"Excuse m――... huh?"
"Takumi-kun, welcome back. Allen-kun, Elena-san, welcome back as well."
"Ah, we are back."
""Are back~""
When I returned to the Ruven House, I immediately sought out Matthias-san. I wanted to see him in order to get permission to let the Pastel Rabbits stay at the mansion until I find someone to take them.
When I knocked at the door of Matthias-san's office so that I could meet with him immediately, I got permission to enter. But, when I looked into the office, I was startled by two men sitting on a sofa facing Matthias-san.
"So, what's the matter?"
"I, I'm sorry. I didn't know you had guests."
"They are people of a company I called for a private order, so it's fine. Right, Takumi-san. Won't you look at this for a bit?"
"Err... yes, excuse me."
Matthias-san held out a few sheets of paper, so I approached Matthias-san, received the papers and checked the contents. They are apparently designs for a necklace.
The people Matthias-san is meeting seem to be jewelry merchants or perhaps designers?
"Allen too~"
"Elena too~"
"Ah, yes, yes."
While checking the designs, Allen and Elena drew closer to me. I stooped down to let the two see and the two peeked at the designs from the side.
"It's for females, isn't it? Is it perhaps for Rebecca-san?"
"Yeah, it's almost Rebecca's birthday, so it's for a present. What do you think?"
"They are simple, but I think they are good designs."
"It's simple after all..."
"...?"
There are three pictures of the designs, but all of them are metal pendants with a smallish pearl(?) attached to a chain. All are neat designs promoting the pearl. But, simple is apparently not good for Matthias-san.
"There's no problem if there were for daily use, but taking them to an evening party would be..."
"Ahh..."
Indeed, it might be too simple for that...
The evening party dresses of the nobility have a gorgeous image, so a necklace like this might be too weak in comparison.
"Is this jewel supposed to be a pearl?"
"Yes, that's correct. Wearing pearls is currently the trend, so I requested to make a design incorporating a pearl..."
It's not good for a Count House to not chase the trends, or something like that?
This is what is troublesome when being a noble~
"Are you going to use one of those pearls? I'm sorry for being impolite, but those don't seem too good..."
Several pearls were lined up on the table in front of Matthias-san, but not a single one of them stood out. Their shapes were distorted, and they had scratches on them.
"These were supposed to be the best among the pearls at our store..."
They were apparently the best pieces.
Realizing that my glabella wrinkled, one of the merchants said ashamedly.
"Pearls are rare in the first place and only a few reach the market, so people bring them to the evening parties to boast. They start being noisy and say things like『You have not get your hands on it yet?』. Although Rebecca keeps them company while ignoring them..."
Uwa~ Are the women engaged in a secret battle of wives!?
I see. Matthias-san wants to give a necklace to Rebecca-san that wouldn't lose to noisy wives. In that case――
"Matthias-san, if it's about pearls then won't you use a few that I have on me? They are of much better quality than those lined up here."
"Really? May I take a look?"
"Yes, I don't mind."
I took out several pearls from the Infinite Storage.
"These are wonderful!"
"Wha, what!"
"This is!!"
The three let out voices of admiration.
"I have several, so how about connecting the pearls of the same size together? I believe they would look exceptional depending on the dress."
First, I took out pearls of similar sizes and lined them up to form a pearl necklace. As expected, when talking about a pearl necklace it should be like this.
The color is royal white. Rebecca-san has red hair and red eyes, so I think white pearls would suit her the best~
"You want to use pearls so extravagantly?"
"I have a few, so it will work, you know? Right! How about making matching earrings or a hair ornament too?"
I remember seeing a pearl accessory set on a teleshopping programme.
Huh? In the case of a tri-set, it wouldn't be a hair ornament but a ring, right? Well, there no need to fuss over the type, right?
"No... Takumi-kun?"
Matthias-san was dumbfounded a little, but I can't pull back after going this far... thus, I decided to try pressing a little bit more and took out a slightly larger pearl.
"I also have something like this."
"""Wwha!?"""
The movements of the three instantly stopped. Eh, did I go too far?
However, the pearl I took out is only about thumbnail size. It's a size larger than the necklace pearls. To think this would make them shocked~...
If I took the biggest one on me, the golf ball-sized pearl out, what reaction would they make? I feel like wanting to see their reaction, but... let's restrain myself.
"Takumi-kun is truly outrageous... to think you would have an article like this on you..."
While Matthias-san sighed, the merchants started inspecting the pearl.
"What do you guys think?」
"It's an article of rare beauty. A pearl this size surely hasn't appeared on the market before."
"Yes, that's right. Moreover, I have no doubts that the design this gentleman proposed would suit your wife well."
"But..."
The merchants praised, but Matthias-san frowned.
"... Is that no good?"
"It's not that, but... even the royal family surely doesn't possess a fine article like this. There's no way I could send Rebecca to an evening party knowing that, right?"
"..."
So that was the reason Matthias-san was frowning, huh. Nobles really seem to have it troublesome~...
However, I have a simple solution for that.
"In that case, let's order some accessories made from the big size pearls and send them to Grace-sama and Aurora-sama. And then, we could make Rebecca-san's necklace from pearls of this size. How about that?"
"Eh!? Wait a moment, Takumi-san. From the way you said that, it felt like you have more of these big sized pearls though?"
"I do?"
"What!?"
""What did you say!?""
I took out only one of the big-sized pearls, so Matthias-san and the merchants must have thought I only have that one.
Since it's like that, it will be the same if I took out another one... is what I thought, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
I wonder what will they do once I tell them I have more of these? Well, I don't plan on displaying more than this though~
First of all, let's take out another pearl of similar size. Right~ let's take out a pink colored one.
"""It's colored!?"""
"N?"
Huh? They were surprised by the pink pearl I took out.
Eh? Was showing them colored pearls not good by any chance?
"I, I'm sorry. Are colored pearls that rare?"
"Far from rare... it's my first time seeing one."
"I also haven't seen one before."
"I'm the same. In the first place, I wasn't aware that pearls of a different color than white exist..."
"..."
It appears that I have done it again.