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The Sky Salon didn’t tend to get many visitors. The most obvious reason was that it was so far out of the way, but aside from that, it didn’t open its doors to just anyone. Some salons were more like social meeting places, where friends of the members came to visit every day, but the Sky Salon was more exclusive. This was due to Lady Kagura’s general approach of only having people around in whom she had a vested interest.
Now, though, the Sky Salon was positively bustling. Far more people had entered than I’d ever seen there before. The other members, who had been waiting there, looked pretty shocked. Even Lady Saeko had a strained, awkward smile.
Lady Asuka had come here before because of the Salon Struggle, but Lady Erisu was gazing around with wonder, suggesting it was her first time. I suspected it was Lady Shion’s first visit as well, but she remained subdued.
If there was one visitor who made it very clear she’d never been here before, it was Lady Rosalie. Squealing with excitement, she clutched Marie’s arm and looked ready to dash off into the room. Marie’s strenuous efforts to hold her back were all that kept her in place.
“You’re all welcome to look around,” Lady Kagura announced, “but I ask you to please stay away from the members’ personal spots around the outside.” Even she couldn’t keep from looking a tiny bit overwhelmed. “Sakura, please come with me. I’ll give you a tour, then I’ll take you to my own space and talk to you a little about myself and the salon, if that’s okay.”
“Sounds lovely.”
“Could the other members please see to our guests?”
She began to show Lady Sakura around, leaving the rest of us to attend to the unusually large number of visitors while trying not to lose our heads.
Their discussion lasted about thirty minutes. Most likely, Lady Kagura had told her in great detail about the company she was planning to set up. When the two of them came out of her private zone, they both had serious expressions. If I had to guess, she managed to make an impact.
Lady Saeko came over to us and sighed. “Things seem to have gone swimmingly for Kagura, but out here it’s been chaos.”
Whimpering, I replied, “Yeah, it has.”
The salon was usually so relaxed and easygoing. Even when we had visitors, there was never more than one or two at a time, and it was always clear who should be serving them.
Today, however, we hadn’t even known how many would be coming—and it had turned out to be a lot. There weren’t enough Seraphs to cover them all, not to mention that three of them were the leaders of other salons, who of course required a special level of attention.
Since Lady Kagura and her three Seraphs had all remained with Lady Sakura and Sara, Lady Saeko had taken charge of everyone else. Sadly, there was no denying that we’d provided shoddy service that in no way lived up to the Sky Salon’s impeccable reputation. Insufficient manpower and preparation had collided into a pretty embarrassing display for the other salon leaders.
“I know what you need. More training. Starting tomorrow.”
“Yes,” I replied sadly. What else could I say? I’d always been kind of lax on that front, so I couldn’t exactly deny it.
“Matsuri!” Lady Saeko called. “Over here, please.”
“Yes, milady!”
Trembling even harder than usual, Matsuri kneeled at her mistress’s feet, huddling up as if she wanted to disappear.
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“You were paying attention, weren’t you? You know what went wrong.”
“Yes, milady.”
“I want you to put together a list of possible improvements and have it ready by tomorrow.”
“Certainly, milady!”
From what I could tell, Matsuri had been the only one to actually do a decent job in all the pandemonium, but Lady Saeko was glaring at her anyway.
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Next was the Paradise Palace, the salon with the cutesy fairy-tale vibe. It was also famed for its strict membership requirement: all ladies who joined the salon had to be four foot nine or shorter. All the furniture and decorations looked like, to put it bluntly, things from a kids’ playroom. Visiting it almost made me feel like I’d gone back to my childhood.
The place itself wasn’t that big either, and you could basically see it all from the doorway, so no one started rushing around to get a better look.
Almost no one.
Shrieking, Rosalie exclaimed, “How cute! Look, Marie! Where do you think they sell such adorable furniture? I want some just like it for our salon! Maybe it’s all made to order? It doesn’t look like a standard size. I’ve heard people talk about this place, but seeing it for myself is amazing. Fully committing to a concept really is important, isn’t it? I’ll have to get over my embarrassment and be comfortable wearing a formal dress in front of visitors.”
Her cheeks were bright crimson. She’d clearly taken a liking to the Paradise Palace.
“Yes, milady, I understand, so can you please calm down?”
Considering that Marie had told me her mistress was always criticizing her, the shoe was really on the other foot now. If Marie was the one having to calm her down, that was a testament to how euphoric she was.
The discussion here was shorter than the one at the Sky Salon. There was nothing business-related to talk about, as there had been in Lady Kagura’s case, so there probably wasn’t much more to cover than how the salon worked. This salon also didn’t really have private areas the way ours did, so the talking took place where everyone could see—allowing me to get a rough impression of how it went. My impression was that they got along very well. I wondered if they were bonding over their similar stature. Either way, it was clear that the ice was broken. If not for Mei standing behind them getting ridiculously excited, this would have been the picture-perfect salon scenario. You could have printed it in a pamphlet.