“Where’s Logan?”
“He’s waiting downstairs.”
“Alright.”
As they descended to the lobby, Logan, who had been waiting in front of the main entrance, approached Ian with a salute.
“My lord, young lady, good morning.”
“Hello!”
Rose waved cheerfully.
Despite calling Ian as uncle once, Rose, who began to follow Ian like a sheep mother, still had fear of adult men.
However, perhaps because she often saw Logan while being by Ian’s side, Rose was not afraid of him.
“Lady Rose, you’re adorable as always.”
“Hehe.”
Ian, teasing Rose as she buried her face in her chest out of embarrassment, spoke.
“Is the carriage ready?”
“It’s prepared. The picnic basket is also ready here.”
Sebastian extended a large basket, which Logan promptly accepted.
“We’re going by carriage.”
“Carriage!”
Rose’s eyes sparkled as she saw the radiant carriage symbolizing Loenbaum.
“It’s the same color as Rose’s eyes.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Isn’t it beautiful?”
Ian, gently patting Rose’s cheek as she nodded enthusiastically, boarded the carriage first, followed by Logan. As the servant closed the door, he bowed.
“Please be careful on your journey.”
“Sure. Rose, wave goodbye.”
Rose, unaware of the meaning behind waving, giggled.
Ian chuckled softly as he gently shook Rose’s hand.
“This means we’ll be back.”
“Oh! Got it!”
As Rose vigorously waved her hand, Ian tapped the carriage wall.
“Let’s go.”
With the sound of hooves, the carriage departed.
Watching Rose, who couldn’t take her eyes off the window, fascinated by the scenery outside, Logan asked,
“My lord, where are we heading to?”
“We’re going to find a sparkling stone!”
It was Rose who answered, not Ian.
A sparkling stone?
Logan didn’t understand what Rose was talking about.
“A sparkling stone?”
“Yes! Uncle said there’s a sparkling stone over there.”
Rose pointed to the northern mountains where the perpetual snow was.
‘Looking for a sparkling stone in the mountains? Could it be… the mine he talked about before?’
“My lord, the mine you mentioned before!”
As Ian nodded, Logan’s eyes widened like lanterns.
“A mine! What kind of minerals are extracted there?”
While all mines were mines, depending on the minerals, they could be either trash or treasure.
Logan looked at Ian with eager eyes.
“You’ll see the details when we get there.”
“My lord.”
Despite Logan’s groans, Ian didn’t give him a second glance.
“Uncle, the carriage isn’t shaking while we’re moving.”
“The carriage Rose is riding shouldn’t shake.”
Watching the two converse affectionately inside, Logan felt a pang of loneliness.
Unable to contain his curiosity and about to ask again, the carriage stopped.
“Alright, let’s get off here.”
“Are we there already?”
“No. From here on, we’ll have to walk.”
Ian, carefully holding Rose, stopped Logan from grabbing the basket.
“Leave that here. We won’t need it for eating right now.”
“Oh? Okay.”
“You two stay here.”
Following Ian’s instructions, Logan climbed up the mountain with the help of the stableman and maids.
The path Ian chose was not the usual one but a forested trail, making the ascent challenging, with sweat pouring like rain.
Unlike Logan, who was panting heavily, Ian remained calm even while carrying the child, as if walking on flat ground.
Perhaps his body had been trained, as his previous weakness seemed to have vanished.
Ian stopped walking after climbing for a while.
“We’re here.”
“Here?”
The place where Ian stopped was a gathering of rocks in the middle of the mountain.
“Is this it?”
Instead of replying, Ian gently placed Rose on the ground.
“Rose, wait here for a moment.”
Then, he drew Fragarach from his waist.
“Wow. It’s so beautiful.”
Despite being accustomed to practicing with Fragarach every time he trained with the sword, Rose exclaimed in admiration each time.
Ian swung the sword towards a medium-sized rock.
Swish. As if responding to the sword’s sharpness, the rock cleanly split in half without even carrying an aura.
With a thud, the rock above fell sideways, revealing a flat surface. Ian spread a soft handkerchief on it and seated Rose.
“Rose, stay here.”
“Yes!”
“Surely… you didn’t cut it just to seat the young lady?”
Ian looked at him as if asking what kind of obvious question that was.
“Then, should I make that child stand?”
‘Goodness.’
It was one thing to take time finding the mine, but to think about cutting a rock to seat someone on it…
This wasn’t just ridiculous; it was foolishness.
Niece’s folly.
“Logan.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“Curious about the sparkling stone, aren’t you?”
Unable to contain his excitement, Logan vigorously nodded his head in response to Ian’s question.
With a childlike response from Logan, Ian chuckled and stood in front of the largest rock.
“Let me show you the sparkling stone.”
Ian infused his sword with aura.
The wavering aura accumulated on the sword, gradually increasing in size.
“Oh, aura?”
Having gathered as much aura as he desired, Ian thrust the sword towards the rock.
Like tofu, the sword pierced through the rock effortlessly, and soon, the large rock began to glisten with gold.
And then…
With a crumbling sound, the large rock shattered into small fragments.
“My lord! You just used aura!”
“Right. But isn’t the aura less important now?”
Retrieving his sword and sheathing it, Ian pointed with his finger to the spot where the rock had been.
“Is it a cave?”
“It’s more like a naturally formed mine. Rose, come here.”
As Ian hugged Rose, who had leaped out of on the rock and run towards him as if she is his captive, they entered the mine, with Logan hurriedly following Ian.
“It’s pitch black.”
“[Light]”
A round sphere emitting light appeared in the air.
“Wow! My lord! You can use magic too?!”
“A little.”
Logan was astonished.
Not only creating aura but also using magic—It was hard to believe that the duke who rarely left his room possessed such abilities.
“It’s the sparkling stone!”
Logan snapped out of his thoughts at Rose’s exclamation.
What mattered now wasn’t the duke’s abilities but the identity of the ore mined in this mine.
As Logan hastily turned his head, he saw the sparkling stone as Rose had mentioned.
More precisely, the cave was filled with ores reflecting the light from the magic sphere.
“That’s it.”
“Diamonds.”
Diamonds, one of the rarest gemstones, surpassed a million gold even in very small sizes.
However, the diamonds visible now were larger than an adult’s fist.
With sizes like this, it was difficult to even estimate their value. Perhaps they could buy a whole mansion.
“Are you saying all of these are diamonds?”
As Ian nodded, Logan’s mouth fell open.
With a diamond mine, they could easily resolve the debt of the duchy, which seemed bottomless.
“H-How did you know? That there are diamonds here?”
Instead of answering, Ian shrugged.
This mine was the diamond mine discovered by the prince and the heroine on their date in the original novel, ‘Flower Garden.’
Yekhaterina concealed the fact of discovering the mine and quickly bought this land from Rose for a very low price.
The aristocrats laughed at Rose, as a bastard, who couldn’t even find diamonds in front of her nose, but to Ian, it was simply a stroke of luck for Yekhaterina as the heroine.
‘But luck won’t last now.’
While Ian frowned, thinking of Rose being mocked as a villainess and meeting her tragic end, Logan explored the cave, exclaiming at every turn.
“This is truly a blessing from the gods! To think such a place existed! With just this, the duchy will become a kingdom in no time!”
“Just with this?”
Logan looked at him, his trembling eyes full of anticipation
.
“Is there perhaps another mine in the mountains?”
“No. This is the only mine in these mountains.”
While there was only one mine in the north, there were many more undiscovered imperial mines mentioned in the novel.
However, there was something even more valuable than mines in this northern region.
It wasn’t the right time to reveal it now, though.
‘What’s the big deal about three generations? You can still make a living until the tenth generation.’
(TLN; It seems to imply that three generations isn’t a significant number compared to being able to sustain oneself for ten generations just by the mine that Ian’s know.)
Seeing Ian smile contentedly, Logan asked urgently.
“Do you know of other mines?! What kind of mines are they?”
“Iron, amethyst, emerald, gold, and…”
“And?!”
“Let’s keep the last one a secret. It might stop your heart.”
“It’s already about to stop!”
Logan exclaimed in frustration.
“So, if it’s about to stop, shouldn’t we stop talking about it?”
Ian chuckled softly and used his strength to pull out a diamond embedded in the cave, offering it to Rose.
“This one’s for you, Rose.”
“Wow! A sparkling stone!”
Despite being a raw diamond, it reflected light as if it were polished.
“Thank you.”
Rose gratefully held the large diamond firmly in both hands and bowed slightly.
“It’s a gentleman’s delight.”
After giving Rose a customary kiss on the cheek, Ian exited the cave.
“Let’s go have lunch.”
“Lunch?”
“Yeah. We brought packed lunches.”
“My lord!”
Logan hurriedly approached Ian, not even realizing he had gone out while inspecting the diamonds.
“I was surprised you left me alone.”
“I left the light.”
“Still, my lord. Is this a raw diamond?”
“Yes! Uncle Ian pulled it out for me.”
Logan admired the diamond roughstone proudly displayed by Rose.
“Wow! This looks top-notch! How can it shine like this?”
Blushing as if she had received praise, Rose hugged the roughstone again.
“If the roughstone is this good, we’ll make a fortune once it’s properly cut.”
“Indeed. I’ve marked the location on the study map. Discuss the mining and selling schedules with May as we discussed before. But remember, everything must be kept secret. No information should leak to the enemies.”
“Understood.”
With a cheerful smile, Ian followed Logan downstairs, carrying Rose in his arms.
“Let’s head to the nearby lake.”
The carriage started moving again.
As they descended back down the mountain road they had climbed halfway up, Logan asked,
“Is this a picnic?”
“Yeah. Might as well enjoy the outing,” Ian replied.
After a short while, the carriage came to a stop.
Ian carefully got off the carriage, holding Rose, and walked toward the lakeside.
“Wow!”
Rose exclaimed in awe.
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