I Am Stuck at Rank One Forever, but My Courtesy Skills Are Already Higher Than the Limit

Yume was tightening a sleeve at dawn when her hands started shaking. The ribbon on her desk caught her eye again, the one she had been given, returned, and hidden so many times that it felt worn thin by silence. At school, she skipped the usual lessons and took private training from old masters who still owed her family favors. At home, she dressed clients for weddings, partings, and public smiles, and she could read a whole person from a crooked collar or a rushed knot. That skill kept her fed. It also made people careful around her. When Shun walked into her path with a brass token in his pocket and a problem he would not name, Yume saw a life that could touch hers in public and ruin it in...