Chapter – 53
Kiana blinked, completely dumbfounded.
In truth, she was the one who had requested Julius to be summoned here, and everything had gone according to her plan. However, she had not expected Skari to show up as well. It had been ages since he last attended a banquet.
“G-Grandfather? How are you here……?”
At Kiana’s bewildered question, Skari snapped in a booming, furious voice.
“Then did you expect me to just sit back and watch my own granddaughter call upon some other old geezer instead of me?!”
For a split second, everyone present wore an identical expression that practically screamed, ‘Did I just hear what I think I heard?’
“And a brainless old geezer who is merely larger in frame than I am, at that!”
Skari roared, his face contorted with uncontainable rage.
“Furthermore, just how much mental abuse have you suffered for you to manifest a physical reaction from simply hearing their voices?!”
“A ph-physical reaction, sir?”
“Retching! Dry-heaving! Though admittedly, what they said was indeed foul enough to warrant vomiting!” Skari bellowed, looking as though he might spit blood from pure frustration. “How dare they… How dare they brainwash my granddaughter with such utter garbage ever since she was a child?!”
In reality, Kiana had simply been feeling nauseous all day because she had smelled Nyx’s heavy alcohol breath after drinking far too much the night before. Her stomach had merely been triggered once again by the scent of wine wafting off the Duchess of Purves.
To be precise, her current dry-heaving had absolutely nothing to do with the Duke and Duchess of Purves. However, she chose not to clarify this. Instead, she put on an even more sorrowful expression and repeated herself.
“Blegh, urghhhhh…… I am not worthy, cough blegh……”
And that wasn’t all.
“Wow, this is genuinely absurd.”
Yet another unexpected individual had arrived on the scene.
“So you’re saying the reason Kiana used to isolate herself so gloomily since childhood was entirely because the Purves family kept whispering atrocities to her under the guise of being adults?”
Dressed impeccably and profoundly true to his usual style, Joshua gazed at the hydrangea garden with freezing cold eyes.
“And instigating her to torment Melissa was all part of your scheme as well?”
He let out a heavy sigh as he supported Kiana, whose complexion looked increasingly grim.
“Let’s leave for now, Kiana. Your ghastly face looks even paler than usual. Standing around these people seems to be making your condition worse.”
“Huh? Urghhh……”
“It is quite common for abnormal physical reactions to surface when childhood trauma is triggered. Let us get away from these humans first. Our grandfather, who happens to be just as cruel as he is elderly, will handle the rest beautifully.”
Kiana blinked in a daze. Why on earth was Joshua here too? He hadn’t attended a single banquet since his boyhood.
But one thing was absolutely certain. Out of this trio, Julius was by far the easiest opponent to deal with. In other words…
‘It’s truly over for the House of Purves.’
Kiana casually tossed her red hairpin into the pond.
‘Situations like this are honestly so thrilling.’
She then pulled a plaid ribbon out of her pocket, pinned it to her hair, and clicked her tongue. She truly hadn’t anticipated Skari and Joshua crashing the banquet, but for things to turn out like this… What a pleasant surprise.
Hearing about it later could never match the sheer impact of witnessing it firsthand. No matter how hard she tried to suppress it, a smug smile began to creep onto her face. It felt incredibly refreshing.
“In that case, Brother,” Kiana said to Joshua, adopting a fragile, delicate expression. “My heart is far too weak to watch Grandfather completely destroy these people any further……. Let’s hurry and follow Lord Julius. I’m terribly worried about him.”
After all, her real plan was only just beginning.
Meanwhile, the banquet hall left behind without Kiana had devolved into absolute pandemonium.
Cesare calmly slipped out of the screaming, chaotic venue, with Lagnac trailing closely behind him.
“Did everything go smoothly on your end, sir?”
Without giving a proper answer to the question, Cesare asked anxiously, “Where is the Princess?”
“She is in the medical room. Apparently, her relative was injured.”
Cesare raised an eyebrow at the mention of the ‘medical room,’ but his expression softened again upon hearing the word ‘relative.’ Lagnac scanned their surroundings and spoke in a lowered voice.
“I have stationed the carriage at the back gate. Let us make haste and leave, sir.”
“Let us head to the medical room instead.”
“Pardon?”
“I must escort the Princess until the very end.”
“Wh-what are you talking about?” Lagnac asked, his eyes widening in shock. “Everyone here is completely abandoning the concept of escorts and rushing back to their own estates right now, sir. Furthermore, Princess Kiana isn’t alone; she’s currently surrounded by her family. Is there truly a reason to go that far when the two of you are simply in a neat, mutually transactional relationship?”
Cesare replied coldly, “Even so, I must fulfill my duties as her contractual partner. That is all.”
With that, he shifted his stride toward the medical wing.
Four knights carried Lord Julius directly to the medical room located within the detached palace.
“Uuughgh…… I put far too much power into that swing……”
<Did I To a action after be charge days end?! for horse in into muscles not on recklessly riding state! stiff tell that would you your>
Lord Julius groaned loudly before letting his massive body go completely limp. As a result, the faces of the knights tasked with moving his gargantuan frame grew profoundly miserable. They looked so utterly defeated that the doctors rushed out the moment the group crossed the threshold of the medical room.
“Is this a casualty?!”
“Lay him down immediately! Let us ascertain the time of death first! Stay calm and follow the standard protocol!”
Amidst the frantic, noisy commotion, Lord Julius snapped his eyes open.
“I am not dead yet, you absolute quacks!”
…To have the sheer audacity to yell “quacks” inside the imperial medical wing, which housed only the finest elite minds of the empire. Daram, hiding deep within Julius’s thick beard, mumbled under his breath.
<I am because embarrassed even genuinely head lift my of to too you……>
Despite his impaired mobility, Lord Julius fumed and roared in anger.
“I am going to cut off all hot-stone trade with those wretched Purves bastards this instant!”
Yes, this is exactly what I wanted. I smiled subtly to myself. Cutting off the hot-stone trade was the precise reason I had stubbornly held out until Lord Julius arrived.
The vast majority of the hot-stones traded by the Purves Dukedom were dispatched to the North, because the forces of Prellai were heavily concentrated there. Naturally, Lord Julius was the commander-in-chief of that front.
Had she simply requested her grandfather, he would have severed the trade regardless. However, abruptly halting the supply of hot-stones to the North without warning would have triggered severe backlash from the soldiers stationed on the front lines.
‘The weight of a command issued by a distant Duke is entirely different from a decision made by Lord Julius, who stands on the field alongside his men. The subordinates will accept it on a completely different level.’
This effectively alleviated the burden her grandfather would have had to pass down to Julius.
Of course, Julius adored her, so he would have granted her grandfather’s request anyway. Still, witnessing the situation firsthand and arriving at the decision himself lent the choice a completely different level of authenticity.
“Let’s do exactly that, Lord Julius! Just how much fortune does the Purves Dukedom amass from us using those hot-stones, which are utterly useless anywhere else anyway?!” Joshua shouted, his eyes blazing. However, as if something suddenly weighed on his conscience, he belatedly mumbled an addendum. “W-well, of course…… I…… wouldn’t exactly know firsthand just how freezing cold the North actually gets, but……”
Lord Julius was notoriously short-tempered and not prone to deep contemplation. Hence, he was fully capable of instantly shouting, ‘We aren’t buying your damn stones anymore, you bastards!’
However, there was a concrete reason why Prellai had maintained a long-standing trade relationship with Purves. Without hot-stones in the North, the soldiers’ body temperatures would drop rapidly. A shortage of hot-stones meant shorter shift rotations for the guards, which directly translated to a heavy loss in military efficiency.
Recognizing this, I swiftly intervened.
“In that case, wouldn’t it be fine if we simply engineered an alternative to replace the hot-stones?”
“An alternative?” Joshua reacted instantly.
“There are numerous ways to generate heat. Utilizing those methods shouldn’t be entirely impossible.” I stated firmly and confidently. “If we crush an ore known as ‘pebble’ into a fine powder and seal it inside a pouch…… simply shaking it will cause it to oxidize and generate heat. With just a slight application of mana processing, it will last significantly longer than a standard hot-stone.”
The principle behind this was different from the hand warmer she had previously gifted to Meier. The one given to Meier utilized a liquid base, which had a shorter duration compared to one fueled by pebble powder.
“Huh?” Joshua wore a somewhat vacant, dazed expression.
Julius, still groaning on the medical bed, let out a booming shout. “Yes, Kiana! Let us go with that!”
“……Lord Julius, don’t tell me you actually understood what I just said?”
“Of course not! How could I possibly! Who do you take me for?!” Julius replied cheerfully and boisterously. “But regardless, it means we have a replacement, doesn’t it?!”
Right then, Daram poked his tiny squirrel head out from between Julius’s thick whiskers.
<Will alternative astronomical expenses? incur not this>
There was a famous rumor surrounding the House of Prellai: that Julius’s summoned squirrel familiar, Daram, was the one actually raising Julius. The only reason Daram hadn’t manifested until Julius turned twelve was simply because he was waiting for his master to develop a baseline level of intellect.
<In always cost, endeavors is it like not? obstacle primary the this,>
As expected, Daram was significantly smarter than Lord Julius.
The squirrel’s assessment regarding the cost was entirely accurate. This wasn’t a problem that could be resolved with a few units; it required massive bulk orders annually.
Securing raw hot-stones versus manufacturing hand warmers out of pebble powder—according to her prior calculations, the total cost didn’t yield a massive disparity. However, that was precisely why making the switch was technically a net loss.
If pebble ore were overwhelmingly cheap, it would be a different story, but since it was only comparable, maintaining the status quo was fundamentally more efficient. Hot-stones could be reliably and stably supplied via the Purves Dukedom, whereas the logistics for pebble ore were a completely different matter.
Furthermore, while hot-stones had very niche utility, pebble ore was in exceptionally high demand across various sectors. Because it would require establishing entirely new direct trade agreements, securing a stable supply chain was an immense hurdle in its own right.
“Hmm, so the immediate requirement is pebble ore. I should begin by filtering out the regions that possess the highest density of pebble mines.” Joshua didn’t seem particularly interested in the scientific mechanics of the hand warmer itself, but he had successfully grasped the core operational necessity: ‘We need pebble ore.’
“Yes. And……” I spoke up, my voice entirely calm and composed.
“I happen to have heard that a massive pebble mine resides within the newly developed territories of the Marquisate of Levin, located out in the West.”
