Chapter 9
Candles… yes, candles!!
“Lily, what is this candle made of?”
“Huh? This is… I heard it is made from the oil of the finest sperm whale. Since it is very precious, it is a candle that ordinary households can hardly even see. This is my first time seeing one too…”
It was an era when matches had not yet been invented and lighting candles with flint was still the common method…
“Lily, do we perhaps have… scented candles in our house?”
“Scented candles? What are those?”
“You don’t know what scented candles are?”
Lily shook her head repeatedly.
“Ray? Do you know what scented candles are?”
“No, I don’t know either.”
Ray, who had been organizing the room, stood awkwardly and blinked his eyes.
“Ah… so nobody knows.”
Luna muttered to herself.
When she lived in the real world, Ruri had suffered from insomnia.
When she was a child, she often stayed up late waiting for her mother who never came home, so she naturally had trouble sleeping at night. Later, even when she tried to sleep, she became afraid and anxious, making it even harder.
Even after becoming an adult, the habit of not sleeping well continued, and because of that, she was always short on sleep.
But one day, So-woo-joo gave her a scented candle as a gift.
It was a natural scented candle made by blending lavender and bergamot. He had strongly insisted that it would help her sleep better and told her to light it before going to bed every night.
At first, Ruri was skeptical and lit the candle without much expectation. However, after a few days, she naturally began to sleep deeply while surrounded by the pleasant scent of lavender.
At first, she wondered if she had simply been too tired and fallen asleep, but on the days she forgot to light the scented candle, she somehow could not sleep again.
After that, whenever she could not sleep or her condition was not good, she always lit a scented candle.
Because of that, she became interested in scented candles and learned that there were many kinds with different effects. Wanting to save money from constantly buying them, she even visited a workshop and learned how to make scented candles herself.
“Miss Luna, Miss Luna! What are you thinking about so deeply?”
Lily called out loudly to Luna, who had been lost in thought for quite some time.
Only then did Luna come back to her senses. She smiled brightly and looked at Lily and Ray one after another.
“I suddenly had a great idea! There really aren’t any scented candles here, right?”
Luna asked once more to make sure.
“I don’t know what that is, but I have never heard of it before.”
Lily tilted her head in confusion.
“If you tell me where it is, I’ll go and get it.”
As expected, Luna’s ability to judge people was accurate. Ray was already burning with enthusiasm to find an item he did not even know about.
“No, no. I’ll organize my thoughts first and tell you later.”
Luna waved her hands and smiled.
When her golden eyes curved like a crescent moon, Ray stared at her blankly with his mouth slightly open, unable to close it.
Seeing that, Lily smacked Ray’s distracted back.
Smack!
“Brother Ray, wake up!”
“Ah, that hurts! Why did you hit me, Lily?”
“Is this the time to stand there staring at Miss Luna with your mouth open?”
“W-when did I do that?”
Watching the two bicker, Luna felt warm inside.
“When did you two become this close?”
“We are not close.”
Lily and Ray both panicked and waved their hands at the same time.
“Okay, let’s say that’s true. Could you tell the kitchen to prepare breakfast? And if Raizent hasn’t eaten yet, tell him to come eat with us.”
At Luna’s order, Lily and Ray bowed their heads and hurriedly left the room.
“There really aren’t any scented candles here?”
Luna quietly muttered while touching her left chin with her right palm.
It was a habit that naturally appeared whenever she thought deeply about something.
Schuindel was much crazier than she had heard.
He was not only obsessed with the man he loved, but he was also obsessed with the girl who loved him. He was practically a psychopath.
Because of that, Luna realized that simply standing by with her arms crossed and trying to make two men fall in love would not solve anything.
If she wanted to safely survive and enjoy a happy life in her second life, whether this was a novel world or not, she needed to eventually escape the Line Empire.
She needed to run somewhere less affected by the Empire, somewhere where the attention of those two men would not reach her.
But when she thought about escaping, the problem was money.
Even though she was a count’s daughter, there was no way a seventeen-year-old girl who was not even an adult would have a great fortune.
And if she planned to run away from her daughter-loving father, it would be difficult to simply ask him for money.
Moreover, it seemed there was a spy of Schuindel’s inside this household, so she could not move carelessly.
For a young girl to save money in this era, she would need to start some kind of small business.
Fortunately, this was an era where candles and lamps were mainly used for lighting.
Since people were only focused on producing light, there was no way scented candles existed.
However, the perfume industry had already developed during this time.
Remembering what she had learned back when she studied hard, Luna recalled that the history of perfume was extremely long.
She had read somewhere that perfume in a form similar to modern perfume had already been invented in the 1300s.
Then what if she used the ingredients used in perfumes to create natural scented candles?
Candles were something people had to light every morning and evening anyway. What if she introduced scented candles with various uses?
Sleep candles for people who had trouble sleeping.
Candles for fatigue recovery.
Candles for stress relief.
Candles to repel insects.
Candles to remove bad smells.
There were countless uses for scented candles that she knew.
If she introduced them to wealthy nobles who loved showing off their money, she had a feeling this could actually make quite a bit of money.
Could this be like winning the lottery?
When Luna arrived at the dining room, Count Mirage had already left for an inspection of the territory.
Little Raizent had arrived first and was sitting in his seat, following his sister’s request to eat together.
When Luna entered the dining room, Raizent pushed back his chair and stood up with a bright smile.
“Are you here, Sister?”
“Yes, Raizent. Did you sleep well?”
“Yes, Sister.”
“Come sit down. Let’s eat.”
“Yes, Sister!”
Raizent smiled happily and sat back down.
Luna also sat in the chair Ray pulled out for her and picked up her knife and fork.
In the real world, she was not someone who particularly loved Korean food, but after coming here and eating nothing but vegetable salads, thick bread, grilled meat, and overly sweet desserts every day, she felt like her mouth was becoming greasy.
Still, eating every day with her younger brother was a small yet precious joy.
In the real world, Ruri’s mother was not someone who properly cooked meals at home.
Moreover, because she had to leave for work at a bar every early evening, she would often hand young Ruri some money and tell her to buy food or order delivery before leaving without a second thought.
People were creatures who adapted.
Little Ruri, who was too young to even go shopping alone, learned to order food or heat up convenience store meals by herself.
After she became old enough to cook for herself in elementary school, she even became skilled enough to make hangover soup for her mother.
However, no matter how good her cooking skills became, meals eaten alone always felt dry and empty.
That was why young Ruri often went to So-woo-joo’s house nearby during the day and ate there.
Everything tasted delicious in that house.
Even now, eating with Raizent gave her a similar feeling to when she ate meals with So-woo-joo.
Did Raizent feel the same way?
“Raizent, is it delicious?”
“Yes, Sister. Everything tastes good because I’m eating with you. Before, I often ate alone… What about you?”
“It’s delicious for me too because I’m eating with you, Raizent.”
Luna had slightly messy red hair, while Raizent had smooth golden hair, but the two looked very similar because they both had sparkling golden eyes.
The two siblings enjoyed an ordinary breakfast together on an ordinary day.
At the same time, in the garden of the imperial palace’s detached residence in the Line Empire, Princess Kluke was enjoying an early tea time.
“Marie, tell the gardeners to trim the boxwood trees along the long walking path so that their heights are even.”
The princess sat at a tea table prepared in one corner of the garden, drinking tea while giving instructions to Marie, her personal maid.
“Yes, Your Highness the Princess.”
“Today’s rosemary tea smells wonderful. Did Marie prepare it herself?”
“Yes, Your Highness. Rosemary is said to be good for headaches and cold hands and feet, so I prepared it.”
At those words, Kluke looked at Marie with an elegant and gentle smile.
“I am always grateful that you take care of even my smallest physical conditions.”
“Please do not say that, Your Highness.”
“Indeed! My sister is always elegant.”
A low male voice came from somewhere.
Kluke turned her head toward the direction of the sound and saw Panen standing there.
His clothes were messy, and even his beautiful platinum blond hair looked like a bird’s nest.
Seeing his appearance, Kluke slightly frowned for a brief moment.
“Have you still not changed out of your sleeping clothes, Your Highness the Crown Prince?”
“I just woke up.”
Panen walked slowly toward Kluke’s tea table as if it was nothing important.
“My sister has already eaten breakfast and is enjoying tea time.”
“I do not sleep much.”
“Rather, I suppose I am simply the one who woke up late.”
“I never said that.”
“Yes, why would you? You are someone who never says anything unpleasant.”
“Why have you come all the way to the detached palace?”
Kluke had no intention of responding seriously to Panen, who occasionally provoked her for no reason.
“After Sir Schuindel returned, I was bored, so I came here to have someone to talk to.”
Only then did Kluke notice that there was a small red flower-like mark blooming on Panen’s neck.
However, she only looked at her younger brother calmly without showing any particular reaction.
She simply thought to herself:
‘A man who is actually this mature acts like a spoiled child in front of Sir Schuindel. He is truly a fox.’
