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Chapter : 13
When I speared the fruit with a fork and took a bite, a sweet-and-tangy juice—unlike anything I’d ever tasted on Earth—burst across my mouth.
“Mmm~. It really is delicious~.”
My senses, finely tuned to popular appeal, were screaming.
This is guaranteed to be a hit!
For the record, I wasn’t the one who discovered this fruit.
“Among those we were cultivating, I selected the ones that ripened to the best color and seemed to have the highest sugar content. Does it suit your taste?”
“It’s the best tropical fruit I’ve ever eaten!”
At my praise, Birt pushed up his glasses with a proud expression.
He’d always been interested in plants, and apparently spent his time outside of my treatments observing the ecosystem of Tadivna Island.
In the process, he discovered this fruit and secretly carried out research and cultivation.
‘And since he decided to take my side, he reported it to me separately like this.’
From what I heard, he’d pursued the research quite seriously.
He’d consulted several academy peers knowledgeable in agriculture, and even went off the island on his days off to continue his studies.
The more Birt researched the fruit, the more certain he became.
“This fruit is a variety that grows only on Tadivna Island! In any other region, the seeds don’t even germinate!”
At his words, I smiled softly.
What wonderful news this was.
A delicious fruit that can only be eaten here!
And—
‘Chefs who’ll develop all kinds of recipes with this fruit!’
The fruit’s rarity? Of course that’s good.
But more important than that is making as many people as possible aware of how good it tastes.
‘That way, people will come flooding onto the island.’
So we had to turn everything we could into tourist products.
Desserts were a given—let’s use it in welcome drinks too!
Let it age and make wine, and for all ages, jams and jellies would be great!
‘And we’ll spread the rumor! That the real flesh can’t even be compared to those processed foods!’
Oh my, I can hear it so clearly~.
Hear what?
‘The clinking sound of gold coins piling up in my warehouse~.’
Hiding none of my delight, I asked Birt,
“Have you decided on a name for the fruit?”
Birt was the one who first discovered it, and he’d willingly informed me of its existence.
I was more than happy to give him that much authority.
At my question, Birt nodded.
“I’m thinking of naming it Redib. Since the peel is yellow, I combined Rere, which means yellow in the language of the southern natives, with Tadivna’s name.”
“Good! And you’ve already ordered all the magical equipment needed for mass-producing Redib from the Mage Tower?”
“Yes! I organized and sent the item lists, so they should arrive soon. Ah—here’s the receipt.”
So he really did have connections at the Mage Tower—looks like even the discreet backdoor deals moved quickly.
Looking over the receipt, I saw that the prices were at least double the market rate.
‘Well, figures.’
Everything from the Mage Tower is expensive by default.
And since it wasn’t an official purchase, there was probably an extra “service fee” added on top.
‘Still, this surcharge is within expectations.’
Harten had left me a decent amount of cash, telling me to use it to develop the island.
Thanks to that, we’d managed to cover Bellin and Selin’s travel expenses and the cost of the tools ordered from the Mage Tower…
‘But scouting the valuable personnel from the Quind Hotel wasn’t part of the original budget.’
No matter how generous Harten’s cash was, it wasn’t enough to freely employ multiple people.
Still, with things moving this quickly, I couldn’t exactly sit back and relax.
‘I’ll have to move at the same pace~.’
I rose leisurely from my seat and looked at Elin.
“Elin, clear out one side of my bedroom.”
“Right now?”
“A very large thing is going to be coming in.”
At my words, Elin tilted her head in confusion.
I smiled gently at her.
“Did you know? There’s a treasure hidden on this island~.”
Tadivna Island is an uninhabited island.
Thanks to that, everything outside this villa remained untouched, in its natural state.
Humming to myself, I walked along an untrimmed path outside the villa.
Elin, who followed closely behind me, asked in a worried voice,
“Lady Eani, where are you going? If you go any further, it could be dangerous…”
She seemed quite uneasy about me stepping beyond the villa grounds.
Considering how she’d finished tidying up the bedroom in a flash and then stubbornly followed me, her devotion was touching—so I decided to show her clearly what I was about to do.
“We’re going to use this whole area as a resort eventually, so of course I need to know it well~.”
I replied casually while checking the map of Tadivna Island that Birt had personally drawn.
Elin’s face stiffened in shock.
“A-all of it? I thought we were just opening the villa itself to outsiders?”
Strictly speaking, that would have been the easiest approach.
The villa had plenty of empty rooms and all the amenities meant for a duke’s household.
But then there’d be nothing to differentiate us from the Quind Hotel.
‘If we just imitate them, we’ll definitely get swallowed up.’
I’d need to hear Bellin’s full report for details, but that much was easy to predict.
A top-tier chain hotel that had its grip on the vast lands of a great empire.
To compete with that, we needed a completely different selling point.
‘Which means we need to invest properly.’
Of course, I wasn’t about to transform this forested area overnight.
For now, the goal was simply to find the ‘treasure’ hidden on the island~.
“Ah, here it is.”
After walking for a while, we reached our destination.
A crescent-moon-shaped rock you encounter if you walk straight south from the villa!
‘It really is hollowed out on just one side, just like the name suggests.’
Thanks to that, it was hard to mistake.
According to the original story, the treasure was definitely buried somewhere near this crescent rock.
So we needed to dig—but the problem was—
‘I don’t know exactly which direction, or how deep.’
On top of that, the only tool suitable for digging at the villa was a single shovel left behind by the old caretaker.
So I’d devised another method.
“Elin, stick right next to me. Otherwise, you might get hurt~.”
“Huh?”
After issuing the warning, I closed my eyes and focused.
The familiar energy within my body began to stir.
‘If I don’t have proper tools, and I don’t know the exact location…’
Why not just flip the whole area over?
Sometimes, the simplest idea is the fastest solution.
Flash—!
I opened my eyes.
At the same time, I released my power, and with a tremendous roar, the nearby ground shook as if struck by an earthquake.
Kugugung—!
The earth was torn apart. Thick trees and scattered rocks let out awful noises as they sank into the ground.
A few seconds later—
An area with a radius of about 500 meters centered on the crescent rock had been completely dug up.
“This is unbelievable…”
Hearing Elin’s mutter, I slowly lifted the corners of my mouth.
‘This turned out better than I expected?’
Not a trace of the once-lush trees or grass remained.
Even an excavator wouldn’t have cleared the land this cleanly.
‘With this, construction will be much easier…!’
I clenched and unclenched my hand, gauging how much strength I had left.
The power pooled inside me felt completely fine—sloshing around as if nothing were wrong—so I could easily repeat this several times over an even wider area.
My fist tightened on its own.
‘Magic really is cheating.’
And this cheat-like power is mine.
‘This is amazing~!’
If I weren’t a mage myself, I might’ve tried to snag a top-tier mage from somewhere.
Smiling brightly, I surveyed the evenly flattened land.
Just then, Elin—who’d been standing there dazed—pointed at something.
“L-Lady Eani, look over there!”
I followed her finger and saw something rectangular jutting out near the rock.
It must have been buried deep underground, then pushed up as the earth upheaved.
‘That’s it.’
I approached and used magic to pull it fully free.
A large, extremely sturdy safe revealed itself.
“Why would there be a safe on an uninhabited island?”
‘Why do you think?’
“The owner of this island buried it.”
