Payment and Unveiling the Dress
Life in the castle was comfortable. After waking up, I would read until breakfast, and since mornings weren’t rushed like they were in the temple, I actually got a lot of reading done. It really was nice.
Truly, waking up early is a virtue.
After breakfast, Wilfried and I would head to the Order’s training grounds. Each day, he practiced swinging a wooden, sword-shaped stick, but that was too much for me. I needed to focus on moving around and building up enough stamina that I wouldn’t collapse out of nowhere, so instead, I did what was essentially radio calisthenics—a series of warm-up exercises performed to guidance from a radio broadcast—from memory under Eckhart’s supervision.
“Is that all you can do, Rozemyne?”
“Just so you know, (radio calisthenics) can get really exhausting really fast if you take it seriously.”
I kept my head held high despite the shocked looks of all those around me, then walked a lap around the training grounds to complete my morning exercise routine. It may not have seemed like much, but by the time I was done, I was totally drained.
Third bell marked the end of training, at which point we moved to Wilfried’s room for our morning lessons together. As he could read and do a little math now, geography and history lessons had been inserted into his schedule without me noticing.
“No fair!” I exclaimed. “You don’t even care about new books, so why did you get to read them first?!”
Wilfried had received a head start with geography and history, but it ultimately only took me a couple of days to catch up to him. Now it was his turn to pout.
“How do you learn things so fast, Rozemyne?! It takes me forever to memorize anything!”
“I have an advantage, since I’ve traveled through much of the duchy for the Harvest Festival and Spring Prayer. The tax official who accompanied me at the time taught me all about their respective exports, hence why I’m already so familiar with them.”
And so, we continued our studies, at each other’s throats the entire time. We were currently in the middle of studying the important events in Ehrenfest’s history, starting from the point where Sylvester and Wilfried’s direct ancestor became the archduke. It was pretty interesting stuff; Sylvester was the seventh of his line to assume the role since then, and his family had around two centuries of history here in the duchy.
Once morning studies were over, Wilfried and I ate lunch together. Harspiel practice then followed in the afternoon, after which Wilfried returned to his studies and I started needlework. I was being made to do lacework and embroidery, likely to pave the way for my eventual marriage.
“Rihyarda, might I avoid learning to sew and knit by simply deciding not to get married?”
“Milady! What has gotten into you?! You must get married. There is no question about it!”
“...I suppose so.”
I was mostly just complaining out of boredom, but Rihyarda really blew up at the idea. After a few days, I gave in and just did my best with the lace and embroidery.
If only I was as skilled as Mom and Tuuli...
Fifth bell marked the start of our free time. Wilfried often took this opportunity to see his younger siblings in the main building of the castle, something he had gotten permission to do from his parents before they left. He had previously invited me to join him, but according to Rihyarda, that authorization wouldn’t extend to me, since we weren’t siblings of the same mother.
“I must go to the book room, but you may read one of my picture books to them in my place, Wilfried. Do your best to raise them into book-loving children,” I would say to him before speeding to the book room. There, I spent my time blissfully surrounded by books. But it was never long enough, always seeming to go by in an instant.
Come sixth bell, Rihyarda would tear me away from whatever book I was reading to eat dinner, after which Wilfried and I would go to perform Mana Replenishment. The reasoning for us doing this so late was that we needed to wait until the scholars had left the archduke’s office. Bonifatius was there waiting for us, and while he did provide Wilfried with support, we were the only ones who did the actual replenishing. The acting archduke needed to preserve their mana, and thus it was best for him to leave the process to us.
Once the Mana Replenishment was over, I would take a bath and read until Rihyarda barked at me to put my book down and go to sleep. Thus concluded a peaceful day in the castle.
Earthdays were my days off, meaning I wouldn’t have to study, train, or do anything else. I could simply do whatever I wanted, which was a big change of pace from the temple, where every day was the same old routine.
That didn’t mean I could spend all day reading books, though; Angelica came home from her supplementary lessons on Earthdays, so we would borrow a room in the main building and hold a study group.
“Angelica, how are your lessons going?”
“I’ve passed eighty percent of my classes. Just a little more to go,” she replied, her bright smile suggesting she had a little more confidence in herself now. She was working hard each and every day, and it was showing in her results. “Thanks to you, Lady Rozemyne, I think I might actually graduate now.”
Unbelievably enough, Angelica had been so bad at her classes that she was approaching them with the assumption she wouldn’t graduate at all. It seemed that my guard knight was in an even more dangerous spot than I expected.
Damuel and Cornelius would tell Angelica what she needed to learn next, then break the lessons down and explain them in a manner that was easy to understand.
“You certainly are a good teacher, Damuel.”
“Written lessons are my one strong point. Not to mention we have a lot of resources here,” he replied, pointing to the stack of documents that Cornelius had brought with him. They were all resources for Royal Academy lectures that Eckhart was kindly lending us; he had been passing through the knight dorms one day while Damuel was using gewinnen to teach Cornelius and offered to let them use his study materials from his student days. Now we no longer needed to rely on Damuel’s memory and some simple notes written on boards.
“If only I were wealthy enough to preserve this much,” Damuel said with a sigh. It seemed parchment was so expensive that he hadn’t been able to buy any for recording notes; he would always write down the most important information on boards, shaving them down after tests so that they could be reused. The end result was him not having much in the way of study materials left over from his student days.
“Keep up the excellent work, Angelica.”
“Right! I’m going to get your mana for sure, Lady Rozemyne.”
After many comfortable days, I received an ordonnanz from Elvira; she had contacted the Gilberta Company and settled on a date for the temporary sewing to be done. It was then that we would hold a tea party in my name, gather the women of her faction, and debut the new style of dress. Given that Florencia was absent, I, the archduke’s adopted daughter, had to be the one to host it in the castle.
I prepared for the tea party while consulting Rihyarda and Elvira, but I couldn’t help but feel that my reading time was diminishing by the day. With slumped shoulders, I wrote out the letters of invitation, checked that we had everything we needed, planned out which sweets would be provided with Ella and Hugo, and honed the skills that a fine young noblewoman such as myself needed to exhibit when hosting a tea party.
Do I care about any of this? No. I just want books, please.
But sacrificing my reading time ultimately bore fruit, and when the day to hold the tea-party-slash-dress-debut came, we were ready. The changing area would be right beside the tea party room, the windows of which afforded a sweeping view of a spring garden.
“Lady Rozemyne, the Gilberta Company have arrived.”
“You may let them in.”
Brigitte, Elvira, and I lined up to welcome the Gilberta Company, with Rihyarda and our attendants standing behind us. Benno entered first, followed by Otto and Corinna, then finally the seamstresses. They all knelt before us.
“Lady Rozemyne. Lady Elvira. We are honored beyond words to have been invited to the castle to serve you on this fine day,” Benno began, greeting us on behalf of his group. Once he was done, he turned to Otto and said, “Allow me to introduce my store’s successor.”
Otto stood up from behind Benno, stepped forward, and then kneeled again. His movements resembled Fran’s so closely that I could immediately tell just how strictly he had been trained in the temple during my absence.
“Lady Rozemyne. Lady Elvira. Blessed be the waves of Flutrane the Goddess of Water who guided us toward this serendipitous meeting. It is an honor to meet you both. I am Otto, future head of the Gilberta Company. May our dealings be long and fortuitous.”
...Oh, right. This is my first time meeting him as Rozemyne.
“I shall give you a true blessing from the heart,” I said, pouring some mana into my ring. “May the Gilberta Company be blessed by Flutrane the Goddess of Water.”
A soft green light spread through the room. Otto blinked at me in surprise, either due to not having expected a noble’s blessing or not believing I could actually give them.
I informed Benno and Corinna of our plans for the day. First, the tea party would begin, with Brigitte wearing her dress from last year and standing beside me as I greeted our guests. I would then announce that I was making a new outfit, at which point the two of us would head to the changing room. There, Brigitte would change into the new dress and have the temporary sewing done before returning to the tea party. This would really make the difference in styles more apparent.
“So, are we going to be waiting in the changing room, then?” Corinna asked.
“Indeed. Please be ready to change Brigitte’s clothes as soon as she arrives,” I replied. “Benno and Otto, you shall join the tea party during her temporary absence. You may sell your goods while she is getting changed.”
Benno and Otto had brought boxes containing hair pins and bottles of rinsham, which I didn’t mind them selling while Brigitte was changing into her new dress.
“This might also be a good time to inform everyone that the Plantin Company is being established as an offshoot of the Gilberta Company.”
“I agree. Thank you.”
The noblewomen had gathered at the tea party, and I could see that several female knights with deep connections to Elvira’s faction were there as well. I lined up with Elvira and Brigitte to welcome them.
“Thank you all for coming here today,” I began, giving a noble greeting and recommending the sweets we had prepared. I then took a deliberate sip of my tea; at such gatherings, nobody could drink before the host had done so.
Ella’s sweets proved very popular, and I soon learned that many people had been eagerly awaiting today’s tea party. If you asked me, I was doing a good job creating trends as the archduke’s daughter.
“Lady Rozemyne, your chef truly is excellent,” one noble lady said. “They always make sweets that I have never seen nor eaten before.”
“Oh my, but I do believe I have tasted this particular kind before during one of Lady Elvira’s tea parties,” another added.
“I give my mother special early access to my recipes,” I replied.
So began my peaceful tea party, complete with refined laughter and elegant tea-sipping.
“This is pound cake, is it not?” another noblewoman asked. “I quite adore pound cake.”
“When I still lived in the temple, I received much assistance from Gustav of the Othmar Company and his granddaughter, Freida. As thanks for their help, I rewarded them with my pound cake recipe. Gustav’s chef is very skilled and has invented many new flavors; I very much look forward to eating her pound cakes when the opportunity presents itself.”
“Oh my! What a fascinating history.”
I traveled along the tables, dividing my time between our guests as equally as I could. Once that was done, it was time for the main event.
“There is an outfit that I would like to show all of you today,” I said, calling Brigitte over to stand beside me. I explained how the current trends didn’t suit women like her, and that I would consequently be creating a new fashion of dress. “Today, a new outfit of such a fashion will be adjusted to fit her. I would also like for all of you to consider what else might be done to make Brigitte look even more attractive.”
With that, I took Brigitte with me to the changing room next door, and after making sure the seamstresses were all ready to get her changed, I nodded. “Corinna, I leave the rest to you. Ottilie, come and inform me when Brigitte is ready. Shall we go, Benno? Otto?”
“As you wish.”
And so, I exited the changing room with Benno and Otto, both of whom were carrying boxes filled with products. When we returned to the tea party, I informed our guests that the Gilberta Company had originally dealt exclusively with clothing and apparel, going on to announce that they intended to return to these roots by establishing the Plantin Company, which would be handling their learning materials and books from here on out.
The noblewomen watched on with interest.
“I gave them the name ‘Plantin’ myself, so that they might continue to sell my books and learning materials,” I concluded, shifting the topic to studying.
Hearing this, the ladies got quite actively involved. It seemed that their younger children had quickly learned their letters and math through Rozemyne-brand learning materials, inspiring heated competition with their older brothers and sisters.
“They learned to read so quickly with those karuta that their teacher could hardly believe it,” one lady said.
“Oh my, the same happened with yours? I suppose there truly is something special about Lady Rozemyne’s materials.”
“The children had so much fun competing in the winter playroom that they all left motivated to win next year,” I said with a polite smile, circling the tables as Plantin and Gilberta goods were sold. “I am making yet more new picture books, and it would please me greatly if you were to buy them around the Starbind Ceremony or during the next winter socializing.”
It was at this point that Elvira chimed in. “Oh yes, that reminds me—Cornelius has been ever so invested in his studies lately. In the past, he said that he only wished to learn the bare minimum expected of an archnoble, but now he is fervently reading books on tactics and collecting study notes. He plays gewinnen with Karstedt and asks Eckhart all about what he learned in the Royal Academy. What has inspired this fervor, I wonder? Is it thanks to your materials?” she asked, glancing my way.
“Competition inspires one to try their hardest so that they can beat their opponents. From what I saw in the playroom, this is especially true for men,” I said, once again putting on my courteous smile as I provided the most surface-level explanation possible.
I couldn’t exactly say that all of my guard knights were gathering together as part of the Raise Angelica’s Grades Squadron to hold their own study groups and such. Nor could I divulge that Damuel had in fact been unloading a lot of work onto Cornelius, since he didn’t have the time to prepare for Angelica’s return on Earthdays when following me to the temple. And of course, revealing that Cornelius was working so hard because I had promised to give him one original recipe from an unpublished list if we got Angelica to pass her classes before summer was completely out of the question. All I could do was smile and deflect.
“Oh my, and this is a hair ornament just like Lady Rozemyne’s.”
“Indeed. I order all of my hair sticks from the Gilberta Company. These flower ornaments do not just serve as hairpins—they can decorate clothes as well. Would anyone like to order some?” I asked, leaving Benno and Otto to take care of the rest while I speedily returned to the changing room.
“Corinna, do we have any spare hair sticks?” I asked as she was making the final adjustments to the back of Brigitte’s dress. It appeared that they were almost done.
“We certainly do, but why do you need them?”
“I would like for you to remove the flower parts and use them to adorn the dress, such as on the cloth-heavy parts around the waist. Just like this...”
I took two hair sticks and demonstrated by pressing them against Brigitte’s dress. Corinna blinked several times, then nodded.
“I will begin right away.”
“By the way, Corinna—my apologies for rushing you despite saying that you would have plenty of time to spend on this. Mother’s letter must have come as a shock.”
Corinna shook her head with a smile. “I was already prepared, since Benno warned me that this was exactly what would happen. Otto was the one who really struggled here, what with having to pass Fran’s lessons before today.”
It seemed that Benno had been fully aware that informing Elvira of the new dress I was making would result in the schedule being moved forward. Once again, I had to gape in awe at how good he was at predicting the future.
“Oh, and here you are, Lady Rozemyne. Benno wanted me to give you this,” Corinna said, handing me a letter which I briskly skimmed. It contained a lot of lengthy noble euphemisms, but the overall message was clear: “You gotta lay the groundwork before introducing new things, you absolute idiot.” He had mentioned this back when I was going to be an apprentice merchant, and now he was having to teach me the same lesson once again.
Eep. Sorry. Thank you for saving my bacon once again.
By the time I was done reading the letter, Corinna had finished removing the flowers from the hair sticks and sewing them onto the dress. She examined the newly decorated waist, nodded, then called me over.
“Lady Rozemyne, how is this?”
“It’s wonderful. Corinna, everyone—I thank you ever so much. You have done well today. Ottilie, is the tea ready?”
Leaving Corinna’s squad to relax, I returned to the tea party with Brigitte.
“Thank you for your patience, everyone. This is the new dress that I designed for Brigitte. Does she not give off an entirely different air from before?”
“My my my. It is like she has been reborn, Lady Rozemyne. She looks much more feminine than she did in the previous dress,” Elvira said with surprise, initiating a wave of praise as the other noblewomen began to comment on how much better Brigitte looked.
The current fashion made her appear ungainly, but this new dress hugged her curves down to the waist and gave her a much more feminine appearance. Really, though, it all came down to highlighting her sizable chest and toned, well-trained body.
“Brigitte is tall with a lean figure, so I had the upper half cling to her tightly while using an excess of cloth on the lower half,” I explained. “The cloth used is lightweight, and I deliberately kept the shoulders exposed so that it would be easier for her to move as a knight, if necessary.”
The idea seemed to be even more of a hit with the female knights in the audience, given how they were leaning slightly forward in excitement as they looked over Brigitte.
“...Perhaps the sleeves would look better if moved upward a little?” one lady suggested.
“It might also be wise to tighten up the underarm area,” another observed.
We received recommendations to start the sleeves at the forearms rather than right above the elbows, and to adjust the dress around the armpits to fully hide the feystone bodysuit beneath. Overall, however, Brigitte’s new outfit was a massive success, with nobody completely rejecting the design.
Brigitte and I walked between the tables to hear everyone’s thoughts and potentially incorporate their ideas during the temporary sewing stage.
“The dress looks wonderful on you, Brigitte. Do you think they could prepare something similar for me next year?” one female knight asked, giving the dress a serious look over.
This was most likely one of Brigitte’s coworkers, seeming to be a little older than her. Her build was similar, and she had apparently been having a bad time with the current popular fashion trend, since it didn’t suit her at all.
“But perhaps it would be best not to decorate the upper half so much?” she continued, musing aloud. “Once they see your unadorned chest, Brigitte, I’m certain that men will flock to offer you all the feystones they own. Ahahaha.”
“I’d rather you not tease me here,” Brigitte shot back, pursing her lips. It was rare to see her acting like this.
As I watched on, the female knight noticed my gaze and stiffened up a bit. “Lady Rozemyne, thank you ever so much for designing this wondrous fashion. I am certain that a man will fall for Brigitte now.”
“One already has. Though she did not even consider reciprocating his affections,” I replied, thinking of Damuel.
“Oh, my my my. Is that so?” the female knight asked, her lips curling into an amused grin.
“Shall we move on, Lady Rozemyne?”
We proceeded to the next table at Brigitte’s urgent prompting, where one of the younger girls let out a refined squeal upon seeing the flowers decorating the dress. “To think that the flowers from your hair ornaments could be used to adorn dresses as well... This is simply wonderful.”
Up until now, it was normal for outfits to be decorated with embroidery, with actual flowers being used for any physical embellishments. It took a fair amount of mana to sustain the beauty of a living flower, however, meaning it was difficult for laynobles to adorn their dresses with too many. And given the current mana shortage, even archnobles struggled somewhat to justify wearing them.
“Would you accept orders for just the flowers?” the girl asked.
“But of course. Benno, Otto—this fine lady wishes to use the flowers of the hair ornaments for her dresses. I trust you to work out the details.”
Benno immediately strode over at my request, wearing a peaceful smile on his face.
Another young noblewoman beside us let out an envious sigh. “Aaah... Now I yearn for a new dress as well. Lady Rozemyne, might I ask you to introduce me to the Gilberta Company, too?”
“...I can introduce you, but I believe you would be better suited to dresses of the current fashion,” I replied. “I thought up this particular design to suit women who were excluded by current trends, and since those already complement you just fine, I cannot guarantee that this new style will as well.”
The girl was short with a slender, dainty figure; a dress like this would honestly just make it seem as though she lacked any assets at all, especially given her very, very modest chest.
“We all appear more attractive when we emphasize our strengths and mask our faults,” I continued. “It is for this reason that certain builds and bodies are better suited to certain fashions. Just because a particular style is the newest, it does not necessarily make it the best. You should instead focus on what suits you most.”
“...Would you think of a dress that suits me as well, Lady Rozemyne?” a slightly chubby girl asked, placing a hand on her stomach.
“It would be best for you to discuss this with a seamstress, but as a starting point, I would suggest a dress with a wide-open neckline to make the area around your collarbone look prettier, while using distinct colors and materials for the torso and skirt of your dress. A tight, darker-colored torso paired with a fluffy, lighter-colored skirt should create contrast that makes your stomach area appear leaner.”
“Thank you ever so much. I shall discuss this with my personal seamstress.”
We had many other discussions, but in the end, I was mostly just emphasizing that they shouldn’t wear the fashion I was introducing purely because it was new. There wasn’t much a person could do if a particular style didn’t suit them, and I strongly believed that the clothes they wore while looking for a marriage partner at the Starbind Ceremony should be the ones that made them look the prettiest, not whatever was the most popular at the time.
I returned to the changing room with Brigitte, where we listed the concerns expressed to us by the other noblewomen and suggested adjustments for the finished dress. Its debut and our attempt to secure public approval of the new fashion had gone off without a hitch.
As the end of spring approached, I learned through an emotional and gratitude-filled letter from Angelica’s parents that she had returned from the Royal Academy and would be rejoining my guard knights starting tomorrow.
“That’s great. It was all worth it,” I said with a relieved sigh.
When I told my guard knights that Angelica had passed her supplementary lessons, Damuel and Cornelius fist-pumped the air, shaking out of sheer emotion. They had pushed themselves to the limit to teach her, and she was perhaps the slowest learner any of us knew, so they both felt like teachers witnessing their own student graduate.
I was already in the process of making Brigitte’s dress, so I decided to go ahead and reward the two of them for their efforts. As promised, I gave Damuel a small gold coin in payment.
“I thank you deeply, Lady Rozemyne. Now I can repay my brother for the money he lent me,” he said, rejoicing as he clenched the coin in his hand.
A cold sweat ran down my back. That debt is from when he had to partly pay for my ceremonial robes, right? I ended up barely wearing them at all, since I became the High Bishop almost right after they were made. I was even thinking about having them altered into another outfit, just so the cloth doesn’t go to waste. So, um... should I give Damuel some other reward, too? It’d be sad for him to have worked this hard just to pay off a debt.
But despite thinking over potential ideas, nothing in particular sprang to mind. I decided that I’d give him whatever gift seemed appropriate at a later date, then moved on to giving Cornelius the paper with a recipe on it.
“Here you are, Cornelius. This is a recipe for (Mont Blanc), which is made with the cream of a tanieh.” He liked the chestnut-esque taniehs that grew in the autumn, so I guessed that he would love to know how to make chestnut cream.
“The cream of a tanieh? Wouldn’t that taste good inside of a crepe, too?”
“Oh, certainly. A crepe would taste doubly good with both whipped and tanieh cream inside,” I replied with a nod.
Cornelius’s grin widened and he gripped the recipe firmly, determined to take it to the family estate’s head chef as soon as possible. But despite the anticipation shining in his eyes, spring had only just ended.
“Oh, you can’t make it right away,” I said. “Taniehs grow in the autumn, remember?”
“I can’t wait that long. I need a solution, Rozemyne!” Cornelius demanded. But I had no answer for him; nothing could be done about taniehs being out of season. “This is just awful. We all worked hard, but I’m the only one not getting anything for it!” he exclaimed, glaring at me with tearful eyes.
I scoured my mind for an answer. “W-Well, um... You might not be able to make (Mont Blanc) with tanieh cream right now, but why not try making it with other kinds? I’m sure there are some spring creams you would like.”
“There! That’s it!”
Cornelius fist-pumped again, this time even more enthusiastically. He would get the recipe to the head chef tonight and have him make some as soon as possible.
“Tomorrow, I believe I shall also reward Angelica by giving her that mana,” I said aloud.
Brigitte nodded, smiling as she watched Cornelius’s and Damuel’s celebrations. “I, too, am excited to see how her manablade will evolve.”
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