CH 107

On that day, the downtown area of the royal capital was all abuzz with a certain group

“Hey! A group of cute girls is walking by!” one bystander gushed to his companion.

“Shh! What are you going to do if they hear us?!” his companion scolded him while gesturing to his friend to tone it done.

“What is it? Is there something wrong?”

“Idiot! Look carefully! In the middle…”

“Hmm~? … Ah, so that’s how it is. Yeah, I should keep it down,” the first bystander said, now trying to mask his voice.

If he says something bad and he’s asked about it afterward, he might die. Knowing that he decided to be quiet.

The group of five, of course, was Floto’s group. And the person in the middle that the bystander’s friend was talking about was Floto herself. And after seeing her, he also lowered his voice. He doesn’t know what will happen to him if he says something unnecessary and offends them.

The group of 5 is all beautiful girls. The commoners who were watching the group of five did not know their backgrounds or names, but even those who passed by were all turning their heads to keep looking.

Louisa is a very popular girl, but she’s the type of charming girl who would fit well with the phrase “signboard girl” in this neighborhood. She’s certainly not the prettiest beauty, but she’s the type that’s likely to be popular in her neighborhood, and she’s well-received by the commoners.

Claudia is dressed as a woman today… but as an average woman. Claudia still has her usual dignified atmosphere radiating from her and is reasonably tall and slender beauty, creating an atmosphere that is likely to be favored not only by men but also by women.

If you look closely at Mikoto, you can see that she has received a high level of education on manners and behavior, but perhaps because of her usual rugged personality, she doesn’t look like an average girl even if she’s dressed like a commoner. It’s not unreasonable to claim that she’s a bit of a strong-willed, beautiful commoner girl.

Katharina could only be seen as a quiet and fragile beautiful girl. You’d think her inner self might not even be close to “fragile,” but you can’t tell that much just from appearance. Most, however, would imagine her to be the sickly, frail, and naive daughter of a wealthy merchant.

The problem is Floto, who walks in the middle surrounded by those 4. No matter how you looked at her, her figure walking quietly with her hands together, radiating an atmosphere that made you think that she was a noble, no, maybe even a member of the royal family.

Are the clothes she’s wearing that of a wealthy merchant’s daughter? They certainly are, if you just look at her appearance. She’s dressed like a daughter from a slightly wealthy family. However, there was no one who saw only the appearance and accepted it at face value.

You’re not a commoner because you dress like a commoner. You’re not a noble because you’re dressed like a noble. Aristocrats are aristocrats and royalty is royalty no matter what they look like. Just as commoners cannot become aristocrats by wearing aristocratic clothes, aristocrats cannot become commoners by wearing commoner clothes. They feel like they were being shown this principle as an example.

For over 10 years, Flora has undergone Olivia’s rigorous education. Her gestures, which she has repeated hundreds of thousands of times, millions of times, are already ingrained in her body and her mind, and she vividly shows her high level of education just by walking. The elegance and beauty of her behavior surpassed even the nobles of the area and could make one think that she might be royalty.

No matter how you look at it, it just looks like someone with a great lineage walking around town incognito. If you carelessly say unnecessary things to such a person…if you try to flirt with and pick them up…the commoners who imagined such things felt shivers down their spines and swore firmly in their hearts that they would not get involved as much as possible.

However, it was such a wonderful sight to see from a distance that they desperately tried to imprint it on their minds, and they opened their eyes wide, overworking their brains like they never needed to before, and focused on watching the group.

The Caanza Trading Firm’s Royal Capital No. 2 Branch was advertised to open today and thus was crowded with many customers even before it opened. Even though the doors are still closed, there’s already a long line. This was expected and planned for, so the store clerk guided the customers to line up.

Bianca, who was appointed as Head of Customer Service of the new store, has been preparing for today even though she is confused. She wasn’t quite a full-fledged supervisor yet, so she was given the role of an Assistant Supervisor, and she was scolded every day while she studied at the same time.

At the same time as the long-awaited opening, customers are pouring in. The crepe cafe is crowded with many customers for both dine-in and take-out orders.

In addition, not only crepe cafe but also general goods customers soon entered the store. They’re a little unexpected. At the first store, there weren’t many customers other than aristocrats, so if customers who ate and dine in the cafe became interested in the company’s products through the glass, they expected that customers would flow to the general goods store after.

However, in reality, at the same time as the opening, customers were pouring in, up to the limits of the general goods store’s capacity. In fact, the commoners who were their customers now were always very interested in Caanza. However, many aristocrats go in and out of the first store. Therefore, if there was a dispute with the nobles, in the worst case, they would be imprisoned or even executed, so they avoided it.

The second branch claims to be for general goods customers only. Even if you want to buy something, if you are a high-ranking aristocrat, you won’t be able to come. Aristocrats live by appearances. Even if they wanted something, they wouldn’t go into a store that was said to be for the general public.

If you’re an aristocrat, you’ll likely go to apply for membership and purchase the members-only products. It takes time to become a member there, so there are hardly any nobles who come for general use and shop casually. There may be a possibility of hiring someone to go shopping for you, but that person will also be strictly warned not to call themselves a servant of any noble House.

In other words, even if there was someone who came to buy on behalf of the aristocrat, they were ostensibly not related to that noble. Even those who are hired do not give their names. If the employer’s name becomes public due to a bad dispute, it will quickly evolve into a serious problem.

That’s why ordinary people can enter this store for general goods without hesitation. Until now, they were interested in Caanza but avoided it due to the comings and goings of various nobles. Of course, with these circumstances, it was a natural consequence that customers would flood in now.

Take-out, eating and drinking in the store, and the general goods store are all in full swing, but they still can’t keep up with the response. While screaming happily, Bianca finds future tasks and writes them down.

If it’s a simple thing that can be improved right now, it’s fine, but if you don’t solve a more fundamental problem, they won’t be able to make the best of this renewed interest in the future. Such a correction is not something that can be done here right now, so it will be a future matter. If you couldn’t come up with a solution right away, you should run around both the general goods store and the cafe while taking notes on everything you came up with in order to think about countermeasures at a later date.

Bianca froze for a moment when she saw a group of 5 people enter the café. There are 2 familiar faces there. One is a commoner girl who was lucky enough to buy the last of the limited-run scented soap. And she can’t forget the other one. She’s dressed like a commoner, but she’s clearly not a commoner…

The noble lady was dressed better today than before. Certainly, you could say that it’s also still more fitting than last time. But even that is not enough. The outfit she’s wearing this time is just like the slightly expensive clothes worn by the daughters of wealthy merchants. Such a thing does not match the noble atmosphere that the person herself is exuding.

Even so, even when dealing with that group, the store clerks don’t break from the customer service behavior, they stuck to their training. It wouldn’t be strange of them to blatantly change their attitudes here. But the shopkeepers here didn’t change the way they acted. They treat the new group the same way as the other customers.

Bianca said to everyone in her heart, “Well done!” as a compliment. Treat any customer equally. That is the major premise of Caanza. She wanted to commend the shop assistants who were able to carry their task through with that beautiful girl with the magnificent aura in full radiance.

After taking orders and handing over the goods, the group sat down. At this café, you take your order at the counter, just like Japanese fast food, and pay for the items you order on the spot. After receiving the product, you are supposed to move to the seat that was originally assigned and sit down.

When you are guided into the store, the seats are already decided, so even if you want to take a seat, someone breaks off and secures a seat, or you keep wandering around with the product until the seat becomes available after your order is done.

Sit down and have fun chatting while enjoying crepes and Mille crepes. It wasn’t long after that that Bianca, who was relieved to see the situation, got surprised.

When she thought that the noble young lady suddenly stood up, she then left the store in a hurry. Bianca wonders what in the hell is going on, and nervous tension runs through the store clerks. If she didn’t like the store’s employee’s attitude, or if there was some kind of complaint, would Caanza be able to refuse the request of a young lady who exudes such a noble aura?

No matter how much you treat them equally regardless of their status, for example, if the other person is a member of the royal family of this country, can you really treat them equally as with other customers? And even if you just said that that girl is genuine royalty, there’s more than enough evidence present to back it up.

The staff, including Bianca, were apprehensive, but they continued to serve customers without showing it.

Flora, no, Floto, rushed out of the store, then pushed her way through the crowds looking for the person she had seen passing outside earlier. She wondered whether or not she could find her. And whether or not that person knows any information will make a big difference in her future plans.

And not only that, but Floto herself was concerned about those people who had disappeared from Carruzan after the assassination, with their whereabouts unknown. It doesn’t matter if she doesn’t know any information. If those people who were kind to her at the time were safe, that alone would make Floto happy.

“Hey, wait! Please wait a moment!” Floto said, reaching out to grab the woman’s shoulder from behind.

“Huh? Do you mean me?” the fairly young woman said as she turned around, surprised. She’s even more so to see who was grabbing her.

“Ah, you are…!” the woman said.

“I knew it… it was you after all… I finally found you,” Floto said.

The woman was one of the people Floto was looking for. As if to hide her face, she has a cloth over her head wrapped around her face, but since it did not completely obscure her features, Floto recognized her.

“I don’t mean you any harm,” Floto said. “Would you like to stay with me for a little while?”

“…………”

When Floto said that, the woman made a resigned expression and silently followed Floto.

After that, Floto returned to everyone with the woman and introduced her to her friends. And after everyone heard who this woman was, they knew why Floto suddenly jumped out of her seat. It was likely that she would play an important role in solving the problems of House Lingerburg.

The 5 of them, plus the woman, became 6 and spent some time looking around Caanza and around the downtown area. Finding the woman was unexpected, but they didn’t mean to change their plans. Even though it was just supposed to be the 4 girls alone with Floto, the 4 of them weren’t so naive as to throw away the opportunity to go on a date with Floto regardless of this turn of events.

The date that continued like that ended successfully and they returned to the Carruthers Residence. Floto wanted to talk to the woman, but she decides that it will be difficult for her to talk if all 5 of them were trying to listen, so Floto faces the woman alone. The others were all on standby in a separate room, and Floto was the only one who would hear her out.

From Floto’s side, all 5 are members who are trying to do something about House Lingerburg, but from the woman’s point of view, they are all mysterious girls other than Floto. There’s no way you can talk about something important to someone like that so easily.

“First of all, have a cup of tea and calm down,” Floto said, looking straight into the woman’s eyes as she sat across her and served her some tea.

“Ah! Ye-Yes… thank you,” the woman said.

“Do you know what I called you here for?” Floto asked, continuing to stare at her.

“………… Yes,” the woman said, looking resigned and without looking away.

“Then, can you please tell me about it?” Floto asked. “What happened in Manor Lingerburg that day… if there is anything you know, please tell me whatever it is. You… you were one of the only two maids in Manor Lingerburg, Ms. Hanna, so as one of those missing maids, you would know something, wouldn’t you?”

“I do……” Hannah began.

They finally caught a clue. Flora listened to Hannah, one of the two maids serving House Lingerburg until Nikolaus’s assassination, to see if she had any important clues.