Renewal Of Contracts and Relationships

“Benno, Liz, you two go to the back of the store. Mark, take them there.”

“Understood, Master.”

Benno and I had gotten into a rather heated argument about the correct way to display merchandise in the store, and so the Master ordered the two of us to organize the storeroom. I couldn’t help but think how much more fun it was to deal with customers, but since the two of us had raised our voices in the middle of the store, it was only natural that we got sent away.

Sure, we deserved it! But it’s Benno’s fault for saying something unnecessary to begin with…

I glared at Benno while I silently complained about him in my head. Benno was also looking down at me with dissatisfaction written clearly on his face.

“Ugh, if it wasn’t for you nitpicking everything I do, Liz, we wouldn’t have been sent to the back.”

“Hey, don’t try to pin this on me. Besides, you were the one who—”

“Both of you, please keep your voices down so that you are not heard by people in the store.”

Mark gave us a warning with a menace-filled smile, and Benno and I kept our mouths shut as we entered the storeroom.

For a while, the two of us just organized the storeroom without saying anything. The season was about to come to an end, and the merchandise that would be displayed in the store once the new season started had already been delivered. So we had to inventory the shipment, one by one.

A new season, huh?

I unintentionally let out a sigh. Come spring, I would turn thirteen. The year where I would have to renew my lehange contract had arrived. I wasn’t able to decide if I should renew it with the Gilberta Company or not.

“What’s the matter, Liz? You don’t look so happy.”

“I’m just debating what I should do about my contract once I turn thirteen. It’s got nothing to do with you, Benno.”

I waved my hand at Benno to shoo him away. Benno is an apprentice leherl at the Gilberta company. That said, he would soon come of age and stop being an apprentice.

While I was still struggling to make up my mind about my contract, Benno had a much better time, since his father was bringing him along to his business meetings more frequently as of late. It had already been decided that Milda would take over as the owner of the Gilberta company, and that Benno would be supporting her behind the scenes as she prioritized her sewing. Unlike me, he had no reason to be worried about his future, which made me really jealous.

“What’s there to worry about? Are you being forced to become an apprentice seamstress again?”

“Of course not.”

I had always wanted to be a merchant, but my father kept saying, “It’s the duty of a daughter to enter into a marriage that will be advantageous to our store. For that, your first priority should be to become a sewing beauty,” and forced me to become an apprentice seamstress right after my baptism. However, when I learned that Milda, who was working with me as an apprentice seamstress, was the heiress to the Gilberta Company, I went to great lengths to negotiate for a position as an apprentice merchant with her family’s company. I had no intention of going back to being an apprentice seamstress.

“Being a merchant is so much fun. There’s no doubt that this suits me much more than being an apprentice seamstress.”

“Then what’s the problem? Ah, do you want to join your own family’s store instead of ours?”

Benno, who was on good terms with his own family, naturally thought that I wanted to work at my family’s textile store.

Unfortunately, he was wrong. I’ve never considered working for my family’s store. In the first place, I would never be allowed to work as a merchant there. As my father kept saying, I would surely be married off to someone as a way to benefit the store.

“That’s not it. It’s just that I need to also think about who I’m going to marry in order to decide on where I’ll work.”

“Marry?!”

Benno’s red eyes widened in surprise, and he looked at me as if I had said something utterly unexpected. He eyed me from head to toe, and his expression changed to one of suspicion.

Look, I know, okay? ‘Marriage’ isn’t something that suits me.

“For women to get married at an appropriate age, it’s extremely important for them to consider their upcoming contract renewal! That’s what Milda says, at least.”

“Oh, so you heard that from Milda.”

Benno’s shoulders drooped as if he were exhausted, and I unintentionally let out a bitter smile.

“I never thought about marriage until Milda mentioned it. So I can see why you’d be surprised, Benno, since I also think it’s far too soon for me… But I’ve never once considered becoming a leherl at my family’s store so I can support my older brother. And I don’t want to be married off to someone for the sake of my family either…”

When I said that to Milda, she told me, “In that case, you should carefully think about what you’re going to do when your contract renewal comes up when you turn thirteen.” A woman is only considered to be of marriageable age from when she comes of age until she turns twenty. If a woman wants to find a husband by the time she comes of age, her place of work for the three years between the ages of thirteen and sixteen plays a crucial role in meeting the right person. It would be easy to renew my lehange contract at the Gilberta Company, but if I did that, I’d find it hard to meet any suitable leherls from other stores and find a marriage partner by the time I came of age.

“I’ll just marry some random leherl and lead a life that’s involved with sales one way or another.”

Benno scrunched up his face as he said, “Some random leherl? That’s quite the plan.”

I refuse to take this from him, not when my future as a merchant is on the line, and not when he already has a spot as an apprentice leherl at the Gilberta Company and is guaranteed to be a merchant for the rest of his life.

“Oh, give me a break. Men can get married even after twenty, so you can afford not to think about marriage for a while. But for women, things get really annoying for them if they’re not married by the age of twenty. And if I don’t find a partner by the time I come of age, my father will make that decision for me.”

I carefully folded the merchandise that I had finished inspecting and returned it to its box. Benno let out a sigh, roughly scratched his head, and suddenly grabbed the box that I had just finished packing.

“Well… You should just renew your contract here, then.”

“Here…? You make it sound so easy. Of course, I’d love to keep working at the Gilberta Company if I could, but if I don’t find a leherl to marry, then there’d be no point.”

I looked at Benno, who was facing away from me, and asked him if he had even listened to what I had said. Benno didn’t turn around, even after he finished putting the box back on its shelf, and once again repeated, “Yes, just keep working here.”

Huh?

It was then that I realized that Benno wasn’t just replying to me half-heartedly, but was seriously trying to keep me from leaving the store. I walked closer to Benno, who was still standing by the shelves, and quickly moved in front of him to see his face.

”…You realize what you’re saying, right?”

I asked him if he understood the significance of an apprentice leherl of the Gilberta Company trying to keep me from leaving when I just told him that I was considering leaving the store to find a leherl to marry.

Can I really take this to mean that he considers me, a rival whom he constantly gets into arguments with, as a potential marriage candidate?

I kept looking at Benno without giving voice to my thoughts. I didn’t want to renew my contract because of a misunderstanding, and I also wanted a clear answer from him.

”…I guess.”

Our eyes met, and Benno answered in a low voice. His face got redder the more I looked at it. He was trying his hardest to keep a straight face, but he utterly failed and ended up frowning at me with his face a brilliant shade of red.

It was incredibly rare to see Benno looking so bashful, and so I wasn’t able to keep the corners of my mouth from curling up into a smile.

“Uh huh… Guess I’ll do just that, then.”

“Mm.”

And that was the day Benno went from being my rival to being my boyfriend.