"Hello, Queen Mia!" I energetically called out.
My step mother pouted and crossed her arms when she heard me.
"I told you to just call me mom! You don't need to be so formal! Now come give mommy a hug, Arty!" She said with a huge smile on her face.
I was forced to surrender to her as she pulled me into her huge chest. And bounced up and down energetically.
"Alright! Mom! Mom! I'll call you mom! So stop squeezing, I can't breathe!" I tried to escape the grasp of death from within her two mountains.
"Ah! Oopsies! Teehee!" She apologetically said.
"Haaa, It's fine… mom." I still had some misgivings about calling her mom, as it felt disrespectful to my real mom. But alas, I need this right now.
"Why did you come visit Arty? Did you wanna play with Leo?"
"No, actually I came here to see you… mom." I said in a strained voice.
"Me?" She asked as she pointed at herself.
"Yeah, I wanted you to try out this new product my maid made!"
That sounded weird, maid made, huh.
"Sure thing!" She practically jumped for joy.
I allowed her to try out all the products I had except the soap, I knew that they would all be fine as they were probably the exact same thing as what she already uses.
"These are really good! You must have a talented maid!" She honestly praised Luna. Er... Una.
"Are they better than everything else?" I asked with a smile.
"Well… umm... They are very good!" She avoided the question.
She probably didn't want to say either one was good or bad as she didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings.
I politely smiled. "I have one more thing to show you, it is soap."
"I was just about to bathe right now so I'll try it out!" She said as she started stripping in front of me to prepare for a bath.
"Stop! I'll leave first! Don't strip in front of your son!" I screamed out while covering my eyes.
This is why airheads are such a pain! I don't understand why people get so infatuated with someone lacking common sense just because it's 'cute'.
I quickly took my leave and waited in the hallway for her to finish.
After an hour she was done and invited me back in.
"How was it?" I asked curiously as I actually wasn't sure how good it was.
"Good! It felt refreshing."
"Then is it better than other brands?" I asked knowing it probably wasn't.
"Well… I don't know. It's hard to say, there are so many good ones."
"Oh... I see." I pretended to be dejected by her comment.
She quickly tried to improve my mood. "But I really like it!"
I perked up like a dog. "Then will you use it from now on?!"
She started looking slightly troubled. "Umm… I… Y-yeah! Sure!"
It's just too easy sometimes.
"Really? You're the best mom! Una's gonna be so happy!" I said with a huge smile.
She seemed to be in a good mood after my compliment. So I kept pushing.
"Then will you tell your friends about it? I heard you have a tea party later today and in two days."
She seemed slightly troubled.
"W-well, I don't know. You know, the Queen's word has a lot of meaning, it would be like telling them they should do something they might not want to do." She tried to explain.
Of course I know how important her suggestion is. That's why I'm here right now. What better advertising for beauty products and cosmetics than the Queen herself? The most powerful woman in a kingdom would obviously inspire other women to be like her.
I'm sure if I kept pressuring her then she would eventually cave, but I decided to try a more efficient approach.
I acted extremely upset. "Oh… it's okay, I just thought that it would help the people in the kingdom, that's what I really wanted to show you."
She looked crestfallen at my attitude. "W-What do you mean help the kingdom?"
"Una told me that this soap was extremely cheap, so she wanted to sell it to commoners. It would be the first soap they could afford so they would be able to live more clean lives and we could help people! We could prevent disease from spreading and save hundreds of thousands of lives! Maybe even millions! We could also prevent epidemics and pandemics! I thought that we could save lives. But now I understand that I was wrong because you scolded me. …sorry mom, I just wanted to help."
I looked at the floor, feigning depression. Knowing full well in my heart how perfectly this would work. There was no way she could reject the combo of helping the common people, helping her 'son' and not 'scolding' me. I mean she never really scolded me, but if I say it like this it makes it sound like she was scolding me for trying to save lives, two things she would never want to do.
"R-really? Is that really true?" She asked in a hopeful tone. However, she was clearly saddened by my statement as well as she had a dejected look on her face. She was probably trying to figure out how she 'scolded' me.
"It's true." I immediately replied, without missing a beat.
Well, what I said wasn't exactly a lie… It wasn't the full truth but whatever. In reality I just thought that the nobles were idiots for not tapping into the market of commoners more. I mean, 99.9% of the population are commoners. And an untapped market like having soap would be able to make you an insurmountable amount of money if you just lower the markup on the goods you sell so you can sell them cheaper. The whole part about it saving lives was an afterthought to me and Luna. But it technically wasn't a lie.
There was a long paused before she broke into a hearty smile.
"THAT'S AMAZING ARTY!!"
"Eh?"
I mean, I expected it to work, but not this well...
She jumped at me and brought me into another tight hug. I just accepted it.
When she finally let me go I spoke again.
"Ahem, Una said that you didn't need to tell anybody about the soap, because that isn't going to be sold to nobles, she just wanted you to talk about the other products."
The products that we stole from Selena… Teehee!
"Of course, Arty! This is so great! We can help out the people! You're such a kind and lovely boy!" She greatly praised me.
And with that, I've guaranteed the success of my business, funny how easy that was actually. Well, I guess it's only because I have the connections.
Still, this isn't enough, I need to do more to be able to grow it rapidly enough to damage Selena's reputation within the month. I can't just assume that when there is a little pressure she will fold and collapse, especially when her father is heavily involved in the business. Well, I do know the perfect person to talk to next to help me.
Anyway, this is so easy, I wonder why no other nobles have thought to do this. All you have to do is make something popular among the nobles. Which makes it the most trendy and desirable thing to commoners as they worship the ground we walk on. Then just sell a knockoff or separate product under the same brand name the nobles use, and they will be brawling amongst each other for the opportunity to get their hands on it. That's just how popular the nobles were, and how much influence they had. I've heard of the used toothbrushes of nobles selling for ridiculous prices to commoners.
Honestly, it's too easy.