TERMS 11

So the moment Bloden turned ten, Anna sent him straight to the battlefield against magical beasts.

She never provided him with the education necessary for ruling—things like imperial studies, politics, or advanced rhetoric.

Officially, the excuse was that he would be too busy holding back the endless flood of magical beasts to have time to study.

But in reality, her goal was to crush any potential he had as an emperor.

Once Bloden became an adult, there would no longer be any justification for preventing him from ruling directly.

The future Anna envisioned most ideally was one where Bloden, exhausted from political struggles, voluntarily abdicated and spent the rest of his life living in the North.

Of course, publicly she strongly supported Emperor Bloden in her role as regent.

Behind the scenes, however, she subtly encouraged public opinion toward the idea that:

“Someone with supernatural powers should remain in the North as a grand duke, protecting the Empire by eliminating magical beasts, while a new emperor focuses entirely on governing the Empire.”

That way, the Empire would stay safe from magical beasts while also being governed efficiently.

Naturally, the idea was absurd unless Bloden willingly gave up the throne himself.

Even with the curse’s side effects, the emperor possessed overwhelming power.

So Anna’s true intentions—to pressure Bloden into abdication—were obvious to everyone.

Yet none of the nobles dared openly oppose her.

If anyone occasionally spoke a word of reason, Anna would immediately launch tax investigations and fabricate charges until that person became a criminal.

Meanwhile, nobles who supported her received tax reductions and protection for their corruption.

Between an emperor who was invisible while fighting magical beasts in the North, and a regent who actively ruled the country right before their eyes—

The nobles’ choice was obvious.

And whenever Bloden did occasionally appear, he always looked like a child.

Sometimes twelve years old.

Sometimes fifteen.

Sometimes ten.

‘What could a child possibly accomplish? In the end, he’ll just become a puppet. Lady Veldenbur would never willingly surrender power. Supporting the regent is far better for our family’s prosperity.’

The nobles naturally sided with Anna.

Understanding these political dynamics perfectly, Anna began planning the moment she received news of Bloden’s victory.

Using every resource at her disposal, she devised a strategy to maintain her regency.

And eventually, she found the perfect method.

“It seems our emperor is finally in need of a partner.”

He truly was.

Specifically, a beautiful doll who would obey Anna completely and seduce Bloden so thoroughly he lost his senses.

‘At eighteen, he’s at the height of youthful passion. A honey trap will work perfectly.’

Anna had already selected a woman capable of naturally slipping into Bloden’s life.

Princess Nelloa of the Kingdom of Kellite.

She was a beautiful young woman with brilliant orange hair and cool emerald-green eyes—pretty, but only moderately intelligent.

Not long ago, Anna secretly sent a messenger to the Kingdom of Kellite.

And Princess Nelloa’s response had returned:

[If it is beside the sun of the Ilpain Empire, I would gladly do anything.]

If Bloden became deeply infatuated with Princess Nelloa, Anna would be able to continue serving as regent.

Instead of governing as emperor, he would be too busy chasing romance and fighting magical beasts.

On top of that, by strengthening ties with the nobles who already supported her, Anna could further solidify the justification for maintaining the regency.

Nelloa could simply be blinded by luxury.

And if an heir were born between the two, Anna would personally raise and educate the child from the very beginning.

She would simply tell the child:

“Your father is always busy fighting magical beasts, and your mother is busy indulging in luxury, so you only need to listen to Grandmother.”

Then, if one day Bloden happened to die in battle—

That heir could simply be used as another weapon against magical beasts.

That way, Anna could enjoy power remembered throughout history while never worrying about monster invasions.

Having completed her calculations, Anna smiled in satisfaction.

The next day, when Baron and I brought the blue crabs we’d caught to the street vendor Ben, his expression was truly priceless.

“Wait, you don’t even seem to have crab traps or anything—how on earth did you catch blue crabs?”

What a ridiculous question.

Judging by the smell of alcohol coming from him, maybe he still wasn’t sober.

“How else would I catch them? I scooped them up with a net.”

“A net? Blue crabs mostly come out at night when you can barely see anything!”

“Yep. I caught them at night. There were lots.”

“Then… did you use a boat?”

I waved my hands dismissively at Ben’s absurd question.

“Come on, does this really look like the amount you’d catch using a boat?”

Ben’s eyes widened.

“You kept talking about catching sea snails yourself and all that, but you seriously go into the sea? At night too? Really?”

After confirming it several times, Ben opened and closed his mouth like a stunned fish before pressing a hand to his forehead.

“I thought you were joking before, but now that I look again, you’re seriously a disaster waiting to happen, miss.”

“?”

“Do you have any idea how dangerous the night sea is? You’ll die if you go in there!”

“Oh come on, why would I die? I have light, and I time the tides properly. I don’t even go very deep.”

At my calm answer, Ben thumped his chest in frustration.

“Sea slimes roam around at night!”

“Sea slimes…? What’s that?”

“Wait, you seriously don’t know? Good grief.”

Sighing heavily, Ben explained what sea slimes were.

After hearing it, chills ran down my spine.

“No wonder nobody else was there.”

So that was the reason.

I really had been lucky.

I’d been worrying about how much my income would drop if I couldn’t forage at night anymore, but while listening to Ben, I suddenly realized why I’d survived.

“During the day, sunlight’s bright enough that sea slimes stay hidden. But at night there’s usually no strong light like that. Torches aren’t enough.”

In that case, I was actually fine entering the sea at night.

Because I had Search.

Ben earnestly warned me again.

“I’ll seriously pay top price for these blue crabs, so don’t ever enter the night sea again, alright? Life’s hard enough already without having to collect corpses.”

Hearing his concern made me feel unexpectedly warm inside.

He’d tried to scam me on the sea snail prices, sure, but he still seemed like a good person overall.

“Thank you for worrying about me. Thanks to you, I learned important information too. But I think I’ll still be okay, so please keep buying from me.”

“Huh?”

“I have a really bright light, you see. Still, I’ll be careful.”

Ben clearly looked confused, but once I told him to just pay me for the crabs, he stopped arguing and nodded.

Today, I ended up with even more money than yesterday.

At this rate, I felt like Baron and I could finally have a proper meal together.

So I took Baron to a nearby restaurant.

We’d already handled most of the urgent necessities, and after eating nothing but sea snails for two days, I wanted to feed him something decent.

Soon, the dishes we ordered were placed in front of us.

As I cut the nicely grilled meat into bite-sized pieces, my earlier conversation with Ben came back to mind.

The more I thought about it, the luckier I realized I’d been.

And no matter how I looked at it, surviving had been entirely thanks to Baron.

‘If I’d lived alone, eventually I definitely would’ve gone night foraging with nothing but a torch. And then I’d have been eaten by a sea slime.’

Baron had removed the death flag hanging over me.

“What’s wrong?”

Maybe because I’d been staring at him too intently, Baron tilted his head in confusion.

Smiling, I placed a piece of meat into his mouth.

“I realized again that you’re basically a lucky charm. Thank you so much, Baron.”

“Hm?”

“After hearing Mr. Ben explain things, I think Search is the reason I survived. And you’re the one who caught Search for me, right? So that basically makes you my lifesaver. Plus thanks to that, I earned more money too.”

I truly meant it.

As I grinned happily, Baron’s eyes curved softly as he smiled too.

‘Good grief, his smile is way too pretty.’

I should treat Baron even better from now on.

No—actually, it’d be better to do something for him right away.

Even if his family had fallen, he was still originally a noble, so…

While eating, I suddenly came up with a clever idea.

“Baron, your identity is properly registered, right? So you can use a bank too?”

“I think so?”

“Perfect. Strike while the iron’s hot—let’s go somewhere after we finish eating.”

“Go where?”