Reactions
The response to the necktie rings for the government clerks and the trading company was tremendous.
Since they were made from molds, production finished faster than expected, and I was able to hand them out to everyone.
At first, I thought about making them in silver, but since silver oxidizes and tarnishes easily, I went with stainless steel instead, which helped keep costs down.
However, the employees who didn’t get any started asking why they weren’t included, so I ended up giving the same necktie rings as the clerks’ to the attendants and the cooks as well.
When I asked the cooks if the rings wouldn’t get in the way, they earnestly insisted they wanted them, so I prepared some. Since the cooks wear scarves, it probably suits them just fine.
For the maids, I had slightly smaller scarf rings made and handed those out.
Then Mayer and the others came asking, “Don’t we have anything like that for the Knights Order?” But since they couldn’t really use necktie rings, I asked them to wait for a while.
I’m happy everyone’s pleased, but I’m busy preparing for the exhibition.
Still, I can’t just leave the knights as the only ones without something forever.
Ah—yes. That’ll do.
Having come up with an idea, I headed to Raziel’s place.
The moment he saw me, Raziel’s already tired-looking face twisted into a grimace.
You’ve been awfully obvious about that lately.
I know you’re busy, but I’m busy too, you know?
Still, I’m only doing this to make sure things are fair.
“Raziel, could you lend me a tie pin—nothing expensive?”
“May I ask what you need it for?”
“I was thinking of asking Barton to make something for the knights to replace the necktie rings.”
“May I hear what you have in mind?”
I explained that if we made something even smaller than the maids’ scarf rings, and attached it like a tie pin so it could be fastened and removed easily, maybe they could wear it on their collars.
“So instead of sewing it onto the collar, you want it detachable—using a tie pin?”
Yeah, kind of like a company lapel pin from my previous life.
Raziel sighed but said, “Understood,” and took a tie pin from a drawer to hand it to me.
“Please, whatever you do, don’t create any more new products. Understood? Georges make absolutely sure you stop him,” he warned sternly.
When I spoke with Barton about it, he said, “Sure, that’s doable,” and agreed to take the request.
With that handled, I thought I could finally focus on the exhibition—when Shelly showed up.
She’d brought the glass scarf rings I’d commissioned.
She’d made two molds for each design, so she’d brought one of each: one clear, with beautiful transparency, and one patterned with various mixed colors.
Mother and I looked them over together.
“This clear glass is lovely. Did you have it cut as well?”
“Yes, a craftsman who used to be a gemstone polisher joined our workshop recently. We had him try it out, and it came out so beautifully that we used it for this batch.”
“A gemstone polisher? Why did he move to a glass workshop?”
“He said that at our workshop, he could experiment freely with glass without getting scolded. Also, with glass, even if you mess up, you can just make it again.”
Makes sense—if you ruin a gemstone, its value drops.
Sounds like he’s the kind of person who enjoys trying new things. Seems like an interesting addition to the team.
“These will all probably be quite popular too.”
“Thank you very much.”
I wrote a letter of introduction to Barton’s workshop and handed it to her, telling her they could probably handle any custom mold requests.
Then I stopped by the trading company office to ask them to decide on the pricing and left.
“Hardt, aren’t you going to show them to Ayla?”
Oh, right—she really wanted one, didn’t she?
“Mother, is Ayla scheduled to visit anytime soon?”
“She’ll come once Luan and the others’ scarves are finished.”
“Then it can wait until then.”
“You’re right—she’ll probably be here before long anyway.”
I’ll leave the sample with Raziel and have him arrange for mass production.
What do you think about this chapter?
