Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 4.4 - Chapter 9

The Archduke Conference Approaches

Having been advised to learn about the old technologies before selecting what new thing was best, Brunhilde began interrogating Rihyarda in detail about outfits of the past. It didn’t take long for the two of them to become rather invested in the discussion, particularly since they cared more about fashion and accessories than most. Even Philine and Lieseleta started to listen to Rihyarda’s speeches with interest.

As I watched on with a warm smile, Ottilie entered with a letter of invitation. “Lady Rozemyne, Aub Ehrenfest has summoned you for a tea party at fifth bell today,” she said.

Now that we had returned and all of the archducal family was in the castle, we would be holding a tea party to primarily discuss the upcoming Archduke Conference. Since this was going to include talk about the printing industry and the infrastructure of the lower city, Elvira would also be in attendance. Although the letter had only just arrived, Ferdinand and Sylvester had ironed out these plans through ordonnanz while we were at the temple, so I had already expected the meeting.

“It is only natural that Lord Wilfried and you are going to be present, as you have begun attending the Royal Academy, but I see that Lady Charlotte will also be attending.”

Under normal circumstances, a noble would only begin apprentice work after entering the Royal Academy. Those who had just finished their baptism would help with their parents’ work, hear about work life from their family and friends, and consider their future so they could choose their course in the Royal Academy when the time came. Charlotte, however, was destined for the archduke candidate course, and since she actively wanted to work with us, she was being included in the printing industry.

“Charlotte is working as hard as the rest of us, so she must attend as well,” I explained. “Her retainers would no doubt find themselves in quite the troublesome situation if she alone were not kept up to speed, do you not think?”

Ottilie placed a hand on her cheek and sighed. “I am worried about how both Lady Charlotte and you are neglecting your bridal training duties to focus on this printing industry, among other things...”

Charlotte was working with almost manic desperation to avoid falling behind Wilfried and me as an archduke candidate. However, considering that Wilfried and I were now engaged, the next archduke was all but set in stone. It seemed that Ottilie and Charlotte’s attendants had been discussing how they wished we would focus more on preparing to be brides.

Sorry, Ottilie. I’m a thousand times happier being busy with work than preparing to be a bride.

As unfortunate as it was for all our attendants, what I cared about most was reading. I was putting my all into spreading the printing industry so that I could one day retreat into the darkness and read to my heart’s content, but as for bridal training... I would never care enough to take it seriously.

“Lady Rozemyne, shall we head to the meeting room?” Lieseleta asked once she had finished preparing for our leave. I was going to be accompanied today by Rihyarda and Lieseleta as my attendants, and Cornelius, Leonore, and Judithe as my guard knights. Hartmut and Philine would also be joining me as my scholars, so they briskly gathered their stationery together.

I climbed into my Pandabus and drove to the meeting room, which was on the second floor of the castle’s main building.

“Ngh. I’m so nervous about attending a meeting with the entire archducal family. I’m just a laynoble...” Philine said, carrying her stationery with trembling hands.

“I’m an archnoble, and even I’m tense,” Hartmut said, his expression somewhat stiff. “This is also going to be my first time attending a meeting with everyone from the archducal family.”

Lieseleta gave a smile that reminded me a lot of Angelica. “I am anxious myself, but we need only perform our duties with diligence,” she said. “All we apprentices are expected to do is our very best.”

I thought the only thing Lieseleta and Angelica shared was their looks, but their attitudes toward work are pretty similar too...

Attendants and guard knights had different jobs, but they resembled each other in how they took full responsibility for their work and performed all the duties expected of them. Angelica maintained a strict delineation between tasks she was willing to do and those which required her to think, but when it came to her guard duties, she was twice as serious as anyone else.

Lieseleta was likewise frighteningly observant and considerate, especially with Rihyarda respecting her abilities and putting so much effort into training her. It was easy to overlook, but she always prepared what I needed, usually before I even realized that I needed it.

Only one guard knight could enter the meeting room, so Cornelius followed me inside while Leonore and Judithe waited in another room.

A crowd had already gathered in the meeting room. The archducal couple sat in the highest seats, with Bonifatius and then Ferdinand sitting next to them. Wilfried, Charlotte, and I came next, and we all had our scholars and guard knights with us. Our attendants were also hurrying about preparing tea, so even though this was only a meeting for those affiliated with the archducal family, it was still rather packed. Elvira, higher-up scholars, and higher-ups of the Knight’s Order were here as well.

“There you are, Rozemyne. I hear you finished the ceremonies without incident,” Sylvester said. He gestured me over, and so I approached with Cornelius. My scholars and attendants had their own work to do.

“You seem rather tired, Sylvester.” I was seeing him up close for the first time in quite a while, and I couldn’t help but notice that he looked more exhausted than I was used to. There were bags under his eyes, and his smile exuded a little less energy than usual.

On second thought, perhaps it was more accurate to say that Sylvester seemed calmer than I was used to. The hyperactive man who normally acted like an elementary schooler now felt more like a white-collar worker, drained from having served as a middleman between his juniors and higher-ups.

“I knew this would happen the moment we decided on your engagement to Wilfried. It’s not important. How’d you spend your time in the temple?”

“Outside of the ceremonies, the same as always. I practiced whirling and the harspiel, then helped Ferdinand with his work. Outside of that, I received reports from my attendants on what occurred in my absence, held meetings with merchants, and toured the orphanage. I also prepared important magic tools needed for the royal outfits we are preparing and even secured some reading time. They were very freeing and productive days,” I said. On the whole, I was pleased that I had finally been able to relax a little, but Sylvester just grimaced.

“So you didn’t get any time to rest at all. You’re working too much...” he muttered.

Florencia smiled at Sylvester. She agreed with me and said that he needed to work harder to match my pace.

Sylvester nodded and then turned his attention back to me. “Thanks to that intel you gathered in the lower city, it seems that we’ll be able to avoid bringing shame to Ehrenfest after the Archduke Conference. I owe you one.”

After saying that, Sylvester gently stroked my hair—which was a little weird, considering that he normally mussed it—and then told me to return to my seat. It seemed that he had sent me to the temple not only to distance me from those in the castle, but also to give me a break.

“Your attention. This emergency meeting on our future plans for Ehrenfest will now begin,” Sylvester announced.

Ehrenfest, which had for years been stuck at the bottom of the rankings despite being a middle duchy, was finally garnering more influence. Sylvester explained the reasoning for this—that our written grades were improving due to the studying taking place in the winter playroom, that we had caught the attention of the Sovereignty and the greater duchies during the Interduchy Tournament, and that the Rozemyne Compression Method was due to greatly increase the amount of mana in the next generation of children.

“During the Interduchy Tournament, we received business requests from all other duchies,” Sylvester continued. “We exchanged vows with Klassenberg and the Sovereignty, promising that we would establish deals with them for hairpins and rinsham during the coming Archduke Conference. It is all but inevitable that Ehrenfest will be doing large-scale trade with other duchies from this point onward, but we have rarely accepted so many visitors before and so we do not have the infrastructure to support outside merchants. Elvira, if you would.”

“By your leave.”

Immediately upon receiving the command, Elvira stood up and started to explain with documents in hand how our lower city compared to the lower cities of other duchies, as well as how we were decades behind them. Everyone here knew this already, but it was important to make sure that we were all on the same page.

“Lord Wilfried and Lady Charlotte investigated the matter using information Lady Rozemyne acquired from the lower city, and they discovered that the lower city’s infrastructure was ultimately neglected due to mana shortages. We need to correct this before the merchants come following the Archduke Conference,” Elvira concluded.

Sylvester stood back up with a nod. “If a course of action exists that will improve the disastrous state of the lower city, we must take it. I went to investigate the place myself while under the same assumption—that a city of commoners will end up laden with filth no matter what. They can’t use magic tools, so I was convinced that their conditions were inevitable, but this isn’t the case in other duchies. Their lower cities are as clean as their Noble’s Quarters.”

The vast majority of nobles living in the Noble’s Quarter refrained from entering the lower city—they would summon merchants to them for business matters and soar over the city on their highbeasts when traveling. On the few occasions when a noble did need to travel through the lower city via carriage, they would simply express their shock at the filth and hold their noses until they were through.

It was hard to ignore what a terrible state Ehrenfest was in when one heard that the lower cities of other duchies were comparable to our Noble’s Quarter. From what I recalled, the guildmaster’s letter hadn’t gone as far as to say these lower cities were as clean as our Noble’s Quarter, but Sylvester had probably decided to exaggerate the truth in order to convince the more hardheaded of scholars.

“We must make good on the debt accrued all those decades ago,” Sylvester declared, a noticeable sharpness in his dark-green eyes as he looked across the room. “We will use the mana we’ve stored up to cast entwickeln and rebuild the lower city’s infrastructure before the Archduke Conference. This decision is set in stone.”

Entwickeln...? I wondered what Sylvester was referring to, but it didn’t take me long to figure out it was the official name of the Extreme Makeover.

“Entwickeln, on the lower city?” came a scholar’s voice.

“Do we have enough mana for that?” asked another.

Surprise and uncertainty surged through the room. In that moment, the archducal couple exchanged a glance and then nodded at each other; it seemed they had decided between themselves to make this Extreme Makeover happen no matter what.

“This is an order from Aub Ehrenfest to the archducal family!” Sylvester declared. “Offer up your mana for the sake of our duchy!”

Ferdinand was the first to move, crossing his arms in front of his chest to express his obedience. Bonifatius followed suit, I did the same, and then Wilfried and Charlotte copied us a beat later.

Sylvester nodded, having acquired the approval of every member of the archducal family. It was decided that entwickeln was going to be used; we now needed to iron out the more minor details of our schedule.

“We must inform the lower city of our decision,” one scholar noted.

“Indeed. We will need to momentarily expel the commoners,” another said in agreement. But this was much easier said than done. Would it even be possible, considering all the furniture and food the commoners would have? I couldn’t help but frown as I pictured my own family being chased out with a ton of luggage on their backs.

“Were all nobles expelled from the Noble’s Quarter when it was renovated...?” I asked. “What did they do with their furniture? Lord Bonifatius, if you recall what happened at the time, would you kindly share with me what you know?”

Excited to be speaking to his granddaughter, Bonifatius did just that. He explained that, in order for the nobles to have toilets and baths added to their homes, they had needed to submit the blueprints to their estates to have them altered or remade before entwickeln was performed. It had apparently been quite the ordeal, since everyone had needed to bring all of their furniture outside onto the gardens of their estates.

“To complicate matters, we are dealing not just with ivory buildings here, but also with the wooden stories the commoners have constructed themselves,” a scholar mused. “I am unsure of how to deal with them.”

“We don’t have the spare mana to turn those extra floors into ivory too...” Sylvester replied, his arms crossed. “These numbers are purely for remodeling the existing ivory buildings.”

In short, while it was possible to remodel the bottom two stories made out of the ivory stone, doing so would cause the upper stories to collapse. Casting entwickeln would destroy a lot of people’s homes.

“If we allow these upper stories to collapse, the streets are going to be flooded with homeless citizens,” I protested. “The majority live in these wooden extensions, while the stone sections below are used for workshops and stores. Furthermore, many workshops are currently working to create the products the incoming merchants intend to purchase; if we shut them down for a long period of time, we will not have the products that sparked this entire issue. The potential losses are much too great.”

Having merchants from other duchies come to Ehrenfest only to find massive refugee camps and no products to buy was pretty much the worst-case scenario. Ferdinand listened to my concerns, stroking his chin all the while, and then offered a solution to the matter.

“Although we are using entwickeln again, there is no need to treat the lower city exactly the same as the Noble’s Quarter. Rather than adding toilets and baths to the inside of every building as was done previously, we could add several communal places where the commoners can dispose of waste, like there are in the temple. This would avoid the need to alter the buildings themselves.”

Oh, so that’s how the temple handles things? The more you know.

I pretty much left everything to do with temple life to my attendants, so not once had I wondered how the waste there was dealt with. Apparently there were spots for tossing waste, and these used the same slimes used in the Noble’s Quarter.

“If there is a way to solve this without touching the buildings themselves, that would be ideal,” I agreed. “Your suggestion will also greatly reduce the mana expenditure, will it not?”

Ferdinand responded with a frown, keeping an eye on Sylvester to see his reaction. “It would be possible to create an underground sewer system beneath the roads without touching the buildings,” he said. “If we create places to dispose of waste and then have commoners bring their waste there rather than tossing it out their windows, it would be possible to create a sewer system without destroying any houses. However, in order to maintain cleanliness, the commoners will need to be taught personal hygiene and the good sense not to litter, in the same way that those in the temple have been taught.”

“The temple looks great, so that sounds good to me,” Sylvester said.

“Indeed,” Ferdinand replied. “And if orphans are able to adopt such habits, surely commoners will manage too.”

“It will depend on how they are taught, and that is a problem,” Elvira said with a sigh, being the person in charge of dealing with the lower city’s infrastructure. Cleaning things up once with entwickeln was simple, but getting commoners to keep things that way was going to be much more of a challenge.

“This seems like a job for Gustav. He has a lot of influence in the lower city, right?” Sylvester asked, turning his eyes to me. I was more familiar with the lower city than anyone here, and everyone knew that I got emotional when it was mistreated. In other words, he was instructing me to come up with a good idea for the lower city’s sake.

I paused for a moment in thought. “I believe that Gustav’s word as the guildmaster will suffice for the majority of the city; the north has the richest commoners and the largest stores, the west has the markets, and the east has the travelers, all of whom will no doubt listen to him.” The people in these areas would take the remodeling quite seriously, since defying Gustav’s will would result in fines, withdrawn approval to run stands in the market, and a ban from submitting business applications to the Guild.

“The problem is the south,” I continued. “The rich rarely go to that area of the city in the same way that we rarely go to the lower city as a whole, and although there are many craftspeople there, I am uncertain how much a message from the guildmaster will spur them to action.” I wasn’t sure how they would want to spread the word through Craftsman’s Alley and all the poor apartments, nor how they wanted to punish those who refused to comply.

Daaad. Heeelp!

“Oh. How about using the soldiers?” I asked, clapping my hands together in realization. All eyes gathered on me at once, and Sylvester in particular gave me a searching look.

“By soldiers, you mean the commoner guards at the gates?” he asked.

“Correct. The guards I hire when sending priests to Hasse’s monastery have informed me that the soldiers’ duties outside of guarding the gates include patrolling the city and preserving the peace. Furthermore, since the majority of the guards live in the southern area of the city, if the knight commander takes charge, the soldiers will do everything from teaching the people, ensuring the practices are upheld, and ensuring they last into the future.”

Instructing people to do something once likely wouldn’t be enough to make it a regular part of their everyday lives; they needed people to remind them over and over again, using the fact that it was an order from nobles to scare them into complying. It would be more effective to have friends and family filling those roles than a more distant figure like the guildmaster.

“The knight commander already has meetings with the soldiers,” I continued. “We need only tell them about the date and time we will be casting entwickeln. They can tell the citizens to hide in their homes to minimize disruption for us.”

“Hm. Not a bad idea,” Sylvester said. He glanced at the higher-ups from the Knight’s Order, and they nodded in response. It was decided that the scholars would inform the Merchant’s Guild, while the Knight’s Order would inform the soldiers.

“Erm, Aub Ehrenfest... Since we have saved on mana costs, could we not only have tubes for disposing of waste but also tubes for purifying and moving water?” I asked. Paper-making and dyeing both needed a lot of water, and this requirement would only increase as the industries grew larger. Perhaps we could draw water from the large river to the west.

“Ferdinand, what do you think?” Sylvester asked. “Could we use water-purifying magic tools on the river?”

“In the long-term, it would use far too much mana; the magic tools would need to be redesigned to be usable. However, if the water will only be needed in the future, perhaps we could add only the pipes for now? Those alone would not be a significant burden.”

Sylvester nodded. He then instructed the scholars to recalculate the mana expenditure and prepare blueprints for using entwickeln before moving on to the next matter at hand.

“Next up, questions and requests from the Merchant’s Guild. They want to know how to distinguish between merchants from duchies that have permission to do business here and merchants from duchies that don’t. Other duchies apparently have large-scale magic tools that even commoners can use, but we’ll struggle to make them before the merchants arrive. Any ideas for how else to handle this?”

My creativity left much to be desired, so the only solution I could come up with for distinguishing the merchants was the red-sealed letters I had considered previously. I tried describing how the system worked.

“Not a bad idea, but we’d want something unique to Ehrenfest,” Sylvester said in response. “Or at least, something that can’t easily be copied.”

“In that case, what say we use nanseb paper to mimic this so-called ‘red-sealed letter’ system?” Ferdinand suggested, looking up from where he was seated. He explained to everyone that Illgner’s newly developed nanseb paper had a particular quality that meant any large, ripped-up pieces would slowly crawl back together. The scholars widened their eyes in surprise, having known about plant paper, but not about paper made from feyplants.

“If each is dyed with the respective duchy’s colors, with the Merchant’s Guild having one half of the sheets and the duchies the other halves, we could immediately identify which merchant is from which duchy,” I said. “We can tell the merchants of other duchies to keep their halves in mana-blocking bags so they do not move on their own.”

The paper for merchants would end up sliced into smaller bits, so the half-sheets in the Merchant’s Guild would inevitably end up larger. Ferdinand said that putting a restriction on the size of the paper would prevent them from sending too many merchants.

These sound less like red-sealed letters and more like verification slips, but okay...

“This is a fitting method for us to use, since we hope to soon move on to selling plant paper as well,” Florencia said with a smile. “Given that merchants from other duchies will not easily be able to fake these papers, I see no issue with us using them.”

Sylvester nodded. “Alright. Buy nanseb paper from Illgner and make sure it’s ready for the Archduke Conference.”

“Father—or rather, Aub Ehrenfest...” Wilfried interjected. “I think it would be wise to buy normal plant paper along with the nanseb paper, so that we may have the scholars use it during the Archduke Conference.” His voice cracked as he spoke, and his rigid expression as he looked across the room made it clear how nervous he was about speaking here. “Rozemyne used a lot of plant paper in the Royal Academy for transcribing and taking notes, which I am told generated a lot of interest among the citizens of other duchies. Perhaps we should do the same during the Archduke Conference?”

Everyone stared at Wilfried in surprise, keeping their silence, having not expected him to speak here. He took a short breath as he endured their gazes and then pressed his lips together, trying to steady his nerves.

Moments passed without anyone making so much as a sound, until...

“Hm.”

Everyone looked toward the source of the interjection to find that it had come from the High Priest himself.

“It may be somewhat expensive to have scholars use plant paper at the Archduke Conference, but it is easier to write on and will save us a tremendous amount on luggage costs,” Ferdinand said, expressing his support for the idea. “It will also be a good way for us to market our products to other duchies. It is worth considering.”

Wilfried suddenly looked a lot more at ease than before, perhaps relieved that his idea had been accepted.

“I see. If we wish to spread plant paper, we must set an example by using it ourselves,” Sylvester said. “I will consider it.”

“In addition to this,” Wilfried added, “I think we should have all those attending the Archduke Conference use rinsham, and all the women wear hairpins, as Rozemyne did at the Royal Academy. Doing so will draw much attention to our duchy.”

“You certainly learned a lot at the Royal Academy, didn’t you?” Florencia said, accepting her son’s proposition with a smile. Wilfried smiled at her in turn.

We went on to discuss some more of the finer details, such as what recipes to introduce at the meetings held over meals during the Archduke Conference, how many more business partners we would be able to take next year, and how we would sell pound cake to the duchies we couldn’t do business with this year. And with that, the meeting came to a close.

It was agreed that I would remain in the castle until the week before Spring Prayer. It was also my responsibility to inform Wilfried and Charlotte where they needed to go and in what order so they could prepare for the trip. This time, Ferdinand’s attendants were going to be accompanying them.

“The locations have been assigned as per our earlier discussion,” I said.

“I see that your schedule is much shorter than the others, Sister...” Charlotte noted.

“That is because I will be using my highbeast, which halves the number of days I would have needed to spend traveling. It isn’t that I have less to do, of course; I can just go to multiple places in a single day.”

“Can I speed up my schedule too, then?” Wilfried asked.

“I’m afraid not, Brother.”

“Huh?”

“My highbeast is a drivable one, and I can make it so there’s enough room for the gray priests and shrine maidens with the chalices. Your highbeast, in contrast, is a rideable one that only holds a single person. Even if we had the same highbeast, I can’t imagine your retainers would want to ride with your gray priests, would they? They were shocked enough to voice their surprise when I said I would be letting the Gutenbergs ride in mine.”

Since Spring Prayer could not be performed without the chalices, one could not get through their schedule quicker without being able to fly with the priests who carried them. My guard knight Damuel had gotten used to me flying with my attendants after spending so much time in the temple, but those serving Wilfried would probably be against flying with orphaned gray priests.

“And those aren’t the only problems either. You and Charlotte lack the mana required to perform multiple blessings a day, do you not?”

“Hm... You’re right.”

They were currently performing the blessings by using feystones infused with my mana. It wasn’t something that I really understood since I had never done it myself, but using someone else’s mana was apparently more tiring than using one’s own.

“I have more mana than stamina, so I’m prioritizing finishing Spring Prayer as quickly as possible,” I explained. “I will be bedridden in the temple for some time afterward, so in practice, we will most likely be occupied for the same number of days.”

I had gotten a lot better since the jureve, but I would still probably end up bedridden when all was said and done. Wilfried and Charlotte both frowned at the same time, like they had something to say about how my plans literally accounted for me ending up in such a state.

Sorry, but there’s no point denying reality. Gotta plan around it.

The day after we discussed Spring Prayer, I had a tea party with Florencia, Elvira, and Charlotte. As Ferdinand had instructed, I needed to report to Florencia and Elvira about our printing plans, since they were the heads of our faction.

I need to show that I can remember to do what I’m told!

And so, I reported that the Gilberta Company would be reviving old dyeing methods with the Dyeing Guild and that a competition centered around it would be held at the end of summer.

Behold, I have remembered to keep people up to date with what I’m doing! Even I can grow!

As I puffed out my chest and showered myself with praise, Florencia widened her eyes in confusion and placed a hand on her cheek. “Why is this event being held...? I’m not sure I see the connection.”

“It just kind of happened. I blinked and everyone had already agreed to it.”

“Lady Rozemyne, you must be more clear when giving reports,” Elvira said. She was smiling as she spoke, but the intensity in her eyes made me recoil in fear.

“This may be of use to you, Lady Rozemyne.” As if on cue, Philine stepped forward from behind me, holding out the dyeing-related documents she had compiled from Fran’s report. She truly was a well-trained scholar. I took the reports and passed them to Florencia, who immediately began reading them alongside Elvira.

“It seems that many in the lower city envy the dramatic success of my Gutenbergs. Thus, the Gilberta Company suggested that it would be wise for me to use this opportunity to select a dyeing workshop or two to give my exclusive business,” I explained.

“It is normal for a noble to pick workshops to favor, but my goodness, Sister... Everything always ends up so dramatic when you are involved,” Charlotte said. According to her, a normal noble would pick their workshops based on introductions from their parents or other family members, or from their friends. It certainly wasn’t standard practice to give every single workshop the same job and then pick one’s favorites from among them.

Once she had finished reading the documents, Elvira returned them to Philine and then looked at me, her dark-brown eyes sparkling with excitement. “Since this is happening regardless, I would like to see these dyed pieces of cloth myself. When the end of summer approaches, let us call the Gilberta Company here and discuss the details.”

I feel like Mother getting involved is only going to make this even more dramatic... but I guess that’s fine?

Despite that thought crossing my mind, I pressed my lips together and refrained from vocalizing it.

I really have grown.

The next day, following the tea party that had granted me an opportunity to really feel my growth, I needed to meet with my retainers to discuss Schwartz’s and Weiss’s outfits. It was important that we settle on the designs soon and order the cloth from the Gilberta Company.

Lieseleta and Brunhilde were at the center of the discussion, since they had poured more passion into the designs than anyone else. I also allowed Charlotte to join, since she seemed rather interested; her retainers in particular had been squealing alongside Lieseleta in the Royal Academy dorm, so I could imagine they were having fun. Cornelius and Hartmut, in contrast, awkwardly moved to stand in a corner and sit this meeting out.

“Lady Rozemyne, rather than giving Schwartz and Weiss matching outfits, I would like to dress them as a boy and a girl, respectively. Would that not make them look far more adorable when they are standing next to each other?” Lieseleta said, her dark-green eyes gleaming as she extolled her position with clenched fists. Her usual reserved self was nowhere to be seen as she raved on about how cute shumils were and how much she was looking forward to making these clothes. I welcomed her enthusiasm, since I wanted someone who would gladly handle all the embroidery for me, but I was at the same time stunned to see how differently she was acting.

“I do not mind that idea, but will you be able to handle the increased workload it will require?” I asked. “We will need to think of not one, but two ways to embroider the magic circles on their outfits.”

“I do not mind. I will pour my all into this.”

Lieseleta really is Angelica’s little sister... She’s making the same expression Angelica did when presented with my mana compression method.

Despite how differently they usually acted, I could feel an unmistakable bond of blood between them. As I worked to contain my laughter, the other girls were already chatting about the clothing designs.

“The sleeves need to be short so they don’t get in the way of Schwartz and Weiss’s work. That’s too bad. At the very least, let’s decorate them with lace.”

“We will need to think about where to put the embroidery.”

Since I was planning to give Schwartz and Weiss Library Committee armbands, I tried suggesting a sailor suit and a gakuran, the kind of school uniforms worn by students in Japan. I drew up the designs, and Angelica helpfully added the magic circle designs to show what the clothes would look like once the embroidery was done.

Ngh. Now the school uniform looks like a biker’s jacket... It’s not cute at all.

“I see that magic circles greatly change the feel of an outfit,” I observed. “This is not at all as I imagined it.”

“Schwartz and Weiss certainly need cuter outfits,” Lieseleta and the others agreed, turning down my designs in a heartbeat.

For my next suggestions, I proposed maid and butler uniforms. It was a simple combination—a dress with an apron versus a shirt, vest, and pants—so it didn’t receive an instant rejection.

“This should suffice for the basic design,” Lieseleta said.

“It looks nice. For the shorter sleeves, I believe it would be cute to puff them up,” another girl replied. From there, the discussion among the attendants continued.

“Will the new dyeing methods be used on their outfits?”

“The cloth is going to be finished at the end of summer. But that won’t leave enough time for the embroidery, will it?”

“We could save the dyeing for only the small accessories.”

As they continued their excited chatter, I slipped out of the group and went to read a book. My plan was to listen from a distance; these girls were so passionate that they would certainly produce something cute, with or without my direct involvement.

“Could we perhaps make the clothes black, the color of the Sovereignty, and then embroider the apron and vest? That way, we could have them change dresses and blouses to different ones.”

“Good idea. We shall dye the scarf using the new method and then clasp it with an Ehrenfest hairpin.”

“As for the hairband, let us make it with flower ornaments rather than cloth. Would that not be wonderful, like a crown of flowers? For the male outfit, we can clasp the chest with a flower ornament.”

They pooled their ideas together and ultimately decided on cute, folksy dresses for the both of them. My butler and maid combination was nowhere to be seen.

They’re still cute though, so I suppose it’s fine.

“Lady Rozemyne, please dye the embroidery thread and the cloth for the apron and vest with your mana as soon as possible. We shall get started on the embroidery right away. We will struggle to finish in time if you do not select the cloth before you leave for Spring Prayer,” Lieseleta said, organizing all the opinions of the girls. “I believe it would be wise to call the Gilberta Company over tomorrow or the day after so that we may select the cloth together. How does that sound to you?”

“You may do what you think is best, Lieseleta.”

Lieseleta was about as skilled of an apprentice attendant as I could ask for, and she displayed her talents by summoning the Gilberta Company over the next day and masterfully selecting the best cloth for the job. Once again, I simply read during the meeting and gave my approval at the end.

“Please take the cloth and thread we ordered today to the temple. My workshop is there.”

“Understood,” Corinna said, leaving with our orders.

We were one step closer to finishing Schwartz’s and Weiss’s outfits. As I sighed in relief, watching the girls swell with excitement, Ottilie gave a calm smile.

“Lady Rozemyne, Lady Charlotte, perhaps you should use this valuable opportunity to practice your embroidering.”

Charlotte and I exchanged glances before shrugging at each other.