14 — Advertising!

Finally I realized—the party was to find a future husband for Miss Verbena. And since they’ve invited all of the most eligible young bachelors, that in turn drew in the young ladies. That’s why there were more young people there.

But from the perspective of the person who snatched Mr. Fisalis out from under her nose, I’d love it if we could just switch places...

“Vi. You’re thinking something weird again, aren’t you?” the aforementioned Mr. Fisalis said, gripping my hand even tighter. Oww!

“Oh, not at all!” He read my mind again! I don’t think I said anything out loud, did I? I rushed to deny it, but he looked down at me with an ice-cold, princely glare. I gave him a puppy-dog look in return.

“It was written all over your face.” It was written all over my face!?

...Ahem. It’s not like I can actually switch places with her, anyway, so I can only hope for Miss Verbena to meet a wonderful man here at this party.

“Oh, Minister of Justice. It’s been a while.”

“I’m glad to see you well, Duke Fisalis. I hear that you’ve been transferred to the Royal Guard.”

“Yes, I have. I’ve actually become the Vice-Captain, in fact. Since I’ll be mainly guarding the palace, we’ll be seeing a lot more of each other. I look forward to working with you.”

“As do I. Hahaha!”

Mr. Fisalis and the Minister of Justice were in full-on lip service mode. But Mr. Fisalis’s sparkling smile made his small talk feel less like empty compliments. It was an amazing skill. And here I am, just standing beside him and smiling!

“By the way, is your wife wearing those sapphires I’ve been hearing about?” Just when I thought they were gonna keep going with the small talk, the Minister changed the topic to the sapphires.

“So, you’ve heard already! Yes, they are. What do you think? They’re quite wonderful stones, so I believe they’ll become just as important to my duchy as our pigeon blood rubies,” Mr. Fisalis latched onto the topic with a full-blown smile, having been just waiting for him to bring them up. They were the main reason we were here today, after all.

Since the subject had changed to the gems, my job was to puff out my non-existent chest and make sure the sapphires looked beautiful from the Minister’s point of view. I thought about where the lights in the room were and slightly adjusted how I stood to make them sparkle beautifully. Yep, I think I got ’em sparkling prettily. How’s that?

“The necklace’s design is wonderful, but the sapphires just make it look even better. You’re correct in thinking they’ll be the pride of your duchy. And I’ve heard that they’re named after your wife,” the Minister said with a smile after a completely chaste glance at the gorgeous necklace resting on my chest. The dress was daringly low cut, but since I was basically an un-sexy ironing board in that area, there was no way anyone would check me out.

“Yes! They’re the same color as my dear Vi’s eyes, so I named them ‘Viola Sapphires’ after her!” Mr. Fisalis said with a self-satisfied look at the Minister’s compliment. He said it while gesturing at me, so I put on my salesman smile! And since they were talking about my eyes, I kept them wide open with an equally wide smile!

“How wonderful!” The minister was smiling at me after hearing the origins of the name, but it seemed pretty lukewarm...

While I was going red in the face from the Minister’s smile (from shame, not bashfulness!), Mr. Fisalis didn’t even blink. Instead...

“Your wife also has lovely sapphire-colored eyes, doesn’t she? And I seem to recall that your daughter inherited those beautiful eyes from her mother. Are they not with you tonight? I haven’t seen them around,” he said, smoothly bringing up the Minister’s family.

But wow, Mr. Fisalis! I didn’t think he’d know the eye colors of people that weren’t even here!

...Ah, he must remember because they’re women, huh! Even so, impressive memory! I gave him a little bit of a respectful glance and he looked back into my eyes, smiling.

Meanwhile, the Minister must’ve just been happy that his wife and daughter’s eyes were referred to as “beautiful,” so his smile got even wider. “They should be somewhere around, actually. We were just together a moment ago. And you’re correct, Duke—both of them have the same sapphire eyes! When they heard that your duchy was to begin selling new gems, they were so excited. They’ve been wondering what they’d look like,” he said, looking at my necklace.

“Then why not give them some accessories that use our sapphires?”

“I definitely will. They’re named after the incredibly popular Duchess Fisalis, after all! Both my wife and daughter are fans of yours, so they’ll be ecstatic.”

“Wha—!? ...O-Oohohoho! Oh my, thank you for the kind words!” I’d just been standing around smiling silently as they talked, but the Minister suddenly addressed me directly. My eyes widened in surprise, but I quickly caught myself and fixed my smile back in place.

Geez, that scared me! Saying your wife and daughter are my fans isn’t funny, Minister! And Mr. Fisalis here is just naturally making sales. Maybe he would’ve made a great businessman.

Anyway, thank you for buying “Viola Sapphires!” Ah, Rohtas is waiting in another room to take your payment (not).

After our chat with the Minister of Justice, we wandered around the venue greeting everyone. And of course, everywhere we went people were asking about the Viola Sapphires. They all wanted to know where and when they could buy them.

And just like back with the Minister, Mr. Fisalis got all their wives’ and daughters’ eye colors right. If they were blue, he’d just plug the sapphires, but if they were different, he’d suggest pairing the sapphires with stones in a coordinating color. All of the gems he suggested were mined in our duchy, too☆ You could’ve been a fantastic gem merchant, Mr. Fisalis!

And he used the full power of his sparkling smile as he said it all, making every noble snap up a sale. So, his smile doesn’t just deal critical charm damage to ladies—it works on old men too! Mr. Fisalis, you’ve sure got a lot of maxed-out skills, huh?