Hug Me and You'll Die

16: It's not as if your attempts at courtship were fruitful thus far.

When the earl entered the dining room carrying a spoiled but content looking Desmia in his arms, the servants all shared a look of relief.

Without fixating on how exactly the father-daughter pair reconciled, they happily served the evening meal.

On that particular evening the menu consisted of a beautifully layered herbed vegetable terrine, sautéed frog legs and potatoes served with garlic butter, a classic tomato soup and flaky bread rolls.

The instance she was seated, Desmia, who had been famished, demolished her food at a pace that was astonishing even for her.

Saffron looked on with a pleased expression on her face. While she hadn't been sure that the young mistress would emerge for dinner, she still took the initiative to prepare a more extravagant meal than usual, just in case she would appear. Everyone in the manor knew that the young mistress was ruled by her stomach so Saffron had hoped that if she did end up partaking in the meal, she would find some solace in the selections if her mood hadn't already improved by that time.

After everyone had finished eating and the table was cleared, Desmia promptly informed the servants that at last, she had received the earl's approval to proceed with her business proposal.

There was an excited tremor that ran through the room.

"So what should we do first?" asked the earl.

"Well, normally I think people would prepare a sufficient supply of their product and then bring it out onto the streets to sell but I don't want to do that," said Desmia plainly. "I believe that we should work on fostering the mystical image of the blue rose first. Once people begin to buy into that image and become interested in the product, then we'll begin to offer it to a select few."

"Why would we only offer it to a select few, young mistress?" inquired Kale blankly. To him it seemed strange to not want to sell as many roses as possible as more sales naturally equaled more money.

"At the start, we want to make the product seem exclusive," explained Desmia with a glimmer in her eyes. "Items that are difficult to attain fetch higher prices in the marketplace after all."

As much as she despised him, she did not forget the lesson taught by the fraudulent merchant from Elkan and his Imitation Phoenix Grass. "Eventually, we'll make the roses more readily available," she continued, "but that will only be done after we can get those select few to validate the claim that our blue roses are indeed potent love charms."

Brie leaned forward in amazement. "Woooow, young mistress! How did you manage to come up with all of that?"

Desmia's shoulders were puffed up with pride. "Heh, do you really have to ask? Undoubtedly, it's because I'm a genius."

Like the faithful supporter she was, Brie cheered and clapped enthusiastically for the young mistress' advanced intellect.

Saffron shook her head as she observed the silliness of her daughter and the young mistress. "Young mistress, before we adopt a celebratory atmosphere, shouldn't we figure out how we're going to foster this "mystical image" you speak of?"

"I already got it figured out, Saffron. We'll just need a certain someone to rise to the occcasion," replied Desmia as she turned to Kale with a mysterious smile on her face.

Kale pointed a finger to himself, a bit caught off guard. "Me? You need me to rise to the occasion?"

Desmia nodded.