“The sun is bright again today.”

I don’t know why the sun in this world is so diligent. If it’s going to be diligent anyway, why doesn’t it brighten my dark future instead of the dawn?

My eyes opened automatically at my usual wake-up time, but not wanting to get up, I deliberately just rolled my eyes around inside the blanket.

Come to think of it, how did I get back to my room yesterday? Did Sebastian bring me?

I remember drinking with Sebastian, but I can’t recall anything after that.

It seems I overestimated my alcohol tolerance. Of course, it should have changed since my body changed. I should have drunk moderately.

“Miss, did you sleep well?”

Lily, who had just entered the room, greeted me.

“Yes.”

“Then get ready. You need to have breakfast.”

Is there really a need to prepare when Ilion will probably say he’s not eating breakfast today anyway?

“I’ll sleep for 30 more minutes.”

“What? But then there won’t be enough time?”

“I can just wash up quickly, brush my hair, and go down.”

“But the Duke might come…”

“He hasn’t come for nearly two weeks, let alone a day or two. Why would he come today? Even a dog in a Seodang can recite poetry after three years, shouldn’t humans, the lords of creation, be smarter? So smart me is going to sleep a bit more.”

“Se-Seodang? What?”

Leaving Lily bewildered, I drifted back into dreamland.

“Miss! Wake up quickly! Hurry!”

After falling back asleep for who knows how many minutes, I forcibly opened my eyes and got up at Lily’s urgent wake-up call.

“Why again? I told you I could sleep a bit more.”

“It’s not that, the Duke is now…”

“Now what?”

“He’s waiting for you in the dining room…”

“……”

Am I still not fully awake from my dream?

“What?”

I asked while rubbing my still sleepy eyes.

“You need to go to the dining room right now.”

Through my blurry vision, I could see Lily’s face looking upset. It seems this isn’t a dream. What wind has blown for him to say he’ll eat breakfast today?

It seems that even the lords of creation can’t understand the minds of people on the same path.

I forcibly pulled my creaking muscles and got up from my seat to sit in front of the dressing table.

My disheveled hair from sleeping was dizzily flickering in my sight. Lily was frantically combing and smoothing out the messy hair, in a panic.

“You can do it slowly.”

“What are you saying? The Duke is waiting.”

“Yaaaawn. I usually waited for him, didn’t I? He can wait once in a while, can’t he?”

As I spoke while yawning widely, Lily added a comment.

“What if the Duke starts to dislike you because of this?”

“…Hmm, that sounds good. Can you wake me up for dinner later? I’m going to sleep a bit more.”

As I said sincerely, thinking it was really a good idea, Lily looked at me with narrowed eyes.

“I-I’m joking. Of course I have to go.”

I quietly closed my mouth because Lily getting serious was scary. It’s clear that I’m at the bottom of the food chain in this mansion.

***

Unlike Lily, who was making a fuss as if the world was about to end, I leisurely opened the dining room door and greeted the Duke.

“Oh my, Duke. Have you been waiting long?”

“You’re a bit late.”

“I overslept because I couldn’t sleep well last night, thinking about you and getting excited.”

“For someone who says that, you seem to have slept quite well.”

“The blanket was so fluffy, I always sleep soundly.”

The Duke looked at me as if he couldn’t believe it. Regardless, I sat down nonchalantly.

It seems he had been waiting without eating until I arrived, as the maids brought out the food as soon as I sat down.

Unlike usual, the soup and bread were warm as if freshly cooked. Right, today it’s food for the Duke to eat. Not for an insignificant fiancée.

Having already given up, I spread butter on the warm bread that would be hard to eat if not today, and put it in my mouth.

“Magic stones were found in the land you bought recently, so I hired a mage to appraise the value of that land.”

“……?”

I looked at Ilion while swallowing the bread.

“They say there’s a considerable amount of magic stones buried there.”

“What?”

Magic stones? Why are they coming from there?

Magic stones were items that often appeared in novels. They sometimes became the power source for machines, or helped people without mana use magic.

In the novel, Ravenne had planned to harm the saintess using magic stones.

While it’s not something I couldn’t know about, it’s not something that should come from an ordinary rocky mountain, is it?

It’s clear that I’m still not fully awake from my dream. Right, it doesn’t make sense that Ilion came to eat breakfast in the first place. This must be a dream…

“So, I was thinking of investing in that mountain through the Celestine merchant group.”

“What?”

Invest? Is he serious? I secretly poked my thigh with the fork I was holding. Seeing that it hurt enough to bring tears to my eyes, this isn’t a dream…

“Um… so how much magic stone is buried?”

“The appraisal estimates it to be between 200,000 and 300,000 gold.”

My brain, which wasn’t working smoothly, seemed to buffer somewhere as if rattling. How much did I buy that for again… Certainly 2,000 gold…

“What?!”

In life, people often encounter unexpected events. Right, how nice would it be if the world went according to plan.

Sometimes hardships and adversities come and slap both cheeks, but you have to overcome them. Right…

But isn’t this a bit too much? Why is that trash land suddenly becoming a gold mine? Why on earth?

After stupidly repeating ‘What?’ from the morning and finishing breakfast, I blankly stared at the ceiling of my room.

If I take a nap now and wake up, won’t the happy event of everything that happened this morning being just a dream occur?

“As expected, Miss had it all planned out.”

I slightly turned my head to look at Lily. Somehow she had already heard the news and was looking at me with an impressed expression.

“I was worried that you might really be sick somewhere. Suddenly taking out a loan to buy land, showing interest in cults and fortune-telling… But you had intentions behind it all.”

“…Right, I did. A grand intention.”

I looked at Lily with a hollow smile. 200,000 gold? What’s the use of all that? If Ilion commits treason, it’s all property that will be confiscated by the Emperor.

From the beginning, I had no intention of doing anything with that land. What you need when running away is cash, not real estate.

If it was worth less than the neighborhood hill behind, as when I bought it, the Emperor wouldn’t care whether I owned it, Ilion owned it, or the stray cat that occasionally prowls this mansion owned it.

But now that magic stones have been found, it will probably be at the top of the confiscation list when Ilion’s property is seized.

The more its value increases, the more it becomes a minus for me.

Not only that, but Ilion thought of me as some kind of business partner.

‘I’ll have the guild invest funds. You can’t develop that land alone anyway.’

‘What?’

‘You’ll be in charge of the overall development. If you think it’s too difficult alone, I’ll assign capable people to help you.’

‘…Why?’

‘I think it’s natural since it’s your land. And since we’re about to get married, isn’t it the best picture for my side to invest? There won’t be any talk from other places either.’

I held my head. Should I rather offer to break off the engagement, giving him the land instead of alimony?

It’s worth trying, but the risk was too great.

First, it was uncertain whether a man who cares about people’s gazes and reputation would accept this.

And if I proposed the breakup first, it would reveal that everything I’ve done so far was to break up with him, and the second worry was whether he would readily accept the request of a fiancée who tried to humiliate him when this was revealed.

To put it bluntly, what if Ilion gets angry and declares that since your land will be mine anyway when we get married, he’d rather force the marriage than unnecessarily become the subject of gossip by breaking off the engagement?

My head, suddenly overloaded, went on strike again.

“By the way, where did this come from?”

Lily asked, discovering accessories in the dressing table drawer as I wriggled under the blanket, holding only my head.

“Ah, that. Remember when the fortune-teller came to the house before?”

Perhaps because I had dredged up memories I didn’t want to remember, Lily muttered in a drastically lowered mood.

“I remember. How could I forget when you personally called to exorcise ghosts? I had to apologize so much to Sebastian that day because they refused to leave until they received a tip…”

After chewing on the memory for a while, Lily turned her head abruptly.

“Don’t tell me you bought this from that scammer too?”

“Even so, calling them a scammer…”

Well, I don’t disagree with that opinion.

“How much did you pay for it?”

“One gold for all three?”

“My goodness, you spent one gold on cheap accessories made of beads that no one would take even if given for free? I’m surprised Sebastian allowed it.”

Actually, I omitted one zero at the end, but seeing Lily’s reaction, it seems I did well to omit it. Sorry for deceiving you.

Sebastian mainly managed the finances of the mansion, which included my living expenses.

So when I needed something, I would ask Sebastian for money to buy it, and that day I had received money after telling him I wanted to buy accessories.

Considering that Lily’s monthly salary was about 2 gold, 10 gold was quite a large sum, but where is this place?

This is the Celestine Duchy, where even the Sun of the empire can’t act carelessly. It means money is abundant. Yet they’re being stingy over one dress.

Ah, suddenly the story went off track. Anyway, whether it’s 1 gold or 10 gold, it doesn’t make any dent in Ilion’s wealth. He probably doesn’t even know I spent it.

I didn’t buy that item with any intention of doing something to Ilion. It’s just that when people are struggling, don’t they want to rely on something, even superstitions?

That’s why I bought it.

Accessories that make the person you want to hate you. Three of them at that.

I put on the accessories on both hands with a solemn expression. I didn’t like wearing this because it felt like admitting that I was cornered as much as possible, but now I wanted to grasp at straws.

But will Ilion really come to hate me? There’s no change even after wearing it?

I examined the bracelet that looked like it might break at any moment. When I slightly lifted the accessory to look at the back, it said ‘MADE IN CHINAA’.

“Lily, where is this?”

Showing Lily the very familiar letters, I asked, and Lily replied nonchalantly.

“It’s a neighboring country. Products from this country are cheap and good, but the quality is a bit…”

“……”