Chapter 222: Chapter 222
They needed new dresses, a lot more of them than before. But sadly, young girls who needed dresses didn’t have money, and they couldn’t beg their parents for new dresses every time.
And now, The Little Bird’s News was offering a great alternative to it. Put different ribbon to a new combination of a skirt, overdress, and stomacher, and it could look brand new.
In addition to that, ribbons were affordable to the young girls, thanks to the machine Edgar had invented.
Of course, gems were much more beautiful and splendid, but they made the obvious choice between one dress with gems on it and five dresses with ribbons.
Five new dresses gave them at least five different chances to go to a meeting and meet strangers. Moreover, with different ribbons and combinations of dress parts, the number of changes could be multiplied to infinity.
“I see all young girls put ribbons on their dresses these days.”
“Well, now gems and embroidery are for older ladies.”
Ribbon became a symbol of youth in no time, and trends had great power in young girls.
Once, low-cut dresses came in fashion, and no matter how parents lectured about how they made girls look cheap and vulgar, almost all the girls wore them, except for a few of the too reserved girls.
However, parents had no reason to object to ribbon dresses. They were rather glad that they didn’t have to spend fortunes on their daughters’ dresses anymore.
All went just as Gabriel had predicted. And now, it was time for the next step.
[One of the chief virtues of a designer is to make clothes that match each person’s unique beauty. But I heard there is a rude designer who insists his customers should make them fit his clothes, not the other way around. We are planning to find people who have lost their beauty because of that rude designer and help them. So, do not be too surprised if Madam Berry comes to find you.]
Every person in society knew Christopher had been openly telling his customers to make their bodies fit his clothes. He strongly believed endeavor and suffering were required to achieve beauty.
He managed his dresses strictly and demanded his customers to meet his criteria. He even told those who were already pretty that they had to try even harder, to become even prettier and to protect their youthful beauty from time.
He made dresses for people who couldn’t meet his standards only when they promised to make their bodies fit his clothes, just like he had done to Gabriel.
“I can’t say I didn’t put any personal feelings when I wrote it. It took me some time to realize, but he said too many horrible things to me.”
Rubica was worried they might have provoked Christopher a little too much, but Gabriel convinced her out of it. Of course, she knew she had been a little, no, very reckless.
“I promise, they will not find out who you really are.”
“But if Christopher tries to harm Khanna…”
“That is exactly what we’ve stopped him from doing. From now on, if anything happens to Madam Khanna, everyone will think it was Christopher.”
Rubica nodded as it made sense.
“Your Grace, I just want to help other girls who are still suffering as I did. And to do that, we must shatter Christopher’s high reputation.”
They had to destroy the designer’s reputation so that more people would believe them when they later revealed what he had done to Khanna years ago.
Although Gabriel had great pride and love for The Little Bird’s News, to others, it was nothing more than a gossip magazine. They didn’t believe everything in the magazine.
Even if Christopher had done something illegal, it was very unlikely that a trial would take place just because of something that had happened in a dress shop.
To make him pay for all he had done, they had to make people believe them about it.
“Girls need to know they can become pretty without tightening their corset until they faint and spending hours on makeup.”
In the end, Rubica gave in to Gabriel’s dedication and passion. However, Gabriel had to promise to be extremely careful.
As soon as she got the duchess’s permission, she found herself a target. Well, that target was about to be given a chance to be splendidly transformed, so it would be better to call her the lucky girl.
Gabriel didn’t approach the prey herself. Although she was considered a cute and lovely girl now, she still often made a fuss and drew attention, so she wasn’t right for doing something unnoticed.
“Grace.”
Grace was shocked when Tatiana talked to her at the tea meeting of Countess Tangt.
Tatiana was one of the most beautiful girls in society, and she almost never talked to others first. She was always surrounded by people who were eager to talk to her. She was a reserved lady who quietly listened to others with a smile.
“Would you like to walk with me in the garden?”
“Okay.”
Grace went with Tatiana, although she couldn’t guess what this was about. A baron, who had been trying to court Tatiana, stood up to follow them, but Gabriel quickly stopped him.
“I’m afraid I disagree with you about that passage of the book you just mentioned.”
The baron wondered what to do for a moment, but he was fascinated by her lovely smile and sat down again.
“Well then, my lady, may I ask why?”
He tried his charming smile he was quite proud of, but it only made Gabriel think, ‘Yuck!’.
Anyway, she pretended to be focusing on the boring conversation while glancing at the garden from time to time.
Grace had calmed down a bit, and she was talking with Tatiana.
‘It seems like it’s going well.’
She was glad that she had Tatiana. As she was so famous, no one became suspicious when she talked for so long to a girl she had never seen before.
Plus, she was very persuasive. Gabriel had even been persuaded by her to publish a magazine.
‘She is the real scary type.’
She suddenly thought of her brother who firmly believed Tatiana would marry him. She imagined how his heart would be broken later, and she pitied him for that.
But to be honest, Tatiana was just too good for her brother. Plus, she needed a friend to join her when she had fun with the money she had earned through their magazine.
“Well, Lady Tangt, I’m afraid we won’t be able to settle this argument in a day. Why don’t we continue this tomorrow at my mansion?”
The baron offered with another dashing -but only dashing to himself- smile. Gabriel was looking at Grace and Tatiana as they headed back to their table, and she almost said yes.
“Ugh, so horrible!”
Gabriel yelled, aghast that she almost missed an important scene.
“I… beg your pardon?”
The baron was more surprised than anyone else at her sudden change of attitude. She quickly waved her hands.
“Oh, there was a bug on my foot. I hate bugs a lot.”
“How dare a bug surprise a lady! I will find that bug and punish it myself.”
The baron went under the table to look for the bug. Gabriel tried to sound impressed and took a glance at Grace. She seemed to be thinking about what to do with Tatiana’s offer.
‘But she’ll show up.’
Gabriel was sure Grace wanted to become pretty, more than anyone else. She knew it well as she had been one of the ‘ugly’ girls.
Grace wasn’t a fool who would let go of an opportunity that had just been given to her. Gabriel’s heart beat fast with excitement at imagining how she would be changed. What kind of magic would the duchess use on her?
***
Ios decided to supply tea to Claymore without much persuasion required. Although he hated picking flowers and putting them in a vase, he had no objection to eating or drinking plants.
However, he still wouldn’t let humans go into his territory, so it was agreed goblins would handle the middle process of gathering tea and taking them to Seritos.
-I’m glad I took the duchess’s advice and put my money in Jackal Bank.
-Now they won’t let just anyone become their client.
As long as the tea trade went on, the goblin’s Jackal Bank was going to be stable. Other kingdoms also wanted tea, but they couldn’t dare to take it as the creature who guarded it happened to be an extremely fierce dragon.
The king unofficially announced Ios had abruptly shown himself at Claymore Mansion because of the tea trade. Thanks to that, neighboring kingdoms were thinking Seritos was negotiating for peace with the dragon.
‘I hope we were negotiating for peace.’
Rubica looked at Ios sitting on a corner of Edgar’s desk and eating peanuts as the desk’s owner worked hard. She wanted to let out a heavy sigh, but she didn’t.
He had been coming almost every day. It was good that at least he was in human form.