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Chapter 23
I ended up arriving at the estate later than usual today. Since no one really cared what time I came back anyway, I thought I could slip in quietly and avoid being noticed—just as I was about to do so.
“Why are you so late?”
I frowned at the sharp smell of alcohol and looked at Eit, who was blocking my way. I resisted the urge to pinch my nose shut with two fingers.
He was staggering, and in one hand he was even holding a bottle of liquor.
“I was praying.”
“You pray this late at night?”
Sutia was far away, and fortunately there were several pieces of land where I could sense spiritual energy, so I’d gone to check their prices and inspect them more carefully.
I had just taken the last carriage back, and outside it had already grown dark long ago.
“Yes. I already told the Countess. I often offer night prayers.”
It was the same lie I had used on the Countess before, so the words came out smoothly. Eit looked me up and down with clear displeasure.
“You can’t do that anymore.”
Instead of answering, I glanced up at him. Eit grinned at me.
“You’re living off us here, aren’t you? Then you should listen to the owner of this place.”
How was he able to deliver such a perfectly stereotypical side-character line without missing a beat…
It was a shame I couldn’t sarcastically retort out loud. For now, I had to endure it. This period was too important.
If possible, I wanted to stay here until I earned enough money and became stable, and while doing so, uncover the secret the Count was hiding.
“But the Count and Countess—”
“If I say no, it means no!”
He shouted and roughly grabbed my shoulder.
“This is my house. A woman who might get sold off any day should just obediently listen to me.”
In the particularly dark night, Eit’s eyes gleamed as he stared at me.
I want to stab his eyes and run away. I hate this guy.
After issuing his warning, he staggered past me toward the main building. I raised my hand and called to Oried.
“Trip him.”
[Okay!]
As if she’d been waiting, Oried made the ground rise. Eit, who failed to look at his feet, caught on it and fell flat.
“Aaah! Who did that?!”
I smiled innocently and headed for the annex.
With no one around, it would be natural to assume he tripped by himself, but Eit apparently didn’t believe that and kept shouting.
“Who was it?!”
It was me, but I’m not telling you.
With light steps, I went into the annex. Since he’d gotten drunk and fallen on his own, he wouldn’t be able to blame anyone.
Eit sprained his ankle when he fell yesterday, so I heard he won’t be able to go out for a while.
Serves him right.
“Good job, Oried.”
[I’m good at things like this!]
I hadn’t completely solved the problem, but just knowing I wouldn’t have to run into him made me hum to myself.
Today, I planned to go to the workshop to pick up the jewelry I had commissioned earlier.
Bay had told me yesterday, before we parted, that it was finished.
I should pick it up and give it to Bay and Venus right away. Since I had to enchant Oried’s necklace with magic, that would take some time. And the brooch…
‘Where should I put the brooch?’
It felt a bit bad to entrust even that to Bay or Venus…
“Ah!”
I had Oried.
I should find land no one else could ever dig up and bury it there. Instead, I’d commission protective and preservation magic on it. If I had the money, I could do all of that today.
While I was waiting in the lounge, Lilac came in carrying four luxurious boxes.
She sat in the chair across from me, laid the boxes out on the table, and opened them one by one to show me the contents.
“I put my heart and soul into these. I really worked hard on them!”
Instead of looking at the results right away, I examined Lilac’s face. Despite looking tired, she seemed incredibly happy.
“Wasn’t it hard? You already had goods to deliver, and on top of that, you had my personal commission.”
“Not at all! I said I wanted to do it. Actually, I enjoy working like this so much. This isn’t someone else’s—it’s mine. A piece made under my own name.”
There wasn’t a hint of a lie in her words. She genuinely looked like she’d enjoyed every part of it. It seemed some of the frustration from making things she couldn’t call her own had finally been released.
Only then did I turn my eyes to the finished jewelry.
First, Venus’s necklace.
Venus was a refreshing beauty with long blue hair reaching her waist and blue eyes.
This necklace highlighted her strengths perfectly.
And since I had mentioned she wore thin necklaces, the design was a choker style.
It was a very unusual choker: the band around the neck was made of black sapphire, and at its center sat a large alexandrite.
Imagining Venus wearing her usual necklace together with this choker, I nodded in satisfaction. It suited her astonishingly well.
Thanks to the high level of craftsmanship and cutting, the mysterious color visible from different angles had a captivating charm.
Next to it were Bay’s earrings—long enough to accentuate her long neck, and from the middle down, the alexandrites were finely cut in a thin rectangular baguette shape.
There was also Oried’s flower-shaped necklace and a brooch that would suit either a man or a woman.
They were dazzlingly beautiful.
Swallowing dryly, I spoke to Lilac, who was waiting for my reaction, in a slightly trembling voice.
“They’re… breathtaking. How can they be this beautiful?”
“D-Do you like them?”
“Of course! You’ve become even more precise than last time. They’re perfect!”
“Th-Thank you!”
Only then did Lilac’s tense expression relax.
This wasn’t the time to stop at praise. I wasn’t good at complimenting people with words, so I would repay her properly instead.
To show how much I liked them!
I filled in an amount on the check Bay had issued for me and handed it to Lilac.
“This money—”
“It’s an amount too tempting to refuse!”
When I winked, Lilac still shook her head and tried to hand the check back to me. Watching that, I muttered in emptiness,
“…My irresistible tempting amount just got rejected.”
“Pfft. Ah, no—!”
Pretending not to see her flustered, I handed her the dessert boxes I’d brought.
“Please share these with everyone. I bought plenty.”
I wanted to give her a separate gift, but that would mean favoring one artisan over the others, so I couldn’t do that carelessly. Instead, I bought a lot of expensive desserts.
“And please take this. I commissioned you, and you accepted. You must receive proper compensation. The affection you put into these pieces is already more than enough.”
After I went that far, Lilac finally accepted the check. When I smiled brightly, she smiled back at me.
“Thank you, Coco.”
“No, thank you.”
Now, let’s go to the temple.
When I tried to carry all the boxes by myself, Lilac panicked and stopped me.
“You’re going to carry all of that alone?”
“Yes. They’re not that big.”
Since they were gemstones, the boxes did look rather heavy…
“I’ll help you. It’s fine at first, but the longer you hold them, the heavier they feel. If you drop them, the jewelry could be damaged, so you have to hold them carefully, which takes more arm strength than it looks. And besides…”
Lilac stared at me and then closed her mouth.
She was probably worried about my unusually thin body. Even with what Venus and Bay fed me, it wasn’t easy to gain weight. I walked more than I ate—like pouring water into a bottomless jar.
“But you’re busy since the auction is close, right? I can handle it. I look like this, but I’m strong.”
Lilac looked at me skeptically. Feeling guilty, I corrected myself.
“Or… maybe I’m not.”
“That’s what I thought. I’ll at least take you to the front of the temple. I have time for that much.”
“…Then please.”
I barely managed to take one box from her—Oried’s necklace box, so it hardly mattered.
“Aren’t you treating me like I’m super weak?”
“You are weak…”
Since she was serious, I had nothing to say.
I quietly followed Lilac to the temple.
When we arrived, I stopped her from going inside and sent her back, then entered the temple carrying all the boxes.
I considered using Oried’s help, but this was the temple. There were too many people with holy power—if I used magic, I might get caught.
So I gripped the boxes tightly and headed for Venus. I had also told Bay to meet me today, so I could give them to her there.
I must have looked burdened, because as priests passed by, each one offered to help carry them, but I refused them all. It would have drawn too much attention.
Then I saw familiar purple hair and smoothly changed direction.
He’ll probably mock me again.
If he didn’t like me, he could just not talk to me—why go out of his way to show up and irritate me?
Was he really in such a bad mood that day?
But then again, he didn’t seem like someone cruel enough to refuse healing either.
Anyway, once the heroine and he started properly interacting, someone like me would disappear from his mind.
But as if to deny that thought, Headwin suddenly appeared behind me, circling around.
“If you go that way, you’ll be taking the long route.”
“Yes. That’s what I intend to do.”
I tried to pass him, but Headwin skillfully blocked my way and asked,
“What’s in those boxes?”
“I’m not telling you.”
“You don’t have to, but you look like you’re about to fall.”
“I’m fine.”
“Even if you fall?”
His face was still smiling, but his voice sounded oddly irritated.
Not wanting to hear more from him, I slipped past and moved away.
Seeing how far he went just to talk to me, he really had a nasty personality.
I messed up. Maybe I should’ve given him some fake sympathy and run off—then I wouldn’t care so much now.
[Why does he keep getting nastier every day? I want to take back what I said about him being nice last time!]
“Don’t take it back. The world made him that way.”
And I probably played a part in it too.
“Pretty impressive, right? Me, changing someone else’s personality?”
Oried stared at me silently.
For some reason, her eyes seemed to say, ‘You wish,’ and I felt embarrassed for no reason.
A holy knight guarding the door saw me struggling to open it and quietly opened it for me.
After bowing in thanks, I went inside and found Bay and Venus together. Seeing how thin Venus looked, it seemed she’d been sick again.
“Did you take your medicine?”
“Of course. What are those boxes?”
At last, it was time to show them.
Lilac’s skills made me confident. I set two boxes aside and placed one box in front of Bay and one in front of Venus.
