CH 89

On that day, the main street of the royal capital was abuzz. It’s true that the area is always full of people and the voices of bargaining and price negotiations echo constantly, but today there was another very big topic making its rounds among the crowds.

“Hey! Did you hear that? It seems that they went to a general store this time.”

“No, no, that rumor was a lie anyway, right?”

“Where are you even going to find a noble lady like that?”

Those who believe the rumors. Those that don’t believe. Those who saw it with their own eyes. Those who complain that they haven not witnessed it yet. The reactions varied, but everyone was talking about the same person.

On this day, there was a plausible rumor that a nobleman dressed as a commoner girl was looking around the shops on the main street of the royal capital.

Actually, such things are not uncommon. Daughters of lower-ranking poor nobles often live the same lives as ordinary people. If the clothes she wears are the same as the common people, the places she goes shopping to are the same as the common people. Poor aristocrats who eat and use the same amount of food and goods as ordinary commoners are by no means uncommon.

Furthermore, it’s not uncommon for beautiful girls to be followed by the words “You look like a noble lady.” It’s not that they really think she’s an aristocrat, it’s just to say she’s beautiful or cute like an actual daughter of an aristocrat.

That’s why those who didn’t believe the rumor thought it was just another story like that. In fact, among the people walking along this main street, there are probably some who are the daughters of poor nobles. They also shop here and there with poster girls who are said to look like noble ladies themselves.

Those who actually witnessed the scene objected. It’s something completely different from the usual business.

However, no matter how many words are used to explain it, it doesn’t come across well. People who are accustomed to pretty signboard girls or daughters of poor nobles who regularly shop around here can’t imagine such a thing. They wondered why the rumored noble lady who was dressed as a commoner would want to walk among them…

The fishmonger also heard such rumors but thought it didn’t matter. Regardless, he’ll ignore the usual chatter about who is beautiful or who is a poor nobleman going around the main street. The people around him were going “Ah.” or “Oh.”, but he thought it was the usual background noise and just gave a nod at the random person who approached.

“Excuse me. May I talk to you for a minute?” that person said.

“Yeah?” the fishmonger snapped. “What is it? If you don’t want to buy, go away… aah! What do you need, Young Lady?”

Then he turned to look at the customer who called out to him and the fishmonger froze. For some reason, he finally understood what the rumors meant.

That young lady is certainly dressed like a town girl. However, by the rest of her appearance, no one thinks that the young lady is an ordinary town girl. Because she is too graceful.

It’s true that she’s wearing clothes that town girls often wear. It’s not wrong at all. No one would deny it, per se. But where can you find a town girl who is so thoroughly cared for and has such silky, shiny hair? Her hair was so beautiful that you could tell at a glance that it wouldn’t be possible unless she took good care of it.

Also, her skin is white and beautiful. Unlike the rough skin of town girls, the jade-like skin that seems to be polished every day cannot be found among ordinary commoners. How on earth can you get that skin that seems to be shining?

Furthermore, she’s clearly different in her behavior. Even her merely walking is beautiful and sophisticated. Aside from walking, every other movement is graceful, and it’s not a feat that ordinary people can imitate.

And above all, her face. A beautiful face overflowing with dignity is exactly what you would call a noble among nobles. It is definitely different from ordinary people who are just beautiful. Her face would convince you she is of noble descent, she cannot be a commoner who is just a little beautiful.

The fishmonger finally understood the meaning of the rumors. This is neither a beautiful signboard girl like the ladies of the past nor the daughter of a poor aristocrat who blends in with the common people. It’s an obvious anomaly. For some reason, she is a real noble lady who dresses like a commoner.

And he looks at her and thinks. Nobles are not nobles because they dress beautifully. It’s not like commoners around here can become aristocrats just because they wear aristocratic clothes. Nobles are nobility because they are noble no matter what they’re dressed like.

He does not know why this lady is dressed like a commoner. The only thing he knew was that if he acted rudely to this lady dressed as a commoner, he would be endangering his life. He treated her with the utmost respect so that he would not make any grave mistakes.

Bianca was still quite nervous about her job at Caanza Trading Firm’s royal capital branch. It’s been several months since she had been hired by Caanza, completed her training, and started working at the store. There are still many things she doesn’t understand, but if you’re a normal person, you’re probably already used to the job.

However, Bianca was originally a shy person, so she was still not used to Caanza Trading Firm’s customer service policies.

She doesn’t really have a problem with the job. The work itself was decent, so her reputation among her superiors wasn’t bad. They just say that Bianca is a little quiet because she doesn’t have much confidence in herself.

Bianca immediately applied when she saw the job openings for the Caanza Trading Firm, in order to staff this branch. It’s not like she wanted to go above and beyond. She only applied in the hope that she would be able to get involved in the much-talked-about Caanza’s business. It didn’t matter if it was on backroom duty or heavy lifting at a warehouse.

That’s what she thought, but for some reason, everything from the interview to the recruitment exam was a customer service exam.

Of course, as an ordinary person, she would have been happy if she could have been hired anyway, whether it was a receptionist, backroom staff, or clerical worker. However, there were people who were more beautiful than Bianca and who could be signboard girls instead, and there were people who were legitimate second and third daughters of nobles. Bianca herself didn’t know how she’d compare to either.

Bianca isn’t ugly, but she doesn’t stand out. She has a calm and modest personality, and despite her charm, she can’t be called a beauty. Why was Bianca selected for the public-facing customer service?

Even if she doesn’t understand, as long as she’s been assigned, she just has to work hard. She received thorough training, and Bianca was finally able to stand at the store as a clerk at the Caanza Trading Firm’s royal capital branch. She is still doing her job properly even though her tension is not relieved. One day, an unexpected guest came.

“Excuse me. I’m just here to browse, would that be okay?”

“Yes?” Bianca said.

A truly ordinary commoner girl dressed as a commoner entered the store, and then a noble daughter who was also dressed as a commoner but did not look like a commoner at all called out to Bianca.

Not only in Caanza Trading Firm, but even in Europe up to the present day, the style is not like modern Japanese stores, where customers browse products displayed on the shelves and pick them out on their own. Supermarkets and convenience stores have the same system as in modern Japan, but if Japanese people go to overseas brand shops and shop as they do in Japan, they can look around the products themselves, select the products, and bring them to the cash register themselves, they’ll be ridiculed and snickered at. 1

Even today, in Europe, the basic style is to follow the store clerk around, tell the store clerk what kind of product you want for what purpose and use, and select the recommended product.

Of course, even in this world, aside from the market stalls, greengrocers, and fishmongers, all of the customers here listen to the clerks and look at their recommended products. As a result, the store clerk will always be with the customer, so there are almost no customers who say, “I’m just hanging out, but let me look at your products.” from the start. Even though that should be impossible, these girls decided to say so.

“Ah!” Bianca said. “Welcome to the store. What kind of product are you looking for?”

Though she was surprised for a moment, she immediately changed her mind and responded with a smile. There are times when the shopkeeper tells a customer to go home if they’re just browsing, but that’s not the case at Caanza. This company advocates fair and open transactions as a management policy and does not choose its customers.

“Could you show me the soaps that are so popular right now?” the noble lady asked.

No matter how you take it, Bianca can clearly see her trying to break up her normal speech patterns even though she’s a daughter of a noble. But, Bianca responds without losing her customer service face.

In addition to high-class soaps with good fragrances, Caanza also sells relatively inexpensive soaps that are not mixed with fragrances so that they can be popular among the general public. Cheap soap is different from high-end products for members, so anyone can buy it.

Some product samples are displayed in the store, but it is different from the system in modern Japan where all the products are displayed in the store and you can choose from there. However, cheap solid soap is now on sale and there are many samples in the store, so they will explain the products while showing them off.

“This is a soap that doesn’t contain fragrance. This one is a little more expensive, but it has a lovely scent instead,” Bianca said.

The soap in this world was mainly liquid soap with a distinctive smell. Then Caanza launched a bar soap that had almost no unpleasant odor, and it gained explosive popularity. Furthermore, as a luxury item, soap with good fragrances is also being bought up mainly by the nobility.

The samples in the store are mostly odorless soaps that are affordable for ordinary people. Recently, however, some cheap soaps with a slight scent have been developed. They were a little more expensive, but they were still very popular.

“Ah! This smells good. I think I’ll like this one,” the commoner girl said.

“Is that so? Then let’s buy it for you, Louisa,” the noble lady said.

“Eh! No, no! I can’t do that! I’ll buy it myself!” the commoner girl, Louisa, said.

The exchanges between the two girls are hilarious. Though one member of the duo looks like a noble with an ulterior motive… Bianca doesn’t know why she dressed like a commoner and took an actual commoner girl with her, but no matter how you think about it, this is not a normal noble lady by any stretch of the imagination. Bianca was so nervous because she shouldn’t have had any trouble with someone who would be a fairly high-ranking aristocrat.

Louisa wanted to buy some of the popular soap. Louisa’s salary is not small at all, as she has risen to a fairly senior position at the ranch. And although said salary supports a large number of younger brothers and sisters, she probably makes them better off than most families.

Even from Louisa’s position, it took courage to enter Caanza, but once she was in, the customer service was excellent, the soap was not as expensive as she thought, and the price was enough for Louisa to buy; in the end, she ultimately wished she’d come in sooner.

“Ah! That’s right,” Bianca said. “There’s actually just one luxury scented soap available for purchase. I’ll bring it to you.”

And with that, Bianca took a high-class scented soap from the back. Originally, it was a high-end item for members only, but in order to raise awareness about it, a marketing plan was executed to sell it to the general public in limited quantities. This one happened to be available by chance.

Just as Louisa was hesitant to enter Caanza, the general public still felt that Caanza was a company both near to and far from the general public. Caanza is open to your average citizen to work for, but it’s scary just to go inside a famous trading firm as a customer. It’s not a store that you can enter casually.

Because of that, there were still some leftover luxury soaps that were supposed to be sold at low, affordable prices in limited quantities. Bianca handed the last piece of luxury soap to the girl called Louisa.

“Wow! It smells so good! It’s completely different from before!” Louisa said.

She was surprised at the fragrance wafting up even though she was only holding it in her hand. She thought that the cheap scented soap she was recommended earlier smelled good enough, but now she can’t help but think that luxury products are on a different level.

“Then let’s buy this one,” the noble lady said. “I’m glad you got the last one left, Louisa.”

“Yeah! Thank you, Floto, and you as well, Miss!” Louisa said.

“Fufu,” Bianca chuckled. “No. Thank you for your purchase.”

For Bianca, maybe the customer who was pretending to be a commoner really is just here to hang out and browse to look for something to buy. Or did the girls intend to buy it from the beginning? In any case, Louisa was fortunate enough to be able to buy the high-class soap that was originally reserved for members only.

And when they paid for the item and were about to leave the store, a portly older noble lady came out from the back, where the private rooms for business negotiations were. The woman with the makeup layered on so thickly you’d think she was a painting then yelled,

“Hold it! What do you mean by this?! I know you sold that to the Beryl County! Even then, you’re telling me you can’t sell it to the Valtek Marquisate?!” 2

“As I’ve said many times before,” Bianca replied, “these products are limited to members of our business. We do not discriminate from one customer from another, no matter who they are, we ask that they kindly wait their turn.”

She was politely explaining it to the agitated larger noble lady, but as if she couldn’t understand the wording, she started shouting:

“And I told you that can’t be right! House Valtek is applying for your membership, but no matter how much time passes, we can’t even become one! Even though House Beryl has already joined, this is how it is, you’re mocking us by keeping us from becoming members! With our power, we can crush this kind of business any time we please!”

“As I said earlier, there are many customers waiting to become members of our company,” Bianca replied. “We are dealing with them one by one, but it will be a while before the Valteks will receive their turn.”

How many times has she repeated that explanation? Even so, Bianca dealt with the portly aristocratic lady without breaking her politeness.

“Ah! Hold it, you little girl! What do you have? That must be the soap they’re selling, isn’t it?! Why are you selling it to this little girl when you can’t sell it to me!?” the noble lady yelled, shouting even louder now that she’d noticed Louisa had the item she desired.

“When I told you earlier that there was one left for non-members, you said you didn’t want it…” Bianca said.

Of course, the clerk had told this Lady of Valtek, currently not a member, that the scented soap was available in limited quantities for any customer. But, it was this same lady who got angry, wondering why an aristocrat was forced to buy something being offered up to just anyone.

This lady doesn’t listen to people, or she doesn’t have the mind to understand the situation. She didn’t even turn it into a conversation because she just shouted what she wanted to say. She didn’t understand when it was explained that the item was the same even with its availability to everyone.

And when she found out that she couldn’t buy the member-exclusive items, she was making a fuss like this, but just as quickly as she noticed Louisa had that product, she stormed up to her.

“Hold it, that’s mine, so give it to me,” the noble lady said.

“Huh? Umm… I bought this…” Louisa said, her gaze darting everywhere as the portly and arrogant noble lady accosted her.

Even if you are in the right, the common people have no choice but to give up if they are pressed by the nobles. And just as Louisa thought so…

“Dear Customer, this item was purchased by this young woman first,” Bianca said. “Please understand that in our company, we are supposed to follow the order of turn regardless of the customers’ statuses.”

As if protecting Louisa, Bianca stood between her and the noble lady.