novel
| ← Ch.228 | Ch.230 → |
"Yes, it will be very helpful. The cold winter is coming, but making clothes takes a long time. Mother said it would be better to send clothes that are ready to be worn than to send fabric."
Well, if she really wanted to help the poor go through the cold winter, she had to buy thick coats, not dresses. But instead of pointing it out, Baroness Verier just smiled and agreed.
"Of course. The workhouse always lacks clothes."
"Will you choose dresses with me?"
The princess even let the baroness join in her shopping.
There wasn't a single person in Seritos who didn't know the king and the queen adored their youngest princess and granted her every wish.
Everyone envied Baroness Verier's fortune and eagerly listened to their conversation.
"We have about thirty identical dresses of this."
"Hmm, I must buy some more, but... it's already time to meet Violet. What should I do?"
She could just decide on any dresses, but she didn't want to do that at all. The dresses were going to be donated in her name, and she wanted to be praised for putting much care into it. But of course, she also couldn't give up the playtime with her friend.
"Then, how about coming back tomorrow?"
One of the ladies-in-waiting, who had been sent to keep an eye on the princess, offered, and she immediately nodded.
She wouldn't have agreed to it if it hadn't been enjoyable, but choosing ready-made dresses didn't have the stress of imagining the finished dress with only a design sketch and fabric, so it was quite fun.
"Maybe I should come with mother tomorrow."
She carelessly said so as she left, and of course, it utterly shocked everyone who heard it.
In less than a day, words about Baroness Varier's fortune spread to the entire capital.
Soon people realized Presa had a great advantage over the designers they would call home.
They couldn't go to tea meetings or balls without being invited to. However, everyone could go to Presa regardless of one's rank and status, as long as they had enough money to buy clothes.
They could 'fabricate' coincidental encounters with honorable people they couldn't even dare to speak to.
On the next day, the shop was crowded with customers. And more than half of them were men.
"My mother urgently needs a pair of gloves."
"But didn't you buy a pair from us this morning?"
"That's... I thought my mother needed only a pair, but she actually needs one or two more."
The princess was the noblest lady in the kingdom, and men who wanted to find such a bride and climb the social ladder were eager to run into her.
Thanks to that, the gloves became the product that gave them the biggest profit. And of course, Gabriel didn't miss this hilarious situation.
"Blanco, you should read this article."
Snow suddenly burst into laughter while reading the latest edition of The Little Bird's News and handed it to Blanco.
Blanco, who had been threading a needle with her thick hands, angrily replied.
"Can't you see I'm busy?"
She had been trying it for more than half an hour now. It wasn't easy to thread a needle with huge hands that were twice the size of human hands.
The needle had been bent in half, so she wasn't going to succeed anyway.
Snow almost told her she could use the threader she had bought, but then she quickly shut her mouth.
Talking about it to Blanco wasn't going to be good. She knew she would think of her as a traitor for taking a machine made by Claymore.
"How about giving it another try later?"
"No, I must do this now. Look at this ribbon, it's waiting for me to put it on my dress."
Blanco was a huge fan of Madam Berry which the magazine had been writing about often.
As soon as she read the article on how to make a stomacher, she went down to a shop and bought the needed materials.
She could easily make ribbons, even with her huge hands. She was delighted to make pieces of beauty herself and praised Madam Berry for her ingeniousness.
She knew she couldn't make and wear a dress, but she wanted to at least put a stomacher on her chest.
She thought her long dream was finally coming true, but as always, her needle was not letting it happen.
"Hmm..."
While Blanco was focused on it, Snow stole a needle and thread from her, planning to use her threader while Blanco couldn't see.
She did feel guilty because of her master Iber, but that machine was just too convenient that she had no choice but to admit the Claymores were clever.
Snow already couldn't live without the machine. Moreover, it had cost only what about five apples would take, so it wasn't adding much money to Claymore's wallet.
"Blanco, I bought this from the town yesterday, and..."
"Stop distracting me!"
Blanco angrily looked up, but she got to smile as soon as she saw the magazine's cover. It was her favorite The Little Bird's News.
Snow preferred pamphlets of clothes shops to the magazine that had too many gossips, but she had a respect for her friend's taste.
"This is the latest edition I haven't read."
"Yes, I just looked through it briefly, and it has news about Madam Berry."
Blanco snatched it out of her hand before she could even finish saying that. Then, she started to read, completely absorbed.
Snow couldn't understand why she loved Madam Berry so much. Of course, her ribbons were good, Snow admitted it. However, her ribbon dress had been first worn by Duchess Claymore.
Blanco was mad at her for using a convenient machine made by Claymore, but she was so generous to Madam Berry. Snow blamed her for that.
'Still, here I am, threading this needle for you. You should know how fortunate you are to have such a great friend. '
Snow left Blanco to read the magazine and went to the kitchen. She took out the machine she had hidden, and what Blanco had been struggling for half an hour was done in an instant. Snow thought she had been right to dismiss her guilt.
She wished Duke Claymore would make a lot more things like this. Gods, may he work a lot and earn little.
"Blanco, look at what I've done."
Snow went back in triumph, but then she was surprised to see Blanco had transformed into human form. Why had she done that so suddenly?
"Oh, um, I just succeeded in threading your needle..."
"That's not what matters now."
It didn't matter? But she had spent minutes struggling for it. However, she gravely ordered.
"You should transform too."
"But why? Are you going to the fabric shop again? You already have enough fabric. We all know you have a room full of silk. Just stop buying. I don't know what kind of silk that magazine introduced but use what you already have first and then think about it."
"I'm not going to a fabric shop. I'm going to a clothes shop."
"What clothes shop?"
Snow thought her friend had finally gone mad after struggling with a needle for so long. She yelled, "But what if you show them your real form while they measure your size? Then you'll never be able to go to a human town again?"
"I don't need to have my size measured! I just have to go and buy!"
Blanco put the passage that said there was a shop that sold ready-made clothes right in front of Snow's eyes. Her eyes widened to read the unexpected.
"But we are..."
"Here, it says the shop sells really big clothes and customers of all sizes should come. Madam Berry says they should make clothes just for each customer. She said designers who talk of their belief and make small dresses in sizes of children are not real designers."
The last sentence sounded to be aimed at a particular designer Blanco had been a big fan of only a year ago.
But Snow didn't bother to point that out since Blanco was always changing her mind. And for now, her whim didn't matter. She immediately transformed into a human.
"We can talk on our way, let's go!"
Snow's heart beat fast with excitement to think she was about to get a proper dress for the first time.
Of course, she thought it was weird for Madam Berry to open a shop in a small rural town near Iber's territory and sell huge clothes that no human could wear, but she decided not to think too much about that.
Although Snow was quite skeptical, she tended to fall to traps easily.
| ← Ch. 228 | Ch. 230 → |