Chapter 78
Chapte 78
The Sugar Revolution
Marie calmly picked out a wriggling worm from the ship biscuit, placed it on her finger, and examined it closely. Then she fed the biscuit to the worm and quietly focused her mind.
A halo appeared around her head… and before long, the worm began to form a chrysalis.
Soon after, it tore through the chrysalis and emerged as a small moth.
Astonishingly, Marie had instantly metamorphosed the larva into an adult.
She simply watched the process with a gentle smile.
All around her, the sons and daughters of high-ranking nobles, the promising youths of high society, were fighting like beasts over hunger—yet in the middle of it all, she alone transcended hunger and handled life itself.
At that beautiful, noble, almost transcendent sight, Sendia was shocked.
‘What is this? This woman… it can only be called a miracle of a saint….’
Watching her, Sendia Aspinal’s face flushed.
She felt admiration. Even affection.
Seeing Marie use miraculous power on even the smallest creature stirred feelings of love and reverence within her.
But…
Soon, an unbearable jealousy began to boil within her.
‘Why can’t I become a transcendent being like that?
Why is someone so rustic chosen as a saint, while I cannot become something so beautiful and powerful?
That saint, who looks upon even such insignificant creatures with love… she would never show such mercy to someone like Sendia Aspinal.’
Jealousy crushed her admiration for the saint’s beauty.
Perhaps that was the pride of Sendia Aspinal’s very identity.
Rather than worship and love the saint after witnessing her sacred miracle, it was more like her to envy and resent her.
In doing so, she preserved herself, not falling under the spell of that holy beauty.
‘She gives me nothing, yet I can’t stand her! That saint! Compared to her, the other saint candidate, Lady Idnia….’
When Sendia looked for Idnia, she was startled.
‘She’s not here? Where did she go?’
At that moment, the dining hall doors burst open, and Idnia appeared.
“Everyone! Excuse me for a moment!”
Using telekinesis, Idnia dragged in a wooden cart and cleared off the tables.
Then she began setting out something that looked like a salad made of vegetables and fruits.
“Huh?”
“What’s that?”
Everyone was stunned.
“Miss Marie! Could you help me for a moment?”
“Ah, yes, Lady Idnia. But what is this?”
“It’s a simple salad. Would you like to try it?”
“Is… is that alright?”
“I brought it here to be eaten, didn’t I?”
“Then I’ll gratefully accept.”
Marie carefully picked up a pale pink, fruit-like piece.
As soon as she smelled it, she recognized it.
“It’s turnip?”
“Yes.”
At Idnia’s confirmation, the people around them looked disappointed.
“Turnip? Isn’t that…”
“Something only poor people eat?”
Turnips grew quickly and had long been used as famine relief crops.
And most of them tasted awful.
Frequent planting of such crops depleted the soil, leaving it unable to support proper growth.
But when Marie put the turnip in her mouth, she was startled.
“It’s… sweet!”
“…Well…”
“Vegetables can be sweet too.”
Everyone brushed it off like that, but Marie shook her head.
“No, it’s really incredibly sweet! What is this? Is it soaked in sugar?”
At that moment, the other students’ eyes changed.
Even if it was just a bland turnip, it already looked far more appetizing than the terrible ship biscuits and milk tea—and now they were saying it was soaked in sugar?
“E-excuse me. May I try some too?”
Sendia Aspinal asked Idnia.
“Yes.”
“Let’s see…”
Sendia picked up a piece of turnip and brought it to her mouth.
And then…
An unbelievably refreshing sweetness burst across her tongue.
“What?!”
The turnip itself was incredibly sweet, crisp, and refreshing.
Such dense, well-grown turnips could only come from fertile soil rich in nutrients… but no one used such soil for a mere famine crop.
Good land was too valuable for that.
Yet this one had been grown solely for the sake of the turnip itself, giving it a quality never seen before.
But beyond its quality, there was clearly an added sweetness.
“Sugar? This much sugar? That’s impossible…!”
“What?!”
The other students were shocked.
“Well, Miss Marie is from the peasant class…”
“Maybe turnips seem sweet enough to her, but for someone like Miss Sendia, it’s different.”
“If she says it’s sweet, then it really is.”
Suddenly, students began to crowd around.
Watching them, Idnia let out a faint internal laugh.
‘They discriminate so naturally, like water flowing.
Even saying it right in front of her… these students really are something.’
To them, class differences were natural, and those subjected to them had no right to be offended.
Otherwise, they wouldn’t speak so openly like this.
But Marie herself didn’t seem bothered at all.
She was already used to this kind of treatment.
‘She doesn’t even realize it… should I say something? As a duke’s daughter, they’d all shrink back if I did. But… no, I shouldn’t get carried away either.’
Idnia decided to hold herself back, mindful of her noble status.
While all these thoughts crossed her mind, Marie ignored the others’ mockery and asked Idnia,
“Where did you get these turnips?”
“I’d like to hear that as well. Ahem.”
Gibbles, the overseer, approached with a cough.
“Lady Idnia! Even for a duke’s daughter, this is… a bit too blatant. Is this smuggling? Or theft?”
“Ah, Mr. Gibbles. I obtained permission from Professor Buremhyde.”
“What? P-Professor Buremhyde?”
Fear flickered in Gibbles’ eyes.
It seemed even he was afraid of Buremhyde, the Dragon Lord known as the Tyrant of Lancaster.
“Yes. I cultivated them on unused land near the faculty building, with his permission.
He kindly lent it to support the creation of a Wizard Ball club.
I should have informed you first, but since you weren’t there, I had no choice but to proceed with the professor’s approval. I apologize.
Professor Buremhyde can confirm it himself.”
“N-no, that won’t be necessary.
If the professor approved it, then that’s fine. My role is simply to assist with academic operations.”
When Idnia offered to arrange a meeting with Buremhyde, Gibbles quickly declined.
The students were startled.
“Wizard Ball?”
“That game?”
“I like watching it, but… a club? Are we supposed to play?”
“With who? If word gets out, my mother will faint.”
“It’s interesting, but… isn’t it dangerous?”
They were interested in Wizard Ball, but as nobles, none were eager to participate.
Still, they hesitated as they looked at the turnip salad.
“So… do we only get this if we join Wizard Ball?”
“Come on, it’s just vegetables. Turnips. A famine crop for the poor.
If I get dragged into that for this, my parents would disown me.”
“Maybe, but if Miss Sendia says it’s sweet, it must be different.”
“It does look tasty…
If it’s soaked in sugar, it might be worth it.”
They all stared at the food with desire.
After suffering through terrible meals, even simple vegetables piled generously were tempting enough.
At that moment, Idnia smiled and said,
“There’s too much for just the Euros dorm to eat, so please come and take some.”
“What? But… Professor Buremhyde…”
“What, you think we’d force you into something you don’t want just for food?
This is simply a promotional effort to show some of the benefits of the Wizard Ball club.
However, to distribute it properly, we’ll need some organization.
Could you help?”
“I will assist.”
Crown Prince Rudolf stepped forward.
Following him, the dorm leaders came forward, received portions of the salad, and began distributing them to their students.
“Now then, in exchange—though it’s not really an exchange—I’ll take the ship biscuits.”
At Idnia’s request, the students eagerly handed them over.
“Ah, of course.”
“If you want something like this, we’d gladly give it to you.”
And watching all of this closely was Prince Lorenzo.
“What do you think, Fiona?”
Lorenzo and the students of the southern Notos dorm gathered and tasted the turnip salad.
Everyone was amazed by the clean, refreshing sweetness.
High-quality turnips blended with sweetness and a hint of salt.
“This is strange.
To soak this much in sugar would require an enormous amount.
We know Lady Idnia sneaks out of the dorm at night, but she hasn’t been smuggling goods from the village.
If she were smuggling something like sugar, we would know.”
They had already taken control of the general stores in the nearby village.
It had cost a great deal, but it allowed them to monitor supply routes and provide convenience to academy students.
In other words, their influence covered the entire surrounding area.
For Idnia to smuggle sugar without them knowing? Impossible.
“Could Professor Buremhyde have provided it? She said these were grown on land he gave her.”
“He doesn’t seem like the kind to be that kind.
If he’s showing her special favor, that’s something the Church should be informed about.”
“But this…”
Lorenzo examined the salad thoughtfully.
“It’s definitely sweet.
Turnips might be sweet at the root, but not like this—even the stems are sweet.
And I think it’s related to her collecting those ship biscuits.
She’s taken those rock-hard breads before when students left them behind.”
Lorenzo muttered, thinking. Fiona quickly spoke.
“The sugar trade is a major source of income for the southern alliance.
If something can produce sweetness like sugar from bread or biscuits, it would be a serious threat to the entire south.”
“And also…”
Lorenzo didn’t finish his sentence, but everyone understood.
The Vikrant Empire, a powerful force in the southeast threatening the Holy Eldar Empire, was also involved in the sugar trade.
“How frightening… Idnia Kathe Betelgeuse.”
Prince Lorenzo believed that Idnia was demonstrating her value to the southern spies by hinting at the existence of something that could replace sugar.