In her room, Gloria flipped through the sketchbook left by the dressmaker.
It contained the designs for the dress she would wear at the tea party where the Crown Prince's fiancée would be chosen, to be held in about six months.
The children's afternoon dresses were designed around themes of purity and cuteness, but most of them were overdone with frills and embroidery, to the point that they seemed suffocating.
In her previous life, Gloria had carefully thought out the design and quickly secured one of the best dressmakers in the capital to create it.
But now, as long as it had the dignity of a Duke's family, she didn't care about the frills.
The reason Gloria was so engrossed in the sketchbook, though, was because she knew that one of the designs was for the dress that the Saintess Melody had worn in her previous life.
And she also knew that it was Cindy, her father's mistress, who had embroidered the dress.
That's why, in this life, she had changed the shop.
With the selection of the Crown Prince's fiancée, all the noble families with daughters of the appropriate age were putting great effort into their dresses.
Since they had to make dresses for the chaperones as well, the capital was experiencing a shortage of seamstresses.
In her previous life, the shop that had been asked by the church to make the Saintess's dress was also struggling to meet the demand due to the shortage.
In desperation, the shop had asked Cindy, who had already retired after becoming her father's second wife, to help. She was an excellent embroiderer.
When she had been worn out by the bullying from her stepdaughter, Cindy had been unexpectedly cheered up by a girl who later became the Saintess. She happily took on the embroidery for Melody's dress.
"That was the story, wasn't it?"
Gloria asked, staring at the full-length mirror from the sofa.
Kate had stepped out to prepare tea, leaving the room empty with only Gloria.
(How do you know that?!)
A-ko, pouting in her mind, was about to reveal an exclusive piece of information when Gloria opened the page with the design of the Saintess's dress.
It was a pale pink dress with flower embroidery running from the right shoulder down to the hem of the skirt.
A-ko immediately recognized it. "This is it!"
When it came to information about the Saintess, A-ko's knowledge from the otome game was incredibly detailed.
Her earlier comments about the connection between Kate and the Saintess were fascinating. As a result, Gloria, holding the reins, had subtly extracted more and more information about the otome game's world from A-ko without her noticing.
Before, Gloria hadn't cared about gathering other people's information. If someone got in her way, she simply eliminated them, regardless of whether she knew them or not.
But after Kate had used information about her to outmaneuver Gloria, she realized the dangers of "not knowing" and the usefulness of "knowing."
"I had the list of seamstresses who would make my dress submitted to the owner," Gloria said.
The seamstresses were probably working at a frantic pace right now.
Amidst all this, Gloria had insisted, "We need three dresses with different atmospheres, in case the Crown Prince has specific tastes."
She had also requested extra rewards for the seamstresses, asking for a document listing their names, characteristics, and their dress-making duties.
(What are you doing?)
A-ko hesitantly asked.
The list was to confirm whether Cindy worked at the shop.
In her previous life, Cindy had worked there until she became her father's second wife.
Gloria had assumed she was still working there in this life, and upon checking, she found Cindy's name on the list.
A single mother with a nine-year-old son, her hair and eyes matched the description from her previous life.
Gloria was using A-ko's information for this.
As for the old sewing box she had taken when she gave Kate and her mother furniture and household items after their move...
(What are you planning to do?)
It was clear. Gloria traced her finger over the embroidered section of the design.
"The work of a noble is to order the dress. The work of a seamstress is to make it."
It was as simple as that. Both Gloria and Cindy had their jobs to do.