ALL NOVEL Chapter 222.1
Next day. After the morning meal, Father abruptly told me that I could take the day off. Later, Mother also informed me that she had something to do today. Apparently, they planned to give me and Lily a free day to spend.
Since they have made such arrangements, I decided to invite Lily to go out with me after arranging for a security escort and whatnot.
Neurath and Schunzel would be the main escort, but they would guard us from a distance. There were also a few other people with them, but I guess they were just following protocols. After all, we would not be using a carriage.
Today Lily was dressed like a wealthy merchant’s daughter or an aristocrat’s daughter. As usual, she was about to be turned into a dress-up doll, so I quickly rescued her to save time.
For some reason, in this world, there was a custom in some areas where girls wear something similar to a Dirndl that could be found in my previous life. The position of the ribbon on it changes its meaning.
[T/N: You can read about Dirndl HERE.]
The position of the ribbon on Lily’s apron today was on the left side, which meant “I have a lover or a husband”. If it were in the middle, it would mean “No offers,” and if it were on the right, it would have meant “I don’t have a boyfriend or a husband, I’m free”.
Lily’s ring finger was wrapped with a thin ribbon with a gold thread pattern on a white background, which her maid of honor had prepared for her. It was a substitute for a real ring.
This was a remnant from the days when robbers would cut off people’s fingers to steal their rings. To combat this, women started to use a ribbon instead of a real ring whenever they went out.
I was happy and embarrassed that she was wearing yesterday’s necklace so well.“Is it okay if we focus on the area where we didn’t go last time?” (Welner)
“Yes.” (Lily)
For the start, we headed for a place where many middle-class citizens would go.
Many of the streets in the royal capital have official names, such as the names of recently established aristocratic families, but there were also many streets that have long been known by common names, such as Ginza, a place in prehistoric Japan where silver coin mints and money changers were lined up side by side. A corner lined with stores selling wine would be called Wine Street, and a corner lined with stores selling medicinal herbs would be called Medicine Street, and so on. It was understandable that they did not want to remember the long names of the aristocrats.
“Hey, young couple, we’ve got a good bottle of wine for you today!” (???)
“Thank you, but it’s too early in the morning” (Welner)
Lily was blushing a little at the mention of a young couple, but I didn’t want to embarrass her, so I let that part slide.
“I guess touts like that belong to the Touts Guild, too.”
“Is there such a profession?”
“It’s pretty important.”
The Touts Guild accepted touts after checking their skills, knowledge and trustworthiness. In a way, touts also served as connoisseurs, so if a store were recommended by trusted touts, the goods store sell would be considered safe and of a good quality. If a store was not connected to a Touts Guild, one might even suspect that there might be a product adulteration.
It was a kind of brand commercial in the medieval world.
“In more upscale areas like Goldsmith’s Street, there are usually no touts around. In those places, stores don’t have touts because they mostly deal in large amounts with noble families and rely more on word of mouth.” (Welner)
“Are they all from the same guild?” (Lily)
“I think that’s the most common pattern.” (Welner)
Guilds could be a collection of industries under one name, but the inner workings were complicated. On the one hand, they were mutual aid organizations, and at the same time, they were designed to prevent competition by standardizing prices to a certain extent, so quality control was strictly enforced.
For example, candles. To sell it, one would need to know the commonly used wick, material used to make the candle, length, and thickness of candles that could be purchased from a candle maker’s guild member store and this information was strictly regulated. If someone sold a candle that was too short or too thin, the seller must pay a fine to the guild in addition to compensations.
Repeatedly selling candles that were too short or too thin would result in expulsion from the guild and loss of access to raw materials, forcing the seller to go out of business or move to another area.
Guilds themselves were also highly localized, so it was difficult to make a blanket statement, just as in previous lives. For example, in a relatively rural town, a woodworking guild may have both furniture makers and harness makers, but in a place like the royal capital, where harnesses were used for many purposes, the harness makers’ guild was independent. In fact, there was even an independent saddler’s guild specializing in saddlery.
In a village, there would not be any guilds at all, but rather independent shops of all kinds.
When it came to the Adventurers’ Guild in this world, if a request failed, the guild would often pay the client that submitted a request a fine. After all, in most cases, the adventurers who have failed did not make it back alive. In that way, it made sense why the services of the Adventurers’ Guild became too expensive.