KDPCD 21

Chapter 21

The time had come sooner than expected.

A few days later, our family finally sat down for a meal together for the first time in a long while.

We had been eating for some time when Father quietly spoke up.

“I heard that a strange cave was discovered in the mountains of the north.”

“A strange cave?”

Meldor, who had been cutting into his steak, widened his eyes and looked at Father.

Seated at the head of the table, Father took a sip of water before nodding.

“Apparently, an old man who was gathering herbs in the mountains discovered it. He said there was something unusual about it and reported it.”

It’s here!

I steadied my trembling voice and asked,

“Is there some kind of problem?”

“Hmm…”

After thinking for a moment, Father continued while looking at us.

“Several scholars have warned that it could be an extremely dangerous cave. They said that if someone recklessly ventured inside, the ground itself could collapse.”

“Then we should restrict access to the area!”

At Meldor’s words, Father raised one eyebrow.

“However, the mages… reported that a considerable amount of natural mana has accumulated inside the cave.”

The mana artificially created by humans was called magic, while mana that occurred naturally was called ‘natural mana.’ It was known that natural mana moved in a steady flow, much like a river.

However, about fifty years ago, a cave where natural mana had accumulated like a lake was discovered in a neighboring kingdom.

The kingdom immediately formed an expedition team to investigate the mana, and they ended up discovering an enormous vein of ore.

That entire cave was a magic-amethyst mine.

A gemstone capable of having magic engraved into it, just like the diamond from before!

The probability of finding such magical gemstones in a single mine was extremely low. Normally, only a tiny fraction of gemstones exposed to flowing natural mana would transform into magical gemstones.

But astonishingly, that cave happened to be situated directly in the middle of a natural mana current. As a result, many gemstones had been exposed to mana for an extremely long time, and the mages concluded that the gemstones themselves were the reason the natural mana had accumulated there.

To put it simply:

The neighboring kingdom discovered a magical gemstone mine and struck it incredibly rich!

That kingdom rapidly grew into one of the strongest powers on the continent thanks to the amethyst mine.

And now, a place like that had been discovered in our territory.

Meldor seemed to understand the significance immediately as well, his eyes lighting up.

But Father remained calm as he spoke.

“We cannot be certain whether it is actually a gemstone mine or not. If we send an expedition there for nothing, it could result in a serious accident.”

Indeed, several more caves containing accumulated natural mana had been discovered across the continent since then.

The rulers of those regions greedily explored the caves, but every single one turned out to be worthless. In fact, some of them had even caused disasters such as landslides because they pushed their explorations too far.

But would the family of the female protagonist in a novel really discover a worthless cave?

Suppressing the corners of my mouth that threatened to rise, I screamed internally.

Father! That cave is a gigantic magical-ruby mine!

Our family was already famous for owning a high-quality iron mine. We had accumulated considerable wealth by selling the iron ore extracted from it.

But the value of magical rubies couldn’t even be compared to mere iron ore.

There aren’t any magical rubies among the magical gemstones discovered so far.

Diamonds were rare, but they did exist.

Magical rubies, however, had not even been discovered yet.

Rubies were already one of the most popular gemstones on the continent. If our family unveiled magical rubies…

We could instantly attract the attention of the entire world.

The astronomical amount of money would only be a bonus.

Of course, this was a certainty that only I could have because I had read the original novel.

To everyone else, it would be an incredibly risky gamble.

In the original story, family meetings had been held repeatedly over this very cave.

At the time, the eldest son and heir had insisted that they should explore the cave, and Father eventually handed all authority over to him.

The eldest son traveled north and carefully investigated the cave.

And eventually, he discovered that it was a magical-ruby mine.

He ended up spending a long time in the north to oversee the ruby mine he had discovered.

Because of that, he became the last of the brothers to meet Nesia, the original female protagonist, when she came to see Father.

But things are different now.

No matter how strongly I insisted that we needed to explore the cave, Father wouldn’t send me north.

And there was no way he would send the still-young Meldor either…

Grandfather was the only other possibility, but he was already quite old.

A gemstone mine is an extremely important matter, so they couldn’t send someone who wasn’t a direct member of the family.

That left only Father.

I moistened my throat with some water before speaking.

“I think we should explore the cave.”

“Why?”

“Because the potential benefit of discovering a gemstone mine is too great to give up simply because it’s dangerous. If we investigate it thoroughly and proceed with the exploration carefully, it shouldn’t be too dangerous.”

“I disagree!”

Meldor immediately opposed me.

“There could be a disaster while exploring it, just like in the previous cases! It’s not even certain that there’s anything valuable inside, and our family isn’t in any urgent need of money. I don’t think there’s any reason to take such a risk!”

As he said that, Meldor shot me a sideways glance.

In the original story, he had shouted that they absolutely had to explore the cave alongside his older brother, yet now he was vehemently opposing my opinion.

…Interesting.

It was so ridiculous that I wanted to smack him across the head, but I held myself back out of habit.

As tension descended between us, Father sighed.

“I’ll make the decision myself. Forget about it for now.”

I could tell what he was thinking from his tone.

He’s planning to follow Meldor’s opinion.

I had expected both that Meldor would oppose me from the beginning and that Father would accept his opinion.

Well, there was no way Father would willingly leave the capital so easily.

But I’m not going to let things stay that way.

Pretending to obey Father’s words, I put the piece of steak I had been cutting into my mouth.

At the same time, I rapidly reviewed my next plan in my head.

It was the middle of the night, when everyone was deeply asleep.

I hadn’t gone to sleep. I draped a thick shawl over my shoulders and quietly left my room.

The well-oiled door opened smoothly without making a sound, and a dark hallway greeted me, every lamp extinguished.

I stared at the hallway illuminated by the bluish light of the dawn moon for a moment before walking down it, relying on the light of a portable magical lantern.

The place I was secretly heading toward was the fourth floor, which Mother had once used.

As I climbed the stairs, I recalled a passage from the original novel.

—Dohemia always said that her brother took everything that belonged to her. That’s why she always hid the most precious things beneath her bed. It became a habit, you see.

Those were the words whispered by the spirit of snow that had raised Nesia.

Nesia remembered the spirit’s whisper and later discovered her mother’s belongings beneath her bed.

I was now moving to find those belongings first.

After silently reaching the fourth floor, I passed Mother’s bedroom and headed toward the end of the hallway.

There was a single door there that was sturdier and more crude-looking than the others.

Mother’s laboratory…

The bed mentioned by the spirit of snow wasn’t the large, soft, luxurious bed in Mother’s bedroom.

Mother had actually spent more nights in her laboratory than in her own bedroom.

I grasped the handle of the laboratory door and turned it.

The door opened without a sound.

The room originally had a magic spell on it, so no one except Mother could open it…

But now it’s nothing more than an empty room whose owner is gone.

The laboratory beyond the open door was unbelievably bare.

At Mother’s request in her will, all her research journals and experimental results had been donated to the Magic Tower.

I ran my finger across the empty table.

A thick layer of dust immediately covered my fingertip.

I suppose that’s only natural since I deliberately excluded this place from the cleaning schedule.

I couldn’t let the maids discover Mother’s belongings before I did while cleaning the empty laboratory.

Meldor and Father also tended to reminisce about Mother in the greenhouse or her bedroom rather than here, so leaving the laboratory untouched hadn’t been difficult.

I dusted off my hand and approached the small, old bed.

Then I crouched down and shone my magical lantern beneath it.

Something could be seen deep underneath.

Just as I expected. It’s here.

I stretched out my arm and grabbed it.

My shawl became covered in dust, but I didn’t care.

What I pulled out was a thick notebook with a dark blue hardcover.

It was old, but the outside was remarkably clean, as though some kind of magic had been cast upon it.

Is this Mother’s diary?

The keepsake of her mother that Nesia discovered.

It was a diary Mother had written after she began living with the Alton family.

Nesia showed the diary to Father and her brothers, winning their favor in the process.

Of course, I had absolutely no intention of using it for that purpose.

After staring at the diary for a moment, I quickly left the laboratory and returned to my room.

I threw the dirty shawl onto the floor and collapsed into a chair.

I placed the diary I had brought with me on the desk.

Now I need to check it…

After tapping my index finger against the desk for a moment, I steeled myself and opened the diary.

I don’t have time to read it from the first page and leisurely observe Mother’s life.

I rapidly flipped through the diary, searching for the information I needed.

Fortunately, I found it quickly.

「My birthday is approaching soon.

Whenever my birthday comes around, I always think of it.

The past I left behind in the Forest of Spirits before following Theodore to the capital.

Shannon called it my most precious treasure, but I’m not sure what to think.

She prophesied that this treasure would one day become Theodore’s treasure as well…

But how in the world could it become his treasure?

I don’t want to tell Theodore about something I don’t understand myself.

If Shannon’s words are correct, he’ll find out someday anyway.

Until then, I intend to keep it a secret.」

Shannon was the spirit of snow who had been with Mother.

And the treasure that this spirit had spoken of was none other than Nesia.

On Mother’s birthday, the spirit of snow would bring Nesia to the mansion in the capital.

Then she would entrust Nesia to Father.

That was the beginning of the original story.

If I show Father this diary, he’ll immediately head north.

When it came to anything related to Mother, that man would become completely obsessed.

There was no way he’d remain still after seeing this suspicious diary.

Father would go north.

Then the spirit of snow, who had business with him, would naturally head to the northern estate instead of the capital, wouldn’t she?

And then Father would meet Nesia for the first time in the north.