Chapter 99

Madam Beanz opened her mouth, then closed it again. She couldn’t bring herself to say anything.

She hadn’t heard anything like this from Peter.

In the first place, neither the résumé nor the letter of recommendation had gone into detail about family matters.

“Th-That’s sad.”

“Well, it couldn’t be helped.”

“My father passed away a few years ago too…”

“My mother must’ve had a hard time raising me alone…”

They spoke about different things at the same time.

Neither of them managed to finish their sentence.

Madam Beanz’s eyes wavered in a way rarely seen.

Losing a spouse was part of the natural order, an unavoidable sorrow.

But being abandoned by one’s parents wasn’t part of nature.

A child being cast aside by their parents was purely the parents’ choice. With a single decision made by an adult, a child was forced to face a harsh world alone.

“So that happened to you.”

“Yes. It was quite a long time ago.”

Reina answered calmly. That calmness bothered Madam Beanz even more.

A faint sorrow settled in Madam Beanz’s eyes.

“If you ever face something difficult or something you don’t understand, please be sure to ask me.”

“Something difficult, or something I don’t understand?”

“Yes. For example… adolescence.”

At that, Reina paused to think.

She couldn’t imagine Bonita going through adolescence at all. Still, she couldn’t brush aside someone’s goodwill, so she simply nodded.

A short while later, the butler knocked on the door.

It was a signal that guests had arrived.

* * *

Diamonds, rubies, garnets, blue topaz and citrine, opal and peridot, and tourmaline…

Reina was certain she had seen more jewels today than in her entire life up until now.

“Since this is the first time a baron is attending a party hosted by His Grace, he ordered that there must be absolutely no shortage.”

Madam Beanz said this with a particularly satisfied smile.

Reina repeated the word composure in her head. If she didn’t, she felt like she might scream loud enough to shake the whole mansion.

“I don’t think this could possibly be lacking.”

“Right?”

It didn’t look lacking at all. If anything, it looked excessive.

The butler and Madam Beanz both smiled proudly. The jewel merchant, who would be making a huge profit today, smiled too.

Which meant the only one flustered was Reina.

“Baron, come take a look at this.”

Madam Beanz held up a choker set with a large emerald.

To Reina, it just looked like an extremely expensive stone.

“I don’t really know much even if I look at it. Could you choose for me, Madam Beanz?”

“Still, look.”

Madam Beanz’s tone was unusually firm.

“If you keep not looking because you don’t know, you’ll stay ignorant forever. If you don’t know anything, you’ll be easy to scam.”

“I-Is that so?”

“Of course. If you don’t know better, you’ll pay gold prices for copper tableware, and you’ll sell diamonds for the price of glass beads.”

“Well, that would be… true, I guess.”

It was obvious. Reina simply rolled her eyes and nodded.

Seeing that, Madam Beanz felt her frustration spike.

How was someone this gentle supposed to survive the ruthless noble society.

Madam Beanz, who hadn’t yet personally witnessed Reina’s hidden firmness, could only worry.

Their earlier conversation made it weigh on her even more.

Madam Beanz had raised only one unruly daughter, Eleanor. That was why Reina, who listened well and spoke softly, drew her attention even more.

Scolding her, Madam Beanz then placed a necklace woven entirely of diamonds in front of Reina.

Reina sharply inhaled and froze in place.

For some reason, that reaction even seemed a little cute.

“Th-This kind of necklace is too much.”

“Too much?”

Reina meant it as a refusal, but Madam Beanz took it as approval.

Realizing the nuance mismatch, Reina panicked.

“N-No, I mean this isn’t okay!”

“Oh.”

Then how about this? Madam Beanz showed her a necklace made of watermelon tourmaline.

The tourmaline was emerald cut, surrounded by small, transparent gems that sparkled like stars. Gold shaped like vines wrapped around the stones, and even at a glance it looked radiant.

“N-No…”

Reina’s complexion turned pale.

Next came a necklace made from blue topaz sorted by shade, then one that combined crystals into a wave like pattern…

Then another. And another after that.

No matter which jewel she saw, Reina felt dizzy. Up until now, she had owned exactly one necklace, worth only a few tens of thousands of Theon.

‘Could one gemstone on these necklaces be bought with that necklace?’

She tried not to compare, but she couldn’t help it.

“Oh my, this ring is nice too.”

The necklace wasn’t even decided yet, but Madam Beanz had moved on to rings.

“Look at this padparadscha. Isn’t the color lovely?”

Reina had no idea which one was padparadscha and which wasn’t. Pink sapphire, padparadscha, tourmaline… It was amazing to her that they could distinguish all of them.

The butler inspected each necklace and jewel, recording them carefully in a ledger.

Watching them, Reina cautiously asked,

“We haven’t chosen a necklace yet. Is it okay to look at rings already?”

“Pardon?”

“Pardon?”

Madam Beanz and the butler echoed her at the same time. Reina shrank back, startled by their presence.

“What do you mean, choose?”

“Exactly, Lady Reina. What do you mean by choose?”

“…Then were we just looking around?”

That actually sounded more realistic.

“Didn’t His Grace tell you?”

“…?”

Madam Beanz held out her hand sharply. The butler smoothly placed the ledger into her palm.

She snapped it open and held it right in front of Reina’s face.

“The necklaces, rings, brooches listed here… all of them are yours.”

“…What?”

Reina doubted her own ears.

“They are gifts bestowed upon the Baron of Lian by His Grace.”

“…”

“…”

“…”

Reina stopped breathing altogether.

Receiving the title itself had been something she’d prepared for over months. Her heart had raced, but she’d managed to endure it.

It was something she wanted, after all.

But this… She had never wanted this, nor had she ever imagined receiving treasures of such immense value.

“Lady Reina?”

“Baron of Lian?”

Reina then…

Crash thud!!

“Baron!”

“Lady Reina!”

Collapsed on the spot.

* * *

“A letter has arrived, Your Grace.”

Peter handed Damian a perfectly sealed letter.

The emblem stamped on it was an eagle with the sun behind it, the symbol of Damian’s personal intelligence unit.

“They say the investigation into the orchard is finally complete.”

“Only now?”

“My apologies.”

Damian didn’t press the issue, reasoning that the distance between the capital and the barony was considerable.

Rustle.

He slit the letter open with a letter opener and read.

“…?”

Even after reading it, Damian doubted his eyes.

“It was all burned down?”

And it had happened just a few days after they rescued Bonita.

‘An orchard of that size?’

An orchard large enough to be obvious at a glance had burned down, yet no one had noticed. It made no sense.

“It wasn’t that far from the ducal territory. If there’d been a fire, someone would’ve noticed.”

Which meant there hadn’t even been smoke.

The Mage Examiner frowned deeply.

“To pull something like this off, it’d have to be a highly skilled mage.”

“Shall we dispatch a Mage Examiner and mages?”

“Do we have anyone who can leave immediately?”

“We received word that Eleanor Beanz finished her recent assignment and is heading back to the ducal estate.”

“Then send Eleanor Beanz there. Request additional mages from the mage tower.”

If Eleanor heard, she’d probably complain about needing rest.

Peter read through the report Damian had finished.

“The baron distributed various fruits. All of them were high quality and were even supplied to the imperial family at times. If it’s land blessed by the temple, the quality would be unquestionable.”

“So they grew those damn blueberries too.”

“Haha, those damn blueberries… Come to think of it, they were supplied to our estate from time to time as well. They were tasty. If he hadn’t done something like that, he’d still be alive and selling delicious fruit.”

Damian looked at Peter, who seemed to be reminiscing for no reason.

He wasn’t even sure there was anything to reminisce about, or why his aide knew so much about fruit distributed to the ducal household.

“You’re awfully well informed.”

“I was afraid you might ask someday, so I made sure to know.”

“Anyone listening would think I’m someone who pries into every trivial detail.”

“You always have been, Your Grace. Haven’t you always wanted to know everything the young lady eats and does?”

“…”

“Since the young lady inherited Finecke blood, you always emphasize that it’d be dangerous if she accidentally consumed Perman…”

“That’s enough.”

Damian couldn’t deny it.

“It’s because Estelle could be put in danger.”

As if out of habit, Damian rubbed the ring finger of his left hand.