Quoted By:
Most of the morning had been spent by reviewing the (very exhaustive) list of everything you own. You planned on figuring out what your little schemer had been cooking.
"Now what brings you to my quarters, Lord Savant? Tired of playing with your little pets, perhaps?" Ruby teases. The room she had claimed was being stylized by the clankers you'd lent her. You both spoke over some tea.
"Nothing like that, Madam. I'm just here to talk about your ideas."
"Everything is going just as planned. And that that includes you being here." She flashes a smug smile as a clanker refills her cup.
"I'd still like to know about it."
"But that would ruin the surprise~"
You sigh. After some more back and forth she relents.
Her plan was basically a convoluted method to use less ingots for any future projects while keeping the same quality. This was fine, helpful even, but she'd also declared about knowing good ways to sell items in towns and cities by the border of Westphalia and Eastia, and recommended having 'one of the more brutish girls' process the cotton into textiles for more income.
"And how do you know this will work out?"
"Trust me, sir. Once Mel and Bertha and that Cat are done I will be able to point to the best businesses. But now I've been monitoring the situation, waiting for the right moment to act." In other words she was doing fuck all, believing everything would fall into place while everyone else worked.
You're gonna have to keep an eye on her.
"Sir?" Rose asks you. "Might I trouble you in obtaining some books? The lack of selection doesn't look well for a man of your intellect, Lord Savant."
"I'll see what I can do. Anything in specific?"
She asks for some Eastian books, going around the Westphalian ban now that she's here. From there you two talked about many things. You started flexing your modern knowledge in front of her--non steam powered energy and televisions in particular interested her--you eventually got on the subject of Westphalia, and Lord Forthwythe.
"Ah, he was-" Rose begins to recall with a grimace.
"A fat old perverted bastard that likes to harass women, right?" From what little you heard he fits that cliche perfectly.
"... That's correct." She composes herself. "I'm not surprised you've heard, it's always been an open secret. Ufufufu~"
As she continued to talk you proceed to fill in the blanks for her every time a trope came up. From big things like a corrupt Church and nobility, to even her family and everyday life.
In the middle of one of these you see her staring at you, trying to make herself look small.
"So all this time..." She said with an excited waver in her tone.
"Come on" You say. "It's not rocket science." Seriously these thing aren't that hard to figure out. Herta being down here should be proof that something's going on. Wait, did you actually reveal Herta to be the Goddess of Artifice to these girls yet? Rose would've figured it out at least, right?
