I Own A Brothel In Another World (Ch. 1-196)

Chapter 130 - Securing a Tailor

The older woman suddenly grabs one of the two vertical belts upholding her granddaughter's pants in place and yanks it back with unexpected strength. Marianna yelps in surprise as she is slammed down onto the floor behind the counter. All of us take a peek over it to see if the girl is fine.

"What did I teach you about not getting into your customer's face," Muriel admonishes her with a stern glare. "And never show how much you are interested in a project. This is exactly how you got yourself enslaved by that obese swindler."

"But 'Ma, he is with Miss Ria," the tomboyish girl whines while rubbing her butt.

"So was her last boss." The granny rolls her eyes.

Marianna sighs softly and picks herself up from the floor. With a very faint flush on her lightly tanned cheeks, she moves her gaze between the two of us. She hands the notebook back to me with an awkward smile.

"'Ma is right. I'm sorry for getting so close. Could we... talk about this a little more first, Mister..."

"Alastair. Just Alastair." I receive the item and smile kindly.

She nods politely and Ria walks around me.

"Alright. Let's move to your workshop to not disturb your grandma any longer. Unless you would like to oversee the negotiations, Muriel?"

"Like I care what she gets herself into. She's an adult and makes her own decisions. Maybe one of them will finally get her out of my attic." The woman snorts.

I can see that she does care about her granddaughter at least to some extent and is just putting up a strong front. Or perhaps that's how her personality is, a quite rude aged tsundere. From what Ria has implied and she has just confirmed, I think she and Marianna don't go too well together, though. I can imagine how Muriel could be annoyed by the very energetic tomboy, not that I would mind.

No one says anything after that and Marianna lifts part of the counter to let us in. She leads our quartet up a narrow staircase and we enter what truly looks like an attic, just like Muriel said.

The room we walk into is decently spacious. The floor is made of simple boards and both the walls and the ceiling show naked wooden beams making up the building's structure. The latter is angled upwards as it serves as the roof too. Only two small windows shine some light inside, one on each side of the ceiling.

Countless heaps of materials, fabrics, cottons and other cloths litter the ground. The space is filled with many manual machines and tables or desks meant for such work too. If not for the raised roof, it could clearly get quite claustrophobic here. I spot a mattress in one of the corners, buried under more linens, most likely Marianna's bed whenever it doesn't serve as storage.

The tomboyish girl jogs to the nearby table and shoves everything present on its surface to the ground. She drags it closer to the middle of the chamber and digs out two chairs from under all the pieces of clothing, setting them down for us to sit on. Her eyes scan the room for more but if there are any, they are buried deep in this chaotic archaeological site.

I open my mouth to offer her my own since I don't mind standing but she sprints to the side and grabs a sizable laced bin, emptying its contents somewhere random, and brings it back to the table, putting it upside down to use it as her impromptu stool.

After seating herself on it with a toothy smile, her eyes widen all of a sudden.

"Ah, shit. I don't have anything for... ummm..."

"Slimes!" Emi reveals their identity with an equally bright smile.

"And we don't need any chairs, thank you. We would like to stay behind our master if you don't mind," Safi adds with her iconic, ladylike expression.