I Became a Clothing Designer in Another World - Chapter 9

A day passed, and I packed up the clothes and designs I had made and visited my father's office with my mother.

"Honey, are you busy?"

"I'm not busy. What brings you here at this hour, my dear?"

Mother opened the office door without knocking and strode up to Father, placing two documents squarely on his desk, and said something so brazen it felt shameless.

"Honey, please sign these."

"Mother?"

I was sure Mother had come to persuade Father, but the words coming from her mouth were very different from the persuasion I knew.

Has the concept of persuasion changed while I wasn't looking?

Or is this a grand scheme by my mother to test my abilities?

"What is this?"

"William says he wants to make uniforms for the staff. I think it looks good, so I'm going to push it a little."

"If it's clothes, your eye for it is better, so you must have done well. Do as you please."

"Father?"

While I was in a state of confusion, the conversation progressed rapidly.

No, there was no section to call it progress, so I should say it ended as soon as it started.

Father glanced at Mother's face and subtly pushed the first page of the documents aside. Without even reading them, he took a quill and scribbled his signature at the bottom.

"Here you are."

"Hehe~ Thank you."

And Father, with a familiar, dry expression, neatly organized the documents and returned them, while Mother let out a sweet laugh and accepted them.

Then, rolling up the documents and slightly bowing, Mother lightly kissed Father's cheek, turned around, and left the office.

"Is there anything else to say?"

I was dumbfounded by their refreshingly cool actions, and stood there blankly. Father glanced at me, the only one left, and gave me a pointed look.

"Uh... no, nothing."

I shook my head and waved my hand, belatedly snapping out of it at my father's words.

"Um... Father, thank you."

"Huh, what did I do? Give your thanks to your mother who's waiting outside."

"Yes."

And when I belatedly gave my thanks while bowing, Father chuckled and waved his left hand as if telling me to go out quickly.

After a light bow, I picked up the basket I had placed on the floor and quietly left the office.

Mother, who was waiting for me with Emily and the maid Grace, started walking as soon as I came out of the office and said,

"Now, let's go find a tailor."

"Yes."

_

After the cool transaction with my father, we headed outside the mansion to the street of commoner tailors in the city center.

Among them was a shop that usually made uniforms for the knights belonging to the family.

Even though there was already a dressmaker in the mansion, the reason we bothered to go outside was that they were high-class personnel who only handled clothes for nobles, so clothes for butlers and maids had to be entrusted to tailors on the street who handled clothes for commoners.

"Hmm."

Mother, walking gracefully down the street with Emily and Grace by her side, suddenly stopped and glared at the sign of a store.

A very crude and common sign that read [George's Tailor Shop].

"Let's go in."

After checking the sign and slightly lowering her head to peek into the store through the window, Mother nodded to Emily and ordered in a gentle voice.

Emily, upon hearing Mother's words, bowed slightly and trotted to the door of the store, throwing it open for us.

"Welcome!"

A man with a gentle impression, greeting us in a booming voice as soon as the store door opened.

The man, whose hands were full of calluses, smiled brightly as soon as he saw Mother and gestured for us to come in quickly.

"Aren't you the Countess? Don't stand outside in the cold, please come in!"

"Nice to see you, Sir George."

"It feels like it's been a long time, how have you been?"

"I'm always doing well. How have you been, sir?"

"Yes, we've been doing well thanks to the Count's grace."

"I appreciate the empty words. How's business these days?"

"It's been slow since the season for buying clothes has already passed. It's so slow that more flies visit than customers."

At Sir George's jesting and moaning about his troubles in response to her light greeting, Mother smiled and held out her hand to Grace, receiving a bundle of paper, and handed it to Sir George, saying as nonchalantly as if she were presenting a stone.

"That's very welcome news. I happen to have brought you some new work."

"That's certainly welcome news!"

Sir George, receiving the bundle of paper politely with both hands, examined it carefully with a subtle smile.

But when he had read about half of the bundle of paper, Sir George suddenly frowned and brought the paper close to his face, turning it around to show us the part with the writing, and asked, pointing to a spot on the paper.

"Countess, have you recently hired new knights?"

"No, you know very well that it will be a long time before we hire knights, don't you?"

"Yes, but is there a reason to order 59 sets of clothes?"

"I'm thinking of giving new uniforms to the staff. Unless there's something special, I'll be ordering them regularly."

"Haha~ Thanks to the Count and Countess's grace, I don't think I'll ever starve to death."

Sir George, his face breaking into a broad smile again, shifted his gaze back to the paper while joking around.

"That's quite an exaggeration. So, is it possible?"

"I think I need to see what kind of clothes they are first."

"William."

"Yes."

At Mother's call, I took the designs out of the basket and handed them to Sir George.

As soon as he received the designs, Sir George frowned and stared at them as if he would pierce through them with his eyes.

After carefully examining them one by one, Sir George finally showed a satisfied smile and reacted positively after seeing all the way to the last page of the designs.

"Hmm, neat and... concise. It doesn't seem too difficult to make. The price is also reasonable... By when do you need them?"

"That's what we need to discuss now. It's not urgent, so I'm willing to accommodate you as much as possible."

"Hmm..."

Sir George, groaning and closing his eyes, fell into thought for a moment, and soon opened his eyes and replied in a confident voice.

"With this kind of design, I can make about six one-piece dresses and three tailcoats a month."

"Let's do that, then. Shall I send someone once a month as usual?"

"Yes."

"Good."

Mother gestured to Grace.

Then, Grace stepped forward and handed Sir George a gold coin and two copies of the contract before stepping back.

"I'll draw up the contract and pay the deposit right away."

"Um..."

Sir George slowly examined the contracts he had received.

"Is there anything strange?"

"No, there isn't. I don't know what to do because I always seem to get big opportunities thanks to the Count and Countess."

Sir George placed the contracts side by side on the table next to him, signed each contract, then signed the two sheets again on top of each other, and politely handed the pen to Mother with both hands.

Mother took the pen from Sir George, signed it in the same way as Sir George, put down the pen, picked up one of the contracts, and handed it to Grace.

"Sir George, I'm looking forward to it."

"Yes, I will do my best."

"Well, we'll be on our way."

The neat and respectful contract, typical of people who have been trading for a long time, ended, and we left the store.

Sir George, who followed us out of the store to see us off, bowed 90 degrees towards our backs.

"Please go safely!"

A loud voice that echoed through the street.

Sir George's face, having landed a huge contract, looked happier than anyone else's.

__

About a month later, on the day we received the first batch.

A very small commotion broke out in the mansion.

"Hngh!"

The tears of the head maid, who is usually so unemotional that she is even called a cold-blooded person.

She entered the mansion at the young age of fifteen and worked there for nearly 30 years, a veteran among veterans. Seeing her unable to control her emotions and shedding tears like chicken droppings in front of my mother, I thought something big had happened and rushed to my mother in a flurry.

"Mother."

"Oh, William, you've come at a good time."

"Yes?"

Mother, showing a playful smile on her face as soon as she saw me, knelt down and whispered in a kind voice as she gently held the head maid's hand.

"Esther, calm down and see who's come to visit."

"Hngh, yes... Hngh... Kheung! Hngh... William, young master...?"

The head maid, hearing my mother's words, struggled to lift her face, which was a mess with tears, and looked at me with her swollen eyes with difficulty.

I don't know what's going on, but I gave the head maid a soft smile and nodded.

"Yes, head maid, I, Willi..."

"Hwaaaang!"

"Eh?"

The head maid started crying even more sadly as soon as she realized that I was William.

"Yo, young master... Hwaheuek...!"

I didn't know what was going on, so I stood there stiffly and stared blankly at the head maid, who kept calling me as she crawled on the floor and grabbed my pants leg.

"Young master, hngh... Hwaaaang!"

"Head maid? Calm down first..."

"Hngh, hwaheuek...! Hikkuk!"

I hurriedly patted the head maid's shoulder and tried to calm her down, but her crying showed no signs of stopping, and she was attracting the attention of people around her one by one.

Unfortunately, because the head maid was holding my pants and lying on the floor, the attention that was directed at her was gradually focusing on me.

The cold glares of the staff.

"Hwaaaaang!"

"So what the heck is going on...?"

I patted the head maid diligently, but couldn't hide my aggrieved feelings.