Songstress of Schwarzwald: The Secret of Zoe, the Exiled Music Mage

“The tailor shop?”

That must be the place with the scissors and spinning wheel painted on the sign.

Selina is apparently going to have tea and a long chat with the lady from the general goods store. I really wish she’d come with me.

It’s nerve-wracking going into a shop by myself for the first time.

“Haven’t seen your face around here before.”

I hurry to greet her properly. “I’m Zoe, Grandma Selina’s granddaughter.”

I bow my head politely, and the seamstress laughs in surprise.

“I had no idea the forest witch had a granddaughter!”

Well, I didn’t know about that arrangement until this morning either.

“I’m Hanna! I do tailoring and weaving. And sometimes I teach, like this. Come on, you say hello too!”

A red-haired girl beside Hanna also bows her head and says, “I’m Maggie.”

All right, now for the main business.

“Um, I bought this at the other shop, but it has holes in it… and the shopkeeper said I could have your daughter mend it here… so I brought the money.”

I hand over the coins Selina gave me to the seamstress.

Inside the shop, there’s a large table—probably for cutting fabric. Several wooden chairs are arranged around it, and Maggie is sitting in one of them, learning to sew.

Since she has the same red hair, she must be the general store lady’s daughter, right?

“Hmm, with this much money, you could buy a simple sewing kit. I’ll teach you how to sew, so why don’t you mend it yourself? I’m good at teaching.”

What an unexpected suggestion! Though maybe that’s what Selina was aiming for all along.

“The shopkeeper said her daughter learns sewing here, so she could mend it for me…”

Maggie glances at the hole in the pants and shrugs, looking fed up with mending work.

“Shouldn’t you be able to mend something like that yourself?”

“I suppose… Can I really do it though?”

When Hanna and Maggie both say “Of course you can!” in unison, I decide to let them teach me.

I sit in the chair next to Maggie and spread the pants out on the big table.

“You’ll need to put a patch over this hole, but you don’t have any fabric, do you?”

No, my bag only had medicinal herbs in it. I already sold those.

“Oh, I do have some fur, but it’s dirty… That won’t work, right?” The fur I’d been wrapping around my feet as makeshift shoes is covered in dirt.

“Well, dirty is one thing, but fur and leather are hard for beginners to sew anyway. I know—let’s trade that fur for some fabric from these old clothes!”

The tailor shop has new fabric for sale, but there’s also a big basket full of used clothing.

She pulls out one of the more tattered garments from the pile. “They’re pretty worn out, but there are still usable parts.”

When I hand over the fur, she snip-snips through the ragged clothes with her scissors, preparing a piece of fabric larger than the hole in my pants for patching.

“Let me see that shirt too! Ah, just as I thought—the elbows are getting thin. You should patch those as well. Once you get better at it, you can use leather patches that’ll last longer.”

Then Hanna brings out a needle and thread to teach me sewing. 

Fortunately, the girl from my past life who wanted to be an idol had made little ribbons and things, so she knew how to sew. Lucky me!

Even so, since this is my first time sewing, my stitches are completely crooked.

“You need to make your stitches more even,” Maggie scolds me. Though I did somehow manage to patch the pants.

“Come back tomorrow!” Hanna says casually, but I can’t come without Selina, can I?

I don’t answer because I’m not sure, but Selina easily gives her permission, saying “You should go.”

I’m just a little worried about whether I can channel magical power into the Waymark by myself.

Anyway… Maggie! Is she my first friend, maybe?

I’m super looking forward to meeting a girl around my own age again.