Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 1.3 - Chapter SS1

Tuuli — Visiting Corinna 

“I’m back, Tuuli! Corinna said she definitely doesn’t mind everyone coming together. She’ll be waiting tomorrow afternoon.” 

Myne came bursting through the front door, her heavy breathing a likely sign that she had rushed all the way home. After giving her announcement with a smile, she collapsed onto the floor in exhaustion. 

“Ngh... I wanted to tell you as soon as I could, but maybe I walked a little too fast.” 

“We don’t want you too sick to go tomorrow. Sit and rest for a bit.” 

Myne sat on a chair, leaning heavily against the table. Her silky blue hair fell onto it. I sighed in relief as I looked at her. 

...Mhm, she’ll be fine. Myne had thrown herself at all sorts of challenges and built up strength bit by bit over the last year or so, but she still wasn’t strong and she was still small. She looked like a four- to five-year-old at best no matter how much time passed and that worried me a lot. Lutz was the same age as her but she looked like his little sister. The other day a kid two years younger than her had to help her with something, which made her depressed for the rest of the day. Myne wasn’t weak due to the Devouring it seemed, because she was still weak even with her Devouring cured. Lutz mentioned recently that she wasn’t at all like Freida, who became entirely healthy after her Devouring was cured. 

Myne was entering the temple as a blue shrine maiden apprentice. That meant she wouldn’t die from her Devouring, and she wouldn’t be thrown into an orphanage as a grey shrine maiden. For a long time I had been scared of Myne leaving me, but now I didn’t have to worry anymore and that made me really happy. 

Today, Myne went to Benno’s store to discuss how to deal with the High Priest and keep her workshop. While she was at it, she said she would talk to Corinna about when we could meet. I couldn’t go last time since she only invited Myne, but this time Myne would ask if I could go with her. 

...Aaah, I can’t wait. I’m gonna brag to everyone at my workshop that I went to Corinna’s place. Eheheh. 

Corinna had owned her own workshop since reaching adulthood and she even made clothes specifically ordered by nobles. To an apprentice seamstress like me she was living the dream, a hero further out of my reach than the blue sky itself. I looked up to her and wanted to be like her one day if I could. Stories of her being passionately courted by a wonderful husband were told among apprentice seamstresses like minstrel tales. He abandoned his life as a merchant for her and threw away his life savings to prove his love for her. It was a girl’s dream to be as loved and cared for as Corinna was. 

...I wonder what kind of person Corinna is? Myne said she’s really nice. I hope that’s true. 

“...Mmm, I think I’m better now?” Myne stood up while rubbing her forehead and unsteadily got to work. She delicately wrapped her folded baptism outfit and hairpin to keep them clean and put them in her favorite bag along with a thin needle. It hit me that she was preparing for tomorrow. 

“Myne, what about me? Should I be doing anything?” 

“Mmm, not really... I guess we should clean our hair before we go?” Myne and I cleaned our hair using the rinsham I made. I never washed myself that much in the past, but lately I felt that I needed to keep myself as clean and neat as possible. Even at the workshop, it was always the clean people who got to guide visitors and talk to them. 

“Um, Myne. Today I got to guide a visitor for the first time.” 

“Wow, really? That’s great, Tuuli.” 

At some point I complained to Myne that only clean and tidy people got jobs that involved customers and she replied that the first impression given to customers was very important to a business. Any merchant would be very careful about it. She said being dirty was fine for those working in the back, but if I wanted to deal with customers, I would have to keep myself clean and be careful about how I looked so I could give good first impressions. She also said I could put on nice work clothes that were presentable to customers, then put a long-sleeved apron over them to keep them clean. By taking it off before guiding customers, I could be clean at any time. 

I listened to Myne’s advice and now the forewoman was giving me jobs that involved dealing with customers. I said it was thanks to Myne, but she just smiled and said it was thanks to me listening to her advice. 

We were talking about how our days had been and cleaning our hair when Mom came home. Her eyes widened a bit after she saw what we were doing. 

“Oh my, you’re using rinsham? Does that mean...?” 

“Mhm. We’re going to Corinna’s tomorrow,” said Myne, which led to Mom pushing cooking duty onto us so she could vigorously clean her hair with a determined look in her eyes. Myne and I shrugged and went to cook, fully understanding why Mom wanted to be as clean as possible before meeting Corinna. 

“I’m gonna go in my new summer clothes that Mom just finished making.” 

“That’s a good idea. They look super comfy and cute.” 

The cloth we ended up not using on Myne’s baptism outfit got used on my summer clothes instead. Unlike Myne, I was growing a lot each year and it didn’t take long for old clothes to not fit me. There wasn’t enough cloth to make an entire new outfit for me, so we just sewed different kinds of cloth to my skirt to make it longer. Myne said it just looked like patchwork, but to me it was cute. I liked it. 

...I wonder if Corinna will think it’s cute too? 

We left early the next day so we could be on time walking at Myne’s pace. We passed through the central plaza and headed to the north side of the city, where the people walking around had much fancier and more elaborate clothes. It was rare for me to go to the north part of the city, so I looked down at my clothes, worrying that I was standing out. Mom looked like she was getting self-conscious too. Only Myne was as full of energy as ever without a care in the world. That didn’t stop her from walking slow, though. 

“Corinna lives, like, right above Benno’s store,” said Myne, which made it all click into place. 

Myne only ever told me about what she was doing, so it never felt real to me, but she was actually going to the north of town on a regular basis. No way would she get nervous after spending all that time here. 

“Mm, what do you think I should say first?” 

“Just say hello, right? And then thank her for inviting you, I guess. You should save anything you have to say about me for Benno and Mark, since I don’t talk with Corinna much at all.” 

Myne gave a casual reply to Mom’s anxious question. We weren’t used to dealing with rich people, but Myne had met countless of them at the gate and at the store. She knew exactly how to talk to them. 

“What about me, Myne? What should I say?” 

“You can just give her a cute smile, Tuuli. There’s not a person in the world who wouldn’t get happy if you smiled at them and said you were looking forward to seeing them.” 

Mom and I practiced what we would say as we walked. Compared to us, Myne in her Gilberta Company outfit blended in with the rich part of town perfectly. It was like I was seeing a side to Myne that I knew nothing about. It made me feel kind of frustrated and kind of panicky. 

“Hello, Mrs. Corinna!” 

Mom and I both had trembling legs from the tense walk up the stairs, but Myne knocked on the door without a care in the world. 

...Please, wait a second! I need to prepare myself! 

“Welcome, Myne. And hello to your mother and sister as well. I am Corinna. Please do come in.” 

The door opened before I was ready and behind it was a lovely looking woman. She was much younger and prettier than I expected. She had light cream-colored hair that looked like gathered moonlight and her silver gray eyes were filled with kindness. Despite her hair and eyes giving her a faint, almost fairy-like atmosphere, she had a very developed body. 

“It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Corinna. I am Myne’s mother, Effa. Thank you for inviting me here today.” Mom said the lines she had practiced while doing her best to curtsy. I copied her and said my own lines. 

“Mrs. Corinna, I’m Tuuli. I’ve been really looking forward to meeting you. I’m so happy to be here.” 

“I have been looking forward to this as well. Myne’s baptism outfit was so splendid it caught my eye from afar and ever since I have been positively dying to see it. My apologies for making you come all this way.” 

She smiled at me with such a gentle smile that I ended up smiling myself. It was a smile as warm as spring sunlight. 

“Please wait just a moment. I will prepare tea for us.” 

Corinna took us to a room that seemed to be for both visitors and work. There was a table for talking and another table further inside, probably for work. It was an entirely different world from our place, where we had to handle everything on our kitchen table. Also, the room was covered in delicately embroidered cloth and sample outfits Corinna had sewn. 

...Wooow! So cool! Mom and I both had our eyes locked on the clothes and colorful tapestries hanging off the walls. I hadn’t expected that she would show us such pretty things. I spun around, enraptured by everything I saw. Everything was so well made, so expressive and colorful. The hung up outfits had designs entirely unlike what I was wearing. I let out sighs of awe as I stared at everything. 

“So pretty... How can you even make clothes like this? I can’t get it at all. Do you just have to practice?” 

“Skill is important, but it’s also important to look at a lot of good things so they can inspire you with your own ideas.” 

Myne sat unsteadily down and turned her golden eyes towards me. I spun around, confused by what she had said. 

“What do you mean, Myne?” 

“You won’t have ideas like these if you don’t carefully observe what clothes rich people like and what’s popular. Corinna was born rich, so she was naturally surrounded by good things. That gave her a natural instinct for what’s good.” 

It felt like Myne was saying no amount of effort would be enough for me. I slumped my shoulders, asking if I was doomed then, and Myne shook her head. 

“It may be important for you to go to the forest on your days off, but you should take some time to walk around the north part of the city too. There are a lot of rich people here going to stores for rich people, right? People wear all sorts of clothes here and you can learn a lot by watching them and seeing what’s popular.” 

Sometimes I went to the forest on my day off, but I never went to the north part of town. I could count on one hand how many times I had gone north of the central plaza. I never realized that I could learn about what was popular among rich people by going to where rich people are. 

“Also, the designs on some of these tapestries and the embroidered flowers are all things you can see in the forest, right? If you observe nature more you’ll have an easier time thinking up designs.” 

Myne had been looking at the clothes and tapestries with an entirely different perspective than me. I had just been impressed by how pretty they were. I guess that was the difference between a craftswoman and a merchant. I pushed down my excitement a little and started carefully observing Corinna’s work, even if I didn’t have the skills to copy what she was doing. 

“My my, Tuuli. I will feel embarrassed if you stare at my work as you are,” said Corinna as she entered the room with a servant. 

“I’ve never seen clothes like this before. They’re super new to me. I work as an apprentice seamstress, but they still haven’t given me any big jobs like making clothes...” 

They had lately started letting me work on small parts of products that didn’t stand out, but it would be a long time before I was making entire outfits by myself. 

“Simple practice is the key. If you cannot sew pretty lines, sewing pretty clothes is out of the question.” 

“I’ll do my best. Um, Mrs. Corinna. How did you sew these two parts together?” As the servant placed snacks and tea on the table, Corinna explained her clothes to us. At some point Mom had walked up and was listening next to us. Only Myne remained sitting at the table, seemingly uninterested. 

“Please, drink.” 

At Corinna’s encouragement, I had a sip of the tea. It had a really nice smell unlike our tea. I could feel the flavor spreading through my mouth. 

“So good! This tastes really, really good.” 

“I am pleased you like it.” Corinna smiled at me. I looked at my Mom and Myne hoping they would agree with me, but Mom looked more worried about the price than the flavor and Myne was just savoring it with closed eyes and a smile. 

“Feel free to eat as well.” She pushed a plate of lightly baked bread mixed with fruit and covered with honey towards me. I took a cut up piece and put it in my mouth. 

...Mmm, this tastes good too, but the sweets Myne makes taste better. Myne had taught Freida a sweets recipe and in return got a bag of sugar. We were using it to make all sorts of sweets I didn’t know about like “crepes,” “compotes,” and “faux-cookies.” She said something about making “pudding” if it were colder. Apparently it wasn’t good to make in the summer since it needed to be chilled. She was also packing fruit and sugar into jars and soaking them with wine. She said in the winter it’d end up super sweet with a summer flavor. I couldn’t wait. 

“They’re sweet and super good. Aaah, I wish I could use lots of honey like this,” said Myne as she ate the sweets, making Corinna smile. 

“You could buy as much honey as you want, could you not? Benno was looking quite bitter about how much he was paying you.” 

“I keep my personal money and my work money separate.” After finishing the snacks, we immediately spread out Myne’s baptism outfit. Mom and Myne pointed to parts of it and explained how they had made it from my hand-me-downs. Corinna held it up, took a good look, and observed it carefully while turning it around and flipping the hem. 

“This is quite a unique way of repurposing old clothes.” 

“It’s a lot simpler than resewing it all from the start.” Corinna was writing something on a wooden board as Myne continued her explanation. She looked just like Myne did when she was writing on paper or her slate. For some reason, it hit me that I should learn to read and write too. That would probably make me more cool, somehow. 

“This is the hairpin, I see. I cannot say I have ever seen an ornament like this before,” murmured Corinna as she picked up Myne’s hair ornament. The small white flowers hanging from it shook in the air. 

“I made the large white ones on it.” 

“I see. They are very pretty, Tuuli.” Corinna’s compliment made me break out into a goofy smile. Her own white fingers traced the flowers. 

“I would like to take orders for these hairpins and make them in my own workshop. Would that be acceptable, I wonder?” asked Corinna with a warm smile. I hadn’t expected that she would like the hairpin enough to start making them in her own workshop. I was so moved it felt like I had been hit by a wave of emotions. I beamed a smile and started to say “Of course you can!”, but Myne shook her head before I could. 

“That depends on your payment.” 

“W-Wait, Myne?!” I couldn’t believe that Myne would charge Corinna for making the hairpins, but she just held up her hands to calm me down. 

“We make these hairpins for our winter handiwork and they’re an important source of income for us. We can’t just let other people make them willy nilly. If you really want to make them, Corinna, you’ll need to buy the rights to them and pay us the money we would lose from your competition.” 

Myne’s explanation cooled me down. She was right, hairpins were a very important source of income for us. With thoughts of how much money I earned over the winter, I lost the motivation to stop Myne. 

“In that case, I will summon Benno.” Corinna rang a bell to call for the servant, who she sent to get Benno. It wasn’t long before we heard footsteps coming up the stairs. 

“What’s up, Corinna? Did something... Ah, Myne’s family. It’s nice to meet you. I’m Benno, Corinna’s older brother.” 

...So this is Benno, the merchant Myne’s been working with. He had light hair the color of milky tea, a gentle-looking appearance, and dark-red eyes. His smile really resembled Corinna’s. I got the impression he was a bright, nice person. 

“I am Myne’s mother, Effa. Thank you for taking good care of my daughter.” 

“I’m Tuuli. Nice to meet you.” I hurriedly introduced myself after Mom did so herself. Benno nodded at us with a smile, then looked down at Myne with a raised eyebrow. 

“What is it this time, Myne?” 

“Mrs. Corinna wants to buy the right to make and sell this kind of hairpin. How much will you buy it for, Mr. Benno?” Benno spat out “A business discussion, now?” and Myne nodded, saying “Yes, a business discussion.” 

Immediately Benno’s gentle expression turned into the hard expression of a merchant. His eyes narrowed and he got kind of scary. He roughly pulled back a chair and sat down, glaring at Myne and holding up a few fingers. 

“How about this?” 

“That wouldn’t be worth it at all. I would get more money selling it to Freida.” 

Benno was so scary I got shivers looking at him from the side, but Myne just laughed him off. Despite him being in full merchant mode Myne wasn’t scared at all. She was negotiating with him on equal terms and having fun doing it. 

“C’mon, wasn’t Lutz gonna sell the stuff you make anyway?” 

“That’s for products I make in the Myne Workshop. It doesn’t include recipes and other forms of intellectual property.” 

“You little!” Benno gave a furious yell so intense Mom and I jerked, but Myne just tilted her head with a smile. 

“Speaking of which, Mr. Benno. Freida said that if I had any other unique products not found anywhere else, she would start negotiations with several large golds. It looks like you’ve been really ripping me off up until now. Eheheh.” 

I had heard about Myne doing this kind of thing, but this was the first time I was seeing her actually working as a merchant. Seeing was believing and I honestly felt immense respect for how Myne could negotiate with adults this scary. 

At home she always just laid around and got fevers after doing anything, making her dead weight when it came to chores. For the first time I was seeing her being so successful at something. It was honestly shocking to me. 

...She said she gave up on being an apprentice merchant because she was too weak for it, but maybe she actually really wanted to become one? It feels like she would be a great merchant. 

“Tuuli, Effa, it seems that this discussion might take some time. Follow me, if you would.” 

Corinna stood up and headed to the table further into the room. Mom and I looked at each other, then stood up to follow her. I was worried about Myne, but their discussion was so intense I didn’t see either of us finding an opportunity to get involved. 

“Benno always stretches out business discussions when he’s having fun. Still, I have to say that Myne is quite impressive. Not many can handle business discussions with my brother like that,” murmured Corinna as she looked at the two of them, dazzled. For the first time, I realized how amazing Myne really was. 

...I’m Myne’s older sister, but I didn’t know about this side of her at all. 

“We can leave the business talk to them while we return to our sewing. We were just discussing the shape of the skirt, yes?” 

On one table business talks reigned while on our table we discussed sewing while drinking tea. Corinna told me about clothes and ornaments popular among the nobility. There were many different forms of sewing and hearing their names wasn’t enough for me to imagine what kind of skirt they would make. When talking with Corinna I heard word after word that never came up when I talked with the other apprentices in my workshop. 

When I asked what she was talking about, Corinna would smile and kindly teach me. That made me happy, but it also made me feel kind of pathetic. One year had passed since I began my apprentice work but there was still so much I didn’t know. Just talking with Corinna made me painfully aware of how much I had left to learn about sewing. If I didn’t study and practice more, I would probably never be trusted to make clothes for customers. 

“This is a style of dress that just recently became popular,” said Corinna as she showed us a commissioned dress she was in the middle of making. It was apparently a kind of dress nobles wore during tea parties. I couldn’t help but sigh in awe at the quality of the fabric, the thin thread, and the detailed embroidery. 

“It looks amazing. But I really can’t believe they have different dresses for different things. That just seems like a waste to me.” 

“It seems so, doesn’t it? But we have different clothes for when we sleep, when we go out, and when we work, yes? The more money one has, the more narrow categories they can develop for their clothing.” 

Suddenly, our discussion was interrupted by the sound of chairs screeching backwards from the other table. We looked over in shock and saw Benno and Myne standing up and looking at each other, a short distance away from the table. 

“You’re not as innocent as you used to be.” 

“This is all thanks to you teaching me, Benno.” 

“Sheesh, you sure got too smart for your own good.” 

“Isn’t it standard practice for merchants to gather information from various sources to improve the accuracy of what they know?” 

The two of them shook hands with meaningful smiles. I could basically see a dark aura radiating from both of them. 

...Mmm, I definitely wouldn’t be a good merchant. I thought, taken aback by the intensity of their back and forth. Myne saw me watching them with wide eyes and came walking over. 

“Mom, you can teach Corinna how to make the hairpins. Haaah... Now my throat’s all dry.” Corinna prepared a cup of tea for Myne and she thanked her as she took it. 

“Impressive work. How much did you settle for, in the end? That will impact how much we charge for them.” 

Myne glanced at Mom and me, then held up some fingers. 

“The agreement ended up being that your workshop has the exclusive right to make and sell them throughout each year.” 

“Consider me quite impressed that you squeezed this much money out of Benno.” Corinna looked at Myne’s fingers with awe and a quiet gasp. She must have been giving some kind of sign that merchants used to state prices. It was kind of frustrating to me since I didn’t know what they meant. 

“Hey, Myne. How much does that mean?” I asked Myne, curious as to how much the right to the hairpins was worth. Myne looked at me really awkwardly, then at Mom, and then finally at Corinna while letting out a tiny groan. It was obvious she didn’t want to say it. 

“Is it something you can’t say?” 

“It’s the fair market price, so it’s not a secret, but I don’t really want to say it...” I begged Myne over and over to tell me, and eventually with a clearly reluctant expression she let out a quiet murmur. 

“...One large gold and six small golds.” 

“Whaaat?! Hold on. Did you just say golds?” I thought it would be worth a large silver at best, so the immensely larger price she stated made me feel like I had been hit in the head by something. Mom was looking at Myne just as shocked as I was. 

“It sounds like a lot of money, but it really is the fair market price for exclusive product rights. I’m not Benno. I don’t rip people off. Also, this is money for my workshop, it’s not my own personal money.” 

Myne waved her hands and desperately tried to make excuses, but I really didn’t understand how she could so confidently negotiate with amounts of money that large. 

...I mean, that’s a large gold. She said it’s not her personal money, but just how much does Myne have saved up?! Maybe Myne really should have become a merchant, not a shrine maiden. 

The visit to Corinna’s home ended with me overwhelmed by many things: my own ignorance, the depth that sewing had, and how incredible my little sister was.