Chapter 104
Chapter 104
In the end, I was able to successfully conclude the ‘Lu & Cream’ launch party.
Despite the blood-curdling tension between the Saint and the former Saint candidate, the glaring fights between the Imperial faction and the aristocratic faction, and the princess who suddenly picked a fight with me, somehow I managed to wrap everything up safely.
We cleaned the party hall all night and prepared the store for its first public opening tomorrow morning.
We tidied up the hall, changed the flashy lighting to more subdued colors, and put the furniture back in their original positions.
I returned Vroom-vroom to my system and replaced it with a newly crafted model made by a master craftsman.
We completed the ice cream freezer using magic stones, and filled it with vanilla and chocolate ice cream.
Actually, even without me doing anything special, ice cream was being automatically generated through a combination of skill stones, magic circles, the philosopher’s stone, and sacred power.
Yuri came to the nearly cleaned store early in the morning to help with the final decorations.
A beautiful mansion adorned in pink and pale butter-yellow. A wide-open hall with decorations placed throughout.
All the staff who would work here had changed into uniforms that would become the symbol of ‘Lu & Cream.’
Originally, I thought about making cute uniforms like the ice cream truck’s, but since the premium strategy had worked from the beginning, we created elegant dark-colored suits, adding cute decorations in ‘Lu & Cream’s’ signature colors as accents.
So Yen wore a necktie with alternating pink and yellow, Harvey wore a large ice cream brooch, and most staff wore similarly eye-catching accessories.
“Now, everyone. In just 10 minutes, the glorious moment of ‘Lu & Cream’ will begin.”
The employees stood in a line with slightly tense expressions.
Some staff members were people who had worked at the Luwin mansion and volunteered to come to the capital, some were from the newspaper company, and others had been recommended by acquaintances.
“As I’ve said many times, I sincerely thank you for your efforts for ‘Lu & Cream.’ I look forward to your continued support.”
And so, time passed…
[SYSTEM | System time: 10:00 notification.]
“It’s 10 o’clock!”
“Opening the doors!”
“We’re ready.”
[SYSTEM | Quest <Successfully Launch the Ice Cream Brand <Lu & Cream>!> has been completed.]
[SYSTEM | There is no reward~]
I don’t need a reward!
Ice cream will sell a lot! A whole lot!
Then we’ll have some steady income, right? Then we can properly pay the money needed to maintain the duchy, wages, and other expenses.
With an excited heart, I looked at the door. Many people had been waiting outside since early morning.
The two men with mercenary backgrounds, hired as guards solely because they were handsome, opened the massive doors.
“Welcome, welcome to Lu & Cream!”
Day 1 of Lu & Cream’s official launch.
* * *
After confirming that the store was running successfully, I returned to the north with Cassis and Roen faster than anyone else.
Thankfully, Luwin had a teleport gate. I never imagined I would move this frequently and extensively.
The reason we had to return to Luwin, leaving the newly opened store in the capital, was for security.
Incidentally, Seiren also came north with us.
Not only was she the model for ‘Lu & Cream,’ but more importantly, she was the company’s most valuable personnel as the person in charge of sacred power and related research.
Upon returning to the north, everyone decided to rest first. Since it was late at night, we agreed to discuss details tomorrow.
After taking a warm bath and changing into comfortable clothes, I wandered through the corridors of the mansion. Despite it being summer, it was cool here. As expected of the north.
And so, with an incubator in one arm and a huge egg in the other, I opened the reception room door.
“It’s been a while?”
“…Indeed.”
Sian was in the reception room.
How is it that this person is always sitting in the reception room I mainly use?
Now that we’ll be making a lot of money from ‘Lu & Cream,’ we should increase the number of rooms and reception areas we use. Currently, the Luwin mansion is so enormous that we’re only maintaining a tiny fraction of it.
I waved once to Sian and then placed Seilun’s egg, which I had been carefully holding, into the incubator.
Fortunately, I had found Seilun’s egg among piles of clothes.
‘Seilun’s Egg’ was a reward I received for successfully completing the tutorial quest to pay off the Seike debt.
According to the description, a valuable sacred beast would emerge, but since there was no way to know when it would hatch, I had half given up on it.
[‘Hatching Seilun’s Egg’
Place the ‘Egg’ you wish to hatch in the incubator and pour in affection, love, and sacred power. Then a lovely sacred beast might emerge about 500 years earlier than scheduled.]
[SYSTEM | ‘Hatching Seilun’s Egg’ (0/100)]
“What’s this?”
“It’s supposed to be an incubator. I’m not sure if it will actually hatch, but I’m going to try.”
Sian seemed interested in the incubator I was holding and hovered around me.
After watching for a while, he suddenly said:
“That’s a treasure of our imperial family.”
“What?”
“This pattern symbolizes our Obedih.”
He picked up the entire incubator with the egg inside and examined it as he spoke.
“It was originally created to protect homunculi or sacred beasts born prematurely, but it seems it became known as an incubator in later generations.”
Actually, it had become known as a jewelry box, but I decided not to mention that.
“I didn’t know that. No wonder it looked good.”
By the way, I was told it was an ancient item, but I didn’t expect it to date back to the era of the ancient destruction.
I picked up the incubator preciously holding Seilun’s egg to examine it more carefully.
“Where did you get it?”
“Do you know the Duke Hellis family? When the demonic beast appeared there, I helped them, and they gave this as a gift to show their gratitude.”
“I see.”
Sian’s eyebrows shot up and then down.
“You know about the chaos in the capital, right? I had a lot of trouble with incidents happening even before launching ‘Lu & Cream.'”
As I spoke with a sigh, Sian’s expression became subtle. He looked at me with an enigmatic face and then smiled.
“Indeed. Fortunately, it seems you’ve resolved everything well.”
“Yes.”
“You should have asked for help. I could have helped you.”
“…”
Hmm.
Given that the person I met at the launch party was the princess, and I had witnessed her walking with Sian, should I really? When everything is so suspicious?
“Forget it if you don’t want to.”
Sian said this as he placed his hand on the incubator. He seemed to be reciting a short prayer. When he removed his hand, a familiar notification appeared.
[SYSTEM | ‘Hatching Seilun’s Egg’ (21/100)]
That’s incredible speed!
Even though Sian is suspicious, he doesn’t seem like a bad person after all. I asked with sparkling eyes.
“How did you do that?”
Sian laughed as soon as my question ended. It was his habitual laugh, so I instinctively stepped back.
“Irina always notices what I’ve done right away.”
“…”
“Does God tell you these things too?”
“Who knows.”
I laughed and quickly hugged the incubator to my chest.
How scary. I should leave quickly.
As I was about to say, ‘Well then…’ and depart, Sian said:
“Irina. It would be better to be careful of Princess Jackmüller.”
“What?”
“And don’t go around alone. Stay close to Cassis Luwin.”
I was about to leave the room but turned back to look at Sian with a blank expression. However, he didn’t seem inclined to provide any further explanation.
He simply lay down on the couch as if bothered.
* * *
“I should have talked about this earlier, but here I am only discussing it now.”
“Yes, because of Marquis Cloi.”
The current situation might appear as though we brilliantly defeated Marquis Cloi, who tried to frame Luwin, and successfully launched ‘Lu & Cream,’ bringing in enormous profits.
But the truth is different.
Although our daily sales are as high as 10,000 jurang! And with the best condition of not having to pay rent! But the amount we have to repay is too large.
Moreover, as I happily kept paying off the debt little by little, the system kept warning me.
[SYSTEM | Paying off the debt is a necessary condition.]
[SYSTEM | Please also prevent the empire’s destruction!]
Of course, seeing this made me feel a bit scammed.
[SYSTEM | ‘Lu & Cream’s’ daily sales are currently 10,000 jurang, but how long will that last?]
“…”
[SYSTEM | The remaining debt is 99,830,112 jurang.]
‘I couldn’t repay this selling only ice cream even if I died trying.’
That’s the situation.
So inevitably, I had to think about the demonic beasts that had become the cause of destruction.
After all, we still know very little about demonic beasts. Moreover, the humanoid demonic beast escaped, and we don’t know its whereabouts.
So we gathered to understand this phenomenon, but we moved to Luwin because the security at the capital mansion wasn’t good enough.
“Although the Emperor went along with it, it was ultimately my uncle who took action. However, I wonder if Marquis Cloi is the kind of person who could orchestrate something of this magnitude.”
Cassis’s words certainly make sense. Is it really just Marquis Cloi’s doing?
“What kind of life form is the demonic beast really? Why did it suddenly appear that day? How is it that the timing was so perfect for ‘Lu & Cream’ and ice cream to be suspected? There are many suspicious circumstances.”
I nodded along with Cassis.
“That’s right. If the demonic beast appeared for an unknown reason, Marquis Cloi might have simply framed us according to the situation.”
“But what if the appearance of the demonic beast at that precise moment was part of Marquis Cloi’s calculation?”
I looked at Cassis, who was raising a legitimate question.
“Then it becomes a very big problem.”
Roen continued, placing a pile of materials he had prepared on the table.
“Unfortunately… it seems like it will be a very big problem.”
“Why?”
“I couldn’t tell you in the capital because I didn’t know how words might leak, but Marquis Cloi has been entering and leaving the imperial palace regularly.”
“Not to meet the Emperor?”
“No. There’s no record of him having an audience with the Emperor.”
Cassis frowned.
“Then who did he meet?”
“And there’s something else I learned from Duke Hellis about the situation in the mansion—unfamiliar objects were found in various places.”
Saying this, Roen handed several documents to Cassis.
What could they be?
When I peeked beside Cassis, he lowered the documents to make them easier for me to see. I stood on tiptoe to check.
“Very small… plaster figurines?”
“To be precise, they are twin statues of Arschen and Idelbach.”
I didn’t know that.
[I’m disappointed in you.]
[The symbol with our faces drawn on both sides is an iconic symbol, you know.]
Hmm. Out of guilt, I pretended not to hear the system and focused on the documents again.
So these small statues were scattered throughout the mansion.
It was impossible not to be suspicious.
Marquis Cloi, who kept visiting the imperial palace; Sian Terezia, who had meetings with the princess; and Sian’s warning to me about the princess.
