For a while, I had to walk around like a mummy.
‘Is this the karmic retribution for lying?’
I accepted it humbly. The gains outweighed the cost, so I could endure it. After all, I had managed to expel Duke Javier from the parliamentary seat and confine him to his fief. Enrique could stay in the mansion in the capital, avoiding the uncomfortable presence of his biological father, making it a happy ending.
‘Still, it feels a bit too anticlimactic and unsettling.’
Still, the thought of not having to see Duke Javier every day was exhilarating. At first, it was hard to walk with the bandages Eidan had wrapped around me, so I hired Xavier as a carriage.
While enjoying a walk with Xavier, the passing maids pitied me, the mummy.
“Oh dear. How sad. Are you in a lot of pain?”
“It’s fine. Just a little.”
“A little pain? How can you bear it...”
A maid tried to grab my hand, but another maid harshly slapped her hand away.
“Be careful, Sandra! You’ve already spent all your salary.”
Sandra, startled, let go of her hand and muttered angrily.
“I’ll wait until next month’s salary, Your Majesty.”
“I’ll shake hands with you a hundred times.”
The maids left with a menacing warning. Xavier sighed and laughed at their forlorn backs.
“Lucky me. As a close attendant, I can touch the walking fine at will.”
“Xavier, are you teasing me now?”
But it sure looked like teasing.
*** As usual, the education session with the teaching priest began. When I entered the reception room, the new king, lounging like a leisurely noble, caught my eye. I looked at him with narrowed eyes.
“So, how much do you earn?”
“I don’t take it. It’s Abelard’s, so it’s mine.”
The moment I sat on the sofa, the new king scanned me.
“What’s with your appearance?”
The new king slightly nodded, and a warm sensation spread through my body before disappearing. When I looked at my reflection in the tea, the abrasions had vanished. I was already uncomfortable pretending to be a mummy with bandages, so it was a relief. I regretted not asking for help earlier.
‘They say healing with divine power lowers your natural healing ability, so I hesitated.’
That’s why I usually requested healing priests during wars when injuries were frequent.
“Be careful. You can’t heal yourself.”
Today, the new king seemed to have no intention of teaching me anything. I placed a bag on the table while watching the new king lazily drink tea.
Inside the bag were the stones the moles found in Duke Javier’s gold mine, identical to the relics. I brought them wrapped in two bags to avoid being absorbed like last time. There was no reaction when Eidan touched them, but it’s better to be cautious.
“I wanted to identify the dust, but it’s unknown. But that thing and the crow-like object the new king sent me are the same, right?”
The guild couldn’t identify the stone’s true nature. Why was Duke Javier collecting these stones? The new king, who had put the stone back on the table, answered.
“They are essentially the same, but slightly different.”
“The relic I sent you was processed to be absorbed immediately, while this is just raw ore.”
“So, is this also a relic?”
“Yes... more precisely, it’s the divine power widely spread in nature. The essence of the Tree of Creation, or the Moonstone."
The intention behind Duke Javier’s actions became even more intriguing.
“What can be done with this?”
“To ordinary people, it’s just a stone. It’s not particularly useful to regular priests either, as they can’t absorb it due to the limit of potential divine power they can open. Only someone with strong potential divine power like you or me could use it.”
There probably aren’t many people in the world with divine power as strong as the new king, so it was a useless stone for Duke Javier. While pondering the duke’s intentions, the new king changed the subject.
“Recently, there’s been a severe drought, right?”
“It’s probably because someone is intentionally destroying the essence.”
It was indeed strange that the drought couldn’t be resolved even with rain.
‘Is Duke Javier collecting the essence to cause the drought?’
His intentions were truly incomprehensible. I sighed and touched the stone with my fingertips. As the new king said, it didn’t absorb.
“What should we do to stop the drought?”
“We need to gather it first to prevent someone from destroying it.”
‘It’s getting further away. The dream of abdication.’
Not only abdication, but I now had the heavy responsibility of protecting the world. ***
“Here are the documents related to the guild’s finances.”
I looked at the documents Eidan laid out in front of me. They listed the guild’s properties, mines, and lands. Among them were many of Count Mithron’s assets.
“When did our guild become so rich?”
“It’s thanks to the efforts of the deputy master.”
“An excellent talent. Make sure she doesn’t leave.”
Why does his answer sound lukewarm? I also looked at other documents. It was a list of debts owed by nobles to the guild.
“Is this a list of potential slaves?”
I grinned, feeling like a ruthless loan shark. It was evidence that many nobles, including Duke Javier, had borrowed money.
“Make sure to lend them money enthusiastically. They are precious customers.”
Customers in writing, potential slaves in reading. Some had borrowed for emergency funds, but most had lost money in gambling and borrowed. The guild’s interest rates were lower than other banks, so they often turned to the guild. As time passed, the likelihood of repayment became slim, but it didn’t matter.
‘I never expected to get the money back anyway.’
My goal was to have their weaknesses. As long as they owed me money, they were in my debt.
“Is the teacher doing well?”
“Yes. At first, he seemed dissatisfied, but he smiled widely when he heard about the salary.”
Thus, the guild’s operations went smoothly. *** Peaceful days continued. Today, I planned to go on a picnic with Oscar. As we walked briskly towards the lake, I suddenly felt annoyed. I missed the old days when I was carried in a baby carriage.
“Sigh. I was so happy when I was one month old...”
Feeling everyone, including Oscar and the nanny, looking at me, I awkwardly laughed and closed my mouth. When we arrived at the lake, Oscar and I shared snacks prepared by the nanny.
“Hey, Oscar. Isn’t Dad acting a bit strange lately?”
After thinking for a moment, Oscar nodded.
I wasn’t the only one who noticed. At first glance, Dad seemed the same, but upon closer inspection, I could tell. He didn’t seem to be sleeping well, and his complexion wasn’t good. Sometimes he was lost in deep thought. Every time I saw him like that, I remembered the first time I went to his bedroom.
And the expression he had when he looked at me. Siana Gadenia, my birth mother. I knew almost nothing about her, not even what she looked like. I had never asked about my birth mother, and no one had ever told me. I had never felt the absence of a guardian because I was well taken care of by the nanny, attendants, and maids. I sipped strawberry juice and asked Oscar.
“Oscar, what was my mom like?”
Oscar suddenly coughed, as if something had gone down the wrong way. I patted his back.
“Don’t choke, take it easy.”
Oscar sighed, looking at me with a bewildered expression.
“...Why suddenly about her?”
“Hmm. She was a very kind person. Even though I wasn’t her biological son, she truly loved me.”
Oscar smiled faintly, perhaps thinking of his mother. What kind of person could make you smile just by thinking about them?
“Hmm. When I was young and wanted someone else’s things, I threw a tantrum.”
“Everyone would just give it to me, but she was the only one who firmly said no and scolded me severely. She was strict when it came to wrongdoings.”
Even as he talked about being scolded, Oscar looked happy. I rested my chin and imagined Oscar being scolded.
I shook my head hurriedly and pushed a cookie into Oscar’s mouth.
I could feel Oscar looking at me intently but ignored it. *** Perhaps because I talked about my birth mother with Oscar during the day, I had a nightmare. It was the time when my mother from my previous life left me. Although I no longer dug the ground or felt depressed, I still didn’t feel good. When I opened my eyes, it was still dark. I immediately looked for