episode_0129

His Imperial Majesty’s birthday celebration ended with a few words of blessing in the audience chamber.

One might wonder why we even went to the audience chamber, but the audience at the birthday celebration was a venue for the royal family and foreign dignitaries to have private conversations, so it was a rule and a courtesy for a nobody like me to quickly pay respects and leave.

After His Majesty’s birthday passed, we held a small family celebration over the weekend for my becoming a Baron.

Originally, we were supposed to rent a large banquet hall and invite everyone we knew, but unfortunately, my sister-in-law’s due date was fast approaching, so we just glossed over it.

The due date is next month, but it’s not unusual for the baby to arrive as early as a month before the due date.

It’s not my sister-in-law’s fault, and His Majesty bestowed the title as a surprise, so we just let it go.

A person will be born soon, so what does a title matter?

However, my brother, who will be unable to stay by my sister-in-law’s side because the due date happens to coincide with His Majesty the Crown Prince’s birthday, burst into tears at the celebration, but everyone didn’t pay much attention because my brother is just that kind of person.

Everyone glanced at him and took care of my sister-in-law instead.

I gave my sister-in-law compression stockings as a gift, which surprised me because the reaction was better than I expected.

My mother and the mother’s maid, who has a young child, also looked at them with sparkling eyes.

She seemed to like them quite a bit, and since my mother knows the material well, she’ll copy them on her own if she thinks they’re good.

Anyway, the celebration for my promotion became a celebration for taking care of my sister-in-law, and I didn’t really feel like I had become a Baron. When I went to the atelier on a weekday, I could finally feel that the world had changed a little.

The staff’s attitude was the same, only their titles had changed, but the customers’ attitude towards me had changed a lot.

Here are a few changes.

“I heard you also give love advice, is that correct?”

“What nonsense is that?”

“Countess Tigris told me so. She advised me to seek you out if I have concerns about love.”

One is that customers knew me as a love counselor because of Countess Tigris’s active involvement.

“I don’t have much experience with love, so I don’t think I can be of much help…”

“Huh? The rumor that Howard is a love expert has spread throughout the capital, what are you talking about?”

“Huh?”

Thanks to that, my image is becoming increasingly strange.

A person who has never officially had a lover or fiancé is a love expert? If Elizabeth heard that, she would have burst out laughing on the spot.

“Heh. Heh heh…”

It’s not an exaggeration, Emilia was actually having a hard time holding back her laughter.

“I don’t know who’s spreading these strange rumors, but, I’m someone who doesn’t know much about love.”

“But, Princess Hayes and Countess Tigris have certified you, are you saying they’re lying…?”

“Ah…”

However, I can’t just feel wronged about this, because my portfolio related to love is too impressive.

One is acquiring a fiancé, the other is a dramatic improvement in a marital relationship.

I normalized two couples in just seven months, so everyone would think so.

“Haa… I’ll help you with counseling… but don’t expect too much, it was all just good luck that things worked out well.”

“Anything is fine as long as I can grasp at straws.”

I’m not thrilled about it, but I can’t make my sister and the Countess out to be liars, so I reluctantly started love consulting.

And, whether it was because giving love counseling from the first day was the starting point, after that, every customer who came to me brought a question that was difficult to answer and started asking for advice.

“Would it be better to emphasize my shoulders with an off-shoulder? Or would it be better to emphasize my chest with a deeply cut neckline?”

“If it’s the Princess’s body type, wouldn’t it be better to emphasize your waist rather than your shoulders and chest while emphasizing your upper body?”

“But there’s a rumor that Richard likes that kind of thing.”

“That’s not something I can do anything about…”

“Can’t you do anything about it?”

“Ugh…”

There are people who make requests close to human body modification to match the tastes of the person they admire.

“I can’t get the image of the young Aein girl I encountered from afar on the day of the founding anniversary out of my head…”

“That’s too bad…”

“So, I was wondering if there’s any way to get even a small chance? Like clothes that would catch her eye, or a flirting method…”

“Well… I understand your feelings, but you need to at least know the race name to tell you anything trivial…”

“Ah… that’s… Ugh…”

People who come to me asking how to catch the eye of young Aein girls or boys they don’t even know well, because His Majesty has painted them with gold as a bridge for Aein friendship.

“I, I’m going to have my, my first night in two weeks, so, wh, what kind of clothes would be goo, good for him?”

“Ahem…”

People who come to me to consult about marital relationships after seeing Countess Tigris’s personality change.

“Is there really magic that can make you honest just by wearing clothes…?”

“No, there’s no such thing.”

People who are deceived by the strange rumors coming from all over the place and the halo of our family, which is a family of magicians, and chase after strange superstitions.

I thought I was going to run out of energy from the continuous stream of questions that were difficult to answer one by one.

It’s common to spend dozens of minutes counseling since we make clothes for nobles, but the problem is that once love counseling or marital relationship counseling starts, it takes up hours instead of dozens of minutes.

It would be fine if it only took up time.

I also get to know the secrets of other nobles that I don’t really want to know, and what starts as love counseling sometimes leads to resentment and blame towards the other person, so it’s more than just difficult.

To make matters worse, it’s not just one or two of these people, but they come every day, so I’m so busy that I don’t have time to sit in front of my workbench.

“Haa…”

This is a problem.

I’m already worried about the lack of manpower, but the amount of work is only increasing.

If this continues, all the tailors will be exhausted.

“We need to reorganize…”

It was necessary to change the structure of the atelier.

Our atelier does business with nobles, but the problem is that it was originally a military supplier, so the amount of customers we receive is too large compared to its size.

Because of that, even people who have only learned tailoring for a few weeks can easily make things like bras and panties, but people who can easily make dresses are being put in to make them, so there’s too much waste of high-quality manpower.

Until now, the staff has been able to manage it with their individual abilities, so it hasn’t been a big problem, but now the problem is starting to surface, so we need to take action.

Otherwise, the plan to officially accept dress requests next year will be in vain.

“Hmm…”

But how do I solve this?

It’s a big burden to bring in outside companies in many ways.

I also want to exclusively use synthetic fabrics for about 1-2 years, and we’re covering designs that deviate from the mainstream with the best quality and individual abilities, but if another company gets involved, it’s difficult to manage and our unique characteristics will disappear.

The title of ‘Clothes tailored by nobles and imperial tailors, sewn by Giju clan seamstresses, and embroidered and decorated by elves’ is a rare find anywhere in the capital, or even the Empire.

It’s impossible to add more people and open a second branch like the current atelier association, and it’s just as difficult to manage.

The only remaining method is to train tailors and seamstresses through apprenticeship education and preserve their value with the title of our apprentices…

“How’s the dress that Princess Aria ordered?”

“Sorry, I’m still tailoring it.”

“Miss Pani, can’t you finish it any faster?”

“I’ll try.”

“Thank you.”

It’s already like a battlefield, and you want me to attach apprentices to them?

You need to have time to raise disciples, but if you don’t have time and you attach disciples to them, it’s nothing more than a sandbag.

“Umm…”

Let’s change my mindset a little.

Am I thinking too modernly right now?

I need to think in the style of the Industrial Revolution, when romance and barbarism overflowed.

With the mindset of being proud of creating a law that says 9-year-old children should only work 9 hours and protecting human rights.

Our atelier has a 5-day work week.

In other words, we have time on the weekends.

And we adhere to 9to6.

In other words, we have time at night.

Can’t we teach them then?

Gather the kids who seem promising, have Adelheid, who is a workaholic, teach them sewing, and I’ll teach them tailoring myself.

It doesn’t interfere with work because we’re not using work hours, and I don’t do much socializing, so I have plenty of time, and the people who are learning can engage in their livelihood because they are guaranteed time on weekdays…

“Perfect…?”

It’s a perfect and clean plan that’s close to killing three birds with one stone.

The only obstacle is solving Emilia’s foaming-at-the-mouth opposition.

The place?

We can use the atelier.

We’re only using the first floor, so we forget about it, but our atelier is a 4-story building.

Excluding the 4th floor, where the quasi-baron family, who are building managers and tenants, live, all are atelier workshops.

If we remodel a room or two into classrooms, it won’t overlap with the staff’s movements.

And is the goal unreasonable?

That’s not true either.

If we can raise people who can at least take on the role of making simple underwear or stockings, or cutting fabric, by half a year, or at least by the second quarter of next year, we’ll be successful.

Even that much will reduce the workload by 30%, and the disciples will be able to gain experience by practicing on their own.

“Okay, this is it.”

A future where everyone is happy if I suffer.

How can I give this up?

“Hmm…”

I picked up a pen and glanced sideways at Emilia in the corner of the workshop.

How to persuade Emilia is the most important problem and obstacle in this matter.

I moved the pen across the stationery, recalling one of the proverbs that has been passed down from ancient times.

‘It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.’

First, recruit people and then beg for forgiveness until my hands and feet become one.

Emilia is not such a cold-hearted person that she would tell people who are pursuing their dreams of becoming tailors and seamstresses to give up.

Emilia will get angry at me and complain to my mother, but it’s an unavoidable sacrifice for the sake of the cause.

I was confident that I could handle that much.