Chapter 131
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 131
Grans asked, “Shall I instruct them to send more medicinal herbs?”
“Yeah, please. Aiden is really working hard.”
My current chief physician, Aiden, was currently out of his mind, busy ransacking every herbalist shop across the entire continent.
“Herbs that only treat internal injuries are all so expensive.”
“Indeed. Most herbs treat both internal and external injuries simultaneously. Herbs that specifically target internal injuries—in other words, those that can ‘selectively’ treat a localized area—are quite rare.”
“As for the money, well, give them whatever they ask for.”
“Understood, My Lady.”
Sob.
I swallowed my tears as I watched my allowance dwindle.
If Benjamin suddenly recovered too perfectly, those wicked princes would get suspicious. But if I just left him be, this damn Benefit would keep weighing on my mind.
In the end, I decided to protect Benjamin using a method that required a massive amount of both money and manpower.
I’m going to this much trouble, so you’d better not die on me, Benjamin…
Fortunately, through Ramus Jeremiah, the head of the Information Guild, I was able to send a tight-lipped shadow knight!
Grandfather probably knew about it, but since he didn’t ask, it seemed he had no intention of prying.
“If Benjamin asks who sent you, tell him his mother sent you. He won’t believe it, but just insist on it.”
“Understood, Lady Tulia.”
“Good luck. I’ll give you a huge bonus when you finish the job and return, Sir Trini.”
Sir Trini chuckled and immediately departed for the Sorsen Kingdom.
Phew.
To be honest, I wanted to say I was the one who sent him.
That would build up favorability quickly and lower the difficulty of the Main Quest…
But.
Benjamin is someone who grows into a man overflowing with ambition, even in the game.
Ambition and spite.
Spite and ambition.
If I, a direct descendant of a high nobility from a foreign empire—and not just any noble, but a Great Ducal House—said I sent help, he might become extremely suspicious of my motives.
He might misunderstand and think I was trying to swallow the Sorsen Kingdom whole by holding his weakness over him.
Sigh. If I were Corico, I wouldn’t have to worry about this.
But since I’m Tulia, I tend to draw hostility from characters by default.
I have to take the hard road even when there’s an easy one.
And of course… the money keeps flowing out.
Even though the debt Nigella owes me is guaranteed for the next thirty years.
I need to start my business as soon as possible.
But first… let’s get my birthday party over with.
Pop!
Pop!
“Happy birthday, My Lady!”
“Happy birthday!”
* * *
“Adel, Adel.”
“Yes, Lady Tulia?”
That night, having returned from the party, I lay on my bed with a satisfied expression and asked, “When will that cake Papa secretly prepared for me finally be gone?”
“Hmm…”
Adel pondered as she tucked me in.
“I’ve never seen a sixteen-tier cake in my life, so I’m not entirely sure, but wouldn’t it take about a month?”
“It’ll rot before then… Cut it up and share it with the servants.”
“Oh my, everyone will be so delighted. The chefs poured their hearts and souls into making that cake.”
“Right?”
“Of course.”
Adel smiled as she turned off the light.
“My Lady, happy birthday once again.”
“Thanks, Adel.”
Today was Tulia’s birthday.
Instead of holding a flashy party like Sandra’s and inviting vassals and such, I said I wanted to have a quiet celebration with just the family.
Calling it a ‘quiet’ birthday party was a bit of a stretch, though.
We might not have opened the Grand Banquet Hall, but the small party venue, decorated under the twins’ meticulous supervision, was so dazzling it made my head spin.
Moreover, I don’t know how they managed to smuggle in so many bulbs right under my nose, but the entire interior was a sea of tulips.
The vibrant energy and the scent made it feel like I had stepped into a flower shop.
All sorts of exquisite, glowing jewels.
Above all, seeing the mountain of birthday gifts piled higher than my head made me feel faint. I even wondered if I had arrived in heaven.
But honestly, more than anything else.
The fact that my family was celebrating my birthday and giving me armfuls of gifts felt like magic.
“Hey, Tulia. Are you crying? Are you? Brother, she’s crying! Hahaha! She’s crying! Ack! Father! Why did you hit me?!”
I did cry a little, but so what?
It was embarrassing, but Tulia is a child, after all.
Suddenly, I remembered how, when I was Han Ina at this age, I thought ‘I’m an adult now!’ no matter what I did. Because I suppressed everything, I ended up growing up much faster.
I pulled the fluffy goose-down duvet—one of the many gifts from Grandfather—up to my chin and closed my eyes.
Even that punk Ddong-byul, flying over my head today, looked cute.
* * *
“Looking back like this, the Main Castle really is enormous.”
I poked my head out of the carriage window and looked at the massive castle.
The knight escorting me on horseback hurried over.
“My Lady! It’s dangerous!”
“Tell the coachman to drive well.”
“Pardon?”
“If I fall, we’re all going to the afterlife together.”
“Y-Yes, ma’am!”
How much would it cost to buy that castle?
Hundreds of billions?
Or in the trillions?
I watched the Grand Ducal Main Castle recede while thinking all sorts of thoughts, only pulling back into the carriage when my cheeks grew cold from the wind.
“But Lady Tulia, why on earth did you choose ‘that’ as your debutante gift?”
Max, who was sitting upright across from me, asked. Papa had assigned him to me when I said I was going on a ‘territorial inspection.’
“Think of him as one of your spare lives, Tulia.”
“Marquis, I’m right here listening…”
“Make sure to hide behind him or offer him up as a decoy.”
“Marquis, I said I’m listening!”
“You were offered many better things,” Max added.
I nodded at his words.
That was certainly true.
“It’s already unprecedented for His Grace to bestow a debutante gift in advance…”
Max tilted his head, staring at me with his bright yellow eyes.
“But out of all of them, you chose the most strang—no, the most peculiar one.”
The Frezier debutante gift.
It was a traditional gift bestowed by the Family Head upon a young direct descendant, and its scale was beyond imagination—something even Sophia Frezier had agonized over before.
Furthermore, even if it was dictated by Family Law, the Family Head’s favor determined the magnitude of the gift.
Grandfather, who had become a prisoner of digestive medicine thanks to my plum extract, had put together a selection of gifts that exceeded my imagination—the best in the history of Frezier gifts.
There were three options in total.
Land near the borderlands is useless, no matter how vast it is.
So, in any normal case, one would obviously choose Option 1 or Option 2.
Whichever of the two you chose, you’d have enough to live in luxury for a lifetime—no, for thirty generations.
But I was different.
Like a fool who had been waiting for this very day, I had shouted:
“I want Option 3, Grandfather!”
“…Option 3?”
“Yes!”
Not only Grandfather, but even Luc, who was standing nearby, had a look of disbelief.
According to Family Law, in a setting where Papa and the twins were absent—a place where only the direct descendant receiving the gift could be present.
Grandfather had rarely dropped a hint, saying, “Wouldn’t Option 1 or 2—no, Option 2—be better than that?”
But with the immortal determination that I would die if it wasn’t Option 3, I repeated “Option 3” like a parrot.
“Actually, My Lady, the Marquis and the young lords also seemed quite bewildered after hearing of your choice.”
Grans (formerly the Assistant Butler, currently Spare Life #2), who was sitting next to Max, cautiously added his input.
I replied nonchalantly.
“High risk, high return.”
“…Pardon?”
“There’s a deep meaning behind it, so just look forward to it.”
“…”
“…”
Max and Grans looked at each other. Whether they were building a bond while viewing me as a crazy lady or not, I rested my chin on my hand and spoke.
“Anyway, as soon as we arrive at the Belus Territory, Max, you go back to Papa. Grans alone will be enough.”
Grans lowered his head slightly as if in absolute submission. His lips twitching upward as if he were happy to be chosen was funny, but Max was firm.
“I’m sorry. The Marquis ordered me to stay by your side until the very end.”
“Doesn’t Papa have to go to the border front?”
“That’s exactly why.”
“If anything happens to Papa, you should be there to take a sword to the chest for him, Max!”
“Marquis Aster said the exact. Same. Thing. Lady Tulia.”
“Aha.”
Grans patted Max on the shoulder as he wiped away a stray tear.
Meanwhile, the carriage traveled diligently and entered the Belus Territory.
“It’s quite gloomy.”
The Belus Territory, heavily overgrown with trees, was certainly rugged terrain.
“Are you really going to go deeper?”
“Yeah.”
“If you get hurt…”
“Tell the coachman to drive well.”
“Yes!”
But in my eyes, even these massive thorny vines just looked like money.
At that time, I didn’t know.
That I would encounter ‘that’ male lead in this cursed territory.