Chapter 130

Workaholic [Part 1]

"Just why......"

On the way home from the academy, Emma was walking through the shopping district with George, William, and Joshua.

Even though school was finally over, Francesca, Marion, Catherine, and Caitlyn all couldn't come out to play.

Even though this was the week that Emma was finally exempted from her grandmother's hellish one-to-one etiquette training.

Emma's POV

Grandmother had sent a messenger and told me to rest well because I had (supposedly) fainted at last week's banquet.

Even though... I had wanted to hang out with my girl friends at Joshua's store for the long-anticipated reopening.

During my time as Minato, I could never enjoy myself because where I lived was so rural that not only were there no stylish cafes, the bus only came every two hours so I couldn't even go home if I missed one. I had always longed for an after-school date with my friends.

I puffed out my cheeks, protesting how things didn't turn out as I wished.

"It can't be helped. Whether it's their dress, shoes or accessories... Everyone is busy preparing for the evening party."

William tried to soothe me with something along the lines of 'at least you have us', but if it's with my brothers and Joshua, then it's just the usual members.

I mean, this isn't even a girls-only gathering anymore.

"Emma-sama, we are serving sweets with lots of cream specially for today, so please look forward to it."

A brilliant suggestion by Joshua, but I wanted to share those brilliant sweets with my friends as we chatted.

Today was supposed to be the only-girls gathering I had been looking forward to.

'Why, oh why did you host a party at this sort of timing, Your Majesty...' When I lifted my face to glare at the royal castle, something bumped into me from behind with a *bam*.

"Nyah—!!"

I was caught off guard and fell down with an absurd cry.

My bag cushioned my fall, so I didn't feel any pain. But I went "Ouch ouch ouch..." by reflex.

Now that I think about it, the large number of handkerchiefs I made for the embroidery class at the start of the week was still inside the bag. Nice cushion.

Well, it was just that I had completely forgotten to take them out, though.

As soon as Mother set out for Imperial Japan, with one less nagging person at home. I had become sloppy. I reflected on that, thinking about how even though I just needed to take it out of the bag, I would completely forget about it the moment I got home.

When I looked up, the one who bumped into me, a young woman, was apologizing fervently with a pale face.

Oops, the scar on my face has caused her to worry excessively.

I deeply regret saying "Ouch ouch ouch..." even though it didn't hurt at all. The young woman's hand was oozing with blood.

Remembering that I had loads of handkerchiefs inside my bag, I used one to stop the young woman's bleeding for the time being. But she might have hit a sensitive spot when she fell, because she suddenly lost consciousness.

♠♠♠

"......to think that I...talked to a noble about such things...... I suppose you have no idea what I was saying, right? Pardon me......"

We brought the young woman, whose consciousness was still hazy, to the living space of a nearby store owned by Joshua and listened to her story.

My friends couldn't hang out because they were busy tailoring dresses and such. A seamstress was definitely much busier, right.

Usually, it is hard enough to sew one dress in a week.

But 5 dresses... Even if she worked really, really hard, it would definitely still be impossible.

If she didn't finish those 5 dresses, the shopkeeper's shop would go out of business.

Even so, she was already at her limit. But because of her, the shop would......

......was what Hannah told them with a pale, tearful face.

(Emma) Well...... this...... I could completely relate.

(Hannah) "Work that we usually don't get, comes around only during the busiest time."

(Emma) I get it, I get it. Or rather, I got so flustered that even the unnecessary work increased...

(Hannah) "No matter how I think about it, it's a workload that can't be handled by this number of people."

(Emma) Same here, same here. It's like, just as I thought of asking for help, everyone around seemed to look equally busy.

(Hannah) "Even when I used my lunchtime or used the 10-minute break time, I still couldn't catch up with work and needed to work overtime."

(Emma) I know, I know. But you will feel sluggish if you don't eat, after all.

(Hannah) "I kept working and working, but the furniture at home only decreased."

(Emma) That's the thing. There was even a time when we were seriously considering selling my grandfather's portrait... But if I think about it now, who the heck would buy it?

(Hannah) "The Royal Family's unreasonable requests."

(Emma) Those requests. Back then, Father was... always holding his head.

(Hannah) "The surge of monsters."

(Emma) Exactly. Even though we wanted to finish the wedding dress by the end of the day, many one-horned rabbits appeared... That time... the clean-up was troublesome, indeed.