Chapter 50
Chapter 50
Translator: XZY
Chapter 50: Value (4)
***
It was the next day that Diella, having completely finished her debutante preparations, visited the Rosea Salon.
The mansion inspection schedule was finished, and the salon admission process was also well underway.
For Diella, who was at odds with so many noble young ladies, to extend a hand to the Rosea Salon herself was an exceptionally rare event, so the interest in the person named Derek, who had actually subdued and brought this snarling lioness, was skyrocketing.
It was said that he possessed a tongue so dazzling that even renowned merchants would be envious, or that he could charm any woman’s heart with his outstanding looks, and there were also rumors that he was the hidden child of a noble who was concealing great wealth and honor.
Denise herself found such rumors absurd when she heard them.
Most of them were baseless rumors, but in any case, the fact that the person named Derek had completely persuaded and brought Diella was an impressive achievement.
“Hello, Lady Denise. I’ve reviewed the letter you sent last time.”
However, no matter how much she had been led by Derek’s persuasion to enter the Rosea Salon, her personality was not completely dead.
In any case, although she had promised to try to maintain an amicable relationship with the Rosea Salon, she had no intention of stopping her efforts to take Derek from the Beltus family.
As soon as Diella appeared at the meeting, she received all the attention at a glance and approached Lady Denise to greet her first.
Denise, of course, had no ill feelings towards Diella, so she welcomed her with a heavenly, beautiful smile.
“You don’t know how happy I am that you’ve submitted an admission application to the Rosea Salon. For Lady Diella, who is like a beautiful jewel of the Duplein family, to grace us with her presence is a great honor for us as well.”
“That’s very kind of you. Anyway, I heard the proposal you suggested. Shall we have a magic duel as soon as next week?”
Diella’s way of speaking was completely devoid of the etiquette between nobles.
As if it didn't matter what Denise’s intention to start the conversation with light pleasantries was, Diella, without a care for the surrounding gazes, brought up the main topic first.
Although it was a rather rude attitude, it wasn't a bad thing from Denise’s perspective. If that side's will to take Derek was strong, it was only a matter to be grateful for.
“I see. I’ve often heard rumors that your magical skills are outstanding, Lady Diella, so I was thinking that I would like to determine our superiority.”
“If I win, the Beltus family will have to completely nullify the contract regarding Derek.”
“That would be a matter for my father to decide. You have brought a fitting price, I presume?”
At those words, Diella paused for a moment, then crossed her arms, lifted her chin, and spoke.
“If I lose, I will purchase the ‘View of the Corhes Granary Region’ in your mansion, Lady Denise, with the Duplein family’s budget. I have received the approval of my older brother, Valerian, the next head of the family.”
At those words, Lady Denise’s expression hardened for an instant.
It was difficult to understand the meaning of what Diella had just said at once. Indeed, Aiseline and Elente, who were sitting around, were tilting their heads.
The ‘View of the Corhes Granary Region’ was the name of a large painting that was being carefully stored in a warehouse located in the basement of Denise’s mansion.
Literally, it was a landscape painting of the Corhes Granary Region in the southwestern part of the continent, and it was famous as a masterpiece painted by the renowned female artist, Countess Lepondor.
How could ‘purchasing it’ be such an exceptional condition?
Before the surrounding people could feel a sense of incongruity at that fact, Denise stepped forward first and said with a smile.
“Certainly, just having you purchase our work of art at a decent price is a good thing, as its value is being recognized. If it's said to be a painting bought and paid for at its proper price by none other than the Duplein family, and Lady Diella at that, who has a deep knowledge of watercolor painting, my reputation for having chosen that painting will also be recognized.”
Denise momentarily spun her head and came up with a plausible reason.
At Denise’s words, Diella snorted for an instant, but she didn’t add any more words.
“Will you be alright? The paintings that Countess Lepondor drew while she was alive are often appraised at truly ridiculous sums.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll buy it at the price you name. Of course, that won't happen, though.”
“Alright. If it’s to that extent, my father will also review it positively.”
Denise replied with a gentle smile.
In any case, all she needed was for them to bring a condition that would make the duel itself happen. After all, she had no intention of winning the duel.
However, the condition that Diella had brought to the table was in itself shocking.
The other young ladies in the salon were tilting their heads, wondering if purchasing a single painting was such a big deal, but Denise, for her part, did not let down her guard.
Diella, still with her arms crossed, snorted with a ‘hmph’ and turned her body away.
“I’ll send an additional letter with the details.”
A few lower-ranking nobles were following beside Diella, who had left after saying her piece.
Even though Diella had been laying down the law to that extent, there were still nobles who wanted to curry favor with her.
<><><>
That day, as soon as she returned to the mansion after the meeting ended, Derek was there to greet her.
Derek had been waiting for Denise’s return while reviewing today’s training schedule, and that appearance was so natural, as if he were family, that Denise couldn't help but sigh.
She had to admit that Derek’s presence was slowly becoming as natural as air to her.
“Lady Denise. You’ve worked hard today as well. After you have dinner, we will train a little more in-depth on 2-Star Detection magic...”
“Did you hear the news from the head butler?”
“...”
“Lady Diella of the Duplein family challenged me to a magic duel. If I lose, you will be transferred over to the Duplein family.”
In fact, it was more accurate to say that the contract with the Beltus family would just be terminated.
After that, which family he went to was a matter for Derek to decide, but looking at the situation, it was most advantageous for him to go to the Duplein family, no matter who looked at it.
Diella was a person who hung on Derek’s every word, so it was clear that sticking with Diella would be much more advantageous for Derek’s position as well.
However, as soon as Derek heard Denise’s words, he cut to the heart of the matter first.
“Isn’t this something you designed, Lady Denise?”
“...Ugh.”
This man named Derek had a sharp side in strange places.
Although he acted like a simple human who knew nothing but magic, once he decided to rest his chin on his hand and began to see through the situation, he could not be easily deceived.
Indeed, Derek had been able to deduce without difficulty that this situation had been created with Denise taking the lead. It was a conclusion he had reached after considering all factors, from her conduct, her demeanor at the salon, to the part where she showed a strangely low level of hostility towards Diella.
Denise narrowed her eyes halfway and let out a deep sigh.
In any case, she was in the middle of thinking that it was time to sort out her position regarding Derek.
“Alright, I’ll be honest and admit that you’re a good teacher.”
Denise changed into a pretty, frilly dress and then sat on the edge of the bed in a corner of the room. Her glossy, silver-gray hair spread out like a blanket.
That white-haired mercenary, as always, had not even a twitch of expression. When he expounded on the discourse of magic, he would get excited and become more talkative, but even at such times, he was a person who maintained his composure to the end.
“At first, it was too hard to adapt to your teaching style, and it didn't fit with my way of just lazing around every day... but, well, working that hard did have its own meaning. And mastering magic was fun, too.”
“...Somehow, hearing you say it like that feels very strange. I thought you would never admit that magic is fun, even with your teeth clenched.”
“I-I’m not without pride, you know? After shaking my head so vehemently with my teeth clenched, it’s a bit embarrassing to suddenly admit that it was actually a little fun, isn't it?”
Denise’s appearance inside and outside the mansion was completely different.
Outside the mansion, she might be the most beautiful young lady admired by all, but at least inside the mansion, she was a sloth that couldn't be more pathetic.
Since she had a rather strong sense of pride, she couldn't accept Derek’s straightforward goodwill as it was.
“Anyway, I know well that you’re a good teacher, so all the more reason, there’s no good in you being in the Beltus family. Let alone being my teacher, that’s not a very good judgment. Go over to the Duplein side when I’m giving you the chance.”
“You, Lady Denise, are the most beloved young lady of the renowned Beltus family in Ebelstein. I am aware that everyone desires this position.”
“You know one thing but not the other. Alright, since things have become like this... and since it seems the Duplein family knows all there is to know, it wouldn’t be bad to tell you.”
Denise crossed her arms and stared at Derek.
And then she snorted and said.
“I am not as valuable a person as you think.”
And then, standing up from her seat, she began to descend to the mansion’s basement with Derek.
<><><>
“Do you know what Lady Diella offered as a condition for the magic duel? If she loses, she’ll buy the painting called ‘View of the Corhes Granary Region’ that’s stored in the basement of this mansion.”
“...What does that mean?”
The stairs leading to the basement of Denise’s mansion were dark, and a damp air was flowing.
For the basement of a mansion where everything was luxurious and antique, it felt quite eerie.
Derek manifested a small light magic to illuminate the path for Denise, and Denise, while saying a frank thank you, continued to descend into the mansion’s basement.
“Is buying a painting such a big deal?”
“You might not understand now. But you know, once you know the circumstances, you’ll understand why my father has no choice but to accept this condition.”
After going all the way down the mansion’s basement stairs with Denise, a large wooden door finally appeared before them.
On the door, which was engraved with plenty of antique intaglio patterns, the words ‘Art Warehouse’ were engraved.
When Denise took out the Beltus family’s seal and drew in mana, the door, reacting to it, slowly began to open.
Before long, she wore an indifferent expression and told Derek to follow her in.
As if the nameplate written on the entrance was not a lie, the basement was filled with all sorts of art pieces in storage.
Renowned paintings, large sculptures, small musical instruments, and even dolls made of clay were on display.
Seeing that each item even had a luxurious nameplate set up, it was clear that each and every one was a valuable object. However, he felt a sense of incongruity at the fact that such items were piled up in a mansion built for a young lady active in the Ebelstein social circle.
“I didn't know there was an art warehouse like this in the basement.”
“It’s not common to build an art warehouse like this in an Ebelstein mansion where a noble young lady resides. It’s strange, isn't it, since it’s not like I have a deep knowledge of art like Lady Diella?”
Denise let out a deep sigh and gave the surroundings a rough glance.
She had hardly brought any servants with her. In this dark and damp basement warehouse, there was only that blunt, white-haired mercenary.
Denise, who moved through the art pieces as if swimming, as if she didn't care, showed Derek various valuable items.
Derek, too, was not someone with a discerning eye in this field of art, but even to an amateur’s eyes, it was filled with items that looked considerably valuable.
As they went deeper and deeper inside, a display case covered by a huge curtain was finally revealed.
There, a nameplate explaining the artwork was simply attached.
[ View of the Corhes Granary Region - Logdel Agnes Lepondor ]
“Is this it? The painting that will be purchased as a price if you win the duel.”
“Want to see?”
Denise pulled back the draped curtain.
He was in the middle of wondering what kind of painting it could be to become the subject of such an important bet.
—However, the canvas revealed as the curtain was pulled back was completely blank.
“...”
“How is it? Do you understand the artistic perspective that Count Lepondor had in his lifetime?”
“I have frequently encountered artistic expressions that utilize empty space through Lady Diella’s works... but it is difficult to judge when the painting itself is nothing but empty space. To be honest, in my eyes, it just looks like a blank sheet of paper.”
“Ahaha... well, of course. The painting called ‘View of the Corhes Granary Region’ doesn't actually exist.”
When Derek quietly looked at Denise, Denise tied up her beautifully swept-back hair and then perched herself roughly on a dusty display stand.
Derek felt a sense of incongruity at the sight of her not even caring about the dust getting on her luxurious dress.
Denise was about to say something.
“It’s a painting that exists only on the books. Countess Lepondor was a prolific painter, but she never painted such a picture.”
“...”
“Officially, it’s recorded as having been purchased by me using the family’s funds. The amount is considerable, but in any case, it’s not that unusual to purchase an expensive work of art to decorate a noble young lady’s mansion. I can also make the plausible excuse that it’s an investment to cultivate my artistic knowledge and discernment.”
At that, Derek did not ask anything more.
He could tell that the story she would lay out after this was not something to be told to a mere commoner tutor.
Derek held his breath for a moment and recalled the view of Denise’s mansion again.
Its scale was impressive, but compared to the scale of other noble young ladies’ mansions, it had fewer art pieces and less luxury.
He had thought it was a reflection of Denise’s own temperament, but it seemed that was not the only reason.
“Did you embezzle taxes at the family level?”
“To do big things, you need independent funds and forces that don’t catch the empire’s eye. To do that, the need arises to reduce the taxes to be paid to the imperial family and account for it.”
“Is that your opinion, Lady Denise, or the opinion of His Grace, the Grand Duke of Beltus?”
“Does that matter? My father and I are one family.”
Denise was laughing as if dejected.
In short, this Ebelstein mansion where Denise was residing was also being used as a sort of money laundering place used by the Beltus family to embezzle taxes.
Of course, there was no way that Denise, the mistress of the mansion, would have been unaware of that fact. And she would not have been able to refuse to cooperate.
The imperial family would occasionally look through the books for auditing purposes or dispatch people to inspect the territory.
However, it would be rare for them to go as far as to search the basement warehouse of a mansion prepared for a daughter’s social circle studies. The basement of this mansion in the far-off Ebelstein was a blind spot for such imperial audits.
That vast canvas was presented as a work of art, but nothing was drawn on it.
As if that empty landscape was quite amusing, Denise wore a smile that didn't suit her.
“It seems Lady Diella saw through these circumstances roughly. Since she’s a person with a great interest in art history and the works of famous female artists.”
“...Is it alright for you to tell me something like this?”
“Diella doesn't hide anything from you anyway, does she? If a person from the Duplein family knows this much, it can't be kept a secret anymore, can it? Only compromise remains.”
This dark art warehouse was probably one of Denise’s biggest secrets.
Of course, forming independent funds by lowering and accounting for taxes with such tricks was something that powerful nobles on the border did when they were bored. The empire was probably having a headache over it too.
It was just a matter of how skillfully they were hiding it, and it couldn't be said that even the Duplein or Belmeade families were not committing such illicit acts at all. It was just that the empire was keeping it quiet.
However, whether that was revealed on the surface or not, and whether a noble young lady was directly involved in such illicit acts or not, were completely separate stories.
“...She said she would purchase this painting.”
How could Diella purchase a painting that didn't even exist? However, if one thought about it carefully, it was not an impossible task.
In the end, it was a matter between families. Purchasing it on the books was not a very difficult task.
It was a problem on the level of just dipping a quill in ink and writing a few lines in a ledger.
Derek felt like he could now see the true meaning behind Diella’s superficial words of buying this painting.
It was a story of the Duplein family taking on the accounting loophole formed around this non-existent painting. On top of that, they would provide immediately usable cash as a bonus, so it was a considerably exceptional condition.
For a family of the Duplein family’s scale, hiding a single loophole of this degree was not a very difficult task. The wider and denser the forest, the more places there were to hide treasure.
Transactions between noble families were usually like that.
It often came down to a matter of how to hide and pass on the illicit acts that the empire kept quiet about.
Diella knew that fact well, and she had seen through the fact that Lady Denise, too, could not be free from such problems.
“Lady Diella has a good eye. I shouldn't take her lightly. I didn't know she would come in and poke at my reverse scale so openly.”
She was young, inexperienced, and a presumptuous person.
However, the occasional glimpses of her perspective as a noble or her demeanor as a monarch made it impossible for anyone to gauge what kind of person Diella would grow into when she got older.
Right now, in this Ebelstein, the only person who could hold her leash was probably Derek.
“All those who represent the names of the three great noble families in the Ebelstein social circle are like that. I’ve tried teaching them in various ways, but not a single one was an easy person.”
“You’re right, Derek. Lady Aiseline, Lady Elente, they’re all people who know how to appropriately wield the power they hold. They’re not swayed by power, they’re people who have naturally embodied how to grasp power itself.”
The influential young ladies of the Rosea Salon were mostly receiving the full love of the head of the family and were being entrusted with the full authority of the mansion, building up their demeanor as influential figures.
It seemed highly likely that in just a few years, each and every one of them would be making a name for themselves.
However, Denise alone let out a hollow laugh and lowered her gaze.
At that sight, Derek felt as if all the aspects of Denise he had seen so far were all coming together as one.
She was a girl with no motivation for anything, stingy with her achievements, and whose goal was to just guard the mansion, read some novels, and maintain a lifeless existence by wasting time.
He remembered the words that the exhausted Denise had said to Derek at the Raspa Cave. The reason she had lost interest in magic was that she had realized that no matter how hard she tried, her achievements were nothing more than a part of the great Beltus family.
“I’m just like a chess piece.”
Denise said, as if spitting it out.
She had received the full support of the family, just like Lady Aiseline or Lady Elente, but the motivation for that support itself was different.
There was not a single speck of love for a daughter, or affection as a family.
In the eyes of the Grand Duke of Beltus, who looked down on everything in the family with a cold gaze, there was no family love. She was just one of the various components that made up the great Beltus family.
In fact, it was a rather common character type among high-ranking nobles.
“Can you judge the situation a bit now? I’m being revered at the Rosea Salon now, and the Beltus family is treating me like a precious treasure, but it’s all out of necessity. In the end, if needed, I’ll either take responsibility for the tax embezzlement and be punished, or be sold off in a political marriage, or they’ll use me in whatever is the most efficient way. Actually, this is natural.”
“...”
“It’s just that the other young ladies of the Rosea Salon are too unusual. They have strong opinions, they command the atmosphere of their families, and they know how to make such grand judgments themselves... Wouldn't it be reasonable to invest in that direction?”
He had thought she was merely wagging her three-inch tongue to drive Derek away, but contrary to his expectations, a certain sincerity was coming through in her words.
Although she was a person who only groaned whenever she trained with Derek, she had already acknowledged Derek in a corner of her heart.
Derek’s eyes narrowed. He quietly looked down at her, sitting with her rich, silver-gray hair spread out on the display stand, her head bowed in defeat.
She, sitting with her head quietly bowed, already had her wings broken.
The numerous experiences of her childhood would have made her accept the present reality. What followed after that was, in the end, only chronic lethargy.
But she could not cast everything aside.
The reality of this cold noble circle was that those without value were weeded out. So she had no choice but to become such a strange character type, who fulfilled her minimum duties while maintaining a moderately unmotivated line.
A bird with a broken leg.
Even if it wants to come down to the ground and walk, it must continue to fly with its broken wings.
The end of that endless flight was likely not to be good. She herself already had a rough premonition.
That was why Denise was telling Derek. Go to the Duplein family.
Whether it was Aiseline or Diella, they would become the central figure of the family much more skillfully than Denise and seize power. They were figures whose future potential itself was different.
Moreover, those two trusted Derek completely. Where else in the world could there be better conditions than this? It is always the wisest way of life to be by the side of power.
It would not have been easy for a high-nosed noble young lady to say such things openly.
Nevertheless, in Denise’s eyes, it was right for someone like Derek to play in such wide waters.
At first, the focus had been on regaining her own peaceful daily life, but after confronting Lady Diella, such thoughts had gradually formed.
After all, Denise herself was nothing more than a horse being used by the Beltus family.
“How about it? You can’t refute it, can you?”
“Certainly, there is no room for refutation in your words, Lady Denise.”
“Right. Then, when the situation is sorted out, contact the Duplein side.”
As Denise let out a hollow laugh, Derek finally answered, so simply that it made her lengthy explanation seem colorless.
“I don’t want to.”
“...?”
At that answer, so certain that it was futile, Denise had to tilt her head for a moment.
Before long, when she was certain that she hadn't misheard, Denise opened her eyes wide and stared at Derek.
"I appreciate the consideration, but isn't it alright for me to decide my own place of residence?"
Denise couldn't help but wear a dumbfounded expression.
To volunteer as Denise’s teacher now was a choice that had nothing but losses, no matter who looked at it.
At least, in Denise’s eyes, it was so.
However, Derek quietly moved his body and sat on the display stand next to Denise.
She could not help but express a question at that action.