"Cough, cough."
Miss Benanis coughed, drawing the conversation back on track:
"Sylvia, of course we're interested. What exactly is your business? Do you have product photographs? If it's an everyday item, I can help promote it."
The reputation of the finest opera singers of this era was still quite useful. Besides, they were all from Kasonlik, making promotion much more convenient.
"No need for photographs. How do you think I convinced the Speaker? Naturally, because she had already seen the product itself."
The Council's youngest Great Witch smiled, clearly eagerly anticipating this moment:
"Look."
As she spoke, she rose from her chair, and Miss Benanis and Miss Galina approached as well. But Miss Sylvia neither took a box from beneath the table nor pulled an item from her pocket. Instead, she turned her chair ninety degrees and sat back down.
With a smile, she lifted her long skirt slightly, first revealing black patent-leather high heels, then exposing—
"Oh!"
Miss Galina and Miss Benanis both held their breath. They had never expected what lay beneath her skirt.
Thin black fabric with a flesh-colored sheen clung perfectly to her slightly muscular legs, with the true color of her skin faintly visible beneath it. Though the five toes of her petite feet were hidden inside the high heels, their outlines could still just barely be made out. The almost maddening lines of her legs were so distinct, yet those legs were indeed completely wrapped up. They seemed exposed to the eye, yet not seen at all. The texture of the thin fabric was exquisitely fine, every inch threaded with delicate strands that looked as though they might tear into holes with a single tug.
It was as if she had changed into another layer of skin. Her perfect curves were outlined, making them