Tea, Leaves, and Awkward Advice
Meanwhile, at the mansion...
"The tea smells wonderful."
Autumn had arrived in the Evergarden Territory — the season when the green leaves dressed themselves up in red and yellow finery of every shade.
Estel sipped leisurely from her teacup, her eyes soft with lingering emotion as she breathed in the crisp autumn air drifting through the slightly open window.
"I never thought I'd live to see a view like this again. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I'd be looking at something like this."
"In my passionate younger days, I never appreciated it. But now that I've gotten old, I've finally become the kind of old man who can enjoy this sort of refined leisure..."
Despite her appearance as a young elven girl, there was an ineffable sense of age and experience about Estel as she leaned against the window, savoring her tea.
"Grandfather..."
Freya, who had been watching her from behind, paused for a moment—
"You can set the mood all you want, but you do realize you're extremely late, right?"
"Cough—!"
She struck right at the heart of the matter.
"You said we'd hold the meeting this morning, and then you went and drank that much again?"
"Ah, no. Well, you see... that Darian fellow suggested we have just one light drink, so—"
Estel was supposed to have finished breakfast and immediately held a meeting with Freya that morning, but she had gotten thoroughly drunk with Darian the night before, collapsed on the spot, and woken up late.
After waiting and waiting with no sign of her at the meeting, Freya had finally gone looking for Estel — only to find her putting on this absurdly atmospheric performance, which left Freya utterly speechless.
In her first life, Estel had been full of passion right up until the end, racing toward the finish line. But after a long, tedious hospital stay, being reincarnated into Estel's body had given her a chance to cut loose — and she had no self-control whatsoever when it came to having fun.
"How convenient that the two of you get along so well only when it comes to this."
"...Ahem!"
Darian, who was well aware of the situation, would rope Estel into drinking sessions whenever he got bored, which meant Freya's forehead was accumulating more and more wrinkles — though given how beautiful she was to begin with, it only amounted to a slight furrow between her brows.
"....."
"So... are you very angry? I'm sorry."
"Sigh. Still, I'm truly glad I can see you like this, Grandfather. But please drink in moderation."
"I know! I know! Thank you."
Even so, watching the once-imposing, free-spirited chairman of the Hansung Group looking like a little girl who'd gotten into trouble and didn't know what to do — gazing up at her with a dejected expression — drained Freya of any energy to stay angry. She let out a light sigh and called Estel over.
"Right, the meeting. We should hold the meeting."
At Freya's response, Estel immediately smiled and approached where Freya was sitting.
"First, these are the documents related to the World Tree leaf experiments."
Freya handed Estel a bundle of documents she had brought with her.
The leaves of the World Tree.
To the elves, they were an utterly common item — but to other races, they were a precious commodity that couldn't be obtained no matter how hard one tried.
To sell products made with World Tree leaves — produced in the Great Forest and distributed through the Evergarden Territory — they couldn't simply use the leaves as they were.
Still concealing the fact that the Great Forest had joined hands with humans, they had no choice but to process the World Tree leaves somehow before selling them.
"So, have you already gotten results?"
"We've tried using the leaves themselves as cigarettes and tea leaves, among other things, and the results show that the mana absorption rate actually increases compared to the traditional method of use — chewing the raw leaves. Please check the documents for the detailed findings."
"Hmm... so when used after primary processing rather than raw, the effect is generally amplified by about twenty-five percent more... This is rather troublesome."
"Indeed."
Despite the product they needed to sell being extraordinarily effective, both of them wore expressions of pure difficulty and expressed their regret.
The World Tree leaves were exceptional.
The problem was that they were too exceptional.
They hadn't been able to confirm the effects on other races due to a lack of samples — or an absurdly small sample size — but against humans, the efficiency was tremendous.
Which meant that if something like this hit the market, it was so outstanding that it would inevitably draw suspicion.
"In the end, we'll need to extract the active components as much as possible and dilute them."
"I agree. For now, the best approach seems to be steeping the World Tree leaves, diluting the resulting solution containing the active ingredients, and selling that. If we use the leaves themselves, it might be too easy to get found out."
"Hmm... But the question is how we open up a sales channel for this..."
"Even if we start within our own territory, it's still an unlicensed drug, which is a problem. It seems this world is quite thorough about verifying drugs that go on sale — especially anything related to recovery."
"Well, this is a world full of mercenaries who actually fight the monsters people only imagined. For people like that, relying on drugs like these is more common than depending on advanced medical techniques."
As Estel said, medical technology in this other world hadn't advanced nearly as far as magic.
When it came to external injuries, people were more likely to seek treatment from cathedral priests than from doctors.
There was no real need for surgical procedures — a priest's Heal alone could mend broken bones and close torn wounds — so the necessity of surgery simply wasn't felt.
And in situations where no priests were available, potions were the main recourse.
Healing was slower than a priest's work, but if a party had no cleric, they'd have to go all the way to a cathedral and pay an expensive fee. So parties without healers — and even those with priests — made a habit of always carrying relatively cheap potions. It had become a natural part of the culture.
As a result, mercenaries treated potion quality as a matter of life and death, which had led to a situation where potions distributed across the land weren't even handled unless they bore the seal of the Alchemists' Guild.
In that environment, if they started selling potions that had no connection to the Alchemists' Guild and were also superior in performance, they'd face not only pushback but the risk of being caught for selling unlicensed potions — and if a component analysis ever revealed that the potions were made from World Tree leaves, everything would be exposed.
"And if the elves publicly announce that they're actively intervening in the human world, the situation will only get more chaotic. The elves are still inexperienced with the human realm and haven't established themselves yet, so they'd inevitably end up in a subordinate position."
So what about simply revealing that the medicine was made from World Tree leaves? That option had plenty of problems too.
The elves' Great Forest and the human Empire were distinctly separate nations.
Even if they had formed an alliance on the surface, if they made a move without consulting the Empire's upper echelons, the Empire would have no choice but to interpret it as the Great Forest launching an economic invasion.
In the former case — if they were found out — they could at least cut ties with the elves by claiming it was smuggling. But in the latter case, the Evergarden family could even be charged with treason against the state.
And even if they did hold talks with the upper echelons, they'd still be in the position of exporting elven products into the human world — and there was a real possibility of being swallowed whole by the Empire, which had already grown so massive.
That was why the best approach was to conceal the identity of the elves and the Great Forest, let the elves establish themselves in the human world to some degree, grow their presence, and only then pursue official negotiations.
"Weakening the medicine's potency is perfectly doable, but I have no idea how we can sell this product naturally."
"Even if we call it a trade secret, won't that just invite more suspicion?"
"Exactly. To the people already making potions, we'd look like nothing more than a rolling stone trying to dislodge a settled one. They're bound to throw up obstacles and sabotage us."
"The method that comes to mind right now is to make contact with the Alchemists' Guild that sells those potions. Even if it's an organization, it's ultimately a collection of individuals — not every single one of them is working with the same will."
"Yes. Gathering information on the Alchemists' Guild should be the priority. I'll ask Sir Fenril about that later."
Knowing that the best way for a rolling stone to dislodge a settled one was to find the cracks in the stone already in place, the two of them were perfectly in sync.
As the founding chairman of the massive conglomerate Hansung Group and the once-leading candidate for the next chairmanship, both of them understood perfectly well how dangerous this product was — and how carefully they needed to approach it.
Hansung Group had become Korea's representative corporation by single-handedly winning that brutal corporate war.
Having toppled thriving groups and kicked down companies that couldn't climb, they knew all too well that capitalism was a razor-sharp blade held to one's throat — and that the winners were decided by how well one bargained. For them, that was simply everyday life.
"Very well. Ah, by the way — how is that scoundrel doing?"
"If you mean Viscount Bjorn, he hasn't made any major moves yet, but I expect he'll approach us again soon."
"I see. I'll leave that side to you."
As if wrapping up the meeting, Estel organized the documents while Freya finally raised her teacup for a sip of tea.
"By the way. How have things been lately?"
"What do you mean?"
"What else? Your marital relations."
"Pffft—!? Cough—!? Cough–!?"
But the moment the meeting ended, Estel's sudden question about their marital relations made Freya spit out the milk tea she'd just taken into her mouth, coughing repeatedly in flustered shock.
"Ah, Grandfather?! Why are you suddenly bringing that up...?!"
"Why? I hear things haven't been going so well in the bedroom lately."
"What... Excuse me?! Ah, that... Excuse me!?"
As Freya urgently pressed for answers, unable to hide her bewilderment, Estel merely shrugged — and Freya, completely stripped of her usual elegant vocabulary, just opened and closed her mouth.
"Well... this old man is hardly in a position to lecture his grandchild about marital relations. But why don't you at least try talking to him? That fellow comes to me every single day to pour out his complaints, you know."
"......"
"I know both you and I have complicated feelings about becoming women. But you know how it is, don't you? In the end, men are the more desperate ones."
At Estel's continued words, Freya eventually regained her composure, her lips pressing into a firm line as she sank into thought.
"Well then, I'll be going."
In the meantime, Estel quietly rose from her seat and left the room.
"...Haa. I don't know."
Even after Estel had left the room, Freya remained lost in thought for a long while before finally covering her eyes with her hands, her face flushed as she muttered to herself.
The truth was, Freya knew.
After that incident — though she hadn't shown it while the family was together — once her two children and Tene had left the mansion, Freya herself had been deliberately avoiding Darian. She was well aware of it.
But.
"Doesn't it feel good when I touch you like this?"
"Nngh♡?! N-No...! I'm a man, so..."
"Really? Still saying that with a chest like this."
"Y-You're so mean... Hnn♡ Touching me like that is... unfair...♡"
"After showing such an unsightly side of myself like that... how am I supposed to be the one to bring it up first..."
Recalling that moment on the bed — when their lips had met and their lower bodies had grown wet — Freya stamped her feet and muttered under her breath, overcome with embarrassment and shame.
Ever since that incident, whenever she ran into Darian alone, the memory would flood back, and Freya found herself growing as bashful as if she'd returned to her teenage years.
What made it even more mortifying was the fact that she — now a woman — had panted and gasped for her husband, who had become a man.
"...Still, I can't just keep avoiding him forever. Haa..."
She herself knew she couldn't go on like this, but that brilliant mind of hers completely seized up when it came to matters like this, leaving her thoroughly troubled.
And so, Freya's worries only grew deeper with each passing day.