Chapter 77 (1/2)

"But there won't be enough dresses for you."

"The dresses I have looked at will be so uncomfortable for Elise."

"If we mend them well…"

"Elise is thin, but she is taller than me. Of course she would be able to wear them, but it wouldn't look good."

Ann moaned. Her mistress was just too kind. However, Ann didn't want the money for Rubica to be spent on a lady-in-waiting. Rubica had looked so beautiful in that dress made by Khanna. Dresses made for her were much better than the mended ones that had been made for the duke's grandmother. She had just become the duchess, so she had to beat the noblewomen in the neighborhood with her dresses.

'… there are good things with planning the budget with Ann, but this is a problem.'

Rubica had been thinking completely different thoughts while looking at the same books. If she had been planning the budget alone, she could have spent as much as she wanted. The housekeeper would have no choice if the mistress said that management of money was her duty and her duty alone. But now, Rubica couldn't plan the budget without Ann's help. Helping with the management of the abbey and running a noble household had many similarities, but there were many differences as well. Preparation for the upcoming summer, things needed for the festival, goods to be distributed to servants and relatives. Rubica didn't know the details about them and, as the needed quantity was much bigger than her imagination, it was rather impossible to guess the appropriate amount.

"Isn't there anything we can decrease?"

Rubica decided to take a step back. She couldn't assign the budget as she wanted while Ann was watching. It would be better to take a step back for now and spend later when she had the opportunity.

"There are many things to spend money on, right? I'm sorry that I cannot satisfy you."

"No, it's enough already."

Actually, Rubica was already spending many times what normal noble mistresses spent. It was just that she needed many things, including dresses, as she had come with nothing, unlike other noble wives.

"Hmm…"

Rubica decided to hold on for now, so she could take part in even bigger extravagances later. She put down the document on last year's budget and started to study this year's budget.

Ann was thorough and had been recording all the needed information.

'I definitely have spent a lot of money on Lord Sesar.'

Almost two-thirds of the entire budget was being spent on gardening. Rubica didn't regret her decision to invest on Sesar and his roses, but she thought she should not have spent that much. She was about to move on to the next page, but then she stopped.

'No, the total expense is many times what I paid Lord Sesar.'

Decorating the garden cost that much? Rubica took a walk in the garden every afternoon. She hadn't looked around every part of it, but it seemed unlikely that maintaining the garden cost as much as Sesar's work. There wasn't any greenhouse, and there weren't many strange or rare plants. There were just plenty of mazes and roads with trees that required nothing more than water and fertilizer at the right time. What on earth was costing this much of money? Rubica wondered if the gardener was embezzling money.

'But he can't possibly get much by lying about the prices of the fertilizer and saplings…'

She had met the gardener a few times while she was taking strolls, and he seemed someone very nice. He sometimes made mistakes too, so he was the type of person who would find things that required much thinking like embezzling too troublesome.

Rubica's eyes slowly followed the list and were fixed on one line.

'… mana quartz!'

The garden of Claymore had flowers and trees that were common in the Seritos Kingdom. However, there was one thing that they spent a huge sum of money on, and that was mana quartz.

"Ann, what is this?"

"Oh, one mana quartz sculpture loses its light every year. We start finding mana quartz in March and the sculptor starts to work in June. Then, the finished sculpture is installed in October. One of the sculptures has just lost its lights… we must quickly get mana quartz to replace it."