400 - Cody's Perspective - Augun Lord Carlotta 2
...Why is a territorial lord doing farm work in the courtyard?
With an elderly woman holding a hoe, brought here without any mental preparation, told I'd be meeting the lord right after arrival, my head was in chaos. If this were the Ivizia Kingdom's royalty, it might be a possibility, but this is the Zugall Empire. There's no way a noble, and a lady entrusted with ruling a territory at that, would stand in a field holding a hoe herself.
...No, first of all, why is the courtyard a field?
If there were flower beds that a gardener had carefully tended, I could understand that, but what's in the courtyard is a field. Whether from good compost, Iasukaf the size of just before harvest stood in neat rows. It really didn't look like a courtyard scene of a castle, even if it was on the smaller side.
Anyway, let's calm down. In front of a noble of the Zugall Empire, I can't afford to be dazed, my thoughts began to shift. Rather than freezing up at the old woman's oddness, it felt like thinking about something else would keep me calmer.
"Are you curious about the field?"
"Ah, no..."
As I was counting the number of Iasukaf in the field, the elderly woman tilted her head while handing her hoe to the steward. She was an elegant old woman in every movement, but a towel for wiping sweat still hung around her neck.
...Actually, what I'm concerned about is your outfit, ma'am.
Even if I thought it, I wouldn't commit the folly of pointing it out aloud. Her posture was straight and slender, the very image of a lady, and while the dress she wore was slightly different from the current fashion, even a glance told you the quality of the fabric was good. At first glance, from every angle, she was an elderly woman who was the very mirror of a lady.
"...Lord. This merchant seems to be taken aback by your appearance, I think."
"Oh? Do I have mud on my face or something?"
"Because an ordinary lord would not greet guests holding a hoe."
"So you brought the merchant to the courtyard just to scold me? What nerve you have."
"No, not at all. You had mentioned you wished to see the lace from the portrait as soon as possible, my lord, so I simply hurried the merchant here."
"Saying that, you're telling me to go wash my face, aren't you. Very well. It's not as if I'd do shopping in the field."
Having drawn the words "I'll go change" from the elderly woman's mouth, the steward smiled with satisfaction. With a hand positioned at an angle outside the elderly woman's field of vision, he signaled to a maid, having her prepare for the old woman's toilette.
...Well, at least I understood that I'd been brought here immediately after arrival just so the lord would be made to prepare herself. I was brought before the lord looking travel-worn for the performance of "I brought him in haste," and the steward must have wanted to stop the old woman's farm work. As I was guided to the washing area, with instructions to wash my hands and feet and tidy my hair while the old woman made herself presentable, he gave me a suitable explanation along the way. According to the steward, the lord hadn't turned the courtyard into a field as a hobby, but was researching farming methods to see if she couldn't obtain more harvests for the sake of her people.
...I understand. It means don't talk about how the lord of Augun turned the courtyard into a field and did farm work there, right?
I nodded and said "What a wonderful lord who cares for her people," conveying my understanding. I live by honesty as my creed, but I know there are things in this world that are better left unsaid. I didn't want to say the wrong thing and get my head chopped off, so I obediently followed the steward's words.
"I'm sorry to have kept you waiting so long."
"Show me the goods right away," said the Augun lord Carlotta as she sat on a chair, and the steward laid out the guidebook and several bobbin lace pieces brought as physical samples before her eyes. The centerpiece was a decorative collar said to have been made in the city of Mandez. In the capital, people who could make bobbin lace were gradually beginning to appear, but there was still no one who could weave decorative collars or pictures into patterns. For now, the only place that could make large lace pieces like decorative collars was the city of Mandez.
"...What is this?"
With a sigh of admiration, Carlotta's hand reached for the decorative collar. Since it was the most elaborate piece among those laid out, it could be said to be a natural reaction.
"This is a decorative collar I received to show you what bobbin lace actually looks like. I'm told it was originally made for the girl who created the guidebook."
"The girl who created the guidebook?"
"I'm told the girl made the guidebook because she 'wanted to preserve the bobbin lace made by someone she cherished like a grandmother.' In the Ivizia Kingdom, rather than being called bobbin lace, it's called 'Aurelian lace' after its first creator."
The circumstances behind Christina creating the guidebook are recorded in the guidebook with a slightly poetic expression added. It's described as something like a heartwarming exchange between a girl and a wise woman, but the real story that Alfred told me was truly desperate. Apparently, Christina once walked through the city of Grenore wearing a bobbin lace ribbon, and was persistently hounded by merchants asking her to sell the ribbon. She was just wearing a favorite ribbon, but plagued by the merchants' persistence, Christina apparently decided that rather than taking off the ribbon and storing it away in a box, it would be better if bobbin lace became commonly available. So that even if she used bobbin lace ribbons normally, she wouldn't be harassed by strange merchants -- she thought it would be good if bobbin lace spread to become commonplace. And so, to increase the number of craftspeople, she first created the guidebook. It's strange to think that a guidebook made by a twelve-year-old girl at the time would spread across the entire continent two years later.
"The Ivizia Kingdom has skilled craftspeople, doesn't it."
...Though there are apparently only a few so far. The skilled craftspeople are just the few in Mandez, where Christina first taught bobbin lace. I'd heard from Alfred that the other craftspeople hadn't yet grown to the point of being called 'craftspeople,' and were only at the level of being able to make ribbons with somewhat complex geometric patterns.
...Well, it's necessary to keep them thinking it's popular in Quebia and the Ivizia Kingdom, so I won't say anything.
After looking at the decorative collar for a while, Carlotta's gaze finally turned to the guidebook. Even as she wore a gentle smile, her eyes were completely serious. When she was looking at the actual bobbin lace, some words came out, but no impressions about the guidebook came forth.
...What is it. An unpleasant silence. Unable to bear the silence, wondering if I'd failed in some response, I looked back over my own actions. Aside from facing her looking travel-stained at the beginning, I shouldn't have made any mistakes, and that was something the steward did deliberately anyway. I didn't think I had any reason to be blamed, but this was the Zugall Empire. When it comes to nobles and commoners, being a commoner alone is enough grounds to be blamed.
"...A well-made guidebook. I wonder if even I could make it?"
"I'm told the girl who made the guidebook had been making bobbin lace since she was ten years old."
"Oh my, so even such a young girl can make it."
Saying it would be good to give it to her granddaughter, Carlotta decided to purchase the guidebook. She also selected a ribbon brought as a sample, to motivate her granddaughter. Since this ribbon was made in the capital of the Ivizia Kingdom, it was also possible to sell it.
"Ahhh, I was nervous."
When I passed through the gates of Augun Castle, Jimmy, who had stayed with the wagon as the luggage guard, offered me a "Good work." Jean-Jacques was also on the wagon, but he had nothing particular to say.
"Speaking of Augun territory's lord Carlotta, I've heard she's a well-regarded lord, but was it not like that?"
"No, the lord seemed like a good person..."
Just knowing the other party was a noble made me nervous, I said as I stretched out my back facing away from the castle, letting out my feelings. Even if I'd made a mistake, it was a sentiment I couldn't have expressed inside the castle.
"She said it would be a shame to summon me and only buy the item she wanted, so she tried to buy the entire load from the wagon..."
"Well, that'd put us in a bind."
We intentionally included books that would be hard to sell in the Empire as merchandise, planning to stay within the Zugall Empire while peddling goods and searching for Christina. If all our luggage were bought up, we'd lose our justification for moving slowly through the Empire.
"Yeah. It must have shown on my face, because the steward stopped her. He said the goods were mainly food supplies, so they should be sold where they were needed. Then the lord paid for several of the goods and told me to deliver them to villages that were short on food."
To be honest, I was surprised she was an even better lord than I'd heard. She even added extra onto the price as transport costs, and provided a map to the villages suffering food shortages. Within the Zugall Empire alone, she was a frighteningly good lord. However, it seemed that the current lord Carlotta's goodness hadn't been inherited by her children, and she seemed to be considering her granddaughter as the heir. The steward told me about that old woman's hardships as we walked through the corridors.
I toured the designated territories, selling the guidebook and ribbons woven with bobbin lace. Word of Carlotta having invited the merchant (me) to the castle leaked from somewhere, and I was sometimes summoned to castles by other lords. I was called upon by nobles, and wholesaled the guidebook to merchants in large cities. During that time I also gathered information, but as expected, there was still no house that displayed a westward-facing Adorutoru as its crest.