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Chapter 19
Sharon Abner was of the Misherian bloodline.
The clan that had lived gathered at the edge of the Empire was annihilated when she was five years old.
Everyone except her.
The cause had been an attack by unidentified assailants.
“Those people are suspected of being black magicians! Are you truly saying you intend to take a woman from such a bloodline as the Duchess?!”
The Abner family had disliked her from the very beginning.
Because of the misunderstanding that had long followed the Misherian bloodline.
But her husband, Lloyd Abner, had always remained firm.
“The Misherians were not wiped out because of black magic. They were attacked. The ones who witnessed it directly were my late father and I, Lloyd Abner.”
She had met him when she was still very young.
The very next day after the massacre, which had taken place in the dead of night while everyone slept.
“F-Father! There’s a little girl here…!”
Beneath a bright sky that contrasted cruelly with the blood soaking the ground, her husband had found her hiding beneath the altar stones.
He had truly been a gentle man.
Gentle enough to bury all her flaws—including her Misherian origins—and love her for the rest of his life.
But that husband had died far too early.
“I refuse to watch a witch carrying Misherian blood take over the Abner family!”
“Who’s to say she didn’t use tricks on Lord Lloyd as well? She comes from a black magician bloodline—what couldn’t she do?!”
In the end, she had been left completely alone in the family with two children she needed to protect.
Sharon Abner’s eyes sank deeply as she recalled everything.
Then, in a voice tinged with resignation, she spoke.
“I had no choice back then but to make a terribly unfavorable agreement.”
Anellia sat motionless on the sofa, staring at her.
She was so focused she did not even blink.
And somehow, that made Sharon continue revealing the story hidden inside her heart.
“I needed money, but no one was willing to lend me any. So when someone finally appeared offering help, I had to cling to them no matter what.”
The one who had stepped forward to invest in the development costs back then had been the Coel family.
Camilla, the mistress of the Coel household.
‘It was a crazy contract.’
They received advance investment and a refining formula, and in return had to hand over seventy percent of the mine’s profits.
But at the time, they had no choice.
If they did not accept it, the family would collapse immediately.
Of course, once the mine was developed and some time had passed, an opportunity arose to renegotiate the contract.
But then an unexpected disaster struck.
“For the past few years, there haven’t been many people willing to buy our Abner magic stones anymore.”
The child’s eyes widened.
“Why?”
“Because it was discovered that the magic stones from our mine were contaminated.”
It was right when they had been trying to adjust the contract terms.
Suddenly, the quality of the ore being mined began to decline.
After an investigation, they found that the once-normal vein was slowly becoming contaminated.
“The deeper the ground, the worse the contamination becomes. They say refining now takes increasingly longer.”
“……”
“And even if we somehow manage to refine them, very few people want to buy magic stones mined from contaminated land.”
With a sigh, Sharon Abner leaned back against the sofa.
“The mine lost its value. Most of the merchants who used to purchase our magic stones cut ties with us.”
The only remaining buyer was Coel.
Camilla had called it loyalty.
Saying that no matter how contaminated the stones were, she would continue buying them for as long as she was able.
Sharon Abner pushed aside her distracting thoughts and leaned slightly toward Anellia.
“Still, the Abner family is not without hope.”
“……”
“Besides the mines, the Abner family oversees several other businesses. Most notably, our weapons business with the Imperial family.”
Anellia nodded obediently.
“We are not poor. We are merely no longer prosperous. And didn’t you yourself say you would create magic formulas when you grow older?”
“Yes. I will.”
After answering, Anellia hesitated slightly before asking,
“But… why did the mine suddenly become contaminated…?”
Sharon Abner paused.
“The reason?”
“Yes. In books, they say strange things happen before land becomes contaminated. Like monsters appearing nearby more often, or someone placing an evil curse there…”
Come to think of it.
Sharon Abner’s brows slowly rose.
“Wendel.”
At her call, Wendel walked to the bookshelf occupying one side of the office.
Soon, he returned carrying several thick bundles of documents.
“Contamination reports. The contamination reports…”
Sharon Abner’s fingers quickly skimmed through the papers.
Then suddenly stopped at one point.
In an instant, Sharon began reviewing the document again.
Most of it contained details about the declining quality of the mined magic stones and findings that contamination had been detected in the vein.
But nowhere was there any mention of the “warning signs” Anellia had spoken of.
Her expression slowly hardened.
“……Now that I look at it, something that should be here is missing.”
When she first received the report about the contamination, Sharon Abner had been occupied with the weapons business.
The documents regarding the mine investigation had all been filled with complicated and difficult terminology.
Who was it that had offered to help her back then?
“Sister-in-law! My goodness, you must have been shocked! This is my field, so if you leave it to me, I’ll investigate it thoroughly for you. I know a very capable geologist.”
Camilla’s voice suddenly echoed through her mind.
Sharon Abner slowly lowered the document.
At that moment, they heard Anellia tilting her head and mumbling to herself.
“That’s weird. Why did Gerard suddenly come to mind? Back when he lied and said my milk had gone bad so he could secretly drink it himself, I was really upset…”
Wendel and Sharon exchanged glances.
Silence fell briefly before Sharon spoke.
“Anellia.”
The child quickly looked up.
“Yes?”
“That refining formula you mentioned earlier.”
“Yes! Ria knows refining formulas!”
“Explain it to me in detail.”
Anellia’s eyes widened before she broke into a bright smile.
Then she began speaking.
The refining formula was an extremely complex magic formula.
Both Sharon and I knew that.
“So then, I still haven’t learned this formula yet, so I don’t know it. I’m not sure how to expand it.”
“Then you’re saying you understand everything before that?”
“Yes! But I think this alone could still make magic stones!”
Sharon Abner’s expression became intensely serious.
“Could you explain it in more detail? I’ve never studied magic formulas, so even your current explanation is difficult for me to understand.”
I quickly nodded.
“So, raw ore has regular stone and magic stone all mixed together, right?”
“Yes.”
“And the refining formula finds the useless stones among them and removes them.”
“And then?”
“The hardest part of the refining formula happens when it tries to identify the stones…”
Using practiced movements, I changed several symbols in the formula.
“I thought it’d be better if we changed it like this.”
But Sharon Abner still looked completely unable to understand what difference my revised formula made.
So I explained carefully.
“Instead of finding the stones and removing them, you use a purification formula and absorb them directly into the ore!”
Though refining formulas were far more complicated than purification formulas, the difference between them was actually very simple.
In a way, it was just a change in perspective.
The pen moved beneath my hand.
“Then this part can change like this, and if you change this again…”
“……”
The amount of magic stones produced would increase, and the refining process would become shorter as well.
In my previous life, I had tripled the Longturn family’s fortune using this method.
“It’s super easy, right? It’s still incomplete, but once I get a teacher and learn just a little more, I’ll finish it really quickly!”
I giggled.
Then swallowed nervously as I looked at the speechless Sharon Abner.
‘The calculations aren’t that complicated, so it should be fine… right?’
In truth, I had first thought of this idea when I was around six years old in my previous life.
“Amazing.”
Sharon Abner murmured with a deeply serious expression.
I froze briefly before awkwardly smiling.
“No! Thank you.”
Maybe because it had been such a long time since I’d received praise, the feeling was strangely unfamiliar.
