Chapter 59
Chapter 59
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 59
Chapter Title: The Deer Bluebell Ball
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"Yes. So I was curious what tree strawberries smell like."
Roy smiled faintly and held out the fruit in his hand.
"You'll know once you eat it."
She had no idea about the smell, but the taste was sweet and tangy—delicious.
'So it wasn't a curse after all.'
Juliet, who had been quietly bothered by Elza's comment, decided to raise her opinion of Elza after tasting the tree strawberry.
Feeling cheerful after eating something sweet, Juliet began peppering Roy with questions as he rode alongside the carriage.
"How's the forest?"
"Is there a castle?"
"What do you call those clothes?"
Then Eselrid, who had slipped in from somewhere, joined the fray, helping to plunge Roy into a quagmire of questions.
Flustered by the onslaught, Roy asked,
"What about you, Juliet?"
"There's not much to tell about me..."
She couldn't talk about the North, after all.
Juliet thought for a moment before settling on a safe, neutral topic.
"In the capital, they hold a ball called the Deer Bluebell during the summer social season."
Deer Bluebell. The Blue Deer Ball.
This extravagantly named dance was held for only seven late-summer nights, and it was the event the Empress loved to boast about most.
The Deer Bluebell was also a long-standing hobby of the Empress, one that brought out her girlish side.
Though any adult man or woman over eighteen could attend, the actual participants were mostly newly minted adults or young unmarried nobles.
"It's a bit childish, but fun."
They don masks or costumes and wear flashier outfits than usual.
Deer-shaped sculptures are placed all around the venue, lit up with plenty of blue lanterns.
As a result, it felt less like a solemn, formal ball and more like a grand themed salon aimed at a younger crowd.
"The person who receives the most flowers becomes that day's Bluebell.
Then everyone at the party has to grant whatever the Bluebell of the day demands."
It was a blatantly intentional rule.
A costume ball for young unmarried men and women on a midsummer night.
They'd practically laid out the perfect stage for romance.
Sure, you could demand anything, but in practice, it was all but encouraging confessions.
"If you get confessed to, you can't turn it down?"
Grey, who had sidled up close to listen at some point, asked with surprising seriousness.
"That's right. There's a saying that couples who form at the Blue Deer Ball stay happy for a long time."
Superstition, most likely.
To be precise, the Empress took great pride in seeing such pairs form.
But Roy, who had been listening quietly, tilted his head and tossed out an unexpected question.
"Has Juliet ever been a Bluebell?"
"Ah..."
Juliet froze for a moment.
She recalled the year before last, the first and last time she had attended the Blue Deer Ball. That year...
'I did receive the Bluebell crown.'
"Not like this, I suppose?"
He had probably been the rudest Blue Deer Keeper in history. That man. "You're today's Bluebell." He'd declared it out of nowhere, without a shred of propriety.
Juliet realized she was smiling faintly. But if that was the case, then the legend that pairs formed at the Blue Deer Ball lived happily ever after...
'Just a superstition.'
Juliet blinked slowly.
*
Upon arriving in Carcason, Juliet was confined to the house until she fully recovered.
The Red King Lionel Levatan's mansion was an elegant estate with striking red gables, but the constant comings and goings of its visitors gave it a perpetually tense atmosphere.
With no outings allowed and nothing to do, Juliet discovered something odd while unpacking her things.
Thud!
Roll, roll.
A black, round orb hidden among her clothes.
'...What is this?'
"Ah."
Then it hit her.
"Kanavel Village!"
She had forgotten all about it in the chaos.
Back in that canyon, she had tossed all the magic stones and taken only this one. But...
"Wasn't it smaller than this back then?"
It had definitely fit in her pocket at the time, but now it was just a bit too large and heavy for one adult hand.
Juliet eyed the glossy orb suspiciously. She couldn't sense any magic power or holy power.
In other words, it wasn't a magic tool or a holy relic.
'Then what is it?'
"Lady, where did that come from?"
As Juliet turned the round orb this way and that, Eselrid paused in the hallway and chimed in with interest.
"If you'd like, I can sell it for a good price."
Juliet's eyes narrowed suspiciously at Eselrid's sly pitch.
"How do you know what it is?"
"It's a monster egg."
The answer was so straightforward that Juliet blinked in confusion.
'This is a monster egg?
So I ditched the magic stones and picked up a monster egg instead?'
"Isn't that dangerous?"
"The more dangerous it is, the higher the price."
Eselrid said with a meaningful smile.
"We'd need an appraisal to know exactly what's inside, but...
I think you'd be better off just selling it."
"Why?"
"Lady, don't you remember what was in that dungeon?"
Snakes. Enormous snake monsters.
Juliet shuddered at the brief flash of memory. Keeping it would be pointless if a snake monster hatched from it.
'But...'
Monster eggs all looked identical in their egg form, regardless of species, or so she'd heard.
Which meant you couldn't tell from the outside what kind of monster was inside. Even if she'd taken it from a snake den, it might not contain a snake monster.
Juliet was curious what would hatch from it.
"Not selling?"
"No."
"Then you should at least get it appraised. Shall we head to the auction house?"
"Is there a monster auction here?"
Juliet's curiosity piqued.
"Not a monster auction per se—it's the black market. They deal in holy relics and magic tools, and monster eggs turn up now and then."
Eselrid lowered her voice.
"Lately, the elder's been quite troubled by the black market."
The elder referred to Juliet's great-uncle, Lionel Levatan.
Even someone of his stature was struggling with it.
Juliet tilted her head.
"Why?"
"Recently, small-time operators have been flooding in, stirring up trouble."
"Small-time?"
"Scammers."
"Ah."
According to Eselrid, they were passing off low-quality goods as premium items or peddling fake holy relics and magic tools as the real deal.
This had led to complaints from duped buyers, tarnishing Carcason's reputation as a whole.
"We're trying to crack down, but... things like holy relics and enchanted artifacts are hard to spot at a glance."
Even big shots in the underworld had their headaches. That was all Juliet thought at the time.