Chapter 66, After Gina Disappeared 2 – Part 1

Translator: Lizz

About half a month after Gina disappeared, the workshop fell into complete chaos.

The master asked the workers what they were doing and the deadlines, but as he lacked knowledge, it was difficult to meet them.

Swallowing his pride, he went to the clients, apologized, asked for an extension, gave instructions to the anxious-looking workers, and finally managed to deliver.

The important parts Gina had been in charge of were taken over by the master, but it had been too long, his skills had dulled, and the results were poor.

The clothing shop that received the delivery tried to reject the clothes, but after hearing the master’s excuse of ‘Our best seamstress suddenly fell ill, so we hurriedly had someone substitute’, they frowned but nodded reluctantly.

However, they warned firmly:

“We’ve accepted unreasonable things from you many times before, so we’ll take this one, but make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

The master replied reassuringly:

“By next time, Gina will be found already… No, she’ll return, so don’t worry!”

At that time, they still believed Gina was hiding in the neighboring town and assumed she would be found quickly.

…But no matter how much time passed, she was never found.

Katio, who was supposed to be searching in the neighboring town, at first put effort into looking, but when he couldn’t find her, he quickly lost interest and spent his time fooling around there instead.

When his money ran out and he returned home, the house was in disarray, and the workshop was deserted.

“…Wh-what… happened?”

As Katio stood there in shock, the master stumbled out from the back.

“Has Gina come back!?”

His father, face twisted in desperation, grabbed both of Katio’s arms and pressed him. Katio instinctively stepped back, shaking his head.

“…Hah!? What have you been doing all this time!?”

The master shouted with such force that it felt like a punch, and Katio couldn’t possibly admit he had been playing, so he muttered,

“…Of course I was searching for her.”

The master saw through the lie, shoved Katio’s arms away, and collapsed weakly into a chair.

“…What on earth happened?”

Katio, uneasy about the situation, pressed his father for answers.

“…You can see for yourself. Until now, the workshop had been left entirely to Gina. Even if I brought in work, I didn’t know the steps to move it forward. I had no choice but to take charge until Gina returned… but since my way was different from hers, the clients complained. They said no more business until Gina came back, and that they’d go elsewhere. …On top of that, word spread that Gina was gone, and now we are refused outright. With no work, I gave the employees time off, but none of them came back. Every last one moved on to other places.”

And that wasn’t the only issue with the workers.

At first, the master appointed one of them as Gina’s replacement and tried to have them take over.

But that person quickly gave up and quit the workshop.

“Hmph, spineless fool. But there are other candidates anyway.”

So he boasted, but one after another, those he appointed also quit.

If a worker had skills on Gina’s level, they would have already gone independent, running their own workshop or taking commissions directly.

The low-paid seamstresses were all still developing their abilities, working in the workshop to hone their craft.

The master, having been away from the work floor for so long, had completely forgotten that fact.

And by the time he realized it, it was already too late.

Katio listened to his father’s story, wondering why things had fallen apart just because Gina was gone.

It was only one girl, who had lost her family in an accident and taken refuge here, who had disappeared.

So why did everything stop working without her?