“Milady, I have gathered the ingredients you mentioned.”
The herbs and ingredients that Daisy brought gave off a fragrant scent.
“The response was amazing.” Daisy’s eyes sparkled.
From what I heard, it seemed like the ointment I made was causing quite a stir among the servants. They said the maid who always got skin rashes, and the maid who lived with eczema got completely healed.
“How envious they all are. They couldn’t even make eye contact with Milady, so they always asked me for favors.”
Daisy glanced around and whispered quietly. “In addition, all the new maids want to serve Milady. Hehe.”
Ah, this damn popularity.
“I’ll make more, so share it.”
“Thank you!”
And soon… a natural cosmetics brand will be established with my name on it. That too on the first floor of my building!
“But is Milady going to make ointment out of all this? You ordered a lot of precious ingredients this time.”
“No, this is for something else.”
I looked all the way at the herbs.
The empress’s skin disease. This has been one of my worries these days. If it’s a simple skin disease, I’ll try treating it with herbs. The problem was that the empress’s skin disease was a side effect of the mana stone. I couldn’t guarantee how effective these ingredients would be. In addition, since it was mana stone, a magic solution was essential to completely detoxify it.
They say even the imperial magicians who know how to use the solution couldn’t cure it.
But dealing with magic solutions was difficult even for magicians. Even I, who had possessed N times and experienced all sorts of things in my life, couldn’t even deal with it myself.
“It’s not possible! The lady told me not to let anyone in!”
“Do I look like just anyone in your eyes?”
A loud commotion was heard outside at that time, and the door opened.
“Irik!”
“I was wondering if you were quiet because you were stuck somewhere, but you were here?”
Light pink hair, the color of a spring flower, appeared.
“When did you create a place like this again…?”
Still, he comes in calmly today. Even on the first day we met, he came in with all of the fuss.
“What’s all this?” Irik looked through the room.
“My workplace.”
“Workplace?”
He looked dissatisfied.
“Hmph, no wonder. I guess you made some strange medicine here and gave it to them.”
Now, he seemed to secretly believe those words.
“If you want to say something, say it quickly. I’m busy right now.”
“The meeting you left. You’ve changed all the seats.”
“Did you finally see it? What do you think?”
Irik, leaning against the door with his arms crossed, opened his mouth. “You.”
But there were no words for a long time. I thought he would make an uproar since all the vassals who were supposed to be on his side were pushed out.
“Yes, you.”
“What?”
Irik, who stood crookedly and just stared at me, blurted out. “So unlucky.”
“Ha.”
The sound of him barely speaking made me burst into laughter. Come to think of it, Irik said the same thing to me the first day we met.
“You knew I was unlucky from the moment we first met.”
However, back then, it was Irik who was making fun of me, but not it was me who was making fun of him.
“Why all of a sudden with this nonsense?”
“Are you going to run away?”
“What?”
I almost panicked for a moment. How did this kid figure out my ultimate goal?
“The advice you gave Luna on the day of the welcoming party. The more I thought about it, the more I felt it was sincere, and it gave me goosebumps.”
“…”
“You usually ignore her. But why are you teaching her so sincerely?”
He was asking me. It would be a loss to give Luna some helpful advice, so why did I do that?
“And the things you do these days.” Irik opened his mouth again. “All of them are trying to make His Grace take an interest in the duchy’s internal affairs.”
“Well, let’s say so, but.”
I had a dull look on my face. As if I was hearing something ridiculous.
“Why do you come to the conclusion that I’m running away?”
“…”
“At one point, I heard that I was trying to take over Felicite’s position as the head of the family.”
“Then why are you saving money?” Irik responded without a moment. “If Felicite becomes yours, there will be so much money that you won’t be able to handle it.”
“…”
Such a quick-witted kid.
“From investing in Belleng district to taking a guy named Bergman or something. Moreover, being stuck here and rolling your head…”
Irik’s voice was calm and subsided. It was so different from the time when he was just grumbling, trying to figure things out. It would have been better if he had been like that instead.
“You’re trying to fill your back pocket. What’s the reason?”
This time, it was difficult for me too.
“No way.”
In that case, I had no choice but to fight head-on.
“Did you think I would stay in this duchy forever?”
“…What?”
“No, I’ll ask you again.”
Irik seemed to have noticed to some extent, so I had nothing to get away with.
“If you were me, would you want to live here?”
“…”
“You know better how I have been treated in this duchy.”
He only pursed his lips. He seemed unable to answer.
“Just because I’m moving around this duchy with a smile on my face, being kind to my father.”
I wasn’t trying to feel family love or affection here. The duke’s trust was just a means to me.
“Do you think I’ve forgotten everything?”
“…”
“At least you shouldn’t be mistaken.”
That didn’t mean anything. My purpose was only to live because only by surviving can I escape this terrible fate and die.
“Then you can just earn your own money and go away. Why are you still lingering around the duchy?”
That’s… it was because of Redian. No matter how well I died, it was natural that if Felicite’s family fell, my head would be lost as well. Redian will only spare his master, especially because of his affection, not out of goodwill.
“Is it because of the underground castle nature? You’ve been strange since then.”
However… What does it matter? I slowly started to get annoyed.
“No, let me ask again.”
Since when did he become so interested in how I live?
“Redian, is it because of him?”
“…”
“To gain your father’s trust and help Norma escape?”
I even think he’s making pretty good reasoning.
“Are you going to run away with that b*stard?”
“…What?”
It wasn’t like that.
“Are you saving money just to run away with that Norma?”
He was writing a novel now.
“Well, at night, you run away together somewhere, a-and get married?”
This time, he’s talking about running away at night and getting married beyond one’s social status.
When I didn’t answer, Irik’s face crumpled.
“Older Sister, are you crazy?”
The man you’re writing a novel about will become the crown prince in the future. What kind of expression would you make if I told you that?
“Stop talking nonsense and stop paying attention. “
“Older sister!”
“Just as I meant what I said to Luna, I’m giving you sincere advice, Irik.”
“…”
“No matter who I bring to the underground castle and what I do, just stop worrying about my life and go find your own way,” I said, pushing Irik to get out. “Because I will find my own way to live.”
“Siani Felicite!”
I’m trying to kick him out like that.
Wait, underground castle. Doing ‘what’ with ‘someone’ in the underground castle…
Really.
Now that I think about it, there was Vallentin.
* * *
“Argh!”
“Isn’t it time to stop being surprised?”
“Because Princess came all of a sudden.”
Again, Maze greeted me with a loud thud.
“Ah, Redian—”
“No. It’s not Redian today.”
“Pardon?”
“Did you release Vallentin, which I talked about last time, in the medicine room?”
“Ah, yes, Princess.”
Maze nodded quickly. “As you said, he was playing in the medicine room all day.”
Still, it seemed like he didn’t like the idea of letting him play.
“Where is that?”
“Let me guide you.”
I followed Maze and headed to the medicine room.
“Stay here for a moment.”
“Are you going in alone? No matter what, it would be dangerous.”
“Didn’t you see I won?”
“Ah, well… you did try to break Vallentin’s shoulder in the training hall.”
As if breaking it wasn’t enough.
After shooing away Maze, I opened the door to the medicine room. The tall figure with red hair caught my eyes as soon as I entered. The light glistened over his long eyelashes, and he looked at the solution in the bottle.
Vallentin.
Seeing that the table was a mess, he seemed to have made something for a long time. His eyes were so immersed that he didn’t even know anyone had come in.
What is he making?
As I looked at him with my arms crossed, I noticed all the ingredients used were unique. I thought he’d use things like dragon scales, monster saliva, and poisonous plants… but what he used were sweet and sour honey lemon juice and raspberries.
Fairy pollen?
“Damn it.”
As if it didn’t work out as he wanted, he mumbled a curse word in a low voice.
“What kind of dog sh*t is this…?”
It’s not an insult worth using while making a magic solution called fairy pollen.
“What are you making?” I asked without realizing it. No matter how much I watched it, I couldn’t tell.
“…Oh.”
Only then did Vallentin look at me. His cold eyes had no change as if he wasn’t surprised.
“What is that?” I asked, looking at the water bottle sloshing in Vallentin’s hand.
It was a very lovely pink color. Maybe… is it some kind of poison that paralyzes your muscles while pretending to be raspberry syrup? If that’s the case, it could be mixed into tea or food to kill or threaten someone.
“This…”
At that time, Vallentin opened his mouth.
“It’s a love potion.”
What?
I thought i would hate Irik but at some point, you can see how these two treat each other as true brothers and sisters who bicker every single time. I think, Irik is more likable than Luna.