“……”

Shiloh dropped her gaze to the floor.

She had looked into loans everywhere, but no one was willing to lend money to someone with no financial history whatsoever. Even the convent had quoted a fairly high interest rate, and she had nearly given up when she found a pawnshop with a rate that was at least somewhat lower.

Shiloh looked up and blinked.

“Would you be my investor?”

The unexpected proposal made Kyle flinch.

“Me?”

“If you issue me an official license, I’ll make sure you earn more than the reward money.”

Kyle’s eyes wavered under Shiloh’s earnest gaze.

“An investor…… I’ve never thought about it.”

Seeing his expression waver, Shiloh quickly added.

“Don’t worry. I’ll show you a business plan, and you can decide after you’ve looked it over.”

Shiloh didn’t have high expectations that he would actually invest in her shop. Investing in trade ships or pioneering new sea routes would yield far greater returns than a small bakery.

The investment proposal was her way of showing goodwill toward Kyle. In her own way, she was working out how to keep him from reporting her.

There was a business calculation in it too, of course.

‘If I get someone who moves through the imperial palace on my side, wouldn’t that help the business as well?’

A low voice pulled her out of her calculations.

“That doesn’t sound bad.”

“Pardon?”

Shiloh’s expression went blank at the unexpected answer.

“Didn’t you hear me?”

“I heard.”

“When can I see the business plan?”

“I’ll show you in three days.”

“Good. Let’s meet here in the evening three days from now.”

“Thank you. Thank you so much.”

Shiloh bowed repeatedly with a dazed expression.

“Enough with the bowing.”

“……”

Kyle reached into the inner pocket of his tunic and pulled out a small cylindrical box. It was a green silk case.

“What is this?”

“It’s a medicinal tea that strengthens stamina. Even the emperor drinks a brewed version of this tea while attending to state affairs.”

“Something that precious, why would you give it to me……”

Shiloh looked back and forth between the medicine case and Kyle, her voice trailing off.

She hesitated without taking the box, and Kyle pressed it into her hands.

He avoided her gaze and touched the back of his neck.

“The palace has more medicine than it needs. I was going to throw it out.”

“Pardon?”

Shiloh took the box and blinked with a bewildered expression.

“Don’t think of it as nagging, but make sure you drink it once a day without fail. You look like you’re about to collapse and it worries me.”

Kyle said it with a stiff expression.

“……”

Shiloh lowered her eyes blankly.

‘He’s even looking after my health, so he’s probably not going to report me.’

A thread of relief eased into her expression.

“Thank you. You said imperial physician? Your name……”

“Robert Harris.”

Kyle’s expression was calm, but his neck had gone red.

The real Robert Harris was an elderly physician with a deeply wrinkled face and thinning hair that showed his scalp. He had been the imperial physician until recently, but was retiring and planning to spend his later years in his hometown, so he had returned his imperial physician’s identification. Meticulous in all things, Kyle had brought the discarded card to give Shiloh a sense of trust, so she would reliably brew and drink the medicinal tea.

Delivering the medicine had been the entire purpose of the visit, but unexpected things had happened.

Kyle turned to leave and glanced back at Shiloh, who stood there looking like she had lost her mind.

“If anyone asks to see your license, just tell them you lost it and have applied to the palace for a reissue.”

“……”

Kyle left those words behind and disappeared into the white sunlight.

Jingle. jingle.

Shiloh stood there in a daze, then finally drew in a deep breath at the sound of the wind chime.

“Phew……”

She let out a sigh of relief, strode into the kitchen, and opened the small storage room door at the back.

The moment the door opened, a rush of cool air hit her face. It was because of the ‘refrigeration magic stone’ kept inside.

The imperial court of the Amondi Empire provided ‘Potencia’ magic stones to the mages of the magic tower and had some made into everyday artifact items. The ‘refrigeration magic stone’ was traded at a low price so that common people could use it easily. Placed in an enclosed space, it turned that space into a freezer or refrigerator.

Gulp gulp.

Shiloh poured water from the refrigerated storage into a cup and drank it down, then caught her breath.

“Ha…… that was close.”

Fortunately, the imperial physician she had just met had been well-disposed toward her.

She put the water back in the storage and closed the door, then turned and stopped mid-step.

‘He doesn’t seem like he’ll report me…… but surely he won’t actually invest, will he?’

*

Chancellor Lemiere finished a late lunch and enjoyed a solitary walk in the rear gardens of Montewarre Castle.

Lost in thought, he wandered without noticing into a corner of the garden. There he happened to catch sight of Duke Ethan and Count Erald seated on a rock, exchanging hushed words.

The sight of the two leading figures of the noble faction together unsettled him, and when the phrase ‘His Majesty’ reached his ears, he instinctively hid himself behind a shrub.

Rowella’s father, Count Erald, was on close terms with Duke Ethan of the Tsepeshu family, a house of founding merit.

Duke Ethan, with his short silver hair and sharp features, was a man who could once have become emperor.

“The true emperor material is right here…… the heavens are indifferent indeed.”

In the Amondi Empire, if no successor chosen by the Sun God emerged, the throne was inherited by a member of a prominent family chosen by vote. At the time, Ethan had been the most likely candidate, but Kyle’s appearance had changed everything in an instant.

“You should be careful with your words.”

But contrary to his words, a satisfied smile flashed briefly across Ethan’s lips.

“My apologies. Ha…… watching His Majesty lose his composure in the courtroom kept me up at night. Could any of us not be targeted for fault-finding at any moment?”

“……”

“The proxy of the Sun God is said to possess a heart that embraces the cosmos, yet he cannot control a single fit of temper. Did he not suffer a complete defeat against you, Duke, at last year’s jousting tournament? I find myself doubting whether he is truly the Sun God’s proxy.”

Ethan, listening to Count Erald, curved his lips into a crooked smile.

About a year ago, Kyle had faced Ethan at a jousting tournament. Jousting was a mounted contest with lances, and it was standard practice to wear heavy armor to prevent injury. But Kyle had entered the match boldly in thin leather armor.

He had drawn admiration and eager anticipation from the crowd and advanced all the way to the final, only to be knocked from his horse with Ethan’s lance driven deep into his abdomen.

Left with a severe scar on his stomach, he had since become so sensitive about it that he disliked even having servants assist him in the bath.

“Even if the Sun God once chose His Majesty as his proxy, perhaps he has since abandoned him.”

“Pardon?”

Ethan continued with a thin smirk.

“The proxy of the Sun God must have the energy to bear great power. They say that if one cannot bear the power, one eventually goes mad, do they not?”

“In that case……”

“His Majesty may be in the midst of that very process.”

Lemiere, listening from behind the bushes, let out a troubled sigh and rubbed his face.

*

“Why do we have so few customers?”

A young woman carrying a child in her arms let out a deep sigh.

The child nestled against her cooed and babbled with a cheerful, oblivious smile.

“People must be making their own bread in the communal ovens these days!”

The middle-aged man walked straight ahead without even glancing at his wife.

“If it keeps dropping, we’re in real trouble. What are we going to do?”

“What do you mean, what are we going to do? We close up and move to the countryside!”

“I heard that new confectionery has customers lined up without end……”

“You never stop chattering. You’re giving me a headache!”

The man picked up his pace and walked ahead.

Thirty minutes from Shiloh’s bakery, on the main road, stood a confectionery roughly seven times the size of her shop. The couple who ran it had been on edge lately as their sales continued to fall, and in the middle of all that came the unbelievable news that the newly opened confectionery was overflowing with customers.

Around the time the sunset caught on the bell tower, the couple closed their shop and made their way to Shiloh’s Bakery.

When they saw the line snaking through the narrow alley, their faces went blank.

“Why are there so many people here?”