Thanks to Sir Gino’s tireless efforts, the territory quickly became stable. Our policy to reduce the land’s custom of kickbacks to the government was a great success, and the burden on the common person was greatly lessened, even though taxes were increased. Because of how rapidly their economy was recovering and how safe the territory had become, people had recently started calling Sir Gino the Grand Duke of Miracles. Heh heh. This makes me so very happy.
When I told Sir Gino about this new nickname, he explained that it was because he was so lucky in winning my heart, but I disagreed. As a saint, I was working all over the new Sevensworth territory, so I had a lot of chances to speak with everyone, and I understood what they meant when they called him the Grand Duke of Miracles.
He’d reduced their financial load and had eliminated uncompensated labor and conscription. He’d also gotten rid of all the government officials who were unethical. Everyone had very high praise for Sir Gino, and the commoners practically viewed him as a saint himself, with how genuinely he considered all the people.
Though I continued my duties as a saint, I also wanted to finish achieving my goal with Lady Ekatarina of reviving the double-sided embroidery technique. Usually it’d be impossible to manage both at the same time, but Sir Gino came up with a solution by setting up teleportation circles between our estate in the royal capital and the first and second palaces of the grand duchy. Thanks to this, I could freely move between these three locations and could continue working with Lady Ekatarina while also not neglecting the people in the new Sevensworth territory.
Not very long after this was implemented, Lady Ekatarina appeared with a contract in which she vowed to never reveal any information about the Artifacts that House Sevensworth possessed. Most likely, it was because she’d deduced that my quick travel was due to an Artifact.
It was good manners not to speak of Artifacts, but Lady Ekatarina didn’t want something as flimsy as an unspoken promise between us, so she had taken the step of writing out a contract to state in no uncertain terms that the secret of our Artifacts was safe. It was her own way of assuring us that she wouldn’t betray us. She was truly a wonderful friend.
Today, I was working with Lady Ekatarina on our double-sided embroidery as usual.
“And with that...we’ve completed it,” Lady Ekatarina said as she finished the final stitch. Her voice shook from the tears welling up in her eyes.
At long, long last, Lady Ekatarina’s dream had come true. We’d successfully been able to recreate the double-sided embroidery.
I couldn’t stop my own tears, thinking back on the entire journey we’d taken over the past two years. Both of us had poured our hearts and souls into this. Every now and then we’d get into disagreements, but by talking frankly about our embroidery opinions, we became able to talk honestly about other things as well and thus increased the depth of our friendship.
I couldn’t help but remember all the times we argued, had fun chats while embroidering, fell asleep next to each other on the sofa from exhaustion, and ate late-night snacks together. All of these were such bright, precious memories; I’d never forget the time we spent together as long as I lived. Through this process, we were finally able to give form to our passion. I was so happy. Before I knew it, Lady Ekatarina had embraced me, tears of joy streaming down her face.
We reported the revival of the double-sided embroidery to the professors at school, who were extremely surprised that we’d been able to replicate the long-lost techniques of a fallen country in the distant past. For this reason, both Lady Ekatarina and I were to be promoted to honorary professors, though the official ceremony would come at a later date. Honorary professor was a position given to masters of a craft qualified to teach classes even though they were focused on other things.
Usually, the position was given to those further along in life. We were still only in our mid-twenties, so it was difficult to believe we’d actually achieved this.
Our professors sent letters to their peers in other countries, telling them about the revival of the double-sided embroidery technique. The response from this could not be understated. Many people wished to come to our country to see it for themselves, but there were too many requests, and as a result, we had to reserve the entire museum for a special viewing event.