Chapter 35
“How is it? Is it all right?”
Petia’s cheeks flushed pink as she asked. How many new dresses was this?
Considering her noble status, a half-crown should have been ridiculous. Yet even with that dress on, she looked utterly enchanted. I clapped enthusiastically, unable to hold back my pity. “That outfit has made you even more beautiful in the presence of the High Priest! You carry yourself with such grace and elegance! The first saintess could never have been as radiant as you!”
Petia let out a soft “Oh my~” and cupped her cheeks with both hands, feigning bashfulness before flashing an innocent smile at the surrounding guests. “My disciple has such sincerity, doesn’t she?”
A reservation with the Serpine Steward’s household was the same as a reservation with the Serpine Count or Countess. Mostly the Count’s, of course—had it been the Countess, the steward would have passed the request to a lady’s maid. In this land, anyone could identify the true party simply by seeing whose servant had booked the appointment. If you couldn’t even figure that out, you had no business running a dress atelier against nobles.
Here, the highest authority was the lord—not the king—and that lord was the Serpine Count. The master of this realm. And the master of the realm had personally booked a holy maiden’s fitting.
While Petia stepped behind the curtain for a fitting break, I quietly slipped a gold coin to every single person in the atelier. “The road is long and you’ll bear my trouble. Consider this my gratitude.”
In the Middle Ages, a single gold coin could buy kindness. “The road ahead looks rough; I don’t want to burden you,” I said as I handed it over. At least here, one could purchase politeness with money. Just one coin. I’d keep my thanks modest. “The road is long and you’ll bear my trouble. Consider this my gratitude.”
These weren’t seamstresses or tailors. They were hired servants—hostess maids or fitting attendants. Their annual salaries were barely five gold coins each. One gold coin was worth roughly three days’ wages. A suitable tip, neither too little nor too memorable. One gold coin per person delivered a clear message. The maids clapped and smiled brightly, perfectly matching Petia’s mood. “Yes, our young mistress has such devotion.”
“But there wasn’t a single wrong word. A beauty like you naturally pairs with a fine dress.”
“You are stunning. You’ll capture every eye in the city.”
I teased her in the flirtiest tone I could manage. Petia beamed with delight and stepped back behind the curtain for the next gown. While she was gone, I crossed to the men’s fitting area. Damien stood there, scowling as he wore his usual ill-fitting clothes. “I don’t need this,” he grumbled the moment he saw me. I clapped anyway. “Wow, you really are handsome. I knew you were, but the way you wear those clothes only makes your beauty shine brighter. There’s no twelve-year-old boy in the world as handsome as you!”
“Don’t think I’m going to flirt with you like Petia.”
Damien had clearly overheard my words to her. He warned me, but I ignored him completely. “Really? Everyone will think so.” I scanned the room. All the maids answered in unison. “Of course!”
“A gentleman like you would melt a hundred noble ladies’ hearts.”
“I’ve never met anyone as handsome as you in my life.”
One gold coin was that powerful. Damien’s lips twitched as he glared at me. “I’ll wear one more. It’s the last one.” He disappeared behind the curtain. This was the fourth time he’d said that, but whatever. Even in the Middle Ages, the heir of Hamilcar kept wearing the same outfit. Of course, that made sense by their standards. But I couldn’t stand it. It was disgusting. Truly disgusting. I needed to wash it.
While I admired Damien’s beauty with a sigh, I wondered if my lack of romantic pull toward him was simply because he was an unavoidable product of the Middle Ages. Before returning to the women’s area, I whispered to a maid, “Bring me ten new undergarments. The best quality available tomorrow.”
The maids immediately understood who had tipped them. “Of course, young mistress!” They hurried off to fetch the items. In the meantime, I returned to the women’s section, alternating between half-hangul reincarnation and full Kasanova mode to lavish the ultimate praise on Petia. By the time she had fully warmed up to the maids, Damien’s fitting was complete. We excused ourselves from Petia and strolled through the city. Because it was the merchant fair, the entire town had become one vast market. It felt like a festival. The area where our stall had been was reserved for foreigners, while local merchants had dressed up their shops, set up stalls in front, or erected small movable stalls to participate in the fair. We exchanged goods in earnest. The wild honey from Hamilcar was a rare and valuable commodity in the northern plains of Serpine. Every time I offered it to a merchant and said, “This is honey from Hamilcar,” the merchant would pause, suspicious, then taste it before staring at me with that expression of “How can someone this valuable be carrying it around?” But as soon as they saw the real article, their face lit up with a smile. “It’s genuine highland honey. Even the container is from Hamilcar. Hmm… how about five grams of saffron for five hundred grams?” “Ten grams.” I jumped straight to double the price. The merchant threw up his hands. “Oh my, young lady, saffron is extremely precious. Five grams already eats into my profit.” “But in Serpine it isn’t that rare. It’s traded here. Compared to that, this honey is even rarer. How did you manage to bring it from the Mount of Light? If a spice merchant like you stocks highland honey, how much trust will your customers place in you? Stop trying to argue with me that you’re not gaining anything. You don’t sell only spices in this city, do you? And even if it weren’t spices, I’m sure. If I go to the trouble of exchanging this for Muri cheese, what do you think will happen?” “How are you going to transport Muri cheese all the way to Hamilcar? It will spoil instantly.” “That’s my problem to solve.”
The merchant looked troubled. Even I thought ten grams was too much and five grams was too little; seven or eight grams would have been fair. But it was the merchant fair. Half the continental traders lived here, so saffron circulated more freely than the Hamilcar honey. Demand dictated supply. Saffron could not be used as medicine, but honey could. In modern times it was used medicinally; in the Middle Ages it was an incredibly important drug. “Seven grams, how about it?” he asked with obvious pain. If it had been earlier I would have agreed, but you tried to haggle with me. “Nine grams.” “Young lady…” “Fine, I’ll go somewhere else.” “Eight grams! No more than that!” I chuckled. I had expected seven or eight grams; this was a good deal. Had it not been the merchant fair, I would never have managed it. When I nodded, Damien set down the bag on his shoulder—eleven jars of honey inside after he opened one. The merchant weighed the saffron with extreme care and handed it over. I returned to the atelier with Damien, stepped aside briefly to change, opened my sub-space, repacked the saffron, refilled the honey, picked out a new dress for myself, handed the bag to Damien, and swapped it for Muri cheese. After several rounds of this, I had successfully acquired every ingredient. That evening we dined once more with the Serpine Count’s household. Throughout the meal my head spun. The heir had a pregnant mistress. Whether they loved her or not, she was unmistakably a mistress. According to my Status, she was a commoner, and the child’s gender had already been determined—it was a boy. Checking Amori Serpine’s Status revealed who he was engaged to. [Engaged to Izabo Aud] A burst of laughter escaped me. Amori’s face darkened as he watched me. “What? Is something wrong?” “No, nothing at all.” I answered calmly while staring at the man opposite me—Amori Serpine—with utter contempt. This lunatic got a commoner pregnant while engaged to the Aud heir! Izabo Aud was… how old again? I couldn’t remember exactly, but she was probably twenty or a bit under. She was the heiress of the Aud Principality. When she was born, her father had proudly informed both the Morihan King and the Amein Emperor that she would inherit the Aud lands. The Aud Principality lay in the east-central region of Morihan. Above it was Serpine; below it was Hamilcar. In other words, it sat at the absolute commercial hub of the continent and also held one of Morihan’s strategic choke points. Although it was east-central, it extended west and then south to encompass Morihan’s largest southern granary region. It was both strategic and commercial, and a granary, and the largest territory on the continent. When Izabo became the principality’s ruler, Morihan sharpened its edge. If she married someone from the Amein Empire, over a quarter of the kingdom’s land would slip away. Moreover, her own territory—the Aud Principality—formed the border between Amein and Morihan. The northern border was Serpine, the southern was Hamilcar, and the central one was Aud. That was why her father had recorded the inheritance rights in official documents and even obtained recognition from the Pontifex, the “Saint Standing on the Highest Bridge.” Ignoring Izabo’s inheritance rights meant rejecting the gods’ will and their morality entirely. The part I still didn’t understand was that the original intended partner for Izabo was not the Serpine Count. I had heard she was supposed to marry into the royal family. Why did she end up marrying the Serpine Count instead? Why had the king allowed it? Merging Aud and Serpine meant openly defying the crown—creating an ultra-super territory. (They were literally adjacent.) Izabo, as lady of Serpine, was not a vassal of the king; the king himself would become the vassal of the Serpine Count. How was that even possible? I had no idea. Was she originally betrothed to the king’s son, then something went terribly wrong, and she decided to seduce the Serpine Count just to spite the royal family? What on earth could be so infuriating that she would do that? …Did that idiot get a commoner pregnant too? From across the table, Amori Serpine stared at me with confusion. He probably thought it odd that I was staring at him for so long. I smirked and looked away. Honestly, I didn’t care what happened to Amori Serpine or Izabo Aud. But the scent of profit was strong. Depending on the personality of the Aud heiress, this could become a very, very profitable business item.