Chapter 132
If you live in Albrecht, there’s a name that rings a bell.
The Five Dukes.
Halbern, Sperom, Mubisk, Gramwart, and Idickels.
Just as you see a lot of Samsungs, Hyundais, and LGs in Korea, so did Albrecht.
Halbern, Sperom, historical heroes’ surnames were 9% Mubisk, great adventurers? Almost all of them were from Gremwart, and the most famous social gatherings all boiled down to Idikels.
The Duke of Diplomacy and Mediation.
She liked this duke, too, though he didn’t appear much in the novels because his whole clan was all over the world.
Because…
‘There’s a strong sense of a civil servant here who’s just been caught by his poor boss and can’t get off work.’
When she first heard it, the image she had was of a duchess who would hold a meeting or something, who would be elegant and scheming and blackmailing, but in reality, she was a poor civil servant dealing with a constant stream of malicious complaints.
“I’m powerless.”
“I knew it.”
“… You’re not disappointed.”
“Yeah, it’s a familiar pattern.”
She asked for help, but didn’t expect much.
It didn’t make sense to her that common sense would lead her to the right person to help here.
She was a very practical child.
“But why is the Duke here?”
“There’s a sad legend about this place…”
“I don’t believe in legends.”
“???”
“No, keep telling me.”
Duke of Idikels’ wavering gaze rested on her for a moment, but soon he began a rambling rant that began one day six years ago.
And as she listened, she realized that…
‘I’m uncomfortable! I’m insanely uncomfortable!’
Crazy! I can’t believe it was because of him, Dad, why did you put me through this?!
“Anyway, that’s why I came to stop the war…”
“Uh, you’ve been through a lot.”
“Hmph, you recognize my hard work. How uncharacteristically nice of you, Halbern!”
She pondered.
Sorry, my dad was immature…
“I’m afraid you have it worse at such a young age. I hear you were kidnapped?”
“Yes. I didn’t come by normal means.”
“Do you want to go back?”
“?”
Why does he say the obvious?
She narrowed my eyes, and Duke Idikels gave her a strange look.
“How curious.”
“What?”
“That I don’t see the shade of Halbern in you?”
What was that?
“Because children with the surname Halbern have always had a brooding air about them, as if they were carrying all the secrets of the world, and so was Sione.”
She reacted to the name as it came naturally.
“Sione, do you know her?”
“Haha, she’s my classmate. Of course I know her, we went to the academy together.”
She was intrigued.
What made it interesting was that she realized she was a real person?
Maybe it’s because she doesn’t talk about it except to her father and the Regent, and sometimes she feels like it’s just their delusion, but when someone so unexpected mentions it, it really makes her feel like it’s real.
“Haha. Sione was my first love.”
If only Duke Idikels hadn’t shyly confessed that he had a childhood crush on Sione.
“She always seemed to live in another world.”
“I see…”
“Of course, Halbern’s power was so great at the time that it would have been difficult to get her to marry me.”
“Does Regent know that?”
“…”
Duke Idikels winced.
“… Will you keep it a secret?”
“I see you’re doing it.”
Duke Idikels sulked. Poor guy. She should stop tormenting him.
“Well, Halbern didn’t work well for Idikels anyway, so he’d probably have a hard time no matter what I did.”
His lame excuse piqued her curiosity.
“I’ve heard that the Idikels ability is to see crushes.”
“I have. And I can see the option of buying someone’s favor sometimes. It doesn’t work as well for someone like Halbern, who’s more of an empath, but…”
“What? So you can’t even see my likability?!”
“Yeah.”
“Wow, that’s interesting.”
The more she listened, the more she was intrigued.
Likeability and options.
Idikels has a life to live.
“If only I could see my favorability rating.”
She wondered how many likes she had.
“Hmm. There is a way to see it.”
“Oh, how?”
“You just have to give me permission.”
“How do I let you?”
Duke Idikels took her hand and slowly raised their eyes to meet.
“Imagine opening your heart to me.”
It was hard, but she tried her best to imagine it.
Show her the crush, show her the crush!
“Do you see it?!”
“Uh, yeah.”
Duke Idikels replied, looking somewhat mesmerized.
“How many crushes do I have?!”
“That’s…”
“That?”
“Fifty.”
“Fifty?!”
That high?
She thought the typical likability rating on the first meeting was 10-20.
She was so full of humanity!
She gulped in surprise.
“No, -50.”
“…?”
Duke Idikels calmly called out her visible favorability rating.
[♡ -50 thorough disbelief].
“Ah…”
Right, then.
She nodded in understanding, and Duke Idikels, looking very pitiful, asked her.
“Was I that bad?”
“Haha.”
She awkwardly try to dismiss it with a laugh, and this time Duke Idikels looks at her with a very pitiful expression.
“Do you hate people?”
She answered with a quiet chuckle.
***
The girl in her thirties, who insisted that -50 was a level of favorability usually reserved for an iron-fisted marshal who’d been robbed, and that she’d never been robbed, nodded vigorously.
‘I’m curious about your liking for other people.’
She was particularly curious about her crush on Mehen.
He’s her favorite.
‘Well, Duke Idikels has promised to lend me an item that will improve my likability if I return safely to Albrecht.’
He wants to earn her trust somehow, given her -50 and utter distrust.
It’s Idikels’ nature to want to get to know people first, to see them, to get to know them, but it was really overwhelming.
He’s probably an E in the MBTI Confident.
However, Duke Idikels did teach her something that helped her.
“If you try to harm Duke Locke’s fortune by simply breaking something, you are a minion.”
She honestly cringed for a moment.
“Be aggressive and ask for it.”
The advice was so apt that she resisted. This is what they call adult wisdom.
It is. She learned a new skill.
Aka, ‘Dad, buy me this!’
“Give me this.”
She eagerly snatched up the artifact that Duke Idikels had secretly told her about, an artifact that could buy a castle if sold.
Regent’s steady gaze rested on her.
‘Now, what are you going to do about it?!’
If she said no, he’d move on to the next plan.
Shouting, “You said you’d do anything for me!” and calling him a liar!
Now, come on, tell me!
“Okay, have it.”
“…?”
Huh? That’s not it.
Did she pick up something cheap, something she could give away for free, and that’s why he gave it to her so easily?!
She got impatient and this time she picked up a valuable item that was not readily available, that seemed like a waste to give to her, and that looked more expensive than anything else.
“Give me this, too.”
“Okay.”
“Eh, give me that one too.”
“Take it.”
No, what!
Regent smirked at her frown and said lazily.
“It doesn’t matter, they’ll all be yours anyway.”
Her patience was the first thing to crumble at this laid-back comment. What?
She’ll make him regret it!
Something expensive! Something expensive and not readily available.
“Then buy me a quill of truth, a fairy tear, a leaf of the world tree, or the morning dew of a snowy country!”
Her grandiose ambition to give her everything she wants, to make him regret his words.
She rattled off a list of items she couldn’t get at the Sperom Auction House.
And the next day.
“…”
She was speechless when she saw the item delivered before.
“Duke has ordered me to bring you everything from the treasury.”
Oh, why would he give it to me?
She got what she wanted, and it was painful. It even pissed her off that he was asking her back so lazily with a triumphant expression on his face.
“Is there anything else you want?”
Ah, disassembly!
