The revolving door collapsed, the shop sign shattered.
Mary stood in front of Liliel's clothing store, looking at her huge shop on the street, now half-destroyed by the earthquake.
Stepping over the rubble and collapsed beams, Mary walked into the shop.
The paintings in the front hall corridor are all exquisite and priceless.
But now, most of them have become sheets of oiled paper soaked in mud and water.
Only one painting remains relatively intact on the wall.
"Redemption..."
Mary walked up to the painting and softly read its name.
The deity in the painting carries a cross symbolizing human sin, and his body is gradually consumed by flames as he walks step by step into the depths of hell.
With trembling fingertips, Mary gently stroked the drawing paper, sighing that fate seemed to have foreshadowed that the end of the world would eventually destroy everything.
After passing through the long corridor in the front hall, Mary arrived in the lobby of the clothing store.
This place used to be filled with clothes racks, counters, and cabinets... but now, only messy items are scattered all over the floor.
Carefully stepping onto the stairs leading to the second floor, Mary entered her own private space.
Everything here, from the royal palace, is part of the furnishings and decorations.
Back then, when Todd was busy dealing with affairs in the south, she stayed overnight in the royal city. Not wanting to deepen the conflict between her and Deirdre and her daughter, she took the initiative to move everything from her palace room here intact.
Upon entering the private residence, the first room you encounter is an outer room filled with wardrobes and wooden mannequins.
The earthquake disrupted the layout, but relatively speaking, everything in the room was well preserved.
On the wardrobe were evening gowns, hunting outfits, capes, culottes… all clothes that Mary had designed and made herself. The diverse styles and designs transformed the room into a sea of fashion.
After passing through the wardrobes and opening two heavy screen doors, Mary entered the innermost room on the second floor.
This is a place similar to a private studio, filled with all kinds of books, tools and models related to composition, painting, tailoring and architecture.
Mary walked around the room and breathed a sigh of relief when she found that most of the things inside were intact.
Mary righted the chair that had fallen to the ground, sat down, and took out a notebook with a gold-embossed leather cover from the drawer of her desk.
Open the notebook; it's filled with all sorts of notes and sketches.
Mary turned to a page where a man was drawn in pencil, kneeling in front of a woman, holding a sparkling ring in his hand.
Turning to the second page, the woman in the painting is wearing a pure white wedding dress and fixing her makeup in front of a mirror.
On the third page, witnessed by many guests, a man and a woman stand face to face on the altar, and a priest is reading something.
On page four, a man in a tuxedo and a woman in a wedding dress hold hands and dance gracefully in a large ballroom.
Upon seeing this, Mary, with a faint smile on her face, put down her notebook and slowly walked to the window.
In the corner by the window, there were two model dolls covered with white cloth.
Mary carefully lifted one of the white cloths, revealing a doll dressed in a sharp men's tailcoat.
Similar to the one on Earth, the men's tailcoat had a common wide collar, and the design was short in the front and long in the back, extremely slim-fitting. Both the length of the coat and the size of his body were very close to Todd's physique.
Mary then lifted another white cloth.
It was an absolutely stunning wedding dress.
In terms of design, it completely abandons the heaviness and complexity commonly found in women's dresses around the world, and adopts more concepts such as lightness, hollowing out, and long skirts.
Embroidery, lace, pearls, crystals, ribbons, pleats, three-dimensional flowers, and feathers—a variety of elements are perfectly combined, making this wedding dress look more like a work of art.
After removing her original clothes, Mary carefully took off the wedding dress and slowly put it on.
In the mirror, the woman in the pure white wedding dress looked like an angel descended from heaven, holy and beautiful, and even the dim room seemed to brighten up.
Overjoyed, Mary lifted her skirt and hurried to the hand-cranked phonograph placed in the corner of the room.
She carefully placed the prepared master disc into the phonograph, then shook the lever, and Mendelssohn's "Wedding March" instantly began to play.
Lifting her veil, Mary mimicked the scene from the TV series she had seen in the spirit world, holding a bouquet of silk flowers made of colorful cloth, and slowly walked from the doorway towards the doll.
She bowed her head, a happy smile on her face, as if she were in a church, amidst the cheers of countless guests, walking towards the most perfect moment of her life.
As she walked to the doll dressed in a tuxedo, she slowly lifted her veil, looked at it, and her expression was full of happiness.
The first song had just ended.
Then the second song started playing immediately.
Etta Jones' "At Last" is a song that is often played by newlyweds around the world when they dance together.
As the lyrical and beautiful music began, Mary stretched out one hand and held the other hand up in the air.
Her body moved like an elf, following the melody of the song.
Her steps were light, her dance graceful, and her eyes gazed into the void before her. In the distance, a very familiar face slowly appeared before her.
"Todd" took her hand, put his arm around her waist, and smiled as he looked at her face.
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