Chapter 17
“What did you and Lyo talk about?”
On the way back to our lodgings after completing the transaction.
I brought up what had happened while Heter and Lyo had gone off together.
“He merely asked me to take good care of you, my lady.”
“Hmm… Really?”
Judging by his awkward reaction, it was obvious he was hiding something.
“I see.”
Well, I let it slide without pressing him.
I knew there were some things men only talked about among themselves, after all.
“By the way, you seem to be in a very good mood.”
“Do I look happy?”
Was that really something to say right now?
I smiled brightly while clutching the pouch full of gold coins in both hands.
“I sold all of the Snow Wyrm’s byproducts, not just some of them. Why wouldn’t I be happy?”
And I even got paid in a lump sum, not installments!
That was possible because Theo’s residence was not far from his private training ground.
“And I got no less than 600 gold for them!”
I had sold them for far more than the market price and even received a magical tool as a bonus. I felt as though I were walking on clouds.
“What do you plan to do with the money first?”
“Naturally, the first thing I’ll do is….”
I could repay 20 percent of my debt all at once with this money, but I had no intention of doing so.
This money was the initial capital for my next business, and there was somewhere else it needed to be used first.
“Of course, I’ll pay wages to the territory’s residents first.”
The residents who had trusted me and followed me, despite never receiving any compensation.
I was happiest that I could finally give them proper compensation for all their hard work.
“I knew it.”
Heter suddenly broke into a grin, as if he had heard something amusing.
“Why are you suddenly smiling?”
“Because that answer was exactly what I expected.”
“What?”
He didn’t seem to mean any harm, but I still found it irritating.
“Tsk. Mind your manners. I am the master you serve.”
“I always treat you with respect, my lady.”
And yet he was laughing because I had acted exactly as he expected?
“Hah!”
“Too slow.”
Seeing him leisurely evade my surprise elbow made him even more infuriating.
“Ha ha, asking you to speak informally was worth it.”
“What does that mean?”
“You’re teasing me more casually than before.”
‘I’m teasing him?’
Thinking about it carefully, I realized he was right.
Deliberately changing my tone after using informal speech and suddenly jabbing him with my elbow had indeed been teasing.
Could it be that he had asked me to speak informally for this very reason?
‘What a crafty one.’
If I hadn’t had the memories of my previous life, I might have already fallen hopelessly for him and handed him everything I had.
“There should still be quite a bit of money left even after paying the residents. What do you plan to do with that?”
“Naturally, I’ll invest it in my next business.”
The territory already had land for the factory, but I still needed to buy the materials for construction, as well as the ingredients and tools needed to make the products.
‘Still, it’s a relief that I don’t have to pay rent.’
If I had to account for rent as well, things would have been far more daunting.
“Your next business… Have you already thought of something?”
At his question, I smiled as though I had been waiting for him to ask.
“Hehe, of course I have.”
“You seem very confident.”
“Of course. In every novel I’ve read, ‘this item’ always succeeded.”
“A novel…?”
Heter said this as though he found it unexpected.
‘He must be wondering whether I’m planning to make something from a novel instead of inventing something new.’
He had no idea that the novels he had read and the ones I had read were completely different.
“Ha ha!”
My steps grew even lighter as we headed toward the lodgings where Ruby and Sir Gold were staying.
It seemed I had finally managed to get one over on him.
***
“Hm-hm~.”
It had been a week since we returned from Mugwort.
Heter and I had come out to inspect the factory that had recently been built.
One might wonder how a factory could be built in just a few days, but the factory here was not a building like the ones we knew.
It was called a factory, but in reality, it was more like a makeshift shelter temporarily built near a stream.
Sniff, sniff.
Even though we were still far from our destination, the scent was already drifting toward us on the wind.
After walking for a few more minutes, the scent grew stronger, and we began to see the residents working hard.
“Hey! Bring more lye!”
“We’re out of the juice we squeezed!”
“I’ll fetch some water!”
Some people stirred enormous pots and added various ingredients, while others poured what they had been boiling into molds.
“How fascinating. I remember the soap factory I saw long ago having a somewhat more acrid smell.”
Heter, who was watching the factory beside me, murmured.
That’s right. The ‘item’ I had mentioned was soap.
“Of course. The soap made here is different from ordinary soap.”
The world into which I had been reincarnated, ‘I Became the Villainess of the Count’s Family,’ was, as I had mentioned before, a quintessential romance-fantasy novel.
In other words, the setting here was not much different from that of any other medieval fantasy.
In a place like this, it was only natural that the only soap available would be laundry soap. It was a classic trope.
That was why I had been certain that scented soap could never fail.
“If we show up now, we’ll only disrupt their work, so let’s sneak around.”
“Understood.”
It was obvious our appearance would cause a commotion, just as it had during the Snow Wyrm’s dissection, so Heter and I circled around the shelter and headed for a small tent set up behind it.
“Sir Gold.”
“…Ah, my lady! Sir Heter!”
We approached on tiptoe and secretly lifted the tent flap. Sir Gold, peering through a magnifying glass as he diligently examined some documents, greeted us.
“Aren’t you cold? And is the work going well?”
“We’ve kept a fire going continuously to boil the water, oil, and lye, so I’m not cold at all. And we’ve made about 200 sets of soap so far.”
“I see.”
It was a small amount for three days’ work, but I knew it couldn’t be helped.
There were no machines here, so everything had to be made by hand, and I had never intended to mass-produce the soap in the first place.
“It’s fine if the pace is slow, so please focus on the quality.”
After all, the soap was intended for nobles, not commoners.
“Heh heh, leave it to me. Oh, and we have a fully packaged prototype.”
Sir Gold rose from his seat and brought over a beautifully packaged box.
“Here, have a look.”
“Oh! It’s nice, isn’t it?”
There was a beautiful fruit illustration on the wrapping, along with elegant cursive lettering.
Even I, who had no particular sense of aesthetics, thought it was beautiful at a glance.
For reference, Ruby, who claimed to be a chief painter, had drawn the picture, while the lettering was Sir Gold’s work.
“Go ahead and open it.”
“Then… Sir Heter, could you open it?”
“Me?”
Perhaps he hadn’t expected to be asked, because Heter’s eyes widened as he stood watching from behind.
“I’m curious to see the reaction of the first person to open this package.”
The primary customers for this soap were noblewomen.
I wasn’t any better when it came to feminine sensibilities, but I had the memories of my previous life.
Since I already had an image of the finished product in my head, I wouldn’t be able to give an objective evaluation.
Of course, Heter wasn’t a woman either, but he was from a fairly distinguished family.
At the very least, I thought he would be able to judge it more objectively than I could.
“Understood.”
Soon, following my order, Heter slowly began unwrapping the package.
“Tell me candidly what you think as you open it, Sir Heter.”
“Understood.”
Sir Gold, who was watching along with me, also spoke with a serious expression.
“First, the wrapping is cute, which is nice, but I think it would be better to use a wider variety of colors and decorate it more lavishly. I’m fine with it, but the people who buy this soap will be noblewomen.”
“I see.”
Before long, he offered even more useful feedback, such as how the design of the soap and the container holding it could be more ornate. His impressions were much more detailed than I had expected.
“Whew. There seems to be some room for improvement. It’s a good thing we have Sir Heter.”
Sir Gold recorded Heter’s feedback on a sheet of paper and nodded with satisfaction.
“Indeed. I was surprised by how detailed your impressions were. Are you normally interested in things like this?”
“Well… my older sister likes this sort of thing.”
‘He had an older sister as well?’
I had unexpectedly learned another new fact about him.
“And, my lady, what became of the merchant guild that said it would sell this product?”
Sir Gold, who was closing the lid of the box and tidying up the packaging, asked me this.
“Ah.”
At his question, my mood suddenly plummeted.
“Well… they all refused.”
“Ah….”
Sir Gold and I sighed at the same time.
“Surely House Fridel made another move?”
“No.”
This time, Heter answered Sir Gold’s question in my stead.
“To be blunt… nobles who can clean themselves with magic have no reason to use soap.”
He was right.
As I had mentioned before, the only kind of soap available here was laundry soap.
And that soap was generally used by commoners.
“I actually expected that to some extent.”
This wasn’t an entirely new product, but merely an improved version of an existing one.
As long as the preconceptions surrounding soap remained, it was only natural that no merchant guild would be willing to take a chance on selling it.
‘Of course, if they saw it for themselves, the nobles might like it more than expected.’
Unfortunately, none of the merchant guilds I could contact seemed to have that kind of nerve.
“So it can’t be helped.”
I had no choice but to show the soap to the nobles myself and promote it.
“You personally, my lady?”
“Yes.”
There was another option: blindly searching for a merchant guild willing to take it on, or creating one from scratch. However, both methods would take far too long.
Only a few months remained until the end of winter this year.
I didn’t have much time.
And it wasn’t as though I was terribly worried.
‘That’s because I’ll be the promotional model.’
Who am I?
A beauty whom Heter himself had acknowledged as capable of bringing down kingdoms.
If I claimed that I owed my current appearance to this soap, what noble could possibly resist buying it?
“But….”
“What is it?”
Sir Gold, who had been looking at me, let his voice trail off.
“You don’t have any friends, my lady, so how do you plan to meet the other nobles?”
“….”
This old man really knew how to land a fact where it hurt.
I almost launched an attack on the elderly, but the Confucian dragon still living inside me helped me hold back once again.
“That’s true… so I sent an invitation to a duke’s daughter I know.”
“An invitation?”
“Yes.”
I was referring to the invitation to the tea party I planned to hold.
“Do you think the other dukes’ daughters will come?”
Sir Gold asked in a worried tone.
“Come on, they will.”
I sent letters to everyone I met at the debutante ball. Surely I’d get at least one reply?
***
And at the time, I didn’t know.
When I attended my first and last ball for my debut.
That the marriage rate among the dukes’ daughters who made their debuts alongside me was unusually low compared with other years….