Chapter 13

The Count’s glare at Brian was as piercing as a blade.

“Count Brunn. This ugly pervert peeped at me and my people.”

“My Lady! Everything is due to my negligence!”

Count Brunn closed his eyes tightly.

“He also snuck a peek at Lana when she was having a bath last time!”

Sayre raised her voice from the side. Kynemeia glanced at her direction before facing the Count again.

“That’s how it is. I trust you’ll handle it well this time.”

“I will not disappoint you this time.”

She smiled and nodded, ‘That’s right. You can’t just let that pervert walk around in my fief with his head held high.’ 

“I trust you.”

Brian, who had his head lowered all this time, got on his knees and crawled towards Kynemeia.

“M-My Lady! Please have mercy…”

Ugh, Kynemeia’s body shuddered as she broke out in goosebumps.

“If you call out to me one more time, I’ll cut off your tongue.”

Brian covered his mouth with both hands in a hurry.

“And you weren’t supposed to beg for mercy from me.”

Kynemeia’s gaze slid to Lana.

“L-Lana. I-It’s all my fau—”

As Brian folded his hands together, Lana gave him a sweet smile.

“I seem to hear a dog barking from somewhere.”

“Well, you’re right.”

Brian, who couldn’t even attempt to address Kynemeia, sunk into despair. When the Count clicked his tongue and yanked him by the scruff of his neck, the six pieces of white gold coins poured out of his embrace.

“…!” Oh noes!

Lana quickly snatched up the fallen coins and scurried over to Kynemeia.

“Thank you very much, My Lady.”

Lana bent her waist at 90 degrees.

“If you weren’t here, My Lady, my sister and I would’ve—”

“It’s okay.”

“—become murderers.”

“Hmm…?”

Upon hearing such unexpected words, Kynemeia muttered, ‘It truly wasn’t a false charge…?’

It meant that they originally would’ve killed him before setting off to roam the battlefields.

‘What very good timing…’ If she were a little bit later, she would’ve had to head north to find Behemoth.

“By the way, here’s your money.”

Lana said as she extended the white gold coins. Kynemeia looked at them.

“You know…”

Breaking her silence, she folded Lana’s fingers, pressing the coins tightly into her hand. Lana’s eyes widened in confusion as she clutched the money.

“Sayre, Lana. All of this is the investment I’m proposing to you.”

“…Pardon?”

“What do you think?”

“This, all of it?”

Lana’s mouth fell open and Sayre, who was by her side, let out a screech. Even though it was pretty much a done deal judging by their expressions and gestures, Kynemeia still asked again on purpose.

“Will you make a contract with me?”

“Yes!”

“Yes, yes! Yes!”

Sayre and Lana brightened as they embraced each other. Kynemeia smiled as she gazed at the sisters.

* * *

Everything was smooth sailing afterwards. Brian’s parents scraped together all of their possessions to raise the settlement money. Considering the parents’ sincerity and Lana’s opinion as the victim, Kynemeia settled the case by putting only their son in jail. And Sayre and Lana, who came to the Grand Duke’s castle, readily signed the contract.

“You can live in the Grand Duke’s castle as well. Or if you prefer, I can make you a workshop in another area.”

Kynemeia laid out the suggestion because she supposed they would feel too uncomfortable to continue living at their current residence.

“Thank you for your consideration, but it’s fine, we’re comfortable with our current place.”

“They won’t be able to harass us. All of them know that we’re acquainted with Lady Mia.”

Okay, she replied smilingly.

The sisters then gripped onto their hammers.

“Moreover, we have these hammers.”

“Right. We have our hammers.”

Kynemeia swallowed the question ‘Just what are you planning to use those hammers for?’ without giving voice to it.

‘It’s a bit shocking to find out that their murder charges weren’t falsehood…’

‘So the characters don’t always say the truth. Well, it’s a useful discovery.’

Since everything went smoothly up until the contract signing, there was only one thing left to do for Kynemeia: re-engraving the incantation on her body.

“KYAAAAAA!”

She continuously shed tears the entire time the incantation was getting done.

“It must be painful.”

That night, Nanny Vanessa came to Kynemeia’s bedroom and soothed her wrist. The incantation on her thin wrist that vanished before was now back.

“No. It’s not painful at all.”

Truth be told, it hurt like hell. Engraving an incantation was essentially melting a magic stone and branding the skin just like a tattoo. There was no way it didn’t hurt. Vanessa brushed a kiss on Kynemeia’s forehead.

“Please be careful, don’t invoke it by accident again.”

“Mhm. I won’t.”

She sighed softly and hugged Vanessa tightly. It wouldn’t end with just a sigh if she told her nanny that she was almost kidnapped by a stranger. Kynemeia knew that she would be worried, so she only mentioned that she invoked the incantation by accident.

“Sorry for always making you worry lately, Nanny.”

“So you do know. I thought you didn’t.”

“I know Nanny’s feelings like the back of my hand.”

“Gosh.”

Kynemeia peppered kisses on Vanessa’s cheek. As Vanessa smiled and said it tickled, she tucked the giggling girl into bed.

“Right, Young Lady. Who were those people earlier?”

“Hm?”

“Those hammer-carrying ladies.”

“Ah…”

‘What should I say?’ Her eyes wandered as she agonized about it.

“Mhm, those Unnies are… Slimes…”

“Yes?”

“There’s this toy called slime…”

Kynemeia once again launched into an explanation that it was in truth a squishy toy for children rather than the monster slime.

“So those Unnies are… The master artisans of… Slimes…”

“Oh my! The master artisans of slimes, to think there’s such a thing!”

Dark shadows settled over Kynemeia’s face.

‘No, there’s no such thing as the one-top or master artisans in the slime world. There are no such people… I’m sorry for lying, Nanny…’

Story 3  Slime

It had been a few months since Kynemeia invested in Behemoth. During that period, Sayre and Lana’s workmanship in smelting a sword out of monsters’ bones evolved to the point that they were now capable of mass production.

‘Hyaa, now my future of being murdered vengefully is also getting farther away.’

—Was what Kynemeia leisurely thought. On the other hand, the retainers couldn’t curb their astonishment.

“My goodness. You’re saying this is really a sword smelted from monsters’ bones?”

“Yes, Count Brunn. The shape is a bit stubby, but it can still be used like any other sword.”

“If the tip were any thinner, it wouldn’t be able to withstand the force of striking monsters. It would be fine if Aura complements it, but for soldiers that can’t use Aura, this would be more comfortable.”

Sayre and Lana proffered supplementary information one after another.

“To think that such a sword could be developed…”

“It’s all thanks to the Lady.”

“Right, right. It’s because the Lady told us that we can smelt monsters using Aura, and she even provided us with the chance to make it happen.”

They both smiled thinking of Kynemeia. If it weren’t for her, they definitely would’ve killed that pervert and fled to roam the north. Moreover, after what happened with Brian, the people around who used to regard them in distaste started to cling onto them while wagging their tails.

“I didn’t know you were acquainted with the Lady of the Grand Duke… I brought some food here, have some and…”

“That’s what I’m saying! Turns out you had such an acquaintance! So there’s this sword I want to commish…”

“Brian, that guy, I knew karma would’ve gotten to him. That jerk always put on airs and put his hands on women just because his family is slightly well-off.”

They wouldn’t have been able to witness all of those things if it weren’t for the Lady, so their feelings were a bit bitter and complex, but—

They looked at each other and held in their laughter.

“You don’t have to go out of your way like this. You don’t need to act that strangely either, just act like how you always do.”

“We no longer accept personal commissions. We’re already busy enough as is.”

It honestly felt more gratifying than anything. The reason they remained in such a countryside, contrary to the reason they gave Kynemeia, was actually because they wanted to see those people acting desperate… and as far as that goes.

‘This sword! It’ll definitely make big bucks!’

They were even able to smelt a sword out of monsters’ bones with extremely high durability and good tolerance for poison! The sisters could envision a glorious future of them perching atop a pile of money.

‘Escape the life of destitution!’

‘O Money, come into my arms!’

To those ladies, Kynemeia was no longer a mere adorable Grand Duke’s daughter, but more like the Golden Messenger of God. They even started to say nonsense like ‘As expected, those gold locks aren’t golden for nothing’, which then escalated to ‘It’s the gold of gold’ and ‘She’s the Golden Messenger’ to each other.

“Hoo…!”

And hearing all this, the retainers couldn’t contain the feelings bursting within their chests. In their hearts, she was the Lady that they gave birth to and raised. To think that the child they considered as their daughter—who would be pretty and cute as long as she grew up healthily—would achieve something so impressive.

“I didn’t expect our Lady to grow up this much…!”

“What did I say! Our Lady is an esteemed faaaaaaairy!”

“Right, you’re right. To think that all this time I couldn’t recognize the esteemed faaaaaaairy.”

“As expected, she is the esteemed faaaaaaairy…!”

While Count Dennis, followed by Count Brunn and Baron Romeo, started to go crazy with the esteemed faaaaaaairy chant, Marquess Eli who still had his reasoning intact beamed at the sisters as he asked,

“We’ll provide assistants to help you, so can you mass produce this? This is a very valuable sword.”

“Yes! As long as we have the time and materials.”

“Of course we can!”

Sayre and Lana’s eyes fired up. Clink clink, it felt like their ears could already hear the sound of money rushing in. Everyone was in good spirits then. But suddenly, as he was inspecting the sword, Baron Romeo noticed something and carefully wondered,

“Though, about that thing called slime…”

“Ah, that’s right. Didn’t the Lady say she was going to make a toy called slime?”

Count Brunn chimed in with a nod.

“Slime?”

“Slime?”

The monster slime? A question mark appeared on top of Sayre and Lana.