Chapter 106 ….
I was just about to thank him again, deciding to follow his firm way of thinking.
“You receive your salary from the Imperial Palace. And since His Majesty owns the palace, and Your Highness is His Majesty’s only family, it’s practically the same as me being paid by you. So you don’t have to thank me every time.”
“But I really am grateful. Thank you for always listening to Lira’s requests. I’ll definitely repay you someday.”
“No need to repay me… Just come visit sometimes if you think of my cooking. I’ve been researching how to make a delicious carrot cake.”
“Wow! I’ll come every day!”
I answered with sparkling eyes before he could even finish speaking. A faint smile briefly touched Diony’s lips before disappearing.
It looked like Diony still had something he wanted to say.
“Um… about yesterday’s tea time…”
He fidgeted with his lips for a moment, as if unable to find the right words, then lowered his head with a quiet sigh.
“…I’m quite good at brewing tea too. So come by when you want to drink proper tea.”
At his softly muttered words, I beamed and said thank you. Diony cleared his throat awkwardly.
Diony must secretly be a bit frail. Well, he’s always cooped up in the kitchen.
When Zeuscia returned, I resolved to give him a long, luxurious vacation and left the reception room.
The party venue and food were settled, so once the gift arrived, preparations to welcome Zeuscia would be complete.
After much deliberation, I chose a purple gemstone that resembled her eyes as the gift.
In the westernmost part of the Eastern Empire, it wasn’t hard to obtain, so there it was treated as nothing more than a pretty-colored stone.
But that was before magic began to dwell within the stone.
Around the middle of the original story, a strange phenomenon occurs: the otherwise unremarkable stone suddenly becomes imbued with magic.
Even in extremely small amounts, the stone allowed one to wield mana like the magicians of the Magic Tower. It came to be called a mana stone, and its value skyrocketed.
Fearing their position might be threatened, the Magic Tower executives suddenly began destroying mana stones, which led to war with the massive merchant guilds that sold them.
Because my favorite, Sage Ranto, was part of the Magic Tower, and Pennel Fresher—the head of the Fresher family, one of the Four Great Houses—was involved on the merchant side, the fandom comment section had erupted into real-time war back then.
Anyway, in an original work that existed by and for scenes, this was one of the few serious story arcs, so the influence of that pretty little stone was truly enormous.
The key point was that Zeuscia in the original—who had fully transformed into a perfect tyrant—desperately searched for that nameless stone that later became known as the mana stone.
She ordered her people to find even fragments of it with almost obsessive intensity, but in the end, she never obtained one.
With the first emotional brake already broken by Monarda’s death, Zeuscia—unable to get what she wanted—completely destroyed not only the Magic Tower that had eliminated the mana stones but also the merchant guilds that had abused them during the war.
As a result of that incident, Sage, who was the Tower Master at the time, was dragged into the Crimson Bedroom, and Pennel Fresher met a gruesome end at Uld’s hands.
Seriously… our little demon mom was the worst overpowered villain.
Swallowing a sigh, I pressed my throbbing temple and sank back into thought.
There was still time before magic would dwell in the stone, so I decided to think later about how to use the mana stone. For now, I just wanted to give that gem to demon mom.
It was still just a stone—but in the original, it was something she had wanted so desperately.
“Even a tiny bit is fine. Even part of it. A fragment—no, even crumbs are fine… Bring me that thing called a mana stone. I need it right now. Please…”
It was the only moment Zeuscia screamed in desperation, even up until the moment she died.
Back then, I’d thought it was just another insane scene showing a psychopathic villain obsessing over what she couldn’t have—but the more I thought about it, the more it seemed there might have been another reason.
I didn’t know why the original Zeuscia wanted the mana stone so badly.
Maybe that was why—in this life—I wanted to place it in her hands.
Even knowing that the current Zeuscia probably didn’t need it, that scene from the original kept bothering me.
Honestly, I’d love to buy her tons of expensive, beautiful clothes like the ones she bought me… but since I still can’t reveal my funding source, I’d better refrain.
That pretty stone was the best gift that “six-year-old daughter Lira” could give—not “Investor L.”
Someday, when I revealed my identity, I promised myself I would give her something far, far better. As I did, I recalled the note Minari had sent last time.
[Hello, Mr. L.
I have secured the purple ore from the western region you mentioned earlier. I will store it in the secret location along with the Hestia branch quarterly report at the instructed time.
– Code Name: Minari]
As expected of Minari—his work was impeccably clean.
Now that I think about it, I wonder what kind of person Minari is. Maybe around Senya or Uld’s age? I don’t know for sure, but he’s probably a very capable adult.
Resolving to entrust him with managing the Hestia branch once I finished reviewing this report, I entered the bedroom.
The gift was ready—so now for the most important highlight!
It was time to write a heartfelt letter.
Since it was my first time writing to a parent, it felt a little awkward, but I took out the highest-quality paper I owned.
* * *
Winter days are short.
Staring out the window at the already setting sun, the ash-haired boy was newly reminded of that obvious fact.
In the morning, I pretended to do my economics homework while reviewing this quarter’s Hestia report. Then I pretended to tour the city with my sister while hiding the item Mr. L instructed me to store in the secret location.
As always, he had executed his schedule perfectly—an immensely fulfilling day.
But right now…
Unlike his earlier productivity, he stopped his thoughts in the present moment—where he was wasting time on something trivial—and let out a sigh.
“Pennel, are you listening to me?”
Facing the bright blue eyes that showed no sign of losing energy despite talking nonstop alone, the boy—Pennel Fresher—released yet another deep sigh.
“Yeah. I’ve heard everything. Your rambling about how cute the princess is, the incident where she almost drank tongue-numbing tea because of the wicked maids and the head chef, how the duchess got involved in that incident, and finally how you ended up under house arrest. I’ve listened to every single bit.”
For over two hours.
Pennel added quietly, then shot his friend a reproachful look—but Saffron only smiled brightly, completely unfazed.
“Has it only been that long? That’s great! That means we can hang out for two more hours!”
Coming to the duke’s residence because he felt sorry for his friend under house arrest was, no matter how he thought about it, a fatal mistake.
Knowing how talkative Saffron was, he wanted to punch his past self for making such a blunder.
He had mountains of work to do, yet here he was, forced to listen to the complaints of the bright and innocent next candidate for Crown Prince.
“I’m so bored stuck at home. Just wait until this confinement is lifted—I’m going straight to see the princess.”
At the vow he’d heard who knows how many times already, Pennel didn’t just nod along this time. For the first time, he struck back bluntly.
“Give it up. The princess probably doesn’t want to see you.”
