64. I see the light shining in your eyes

It was a dream.

She thought so instinctively.

Her soft bed and Darius sleeping soundly beside her weren’t there. So this was a dream.

A world with white snowstorms blowing. Occasionally, she heard something exploding and collapsing with boom! boom! sounds.

‘Where is this……’

〈Anette!〉

Someone called her. What? Who?

〈Finally, I can talk to you. Last time, I barely managed to connect for a moment because I lacked power.〉

The voice without a visible form proudly boasted of its achievement.

Connect?

〈Ah! I still need a lot of power. But this time, more will return. Because this time…… so…… doing.〉

Beeeep. Like black paint being applied before her eyes, the information in the voice was deleted.

〈I want to meet you soon. Not like this, but in my real form.〉

Bang! Bang! The clattering sounds like gunshots were loud. Flinch, her body trembled for some reason whenever she heard the sharp metallic sounds.

No, don’t shoot.

〈Don’t worry about it. It’s not happening right now. By the way, you’re seeing…… I wonder if it’s the influence of……〉

The voice spoke with a pleased tone. Indeed, Anette is a special person!

〈Hey, we can’t meet this time, but I’ll wait for you above. Anette, I’m up here. I’m watching over you from the very top.〉

Above? She looked up. Something like the silhouette of a person with unclear outlines was looking at her.

〈You……〉

The dream ended there. It was one of those nonsensical dreams that she couldn’t remember anything about when she woke up in the morning.

* * *

The harvest festival approached quickly. When the festival period arrived, all administrative departments began working like the three tax departments directed by Nicola Graus. This meant they hadn’t left work on time even once.

‘I need to buy new candles again……’

Large candle pillars were disappearing in chunks every night.

The old priest of the temple normally lived a bit away from Castle Inkheart, but knowing the North was preparing for a big event, he gladly visited Inkheart again.

She could finally ask why there was no news about the female protagonist that he had promised to look into last time.

“Priest.”

Not understanding her urgency, the priest spouted nonsense like ‘You saw me off separately last time, and today you’re looking for me as soon as I arrive. Madam Anette’s obedient faith is truly beautiful……’

No, I don’t have any faith. It might appear if you pay me.

“Last time, I asked you to look into my friend.”

“Friend?”

The old priest blinked.

“What friend? You asked me?”

“The blonde acolyte! Who grew up in the temple orphanage since childhood, very kind, planning to enter the temple soon! When I mentioned the name Evangeline, you said you might have heard of her!”

“Did I? Getting old affects memory terribly.”

“Oh why, she has long hair, and the child is so pretty and smart that she stands out, I praised her until my mouth went dry!”

“Aaaah! Evangeline from the capital!”

“Yes, her!”

“The kind girl who grew up in the temple since childhood and took care of her younger temple siblings, that Evangeline!”

“Yes, yes! You found her!”

“Now that I remember, I’ll look into it. Memory gets like this when you’re old, ho ho.”

This old codger!

“Prieeest.”

“Ho ho, I’m sorry. I forgot to ask about it when I visited the capital recently. Now that I remember, I absolutely won’t forget.”

“You said you might have heard of her somewhere last time too. She’s a really precious friend to me.”

The old priest smiled, oblivious to her frustration.

“Even if they grew up in a temple orphanage, few people actually become acolytes. Though I’m a priest, this path is not an easy one.”

“I don’t know about others, but that friend will be a nun as she vowed in childhood.”

An Evangeline who’s not in the temple? That’s a denial of the original work.

“Yes, I definitely won’t forget this time. By the way, you’re working hard this year too. I look forward to a wonderful harvest festival.”

Workers were moving the festival symbols to various places within the castle. The harvest festival was coming soon.

* * *

Inkheart’s harvest festival this year seemed successful. The faces of people who flocked to see their lord were blooming with smiles, and street vendors were working hard to sell as much as possible during this peak season.

“Come in, we’re selling clouds taken from the sky! Experience the taste of fluffy clouds that melt sweetly in your mouth!”

“Shall we buy one later?”

“I was just looking because it’s interesting.”

While waiting near the stage for the opening speech, Darius spoke to her as she curiously watched a nearby cotton candy stall.

In this medieval era, making cotton candy would require a mage. She was just wondering how well cotton candy must sell at festivals to justify hiring a mage.

“You’re not nervous at all. Rose was so worried that you might have breathing difficulties that she insisted I come and comfort you.”

“Thank you all for coming to the festival. Everyone spend a lot of money and have fun. The end. Won’t I just say those two sentences well? More importantly, look there.”

She poked Darius in the waist. The chicken skewer vendor who had scolded Darius for speaking informally when they went out before, saying “How dare a young punk speak so casually when we’ve just met,” was working hard at his business today too.

“I wonder if that person will watch our speech later? I bet he might collapse when he realizes you’re the Grand Duke.”

“With that guts? He won’t collapse. It’ll be fortunate if he doesn’t change his sign.”

“Sign?”

“The Dragon Chicken Skewer Shop that yelled at the Northern Grand Duke who can make even crying children stop. Eat and your liver will swell.”

She was pushing him away with a chuckle when it happened.

“Grand Duke!”

A voice she had heard once before urgently grabbed Darius and her.

“Have you thought about it? Wow, I’m glad to see you at the festival. Even for this harvest festival, I contributed a lot of money as a sponsor.”

Ah, so because he’s a big donor who contributed a lot, no one stops Rigolus from suddenly appearing in front of us and speaking.

“If you have time, how about visiting our business site with me? You seem to have prejudice just from the name ‘slave trade,’ and I’d like to clear up that misunderstanding.”

“Mr. Rigolus, it’s time for the opening speech.”

She gently cut off Rigolus’s words, implying that he should step aside now.

While ignoring his anxious words about ‘Then after the event, some time……’, she went up on stage and began the opening speech. It was the start of the harvest festival.

* * *

“Madam, good job! It was a wonderful speech.”

After giving the predictable speech about working hard this year too, being sincerely happy to host the event thanks to everyone, and coming down from the stage, Rose handed her a flower necklace, her eyes sparkling, having prepared it who knows when.

It felt like becoming a member of parliament, receiving formal protocol for doing nothing special.

“Thank you. Is that flower on your ear for you, Rose?”

A large rose was tucked behind Rose’s ear as she brushed back her hair.

Rose blushed slightly and fiddled with the rose in her ear.

“Hehe, someone gave it to me.”

“Who?”

“He was a very handsome knight who saw me and said it didn’t make sense for a pretty lady not to have a flower, then gave it to me. Doesn’t he sound like a playboy? Well, I do like the flower though.”

Having Sir Lucion, the knight commander, as family, Rose was familiar with all the knights in Castle Inkheart. If she didn’t recognize this knight, it meant he was someone who had come from another region for the festival.

“Was he a red-haired man?”

“Do you know him too, madam?”

Rose’s eyes sparkled.

“Of course I do.”

I said I’d cut him if he touched someone, but that guy.

“You know, Rose. You should go tell Sir Lucion about this too.”

“My brother? Why?”

“Your brother would really want to know this story.”

“Hmph, true. Lucion always treats me like a child, so I should go tell him. I’m now a woman who receives flowers from gentlemen!”

“Yes, make sure you tell him the story without missing a single detail. Don’t forget to mention that the person who gave you the flower had a red hair with a mole under his eye.”

“Huh? How did you know he had a mole on his face?”

It was in Barbarossa’s nature to automatically become kind when he saw women. It was probably just flirtation without any particular meaning, but I’m not sure if Sir Lucion would hear it that way.

She could almost hear Barbarossa complaining in the distance, ‘I was only told not to touch the maids in the castle. How am I supposed to distinguish every woman outside the castle!’

Then how about cutting off the troublemaker? Then he wouldn’t need to distinguish between women inside and outside the castle anymore.

Ah, Mr. Rigolus was approaching again from behind the stage with sparkling eyes. Time to flee.

* * *

〈The Inkheart slave market? Ah, the one that advertises itself glamorously as contributing greatly to the North through labor supply and job creation? Those people try to operate quietly under the surface too, but it would be complicated if you dig into it. The rumors about the slave market have been dirty since long ago.〉

This was Barbarossa’s answer when she asked him to tell everything he knew about the slave market recently.

〈They say the ducal family puts pressure on them not to sell children or kidnapped people. But there are stories that they sell all sorts of strange things where no one can see. From what mercenaries who’ve worked with the slave market have let slip, what was it, that side is probably the real deal. They said the regular slave market is nothing special.〉

It was fortunate that they had eaten everything and seen all the goods for sale during their previous outing. This festival, she planned to patrol and crack down on the slave market without any leisure activities.

Rigolus didn’t need to enthusiastically recommend a slave market tour to them. They were already planning to visit the slave market directly today.

Both the clean, well-managed slave market in the light that Rigolus boasted about until his mouth went dry, and the shady money-making operation that he kept quiet about.