Chapter 54: Confirmed as the Maker of Blue Lake.

The citrine, cut into a 74-facet Asscher cut to secure more brilliance than the 58-facet Brilliant cut, showed depth and transparency at the same time.

It’s a cutting that utilizes the characteristics of quartz, which has almost no inclusions.

The melee diamonds wrapping around the citrine, which looks square when viewed from the front, in a three-dimensional way, contain protection magic.

Although there is also a protection magic circle on the brooch of the Dime Viscountcy’s successor, not many people will realize it’s the same magic circle.

Because I hid the magic circle within a design pattern.

I made the necklace chain using small pieces that fell off in the process of cutting the raw stone to make the main stone.

They were reprocessed uniformly to 0.2-carat weight and then set with prong settings.

Even if they came from the same raw stone, the color couldn’t be uniform, so I arranged them to become gradually darker from the center outward.

Overall, it became a very voluminous shape, perfectly suited for her, who is accustomed to authority.

Unlike the successor of the Dime family, who commissioned a majestic design but actually wasn’t used to the weight pressured by the family and couldn’t hide her inner desire to escape from it, Duchess Mare knew how to skillfully manage the prestige she must have learned from the moment she burst into her first cry as a member of the royal family.

“As requested, I imbued the main stone with flash magic.”

Before I could finish my explanation, I saw her lips move.

I hurriedly closed my eyes and bowed my head.

Even through closed eyelids, I felt explosive light bursting.

Aack!

One of the maids let out a short scream, perhaps unprepared.

Even though I informed them in advance that flash magic was imbued.

“…Excellent.”

After enough time passed for the afterimage of light to disappear, Duchess Mare praised me in a monotonous voice.

It felt like the most sincere compliment a royal, educated not to reveal honest emotions, could give.

“The raw stone was excellent.”

Duchess Mare probably asked me to imbue a basic magic circle into the citrine with the intention of testing me, but it worked as a favorable factor for me.

Although easy to overlook because it’s a common mineral, quartz is an extremely excellent medium for magic.

The characteristic of vibrating constantly when voltage is applied to both ends, which is good for use in watches, is one example.

Having almost no inclusions and the property of transmitting power constantly are good conditions for amplifying magic.

Although it’s regrettable that the limit mana capacity is small compared to weight due to weak hardness, and the probability of breaking is high when implanting complex magic circles.

Still, the effect of a single magic circle like flash magic can be exerted better than diamond.

As I cut it minimizing the loss of the raw stone, the limit capacity is also generous enough not to be a problem.

This work, starting from cutting the raw stone rather than setting utilizing an already magic circle-implanted main stone and adding only auxiliary magic, was more meaningful to me as well.

Since it’s practically studying with someone else’s money.

“The magic circle is excellent, but the necklace itself is beautiful. Even if it had no magical effect, I would have worn it around my neck at least once.”

Dryly acknowledging the fact that she liked the necklace, the Duchess rang the bell placed on the table.

It was a prearranged signal.

Soon the door opened and someone who looked like a housekeeper entered.

Duchess Mare conveyed the already decided order to her just by nodding her head.

“Ah.”

Just before the housekeeper left the door, Duchess Mare stopped her as if realizing belatedly.

“Take that child and let her rest.”

She said pointing at the maid who was still blinking her eyes, perhaps because the vision blurred by the flash hadn’t returned completely yet.

I knew.

That I wouldn’t see her again in this room.

Testing those she keeps by her side seemed to be her habit.

The maid who got to keep her place showed neither regret for the one leaving nor a sense of victory that she remained.

I also turned my gaze away from her soon.

“Please wait a moment.”

Duchess Mare spoke to me in a casual voice soon after.

It seems I also passed her test.

“Would you give me a hint while we’re at it?”

At the question, the Duchess just stared at me quietly.

“It’s a bit of a waste of time to just let it flow by. Several ideas come to mind, so if you tell me the color and type of the gem, I will be sketching.”

With a pfft sound, her lips tilted to one side.

I know it might look like bluffing, but seeing her wearing the necklace I made, there really were several images coming to mind.

“As you wish. Next is diamond.”

As permission like ‘try it if you can’ fell, I took out a notebook slightly larger than my palm and a pen from my bag.

Drawing lines quickly as if doing croquis, I captured images already trying to evaporate.

Even when I finished sketching the sensations that came to mind and raised my head, she was still staring at me.

“You are undoubtedly the creator of Blue Lake.”

However, interest that wasn’t there until just a moment ago appeared in her eyes.

“Isn’t that a fact you already know?”

As I said putting the notebook on the table, her eyes pointed at my watch.

Not with a coveting look, but with a look telling me to check.

“I apologize.”

I didn’t need to check the watch.

The moment I discovered an unfamiliar figure sitting next to her, I could realize the fact that I made the customers wait.

“Since it’s something I permitted, there’s no need to apologize.”

“Thank you.”

Duchess Mare let me hear her laughter for the first time.

I don’t know what part of my answer tailored to the customer’s needs was so funny, but if the customer liked it, that’s enough.

“Making my daughter wait is certainly something to apologize for, but thanks to that, we witnessed the moment a genius receives inspiration, so it’s fine. I’m satisfied.”

“Since I am not a genius, it is certainly something to apologize for. I apologize, Your Excellency the Little Duchess.”

As far as I knew, Duchess Mare’s daughter would be five years old now.

However, the girl sitting in a posture exactly resembling her mother possessed an atmosphere that made one hesitate to call her a child.

“Mother said you are a genius, so you must be a genius. Apologizing to me is rather against etiquette.”

The Little Duchess seemed three or four years older not only in appearance but also in eloquence.

Apart from knowing how to handle authority skillfully, she resembled Duchess Mare, who is a delicate Omega herself in appearance only, very much yet also looked completely different.

Duchess Mare looked at her daughter with proud eyes.

Just like when she looked in the mirror wearing the citrine necklace.

Although I can’t confirm because I turned off the pheromone detection function of the watch, the Little Duchess seemed to have already manifested as an Alpha.

A next generation manifesting as an Alpha at an early age, born from a collateral royal while the King still has no heir.

Duchess Mare was the King’s Brother’s cousin who made the King anxious with the news of giving birth to a child.

“As Diane says, I like your skill, so don’t be falsely modest.”

I bowed silently to Duchess Mare giving a rebuke that wasn’t really a rebuke, but only the Little Duchess’s name remained in my head, not her words acknowledging me.

‘Diane’ was the name of the former Queen.

The Queen who lived long enough to pass the throne to her grandson, not her son.

Certainly, there were blemishes and mistakes in her era.

The Portus naval battle, which made Henia step back in the competition in the New Continent, also happened in her era.

However, she was also the one who rebuilt the navy and revived the economy afterward.

Especially in the latter part of her reign, prosperity continued.

The low approval rating for the current King was partly due to Queen Diane’s popularity being so high.

Even now, well over 10 years since the current King’s reign began, many missed Queen Diane.

Even Nathan, seventeen this year, who was a snot-nosed kid during Queen Diane’s reign, once grumbled, “They say it was livable in the Queen’s era.”

For me, who practically has almost no memories before realizing life as Han Jay, it’s hard to empathize, but Queen Diane was a symbol of ‘good times.’

Whether that actually existed or not.

Giving such a Queen’s name to her daughter showed Duchess Mare’s ambition and boldness.

One could say she just named her after someone she respects, but even so, it’s certain she won’t be able to receive ‘affection’ from the current King.

“Although it’s a fact not yet officially announced.”

When Duchess Mare started speaking, I expressed the meaning ‘I will not tell the story I hear now anywhere’ by nodding instead of making a voice.

A satisfied expression appeared briefly on her lips and disappeared.

“A victory ceremony will be held in two months.”

I had to try hard not to let any change occur in my expression.

Duchess Mare’s maid approached and put down a box containing gems on the table, but my eyes were looking at a place much farther than that.

Victory ceremony.

It meant the war in the New Continent ended in Henia’s victory.

So, the King’s Brother, Philius is returning soon.