Ariadne had already made an arrangement with Mrs. Marini of the Ragione tailor shop.

Initially, Mrs. Marini refused Ariadne’s request – to enter into a transaction with Lucrezia, give her a rebate as she demanded, and then hand over the ledger details to Ariadne afterwards.

“My lady! That’s a bit…! If word gets out that we did such a thing, it will tarnish the reputation of our tailor shop.”

As if expecting this, Ariadne persuaded Mrs. Marini without wavering.

“This is a disgrace to the De Mare cardinal family. At the very least, there’s no way the story will leak out from our side.”

“Even so, if things go according to your plan, my lady, wouldn’t Cardinal De Mare cut off business between our tailor shop and the De Mare family?”

The picture Ariadne painted was receiving evidence from the Ragione tailor shop that Lucrezia had taken rebates and reporting it to Cardinal De Mare. This was embezzlement.

Naturally, from Cardinal De Mare’s perspective, he would think the Ragione tailor shop were rotten accomplices in Lucrezia’s embezzlement.

“We have an exclusive two-season clothing contract with you, my lady. It would be problematic if that gets severed. Thanks to you wearing our clothes, we’ve been getting quite a few orders from young ladies in San Carlo high society.”

That was true. Although the torn dress at the debutante ball drew negative attention, as the old saying goes, notoriety is another name for fame, and that incident sparked explosive interest in the Ragione tailor shop.

Young ladies who thought the dress was pretty at that time flooded the Ragione tailor shop with orders.

Just as the rush of orders due to the trend of debutante ball dresses seemed to die down, this time the green striped dress worn at the hunting competition became a big hit.

That fall in San Carlo, if it was a dress Ariadne had worn, even the fabric sold out. These days, the skilled workers at the Ragione tailor shop were busy making hunting dresses that looked the same out of similar fabric.

At Mrs. Marini’s words, Ariadne smiled brightly.

“What do you think will happen after the two seasons?”

Mrs. Marini couldn’t answer Ariadne’s question. While Mrs. Marini was at a loss for words, Ariadne asked again.

“Will I really continue doing business with the Ragione tailor shop even after two seasons?”

Mrs. Marini flinched and straightened her body.

Ariadne was currently the so-called “it girl” of San Carlo. She was both “the most notable up-and-comer” and, as Camelia de Castiglione had said before, the undisputed “number one beauty of San Carlo”.

In the past few years, it had been an exceptional case for the position to change hands frequently from Camelia to Isabella to Ariadne, but usually this status lasted at least 2-3 years, and in some cases, there was a long-term reign of over 15 years.

And the fact that Ariadne, who enjoyed such a position, was getting her clothes tailored at a tailor shop rather than a dressmaking studio was actually very unusual.

“I know well that you have no intention of advancing to become a dressmaking studio.”

The Ragione tailor shop was a family business run by a family from a small village in the suburbs. They employed relatives and long-time village neighbors as seamstresses to provide them with work.

They were not the best seamstresses, which made it difficult for the Ragione tailor shop to produce products above a certain level.

However, the Marini family considered coexisting with the village people they had put down roots with to be a higher priority than becoming the most popular dressmaking studio in San Carlo.

“It can’t always be good, and you can’t avoid the unpleasant parts and only enjoy the good things. After the two-season contract ends, I will have fulfilled all my promises and switch to doing business with a dressmaking studio. That’s the natural course. Then the Ragione tailor shop will return to exactly the same state as before.”

“…!”

It was surprising news, but not really surprising. The Ragione tailor shop couldn’t match the quality of a dressmaking studio, so it was an inevitable progression.

“But earning money isn’t limited to just a tailor shop, is it?”

“Pardon…?”

“If my plan succeeds, it’s true that the business between the De Mare family and the Ragione tailor shop will be cut off. My father will make sure of that. But what if you open a second shop under someone else’s name? Change the product line from ladies’ clothing to uniforms for menservants and maids, as well as household linens like curtains and bedding.”

“…!”

“Once I take over the inner workings of the De Mare family, I plan to reduce the number of servants a bit. Then we’ll need an outsourcing company to handle all the clothing and linens used by the De Mare family.”

Once she seriously entered the power struggle within the family, she needed to get rid of some of Lucrezia’s people. Instead of hiring new people in their place, she planned to outsource to the Ragione tailor shop, no, Ragione Linens.

“The profit margin per item will be lower, but this is a completely new market. Secure the De Mare family as a regular client and break into other noble families. I’ll try to arrange a few places too. I think this side of the business suits the Marini family better than a tailor shop.”

She got up from the shabby VIP room of the Ragione tailor shop and put on her outer coat.

“Let me know when you’ve made up your mind.”

The affirmative reply from Mrs. Marini came the next evening.

These days, Isabella would wake up late, grumble as she took a seat in the girls’ parlor, and read “Tales of Ladies in the City”.

“Tales of Ladies in the City” was a collection of biographies of great women in history, spanning over 800 pages about their noble deeds, their good works, the mark they left on history, how one should live, whether the virtues of a woman are the same as the virtues a man should uphold or different.

Isabella tried to use her charm to complain to Cardinal De Mare about being tired of reading, but when threatened with the option of copying the text if she didn’t want to write a book report, she quietly cursed under her breath and read the book.

Since being shocked after being cursed at by Ariadne, Isabella had been diligently practicing her profanity.

It was questionable what Isabella was learning from the act of cursing with her mouth while reading biographies to cultivate a proper attitude with her eyes, but at the very least, writing book reports had the effect of keeping Isabella confined to the parlor for half the day.

It was Arabella who went wild. While Isabella was cooped up in the second-floor parlor, Arabella rummaged through and played with Isabella’s things like a fish in water.

Isabella had a lot of interesting items. Especially noteworthy was Isabella’s dressing table. There were all kinds of cosmetics, of course, and many strange tools, but what Arabella discovered today was a partial wig.

“This is crazy!”

In order to make her hair look more voluminous, Isabella would braid blonde human hair about a finger’s width thick and fix it to the roots of her hair.

Since Arabella’s hair color was exactly the same as Isabella’s, Isabella’s partial wig fit Arabella as if it were custom-made for her.

The root part of the partial wig had a metal fastener attached, which looked hard but bent and straightened well despite its appearance.

“Hmm, this is interesting.”

Arabella bent and straightened the silver metal fastener a few times to learn how to use it, then filled her hair with Isabella’s partial wigs and hummed a pleasant tune as she looked at her puffed up hair in the mirror, as if she had a mop on her head.

It was an interesting object that looked sturdy but was actually very soft to the touch.

While Isabella struggled under the weight of the biographies, Arabella, who had a good time, carefully removed Isabella’s partial wigs one by one and put them back where they were, then serenely left Isabella’s room after committing the perfect crime.

The De Mare family received an enormous amount of letters these past few days. The most letters were pleas sent by various people from the De Rossi family to Lucrezia.

The first letter of protest came from Janobi’s father, Stefano, regarding the punishment inflicted on Janobi.

After receiving forty lashes, with his limbs’ tendons severed, leaving him in an abnormal physical state, he was simply placed on a pony and sent all the way to the southern region, so it was a miracle he even made it back alive.

Due to a serious infection, mainly in his buttocks that had been whipped and sat on the horse, even wounds that should have healed did not, truly leaving him an invalid and a cripple.

From Lucrezia’s eldest sister came a letter demanding to know why the living expenses were not coming, and after that, a letter of appeal came from Lucrezia’s elderly mother.

The content of that letter of appeal initially asked if she didn’t feel sorry for Janobi and requested buying a village to give to Janobi to take responsibility for his livelihood since he had become an invalid, but soon changed to saying they didn’t even have a single potato to eat and die with, asking her to send living expenses for herself.

After about three more weeks passed, finally a letter of curses came from Lucrezia’s elderly father, saying she was an ungrateful wench for abandoning her family and would burn in the deepest 9th circle of hell for traitors, so she should enjoy prospering on her own.

Judging by the frequency of the letters, it seemed the De Rossi family had no savings at all. It remained to be seen how long Lucrezia could endure.

The letters Ariadne received were a bit more cheerful in content than that. Count Cesare sent his customary red rose along with a well-being letter decorated with silver foil, asking if things had been resolved well, and an elaborate deerskin horse saddle.

There was also an added comment, “Thanks to someone, my arm is broken so I won’t be able to help for two months, so use a good horse saddle in the meantime to avoid getting your feet caught in the stirrups.”

「(Omitted)… And if a scar remains on my face, my lady will have to take responsibility for me.

– Count Cesare de Como.」

Ariadne told the servant to accept the horse saddle with a bitter smile. The servant’s eyes widened at the initial acceptance.

When receiving a gift, it was polite to send a gift in return. Ariadne had Sancha procure a folk remedy that was said to be especially effective for scars and sent it by messenger.

「To Count de Como,

This is a highly effective scar treatment. Please recover well, and with that handsome face, meet a good woman and build a happy family.

– Sincerely, Ariadne de Mare.」

It was the first reply Ariadne of this life had sent to Cesare.

The letter Ariadne had been eagerly awaiting finally arrived the day after the hunting competition incident. It was a letter from Prince Alfonso, who couldn’t stop writing upon hearing about the accident that befell Ariadne.

「To my dear Ariadne,

I am very sorry to hear about the grave incident at the hunting competition. Are you unharmed? I was deeply disappointed that His Majesty applied property damage instead of attempted murder and only sentenced him to lashing.

I believe he should have demonstrated Etruscan spirit even with the Gallican delegation watching. And it’s difficult to assert that my dissatisfaction with the light punishment of the criminal contains no personal bias. Once again, are you unharmed?」

Leo III found a clever way to gain a reputation for mercy while not making an enemy of Cardinal De Mare and simultaneously preventing Janobi from causing harm, but ended up making a poor move instead.

In San Carlo, criticism coexisted that Leo III had been too lenient with Janobi De Rossi and that it was too much to block his knighthood just for shooting a girl.

It was because he took an ambiguous stance without empowering anyone. When those in power are not decisive when they should be, all sorts of opinions bubble up and are freely expressed according to the atmosphere.

Even his own son was dissatisfied with his father’s actions.

It was actually a very delicate matter for the crown prince, the heir to the throne, to comment on his father’s conduct.

Politically, it was either a bold move or a misstep, and if Queen Marguerite had seen it, she would have torn it to shreds and burned it in the fireplace.

But Alfonso had already crossed a line simply by writing the letter. Having already done it once, there was no reason he couldn’t do it twice. He always let his guard down in front of Ariadne.

The prince’s letter continued. His handwriting was uninhibited.

「A masquerade ball is scheduled to be held at the palace at the end of October. I was so disappointed we couldn’t meet separately at the hunting competition. I hope you will come to the masquerade ball once your startled heart has settled down.

Let’s meet face to face then and catch up on our overdue conversations. I miss you so much from not seeing you for too long.」

His mother had told him to refrain from meeting face to face in front of others. The masquerade was the perfect opportunity to meet without attracting attention.

He forgot his mother’s request not to write the letter itself. He was the only one harboring feelings for Ariadne. She was bold and decisive, and would not even imagine such a thing. It had to be that way.

「It looks like the entire court will head south to the winter palace to spend the winter around mid-November. All the court nobles go together, but I asked around and was told the cardinal’s family has never gone with them due to managing the diocese. It would be so nice if we could go together.

The palace in Taranto is lush with greenery even in winter and the sun is hot. The air is slightly dry with a whiff of sea breeze that tickles the nose, quite different from San Carlo. It’s a small but beautiful palace. I really want to show it to you.

Take care of yourself. Health is most important.

– With concern, Alfonso.」

Compared to the short notes that had been going back and forth, it was a very long letter. Judging by the pressed handwriting and the smudged ink between the lines, it seemed he had written it with much deliberation.

After the sentences “I miss you so much from not seeing you for too long” and “I really want to show it to you”, which were written in a slightly poor handwriting using a thick nib, there were marks of blue ink smudged as if he had tried to write something but stopped.

It was the opposite of Count Cesare’s letter, which flowed smoothly as if without a second thought, in a handwriting that looked as if it had been printed by a machine.

Ariadne looked at Alfonso’s letter with a confused heart.

‘What is this?’

What was this mere letter that she had waited for it so eagerly with an anxious heart?