Chapter 6.7

Chapter 6.7

Whenever someone entered the Palace for the first time, they were always overwhelmed by the extravagance and the size of it. Evita was no exception.

However, Evita went a step further and noted where everything was inside her head. It was only a given that she would look for possible escape routes in case she needed to use one. It came with the job.

As she waited for the Silver King’s summons, Evita’s eyes took everything in. The interior of the palace, the design of the furniture, the color of the uniform of the ladies-in-waiting. Everything was valuable. This information could be worth money.

After she roughly took in all the information she wanted, she was bored. She began to recall the black-haired man who had got her into this situation and almost cursed out loud.

The lady who entered the room came back out.

“You may go inside. Her Majesty is waiting.”

“Yes, milady.”

She thought that someone would accompany her in. However, Evita was sent inside alone, and the doors closed behind her. Bewildered, Evita realized that she couldn’t enter and exit through the doors at will.

“Come closer.”

It wasn’t the thin and graceful voice she was expecting. It was sharp and strong, and it also sounded a bit cold.

Evita clenched her fists. She felt a chill run through her body as if she were bracing herself against a cold wind. She lowered her head and walked in the direction of the voice.

When it came to Evita, her hunch was often correct. It was almost a skill at this point. Especially her first impressions. She had never been wrong with her first impressions of others. She felt that evaluating people was incredibly important. Her ‘hunch’ had saved her life on more than one occasion.

She based her first impressions on one’s looks and sometimes their voices. Sometimes, she went as far as to observe their dispositions. However, there were times when she felt completely overwhelmed.

Just like now.

She had a similar experience not that long ago. She felt the same way when she met the leader of Kaligo for the first time.

‘Do I need to perform an exorcism?’

Even though it was rare to come across these kinds of people in one’s lifetime, Evita had met two just this past year. She didn’t know whether she was lucky or unfortunate.

“I heard that you were a merchant.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“What do you sell?”

“I sell that which you cannot see.”

“Come and sit down.”

Not knowing the proper etiquette of refusing such a request, Evita didn’t hesitate and sat down on the sofa. Once she sat down, she furtively lifted her head.

‘Wow…’

When she had first heard of the Imperial family who had inherited the blood of the gods, she snorted in disbelief. Evita was very confident in her own beauty. When she saw the noblewomen who were rumored to be beautiful, Evita thought, ‘Who wouldn’t be beautiful if they dressed like that?’

However, the Princess was on another level when compared to those noblewomen. It was as if they were different species altogether. It was almost as if ‘pretty’ wasn’t enough to describe her. She had a holy aura about her.

‘If the gods made a doll, it would look like her.’

As Evita was lost in Sienna’s beauty, Sienna was also observing Evita.

‘She’s quite young.’

She was the opposite of what Sienna had expected when Kuhn told her he would send her an informant. She expected an elderly, gloomy-looking man, but a pretty and charming woman had come instead.

Her aura was similar to Patricia’s. If Patricia was an elegant cat, this woman was like a wild, outdoor cat.

Patricia had a beauty that was the complete opposite of her daughter. Her body was petite and perfectly suited for a man’s embrace. She also had smiling eyes and a sweet smile. People described her to be a voluptuous beauty.

Humans couldn’t help but want the things they didn’t have, but it wasn’t to say that Sienna had an inferiority complex.

Sienna was proud of what she had, but she also acknowledged others’ strengths as well. Therefore, she thought of Evita as ‘charming’. If she had to say whether she had a good feeling about Evita or not, Sienna would have gone with the former.

However, something about Evita’s charm bothered Sienna. For some reason, she didn’t like this woman.

“How much longer are you going to look around?”

Sienna thought that her displeasure stemmed from Evita’s rude behavior. Evita became startled and quickly lowered her head.

“I apologize, Silver King. I am not very well versed in etiquette, so please forgive me.”

It wasn’t a surprise to find out that an ignorant subject did not know proper etiquette. Even though Sienna knew this, she still felt annoyed.

“Your name… No, nevermind. That’s not important. How do you do business?”

“It’s the same as any other business. If I currently have what you’re looking for, I can give it to you immediately. If I don’t have it, I can find it and give it to you later.”

“And the price?”

“As with anything, if you tell me what you’re looking for, we will calculate the price. If we both agree on it, the transaction will commence.”

“Can you get me anything I want if I order it?”

“We will do our best, but I’m just a merchant. I can’t obtain every object in the world.”

Sienna wanted to test the woman. Would she be able to obtain the secret information that was only privy to the empire’s intelligence service? However, she quickly discarded that idea.

‘I didn’t call her here so that I could trap her.’

She told Kuhn that she was looking for trivial information. Therefore, Kuhn would have picked this woman specifically and sent her here. If she made the woman feel uncomfortable, it would also make him feel uncomfortable.

‘Did someone recommend her to him? Or did they already know each other?’

As Sienna pondered over Kuhn and this woman’s connection, she felt her mood drop again.

‘She’s probably not an upright woman.’

That was why she felt so repulsed by her. This was the conclusion Sienna came to after much thought.

Sienna pulled out the ring that Emma had left behind.

“I want to know the price of this item.”

“Your Majesty, you should ask that to an appraiser…”

“I’m not looking for an exact price. I just want to know how much you think this would be at a glance.”

Evita took the ring and raised it up as she observed it here and there. Even if she wasn’t an expert when it came to jewels, she still had an eye for them. She often received jewels as compensation, so if she didn’t know its price, she’d suffer a great loss.

“I think it’ll be about three gold coins.”

“Three gold coins? What kind of currency is that? There are no gold coins used as currency in the Empire.”

“It’s not used as currency. We use it as a standard when we trade. They say the Empire produced commemorative gold coins in the past. I think it was quite a long time ago…”

“That’s right. It was 186 years ago to be exact. The emperor of that time wanted to produce them to celebrate his victory and had thirty-seven of them made. And on those coins, the names of the thirty-seven knights who had given up their lives in the war were engraved. Sixteen of them are lost today, and the rest is kept in the imperial coffers.”

Evita blankly nodded her head. She hadn’t known those details, so she was learning about the commemorative gold coins for the first time.

“How is it that these commemorative gold coins are being used as a trade standard?”

“The amount of gold it took to make one of the commemorative gold coins is considered one unit. Therefore, we just call it ‘gold coin’.”

“And why do you use such a complicated system?”

“It’s because the silver coin is too little in situations where a large sum of money is moved around.”

“And how do you trade with this if it has no specific shape or form?”

“We just call it ‘gold coin’ on paper, but we exchange banknotes instead.”

“…That’s quite amazing.”

No one knew who first established this system. However, this person wasn’t a leader of this empire, and yet they volunteered to create such a clear and simple system.

“And do people frequently use this system?”

“Not really. Most people don’t even see a large sum of money as great as a gold coin in their lifetimes.”

“Do you have any banknotes on you?”

“Not right now.”

“I want to see what they look like. That will be my commission for you, so bring it with you next time and show me.”

“Ah… Yes, Your Majesty.”

‘This is going differently than I expected.’

Evita had wondered what kind of information the Silver King would want, but now that she was here, it wasn’t even information worth selling.

Sienna asked Evita the things she had been curious about. The value of a silver coin, what it was like to do business in the marketplace, the cost of daily necessities and more. From Evita’s point of view, she wondered if the Silver King was really asking her these things because she truly didn’t know them.

Evita’s mouth went dry as she continued to answer the questions. At a certain point, Evita was confused as to whether she was called here to sell information or whether she came to chat.

There was a knock at the door, and a lady-in-waiting entered the room. She didn’t say anything and merely stood in front of the door. However, Sienna seemed to understand what the lady-in-waiting was saying and nodded her head.

“I have another appointment waiting, so I think we should end things here. Thank you for your hard work.”

“I only hope I was of some help to you, Your Majesty.”

“Will the ring I showed you earlier be enough for your compensation?”

“More than enough. Thank you, Your Majesty.”

Having talked until her throat was sore, Evita lowered her head and secretly smiled. If the Princess was giving her this much just to chat with her like this, she’d rush over here every day if she could.

” time…”

Sienna calculated the next time she’d be free for another meeting. Her schedule was completely booked for the next three days. What about five days…?

‘I better find a personal secretary as soon as possible.’

“How about ten days from now? At this exact time?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“I’ll buy something from you. Bring it with you next time.”

“Yes, Your Majesty. What would you like me to bring?”

“The leader of Kaligo. I want to know more about that person.”

Evita’s mouth stiffened.\n