CHAPTER 21………………………………………..
A few days later, under the pretext of another magic lesson, I visited the Patra region again.
Kusen must have been waiting for us; this time he even came all the way out to the lakeside.
It was very different from when we first met and he coldly kicked us out.
“Welcome.”
Kusen, who had always shown others a grim face, looked bright today for once.
As soon as we met, he spent about an hour talking about what had happened that day.
He said it was the first time in his life he’d ever had such a meaningful conversation, getting emotional every now and then.
From what I heard, the whole conversation with the duke was just a single line.
‘Purple is as perfect as I am.’
‘Th-thank you.’
As perfect as him… even his compliments were so duke-like.
I also learned that although Duke Keraise didn’t particularly like purple, he had nonetheless ordered purple fabric that day—and that had greatly boosted Kusen’s pride.
According to him, the duke was the only person who had ever offered him genuine praise.
And now that he was receiving patronage as an artist as well, he didn’t know what to do with himself and thanked us profusely.
“Here, this is the contract.”
Acting as my representative, Kauts handed Kusen the contract.
From now on, all purple dye and fabric produced in the Patra region could only be distributed through the Beljour Trading Company.
Then I brought up what I had been thinking about.
“Kusen, your current work produces results that are absolutely perfect. But the speed is far too slow.”
“…Hmm.”
Kusen made a low sound, as if he couldn’t deny it.
“So, I have a suggestion.”
I handed him a bundle of papers.
When I had looked around his workshop before, I’d found something strange.
Kusen didn’t keep any records.
He had spent his entire life working with nothing but the senses of his hands and mind.
“First, start writing down everything you do in your work on these pages.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“You don’t have a single person left who’s trying to learn this craft from you, right?”
“…!”
“If this continues, the dyeing techniques passed down in your family could be lost. You don’t want that, do you?”
“T-that must never happen.”
Kusen’s eyes widened in alarm.
“So, write yourself a manual so you won’t forget anything. Then you can leave it as a family heirloom and also use it to train new apprentices who want to learn dyeing.”
“Of course! Especially since I’m receiving the patronage of the Duke of Keraise!”
Kauts chimed in enthusiastically.
I pressed the point.
“The reason the duke praised you was precisely because of your strict perfectionism. I hope you keep that alive—and train your apprentices well.”
Kusen’s face changed, as if recalling his meeting with the duke.
His eyes lit up.
“Now that I think about it, that is a good method. And if the employees who come to me read the manual I made, I’ll have fewer reasons to scold them.”
“Yes, that’s right. You can do it, Kusen.”
“But…”
Kusen looked at me with curiosity.
“Young lady, you’re so young… how can you say such impressive things?”
Caught off guard by his sharp question, I froze for a moment, then laughed.
“I… I’m Marianne of House Delve, of course!”
And so Beljour Trading Company and Kusen signed their contract.
And it was decided that my involvement in all this would remain strictly secret.
“If my family finds out I came here, I’ll be in huge trouble.”
Kusen promised he would keep the secret no matter what.
After that, I organized the situation.
We couldn’t just sell the highest-grade purple fabric everywhere.
It was rare and precious, so limiting it was appropriate.
So, out of the ten boutiques we originally considered, I reduced them to just three—the largest boutiques in the southern, western, and northern regions.
All three had artisans capable of creating excellent clothing with the fabric.
I instructed them to paint a bit of purple dye onto their shop signs.
It would be a symbolic sign that they were partnered with Beljour Trading Company.
Like something only the special royal tier could access.
And among those three boutiques, one belonged to the Keraise family.
A few weeks passed, and I fell into a state of complete overload.
“I’m so exhausted…”
“Young lady, please get some sleep today. Growing girls need rest!”
Despite Britta’s nagging, I shook my head with eyes that were about to close.
I had just finished coordinating Kusen and the three boutiques.
But there were still things I needed to do.
Yawn.
I really couldn’t fight the drowsiness anymore.
Then my eyes caught the neatly written handwriting on the desk.
It belonged to the staff member from the boutique serving the Keraise family.
“She’s the one who introduced Kusen to the duke.”
“My, how lovely. I’ve never seen such neat writing.”
Suddenly, a great idea came to me.
I immediately wrote her a letter under the name of the Beljour Trading Company.
I was scouting her.
Not for her to quit her job—but to take on side work. She would work at the boutique during the day, and help Beljour in her remaining hours.
She was the one who first trusted me and had kept the secret all this time.
She was diligent, with many family members to support, so she surely needed the income.
The smart employee gladly accepted the offer.
She would only gain and lose nothing.
Not only would she get first access to purple dye and fabric, she’d also earn additional income managing the trading company.
And I added a note to the letter:
Work in secret, discreetly.
Beljour Trading Company was a massive success from the start.
Kusen quickly increased his work speed, and once new employees joined using the manual he had written, production skyrocketed.
And when word got out that the fabric was sold at only three boutiques, wealthy high nobles started acting first.
The rich nobles, above all, were obsessed with anything “limited edition.”
Once they wore clothes with the purple fabric to tea parties and banquets, everything else happened on its own.
It was already expensive—now its value shot up even more.
Hearing the rumors, I grinned.
Money was piling up every day in the borrowed-name account I registered under Beljour.
It wasn’t much yet, since this was just the beginning, but in a few years, it would surely grow enough for me to buy a building. Hehe.
Of course, there was still something I had to do.
I needed to find the magic stone that resonated with the mana flowing through my body.
But why was I so tired…?
“Young lady, you’re still thirteen. Of course you’re tired.”
Britta chattered about how I had been studying too hard lately and needed several days of rest.
Since the fact that I had formed a trading company was a complete secret, everyone in the duke’s mansion assumed I was dedicating myself to magic lessons.
“No matter how important studying is, you must rest today.”
Britta handed me meat soup and soft bread, then prepared warm bathwater.
As I soaked in the bath, sleep washed over me.
Ahh… so warm and cozy.
This was true happiness.
I dozed off with my eyes half-closed.
After Britta dried my hair… I must have completely fallen asleep.
I must have slept half the day.
The moment I woke up, Kauts came.
“What’s this?”
“A magic stone I brought from Nevhea Province.”
Held under the lamp, the small pebble glimmered in a blue light.
It looked like something you’d find on a beach.
“Good work.”
Kauts would send his messenger-raven out into the night to search the area outside the mansion.
But finding a magic artifact that would amplify the mana inside my body was no easy task.
“It might work… maybe!”
In the original novel, the magic jewel was a mix of red and pink.
That jewel was the one I needed to enhance my magic.
But since other stones might respond as well, I clenched the small magic stone tightly.
“How is it, young lady? Do you feel anything?”
Kauts looked at me full of curiosity.
I closed my eyes and tried to sense its wavelength, then set the stone down.
As expected, it wasn’t the one.
I forced a bright smile.
“It’s only the beginning. I didn’t expect the first try to succeed.”
The search continued for days.
Kauts even traveled far away alone under the guise of field training to search for artifacts.
But everything he found was useless.
I felt bad, but didn’t show disappointment to Kauts.
After all, it was an impossible task—trying to find an artifact that matched my mana precisely.
Even in the original novel, it never explained this part.
The novel only said that after becoming an adult, Marianne met the wizard Kauts and obtained the magic artifact he possessed.
It never explained how Kauts acquired it in the first place.
But I can’t just sit and wait.
I had mountains of work to do.
I had to find the magic artifact—and also find the second son, Ronn, whose plotline I had paused.
Suddenly, a faint memory flickered in my head.
‘I saw it in a cave. There were lots of jewels like that there.’
Keraise’s second son, Ronn.
These were his words in the original story.
He’d said this while looking at Marianne’s necklace—the one containing her magic jewel.
Ronn might know the cave’s location.
In The Fate of Triya, the original novel, the second son Ronn goes missing.
He is later sold into the slave market, where he grows up.
I think the detailed reason for his disappearance was explained in a side story.
The problem was…
I had died before reading the side story.
“Heavens, really. If you were going to reincarnate me, you could’ve at least let me finish reading the original.”
Ronn endured abuse and contempt in the slave market, relying only on grit and spite—and eventually became the leader of the slaves.
Later, when Duke Keraise reunited with him, he was satisfied. Ronn, he said, was the fiercest of his three sons.
“There really are no sane men in House Keraise… Ah, except my Crimu.”
My tense expression relaxed into a sisterly smile.
Then I realized something.
In the original novel, even the youngest, Crimu, eventually grew into a ruthless Keraise son just like his brothers.
“Ugh…”
If I hadn’t intervened, Crimu might have grown up that way too.
I renewed my resolve to take even better care of him.
I pulled the bell cord.
Britta brought me paper and a pen.
“You haven’t stepped out of your bedroom today. Our young lady is being very admirable.”
Britta, only a year or two older than me, always treated me like a little child.
But I liked her warm care, so I giggled.
“Oh, yes. Young master Crimu was looking for you.”
“Give him cookies. Tell him I’ll play with him soon.”
“Yes, young lady.”
Her freckled nose crinkled cutely as she bowed and left.
I wrote the words slave market on the paper.
Then I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to recall the original novel.
“His birthday… Right. Marianne, who entered House Keraise, did briefly cross paths with Ronn once. That was… around the duke’s birthday.”
Marianne and Ronn didn’t recognize each other.
The author wrote it that way—their appearances had changed too much.
But this time, things would be different.
I would recognize Ronn at our first meeting and save him.
Once the original plot began, the one who truly seized control of the empire was the second son, Ronn.
The eldest, Shevert, fell in love with the heroine and caused chaos just to kidnap her—dragging Marianne into the mess.
“I should ask the butler when the duke’s birthday is.”
If I find Ronn before he becomes the villain’s mastermind and shower him with love, maybe I’ll have a hopeful future too.
And I can find the magic stone as well.
I did not want to be remembered as the greatest villainess of the century.
And I absolutely refused to meet a gruesome ending in front of everyone.
