Chapter 72: New… On days I had mannerism lectures all day, I had to transform myself to look like a lady.
I was surrounded by maids in a room at the royal palace, and someone noticed a bottle on the dresser which hadn"t been there before.
It was Marie-san, who was in charge of my exclusive maids.
"Sei-sama, what kind of item is this?"
"Oh, it"s a new cosmetic product," when I answered Marie-san, who was holding the bottle made out of white ceramics with both hands, the maids focused their gazes on me.
Their gazes were so powerful.
"It"s a new cosmetic product?"
"Yeah. I tried making a cream for skin-whitening."
"Skin-whitening…" A nearby maid muttered, and I suddenly heard a gulping sound.
It"s inevitable that the maids would react this way.
One of the beauty conditions in Slantania Kingdom was white skin.
So, n.o.ble ladies are careful not to get sunburnt.
Having said that, they still get tanned.
It happens a lot to maids who work at the royal palace.
The n.o.ble ladies who are maids would obviously go crazy over whitening products, since they painstakingly try their best to maintain the colour of their skin.
I knew this.
"Sei-sama, this cream is…"
"I"d like to try it for a while, and if there aren"t any problems, then I would like you all to try it."
"Of course, we"ll be happy to help!"
I asked the maid, who timidly spoke to me, to try the product, and she agreed while smiling widely.
Marie-san would usually rebuke, but this time, she had only smiled bitterly, so she might be curious about the new product.
When companies deal with a new product, they test to see if the product would irritate people"s skin.
I will use the product first, and if there are no problems with it, then someone else can try it out to see if they will have no issues with it as well.
Last time, or perhaps I should say when I first let the company handle the products, I got the maids to try it out first.
And there were already rumours floating around n.o.ble ladies about the trial, and they happily cooperated.
The test results were excellent, and the maids were delighted that it was highly effective.
Thanks to that, they even told me that they would cooperate with me when I make a new cosmetic product next time.
So, I thought I would ask them next time.
I"m delighted that they volunteered this time.
"This cream specialises in skin whitening, doesn"t it?"
"I"m looking forward to seeing how white my skin will go."
"I don"t know if it"ll get as white as you"re expecting, you know? The effect depends on the person."
"There"s no one who doubts the effects of your cosmetics, Sei-sama."
"Seriously. I can"t use other cosmetics anymore."
The maids talked about the whitening cream while carrying dresses and accessories in front of me, while I was getting my make-up done.
By looking at their eyes that were shining, I could tell they had high expectations for the cream.
I smiled wryly while trying to calm them down, but it didn"t work out well.
I don"t know what the maids are expecting, but I think it"ll be quite effective.
In fact, when I used it on my skin, which had turned red after I"d done some fieldwork at the research inst.i.tute, the redness had instantly faded.
Even though it"s fine to call it a potion since the effects worked so fast, I don"t know if already tanned skin will suddenly turn white.
My skin has turned to the whitest it can since I"ve come here, so it"s hard for me to see the effects.
I think this might be the same for the n.o.ble ladies who buy cosmetics from the company.
This cream uses a lot of medicinal herbs that are said to be effective for whitening, so the whitening effect should be high.
However, I"m a little worried because I couldn"t confirm this with my eyes.
Despite my worries, the maids were livelier than usual but as quick as always, and they finished my preparations.
The day after I asked the maids to try the cream, Director called me in the morning.
He also asked me to make some tea, so I went to the dining hall to prepare tea before heading to his office.
He had requested four teacups.
If one is for Director, then are the other three for guests?
Were there guests coming today?
I thought as I prepared tea and knocked on the Director"s office.
"Excuse me."
"I"m sorry for bothering you in the morning."
When I entered the room after receiving an answer, there were strangers there just as I had expected.
However, there are only two of them.
I was puzzled, and Director urged me to sit next to him.
"This is Franz and that"s Oscar.*
"Nice to meet you. My name"s Franz."
"I"m Oscar. Nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you. My name is Sei."
The gentleman sitting opposite me had grey hair and deep, sapphire like blue eyes, and the other man had orange hair and bright green eyes like emeralds.
The gentleman"s name is Franz-san, and the man is Oscar-san.
Franz-san, who is slender, and wore gla.s.ses, had his grey hair swept back.
Unlike Intelligent Gla.s.ses-sama, he looked like a good-natured old man with his gentle smile.
For some reason, he gave off a butler aura, and I couldn"t help but call him Sebastian in my mind.
Oscar-san had a medium build and his hair stuck up a little. He had slightly raised almond eyes and gave off a lively aura.
He"s probably the same age as Jude?
Maybe a little older?
He looks younger than Director.
They didn"t quite look like n.o.bles from their outfits, but they looked wealthy.
My impressions seemed to have been spot-on. Director introduced them as people from the company.
Franz-san is the chairman and Oscar-san is Franz-san"s a.s.sistant.
"People from the company?"
"Yeah. I"m thinking of starting a new company."
"Starting a new company?"
"Yeah. Yours."
"Excuse me?"
I looked doubtful, and Director explained.
The cosmetics I made are being sold at the company Director introduced to me, but a lot of them are being sold because of their popularity.
So, other companies have been jealous of them and have caused a lot of trouble for them.
Director chose this company, not because of profits, but because it was easier for him to make adjustments since they had relations with his family.
However, recently Director needed to go to the company more because a lot of problems had popped up and it was getting harder for him to balance that and his work at the research inst.i.tute.
Recently, it seems that other n.o.bles have also started interfering, so Director"s family also had to step in.
I"m incredibly grateful to Director who worked hard on my benefit instead of me, who had no knowledge of the company.
Thanks to Director, the profits were returned to me, and my personal a.s.sets have also increased.
I felt horrible that even his family had been dragged into this.
And now, it was time to launch a new product.
There"s no doubt that the problems will only increase since it"ll make more profit than the current products.
Thus, Director decided to separate the profits from the company his family had connections at.
He decided to set up a new company which had nothing to do with his family and will sell products that I make there in the future.
If so, then Director"s influence at the company will be gone.
But, what if the problem was just moving the old company to a new one?
Director rejected that idea straight away.
"No one would lay their hands on the【Saint"s】company, now would they?"
"That"s… Umm, is that so?"
I tilted my head in confusion at Director"s point, but the two sitting across from us agreed with Director.
Is it natural if you think about the status of the 【Saint】in this kingdom?
I couldn"t wrap my mind around it, but I put my doubts aside for now.
If the new company is going to be mine, then there are other things I want to ask about.
"Even if you say that this will be my company, I can only develop new products."
"I know. That"s why these two are here."
I see.
The only thing I can do is make potions and cosmetics.
I can"t manage a company.
Director pointed at the two when I expressed my uneasiness.
According to Director, I can just keep on making things I come up with, and Franz-san and Oscar-san will take care of everything else at the company.
So, the information will be different, but my work and reward will not change.
Franz-san and Oscar-san are people who have been headhunted from the previous company and are very capable, so it was fine to leave everything to them.
I wondered if it was fine to headhunt such capable people, but apparently, Director"s family will fix this.
I felt like I should send a greeting present to Director"s family.
"I look forward to working with you," Franz-san said while smiling, and Oscar-san also smiled while bowing.
Director also gave them his stamp of approval, so I guess these two will do.
"Me too," I replied, and the meeting was over.
Translator: Blushy
Editor: Sam