Tiuran let out a small laugh, walked over to the fireplace, and scooped a ladleful of hot herbal tea from the pot. Thalia lightly moistened her lips with the tea offered by her and recorded the remaining budget in the ledger.
Although she didn't spend a significant amount of money today, it would cost a considerable sum to formally sign a contract to purchase large quantities of yarn and dyes, and to pay for various auxiliary materials and transportation costs.
It will take at least a couple of months for the fabric to be finished and sold on the market, so for a while, expenses will continue without any profit. If they fail to produce marketable goods or if fabric prices drop, they might suffer a significant loss.
She nervously bit her lower lip. Although the failure of the textile business would not deal her a major financial blow, she could not avoid disgrace if it became known that she had lost her dowry.
The maids had to be careful not to attract attention from the surroundings until they were able to reliably produce fabric of a consistent quality.
'I'll just tell the people around me that I'm having the maids make my new clothes.'
After finishing her writing, Thalia put down her pen and walked to the bed.
Seeing this, Khan quietly approached and sat down with his back turned. Whether he was deeply sulking because he had been left alone in the castle all day to avoid being seen by others, he had been sitting there staring at the wall with his ears rolled back the whole time, and it seemed his patience was finally wearing thin.
She let out a chuckle at the amusing sight of it protesting by slapping its tail against the ground, but the wolf, who had been glancing sideways, snapped its head and shot a displeased glare.
Thalia giggled softly and gently scratched Khan's ear.
"It looks like my puppy is really angry."
The wolf, who had been growling disgruntled, soon pretended to give in and rested its head on her hand.
Thalia affectionately kissed the wolf's sulky face.
"Cheer up, I won't leave you alone tomorrow."
The wolf, who had been staring at her with jewel-like blue eyes, finally seemed to relax and stuck out its tongue to lick her face. Thalia burst into laughter and buried her face in the fluffy bee.
The next day. As soon as she finished breakfast, she visited the weaving room and carefully inspected the interior space.
The room itself was quite spacious, but the actual usable area was not very generous, as old spinning wheels, worn-out workbenches, and crates containing fabric and skeins of thread were piled up here and there.
To install eight additional looms, it seemed that the junk would have to be moved to the warehouse first, and then the layout of the existing equipment would have to be completely overhauled.
She needed to move the piled-up stuff to the linen room and remove the shelves on the wall.
Thalia, who was surveying the workshop with her arms crossed, gave instructions to the head maid standing at the door.
The head maid immediately signaled to the waiting servants.
"Move the fabric and thread to the next room, and put away any furniture not in immediate use."
"All right."
While the servants were tidying up the room, she watched the elderly head maid teaching the young maids how to weave.
"You must step on the pedals alternately like this. If you press the same side repeatedly, the threads will not cross properly."
The head maid stepped on the right footrest as a test. As she did so, half of the tightly stretched warp threads lifted upward, and a long gap opened between the threads.
The head maid, having trusted the shuttle wound with the weft thread and passed it through to the other side, pulled the handle-equipped reed slit toward her body and firmly pushed the weft thread toward the already woven fabric. Then, as she stepped on the opposite footrest, the warp thread below rose, and the thread above went down, firmly securing the weft thread that had just been pushed up.
"Every time you switch the foot pedals like this, the warp threads cross up and down. You send the shuttle through to pass the weft threads, and then use the loom to compact them row by row."
The head maid calmly continued her explanation after passing the shuttle, which had been passed to the right, back to the left to pull the weft with appropriate force.
"When pulling the shuttle or lowering the reed, you must be careful to apply even and consistent force. If the force is inconsistent, the weave of the fabric becomes rough, and the width of the fabric narrows and widens erratically. It is difficult to get a fair price for such fabric."
Then, as if keeping time, she began to move the drum from left to right and right to left at a steady speed, stepping on the footrests alternately with both feet.
With each repetition of the same motion, new grains were added line by line to the half-woven fabric, causing the length of the textile to increase little by little.
Thalia watched the scene with intrigued eyes. She had seen maids weaving before, but it was the first time she had observed them from such close proximity.
"How do you add patterns?"
The head maid answered her question fluently, as if she had been waiting for it.
"For simple stripes or checks, simply changing the colors of the warp and weft threads is sufficient. However, to create patterns like diagonals or diamonds, you must increase the number of heddle frames and foot pedals to three or four and step on them in a specific sequence. The grain of the woven threads changes depending on the order in which the pedals are stepped, thereby imprinting the pattern."
The maids, who had been listening to the head maid's explanation with tense faces, grew pale. It seemed as though their vision had already gone dark at the unexpectedly complicated usage.
The head maid scanned the maids' faces and added as if to comfort them.
"Take your time learning how to weave patterns, and first, learn how to match the width and grain of the plain weave consistently."
Only then did the applicants' faces brighten slightly. They soon divided into two groups and began taking turns learning how to weave.
Thalia, who had been standing by the gate watching the scene, soon took Khan to the loading dock in front of the castle gate. After checking there to see if the goods ordered the previous day had arrived properly, she went straight out of the castle through the back gate.
While checking the prices of fabrics at the market of the heart outside the city, she was thinking of taking Khan for a walk in the meadow for the first time in a long while.
"If you need new clothes, wouldn't it be better to summon a tailor to the castle or visit a fabric merchant in the city? Is it really necessary to go out of your way to a market in this backwater?"
The guard, who had been looking around the shops lining both sides of the dirt road as he followed her, asked in a way that seemed incomprehensible.
Thalia did not bother to answer. It was obvious that if she poured out her innermost feelings to them, it would reach Barcas's ears immediately.
Ignoring the suspicious glances of the guards, she lifted up the thick woolen fabric piled on the stand.
"How much does something like this cost?"
"It is one liram per yard. This red-dyed cloth is two lirams per yard."
“Then what about this?”
Thalia, who had been lifting the fabric for a while, then pointed to a woolen cloth with a complex yet ornate pattern.
The merchant answered hesitantly.
"That item costs 7 liram per yard. It is made by the most skilled craftsman in the village, so it is a bit pricey."
Thalia's eyes sparkled.
Judging by the texture of the fabric, it did not appear that very good yarn had been used. The cost of the raw yarn would not even amount to one-tenth of the selling price.
If the textile business successfully establishes itself, it will be possible to reap profits amounting to several times the invested amount.
If the business is expanded in the future to process and sell all the wool produced in Kalmor into medium-quality or higher woolen fabrics, Kalmor could grow into a wealthier city than it is now.
Thalia concealed her excitement and pointed to the tightly woven woolen fabric with a wave pattern.
"Cut me just five yards of this."
The fabric merchant immediately cut the cloth and handed it over.
She unrolled the woolen cloth and wrapped it around the neck of Khan, who was standing beside her. Khan lightly shook his body as if slightly uncomfortable, then lowered his tail as if resigned to his fate.
Thalia giggled as she took Khan to the outskirts of the village.
As she passed the scattered houses, a field turning dark brown unfolded before her eyes.
She took slow steps through the bushes swaying in the breeze. The temperature was dropping faster and faster. The first frost would probably come around next week, and the second winter without Barcas would begin.
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