Chapter 174
Chapter 174
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 174
Chapter Title: A Birthday Surprise for Emily
-----------------------------------------------------------------
People often undergo profound emotional changes or realizations after experiencing major events.
The recent ordeal I'd gone through was significant enough to trigger such a shift, and it had indeed forced a variety of mental experiences upon me.
The ending felt a bit anticlimactic and ambiguous, but how common is it to be suspected of heresy and put on trial?
Even getting framed as a petty thief right now would be rare enough—heresy seals the deal.
I'm a creator of my own works, after all.
Thanks to the endless string of suppression that had dragged on since last month, plus the forced experiences injected into me, my aesthetic sense—which had lain dormant amid the busyness of life—suddenly sprang back to life. A surging desire to unleash new creations upon the world welled up inside me.
To be precise, I'm more smuggler than artist, but even smugglers have their own avant-garde artistic souls.
An avant-garde smuggler, carefully selecting works that seem destined to be hits and sneaking them into this world.
That urge had me itching to summon pen and paper right then and there to smuggle in outfits from my past life immediately. But before that, I had a small yet crucial issue demanding my attention first.
「☆January 23rd☆」
On the January calendar crammed with countless appointments, one date stood out, marked with two bold stars all by itself.
I snapped to my senses and realized Emily's birthday was just two days away.
What a disaster.
Some folks occasionally grumbled that making such a fuss over a maid's birthday was overkill. Emily herself would put on a troubled expression and say, "The Lady of the House takes such good care of me already, Young Master. You don't need to go to all this trouble every time."
Nonsense.
Emily might be a maid, but she's my personal attendant—the rare soul who's witnessed my idiotic antics for years and forgiven them with grace.
They say that in life, one person who stands by you in tough times matters more than a web of connections or piles of money.
Excluding family, Emily is that one person for me.
Now's not the time for tasteless avant-garde art to muscle in.
"What to do this year for real..."
The only slight issues were that my repertoire was starting to wear thin and time was awfully tight.
Jewelry was an absolute no—Emily would die of embarrassment.
I'd already given her a watch, and something like a comb that she'd use often felt too plain as a gift.
You could buy ten of them for a silver at the market, and even fancy wood ones only cost a few silvers.
A comb made of jade or silver might work as a present, but that blurred the line with jewelry.
Clothes or shoes? I'd made and given her plenty lately; she wouldn't accept more.
The safest bet, perfume, wasn't one she used much.
She'd said too many people gave her dirty looks for it. I thought a maid smelling nice was great, but apparently, I was in the minority.
Most folks disliked maids having any standout traits.
It was downright tragic.
I wanted my Emily to be a fresh-scented dispenser.
A young maid should carry a powdery scent, a maiden maid a crisp floral or fruity one, and a mature middle-aged maid the subtle aroma of books mingling with black tea—that's the truth of it.
"Hm..."
This line of thinking was getting downright creepy.
I shoved the depressing thoughts deep into the abyss of my mind and propped my elbows on the desk, resting my chin in my hands.
A gift Emily wouldn't find burdensome, could use without self-consciousness, wasn't too pricey, and didn't overlap much with past ones.
I wished some perfect idea would drop from the sky with a ding, but fat chance. I needed to find something good.
"Guess I'll head to the study first..."
Normally, consulting the primitive ancient AI was the best tonic for my mental health in these situations.
_
The study, lit only by a single faint magic lamp.
"Sss... haa..."
Trembling lightly as I savored the intoxicating scent of old tomes—the few legal narcotics the state permitted—I ignored everything else and beelined for the shelf holding books that were a bit too ambiguous to categorize properly.
It was so dark I could barely tell one spot from another, but whether in the estate's manor or here, I could find the bookshelves blindfolded. No issue there.
"Hmm..."
Once at the shelf, I pressed the magic lamp close and slowly scanned each label for titles.
「Letter Writing That Gentlemen of the New Era Must Master Like Any Accomplishment」
Not writing Emily a letter, so no.
「Cocktail Brewing: Sending Them Off in One Shot, Without a Trace, Not Even Birds or Mice the Wiser」
Hm... Useful for gifting to a lady, but not right now.
Not my style anyway.
I shifted my gaze to the next one.
「Encyclopedia of Eastern Tea Sets」
Way too extravagant.
「Embroidery Patterns for Ladies」
Useless.
「Making Bookmarks for Special Someones」
Basket for now.
「Perfumes and Usage Suited to Gentlemen and Ladies」
Saw this years ago.
"Ugh..."
Halfway through, nothing really grabbed me.
Fewer books than at home, and they're all lackluster.
If the ancient AI was already wheezing this early, we'd have problems...
As each book got nixed one by one, time ticked away with no answers, just mounting anxiety.
「Flower Language Culture of the Romayon Kingdom」
"Oh?"
With just two shelves left, one book jumped out at me.
Flowers.
Not a bad gift for someone.
Easy to infuse with meaning via flower language, pretty shapes, and pairing with a simple present keeps the burden low.
In a hyper-practical world, you might get griped at for "something you can't eat or use," but romance and sentimentality still held strong here. Theoretically solid.
I wasn't sure if flower language for roundabout meanings was really a thing locally.
Roses meant love, lilies purity or nobility or mourning the dead—that much held true. But they didn't pile on five or six meanings per flower like modern times.
Modern flower language was like a code system, assigning meanings to RGB values, quantities, color combos, even growth stages—like something out of a mystery novel.
That's why flowers got used a lot back then for things too hard to say outright. Here, meanings were too straightforward.
Or wait.
Maybe that simplicity was a plus?
Not overly complex, so I could convey exactly what I wanted...
"Perfect."
I liked it.
I yanked the book out and tucked it under my arm.
Checked the rest of the shelf for anything else eye-catching, but nothing matched the flower book.
Grabbed the bookmark-making one I'd noted earlier too, then left the study for my room.
These should help me cobble something together time-wise...
_
The flower language book proved quite useful.
A bit dated, with stiff prose that nearly bored me to death, but the info was solid.
Flower language here was still pretty straightforward.
Sure, flowers carried two or three meanings, but they didn't shift with color, number, or combos.
That let me find a few for gratitude and thanks.
Campanula, anemone, geranium, or dahlia—familiar names, available in the Empire.
All pretty flowers with broad appeal, but unfortunately, none were in season.
It was midwinter anyway, so no flowers were...
With magic, time and money could procure anything, but I had to wrap everything up by tomorrow.
No greenhouse would have exactly what I wanted lined up perfectly, so touring around would take days.
Fresh flowers were near impossible. That left artificial ones...
"Both iffy..."
Couldn't decide between fabric arrangements or embroidered cloth.
Time wasn't the issue either way.
A few blooms, and I'd finish in two or three hours. Materials no problem. But neither felt right.
My inner practical streak instinctively recoiled at fabric fakes, and embroidered cloth looked plainer than arrangements.
Ideally, something pretty with a touch of practicality. What couldn't I make with embroidered cloth?
"Hm..."
Overthinking was giving me a headache.
...Head?
Hair tie?
Too small. Scrunchie it is.
What we'd call a hair scrunchie, or chouchou.
A stretchy fabric hair tie, twisted like intestines, made by sewing a fabric tube and threading elastic inside.
Easy to decorate, great for simple ponytails.
Wider surface meant fewer hair creases, and elastic made tying comfy.
Elastic sourcing? Already handled ages ago.
Whip up the fabric tube quick, vary colors for three pieces.
Scrunchie alone felt sparse, so pair with a comb and mirror—cohesive set, affordable even for commoners if motivated. Not burdensome.
Best part: all under a few dozen silvers.
This is it.
No other answer.
Prep the pattern today, craft tomorrow, present on her birthday.
"Haa~"
A sense of clarity washed over me like a hole punched through my chest. I let out a breath bordering on a sigh of awe and broke into a wide grin.
I set pencil and paper right in front of me and sketched lively lines across the page with nimble strokes.