I Became a Clothing Designer in Another World - Chapter 17
The carriage returning from the Count's banquet was submerged in an eerily heavy and stifling silence.
“……”
Lips agape.
Cheeks flushed red, as if she had caught a cold.
A murky light settled in her once vibrant blue-green eyes.
Ever since the brief rendezvous with the young lord, the lady had been acting as if she were intoxicated.
“Heuhe... Hehehe…”
A lewd giggle escaped from between the lady's lips.
Judging by how she brought her hand to her lips and pressed down firmly, she was clearly reminiscing about what had happened during the tryst.
Her cheeks flushed even redder, a momentary heat flared in her eyes, then her hand fell limply back onto her lap, her eyes once again displaying a vacant light as she stared into space.
“Lady Leticia…”
“What is it?”
“Milady… are you sure you're alright? Did… did the young lord do anything to you…?”
Beside her, Augusta, unnerved by the lady's continuing strange behavior, looked at her with anxious eyes and grasped my hand.
I could feel Augusta's trembling through her hand.
To young Augusta, the lady's behavior must not seem positive.
I smiled and placed my hand on Augusta's head.
“Augusta, don't worry too much, Milady is perfectly fine.”
And I gently stroked her hair, reassuring Augusta with a kind voice.
“Bu, but Milady seems to be having a hard time?”
“Heue…”
“I suppose she does…”
To someone who doesn't know the situation, it might look like something terrible has happened, but to me, who knows the full story, she just looks like she's about to die of happiness.
“Hehe~ Augusta, sometimes when you're too happy, you might cry, right?”
“Yes…”
“Milady is going through something similar right now, she's so happy that she can't see anything else and keeps giggling.”
“I see… but, what good thing has happened to Milady?”
“Thaaat…”
I gave an awkward smile, briefly recalling the memory.
During the banquet, when I heard that the young lord and the lady had disappeared for a while, I grabbed comfortable shoes and medicine for dizziness and went to the room where the lady and the young lord were.
The moment when they greeted me with disheveled collars and tangled hair, hurriedly tidying themselves up, their faces red as apples and awkward smiles on their faces.
The hot and passionate moments the two of them spent in that short five minutes weren't so obscene or vulgar that I couldn't say them out loud, but…
I didn't think it was an appropriate story to tell Augusta, who had just turned fourteen, as it might be a bit too stimulating.
I held Augusta's hand tightly, looked her straight in the eye, and said gently.
“When you're a little older, you'll know what happened to Milady.”
“Yes…”
_
A brief commotion arose in the mansion after Hayes returned from the Count's estate.
“Mom, Dad, there's someone I want to marry.”
“Wh, what?”
Because the next day, during dinner, Hayes suddenly dropped a bombshell.
“I see, do as you please.”
“Wife? What are you talking about? I don't know what kind of bastard he is, but I will never allow it! I will never approve, even if dirt gets in my eyes!”
My mother raised her eyebrows as if she sensed something, rolled her eyes back and forth, and then nodded with a calm face, but my father contorted his face fiercely, like a priest confronting a heretic, and vehemently opposed it.
“They said they would send a letter sometime today.”
“I'm looking forward to it, to see who our daughter has chosen.”
“Kkeueuk!”
My father was so indignant that I thought he was going to clutch the back of his neck and collapse.
However, when a letter arrived from the Count's estate before lunch.
“Haha, I should support my lovely daughter, who wants to have some love, as her father.”
“Right?”
“Mom, Dad, thank you!”
As if the past vehement opposition had never happened, he wore a calm expression and supported Hayes's love.
It was a bit pathetic since it hadn't even been half a day since he said things like "what a bastard" and "I won't approve, even if dirt gets in my eyes," but everyone brushed it off as the young lord was the exact opposite of a bastard, being a top marriage prospect.
__
About a week after Hayes asked about a groom, my mother suddenly came to my room.
“Son, are you busy?”
“No, I'm not.”
“I heard from Hayes that you helped a lot with this?”
“Ah… that? My younger sister said she wanted to find love, so I gave her a little help.”
“You know other people's love so well, but I don't know why there's no news about your own partner…”
“……”
I frowned and squeezed my eyes shut.
Ever since Hayes and the young lord's engagement was finalized, my mother's pressure has intensified.
If you think about it, the young lord only found his partner when he was nineteen, so I thought I had about two years to spare, but that didn't matter to my mother.
“Did you come to nag…?”
“It's not that, I'm just nagging since I saw you.”
“Keueung…”
I regretted not helping Hayes.
It was a romance that would have happened someday anyway since they both liked each other, but I meddled unnecessarily and got burned.
“Haa~ don't hesitate too much.”
“Yes…”
As I lowered my head and subtly avoided her gaze, my mother sighed and finished her nagging faster than usual.
“Anyway, I heard you made Hayes some interesting stockings?”
“Interesting? I don't know if they're interesting, but I did make her pretty ones.”
“That's what's interesting, what crazy person would invest so much money and effort into stockings that can't even be seen, judging by the fact that the material costs alone were 30 silver, just for stockings.”
“……”
I scratched the back of my head, avoiding my mother's eyes again.
I made them myself, so it only cost the price of the materials, but if I had to find a tailor who could handle thin fabrics delicately and embroider them, the price would skyrocket.
Even for nobles, spending several gold on stockings that are difficult to wear for a long time is a burden.
“I'm sorry…”
“I didn't come to scold you for that, so raise your head.”
“Then why did you come?”
“Those stockings seem to be getting a good reaction from men, they're pretty, but I didn't think they were that good, but men liked them so much it was strange.”
“Men? Aside from me and the young lord, there's no one who's seen them, right?”
“I was curious too, so I asked the family tailors to make a few, although there wasn't enough time to embroider them.”
“Really? What did Father say?”
My mother, wearing a faint smile, blushed slightly on her earlobes and said.
“It was hot, it felt like I was back in my youth.”
“Ah… I see… I'm glad you enjoyed it.”
I nodded awkwardly, taken aback by my mother's definitive one-line review.
Their marital relationship was always good, but it had become even hotter, I was a little curious about what had happened.
Were we going to have a new sibling?
“So, I'm thinking of selling them at my boutique, what do you think?”
As I was having useless thoughts, my mother broke my reverie and brought up the story she really wanted to tell.
“…A boutique?”
Selling thin, embroidered stockings to others…
A boutique is a place that sells expensive clothes, but see-through stockings are difficult to make, expensive, and obviously won't last long, so will they sell?
“Will they sell?”
“Nobles will buy even trash at a high price if you just incite a little competition.”
When I tilted my head and asked back, my mother chuckled and nodded.
“How?”
“The stockings themselves are pretty, so if you just add a good reason, that's it, if you subtly let out the story about Hayes and Duke Lennox, and I coax the other wives, women will buy them as if they're possessed.”
“Is that enough? Don't you need something more?”
“Beauty is life to a woman, and not just anything, but something that men love to death, what woman wouldn't buy it?”
“I see.”
I'm a man, so I don't really know what it feels like, but I assumed that was the case since my mother said so.
“It's not hard to make, so everyone will copy it, will there be any profit left?”
“Copycats will be around soon, but we can monopolize the profits for a few months.”
“Hmm…”
There was no reason to object.
I nodded without much hesitation.
“Do as you please, Mother.”
“Thank you.”
_
As my mother had predicted, see-through stockings became subtly popular among young ladies and wives.
Some sought the stockings to turn the eyes of their admired ones, while others sought to add vitality to a relationship that had become slightly monotonous.
The stockings' popularity brought about an unexpected change.
Skirts became slightly shorter to show off the stockings.
Of course, not by much, just enough to rise slightly above the ankles.
I was so proud to see it develop in such a positive direction.
You might wonder if it's even worth calling it shorter with just that much, but considering that dresses used to drag on the floor, it's a huge improvement.
However, one thing that was disappointing was that Emily wouldn't wear them.
Even though I made the missing stocking later and gave it to her when I introduced her to Hayes, Emily never wore the stockings even once.
“Doesn't Emily wear those stockings?”
I timidly protested about it once.
“How can I wear that when I'm working? It'll all get torn.”
“Hing…”
The reason was too reasonable for me to say anything more.