<Episode 7>
“The main point.”
The duke—who lived in worse conditions than his own people yet still looked more noble than any imperial royal—finally spoke.
I quickly got to the point.
“I want to bring food supplies into the castle and hire a cook.”
Then I held up a pouch of gold coins—each one almost as big as an adult’s head.
Freshly made, still-warm continental gold coins.
I couldn’t cook delicious meals myself, but I could at least create the money to pay someone who could.
The dream of every alchemist—turning stone into gold—was possible for me. Walking gold mine.
That was me.
“Gold works in Bellmeier too, right?”
Clink, clink.
[Bellmeier Winter Castle Job Posting
Work: Buying and managing food supplies, cooking three meals a day
Requirements: Cook of any age or gender
Work environment: Easy workload, family-like atmosphere, homeowner’s indifference
Salary: 100 gold]
“Do as you want.”
The duke, who seemed bothered by everything, told me only that.
As soon as I got permission, I made dozens of flyers and sent them all around the capital.
Fsh.
Nishe tossed the paper he was reading into the air and clicked his tongue.
“I’ll say this first—don’t expect much.”
“Nishe, gold works everywhere.”
“Try offering gold to a monster. See if that works too.”
“The duchy’s people are human, and humans move for money.”
That was the belief I lived with—coming from a capitalist modern world to a fake medieval society with a class system.
“We don’t have money.”
Zephy—who called his teleportation-like power “running”—returned from delivering the flyers and calmly pointed it out.
Honestly, he spoiled me a lot. Something about my soul being pretty?
“Who said you guys were paying?”
It was obvious they were broke.
“I’m rich.”
Even if it was through magical alchemy.
As for what that ability really was—
Magic had subfields, and one of them was transformation magic with alchemy mixed in…
‘It’s not a popular field. The formulas are complicated.’
Most mages chose pure magic. It was standard, flashy, and used mana freely.
Yes—freely used mana.
Because of that, my older brother Noahren, blessed with massive mana, devoted himself to pure magic, while I walked the minor path of magical alchemy.
For a simple reason—this field produced maximum results with minimal mana.
‘If only I had more mana… No. Forget it.’
No point whining now. I had long reached the level where I could turn stones into pure gold—probably the only one on the continent who could.
In other words, even if I had nothing right now, I could become rich anytime I wanted.
“So just wait. I’m going to make sure you guys eat real food.”
And, well… I’d eat too.
“Why bother doing something so pointless?”
Nishe grumbled again.
He really must suffer from some illness where he gets tongue sores unless he picks fights every moment.
Whether they felt no need to improve the castle’s horrible conditions or not—it wasn’t pointless.
Everything needed stages.
I had a grand plan to improve Bellmeier step by step so it wouldn’t fall to the Empire.
And I had the duke as my backing.
I mean, he said it himself:
“I don’t care why you came.”
“Do whatever you want.”
“Whatever.”
—He clearly said it.
So I summed up my ambition in one sentence.
“Humans… live on food.”
Zephy, whose intelligence level made him believe any nonsense I said, nodded even though he clearly didn’t understand.
“I get it.”
Two days after putting up my bold job posting.
Contrary to my expectations—zero interviewees. Zero applicants. Not a single person applied to this sweet job with a salary of 100 gold.
A hundred gold was huge for such light work. It could buy a noble lady’s dress from a good house.
“No, why…? How…?”
Was there anyone in the world who didn’t like money?
Impossible. It would make more sense to say I fell in love with Chesire again.
“See? I told you not to expect anything.”
Nishe smirked at my despair.
It was lunchtime, and he was eating bread.
More accurately—everyone in the dining hall was holding the same potato bread they all shared miserably.
I unknowingly crushed the bread in my hand.
“You’re being dramatic. Just eat. Why act like it’s so hard?”
“…Sure. Like someone who can’t taste anything would understand.”
They must have traded away their taste buds to live a hundred years. Otherwise this made no sense!
Grit.
I ground my teeth and rewrote the flyer.
[Salary: 500 gold]
‘Let’s see if no one comes now.’
A problem money can’t fix?
You fix it with more money!
…Turns out even more money couldn’t fix it.
Even after raising it to a whopping 500 gold, not a single applicant showed up after two more days.
At this point, it was clear money wasn’t the issue.
“I need to find out why people are avoiding it.”
I hadn’t expected obstacles from the very beginning.
‘When you don’t know something… you do market research.’
As I jumped up, Giselle grabbed my arm.
“You’re going out? Not alone, Irenne.”
The sly witch with long red hair like a ripe tomato and fresh green eyes.
She normally never left her room, but earlier she had suddenly appeared holding an armful of dresses to give me.
Sorry, but I had no mental energy to focus on the grandma-style dresses she dug out from some castle storage.
I wore clothes I created with magic anyway.
“I don’t mind going together.”
Giselle smiled prettily and added—
“Alright then, let’s go.”
“Wait. I’ll tell Master.”
“…We need the duke’s permission to go outside?”
I had never left the Winter Castle before.
But his subordinates, who called the duke “Master” or “Lord,” often went in and out as they pleased.
They hardly ever asked the duke’s permission for anything. Sometimes Giselle looked more authoritative than the duke himself.
From what I’d seen so far, the duke was like… a precious, handsome slacker of the castle.
‘Well, since I’m from the Empire, maybe I do need permission.’
I accepted this—but then Giselle, the true hidden power of the castle, dropped a bomb casually.
“Go with Master. Like… an informal outing?”
“…Giselle. Why does the duke come into the picture here?”
Why would he go with me?
He was the only one who hadn’t stepped outside even once in the past month.
Giselle’s cheerful attitude was so natural it made me wonder if this was normal in Bellmeier.
She hummed as she dug through a messy pile of clothes and handed me a simple winter dress.
“Perfect. Wear this, Irenne. I’ll get a robe too. Zephy—ah, never mind. Let’s call a carriage.”
“Giselle?”
“There was something I wanted to check anyway—great timing. I’ll talk to Master, so you just get ready slowly.”
“I’ll help Lady Irenne.”
Ellie approached and immediately started unbuttoning the back of my dress. Before Giselle could stop her, she left the room in a flash.
“Oh. Irenne—if Master falls asleep, come right back.”
Leaving only that mysterious warning—
It all happened in an instant.
I changed clothes with Ellie’s overly enthusiastic help and was left alone in the Winter Castle’s lobby.
“What…?”
Would the duke even approve something like this? No way he would—
“Irenne Valtres.”
…He would. Turns out he would.
The duke appeared in front of me as if out of thin air.
With his sculpted face and unreadable expression, he looked at me and spoke only two words.
“You’re here. Let’s go.”
“You’re here, milady. You look unusually beautiful today.”
“…Ah.”
And just like that, I suddenly remembered Chesire visiting our mansion to escort me as his partner for a ball.
‘Did I just compare the duke to Chesire?’
A terrible thought I never wanted twice. I quickly grabbed onto the duke’s words instead.
“I told you I’m not Valtres anymore.”
Wearing a light tunic like summer clothes with a black robe, the duke looked nothing like the crown prince at all.
For some reason, that was a little comforting.
“Irenne Valtres. How long will you stand there stupidly?”
The duke opened the castle doors himself and tilted his head.
‘Wow. Rude. He really is a Northern Duke.’
I stepped out after him—thinking once again that nothing here ever went the way one expected.
