The Speedrun Manual of Miss Witch-Chapter 133 - Tara, the "Fanatical Die-Hard Fan" (2/2)

After four flashes, Ciel’s Fate Points dropped from 180 to 174, and descriptions for two new skills appeared before her.

【Drawing Lv.2: Moderately increases your talent for drawing, making it easier for you to learn various drawing techniques. With some effort, you can become an excellent master painter】

【Tailoring Lv.2: Moderately increases your talent for tailoring, making it easier for you to learn various sewing techniques. With some effort, you can become an excellent master tailor】

Raising these skills to Lv.3 might yield special abilities like 【Linguistics】’s “photographic memory,” but Ciel didn’t directly max them out.

Because Lv.2 was already sufficient. Leveling both to Lv.3 would cost another 6 Fate Points.

Although Ciel had quite a few Fate Points now, she couldn’t waste them like this. The last simulation didn’t generate income, so in reality, she had to economize.

Ciel took out a flat piece of letter paper, scribbled and drew a bit on the nearby notebook, felt the handling was about right, then directly started drawing on the letter paper with the dip pen.

At this moment, Ciel still had 0 foundation in drawing and tailoring, but unlike before, she gained extremely high talent.

Coupled with her already strong control over body muscles, soon, the prototype of a dress gradually took shape under her pen.

Ciel didn’t control the brushstrokes; the pen tip force almost penetrated the paper. She still used a large number of simple geometric shapes, but the aesthetic appeal was much better than the previous abstract drawings.

In less than 15 minutes, a technically proficient front and back design drawing of the garment appeared on the letter paper before Ciel.

Seeing no errors in the details, Ciel directly took out another piece of letter paper. After waiting for the ink on the original paper to dry slightly, she overlaid the new letter paper on top.

Through the thin new letter paper, a faint projection of the image underneath emerged, like covering it with a mask layer.

She clearly hadn’t learned drawing, yet these small techniques seemed self-taught. Just a flash of inspiration, and they appeared in Ciel’s mind.

Ciel took out a pencil, began tracing the projection underneath, shaping details on the new letter paper—this time Ciel spent a full half hour.

This was the fastest way to improve Ciel’s drawing skills in a short time.

Following the mask underneath and the impression of the drawing in her mind, Ciel almost replicated the design sketch 1:1 on the new letter paper.

After stopping the pen, Ciel picked up this letter paper and nodded with satisfaction.

The current Ciel was no longer a drawing novice. Although the drawing produced had a strong technical flavor, lacking spirit and technique, it was sufficient for people to clearly see what was drawn.

Folding the letter paper neatly, placing it in a new envelope, Ciel took the envelope and walked towards the old tailor’s home she saw in the simulation.

She didn’t need to wait for Avena’s reply. Mentioning the tailor in the letter to Avena was mainly to allow the tailor to seek Avena’s help if lacking decorative materials.

Consider it a small reward for helping Avena find the “material” for the Reconstitution Ritual.

Ciel took the envelope and some cash Su pounds, went out, directly hailed a carriage, and had the coachman drive to the old tailor’s home near the gem processing factory.

Have to say, her simulated self was really generous... Thinking about customizing a dress costing the price of a house in Ansu, Ciel felt a pang of heartache.

Of course, her simulated self didn’t need to worry about money, so giving all the money was fine, as long as the item was correct.

But the real Ciel had the option of haggling. Even for royal-level formal wear, 150 pounds was the absolute maximum. So Ciel’s psychological price range was between 50-150 pounds.

After knocking on the old tailor’s door, Ciel mentioned she was introduced by Avena and handed over the design sketch.

The moment she saw the design sketch, the old tailor’s eyes lit up instantly. Many rare designs within made even her, a tailor for most of her life, marvel.

After learning this design sketch was drawn by Ciel, the old tailor’s face first showed surprise, then she let out a faint sigh.

She could naturally see the young lady before her possessed extremely strong talent in drawing and design, but unfortunately... the other party was likely a noble young lady.

Most noble young ladies she contacted, at most, were only interested in knitting wool. Making them learn tailoring was fundamentally impossible.

Sighing, just lamenting such talent appeared in someone who didn’t need it at all.

“Your drawing talent is truly excellent, miss,” the old tailor looked at Ciel and sighed, “Perhaps you should continue honing your skills in drawing; maybe you’ll become a great artist.”

“Thank you,” Ciel smiled and shook her head, saying, “If I fail the law exam, maybe I’ll consider trying again with drawing.”

Ciel finally offered 100 pounds for the old tailor to customize this dress. The old tailor, after hesitating slightly, perhaps wanting to befriend Ciel, agreed, but the timeframe was within 3 months.

This point was also recorded in the notebook; Ciel knew how to handle it.

Just add money.

After Ciel raised the price to 150 pounds in one go, the old tailor finally agreed to rush out this dress within six days—of course, provided Avena would help find those rare, custom-needed accessories.

After paying a 50-pound deposit, Ciel left the old tailor’s home.

Her simulated self directly threw out 600 Su pounds to customize this dress. Now she only spent 150 Su pounds, feeling like she got a huge bargain.

However, from the old tailor’s mouth, Ciel learned some widely known things about Avena.

Turns out the largest jewelry processing factory in the Gem District was under Avena’s name. Besides this factory, Avena also held several mines near Berren City—gold mines, gem mines, coal mines, everything.

Truly has mines at home.

After settling matters with the tailor, Ciel returned to her residence and also saw Avena’s reply letter.

Unsurprisingly, Avena mentioned the tailor’s address in the reply letter, identical to the record in the notebook from the simulation.

It was now three in the afternoon. Still some time until Tara arrived in Berren City early tomorrow morning.

There would likely be two more misfortunes in between, one around 6:30 PM—this should be the time Oppold and Lucy met at the banquet—this misfortune likely required activating save file transformation to avoid; she needed to prepare in advance.

Early morning, more than ten hours later, would also be Ciel’s first contact with Tara in reality.

Time was ample now; she had enough time to formulate a plan... And time had always been on Ciel’s side.