Chapter 140
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 140
“Young Lord, you’ve arrived?”
Max bowed politely toward Lisian.
As if to boast of the family’s high influence, news that the Frezier twins had departed for the Belus Territory had already reached Tulia’s knights several hours ago.
“I heard that Young Lord Leon is stopping by another estate briefly before coming here. Was your journey comfortable, Young Lord Lisian?”
Pure white gloves. A neatly tailored suit. Over his squared shoulders, silver tassels—symbols of his noble status—swayed in the sunlight. Not a single speck of dust touched the polished toes of his shoes.
“Where... is she?”
His voice only wavered when he wasn't speaking the names of a select few.
“Tulia.”
His voice was calm and quiet as he called the name of one of those people—the younger sister who perhaps occupied the most important share of Lisian’s life. As it always was.
“The Lady is in her bedroom. She’s been working hard these past few days and is finally taking a rest.”
“I heard... about the forest development.”
“Yes. The Lady is more motivated than I—no, more than anyone could have imagined. Furthermore, it seems she has run countless simulations in her head. The speed at which things are progressing is nothing short of phenomenal.”
“Does Tulia... have a helper... we don’t kn-know about?”
“I’m not sure about that. She hasn't mentioned anything.”
“I see.”
“Do you intend to ask the Lady yourself, Young Lord?”
Lisian looked up at the sky for a moment. His answer was concise.
“No.”
“Then...”
“An elder brother... trying to dig up... his sister’s secrets... is a bit ghastly, isn't it?”
Max laughed despite himself.
“I suppose that’s true.”
Step, step.
The sound of his high-quality shoes lightly traversing the corridor was elegant and rhythmic.
The dignity of a nobleman—guaranteed from the moment of birth by blessings such as noble blood, beauty, immense wealth, power, and grand status—tended to seep through even the most trivial things, like the sound of his footsteps.
The owner of those refined steps finally stopped in front of Tulia’s bedroom.
A hand clad in a white glove knocked twice on the carved elm door, but there was no response.
With the gentlemanly etiquette engraved into his brain like a tattoo, Lisian glanced at the maid guarding the door.
That look was a silent command.
The maid hurriedly bowed, entered the room, and returned almost immediately.
“The Lady is asleep, Young Lord.”
“In... bed?”
It was a rather awkward time for that.
“No, Young Lord. She’s fallen asleep hunched over her desk...”
“I see.”
Due to his innate imperfections, Lisian was a man of few words. He was short and concise.
With a light wave of his hand, Lisian dismissed the maid and Max and stepped into Tulia’s bedroom.
Belus Castle was different from the Frezier main castle. It had once been prosperous, but that was hundreds of years ago; as the surrounding lands were abandoned, the castle had been forsaken along with them.
An abandoned castle where the most favored granddaughter of the Grand Ducal House lay sleeping.
Even that felt like listening to a secret fairy tale that one shouldn't be hearing.
Lisian walked further inside.
His footsteps, intentionally silenced, stopped behind Tulia’s back.
It was exactly as the maid had said.
Tulia was asleep, slumped over a large, old desk that exuded a faint, death-like antique elegance.
Her arms were draped in a circle, clutching a crystal vase to her chest as if it were something precious.
Perhaps it was the composition of the scene, but those slender arms looked like fortress walls protecting the vase.
The strange thing was that there was nothing inside the vase.
The crystal vase was embossed with beautiful and delicate patterns, but that was all. It was certainly not something the legitimate granddaughter of the Grand Ducal House would cherish so dearly.
Lisian gazed down at the pink hair scattered across the desk.
Long and thick, those light-colored locks fluttered like beautiful bubbles in a boiling teapot.
A fragile color that, when the midday sun filtered through it, made her look as if she didn't truly exist in this world...
The only thing that had changed since 'then' was that he had grown so tall over the years.
However.
The one thing that remained the same as 'then' was that the woman Lisian had loved most in this entire continent had also looked exactly like this...
The way she had fallen asleep hunched over her desk.
Just like this.
With the same pink hair as Tulia’s draped down.
Cherishing an empty vase that held nothing, just as Tulia was doing now.
“...Mother.”
The way she was dead to the world, unaware of Lisian’s approach, remaining deep in the clutches of sleep.
The way even that sight was as beautiful and sublime as a painting floating on a canvas, such that this silver-haired nobleman said nothing and simply waited for her to wake.
Ah.
He almost missed one thing.
The fact that the girl before him was now the only woman Lisian loved most in this entire continent.
He quietly shifted his gaze.
Back when his twin still hadn't let go of his hostility toward Tulia.
Back then, Leon hadn't hated Tulia. He had hated the mother who had abandoned them and left.
He had simply loved her that much.
Lisian quietly watched the last trace of warmth left behind by their deceased mother.
Because he was a man of few words, because he stuttered, because that was his personality.
Because he had learned that it was a gentleman’s duty never to pry into a lady’s secrets.
The young Lisian had never asked his mother back then, either.
“Why do you always hug an empty vase and take a nap whenever Father isn't around?”
And how did Tulia, who shouldn't have had time to build a proper bond with their mother, inherit her unique and strange habit so perfectly?
Why did the empty crystal vase, when touched by the sunlight, seem to ripple with a mysterious rainbow light as if under a costly preservation magic?
Was all of this just his own delusion or hallucination?
Or was it one of the world’s mysteries?
Lisian wondered if he should wake Tulia and ask her, even if it might trouble her.
“...”
He simply smiled quietly. A dimple faintly creased his handsome cheek.
This exemplary nobleman, whom every professor at the Academy showered with an ocean of trust and affection, began to undo his buttons one by one, starting from the top of his neck.
After silently removing his jacket and draping it over Tulia’s shoulders, Lisian stepped back a few paces and sat on the sofa, leaning against the backrest.
Like a tulip blooming in the spring sunlight.
The time spent waiting for his younger sister, who seemed to embrace all the sweetest colors of the world, to wake up was not boring in the least.
Watching her temperament as she tossed and turned in her sleep, occasionally kicking the desk, was—funnily enough—quite entertaining.
* * *
[System] The item ‘White Tulip Seed’ has bloomed!
[System] You can now plant the item ‘White Tulip Seed’!
[System] The item ‘White Tulip Seed’ and the item ‘Rainbow Fertilizer’ are interacting to create a synergy effect!
[System] Synergy Effect: Probability of full bloom increased by 20,000%!
‘Yes!’
I was excitedly scattering seeds.
Or rather, to be precise, I was grinning so wide my mouth felt like it would tear as I watched the residents of the territory diligently sowing the seeds.
Honestly, I wanted to dance, but I held back because I had a reputation as a Lady to maintain.
“My Lady, what are those seeds?”
“White Tulip Seeds.”
“White Tulips?”
“What are those?”
“I’d like to ask that myself.”
Grans and Max looked at each other with puzzled expressions.
Ahem, well, there is such a thing.
“You guys just wait. If there’s anything you want, start making a list now.”
“...?”
“...?”
I had realized on the first day that the items ‘Rainbow Fertilizer’ and ‘White Tulip Seed’ were invisible to others.
I had been a bit despaired by that at first.
If others couldn't see them, it meant I would have to personally scatter the White Tulip Seeds across that vast forest.
Moreover, the White Tulip was a flower that looked exactly like a regular tulip.
If it were a flower like a sunflower that spat out countless seeds, that would be one thing, but tulips aren't exactly known for being prolific seed-bearers, are they?
‘Wait, in the game, you just plant one and it grows on its own.’
Thinking back, that was just a game mechanic.
If I performed that kind of magic here, in a place where people were already gossiping about it being abandoned land, I might be branded as some wicked sorcerer.
It was then that the system window flashed before me as I was worrying about what to do.
[System] Would you like to bloom the item ‘White Tulip Seed’?
[System] Upon acceptance, you will obtain 1,000,000 White Tulip Seeds!
‘Kim Ddong-byul, you know what?’
You really make me both a hater and a fan.
The method to bloom the White Tulip Seeds was simple.
I just had to place a vase in a sunny spot, put the White Tulip Seeds inside, and sleep for half a day.
As a result of completing that quest, I obtained a massive amount of White Tulip Seeds that night.
Most importantly, the problem of the seeds being invisible to others was resolved then as well.
‘The White Tulip Seeds obtained this way were visible to others.’
I realized this when the maid who came to help me wash and dress in the morning showed curiosity at the pile of White Tulip Seeds.
In other words, I could give extra work to the residents I had hired for the forest development!
‘From now on, Kim Ddong-byul and I are one.’
I was looking at the beautiful Kim Ddong-byul—whom I used to dream of slamming into the ground—with something akin to worship, when I suddenly tilted my head.
‘Wait, did he get a bit bigger... or is it just me?’
It felt like Ddong-byul, who always floated around me like a tiny shooting star, had grown a bit.
‘Am I imagining it?’
I was squinting at Kim Ddong-byul for a moment when—
“Hey! Tulia Frezier!”
A familiar voice thundered from the distance.