Chapter 64
Chapter 64
The person Yen brought was said to be a servant who worked at Baron Rikis’s mansion.
Baron Rikis was someone who had achieved a non-hereditary baronetcy for some small accomplishment, and although the title couldn’t be inherited, he was still a nobleman.
For an orphan to be able to work as a servant in a nobleman’s mansion, he must have been an extremely capable person.
“Well, being good at work doesn’t necessarily mean proposing innovative ideas.”
[Diligent and quick?]
“That’s right.”
In the first place, a good servant is one who understands what the master wants even before they speak and stands ready to serve.
“My name is Harvey Brown.”
“Nice to meet you, I’m Irina Seike.”
In that context, Harvey Brown, Yen Kavitz’s orphanage peer, was also someone who perfectly fit the criteria I was looking for.
“Well, I’m not looking to hire a mansion servant.”
“Yes, I’ve heard.”
“From organizing the stalls, managing queues, selling ice cream, to cleaning up afterwards. I need someone to handle all these aspects.”
It’s essentially similar to Yen’s job.
But Yen, if I had to say, had much more talent in attracting people and selling.
In comparison, he fell short in organizing, lining people up, and handling everything alone.
That’s why he brought up the story of another orphanage peer.
So I hired Harvey Brown as a trainee for about a week, and I couldn’t help but applaud his diligent and neat work every day.
“Harvey is really good, isn’t he?”
“He’s perfect. I’m going to hire him as a regular employee.”
When I collapsed after making ice cream all night, Harvey would come to Luwin’s small mansion before I even woke up, pack plenty of ice cream containers, and set up the stall in advance.
That’s not all.
When crowds gathered, the small alley would often become congested, but he skillfully managed that too, reducing confusion and adeptly soothing disgruntled people.
His experience in dealing with noblemen’s picky temperaments was evident.
This is why people prefer experienced workers.
“As I said before, I won’t be able to come out to sell ice cream from next week.”
“Because of the New Year’s party?”
“Yes. Originally, I was planning to close the stall during the New Year’s party period, but you all have been doing such a good job that I think it’ll be fine to leave it to you.”
I plan to make ice cream at home every day, just enough not to overexert myself.
As for the waffles, Apple will work hard to make them, so there’s no problem.
By the way, Seiren Lemiere has been showing great interest in my skills and has been researching the ‘Philosopher’s Stone’, holy power, and skill stones – the gems that appear when skills are extracted from the system – every day.
“Sis, I think I can do it.”
“Don’t break the gems.”
“Sis, please trust me just this once. Okay, Sis?”
She would insist that she could do it, saying that she was still a candidate for sainthood and also grew up as a magician of the Lemiere ducal family.
“Holy power is the power of God, it’s not separate from magic. Magic is ultimately like a fragment derived from God’s power.”
“I see.”
She argued that magic and holy power were of the same lineage, and that she could control holy power to some extent with magic circles.
“Sis, if you live like that, you’ll really die later.”
“Seiren, how can a former saint candidate use the word ‘die’?”
“What are you saying? Brother, stay out of this.”
Seiren said that if I kept making ice cream with my tiny bit of holy power, I might die soon, so she would research ways to activate the ‘skill stones’ with external holy power.
“Okay, Seiren, please take good care of your sister so she doesn’t die…”
I’m skeptical, but since the young baby is eager to try hard, I decided to cheer her on for now.
“Will Seiren attend the New Year’s party too?”
“We must attend the first and last days without fail, and the day before that is also a party hosted by the prince our family supports, so I think we’ll have to attend that too.”
Come to think of it, most nobles have crown prince or princess candidates they support as the next emperor.
In the case of Seike, we’re so insignificant that no one includes us.
I’m not sure how it was originally for the Luwin Grand Duchy.
But what’s certain right now is that Cassis doesn’t support anyone and wisely focuses on protecting the family on his own.
In the case of Marquis Cloi, since he’s allied with the emperor, he might support the candidate the emperor supports…
Honestly, the imperial family’s fights are none of my business.
I just need to sell ice cream to everyone amicably and make money.
“Sis, you’re not going to attend all the parties either, are you?”
“I don’t even have party dresses for all of them in the first place.”
I’m also planning to attend only the first and last days, which are mandatory.
For the rest, I plan to attend as the situation allows for ice cream promotion.
I’ve already discussed this with Cassis, and it seemed that Luwin had suffered a lot at parties hosted by the imperial family, so they were shaking from the start.
Anyway, the New Year’s party was approaching rapidly.
[SYSTEM | 32 hours left until the start of the New Year’s Party episode!]
* * *
“Hello, young lady, it’s been a while.”
“My goodness, Countess de Buvier. Have you been well?”
“It’s an honor to meet you for the first time, Your Grace, Duke Lemiere.”
“The second son of Count Kenesi’s family is growing more handsome by the day.”
Ho ho ho.
Ha ha ha.
I was slowly withering away in a corner of the chaotic social gathering hall.
The reason is simple.
The social scene, especially an imperial-hosted party, doesn’t suit me well.
I’m doing it because I have to, but honestly, if I could avoid it, I would.
Moreover, unlike when selling Seike wine, it was a bit more ambiguous now because there wasn’t a clear physical product to sell.
“Irina, take it easy on the first day.”
“Senior.”
Roen appeared looking quite stylish and handed me a wine glass.
“I looked quite senior-like, didn’t I?”
“…You seem quite obsessed with being a senior.”
Every time he did this, I felt strangely tempted to tease him, so I had been uniformly calling him ‘Mr. Roen’ for a while.
But when I called him ‘senior’ after a long time, it was a bit amusing to see him losing his composure and getting all puffed up.
“Well, that’s because I am your senior.”
“Okay, okay. Where’s Lord Cassis?”
“Despite talks of bankruptcy and whatnot, he’s still the only Grand Duke, so…”
When I turned my head to where Roen gestured, there was Cassis surrounded by people. Cassis was enduring the people silently with a pale face.
“Senior, shouldn’t you be with him?”
“…I did come out on the pretext of bringing him wine.”
“Hurry and go save him.”
At my words, Roen trudged back towards Cassis with a gloomy face.
As soon as Cassis spotted Roen approaching, his face lit up as if he had been saved.
Roen was wearing quite a flashy suit, probably with help from the Count Blende family, and Cassis was wearing his uniform, so the impression that Luwin had gone bankrupt wasn’t too strong.
[That’s a relief.]
[Our Irina was so worried that Luwin might be looked down upon somewhere.]
‘People are weak to visual impressions.’
If the clothes are a bit shabby, they’ll start criticizing right from there.
No matter how good the business item is, that’s unavoidable.
As expected, the problem was me.
As you can see, although I tried to follow the fashion with my outfit… there were some aspects that left something to be desired.
In the first place, I couldn’t find fabric in the North, so I had contacted Seike to have my dress made.
Although Seike’s financial situation has improved a bit lately, it’s still poor in reality.
For this reason, my dress followed the overall structure of the fashion, but some details within were omitted.
‘The battle is with beauty, after all.’
[You look great!]
[You’re awesome!]
‘Of course.’
Of course, when I officially launch the business, I’ll have to pay attention to every detail of my attire, even if it means pushing a bit.
Because I can’t be looked down upon anywhere while carrying the name of Luwin.
“Oh my, who do we have here?”
Huh?
“Isn’t this the young lady who went to the ruined Luwin?”
“Se-Seina? Seire? Where was it from?”
Faced with a group of young ladies who approached me and started laughing ‘hehe hehe’, I was a bit flustered and stepped back slightly.
“Did you just step back? How rude.”
“They say she knows neither noble honor nor shame, and now her manners are a mess too.”
To think I would experience such a thing in my life.
I made quite a stupid sound in response to the overwhelming comments around me.
“Pardon?”
Faced with the renewed onslaught of criticism, I blankly summoned the system.
‘God, come out.’
[Okay…]
‘What should I do about this? Should I fight and win? Or should I lose appropriately?’
[Irina, do you think you can win by fighting?]
[Yeah, the opponents seem to be nobles with strong backing.]
I closed my mouth and put on a slightly sad expression while checking on Cassis and Roen once.
They seemed overwhelmed just dealing with those who were attacking them.
[Our Irina isn’t someone who should be looked down upon anywhere.]
[I feel like it, I’ll give you a quest!]
The system now throws quests at me whenever it wants to console me.
Does it think I’ll fall for that anymore?
[SYSTEM | The quest ‘Survive the New Year’s Imperial Ball’ has arrived.]
[Survive the New Year’s Imperial Ball
A ball as harsh as the wilderness!
There’s only one way for a newbie baby Irina to survive in such a wilderness.
That is humor.
‘Irina Seike’, let’s fight and win with humor!
Reward: An extremely beautiful and sophisticated, yet unseen design of a dress that can be worn at the New Year’s Imperial Ball]
“Oh…”
[We tried our best to make sure our Irina doesn’t get looked down upon anywhere, hehe]
I looked at the quest with cold eyes once, and then at the young ladies beside me, who were talking among themselves.
It seemed the gist of the quest was not to fight with the young ladies, but also not to just lose and let it go.
Wondering what I should do here, I let out a deep sigh inwardly and then put on a bright smile.
“Oh my! Young lady, it’s not Seina or Seire, but Seike. I would appreciate it if you could remember me as Irina of Seike.”
Smiling gently and approaching with a good-natured step, I held out my glass to clink with the young lady in a green dress with brown hair who was holding a wine glass.
She seemed to be the highest-ranking among the group.
“Young lady, you are…”
‘System, which family is this person from?’
[Marquis Kelwin’s family.]
“You must be from Kelwin. I knew that the young lady of Kelwin was leading the trends in high society.”
“Hmm, is that so?”
“Of course, you are the young lady of Marquis Kelwin after all.”
After saying a few obvious but pleasing words, I went straight to the point.
“Have you perhaps heard of the rumored ‘ice cream’?”
Since it’s come to this, let’s pretend to be crazy and do some promotion.
Originally, the moment one loses the will to fight is not when the opponent gives their all, but when they’re somewhat off their rocker.
