Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 2.1 - Chapter SS1

A Place Still Far From Here 

“Tuuli, do you have a second? I want you to take care of a customer for me.” 

“I’ll be right there.” 

When the forewoman’s aide came calling for me, I made sure the stitches I just did were neat, then set aside my needles and took off my apron in a hurry. I quickly checked to see if my hair or clothes had any stray thread or dirt on them. 

...Okay, perfect. Just as Myne had said, my bosses began letting me handle customers once I started keeping myself clean. Not only that, but ever since Mrs. Corinna struck that deal with Myne, she had started borrowing me from our workshop more so that she could ask me more about how to make hairpins. Our forewoman desperately wanted connections to the Gilberta Company, and thanks to my help on that front, she started letting me do more work all at once. 

In the spring I had been one of the lowest lehanges in the workshop, but by summer everything had changed. I was happy about that, but now people in the workshop gossiped about how I was the only one who got to deal with customers. Rita and Laura even complained to my face that the forewoman had started playing favorites with me all of a sudden. They ended up complaining at lunch, too, leaving me pouting while feeling kind of uncomfortable. 

“Don’t complain to me, I’m just doing what Myne told me to.” When I told Rita and Laura what Myne had told me about being polite and staying clean like a representative of the workshop should be, their eyes widened with surprise. 

“Why does Myne know all that? She’s too weak to even go to the forest.” Laura was our neighbor and knew just how weak Myne was. But she was a year older than me and had barely met her, since she was an apprentice by the time Myne managed to get strong enough to go to the forest. She had only really met her when she pulled out Myne’s hair stick at the baptism ceremony and got anxious about it. 

“Myne’s too weak to walk around much, but she uses her head instead and helps Dad work at the gate. She reads letters and does math stuff. Apparently she learned how to talk to nobles and rich store owners while she was there.” 

In truth, Myne had started going to the temple as a blue shrine maiden, but Mom and Dad had told me not to tell anyone about that. Everyone else thought she was going to help Dad at the gate or visiting the Gilberta Company to discuss hairpins. She did go to the Gilberta Company with Lutz sometimes, so it wasn’t completely untrue. 

“Wow, she can read? That’s really cool.” Rita opened her eyes wide with surprise. She lived on the opposite side of the city (with the craftsman’s alley between us), so she had never seen Myne before. Rita being impressed despite that made me happy. 

“Uh huh, Myne’s amazing. She got to know someone from the Gilberta Company while working at the gate, which is how Mrs. Corinna noticed the hairpins Myne made. And then she even bought the rights to the hairpins. Normally Myne would be going to teach her how to make them, but I go instead since she’s too weak to go that far.” 

I decided not to mention that Myne was worse than me at making the hairpins. If everyone learned she was bad at sewing on top of being sickly, Myne would never be able to get married. As her big sister, it was my job to stop that from happening. 

“Hmm. You’re so lucky, Tuuli. You got to go to Mrs. Corinna’s house thanks to her, right? I wish I had a little sister like Myne too, maybe the forewoman would play favorites with me instead,” said Laura with an envious sigh. 

...But a few weeks ago you were saying it must be a huge pain to look after a sick little sister. I felt a little peeved at Laura’s opinion changing on a dime, at which point I realized something and clapped my hands together. If everyone followed Myne’s advice, I wouldn’t be the only one asked to deal with customers. 

“When I went to Mrs. Corinna’s house, like, she was making a super beautiful dress. I asked how to make wonderful designs for nobles, and Myne told me what I needed to do.” 

“What? What’d Myne say?” The two of them, now knowing that Myne’s advice was amazing, leaned forward and looked at me with anticipation sparkling in their eyes. 

“She said I should go to the north of the city on my days off and look at what people were wearing, so I could note down what designs were popular with rich people. She said I won’t know what’s good if I don’t look at good things. So, I was thinking of going to the north on my day off tomorrow. Want to come with me?” 

“Yeah!” 

“Me too!” 

Rita and Laura both jumped on my invitation immediately. I sighed in relief. I had invited them for one simple reason. Unlike Myne and Lutz, who went north frequently to visit the Gilberta Company, I was still so nervous that I never had the courage to go further north than the central plaza. I thought that maybe having two friends by my side would make it easier. 

When the next day came, I finished breakfast quickly and grabbed the clothes I had washed and set out to dry last night. They were the summer clothes I had worn to Corinna’s house. Just having worn them to the north once before gave me a bit of courage. 

“Bye, Myne. I’m going to the north.” 

“I hope you learn a lot there. Good luck, Tuuli.” Myne waved me goodbye. I honestly would have liked for her to come with me, but she didn’t want to since Rita and Laura would be there. She said they wouldn’t walk at her pace and she’d just be dead weight, falling behind and passing out. 

I left home and raced down the steps to the plaza, where I found Laura walking around the well. 

“Morning, Tuuli. Let’s go! Rita’s probably waiting for us already.” 

Laura and I weaved through the narrow alleyways on our way to the craftsman’s alley. We found Rita in no time. 

“Laura, Tuuli. Morning.” 

“Morning, Rita! I was so excited I couldn’t even sleep last night!” said Laura, jumping toward Rita with excitement. We started walking north and almost immediately passed by some kids we knew heading to the forest. 

“Oh? It’s Tuuli and Laura. Going out somewhere for fun? Maybe the market?” 

“Nuh uh. We’re studying. You’re all going to the forest, right? Good luck.” 

We waved each other goodbye and then followed the people heading from the craftsman’s alley to their places of work. Along the way we talked exclusively about sewing and fashion. 

“Hey, Tuuli. Talk about the time you went to Mrs. Corinna’s house.” 

They wanted to hear about the clothes and stuff Corinna had shown me, so I thought back to that day and tried to describe what I had been told. But Corinna had used so many words I didn’t know that it was naturally impossible for me to remember all the details. That reminded me of how Myne would always write stuff down on her notepad thing and look at it when she forgot something. ...I might need to learn to read too. 

There were many carts rattling up and down the street of the craftsman’s alley, but there weren’t any carriages. Most people here wore the same kind of clothes we were used to. They were all patched up clothes bought from used stores. But as we approached the central plaza, the stitching got better, the clothing got more colorful, and the amount of cloth used increased. By the time we started to see people wearing accessories, the plaza was right in front of us. 

We entered the plaza while talking excitedly amongst ourselves. There were a ton of people heading from the plaza to the port in the western part of town, so the fashion was indescribably varied. Not only were the clothes fancier, but there were carriages on the street as well instead of just wagons. 

Rita, whose house was on the far southwest of town, opened her eyes wide after entering the central plaza. “I don’t usually come to the plaza since I can just take the alleys to the market. I didn’t realize so many different people were here. And now that I look... There’s a lot of blue clothes. Maybe because it’s the divine color of summer?” she said, prompting me to focus my attention on the clothes in the central plaza. As she said, it did feel like there were a lot of blue clothes. I looked over the crowd while thinking back to what Corinna had taught me, when suddenly my eyes fell on a woman’s skirt. 

“Wow! That skirt looks amazing. Just a couple of pleats make it look so fancy.” 

“Myne’s baptism outfit was amazing too, wasn’t it?” 

“Myne just pinched up the extra cloth since she’s shorter than me. But they’re the same thing, uh huh. I guess what matters for looking fancy is using extra cloth.” I couldn’t help but smile at Laura’s point. It was true that Myne’s baptism clothes had been super cute and fancy thanks to how Mom and I had altered them. But thanks to that, we got wrapped up in a lot of trouble. On that day I learned an important lesson: Fancy doesn’t always mean better. 

There was the Merchant’s Guild and other minor guilds near the central plaza, so there were a lot of people moving around from a lot of different social classes. But if I paid attention, I could tell which social class someone was from by the clothes they were wearing. When I went to the second-hand store to pick out Myne’s clothes, I learned to match clothes with skin tone and hair color, plus how one could show their social class by how they dressed. Lutz and I had picked dresses that would look good on Myne, but she had picked other clothes entirely. I thought back to that and pointed at a woman walking by with a blouse, skirt, and corset. 

“Look, look. That girl’s not wearing just a dress. If you have extra money you can buy three separate pieces of clothes, right? A blouse, a skirt, and a corset. You can change the feel of an outfit completely by swapping out one part, or like, switching the hem of a blouse, or changing lace on a sleeve.” 

“That’s true! Tuuli, you’re smart.” 

Well... It’s not me who’s smart. 

“Just a bit further and we’ll be in the north of town.” 

We made it to the north end of the plaza without any issue, but everything past there was the land of rich people. Taking the first step inside was scary. We gathered together at the north exit and I looked over my clothes. Laura and Rita noticed that and suddenly fell silent, their expressions clouding as they looked nervously over their own clothes. 

“H-Hey, Tuuli. Are we really going to the north?” 

“You’ve been to Mrs. Corinna’s workshop before, so you’re fine there, right?” Laura pushed me forward, but I just planted my feet on the ground without taking a step. Corinna’s workshop wasn’t too far from the plaza, and she always sent someone to guide me. 

“Is it okay for us to go to the north?” asked Rita nervously, grabbing my hand. 

“U-Ummm... Well, what if we just keep looking at the clothes in the plaza? I haven’t taken a good look yet.” 

“Agreed. There’s still a lot we have to learn here.” 

The three of us walked around the plaza’s fountain, holding hands and paying attention to everyone’s clothes. We circled around it about five times while observing the passersby. But we had come all this way to go to the north, and it wasn’t so easy to stop thinking about it. In the middle of one rotation, we all subconsciously slowed down as we neared the north exit. 

“Tuuli, why’ve you been walking around the fountain like that?” 

“Lutz?! Wait, why are you here?” 

“I’m running an errand at the Merchant’s Guild. You were here when I came and here when I finished, so I got curious,” said Lutz while pointing at the Merchant’s Guild and looking at us oddly. Now that he mentioned it, we really had been looking suspicious. Someone we knew had seen us walking in circles around the central plaza without leaving to the north. 

...Oh no. This is super embarrassing. How should I explain this to Lutz? I cradled my head and trembled in embarrassment, but Laura just laughed at slapped Lutz on the shoulder. 

“The truth is, Tuuli asked us to go to the north of the city with her to look at rich people clothes, but she got too nervous to leave the plaza. And... Wait. Lutz, you’re wearing really nice clothes. Where’d they come from?” It looked like Laura still didn’t know that Lutz had been hired by the Gilberta Company. She looked over his apprentice uniform from head to toe, tilting her head in confusion. 

“...This is the apprentice uniform for the Gilberta Company. I’ve gotta get back to work, but you can come with me to the store if you want.” 

“Wha? Really?!” We had found an unexpected guide, and I was overjoyed. With Lutz taking the lead we finally managed to leave the plaza and head north. Since only rich people lived here, there were way more carriages than wagons and everything looked different from the south of the city where we lived. There were a lot of thin, tall buildings in the south, but here every building was bigger and once you reached the wooden third floors they started getting painted with pretty colors. 

“Tuuli, haven’t you been here a few times?” 

“I have, but coming here still makes me nervous. I’m not ready to go on my own yet.” 

Lutz shook his head with exasperation, but still took us all the way to the front of the Gilberta Company. He then dashed inside, saying he had to get back to work. 

“...Lutz really is a full-grown apprentice here, huh.” Laura looked up at the Gilberta Company with her mouth hanging open. Myne and Lutz always went inside like it was nothing, but to us it was like an impregnable fortress. Even if we wanted to go inside, the guard by the door would probably turn us away. 

For some time we stood in front of the Gilberta Company, observing the people passing by. There were more people wearing frilly clothing than before, and at the very least, we didn’t see anyone wearing patched up clothes. Compared to what we had seen in the plaza, the designs were a lot more consistent and regular. That probably reflected the “trends” that Myne and Corinna had been talking about. 

“I can tell the clothes rich people wear are amazing, but I don’t think I can make them myself. I don’t have the cloth to practice with, and I don’t even know how I’d start with making them,” said Rita with a shrug. 

Laura nodded in agreement. “These aren’t the clothes our customers want, for sure. It feels like they’re out of our reach, really far away from what we can do. Maybe for studying we should just stick to the plaza.” 

I had worked side by side with Rita and Laura for a long time now, so their opinions being entirely different from mine shocked me. I wanted to stay here and look at more rich people clothing. I wanted to practice making them myself like I had with Myne’s baptism outfit, even if it meant making tiny clothes for dolls. I wanted to get better with everyone and move to a better workshop when our next lehange renewal came. But both of them gave up immediately, thinking it was too much for them. I realized that, at some point, our goals and ways of thinking had changed. We didn’t share the same dreams anymore and that left me at a loss. 

“Want to go home for today?” I asked, since they looked really uncomfortable. They nodded and we began our journey back to the plaza. But my legs and heart felt heavy. I walked while staring at my feet, complaining on the inside. 

...Why are we going home already? We came all the way here! I haven’t seen enough yet. The two of them think these clothes are too much for us, but I don’t think so. I don’t want to think that. 

After a bit of walking, I stopped and turned around. I could see customers entering the Gilberta Company. They were probably there for Corinna, since their clothes looked a lot like the examples I had seen in her room. ...So pretty. I want to look at them more. 

Thoughts of the dresses for nobles I had seen in Corinna’s house passed through my mind. It was exactly because it was out of my reach that I wanted to study and practice more. I wanted to become good enough to join Corinna’s workshop. Lutz and Myne had managed to get accepted by the Gilberta Company, so maybe if I worked hard I could get accepted too. 

...I guess I’m thinking like this because of Myne. Myne always worked desperately hard to get what she wanted, and she always succeeded. Especially since she had Lutz, who walked down his own road in life even after his parents rejected him. I didn’t want to settle for anything less. I didn’t want to think something was impossible for me, or out of my reach. I wanted to charge forward on my own path. 

“What’s wrong, Tuuli?” The two of them stopped walking ahead and turned around. I looked up and waved at them with a smile. 

“Sorry. You can go home without me. Now that I’m here, I want to learn until I’m satisfied.” 

The Gilberta Company was still a distant dream for me, but I wouldn’t give up. At the very least, I needed to work hard until I could pick out better clothes than Myne. I would be ashamed of myself as a seamstress if I couldn’t even beat her when it came to clothes. 

I turned around and headed back to the Gilberta Company, then stood and observed the clothes of people passing by. 

...I won’t lose to Myne. Because, come on. I’m her older sister!