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Chapter : 18
The magic I’ve devoted the most effort to mastering over the years amounts to two kinds.
One is telekinesis.
The other is “copy,” the ability to duplicate objects exactly as they are.
Naturally, I had already copied plenty of mana stones in advance.
‘That’s why I could show them so easily.’
To begin with, what the duchess swallowed wasn’t the original anyway.
I’d like to offer my sincerest condolences to the duchess, who went through all that suffering without knowing the circumstances.
‘But this is this, and that is that~.’
The duke and duchess muttered as they looked at the mana stones scattered across the floor.
“Don’t tell me those mana stones are all…?”
“No. That’s impossible….”
Despite their words denying reality, their faces drained completely of color.
Watching the couple’s spirits utterly shatter, I spoke brightly.
“Do you have a sense now of just how serious a crisis you’re facing?”
At my voice, the trembling couple looked up at me.
Their earlier confidence was nowhere to be seen; both were visibly terrified.
I drove in the final nail.
“Especially lately, with the terror incident targeting Her Highness the Crown Princess, the issue of the Second Prince’s treason has come back into the spotlight. If you still don’t grasp the situation, House Seind may be wiped out in your generation, Father~.”
There wasn’t a shred of exaggeration in my words.
A few years ago, a marquis family that had been discovered with these very mana stones was cleanly erased by the Crown Prince’s hand.
They were a powerful, long-established house, but before the word treason, no one remained intact.
The couple must have remembered that shocking incident as well, because they shook their heads violently.
“N-no. That must never happen!”
“Ea—no, please! We were wrong!”
“Then please get up quickly and have a seat on the sofa.”
I leaned back against the sofa with ease and whispered,
“We still have something to talk about, don’t we?”
The eyes of the duke and duchess, who were looking at me, darkened with deep defeat.
And then—
The two of them stood up weakly and sat back down in their previous seats.
I watched the process with interest.
‘When a person realizes that no matter what they do they can’t win, how do they become so obedient?’
I’d seen this scene countless times in my previous life.
The stubborn, the arrogant, the greedy—
In front of a fatal weakness, they all eventually knelt.
‘They must have realized it.’
That sometimes submitting to the other party costs far less than what they’d lose otherwise.
“Now then~, let’s see your sincerity once again.”
Tenfold.
The selling price of the mana stones I proposed had increased ten times over the original amount.
“Is this amount still not to your satisfaction?”
The duke clenched his fists so hard they nearly bled, but in the end, he shook his head.
“I’ll… accept your proposal.”
Yes, that was the natural response.
What I held wasn’t just anything—it was leverage tying them directly to treason.
And yet, the reason they could be so arrogant at first—
‘It seems the real Eani Nasel was seriously underestimated.’
But as of today, their reign is over.
That couple has been reborn as my perfect cash cows—no, even better than Harten Seind~.
I looked at the utterly cowed duke and duchess and lifted the corners of my lips in satisfaction.
Afterward, we drew up a simple contract and even took a commemorative photo of the day.
Photography wasn’t as advanced as in modern times, so the quality wasn’t great, but you could still tell who was who, so it didn’t matter much.
“Is that all you have to say now?”
“…I’m returning to the capital immediately. I don’t want to stay here for even one second.”
Barely an hour after speaking with me, the duke and duchess muttered those words with haggard faces.
Watching them, I snapped my thumb and forefinger.
A faint light flickered briefly at the duchess’s chest, then vanished.
“W-what was that?!”
At the startled duchess, I said lightly,
“I removed the mana stone you swallowed, Mother. Just a little service~.”
“You removed it?”
“My goodness.”
Seeing that they didn’t quite believe me, I swept away all the other copied mana stones in the reception room as well.
Deleting mana stones wasn’t particularly difficult for someone with the aptitude of an archmage like me.
But judging by their reactions, it was no small matter to them—they stared in shock, mouths agape.
“I couldn’t destroy it no matter what I tried….”
“They said only a handful in the Mage Tower could do it.”
I could understand their astonishment.
In fact, nobles who had barely managed to steal recording mana stones from the Second Prince’s palace—including Seind—had gone through enormous trouble trying to get rid of them.
‘The most popular method was to request removal from the Mage Tower.’
The problem was that there were so few mages capable of destroying mana stones that it was easy to narrow them down.
The Mage Tower did protect clients’ information by default, but once the mage was identified, that protection meant little.
‘As a result, most nobles who requested mana stone removal from the Mage Tower were caught by the Crown Prince and had their families wiped out.’
That was why Duke Seind had chosen the primitive method of burying the mana stone.
‘Still, he did put some thought into it.’
On an uninhabited island farthest from the capital among the islands the Seinds owned,
the sturdiest safe passed down through generations of the ducal house,
and even large amounts of cash to deceive anyone who might find the safe—
He hid the mana stone quite thoroughly, and after several years had passed,
‘He must have forgotten about it, thinking it would never be discovered.’
Then, upon learning belatedly that I would be staying on this island, he hurried down here.
The situation was easy to picture, and I let out a small laugh.
“Should I start accepting requests like the Mage Tower~?”
At my sudden comment, the duke and duchess turned their gaze to me.
Tucking the copied contract neatly into my clothes, I stood up from the sofa.
“Every time you listen well to what I say, I’ll remove one mana stone for you.”
“R-really?”
“How many mana stones did you copy in total?”
“That’s—”
Their attention focused on my lips as I was about to speak.
I replied cheerfully,
“A~ secret.”
It wouldn’t be fun if you knew in advance, right?
Their expressions darkened at my words, but what choice did they have?
Now that they were completely in the subordinate position, they had no option but to bow low.
‘That was a fun time.’
And just like that, I’d secured a massive stream of liquid assets as well~.
In a good mood, I left the reception room. Elin, who had been waiting the whole time, approached me.
“Lady Eani, are you all right?”
She held out a handkerchief, looking at me with concern.
I blinked quietly, then lightly touched the spot where her gaze rested.
I felt a small wound on my neck.
‘Looks like I got lightly cut by the duke’s sword.’
“Does it hurt? You should go see a physician right away…!”
Elin whispered with a slightly teary face, clearly upset over my injury.
I didn’t answer, just watched her for a moment.
Then I turned my head and looked back at the duke and duchess slumped on the sofa.
“Oh, and one more thing.”
“What now.”
The duchess spoke with a completely exhausted expression.
I said to her in a flat voice,
“Stop threatening this maid. I’m letting it go just this once.”
“!”
At my words, Elin flinched and dropped the handkerchief she was holding.
On the contrary, the duchess let out a long sigh.
“You knew everything anyway… Well, since you even found the mana stone, you must’ve quickly noticed the spy I planted.”
She muttered softly, then shot me a sideways glance.
“Fine. Just make sure you guard the mana stones properly!”
“Of course~.”
With that brief reply, I continued on and left the reception room.
Just then, from beyond the corridor, I heard the servants of House Seind rushing over, apparently having figured out how to open the locked front door.
There was no need to show them that I was perfectly fine, so I took the side stairs up to the second floor.
As I walked down the second-floor corridor, Elin came running after me from behind.
“L-Lady Eani! Lady Eani!”
Panting as she stopped me, Elin looked utterly confused.
As if she didn’t even know what to say, her hands trembling, Elin suddenly dropped to her knees.
“My siblings…! My siblings don’t know anything!”
