‘Of course, that doesn’t mean I can relax yet.’

Starting with Ravi, I’m surrounded by hidden hazards.

“So, about that—I want to give you a reward.”

“A reward?”

“If there’s something you want, say it. You brought me what I’ve longed for all this time, so whatever it is... I’ll sell off my entire fortune if I have to.”

‘His entire fortune!’

He obviously doesn’t mean he’ll literally spend every last coin. He’s telling me not to be constrained by money and to ask for what I want.

‘Should I really ask for money?’

Ask him to cut me off a chunk of his assets?

I couldn’t not think it over. In a situation where I don’t know what will happen later, what I need most is money.

To run from this place and settle somewhere else, above all I need funds.

‘But I can’t outright ask for cash.’

That would look tacky. I could end up shattering the trust I’ve barely managed to stack up.

As I hesitated, something popped into Camilla’s sight as if by fate.

By the Duke of Sorpel’s chair, a small side table had a stack of documents.

And the document on the very top of that stack...

“That one.”

“That one?”

The Duke of Sorpel’s eyes widened a fraction. The paper she pointed to was the last thing he expected.

“Camilla.”

“Yes.”

“Do you even know what this is and you’re asking for it?”

“It’s a mine.”

“...That’s right.”

“Did I ask for something too big?”

At her worried question, the Duke of Sorpel shook his head at once.

“Of course not. A mine of this scale, I can give you as many as you want.”

He’d said he’d buy her anything she wanted even by selling his entire fortune; surely he could bestow a single mine. The problem lay elsewhere.

“I say this because the ore that comes out of here isn’t particularly useful.”

This was the very ore the Duke of Jevillan had recently come about, suggesting they study uses for it together.

He’d bought the mine thinking it was a gold mine, but now it was spitting out worthless rock.

Sensing mana, they’d commissioned the Magic Tower, but the reply was that it had no commercial value at all.

And now Camilla was asking for that mine.

Giving it wasn’t the issue; awarding a useless mine as a prize was awkward.

“I’ll give you a different mine. How about the ruby mine in the northwest?”

“No, Father.”

Camilla shook her head quickly. She was trying to act as if nothing were unusual, but in her hurry the answer came out too fast.

Forcing down her jitters, Camilla smiled.

“I want to study it.”

“Study it?”

“It’s an ore that doesn’t have a use yet. I want to develop it.”

“Hm.”

The Duke of Sorpel looked at Camilla with a touch of surprise.

So she hadn’t asked blindly just because it was a mine—she already knew exactly what that mine was.

“Is that not acceptable?”

[Mrr?]

The Duke of Sorpel didn’t answer for a moment.

Somehow the Guardian perched on his daughter’s shoulder, blinking at him, looked strangely like Camilla.

“There’s no reason it wouldn’t be.”

Yes!

At his permission, Camilla cheered inwardly.

*****

“Waa—!”

It’s a pile of money!

Camilla grinned as she looked at the sample ore she’d received.

[Do you even know what that is, to be that happy?]

[It just looks like a black stone.]

[You go and get sick and then... tch.]

Hersel, the butler ghost Derrin, and the chef ghost Ferrol stared at her with baffled eyes.

She’d been clutching a black stone and grinning for a while; anyone would think she wasn’t in her right mind.

“What this is, you see—”

[Well? What is it?]

[Do you truly know what that is?]

“Mmm...”

Pressed by the ghosts, Camilla only deepened her smile and didn’t answer easily. Only after quite a while did she speak.

“A mana stone.”

[A mana stone?]

[Impossible. The Duke already inquired with the Magic Tower about that ore.]

The conclusion had been that the mana within the ore was so scant that it couldn’t be used even as a low-grade mana stone.

“That’s because he only asked the Magic Tower.”

[What?]

[What are you saying? If you don’t appraise a mana stone at the Magic Tower, where would you?]

“The Magic Tower doesn’t have Black Mages.”

Mages are divided into White Mages and Black Mages.

Those at the Magic Tower are all White Mages; the mages people commonly imagine mostly belong there.

‘And Black Mages.’

Because the very method by which they handle mana differs from White Mages, in the past the mood was to shun and ignore them. Now, they’re recognized as a principal pillar in leading magic.

But that’s all. The Magic Tower still hesitates to accept Black Mages as their own.

As the subtle exclusion continued, Black Mages ended up forming an organization of their own entirely. They drew a line between themselves and the Tower.

‘Which is the problem...’

To properly use this ore—the ore she just obtained from the Duke of Sorpel—what’s needed is precisely the unique mana Black Mages possess.

“It’s an ore that doesn’t respond at all to the mana of White Mages.”

With Black Mages’ mana, however, the situation changes.

‘It becomes a top-grade mana stone.’

It shows an extremely strong reaction to the unique mana Black Mages carry and transforms into an ore that exerts more power than any mana stone on the continent.

‘And once purified, White Mages can use it too!’

Ore purified by the power of Black Mages strongly responds to White Mages’ mana as well.

In short, as long as you have Black Mages, this ore becomes the greatest treasure on the continent.

A ruby mine? A diamond mine? No thanks!

“Ehehehe...!”

[...]

[...]

[...]

As Camilla gazed at the ore again and let out a strange laugh, the three ghosts slowly shook their heads.

“Oh, right!”

A moment later, Camilla remembered something she’d forgotten and set the ore down. Her gaze turned to Hersel standing there.

“Sir Hersel.”

[Hm?]

“Even while I was out of it, there was something I heard clearly.”

[What was that?]

Skk.

Camilla held both hands out politely.

“You said you had something to give me.”

****

[Aaagh!]

[I’m not due to die yet!]

Same as ever here.

The place Camilla came to was the national cemetery—the place she’d visited before to meet Hersel.

‘What in the world is he going to give me?’

As thanks for finding the Guardian’s egg, Hersel had asked her to come here to receive something.

Passing quickly through the place still filled with wailing ghosts, Camilla headed for Hersel’s grave.

[You’ve come.]

“You could’ve just come with me. Why’d you come ahead?”

They’d been together as recently as this morning, and yet he had come here first to meet her; Camilla looked at him with a look that said she couldn’t believe it.

“Why did you tell me to come here?”

In nobles’ graves, costly items the deceased cherished in life are sometimes buried with them. There are even professional grave-robbers who deliberately seek such goods to sell.

Hersel had specifically told her to come to the graves to give her something; Camilla eyed him suspiciously.

Surely he’s not planning to turn me into a grave-robber?

[This way.]

Hersel led Camilla to the back side of the standing headstone.

[Dig here.]

“I refuse.”

This ghost, seriously!

She’d feared as much, and at his words to dig behind the headstone, Camilla immediately took a step back from him.

“I may have a beggarly reputation, but I don’t care to be called the woman who even stole things from her ancestor’s grave.”

[What are you imagining?]

Hersel looked at ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) Camilla in disbelief and let out a short sigh.

[I’m not telling you to dig up the grave. I’m telling you to dig here.]

Camilla looked where Hersel pointed. There was nothing there.

[Just dig!]

He shouted as if exasperated, and she gave him a sideways glare.

With no spade, what am I supposed to dig with! If you’d given me notice, I’d have brought tools!

With a short sigh, Camilla took off her heels yet again and grabbed them. Pointed pumps have been surprisingly useful lately.

Thock, thock!

The ground was softer than expected and turned over easily.

“Hm?”

She didn’t even have to dig deep. Before long, she found something peculiar.

“What is this?”

A seed?

The shape was unmistakably a seed.

But from the little seed the size of a fingernail, a faint light was leaking out. Could this be another Guardian’s egg?

[Medicine.]

“Medicine? This?”

[An antidotal medicine.]

“Why would...?”

Medicine by a grave? And an antidote, at that—she couldn’t quite understand why such a thing would be buried here.

[You’ve heard how I died, haven’t you.]

“You were poisoned. At the Imperial Palace.”

[You say it so casually in front of the person it happened to.]

“What’s the point of pretense.”

Setting that aside.

“So what?”

[A very virulent poison.]

‘Figures.’

If it killed a Master in an instant, how deadly must it have been.

[My body kept fighting the poison even after death.]

“What?”

That’s absurd...

Camilla stared at him, dumbfounded. Hersel, looking equally wry, continued.

[The energy of my body—of a former Master—kept fighting that poison, very diligently, albeit belatedly. Until it rotted away.]

And you watched that?

Camilla slowly shook her head.

It was horrific just to imagine. With what thoughts did he watch his own body decay?

[That is the result.]

Thup.

Without meaning to, Camilla dropped the seed from her hand to the ground. Hearing it had originated from a corpse made her reluctant to touch it.

[Hey, that’s precious—!]

“What exactly is it?”

[It’s the product containing all of my energy, purified against poison.]

Even more unsettling.

With a short sigh, Camilla picked up the seed-shaped crystal she’d dropped.

“You’re saying this is medicine?”

[It will neutralize almost any poison. If taken in advance, you’ll never suffer poisoning in your lifetime.]

“Ah. Right.”

Camilla’s expression as she answered remained distinctly unenthusiastic.

She had met countless deaths until now, but not once had she died from poison. She had no idea what she was supposed to use this for.