How to Recruit Talent
Looking out from the rattling carriage, I could see a city far more developed than I'd expected.
Streetlamps lined the roads in long rows, and the shops had electric lights inside. They even sold refrigerators and microwave ovens.
Is this really the Middle Ages?
At a glance, it looked like it could rival the twenty-first century. But that was just how medieval fantasy worked. There was no technology based on electricity — instead, there was magic-engineering, a complete Plausibility cheat of a discipline.
And Binepia, ruled by the Lucilla family, was an enormous city. In Korean terms, it was roughly the size and importance of Busan.
That's why it's this developed. Outside of a handful of exceptionally advanced cities, the world overall is still just a slightly upgraded medieval era.
In a city any smaller than this, commoners never got to enjoy magic-engineering at all. You needed at least a count's domain before you could even catch a whiff of it.
Long live magic-engineering.
"More importantly…"
What mattered was this: if I wanted Otto to get a happy ending, I had to keep his wife, Ciel, alive. And the person I needed for that was the genius alchemist Rena.
Right now she could only handle herbs, but still.
"How am I supposed to bring her in?"
If I had no restrictions, I'd just walk up and say it straight — Hey, I'll help you. Money? I'll give you as much as you want. Your little sister? Full support. I'm a duke's daughter, you know. That kind of pitch. But right now, no matter what, I had to act like a villainess. At the very least, it had to look like villainy to anyone watching.
"She's got a strong sense of justice, so maybe I should just go in, act like a proper villainess, and figure it out from there. That should be good for making a terrible first impression."
In the original story, after her shop failed and she left Binepia, Rena settled somewhere else and rejected every offer from a count's household. She even turned down a salary hundreds of times what an ordinary commoner earned. The reason was simple: the count's eldest son had been tormenting the local residents for no reason. That alone was enough for her to refuse everything and leave.
She's rigid in every way, so even a moderate amount of bad behavior should make her hate me. I'll just throw some insults around and trash the shop a bit.
"I" wasn't used to causing scenes and being a nightmare customer — but "Lucy" would be. The maids' reactions alone made that clear. The way they watched her every move when they came in… how badly must she have tormented them on a regular basis?
"My lady. We have arrived."
I looked toward the voice and found a knight standing there. He was waiting by the door. I tossed the words at him without ceremony.
"Can't you see my eyes are open? I'll get down when I feel like it. Wait."
"Yes, understood."
The knight looked faintly uncomfortable, but he didn't call me on it. What I was doing was acting, not becoming the real thing.
"Hmm… the herb shop should be a bit further in from here. I'll get down in a moment."
I made the knights wait just long enough, then climbed down at my leisure. On either side of me, the knights wore faintly sour expressions. They were trying not to show it, but Lucy picked up on it instantly.
She's incredibly sensitive to other people's emotions.
Maybe that temperament was exactly why she'd grown so sharp-tongued. Some scholar had a theory about this or that… skipping the pedantic, boring explanation and summarizing in one line: children's behavior is shaped by how adults respond to them. So maybe Lucy had grown even more difficult because of it.
Her mother was ill. Her father was constantly doing not only a duke's work but a duchess's as well, and at the same time he stayed by his wife's side — which meant he had no attention left for Lucy.
So maybe she's just craving the servants' attention.
It could be her own defense mechanism, or an attempt to draw her parents' notice. Only Lucy herself would know the truth.
"What are you doing? Aren't you coming? If you're just going to stand there and watch, why did you even follow me?"
And I reproduced that side of Lucy exactly. I felt a little sorry for the knights, but I couldn't afford not to play the part.
"…We'll follow."
At my offhand tone, the knight fell in behind me. The knights weren't going to betray me. Lucy's personality might be a disaster, but her father, Duke Otto, was still very much alive — and he loved his daughter. She'd just fallen behind his wife in the priority ranking. If anything happened to her, if she got hurt or went missing, the knights would be the ones held responsible.
It's more hidden than I expected.
Drawing on my memories of the web novel, I made my way to the alley where Rena's herb shop stood. Once I got there, the scene from the novel came back clearly.
A desolate back alley. A place almost empty of people. And a single shabby shop without even a name. That was where Rena had first started working with herbs.
"This is it."
Among the shops with names painted on them, this one alone had none. Standing in front of it, a bitter herbal scent drifted out.
"My lady. May I ask what brings you to a place like this?"
Standing in front of a shop that looked ready to collapse, in a spot this deserted, the knight approached on guard. His hand rested on his sword hilt, ready to draw at any moment.
I fixed him with a glare.
"Why do you need to know? I'll handle it myself. You lot wait out front. If you're that worried, keep anyone else from coming in."
I answered sharply and pushed open the shop door.
Ting-a-ling!
"Welcome! Is there a particular herb you're looking for?"
The moment I stepped inside, Rena — who had been sorting herbs — greeted me with a bright smile. She looked about my age. She beamed at me, then immediately went pale with panic. Clearly because of my clothes and appearance.
"My lady— m-might you be looking for a particular herb? Please, just tell me what you need. I'll find anything for you right away."
With the red eyes and hair that were practically the Lucilla family's emblem, there was no way she wouldn't recognize me. I stared at the girl who had rushed over in a fluster.
"…"
Rather than say anything, I held my silence. In the quiet, Rena started fretting, reading my every expression. This must be why they called silence golden. Just by standing here without a word, I had the girl who couldn't be bought with mountains of gold squirming in place. It was almost cute, in its own way. The fans who'd loved Rena would probably pay gold just to see this.
"You don't have many herbs in this shop. Is this all of it?"
After the heavy silence, I finally spoke, and Rena flustered.
"Is there something specific you're looking for? Some herbs need special storage, so I keep them separately. If you'll just tell me, my lady, I'll bring them out at once."
"Is that so? Then… bring me something good for restoring vitality."
"Yes, right away!"
Rena hurried into the back of the shop. A clattering racket rose from inside, but I paid it no mind and looked around the interior.
There were plenty of display shelves. Most of them listed slightly from age, propped up with something jammed underneath just to keep them standing.
Perfect for knocking over. One shove left, one shove right, a little magic, and that should do it.
Right now I was only acting like a slightly picky noble, so Rena was still being cooperative. But the moment I behaved like the real "Lucy," she wouldn't hold back. I needed to provoke that — so I had to play Lucy properly.
"Hmm. Come to think of it… there really is something strange on the floor."
I immediately recognized the cause that, in the novel, had made Mona's condition worsen so quickly. I should take this with me and have it investigated while I was at it.
And right on cue, Rena came back out.
"Here it is. This is a herb that's truly hard to find around here…"
I took the carefully presented herb between my fingers and stared at it. To my eyes it looked like a green onion. This was a rare herb? Interesting…
"You brought me this? What a waste of time."
I let go. The herb dropped to the floor with a soft thud. Before Rena could pick it up, I crushed it under my heel. The herb ground beneath my shoe turned into a sticky pulp.
"You've just ruined my mood. I didn't come here to look at filthy weeds. I heard there was someone competent, so I came — but there's nothing here."
"What… is this…"
Rena stared in shock at the herb mashed into juice on the floor. Her hands hung uselessly in the air, twitching as if they couldn't decide what to do. The flustered look, the wounded eyes — it hurt to see, but there was no other way.
"And what is this shop supposed to be? You call this a shop?"
I stamped hard on the floor. A magic circle bloomed beneath my foot, and a fierce wind roared through the room.
Crash! Thud!
Every display shelf in the shop toppled. Herbs spilled across the floor. On the surface it looked like simple vandalism — but what I had actually done was crush, with my own power, the magic circle beneath the shop that was still tormenting Rena and Mona.
Knowing none of that, Rena just stared blankly at the wreckage of her shop. I dusted off my hands and turned my back.
"Tch. Came all this way for nothing but a foul mood. What a waste, coming to a half-baked herb shop like this."
That one line was enough. After all, this shop was something Rena had bought with the money her parents left her before they died. According to the original story, it was their final gift to her — and the only way she had of feeding her little sister.
Slap!
And just as expected, Rena's hand cracked across my cheek.
"What did you just say?"
Ah. There it was.
"You walk in uninvited, I treat you kindly, and you think that makes me easy? You think being a noble means you can do whatever you want and everyone will just take it? I don't need a customer like you either."
An older Rena, even angry, would have read the situation before acting. Not now. She was as young as her judgment was immature, and her patience was even shorter. So this was the only moment. The only window to seize her weakness and bring her under me.
"A commoner, talking back to me."
I used magic again. Mana-forged bullets shot in every direction and began to demolish the shop completely.
Whoosh! Boom! Crash!
The blue rounds reduced everything from the shelves to the walls to powder. Of course, I was thinking as I fired. Not a single shot went toward the room where Rena's sister Mona was, and I kept the magic circle on the floor suppressed with my own mana.
It's unfortunate, but this is the only way. The Rena of right now would never abandon this place.
I wanted to tell her there was something wrong here, but I had no way to do it. If I just ordered her to come with me, she wouldn't. And if I showed her the magic circle and persuaded her to help, Plausibility would catch me. Even thinking about genuinely helping made my head throb — as if warning me, You sure you can handle the price for that?
In that case, I just have to act like a villainess.
I would destroy the shop completely and take her little sister with me. Bring them under me, put her to work, and have her make the medicine for Mother while she was at it. Later I could take her to the Academy too — something like, You're my personal physician, so go learn more.
"Have commoners gotten so comfortable these days that they think they're equal to nobles like me? Me, the sole daughter of House Lucilla — and some nameless commoner?"
I looked down at Rena, who had sunk to the floor, and curled only one corner of my mouth. I kept talking as I stared down at her.
"Crying because a shop worse than a doghouse got wrecked. Tch. This is why commoners…"
I crushed her thoroughly and behaved exactly like Lucy. That way, even if I happened to do something good later, Rena would only resent me for it.
Rena raised one hand high, as if she meant to hit me again. I took a step closer instead.
"Hmm… fine. Shall we do it that way, then?"
Playfully, I tipped her chin up with my fingertips until our eyes met. Rena's tear-filled eyes locked with mine. She looked so miserable it actually hurt.
"Ordinarily this would be more than enough reason to kill you, but I'll specially let you live. So from now on, you'll work under me for the rest of your life. Everyone else under me is far too obedient — it's boring. Sometimes you need a little dog that talks back, like you. Makes things more fun, doesn't it?"
"I would never—!"
I cut off her protest.
"Is that so? Then what happens to the little sister in the back? Once you're dragged off for insulting a noble, who's going to look after her? Ah — she can just die, then. If that's what her big sister wanted by getting herself arrested, well, nothing to be done. Right?"
Rena bit her lip and glared at me with pure resentment — and inside, I cheered.
You're mine now!