The Viridescent Tiara

Chapter 5

The imperial academy.

As the name implied, it was a high school institution established by the empire.

Its students lived in dormitories. According to tradition, every emperor graduated from there. Thus, most nobles sent their children there.

As a school, there were naturally graduating classes, and this created student and alumni bonds and relationships. House Latia had always withdrawn from this sort of activity. Thus, when Eustaph, who was the first Latia to attend the academy, entered the academy, he drew significant attention.

The empire had three dukedoms.

The Ice House Latia.

The Platinum Miro.

The Uslar of the Rose.

The most isolated and closed-off among the three was House Latia.

This naturally caused curiosity and much fantasizing.

The place of the great sage’s final slumber. The Ice Wall. Magic beasts. A Door, which existed for real. A house whose history was longer than the empire itself.

To the noble class, who emphasized tradition and lineage, the Latias were special. The first feudal lords who had established the nation had coveted Latia blood. The first empress had been a Latia.

Even their greetings to each other sounded impressive.

Unfortunately, Eustaph was not fond of the attention.

When anyone went up to him and said, “May you overcome the blue flames,” he was not just impassive, but irritated. When he retorted that this greeting was said to the head of the house only with a cold face of loathing, they finally stopped.

As a privilege granted to the duke’s house, Eustaph gained a single dormitory in his last year at school.

There, he idly opened a letter he had received.

It was from Lan.

Since he had begun his schooling at the academy, Lan had written him a letter every week. The contents were of everyday matters. She used to write about trivial events at the manor. After she became the temporary head of the house, they started to feel like reports.

She told him about her discussion with their uncle, about the debts, and about the financial situation.

She also complained about how tired she was.

Eustaph read the letter, not even realizing that he was smiling.

The last line read:

[Hurry up and graduate to come and help me.

I mean it for real.]

Eustaph wondered if she was “for real” planning to induct him as the head of the house.

He grazed the words on the letter with his fingertips. It was almost like he hoped this action would help him read the true intentions behind them.

His stepmother had been a great beauty. He had never seen such golden hair and bright green eyes before. And then there had been his stepsister, standing beside her, clutching her skirt. He had felt more at ease with her.

Her flaxen hair had a subtle sparkle and her eyes were green like the summers in the north.

He had felt some anticipation, which made his disappointment worse. It had gone beyond disappointment. It had nearly reached the point of despair.

Until that day.

When he had climbed up a tree and fallen on top of Lan. It had felt like a turning point.

Lan lost consciousness, and she stopped breathing briefly. When she revived, she was a new person.

“Eustaph, I want to be your genuine family.”

The way she murmured these words and smiled kindly at him.

Eustaph squeezed his eyes shut, then reached for the next letter when he opened his eyes.

The second letter was from Ross. Ross wrote down and reported Lan’s movements in detail.

The caves?

What could be there?

Lan had not mentioned this in her letter.

And how does she know about them? There’s a way to repay the debts inside? Questions bloomed steadily out of his mind.

With no further hesitation, Eustaph reached for the inkwell. He wrote his questions with a sweeping hand and sealed his letter.

The recipient was Lan.

* * *

The accountant Rudd was disciplined quickly.

Public announcements listing his crimes were posted all over the duchy. Some vassals were happy that, despite being the temporary head of the house, Lan’s first disciplinary action was an execution, saying these were the first steps toward cutting out corruption.

Others paled. Some even said that execution was going too far, and immoral. They shouted that the new head was heartless.

Lan ignored them all.

Unfortunately, the assets they managed to seize amounted to little.

What the hell did he use it all on?

Lan sighed as she perused the list of assets. It was shorter than expected. Though she had expected some of it to have been used to gamble, she had not anticipated him to have gambled so much.

Most of the accountant’s associates were punished and fired.

The administrative department was given more work, but the administrators could say nothing about it. They knew that the head of the house was the most overworked among everyone.

Her study’s lights always went off last, and went on first.

Thus, when Blaine returned and found Lan pale and with dark circles under her eyes, he was startled.

“Are you feeling all right, my lady?”

He had blurted it out without even thinking.

Lan chuckled and nodded. “I’m not dead yet, so I’m all right. Anyway, I heard there was an achievement.”

“Yes, we found the cave. We also found what Your Ladyship mentioned...”

He carefully pushed a basket toward Lan. Lan quickly opened the lid. It held a magic stone as large as her bicep. She brightened.

Blaine added, “But it is not a gem. Apparently, they say it is not a crystal.”

“Mm, yes. It’s not a gem. It’s a magic stone.”

“A magic stone? One so large?”

Blaine was stunned. Lan nodded.

“Look at its clarity and hardness. This is what a high-purity magic stone looks like.”

Blaine blinked. He had seen magic items and magic stones before. All of them had looked like ordinary stones.

Lan rapped her knuckles on the magic stone.

“It isn’t difficult to make a magic item, nor is it that expensive. However, the limit is in the small amount of magic in these magic stones.”

In the current day and age, instead of magicians, magic craftsmen made the magic circles that went in magic items. Because it was not especially costly, it did not require the valuable work of magicians.

One did not have to be a magician to draw a magic circle. Magic craftsmen were low-wage workers.

“But things will change if these magic stones join the supply,” Lan muttered.

Magic circles had all sorts of use cases.

Blaine nodded. “Certainly.”

“Yes. I didn’t expect you to find it so quickly. This is all thanks to you, Blaine.”

“Not at all, my lady.” Blaine cast his eyes down as he answered humbly.

“Good. Well then.”

Lan grinned. She fingered the stone.

“We’ll need to find a buyer.”

Lan’s head turned quickly. She was the original author. There were a lot of details she hadn’t included in the main storyline.

Guilds. The continent had three big guilds.

If we open up trade with one of them…

It has to be the Golden Rose.

Lan took a deep breath and looked up.

“Sir Blaine, may I ask you something?”

“There is no need to ask me first. Please state your command.”

Lan felt herself relax at his courteous reply. She took up her pen and began to sketch on a piece of paper.

“Have you by chance seen a tree with this leaf shape before?”

Blaine observed the picture and nodded. Ross did as well.

“I know it. It is a common tree in the north.”

“Is it?” Lan gazed out the window. “Hm. Never mind. It isn’t the season. We can delay it.”

Lan folded the piece of paper.

“Good work. Go and rest.”

Blaine bowed and left the study. Lan sat down.

Ross studied the magic stone on the table and asked her, “How did you know?”

“Hmm?”

“How did you know that was there?”

“I wasn’t sure either.”

Ross looked at Lan with confusion. Lan hoped that the story she had come up with would make sense.

“I tried to think of why the magicians were not allowed here.”

“That’s it? Magicians and magic stones don’t even have anything to do with each other.” Ross sounded baffled.

Lan nodded and added, “Do you also remember how I went close to the Door long ago and disappeared?”

Lan… or more like when the real Lan, and not me, was younger, she went to the Door and got lost. It was the first incident that led to her mother punishing Eustaph, saying he had caused her daughter to get lost on purpose.

“Yes, I know about it.”

Ross’ face became hard.

That day, Eustaph’s stepmother had punished him severely. His back ended up all bloody. He still had scars from the thrashing.

“That was when I found it. So I put together my childhood memories and old information, and wondered if maybe…”

Lan smiled awkwardly. She hunched her shoulders. “I was just lucky.”

Ross did not say anything.

Lucky?

Despite what she said, it was not at all easy to derive one conclusion from fragmented pieces of information. Especially such a ridiculous conclusion. However, Lan had derived it, and it had been proven correct.

A clear magic stone. Even Ross, who didn’t know the industry, could guess that it had incredible value.

The duke’s house would escape its debts.

“Why didn’t you say anything earlier?”

“It would be embarrassing if I was wrong.”

Ross was speechless.

Lan smiled at the way he stared at her.

“Now I know, and I can write about it to Eus. And... to Golden Rose.”

“Golden Rose?”

“Yes. They’re one of the empire’s big three guilds. It must be something of that scale to make this sort of trade, don’t you think?”

Possessing a high-value item was basically like winning the lottery. There was plenty of risk of being stabbed in the back.

And, when they later discovered red and blue magic stones, they would need to know a big guild with connections to the west.

With these magic stones, things that had not been possible due to scarcity of magic would become possible. The future possibilities were endless.

And the Ice Wall is the only source of such high-purity stones.

It was basically like getting one’s hands on oil money.

Lan grinned.

This would put an end to Eustaph’s suffering. It would also be the end of the female lead doing hard work for the impoverished duke after traveling here from a different dimension.

The female lead. Lan suddenly thought of her character. The female lead’s name was Sheena Lee.

Sheena.

She was supposed to be a lovable character. She was a hard worker.

Thinking about her made Lan feel bad. I’ll help her live in comfort in this life.

Eustaph and Sheena would live a happy life. Money can’t buy happiness, but at least there won’t be problems caused by money. That would resolve at least half their problems.

Once things are concluded, I need to go and find the secondary male lead…

He was probably a slave right now. But things were still uncertain at the moment. She needed to find him before the end of next year. If she waited too long and he ended up going to the illegal fighting ring next year, he would enter an even worse hell.

But at least I’ve saved the male lead... for now.

Lan bit her lip.

Two years.

She just needed to last here for two more years, then Eustaph would take on the head of the house’s reins.

Eustaph will graduate in half a year anyway. At that point, she would really just be a puppet temporary head of the house. If only it would happen faster.

Lan reread her letter. She hadn’t made any mistakes.

Oh right.

Lan added a note to her letter to Eustaph.

[Recruit some talents!]

* * *

When Eustaph read the last line, his face bent at an angle. Talents?

The imperial academy certainly was great for connections.

Though most of the students at the academy were of noble blood, about a century ago, the emperor had permitted commoners to enter the school, to build a force that rivaled the nobles. As long as they passed the test, those without peerages were able to become a student without paying the exorbitant tuition fees.

Most graduates became low-level administrators in the imperial palace, and that was the extent of it.

Eustaph lightly patted his desk. There have been a few who caught my eye.

He was tired of academy society. But this was another issue.

This means I can be more active.

He had observed the academy figures, but he had never scouted anyone proactively.

While his father was still alive, this would have meant giving his stepmother power. “See? You are well and alive, but your son is already preparing to become the duke.” He knew she would say something like that.

But now Lan was the head of the house.

It should be fine since these are the head of the house’s orders.

Eustaph folded the letter back up as he thought this.

When he saw the documentation on the duke’s debt, his breath caught. There was no way the duke’s house made enough to repay it.

But…

Magic stones...?

Eustaph fingered the Azure Ring around his neck. Its surface was always cool and never warm, no matter how long he touched it. Eustaph liked that.

“Your choice was right after all,” he whispered to the Azure Ring, and fell into deep thought.