IHDOE Ch 66
Many people gathered to see Satina off on the day she departed the western fortress.
[Resident] "To think you are leaving for the capital, Lady Satina. It's such a shame. What will we do without you?"
[Resident] "Please stay healthy on your journey, Lady Satina. These are snacks I made myself. Please enjoy them on the way."
[Resident] "This is motion sickness medicine crafted from our family's secret recipe. Since you must travel long hours by carriage, please take it if you feel unwell."
[Resident] "Thanks to you, Lady Satina, my younger brother's life was saved. I will never forget your grace."
[Guard] "Safe travels, My Lady."
Gifts and flower bouquets poured in, filling her carriage to capacity. The knights of House Bersabet also found their arms full of presents.
Satina offered a gentle greeting to those gathered to bid her farewell.
[Satina] "Think nothing of it. It was only natural for me to do so. I'm glad I could be of help to you all."
[Crowd] "Lady Satina...!"
Serpens also saw her off, his face filled with lingering regret.
[Serpens] "I regret that I can't return to the capital with you, Miss Satina. I will see to it that the investigation of that region is thoroughly completed, so please don't worry too much."
[Satina] "I am counting on you, Lord Serpens."
After exchanging her final farewells with Serpens, she looked around at the crowd. With her striking appearance, she would have been easy to spot, yet nowhere among the swarming people was the face she knew.
As she boarded the carriage, Satina looked up one last time toward Tyron's office. Owing to the distance, however, nothing was visible.
What a pity. I wanted to tease him one last time before leaving.
She had only just figured out how to turn his stomach inside out.
Yet that was all. Feeling no need to seek Tyron out for a formal farewell, she stepped into the carriage, unaware that someone was staring intently at her departing form.
Hidden behind the curtain, Tyron covertly watched Satina receiving the crowd's send-off with bloodshot eyes.
Adorned in a soft pink dress as people bade her farewell, she appeared truly as beautiful as a saintess out of a picture book.
Satina...
He hated her. That woman constantly rendered him strange. Whenever he looked at her, flames erupted within his chest, driving him to commit foolish, absurd acts repeatedly.
He knew it, too. What did it matter to him whether Satina met another man or not? Whether she perished somewhere or committed an affair with another man held no relevance to him whatsoever.
Then why had he flown into such a rage?
Why had he...
Tyron remembered little of his childhood. Struggling just to survive left no room to observe his surroundings. Still, a few memories remained vivid.
For instance, his mother dying while waiting for his father.
[Mother] "He said he loves me. He will surely return to me."
His mother had foolishly believed his father's words until disease claimed her life.
[Commoner] "It's because she's a dog beastkin. Dog beastkin are naturally devoted, but she should have been sharp enough to find a way to survive on her own. Tsk, tsk, how foolish."
The man who was his biological father came to retrieve him only after his mother died, solely because he required an heir.
The moment Tyron followed the butler into the luxurious mansion, everyone inside glared at him with hostile eyes.
The Duchess of Ascalon despised him for occupying the heir's position despite possessing no blood relation to her, while the ducal house's vassals loathed him for being a half-blood beastkin.
Under the guise of discipline, the Duchess often mistreated him.
[Duchess] "True to your lowborn blood, you fail to grasp proper etiquette. If you can't behave, why not eat off the floor like a dog?"
Duke Ascalon knew of his wife's abuse yet stood by as a bystander.
[Duke] "She is not usually like that. She is merely going through a difficult time right now, so you must understand her, Tyron."
Tyron's childhood was entirely filled with filthy, nauseating garbage. Yet, amid all that, a single memory shone brightly.
[Satina] "Shall I heal you?"
A young girl with brilliant golden hair, smiling as she treated his wounds.
Satina Bersabet.
He had once overheard people whispering about a fortunate girl who entered House Bersabet after being revealed as a Saintess candidate.
Somehow, her similar circumstances evoked a sense of kinship, perhaps even a slight feeling of camaraderie.
Gazing at her profile as she inspected his wounds often stirred strange ripples in his heart, but it had to be a delusion.
It couldn't be love. Anything but love.
[Satina] "Did you actually harbor feelings for me? Are you jealous because you think I'm seeing another man?"
Recalling her smiling face as she uttered those words sent a chilling shudder down his spine.
Nonsense!
It was all her nonsense. No, it had to be nonsense. Otherwise, what would all his past actions toward Satina amount to?
To begin with, she was the fiancée of his master, the Crown Prince. A woman toward whom harboring any underlying feelings was strictly impermissible.
Thus, Tyron desperately ignored the emotions creeping out through his vulnerable cracks. Only by doing so could he continue living as Tyron Ascalon.
Suddenly, Satina looked up toward the room where he stood.
Seeing her face clearly illuminated under the sunlight, tears threatened to spill from his eyes, forcing him to squeeze them shut.
Yet the face imprinted upon his memory remained unerasable.
When Satina returned to the capital, the atmosphere of the ducal estate differed entirely from when she had left for the western fortress.
[Maid] "W-Welcome back, My Lady."
Maids who used to hide their disdain poorly could no longer even meet her eyes.
Having accomplished so much at the western fortress, she was now treated as a bona fide Saintess candidate in both name and reality.
Originally, the maids could look down on Satina only because she was considered a useless disgrace to House Bersabet, incapable of wielding holy power.
Now, however, things had changed. Numerous witnesses had seen her heal people using holy power, and her prestige in the west had surged.
Yet that was not all.
The grim atmosphere currently shrouding House Bersabet was heavily tied to Sharlan's business failure.
The incident traced back to a week prior.
While Satina was still at the western fortress, Duke Bersabet received a report.
[Duke] "A maltstone mine was discovered in the south?"
House Bersabet earned a substantial fortune by processing and selling the teeth of the magical beast Bullstors, a key magic ingredient. Red maltstone was an essential material required to process these teeth. Yet recently, a massive maltstone mine had been discovered in the south.
[Duke] "Given its scale, the deposits must be considerable... Hm, maltstone prices will plummet at this rate."
[Sharlan] "Yes, current projections indicate so."
Sharlan answered, standing at attention with his hands behind his back.
It was far too formal and rigid for a conversation between father and son, yet Sharlan was accustomed to it. Though related by blood, he had received nothing from him as a parent. Every meal provided and every piece of clothing he wore had been earned by proving his worth.
[Duke] "Then we shall halt all maltstone purchases for the time being."
At his order, Sharlan hesitated briefly.
[Sharlan] "Would you reconsider, Father?"
[Duke] "Reconsider what?"
Displeased by Sharlan opposing his opinion, Duke Bersabet's voice dropped an octave lower.
[Sharlan] "Though deposits are presumed to be considerable, official estimates have not been announced yet. Purchasing a small amount in advance might..."
[Duke] "Foolish boy! That is precisely why you're inadequate!"
Duke Bersabet hurled the report he was holding directly at Sharlan. As always, he didn't dodge, bearing the brunt of the Duke's violent temper.
[Duke] "Regardless of the deposit size, maltstone prices are bound to drop! Yet you foolishly suggest buying in advance? How can you be so dense despite your age?!"
Sharlan silently endured the torrent of verbal abuse hurled at him. Though he had heard these insults from the moment he could comprehend language, murderous intent still welled up within his chest at times.
Lowering his gaze to conceal his inner thoughts, he responded.
[Sharlan] "Understood. Then, as Father instructed, we will refrain from purchasing maltstone."
True to the Duke's prediction, maltstone prices plummeted daily.
[Duke] "We should buy just before official deposit numbers are announced. Yes, around next week."
Everything appeared to unfold according to his calculations.
Yes, until an unidentified emerging merchant guild suddenly appeared out of nowhere and bought up every piece of maltstone available on the market.
Thanks to that, the downward curve of maltstone prices twitched and began to surge upward. Naturally, House Bersabet fell into complete chaos.
[Duke] "Who on earth are those bastards?! Sharlan! As the Young Duke, what were you doing, not properly investigating those fools?!"
He flew into a rage, berating Sharlan mercilessly.
Even then, there was still some leeway. Even with the price hike, it remained far below the original cost.
Just as House Bersabet prepared to purchase maltstone, news arrived from the southern mine.
[Report] "It was believed significant maltstone deposits existed; however, errors were confirmed during the investigation process."
In short, the southern mine, thought to be bursting with maltstone, was completely empty, an utterly useless wasteland.
From that day on, maltstone prices began to skyrocket uncontrollably. People offered double, even triple the original price, yet maltstone could be purchased nowhere on the market.
Every piece of maltstone circulating in the market had been swallowed up by the emerging merchant guild, 'Lettina'.
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