Chapter – 32
Lirian tapped the bracelet lightly.
“It’s not permanent. But it should be fine for monster hunts.”
“Milady…! You must have been busy with princess duties…!”
Jeanne’s chest tightened.
She had never felt this way while serving her lord…!
When creating an artifact, you had to consider not only the design but also the internal circuitry.
Lirian spoke as if it were nothing, but Jeanne knew how much work that really took.
The shadows whispered among themselves, holding onto Jeanne.
“She’s a genius. A genius.”
“You could sell these right away.”
“Jeanne, you’re lucky.”
“I want one too… I know it’s childish, but I’m jealous!”
At that moment, Lirian turned to the others and began pulling more items out of the box.
“I made as many as I could with the materials from the temple.”
“…!”
The shadows’ eyes sparkled with admiration.
This was a rare occurrence in their lives.
“Milady, thank you so much!”
“We’ll use them with care.”
Lirian found their reactions so unfamiliar that she averted her gaze.
“Take as many as you need for today first…”
She turned to Margaret beside her.
“Margaret, these can be used by controllers as well. Distribute them.”
“Yes…! But do they have a name?”
“Hm? A name?”
“I’ve heard it’s common to give these kinds of things a name.”
“Hmm…”
In the original, these were called “Spirit Bracelets.”
Later, they sold like hotcakes in the Tillard family.
The effect was good compared to the materials required.
A reliable product, so to speak.
“I designed it and sold it under Iris’s name.”
In Ferniès, family copyrights didn’t exist.
Even if they had, the Tillard family would have ignored them.
But now, things were different.
“It’s silver, so let’s call it ‘Lunar Blessing.’”
Lirian smiled slightly as she watched them distribute the items among themselves.
‘If you want to hold a throne competition, there has to be preliminaries.’
People said that if the two heirs faced each other directly, there wouldn’t be enough entertainment.
So, the most representative event was the battle among the knights under their command.
‘The knights of Paville are strong.’
With the high-level controllers from the Tillard family supporting them, they wouldn’t tire at all.
But…
‘This is one way to gradually raise the stats of the ability users.’
This artifact was one such method.
‘With this, everyone will grow stronger…!’
Grow stronger!
Grow strong and win everything!
She quietly chuckled to herself with a mischievous enthusiasm.
Then, from behind, the villain ruined the mood.
“Milady. It’s time to eat.”
“…Yes.”
Lirian trudged over to the villain.
She could never get used to the villain waiting patiently by a camping table laid with food.
Even the piled-up meals in front of her…
‘How did it come to this…’
Right. It was because of that suggestion about holding hands…
Lirian began practicing holding hands with the villain for a few minutes each day.
One day, he remarked with surprise.
“Your hands are smaller than I expected.”
After that, he began seriously commenting on her eating habits.
Even when Margaret insisted she could handle it herself, he pretended he couldn’t hear.
Of course, Lirian enjoyed eating.
It was just that the sheer quantity of meat on the plates, not even at dinner, was intimidating.
‘I’m grateful, of course. I’ve missed meals.’
The problem was that it was the person eating with her…
She wanted him to acknowledge it…
‘A web-like pattern appeared.’
Was it a threat if she left food? Or a warning that she would grow the target to destroy? She couldn’t tell.
“What on earth did you eat to live?”
The “Ability of Annihilation” didn’t remove persuasiveness, and it didn’t remove nagging either.
No one dared disturb him while he ate.
Yet Lirian, at twenty, was being “disturbed.”
She smiled faintly.
“I just ate normal food, the kind ordinary people eat, Your Highness.”
“Is that so? Then I suppose you won’t grow any taller.”
Sometimes pure evil really hit hard.
Lirian placed her hand on her cheek, scolding him gently.
“Phew, Your Highness. My heart is fragile, and if you poke at the weak spot, I might mentally collapse.”
“Oh dear. You mustn’t die.”
The villain was meticulous about managing his own life.
Lirian could understand that.
What was occasionally hard to comprehend, though…
“I heard from Lamio Tillard that you often skip meals.”
“You heard that even when measuring by hand?”
“You even vomited sometimes, didn’t you?”
Now he asked questions that were a bit too close to “tool management.”
‘He even asked when I first made an artifact.’
Sharing too much past history wasn’t a good idea.
But it wasn’t the kind of moment to dodge the question.
“It’s nothing special. When I was young, there was a time… I didn’t eat much.”
“Why?”
“Did you know, Your Highness, that some people believe that if the mother-in-law is absent, the mass must be preserved?”
“Because of the Second Empress?”
Lirian nodded casually.
Empress Robelia loved her natal Paville family far more than the Tarandia royal family.
And she disliked the fact that the powerless Lirian had to be given to the minor duke.
‘I was the only one suitable to marry within the five great holy families.’
The Empress used her like a rod to remind her she was always lacking.
‘Oh my… Lirian. So you did have a hearty appetite.’
‘My apologies, Ma’am.’
‘When a lady eats more than two spoons, it may start to get vulgar.’
‘Apologies-.’
‘It’s understandable my nephew Karkin keeps getting distracted by other things.’
It was a miserable kind of rod.
After hearing that, it was no wonder she could swallow her food.
Her hands and feet looked slightly larger in proportion because of how thin she was.
Lirian brushed off the trivial old stories.
If a wound isn’t acknowledged as a wound, it means nothing.
“It’s all in the past. Now you can see I eat well.”
“…
“By the way, Your Highness. Now that we’re close to the castle, may I ask—what kind of person is Duke Balthazar?”
“The Duke… hmm.”
“The Duke?”
“….”
The villain simply stared at Lirian.
Then he smiled slightly, his eyes returning to their original color.
“Don’t meet him.”
“…?”
“Don’t ask about him anymore.”
A clear-cut command.
Why now, of all times?
‘I need to know about him…’
Issuing a strict gag order about a character who dies in the “original story”? Incredible.
Who was Duke Enoch Balthazar?
He was the current head of the “Duke of the Earth Balthazar” family, and the villain’s maternal grandfather.
When the Duke was still in his prime, Paville couldn’t even compare.
Being a family of the “Earth Ability,” they had plenty of mines and natural resources.
The problem…
‘He thinks Tarandia, Tillard, and Paville killed his daughter.’
So he withdrew from court politics after the death of his daughter, the First Empress.
However, in the palace, when making decisions on important matters:
‘You need the consent of more than half of the heads of the five great families.’
Having Duke Balthazar on their side was advantageous for pushing the “Crown Prince Competition.”
‘Even in the original, the heir wasn’t designated, and the seat remained vacant for a long time…’
Originally, Elias would have already become a minor duke.
‘And the reason the Duke dies is clear.’
A disease that gnawed at the minds of ability users.
He supposedly died from false depression and nightmares.
