Chapter One Hundred and Two: Tea Party Sales
“Thank you all for coming to my tea party today. I hope I can return even a fraction of the hospitality everyone showed me in the Ehlertt territory.”
The venue was a place within the royal palace known as the Princess’s Residence. The royal palace was vast, with numerous buildings within its grounds, one of which was Waltride’s Princess’s Residence.
Even the Princess’s Residence alone had grounds as large as a noble’s mansion, and since Karen barely encountered anyone on her way there, it hardly felt like she had entered the royal palace at all.
Though Karen’s heart had raced at her first visit to the palace, when she saw the residence assigned to Waltride—smaller than the Ehlertt family’s mansion, somewhat shabby, deserted, with dead trees left planted in the garden—her excitement gradually deflated. It was obvious that Waltride had been thrown into a clearly abandoned building, and Karen could not help but weep inwardly.
Making do with meager furnishings and preparing only for the few guests, Waltride set up the tea party venue in the parlor of the Princess’s Residence.
Almost all those connected to the Ehlertt earldom whom Waltride had invited came to attend. Though some young ladies declined the invitation, it seemed to be for genuinely unavoidable reasons such as poor health or prior commitments.
Karen participated as a hired alchemist on Waltride’s side.
Petra was among the attendees, and feeling somewhat at ease with her, Karen approached her. Petra, looking as if she had spotted an acquaintance, addressed her:
“I heard you’re selling your cosmetics at today’s tea party. Is that really true!?”
“Yes, please look forward to it.”
“Wonderful!”
Knowing that someone was looking forward to the potions she made didn’t feel bad at all.
Karen held her head high with pride.
“But make sure you save enough magical power for the potions meant for children with the Bloodline Blessing.”
Karen nodded, finding Petra’s remark endearing. Though a self-centered girl, Petra was devoted to her family and cared about children.
“Yes. Magical power is surprisingly fine. If anything, the physical exhaustion from the labor of making potions is more challenging.”
“You’ve got nerve saying that with your D-rank magical power!”
If these were ordinary healing potions, it wouldn’t be like this. Non-magical ingredients clearly consumed less magical power.
“Now, let me introduce the various beauty potions that Karen has proposed for me.”
The young ladies, already familiar with the effects of Karen’s potions, grew excited and eagerly listened to Waltride’s explanation.
“It seems the reason people from the Ehlertt territory don’t invite you, Lady Waltride, is primarily because they don’t host many parties to begin with.”
The tea party sales event ended in great success. Particularly popular was the spider silk face powder that served as a substitute for the face powder they had reluctantly given up. It also functioned as a potion.
When Karen infused magical power into the silk spider’s thread, thinking that even ordinary silk had UV-repelling properties, it became a sunscreen potion.
Moreover, when she recalled her master’s teachings and used magic to "transform" it, she produced a finer, more beautiful powder than when she had laboriously ground the threads into powder by hand with a mortar.
However, since the silk spider was a magical creature and its thread was a magical material, unlike non-magical materials, it consumed a terrifying amount of magical power. As a result, it unintentionally became a limited-edition product.
“Because you sided with me, it seems Ehlertt itself has become a target of the Consort’s hostility… I feel terribly sorry…”
Waltride was on the verge of tears.
While demonstrating and selling the cosmetic potions, Waltride casually drew out this information from the noble girls—this appeared to be one aspect of the situation.
“I think the real reason Ehlertt is being avoided is because Lord Helfried tried to use Mr. Julius’s achievements as leverage to demand an anti-magic artifact from the royal family—so it’s not just your fault, Lady Waltride!”
“Ah, I hope that’s the case…”
“Also, while there may be a tendency to avoid inviting Lady Waltride out of consideration for the Royal Consort, the headwind doesn’t seem that strong.”
Karen also heard from Petra in a private conversation that, on a personal level, some people had close friends in other territories and still received party invitations, so the movement to ostracize wasn’t that powerful.
Though Ehlertt Earldom is viewed warily for standing up even to the king, they were also respected to some extent for the achievements that made such defiance possible.
Moreover, the sons and daughters of the king’s other wives each had their own factions and were competing against the Consort and her children.
“It just seems like there’s no particular reason to go out of their way to get close to you, Lady Waltride. If even with this beauty and magical power it’s still not enough, noble society is truly formidable.”
Waltride had found a way to suppress the side effects of the Bloodline Blessing and returned to society. However, no one knew what Waltride intended to do after returning to social circles. Even Waltride herself didn’t return because she wanted to, so there was no way anyone could know.
That’s why everyone was watching and waiting for now.
In that case, the only choice is for Waltride to show them exactly what she intends to do.
“Become that reason for me, Karen!”
“Of course! Though I’ll be using you as an excuse to sell plenty of potions!”
Karen was now saving money.
The price of a mithril-silver alchemy cauldron was sky-high. She needed to extract money from wherever possible, even more than she was doing now.
“May I use your name when selling cosmetics?”
“Aren’t you already using it?”
“I would like to sell the cosmetic potions as the Princess Waltride brand. By tailoring new seasonal sets to your skin throughout the year, and marketing them as limited editions, I aim to entice wealthy noble ladies and aging madams into buying product after product!”
“It sounds like some evil scheme, but very well. You’ve been helping me after all.”
Having received permission from the nonchalant Waltride, Karen raised her fist into the air.
“Let’s make money! Hip hip hooray!”
“I’m rooting for you, Karen.”
“Since I’m borrowing your name, I’ll properly pay you a name fee. The more we sell, the more profit you will make. This isn’t someone else’s business, you know?”
“R-Really? Just for lending my name? Even though my name carries no influence?”
Waltride tilted her head in puzzlement. She apparently never dreamed that her name held any power.
But even just being “Princess Recommended” would sell, and the person herself was stunningly beautiful. If cosmetics were sold under Waltride’s name, people would mistakenly believe that Waltride became beautiful thanks to those cosmetics.
Of course, Karen wouldn’t say it that way. That’s how advertising models worked.
“Now, let’s begin your journey to find a husband, Lady Waltride! Hip hip hooray!”
“H-Hip hip hooray!”
Karen would rake in money, and Waltride could earn money while searching for a marriage partner. The customers would get more beautiful too. This was the essence of business—a win for all sides.
She had found a master and discovered a way to make money. If she continued making deliveries like this, eventually, with Waltride’s letter of recommendation to the Alchemists’ Guild in hand, Karen would be promoted to a D-rank alchemist.
Alchemist… There was now only one issue still lingering in Karen’s heart.
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