asked with a playful smile and fervent eyes while pointing at her own face.

"Hm?"

Emilin tilted her head, showing her confusion while asking Grace to explain at the same time.

"Well, what do you think? My age? Horoscope? Hobbies? Bloodtype? How would you profile me?" She elaborated.

There was a moment of silence as Emilin thought of how to respond while wondering whether anyone else would respond to Grace seriously.

Well, she wasn't anyone else so it didn't really matter, plus, it would be rude to leave someone's question hanging unanswered when they asked so directly.

It wasn't as if it was a question about herself or an invasion of privacy either.

"Around 19 of age, has a passion for makeup, believes in horoscopes. I assume you also believe that people's personalities can be affected by their blood types, so not a type B. Maybe a little superstitious too?"

Emilin worked with what little information was directly handed to her, though she would have come up with a whole lot more if she took into consideration the organization and placement of Grace's materials all over the room, the cleanliness, the comparison between the areas with makeup and those with clothes and other things, down to the details of her shades and colors and even the clauses on her hands.

There was a lot she could go off of, but she didn't bother seeing as this wasn't any serious scenario, there was no point, it would have been a little bit of an overkill if she had.

Though uncertainty laced her every word, Emilin still said everything as statements as if there was a certain level of confidence in her answers.

Then again, everything Grace had said previously could have simply been to mislead her.

There were a couple of points that Emilin was quite sure of, while others that she couldn't possibly know.

For example, the horoscopes, Emilin could see various small calendars and merchandise for a certain horoscope, one that didn't come as shocking to anyone who had met Grace, so it was clear that she paid attention to such things, but most other things Emilin wouldn't know unless she lived in Grace's mind.

After the words dropped Grace fell into a stomach clutching laughter.

It was anything but graceful, but it was contagious enough that even Emilin had an awkward smile on her face, the laughter making Grace look exceptionally brilliant.

"You're wrong about two things," Grace lifted two long thin fingers after she could finally breathe again.

The reason for her laughter was still unclear to Emilin.

How was she to know that all other people who had been questioned by her previously had all just sat there in silence?

"But I do have to say, those type B people have truly ruined my reputation. Oh, the woes of being a type B who looks into blood types and characteristics, always misunderstood!"

She was completely indignant, or so it seemed.

Grace was so dramatic that Emilin soon started questioning whether she was a makeup artist or an actress.

She would probably be able to fit into both characters if she wanted to.

Grace had either practiced before, or she was just a natural.

"Then what's the second?" Emilin couldn't guess which one it was, but she was leaning towards the superstition seeing as she had just thrown that in for fun earlier.

"Should I show you?"

Grace still had her ever prevailing playful smirk on her face, gracing all with a row of pearly whites.

Emilin nodded with attentive eyes, not knowing what to expect from Grace.

If it's just something like not being superstitious or not believing in horoscopes, they shouldn't be anything to show, right?

Then there were only so many options left to pick and choose from.

Grace turned the chair Emilin sat on around so that she was facing the mirrors of the dressing table, moving Emilin a little to the side so that she had some room to accommodate herself in front of her reflection.

With all this suspense that Grace had created for herself with her mysterious yet playful smile, Emilin was half expecting some magic trick to occur right in front of her face.

Which in hindsight wasn't all that far off from what really happened.

Grace first expertly removed the scale-like gems from her face, one by one, delicately and carefully with extreme precision.

After removing them from her face, she placed them back down in a small glass case-like container, where the form didn't change, then squirting some water for cleansing.

Followed by which she took the makeup remover and gently wiped off her face after removing the fake eyelashes and some other accessories, all the while looking at Emilin through the mirror from the corner of her eyes.

Slowly, the decadent makeup from the sea was wiped off, and only a bare face was left.

To Emilin, it was truly magical. It was as if she were watching live as the little merperson completed the rest of her transformation into a human.

Front row seat too.

"Tada!"

The end product was the youthful girl who stood in front of Emilin with a *Are you surprised* expression on her face paired with the appropriate hand gestures.

Emilin was truly surprised by this change, taking her time to admire Grace's skills.

In front of her now was a fair girl of white skin and black hair that had been let loose, reaching her small back.

Emilin was no longer able to see her green highlights either.

If one didn't know better, Grace right now would be the epitome of an obedient young girl without another thought or care in the world, even Emilin herself would have nearly been tricked if she hadn't met Grace in her other form first.

But most importantly, Grace looked a whole lot younger! And she already looked quite young before removing her makeup.

"Then, can you guess how old I am now?" Grace questioned once again.

Normally, in a conversation, asking a girl about her age was suicide.

No matter if you thought her to look 5, 50, or 100 one was to never comment about it, especially if you don't know their real age!

An absolute Taboo!

And if the other person was asking you to guess their age, they either wanted to dig a hole for you, or they liked to torture themselves and you alike!

You never really knew what a girl was after, after all, some may want to look older, while others would like to look younger.

There was no right answer, only wrong answers!

Especially when they might get annoyed if you get the answer on point first try, thinking that their efforts had gone to waste.

If you guessed them to be younger than their actual age and they wanted to look older, you were dead.

And if you guessed their age, aiming higher than it was in reality and they wanted to look younger, you were even more dead!

It was getting stranded in a road with 3 dead ends and no more paths, a deserted island surrounded by sharks.

Quite pitifully sad.

And Emilin was in that exact situation, 3 dead ends, the brick piggie's house had also blown away while goldie locks had been eaten up.

Nothing was right, okay?!

"17?"

"16?"

Emilin had decided to go from her original answer down so that she wouldn't offend the other party.

It was clear that she was younger than she had originally guessed, she just didn't know by how much.

"Bingo!" Grace's hand formed a two-finger shooting sign as if she had just shot a balloon in a carnival, hitting the mark, a celebration was in order.

"16," Emilin repeated to herself.

How ludicrous.

Though she had previously guessed 19, that was in fact already her giving the young maiden face, having thought that she was at least in her 20s.

Thankfully she didn't, or she might have made an even bigger fool of herself after finding out that that very same girl, Grace, was just 16, the same age as Noah, the model.

It was mind-boggling to Emilin how that happened.

The charming, seductive, enchanting young merperson transformed into an obedient-looking, calm, young girl of high society that exuded grace.

"How did you do it?" Emilin asked in curiosity and Grace, with her usual smile replied.

"It's magic, and magicians never reveal their secrets," Grace countered.

"Oh okay," Emilin didn't push it, to which Grace was actually a little helpless about.

Emilin wasn't going according to the script!

'Wasn't she supposed to ask me again and again until I gave in? Wasn't she supposed to look at her with suspense and admiration as they would when looking at someone they would want to get close to?'

In the end, she was still a young maiden who liked the attention she received due to her personal skills.

Grace pouted.

'Humph, not cute at all.'

In the end, seeing as Emilin wasn't going to give in any time soon, not that she even knew there was something to give in to, Grace had to raise her hands in defeat.

But she moved on from that defeat really quick.

"Well, secrets can't be told, but I can show you right?" Grace said mysteriously, with a finger placed lightly on her lips as if she was about to do something naughty.

Emilin looked up at her from her seat, waiting for Grace to elaborate, but it never happened.

"Then let's do it!"

"I'm going to strip you bare!"