Chapter 68

Was the snow deer such a clever animal? Something was strange.

When Louivid turned the doorknob and entered the room. The snow deer that was among the falling snowflakes, was startled. Wary of him, it ran to Luciel’s bed.

Thud.

Louivid took a step closer, raised an eyebrow, and murmured.

“……Magic?”

When Luciel entered the room, the deer immediately ran to her and threw itself on her arms asking to be hugged.

“Oh, Father-in-Law. Were you here? I was practicing the waltz.”

“……Luciel. I saw this deer using snow magic.”

“Oh, right. There were snowflakes in the room this morning, too. I guess it wasn’t an illusion.”

Luciel replied so, while recalling the past.

“I was going to send it to the snowy field when the deer was all better…….”

At Louivid’s words, the deer fidgeted, spun around Luciel and licked her cheek.

“I guess this deer wants to be with you.”

Luciel’s small hand gently stroked the deer’s back. The little deer looked up at Luciel with clear and transparent eyes.

“Is it okay if I don’t send it back to the snowfield?”

“Let’s wait a little longer. Maybe we could make a space for it. After all, your little fief is being prepared, so there’s a suitable place to let the deer rest.”

“I like that. Thank you, Father-in-law.”

To be honest, she was sad to think of parting with it someday, this was a good thing. Luciel rejoiced and hugged the snow deer’s neck.

“Do you really want to be with me?”

When Luciel asked, the deer’s clear eyes lit up. Suddenly, snowflakes were scattered in the air.

“Wow, you are amazing. You can do so many things…….”

“It can really do magic. By the way, seeing the deer following you, he seems to know how cute you are.”

Louivid rolled up the corners of his mouth and then leisurely left Luciel’s room. She nodded and greeted his back as he left.

“See you later.”

“Yes.”

His answer came back. Luciel felt more comfortable dealing with her father-in-law than before.

* * *

“Rumor has it that the Bellstein is mining something after buying the ownership of the cave next to the Frandel lake.”

“……what?”

At the words of his trusted intelligence gathering agent, Marquis Cavill felt dizzy and his eyes popped out. He shivered as if the shock did not go away. It was like someone had hit him in the back of his head.

The Marquis of Cavill raised funds and proposed a tourism business to the imperial family using Frandel Lake as the location. It was a business he was eager to make a success.

A cruise-type casino located next to a lake surrounded by natural beauty. One of the wishes for his old age was to provide high-quality tourism business that satisfies the needs of entertainment of the nobles.

“Although Lake Frandel is far from the island, isn’t it quite a famous tourist destination?”

“To be precise, it is not the lake they bought, but a large cave next to the lake. I don’t know exactly, but it’s said they made a deal with the imperial family. The imperial family seemed to be very satisfied with the fact that they gave away a useless cave and got something more valuable.”

The Marquis Cavill frowned.

From ages ago, Bellstein has not had much interaction with the capital aristocratic community. They were able to promote various projects only because of their old friendship with the emperor. They were a cheeky house.

The Marquis does everything he can to propose a business. Moreover, he was unlucky in one of the smuggling businesses last winter. Having been caught by the Imperial Inspection Department and sentenced to probation for a year, he was unable to enter the Imperial Palace.

It’s a business that all high-ranking nobles have a hand in, yet he was the only unlucky one to get caught last year.

He had even paid various bribes to many ministers, but there was no nobleman that had useful information about the matter. In terms of valuable data gathering, the members of the organization in front of the Marquis were worth twice as much.

To the extent that he intends to still continue dealings with this organization even after his detention is lifted.

However, the Marquis did not show any signs of how much he valued this relationship.

“……What is buried there that makes Bellstein go so far to obtain it?”

“We don’t know much about that…….but given that the security is so tight, it is assumed that it is quite valuable.”

‘Is there a gold mine buried there? Or is it magic stones……?’

Either way, if Bellstein were to get something good out of this deal, the Marquis would be left feeling bitter.

“I want you to find out what the Imperial Household got from the Bellstein in exchange for the cave. It would be better if you also could find out what they are mining….”

“I understand, Marquis. The payment is…….”

“I’ll hand it over to you in a carriage.”

“Yes, thank you as always.”

As the organization members disappeared, Marquis Cavill pressed his darkened eyes together. He remembered something he had put aside for a while. Something that his daughter Penelope had said.

‘Come to think of it, that kid’s eyes were very bright. Like a sparkling ruby.’

Since then, he tried to monitor the dressing room and dig up information, but failed.

Oddly enough, Marquise Bellita was the one who had leaked rumors about the child, and the ships she owned had been bombed. No one said outright that it was Bellstein’s doing, but there weren’t many families that had such a strong wizard.

Any buildings owned by the Marquis Cavill could have been bombed like that ship.

Thinking about it, he, too, had a cold chill.

‘It seems that the Duke of Bellstein is very fond of the child. Could it be that she is a real Crystal Fairy?’

“This is going to be more difficult to touch than I thought. But it’s not that there’s no way. It’s a precious item, so I’ll have to check first.”

The Marquis gave a fishy smile, while rummaging through his books, confirming the names of three of four aristocrats.

They were vassals of Bellstein.

It was a good thing he had set up a branch in Bellstein by doing illegal loan business under the name of another person. Under the Duke’s decree, usury* was illegal within the Duchy, and that the vassals transparently disclosed their assets through a bank managed by Bellstein’s treasury department

(Note: the illegal action or practice of lending money at unreasonably high rates of interest.)

But is there anyone in the world who doesn’t have another pocket? Money is more often used and moved in places where one doesn’t know… It seems that some of Bellstein’s vassals, who were in urgent need of funds without the master’s knowledge, borrowed the Marquis money.

He summoned Bilpu, who was in charge of finance.

“Send letters to these customers. We will only waive half of the repayment interest to specially designated people, so please make sure to attend.”

With such an approach, he will request for inside information on Bellstein using the excuse of planning a future co-investment with a lot of funds.

At first, everyone will refuse, but he can secretly throw money or threaten those who do not come over to reveal to the Duke that they have prepared an illegal slush fund without the knowledge of their master.

‘By the time this scheme get’s caught and it goes in the Duke’s ear, I would already be gone like a ghost.’

After all, his loan business was a private company with no real estate. The building and the staff were only going to be rented for one day.

The Marquis swallowed a smile as he stroked his ragged beard.

That was the plan the Marquis had devised. Right now, he would lose money, but if only the Crystal Fairy was in his hands, it was worth the investment.

* * *

“Are you here, Little Madam?”

“Yes, good morning.”

Luciel entered the room with a pleasant greeting from the librarian.

“Excuse me, Mister librarian. I have a question”

As Luciel came to his desk and stepped forward with a question. He was tidying up the books for a while, and at her lovely appearance he stopped everything and said:

“Call me Veron, you can be comfortable.”

“Oh, Veron.”

He wore glasses made of wood and despite his dwarfed stature, he always seemed to do all the work by himself, as the chief librarian.

“Are there any books on jewelry in the library?”

“Of course. Are you curious about jewelry?”

“Yes.”

“Then it would be better for you to see it yourself rather than a book.”

“By myself? Oh, I can go to the street where the jewelers are.”

Luciel muttered, “Why didn’t I think of that sooner?” and Veron laughed while shaking his head.

“No, if you tell the maid or another adult that you want to see jewels, they will be happy to open up the warehouse.”

“……!”

I hadn’t thought of that. Since Bellstein is wealthy, there will be all kinds of jewels.

In that way. Luciel decided to talk to the first adult in the family she met. Just in time, Evelyn came into the library to read the newspaper, and Veron spoke on behalf of Luciel.

Evelyn’s blue eyes twinkled, and she grabbed Luciel’s hand.

“It’s nice to hear that you want to see jewelry. Luciel.”

“……What?”

She spoke like a rapid-fire gun with a very excited face.

“Let’s go to the jewelry vault right now. Actually……I wanted to show it to you all this time, but Gillard was holding me back because he said that you were too burdened by expensive or luxurious things. After all, it is exciting to see something that sparkles, right? Luciel, you like jewelry too, right?”

“…….”

Luciel couldn’t help but nod at Grandma Evelyn’s question. There seems to be some misunderstanding, but it’s not like she hates jewelry.

No, is there anyone who doesn’t like it?

Pong Pong Pong.

As they passed through a magnificent courtyard full of opal-like milky marble fountains and a courtyard full of pink roses, Evelyn slipped back.

“Luciel, the outbuildings over there are Bellstein’s vaults.”

“All the separate buildings?”

“Yes, you’ll find out more about them later.”

Although Luciel didn’t think it was a big deal, Evelyn was excited to hand over the vault management to Soliaphe and Luciel, so they could join her. As her family was wealthy, they had a lot of safes, housekeeping, and treasures to manage, so it was boring to handle it alone.

How long did they walk?

With angel statues placed on both sides, they arrived at an entrance where it seemed that it would lead to heaven.

“Come on, this is the Angel Palace. We use the first wing key.”

Evelyn took out the first key from the key pack.

It was a silver key carved in the shape of an angel’s wing. However, there was no door to open with the key, and as soon as Luciel thought so, a ray of white light came forward from the tip of the key.

At the end of that long beam of light, about twenty steps further, a steel door appeared.