Chapter 10
At the question of what she wanted, Deborah hesitated for quite a while.
Why is she pretending to think so hard?
Duke Seymour found it strange. Deborah seemed deep in thought before finally speaking in a slow, measured voice.
“Then… please invest in my business.”
“Hm?”
This time, the duke questioned not his eyes, but his ears.
He had naturally assumed she would ask him to win the pink diamond that would be auctioned off in three days.
Instead, she was asking for an investment.
“You mean you want to engage in business, and you want me to provide the capital?”
“Yes.”
“How absurd. What suddenly gave you that idea?”
“While I was confined to my room, I came up with a promising business idea.”
“…Hmm.”
The duke didn’t believe her at face value.
The nobles of Asteria generally looked down on commerce.
Running a merchant company was considered the second-rate option chosen by nobles who lacked profitable territories to inherit and needed another way to maintain their finances.
To the duke, it seemed highly suspicious that Deborah—who had always shared the aristocracy’s disdain for trade—would suddenly decide she wanted to become a merchant.
“So, how much do you need?”
He was skeptical, but he had already promised to grant whatever she asked.
Rather than interrogating her, he went straight to the point.
Instead of answering aloud, Deborah wrote a number on a piece of paper and handed it to him.
The moment he saw the amount, he tilted his head.
Did she accidentally leave off a zero?
It was less than what he’d once spent cleaning up the trouble Deborah had caused with an elder of the Mage Tower when she was a child.
She wants to start a business… with this?
…Even more suspicious.
Still, judging by the seriousness on her face, it seemed she had her own reasons.
The duke decided not to press her any further.
Recently, he’d realized that his daughter wasn’t the hopeless delinquent he’d always believed her to be.
She actually had a surprisingly thoughtful side.
For now, he wanted to simply watch and see what happened.
“Very well. I’ll instruct the administrator to send you the amount of gold you requested.”
“Thank you, Father.”
Deborah’s eyes sparkled with delight.
Come to think of it, she’d worn that same bright, shining expression when she’d melted the snow with fire magic.
There was something about those eyes that stirred the tiny remnants of fatherly affection still lingering inside the duke.
They made him want to put just one more gift into her hands.
That’s a dangerous way of thinking.
Embarrassed by his own uncharacteristic thoughts, the duke coughed loudly and stood up.
“I have work to attend to. Give me the letter another time.”
“Yes.”
“Don’t come see me off. Finish the studying you were doing.”
Even saying those words felt awkward.
Deborah… studying voluntarily?
She really has grown up…
Walking toward his office with indescribable emotions, the duke suddenly stopped in his tracks.
Only then did he realize why Deborah had suddenly talked about starting a business and asked him for money.
I see. So that’s it.
She really has matured.
If she’d invented the excuse of “business investment” simply to fulfill his request that she ask him for something she wanted, then everything made perfect sense.
She even found such a sophisticated way to ease the burden on my heart.
In front of his retainers, the duke had publicly declared several times that he would never buy the pink diamond for his daughter.
By changing the subject from jewelry to business, Deborah had deliberately redirected his attention.
She was making sure he wouldn’t have to go back on his own words.
She even protected my dignity.
Not only that—
She had intentionally requested a very modest investment, reducing the financial burden on him.
Now that’s truly impressive.
He had thought she’d remain an immature troublemaker for the rest of her life.
Who would’ve imagined she’d grow up this much, even if it was so late?
Having completely exaggerated and glorified his daughter’s actions in his own mind, Duke Seymour called for his aide with a determined expression.
At this point, he felt he ought to place that jewel in her hands, if only to reward her efforts.
No—
He wanted to.
“Win the pink diamond.”
“I don’t care what it takes.”
“As long as your bid is higher than the Montes family’s eldest son. I don’t care how much it costs.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
Three days later.
The auction house erupted over an outcome no one had expected.
Not only because the final bid shattered every previous record…
But because the jewel that had thrown high society into an uproar had ended up in the possession of the Seymour family, not the Montes family.
As I waited for the duke to send the gold, I absentmindedly scribbled in my notebook.
There were three reasons I’d asked him to invest in a business.
First, asking for money under the pretense of a business venture looked far more respectable than bluntly saying, “I don’t need jewelry—just give me cash.”
Second, throwing myself into a business would provide the perfect excuse to delay marriage.
People always nag the unemployed more than those who are busy. That’s true everywhere in the world.
And lastly…
More than anything else, I’d spent twenty-four years struggling as a wage slave in a capitalist society.
I figured I’d actually be pretty competitive if I entered the business world.
Now that I’d secured my startup capital, I spent my time brainstorming business ideas.
Then the estate administrator arrived carrying a large chest.
Gold! It’s gold! My gold is here!
Doing my best to maintain a poker face, I flung the lid open.
I’ve been staring at jewels this whole time. Seeing actual gold coins feels refreshing.
I gazed in bliss at the bulging bags of gold.
Then I noticed an elegant velvet case carefully placed in one corner of the chest.
What’s this?
Curious, I opened the velvet box—
And nearly fainted.
Inside, resting against black velvet, was a heart-shaped diamond necklace glowing with a brilliant pink radiance.
It was the very necklace that, in the original novel, Pilaf had supposedly purchased for a price equal to an entire townhouse in the capital.
Seeing it glittering right before my eyes made my breath catch.
W-Why is this here?
In the original story, Pilaf was supposed to win it and give it to the heroine.
Don’t tell me…
It’s a fake?
Blinking in confusion, I noticed both the certificate of authenticity and a letter from the duke tucked inside the case.
Deborah,
I’ll gratefully accept your consideration. However, this is my way of repaying your precious letter, and it continued to trouble me that I was only giving you such a paltry sum…
Since it’s obvious what my daughter truly wanted, it wouldn’t be right for a father to pretend not to notice…
(excerpt)
The moment I read the letter, I felt my blood pressure shoot through the roof.
He calls forty million won “a paltry sum”?
And what exactly did he mean by “your consideration”?
Don’t tell me he thought I’d wanted around a billion won but generously settled for only forty million?
“The villainess really has it easy.”
I muttered in disbelief.
When I was Yoon Do-hee, it had always been taken for granted that I should be considerate of everyone else.
If I made even one mistake, I’d be criticized endlessly.
But now?
After spending years acting like a tyrant, simply behaving like a normal human being earned me praise for being considerate.
I’ve been living my life completely wrong.
Even with such an expensive jewel before me, I couldn’t shake the complicated feelings welling up inside me.
That day, however…
I stumbled upon an unexpected clue.
Something far more valuable than the gold itself.
This is…
The Suspicious Lady
“Master, the pink diamond was sold for the highest price of today’s auction. Congratulations.”
Gerard, the vice guild master of the information guild Blanche, had just returned from the fiercely contested auction house and delivered the good news to the guild master.
The profit they had made exceeded the guild’s entire annual operating budget.
Yet the master showed no excitement. He merely stroked the golden fur of the enormous beast lying beside him.
I can never tell what he’s thinking.
The guild master was relatively young for someone in his position. But thanks to that expressionless, mask-like face, he was even more unreadable than the previous master, who had been as sly as an old fox.
The extent of his abilities was equally impossible to measure.
Since the beginning of last year, the master of Blanche had secretly invested in an extraordinary branch of alchemy that could change the color of minerals.
Gerard had been skeptical of his master’s obsession with such bizarre research, but his doubts were soon put to rest.
Using that alchemy, the master declared that colored diamonds would become the flagship product of the jewelry store operated by the guild.
“If a diamond has a color, can you even call it a diamond? The master’s ideas are certainly unusual.”
Because it was something the market had never seen before, Gerard had been extremely worried about how customers would react.
His worries proved unnecessary.
After sending informants to discover the hair color of the woman Pilaf Montes was hopelessly infatuated with, the master used alchemy to create a pink diamond identical to her hair color.
Then he spread rumors throughout the capital that an incredibly rare jewel had appeared.
Just as expected, Pilaf Montes—who had been searching everywhere for the perfect gift for that woman—took the bait.
Then, after hearing the rumor that there was only one such diamond in the entire Empire, even the daughter of Duke Seymour, who was famous for her vanity, began coveting the pink diamond.
Once two prestigious noble families started competing against each other, public interest in the jewel skyrocketed, and even more bidders wanted it.
In the end, the master sold the pink heart-shaped diamond for a price hundreds of times greater than what an ordinary diamond would have fetched.
The immediate profit was enormous.
But even more encouraging was the fact that colored diamonds had now been recognized by the market as items of exceptional value.
The sky-blue teardrop diamond they planned to release next would undoubtedly sell for an astronomical price as well.
And naturally, the reputation of their jewelry shop—already rumored to monopolize the distribution of rare gemstones—would only continue to grow.
The master’s business sense truly exceeds imagination.
And it wasn’t limited to jewelry.
If he believed something could make money, he would invest in it without hesitation.
Almost as if he were simply playing a game.
Just four months ago, he had purchased a bakery that was on the verge of bankruptcy and transformed it into a luxury dessert shop that sold only a limited number of pastries each day.
Who could have imagined that a bakery that had once been completely deserted would become the signature dessert shop of the Yones District?
Thanks to that, Blanche’s treasury had recently been filling with mountains of gold coins.
“How much did it sell for?”
Still filled with admiration, Gerard snapped back to reality at the master’s question.
“Here. Please take a look.”
He carefully placed the document listing the pink diamond’s final selling price on the table.
As the man read through it, his brows slowly drew together.
The enormous beast lying beside him narrowed its eyes and let out a low growl.
Seeing that the master looked dissatisfied despite earning an unprecedented profit, Gerard’s face turned pale.
“So Duke Seymour got it.”
The master set the document down with a subtle expression.
If Duke Seymour had won the auction, that meant his daughter, Deborah Seymour, had become the owner of the pink diamond.
I was certain it would end up in Mia Vinosh’s hands.
Twice today, the master’s predictions had been wrong.
He had expected the jewel to sell for less than its final price.
And he had been convinced that Pilaf Montes would be the winning bidder.
Did I underestimate Deborah Seymour?
Recalling the information his guild had gathered on Deborah Seymour, the man absentmindedly toyed with the tower of gold coins piled on the table.
I thought she was just the duke’s cast-off daughter… Did I overlook something?
Twisting his lips into a crooked smile, he flicked a gold coin into the air and caught it in one hand.
After repeatedly tossing it until it landed heads up, he finally spoke.
“Sir Gerard.”
“Yes, Master.”
“Didn’t I tell you to keep an especially close watch on the high-ranking nobles?”
His displeasure plainly visible, the master ordered the informant assigned to the Seymour family to investigate Deborah once more.
However…
Exactly one week after issuing that order, an entirely unexpected client appeared before him.
How on earth did Deborah Seymour find this place?
Looking at Deborah Seymour standing before him with a black hood pulled low over her face, Isidor Visconti, the guild master of Blanche, couldn’t hide his inward astonishment.
