Though he looked like a weak merchant on the outside, he was someone who had repeatedly managed kidnapping and escape against the Emperor and Crown Prince even without Adelia. She believed he would quickly recover from just falling into momentary fear, since he would have fled first using the artifact she provided if something serious had happened.

“Of course, since time is precious, we should make him snap out of it.”

Adelia turned her head sharply. As she wiggled her fingers while keeping her arms crossed, cold water poured down on Conrad’s head.

The water disappeared after giving only a cold sensation when it touched Conrad’s head. Thanks to that, nothing around them got wet.

With Lucian’s fierce gaze gone and having received Adelia’s water splash, Conrad snapped back to his senses.

‘It’s jealousy! This is 100% jealousy!’

Conrad held both of his temples and hung his head low.

He had attended dozens of banquets representing the guild in Adelia’s place. Even before that, he had lived running a small shop, so he was skilled at reading people.

‘He’s someone who always hid his emotions… what’s going on! Could it be that he really likes Master?’

Even for him, there were people whose emotions were hard to read—namely Lucian and the Emperor.

Not only did they naturally have little change in emotion, but they were also skilled at hiding it.

It was amazing enough that such a Lucian was showing emotion, but the fact that it was jealousy made Conrad scream an internal shriek close to a wail.

‘No! I can’t let Master be taken away! There’s no better boss than her!’

Suddenly feeling a crisis, Conrad jerked his head up. The thought of possibly losing Adelia made his fear of Lucian completely disappear.

Traces of irritation and jealousy still remained on Lucian’s face that had softened because of Adelia. However, such things no longer registered in Conrad’s eyes.

‘I must show perfect work so Master definitely won’t fall for him! I need to show that the doormat at her feet is a golden doormat so she won’t fall for the Crown Prince!’

Conrad clenched both fists while burning with motivation.

Looking at the work alone, being the Deputy Guild Master of the Eileen Merchant Guild was not meant for humans. Having to handle external affairs in place of the Guild Master and act as aide to a Guild Master without any aides, even ten bodies wouldn’t be enough.

What drove him to accomplish all that work was the salty compensation. The amount when combining salary and performance bonuses was so generous it made his tongue tingle.

“If you’ve come to your senses, take out the report.”

Adelia indifferently wiggled her fingers.

Neither Lucian nor Adelia batted an eye at Conrad’s strange behavior. Lucian had no interest in Conrad, and Adelia was now used to his strange actions.

Conrad cleared his throat once or twice as if embarrassed. Then he took out documents from his briefcase.

“Here it is. Please read.”

Conrad placed the report on the table, turning it for Adelia’s easy reading.

“Banquet Celebrating the Start of Trade with the Holy Kingdom?”

Lucian tilted his head while reading the title on the report. Since she said it was something he should know too, he had naturally thought it was related to white magic stones.

At the sudden mention of Holy Kingdom trade, Lucian raised his eyebrows and asked,

“What is this?”

“Ah, Your Highness doesn’t know yet. We received a reply from the saintess. She said the Holy Kingdom’s high priests accepted the trade.”

“Those stubborn old men agreed?”

“The saintess seems to have sold me out by saying that when she received divine revelation, instead of a pure white space, there was rainbow-like five-colored light as if torn from rainbows everywhere. They believe the temple is white because they think the space where God exists is white. But since she said the space with God was wrapped in brilliant light, now the temple must change too. The Holy Kingdom is the start, and trade is needed for that. Especially the special glass our guild has prepared.”

The high priests in the Holy Kingdom were truly people obsessed with God.

They had opposed trade citing tradition, but immediately accepted when divine revelation was mentioned. Their attitude had completely changed.

Though the official letter with the Holy Kingdom’s position was still earnestly making its way to the Empire, the saintess and Adelia had already finished their discussion via communication stone.

Lucian stroked his chin at this unexpected information.

“The banquet will be held at the palace of course?”

“No, I’ve already secured a location.”

“What? Where?”

“Duke Aurum’s residence. The Duke responded saying he’d lend the banquet hall for free.”

An unexpected family name came from Adelia’s lips. Not the palace, not a building owned by the Eileen Merchant Guild, but Duke Aurum’s banquet hall.

Lucian couldn’t understand Adelia’s intention. Instead, he recalled the Duke Aurum family lineage.

Whether there were any unmarried sons his age there was more important.

Fortunately, all of Duke Aurum’s sons were married. Though being married wasn’t complete reassurance, they weren’t foolish enough to flirt with the Crown Princess.

“Duke Aurum’s residence? Do you have connections there?”

“Not at all. The Duke just seems to want to be involved with the Eileen Merchant Guild.”

“But didn’t you give me documents about Duke Aurum’s corruption? And the current Duke’s abilities are insignificant. I don’t think getting involved would be beneficial.”

“That’s why I chose it.”

As Lucian completely failed to notice Adelia’s scheme, the corners of her mouth crept upward.

It was her small hobby to devise profound schemes and personally explain them to those who failed to notice.

“The House of Aurum is a historic family that helped found the empire. They once controlled the empire’s trade. Their banquet hall is the largest after the palace’s, and will provide a splendid stage befitting their family name. Most importantly, it’s a family I won’t feel sorry for at all if the banquet is ruined and the host gets in trouble.”

“…… This isn’t an ordinary commemorative banquet.”

Watching Adelia’s eyes as she explained, Lucian finally discovered the hidden secret in the banquet.

When her blue eyes sank and the otherworldly colors rippled in their depths, it was always related to revenge.

Given her use of the word ‘stage’, he could tell it was about deceiving others like their previous banquets.

“I’ll tell you the details separately later.”

Adelia didn’t say everything here.

Though her relationship with Lucian was deeply personal, her connection with Conrad was strictly professional. Sharing plans beyond what he needed to know would only add to the weight of his inner burdens.

Adelia put a finger to her lips and smiled with a ‘shh’. She quickly turned her head to pick up the report.

But seeing that smile, Lucian couldn’t stop his heart from pounding. Desire surged to caress that lovely smile where her eyes folded gently into crescents.

Though there was no way Adelia beside him could hear his heartbeat, Lucian averted his gaze to calm himself thinking she might be able to.

It was good to realize he loved Adelia, but he wanted to put shackles on his heart that kept pounding whenever he saw her.

“Hmm…… You organized this well.”

Adelia let out small praise while reading through the report.

Though she had only read the title and date so far, she gave praise first. It was a treat for the whip that would follow.

“May I look as well?”

Lucian leaned in abruptly. Though they were still sitting more than a hand span apart, his bent posture brought them very close.

It was Lucian’s trick—unable to give up being near her but knowing Adelia would be uncomfortable if he moved his seat closer.

Conrad, watching this with disapproval, made a small groaning sound. Now he hated seeing the two of them close together.

Conrad held out another document between their faces that were close enough for barely two finger widths to fit between.

“Haha, I happened to make two copies of the report. Your Highness can look at this one.”

“Shouldn’t you need that one?”

“Don’t worry. I have everything I wrote memorized.”

Though Lucian sent Conrad a gaze close to murderous intent, he didn’t flinch as if protected by a barrier.

The situation was finally settled as Lucian accepted the document Conrad held out.

“The important thing is that our guild will be trading with the Holy Kingdom. So that needs to be emphasized more.”

“Should I make the text bigger then?”

“Increase the size and change the font too, let’s use an elegant script that nobles like. And listen. This is a banquet related to the Holy Kingdom. Instead of these flashy decorations, use white, transparent, elegant but expensive decorations.”

“Won’t that be too plain?”

“It’s plain but the people coming are nobles and guild masters. They have the eye to recognize value. And the most splendid things there will be our goods. If you understand, revise and bring it back.”

Adelia meticulously pointed out unsatisfactory parts while reading the report.

Conrad didn’t just accept her words unconditionally but expressed his own opinions. Then he accepted Adelia’s opinions and recorded the revisions.

Sometimes Conrad’s added opinions were better, but mostly he accepted Adelia’s opinions.

“Well, these changes should be enough.”

“…… Someone listening would think there were only one or two things to fix.”

Conrad narrowed his eyes and glared at Adelia.

As he jotted down the points that needed fixing, they amounted to nearly half the report’s volume. Thanks to Adelia’s fervent guidance, both his skills and workload had grown significantly. 

Thinking about the extra work awaiting him, Conrad let out a deep sigh and shoved the report into his bag.