Jill, after her first successful plant dyeing, progressively advanced her technical skills.
She harvested various plants from the forest to create different dyes.
She dyed cotton and linen fabrics.
She dyed not just fabrics, but also directly dyed dresses, tunics, skirts, and robes.
She tried everything she could possibly do.
Then she also challenged herself with the technique called “shibori.”
“Shibori” is a method of creating patterns by dividing the parts that will be dyed from the parts that will deliberately not be dyed. This involves tying a part of the fabric to prevent it from touching the dye solution, or dipping only a part of it into the dye solution. There are various ways to do it.
Of course, the concept of shibori exists in the Dailan Magic Kingdom and countries across the continent. As a dyeing technique, it is quite simple and fundamental.
However, the techniques described in one of the books of Acacia were much deeper in terms of the patterns created and the depth of technique.
“It’s done! It’s done!”
Jill, wearing the dress she made and a stole wrapped around her neck, twirled in front of the study’s mirror. Overwhelmed by the unexpected outcome, she opened the window and shouted with joy. Her voice echoed through the forest. It was that loud.
If children exploring the forest mistook it for a monster or something, it wouldn’t be surprising.
“This is beyond expectations…!”
What Jill made was a dip-dye dress.
Dip-dye refers to expressing a gradient with dyeing. For example, leaving the top half undyed and white, dyeing the bottom half blue, and dyeing the middle part a light blue. When dyeing with natural dyes by oneself, it is difficult to create clear, straight boundaries, so even adding two or three intermediate colors can result in a sufficiently natural finish.
Here, Jill used the magic of [Liquid Manipulation] to express a more complex and natural gradient. The theme Jill set was “sky.” A diagonal color boundary ran from the left side to the right shoulder. The upper part was undyed white. The lower part was a bright and vivid blue, achieved using indigo leaves.
Indigo, in other words.
The raw material used in traditional indigo dyeing is indigo leaves. It has been used in kimonos and small items, and some craftsmen favor indigo-dyed work clothes as practical items.
However, what Jill applied to the dress was not traditional indigo dyeing. It was a method called dried leaf dyeing.
Indigo dyeing requires fermenting indigo leaves for several months to create the dye. However, there are also methods like fresh leaf dyeing, which uses freshly picked leaves without any processing, and dried leaf dyeing, which uses dried leaves. Care is needed to make the dye solution alkaline using substances like slaked lime, but Jill had some knowledge of handling chemicals and faced no problems.
The dried leaf dyeing applied to the dress did not produce the depth and darkness of traditional indigo dyeing, but it resulted in a bright and refreshing blue.
“The dress is perfect. The stole is also lovely.”
The stole, on the other hand, was finished with a lighter texture using fresh leaf dyeing.
Additionally, she drew patterns using a technique called “yukishibori.”
She folded the fabric and dyed only the edges, a type of itajime shibori.
When opened from its folded state, the pattern looked like evenly spaced snowflakes or flowers.
However, Jill didn’t intend for it to be snow or flowers.
Within the even lighter sky blue of the stole, pure white shapes were arranged.
They were dyed with the image of sunlight in mind.
As it turned out exactly as she envisioned, Jill felt like she could burst out with excitement at any moment.
“Lady Jill. An alert has been triggered in the security system.”
“Eek!?”
Just as she was about to let out her excitement, the Acacia Book spoke.
Moreover, it resonated directly in Jill’s mind rather than through sound.
“Se-Security? What is that?”
“In other words, an intruder has appeared in the forest.”
In addition to transforming into various books, the Acacia Book had a very convenient feature. It could immediately inform Jill about the situation in the mansion and the surrounding forest.
A map of the forest would appear on the pages of the Acacia Book, showing the location of various creatures and plants. This feature had allowed Jill to gather plants like indigo leaves for dyeing.
However, when Jill asked about this feature, the Acacia Book would recite a mysterious spell, “Support is unavailable for programs installed from an unknown source. Please contact the distributor in case of trouble,” and that would be the end of it.
“A-a thief?”
“Unknown.”
“Uh…umm…”
“I can have them attacked by monsters if you wish.”
“No, no, no, let’s not suddenly set monsters on them. Who has come?”
“I will display the footage.”
The Acacia Book emitted light, and its pages turned into a display screen, showing footage.
“Children?”
“Yes. They appear to be human children.”
Five children were walking around, making a commotion.
They were too adorable to be called thieves or robbers.
Jill guessed that the black-haired girl leading the group was probably the ringleader.
“…Sigh. They just wandered in here on their own. This place is technically separate from the town… Well, it’s probably forgotten. I didn’t even know this place existed until recently.”
Jill hesitated.
She guessed that the children had sneaked in as a dare or something. When Jill was being raised by Conrad, she was a lively mischief-maker herself. She even felt a sense of empathy for these kinds of children. She didn’t feel any anger.
However, children shouldn’t be wandering in a forest where monsters roamed. Forgotten as it may be, both the forest and the mansion were Jill’s domain. The children’s act of leaving their territory without permission and sneaking into another was an undeniable crime.
“But if I handle this strictly and report it to the town, the punishment will be severe… That would be pitiful too… Hmmm.”
Jill pondered for a moment but quickly reached a conclusion.
“Let’s give them a little scare.”
โ
Jill couldn’t use powerful magic.
She had been reprimanded and underestimated for this. Jill wasn’t content with this. While training to use large-scale magic, she also explored effective ways to use smaller magic.
“ใDense Fogใ”
This spell simultaneously activated three types of magic: ใWater Generationใ, ใHeatingใ, and ใGentle Breezeใ.
It instantly evaporated the created water and spread it throughout the area.
In the forest, it would create the illusion of sudden fog.
“ใIlluminationใ”
This was a failed version of ใScorching Lightใ.
ใScorching Lightใ was a spell that focused light into a beam, concentrating heat at a single point to burn through anything. However, if control was lost, it would produce only a blurry white light with no power. It would merely illuminate the surroundings.
But Jill thought, “This can be useful as a torch,” and decided to use it that way. She combined it with ใDense Fogใ this time.
As a result, her shadow was magnificently projected in the fog.
Smirking, thinking the children must be frightened, Jill decided to scare them further.
“Who dares to disturb this forest?!”
She believed that scaring them now would ensure the children wouldn’t enter the forest again. Jill decided to play the part of the ghost the children imagined. Even from a distance, the children were already frightened, so she thought her clumsy scare would work.
“Huh?”
However, Jill had slightly misunderstood.
Jill’s magical intimidation far exceeded the level of a “clumsy scare.”
At least, in terms of instilling fear in the children, it was undeniably effective.
As proof, one girl had fainted and was lying on the ground.
“…I’ve done it now.”
She couldn’t just leave her there.
Whether the other children had forgotten about her or abandoned her was unclear, but they had already left.
Feeling guilty, Jill decided to take care of the unconscious girl.
