“Blending tea. They said they’re considering it as a gift for the guests at the engagement ceremony, and they want to commission a special blend of tea exclusively for the Young Lady.”
I had expected the order to be for something like flour or salt, which were the main products our trading company could proudly offer.
But instead, it was our new business venture—blending tea.
This was a promotional opportunity sent straight from heaven.
My heart fluttered at the thought of our bank balance already growing more comfortable.
Of course, with a bulk order for an event as large as the engagement ceremony of House Harriet, even supplying nothing more than the cherries used to decorate the cupcakes served to the guests would make us a considerable amount of money.
However, this was still a society where people generally relied on self-sufficiency for food and other necessities. As a result, profit margins were low, and our distribution network was still poorly developed, which meant we suffered considerable losses.
In short, we worked ourselves to the bone and barely had anything left to show for it.
Ever since I had taken over the trading company, I had been restructuring it around high-value businesses such as spices and blending tea.
The spice business has more or less established itself, but blending tea hasn’t gotten the response I expected. Perhaps it’s because people in this world are still unfamiliar with it.
People here preferred to enjoy the natural, unaltered flavors of ingredients.
Recently, dishes seasoned with spices had begun to gain popularity among the nobility, but when it came to tea, single-variety black tea and herbal tea were still the norm.
But true success comes not from following trends, but from creating them.
Determined to make a fortune like Baron Pepper, who had first introduced spices into cooking, I had continued developing various new products.
But for now, the profits from our existing businesses were merely covering the losses from the blending tea business.
Trends begin in noble society, so I had been providing free samples to the most famous salons for almost a year. Even after all that, there had been so little response that I was seriously considering giving up.
Perhaps opportunities really did come to those who persevered.
Duchess Harriet had been famous as an icon of social trends for more than twenty years since her debut in high society.
If I could win the Duchess’s favor, the success of our business would practically be guaranteed.
There was no way I could let this opportunity slip away.
“Lucy, contact House Harriet and work out the exact schedule. And tell Dannon to contact our information broker and investigate the Young Lady’s personal details and the Duchess’s preferences. As quickly as possible! I’m going to stop by the workshop to see Daisy.”
After firing off a rapid series of instructions to Lucy, I headed to the workshop.
I had only been talking with Daisy, the person in charge of the tea workshop, for a short while when Dannon and Lucy returned after completing their assignments.
It had only been a couple of hours since we had parted.
They had handled everything much faster than I had expected.
“Dannon, Lucy, you two are seriously the best.”
I showered my capable employees with praise as I accepted the report from Dannon.
Since the investigation had been conducted in a hurry, the report looked as though it had been pieced together from various sources, and the formatting was rather chaotic.
But the contents were thorough.
The Duchess and the Young Lady are both famous figures, so perhaps that made it easier to gather information. Still, Dannon must have worked hard to find all this in such a short time.
I quickly read through Dannon’s findings and gave Lucy a meaningful glance.
Lucy naturally began the briefing.
“The meeting with the Duchess has been scheduled for fifteen days from now. There will be approximately one thousand guests at the engagement ceremony in total, and they plan to invite mostly relatives and close acquaintances.”
“But the gifts…”
“It sounds like almost anyone whose name appears on the noble registry will receive one. If we secure the supply contract, we’ll hit the jackpot.”
“The Young Lady is the Duchess’s only daughter, and her fiancé, the young marquess, recently awakened his aura and joined the Imperial Guard. I suppose they’d want to show him off. Still, fifteen days is a little tight.”
“We’ll have to make it work somehow.”
Lucy, who loved money almost as much as I did, had a gleam in her eyes.
“Exactly. We’ll make it work somehow.”
Encouraged by my fellow money-obsessed comrade, I burned with determination alongside her.
“Oh, and the engagement ceremony will be held in the gardens of the ducal residence, which are currently being extensively renovated. The main flower will be lilacs. Apparently, it’s the Young Lady’s birth flower. Also, one of our contacts knows an employee at the atelier handling the Young Lady’s clothes and jewelry, so they’ll get in touch with us as soon as everything is finalized.”
It seemed that in that short amount of time, they had even found out the concept of the engagement ceremony and the shop responsible for the Young Lady’s outfit.
“Good work. I’ll need to focus on this for a while, so Lucy, please take care of the trading company’s affairs.”
“Yes, Master of the Trading Company.”
Lucy left to deal with the mountain of paperwork in my place.
Next was Dannon’s turn.
I handed the investigation report to Daisy as well, telling her to read through it.
“Dannon, was there anything unusual besides what’s in the report?”
“Nothing particularly noteworthy. However, both the Duchess and the Young Lady are said to prefer herbal tea over black tea.”
The preferences of the decision-maker were important.
“Really? Did they say why?”
“It’s only a guess, but apparently the Duchess’s godmother died of a heart attack. She may have a family history of heart problems.”
“So caffeine might be the issue. Daisy, you heard that, right?”
“Yes? Yes.”
That was useful information for us.
Daisy’s tea was healthy as well, after all.
“Dannon, if you receive any additional information, bring it to me immediately. And Daisy, have you finished reading the report?”
“Ah, not yet.”
“That’s fine. Take your time.”
Daisy’s eyes grew round as she tried to read the report while answering my questions at the same time.
“First of all, do you have any recipe ideas?”
“Hmm. Lilacs have a fairly strong fragrance, so if I were a guest at the Young Lady’s engagement ceremony, I think that scent would leave a lasting impression on me. I want to use lilac as the base so that whenever people drink the tea, they’ll remember the engagement ceremony.”
“Lilac… It is rather unusual. But you’re confident about it, right?”
Lilacs weren’t generally flowers used for making tea.
As someone who wasn’t an expert, I couldn’t quite picture what tea made from lilacs would taste like.
“Yes, I’m confident.”
But Daisy answered with sparkling eyes.
Daisy was somewhat timid by nature, but her skills were undeniable.
If someone like her was this confident, it meant she truly believed in her idea.
Daisy had originally come from a village apothecary whom I had happened to meet by chance, and she was highly skilled at making medicinal teas.
In particular, she had a talent for brewing delicious tea from plants that were beneficial to the body, which was why I had personally recruited her.
“I’ll leave the creation entirely to you. Dannon, bring Daisy whatever ingredients she wants without worrying about the cost. And find a craftsman who can handle the package design as well.”
“Yes, understood.”
“Daisy, let me know as soon as the prototype is ready.”
“Yes, yes. Master of the Trading Company.”
It felt as though a storm had swept through the trading company.
After our brief meeting, we scattered to take care of our respective tasks.
Already busy as we were, the blending tea order made things even more hectic.
The fifteen days passed in the blink of an eye.
I don’t even know where the time went.
I sat in the carriage heading toward House Harriet, dressed considerably more carefully than usual.
Still, I’m glad the final product turned out so well.
I looked proudly at the tea package, which had been designed in the shape of a purple dress.
The tea made by steeping lilacs, which I had tried for the first time, had a slightly bitter taste.
But the capable Daisy had balanced out the bitterness by combining several herbs with almost no fragrance of their own.
Then she added jasmine and various berries, enhancing the aroma so that it evoked the image of a bright, beautiful spring garden.
The moment I tasted it for the first time, I almost felt as though I were looking at a vision of the Young Lady’s engagement ceremony several months in the future.
It was an excellent tea.
It was even good for the body.
No wonder timid Daisy’s eyes had shone with confidence when she called it the greatest masterpiece of her life.
“Drinking the fragrance” isn’t an exaggeration.
Please, let this tea win over the Duchess.
The rise and fall of the blending tea business depended on today.
I spent a moment praying.
By the time someone with a rather elastic faith—someone who only remembered to seek God when she needed something—finished her prayer, the carriage stopped swaying.
We had arrived at the ducal residence.
Bill, the coachman, gave a light knock on the carriage wall.
“Master of the Trading Company, we’ve arrived.”
His voice was unusually solemn.
I took a moment to compose myself before stepping down from the carriage.
I deliberately tried to put on a confident expression, but the moment I got out, I couldn’t help staring in astonishment at the view before me.
The scale alone was extraordinary.
The estate was so enormous that dozens of buildings the size of our trading company could have fit on the land.
I couldn’t even begin to imagine how much money they had.
And that wasn’t all.
The garden was filled with expensive ornamental plants that even someone as ignorant about flowers as I was could recognize.
They were planted in such abundance that they looked almost like weeds.
If a servant from the ducal family, who had come out to greet us, hadn’t calmly told Bill and me that we could look around the garden until our appointment time—as though everyone reacted this way—I’m sure it would have taken me quite a while to regain control of my expression.
“Ahem. No, never mind. Let’s go straight in.”
After belatedly fixing my dazed expression, I obediently followed the servant toward the reception room.
The main building of the ducal residence was even more imposing.
I had never realized before that a building could actually intimidate a person.
Having been an ordinary commoner on Earth, I found myself being careful with every single step.
If I had my phone, I’d be taking a photo every three steps.
It was a shame I couldn’t.
“The Duchess is currently meeting another guest. Please wait here for a moment.”
The servant of the ducal residence guided me into a small reception room.
Following her instructions, I entered the room and quietly sat down on the sofa.
“Someone will come to escort you when it is your turn to meet the Duchess. Would you like some tea while you wait?”
I had tasted tea so many times while developing the gift that I didn’t want to drink another cup for quite some time.
When I declined the offer, the servant nodded and left.
Only then was I able to relax comfortably against the sofa.
Although it was an unfamiliar place, being alone for a moment made me feel a little more at ease.
But my peace didn’t last long.
What was the proper greeting for someone of higher status than me again?
