episode_0130

After roughly establishing a plan, I met with each employee individually to ask for their thoughts on the increase in staff.

It’s not like anyone would oppose an increase, but each person might have different ideas.

So, after searching them out one by one and asking, as expected, they all seemed welcoming.

“If possible, please hire mainly tailors.”

This was because, rather than a “Why?”, the words “Please get these kinds of people” came out first.

And the desired conditions were all common sense.

“Elizabeth, are you busy right now?”

“If it’s just for a moment, I’m fine.”

Having confirmed that all the employees were positive about the increase itself, I immediately sought out Elizabeth.

“I’m planning to hire someone new to work with soon, what do you think?”

“Everyone seems to be getting a bit overwhelmed, so I think it’s a good idea.”

Fortunately, Elizabeth was also positive.

I thought that now that she’s not just Elizabeth but Princess Victoria, she might be uncomfortable with a new face, but that wasn’t the case.

“But how are you planning to find them?”

“I’m planning to raise them from scratch, entrusting them with simple tasks from the beginning and slowly developing them.”

“Like an apprenticeship?”

“Yeah.”

“Wouldn’t that take too long? Even with great talent, it would take several months, wouldn’t it?”

“There are some risk factors with experienced people, so I’m trying to go safely.”

It would be best to find a tailor or seamstress who gets along well with us, is trustworthy, and has good skills, but such a person doesn’t exist.

If they were that good, they’d be running their own atelier, so how could I afford to bring someone like that?

It’s a fact that our employees often forget because they’re crazy talented, but among our employees, Herbert and Adelheid are the only ones who have experience in sewing.

They endured and endured the underwear hell and grew on their own.

“We don’t have the leeway, how are you planning to teach them?”

“I can quickly teach the basics by utilizing weekends or evenings and then put them into practical work, but it will still take a few months.”

“In that case… the conditions for accepting people will be important, do you have anything in mind?”

“These are conditions I wrote down as they came to mind, take a look.”

I handed Elizabeth the paper I had scribbled on for a few minutes.

Elizabeth, receiving the paper, slightly widened her eyes and slowly read the words written there.

…

Looking for someone to learn about sewing and tailoring.

Application requirements: Able to communicate, doesn’t cause fatal harm to those around them, and will accept them even if they don’t have arms and legs as long as they can sew in any way.

However, if the conditions are similar, we will choose healthier and younger applicants, preferably someone we want to employ for a long time.

Training hours: Weekday evenings or weekend afternoons.

Detailed times and frequencies will be discussed later as conditions vary from person to person.

Training period: Approximately 3 months, up to 6 months.

After the training period, we will conduct a test for about four days to determine whether to hire them as a full-time employee.

Benefits: Modest meal expenses paid during the training period?

…

“What do you think?”

Elizabeth, leaving a short word in response to my question, glanced at me with half-closed eyes and opened her mouth.

“Who’s going to teach those people for these three months?”

“I’ll do the tailoring, Adelheid will do the sewing.”

“Are you trying to crush the sprouts from the beginning?”

Both Adelheid and I have a ‘just do a lot and you’ll get better’ mind, so we’re not suitable for teaching someone.

“But I can’t use someone else.”

But I can’t use someone else.

Elizabeth is excluded because her staying at the atelier is close to a miracle and a special situation.

Walter and Elin fail in terms of personality.

Katerina is a master at embroidery, but her sewing skills are worse than an average housewife. Marie has cat hands, so she can’t sew.

Prince Herbert and Princess Fannie are suitable for education, but they don’t have time because they haven’t given up on high society like me.

“There are so many people…”

Elizabeth, frowning and turning her head towards the employees, couldn’t continue speaking as she flinched her shoulders as soon as she caught the employees in her sight.

“Okay, there’s no helping it.”

And she nodded as if she understood.

“Next question, aren’t the conditions too ambiguous?”

“Ambiguous?”

“I felt it when we were hired too, but you write your conditions too vaguely, if you do this, a bunch of weirdos will gather, shouldn’t you at least do a document screening if you’re going to accept them like this?”

“That’s true, but you can only know if they’re okay by seeing them in person, there’s so much you can’t know from writing.”

The best way to pick the best talent is very simple.

Just look at everyone in person.

Real talents that cannot be judged by writing or words.

It’s a joke that in the martial arts world, you should be careful of children and the elderly, but in document screening, children and the elderly are cut off from the documents, let alone the interview.

Who would recklessly hire a 60-year-old grandfather or a 14-year-old teenager?

And there’s not much to see through the documents anyway.

Do they have certificates or university departments?

The only thing that’s somewhat reliable is a letter of recommendation from the guild or a former workplace.

So, naturally, there’s no answer but to check in person.

However, since it’s impossible to search through everyone in the world to find the best talent, at least check and select one by one those who are willing to come and find us.

It’s hard, annoying, and a headache, but if you raise the talent found in this way well, it will bring benefits equivalent to a hundred million times that effort.

In the end, finding talent is like finding jewels among worthless stones, and sifting for gold on the riverbed.

So, in order to find even one more talented person, we deliberately set ambiguous conditions so that more people can apply.

“And would normal kids be able to keep up with this atmosphere?”

“That’s, but…”

And right now, our employees are not normal to begin with.

Just the tailors alone are a royal, a woman who gave up a family business respected by the Pope, and a man who came because he was fascinated by my clothing philosophy.

Even Walter and Elin, who are among the most ordinary of the employees, are talented and, although timid, say what they want to a noble like me.

But what if an ordinary human joins here?

I can say with certainty that they’ll be ruined in a few weeks.

“Still, there’s a limit, how long will it take to filter them all out? Haven’t you already forgotten when dozens of young ladies and young masters gathered?”

“But, I’m uneasy unless I see them myself… I’ll just suffer for a few days.”

“Ha… why does a magician family emphasize tenacity like a knight family?”

Elizabeth gently placed her hand on her forehead as if her head was throbbing at my stubborn attitude.

“I understand why you’re acting like that, but still put in a minimum of restrictions, we can’t let it happen again where we pick someone like Reginald and have to send them away without even using them.”

“Ah…”

Reginald.

It’s been a long time since I’ve heard that name.

The only tailor with experience among the first successful applicants, and despite being human, he was about the same age as Katerina, but he gave up and went back because of his arachnophobia.

“I should add a few disqualifications…”

It was a reason I couldn’t force or refute, so I gave up my stubborn attitude and took a step back.

“So, write the conditions in detail again…”

At that sight, Elizabeth reached out her hand to hand the paper back to me.

“Uh… uh?”

“No.”

But as her hand reached out, she changed her mind, frowning and pulling her hand back, then picked up a pen.

“If it’s you, you’ll obviously write something weird, so I’ll write it.”

“Ah, okay…”

The draft that was thoroughly remodeled in Elizabeth’s hands was completely overturned except for the training period and training hours.

The conditions that Elizabeth wrote were so pleasing to my heart that I felt a bit strange, as if she knew me better than I knew myself.

_

After rewriting the conditions that Elizabeth had corrected on a new piece of paper and sending it to the newspaper company with a heartfelt letter, I completely erased the matter of bringing in disciples and new recruits from my mind.

It will take a month for the advertisement to be published and for applicants to prepare various things and come to the Imperial Capital, so there’s nothing more I can do.

Training curriculum?

There’s no such thing.

It’s not like I’m knowledgeable in theory, and dexterity doesn’t increase just by explaining it.

In the end, the ultimate goal is to create a machine that copies the clothes we design as they are, cutting the fabric and sewing.

In order to make that, the fastest, most accurate, and easiest way is to start with simple clothes and gradually increase the difficulty to difficult clothes and repeat it to death.

However, I can’t neglect the current atelier, which is overloaded with work, so I found a way to somehow patch it up with the current employees.

Otherwise, the time to design new clothes will completely disappear, and our position, which barely makes a living through creativity and innovation, will gradually decrease.

Finding a way wasn’t that difficult.

The answer was because Elizabeth had already shown it once.

“Walter, Elin, could you come to the break room for a moment, I have something to talk about?”

“Yes…”

I called Walter and Elin during their break time.

“Yes…?”

“Wh, what’s wrong…?”

I don’t usually call them, but today I’ve already called them separately twice to ask for a conversation, so anxiety began to settle on their faces.

I lightly patted the shoulders of the two people and put a soft smile on my face.

“It’s nothing much, I just called you because I had more things to ask, so don’t be too anxious.”

“Ah, okay…”

It’s not that the two people relaxed after I said a few words, but at least the busy pupils regained their composure and turned to me.

I paused for a moment and very carefully asked the two people a question.

“The two of you, are you perhaps interested in tailor work?”

“Yes…?”

With my one word, the anxiety on Walter and Elin’s faces disappeared completely.

And deep embarrassment and doubt took their place on their faces.