“Your Grace, are you going to the capital for business?”

Rubica was wearing a stylish outdoor red dress which matched her red eyes very well. Of course, the beautiful dress had also been crafted by her own hands. Now, even kingdoms across the desert were eager to buy fabrics and clothes made by Claymore’s weaving machine. Kingdoms that had tried to keep Seritos at industrial bay by not supplying thread to it only a mere year ago were now all eager to sell their raw materials.

“No, I don’t have any business to attend to at the capital…”

“Then are you going on an excursion?”

“Kind of.”

Khanna couldn’t help squeezing the documents in her hands. Judging from the quantity of luggage that was now being loaded on the carriage, it wasn’t going to be a short and simple vacation.

The duke and the duchess had been overworking way too much for a year. It was time for them to take some days off, but now that it was actually happening, Khanna couldn’t help worrying about their business.

She decided to get further instructions from Rubica before she left.

“If you are not going to the capital, where are you going?”

“Here and there.”

The answer came from Duke Claymore. His extreme beauty had improved even more. Before, he had been a cold man who was beautiful but hard to approach, but now he was like the spring in full bloom. But ‘here and there’? That was a vague term that wasn’t like the duke.

“Here and there?”

“It means we haven’t decided yet.”

He spoke coldly, unlike when he talked to his wife, but was it just Khanna’s imagination, or did he really sound a bit excited?

Suddenly, Khanna got a really bad feeling. These couple of work addicts couldn’t be about to carry out that…

“Then…”

“We’re going on a vacation.”

Oh, no. Khanna’s mind went blank instantly. The two had been working without taking a single day off, but they kept getting far more orders than they could handle. Moreover, they didn’t come just within Seritos. Now, the entire continent’s fashion couldn’t exist without Claymore.

Look at the dress made of only laces which the duchess was wearing right now. Making laces required much time and effort. Even the most skillful worker couldn’t make more than 30cm of lace in a day. But a year ago, Claymore changed all that by making a machine that weaved laces, laces wide and long enough to make a dress.

-Wow, this is a revolution.

With such a thing, even kingdoms that wanted to stop Seritos from growing were going to change their side. Khanna thought although the duke who succeeded in manufacturing such lace was great, Rubica who had thought of the mad idea was at least equally great.

-We must have someone really great to wear a dress made with this fabric.

Till then, they had been transforming girls that had yet to bloom to gain attention, but Khanna could guess that if a mere noble girl got to wear such a special dress for the first time, the royal family wouldn’t like it. Rubica read her thinking and smiled.

-I think so as well.

-Should it be the queen or the princess? I think Her Majesty will…

However, Rubica shook her head before Khanna could finish speaking. The queen was the greatest woman in the kingdom. Khanna wanted to ask who she had in mind, but she just waited until she talked.

-Iber, the dragon of ice who has just woken up.

For a second, Khanna doubted her ears. But soon, she thought the dragon was the only creature who was worth such shocking and bold material. Most of all, even that tricky queen would not be able to express her dissatisfaction toward Iber.

-Great! It will be a lifetime experience to make a dress for a dragon.

After that, Khanna and Rubica worked day and night and succeeded in making a beautiful dress made of only laces. It fluttered in the wind and was as beautiful as a dream. Her bare skin was shown sometimes between the layers of laces, but as its wearer was a dragon, it rather felt sacred and marvelous.

Iber was happy to receive it and started to wear it everywhere she went. As she was a dragon who could go anywhere, soon everyone on the continent knew about Iber and her mysterious dress.

It was a huge promotion effect that couldn’t be compared to using a royal or a noble girl as a model. After that, Seritos’s specialty wasn’t mana stone but laces, and Khanna soon found herself surrounded by orders and work from all over the world.

“And how long will this vacation be?”

Khanna asked, trying her best not to look sad about it. Considering the orders that were waiting to be processed, she wished she could stop this vacation, but counting what had happened during the last year, it would be better to let the duke and the duchess get some rest.

“A year, or maybe a two. We haven’t decided yet.”

“What!?”

However, the answer she got was so unexpected that Khanna utterly failed in controlling her facial expression.

“A year or two? Then, the king has allowed it?”

“Yes.”

Edgar said in a matter-of-factly, and Rubica smiled. Actually, getting that permission hadn’t been easy since Edgar and the king even had a severe fight of words.

As goods were consumed every year, it was more stable than the weapons industry that depended solely on a small group of geniuses. The king almost locked up the duke to stop him from leaving the new businesses that had just started to bloom.

‘I want to visit many countries, see various and mysterious goods and customs, and get new ideas for goods to make.’

The king wasn’t impressed at all by Edgar’s anger and threats, but he fell to Rubica’s soft persuasion.

He concluded if they got new ideas from the trip and came up with even more sensational goods to manufacture, it would lead to even bigger profits.

“But… many people want to know which fabric and color we will use for next spring. Factory Two has written to me, they must make fabrics in advance to handle the required amount of production.”

If the king had given them his permission, a mere designer couldn’t stop them. However, Khanna broke in a cold sweat while worrying about the close future.

Would she be able to manage the mega-sized business without the duchess? Khanna’s shop currently had branches abroad while the shops for commoners run by Madam Berry now had factories of their own. Hundreds of people’s living depended on them.

“Here!”

Rubica handed her a bundle of thick papers.

“These are…”

“Lace patterns and ideas. With these and your own skills, you will be able to go on without me at least for a year.”

Khanna quickly looked at them, and they had all kinds of ideas for fabrics and lace patterns.

“And tell the butler if you need anything. I’ll keep in touch.”

But Khanna already couldn’t hear her, she just nodded with a bright smile while looking at the papers. They were enough for three years, so all of her worries disappeared. She then decided to let Rubica go in peace.

“I hope you have a great journey. Oh, and do you plan to visit Barnia?”

“Barnia?”

“Yes, I heard they have been making extremely pretty buttons.”

“Then we should stop by there too.”

Rubica’s eyes twinkled with curiosity. It was like her habit of pursuing beauty was engraved on her soul. Edgar opened the door of the carriage, adding Barnia to their trip itinerary.

“Hey.”

Ios, who had been waiting in it, crossed his legs and waved a hand to him, but Edgar slammed the door shut.

“We’re not using this carriage. Burn it down and bring another one.”

The carriage’s door was blown away with a huge ‘bang’ before he was done speaking. Everyone was shocked, but Edgar didn’t even raise an eyebrow.

“What kind of manner is it to slam the door shut in front of a man’s face?”

“You are not a ‘man.’”

Ios frowned hard, not able to find anything to counter it with. Rubica sensed they were about to go into a fight, so she quickly joined the conversation.

“Ios, why are you here? We’ve sent everything you need through Minos…”

However, the dragon said nothing when asked and even blushed. In the end, Edgar couldn’t wait anymore and tried to take Rubica to another carriage, but then Ios yelled, “Where are you going without telling me?”

Edgar frowned and said, “As far as I know, reporting to you about our lives isn’t one of my duties.”