Chapter 84: Wearing his Color.

The King might be very angry right now.

He had pushed as hard as he could to speed up the generals’ return.

The fact that the return ships had to go through a rough route to avoid the typhoon and that the voyage time would be extended because of it is only a secondary problem for him.

He couldn’t declare victory immediately. Because to do so, he would have to arrange an official event and put forward the King’s Brother, the Commander-in-Chief, as the representative of the military.

It must be the situation the King wants to avoid the most.

“Short message transmitters may not function properly on rocking ships.”

The eyes of Philius explaining this twinkled with mischief. So I could find the hidden meaning in his words.

“So you mean he can’t receive the King’s communications?”

“Correct, the King’s communications.”

It meant the generals on the ship had sufficient justification to pretend not to see the King’s hysterical urging.

Conversely, it meant Philius had a means to communicate with them.

Since communication with the generals wasn’t smooth, it could be considered that there was nothing more the King could do in this matter.

Except for criticizing the Prime Minister for cowardly attacking while the generals were at sea. And only unofficially at that.

Philius had no intention of attacking the King directly yet. He was waiting for more definite evidence to drop the King into a hole hard to escape from.

However, Duchess Mare, as a member of the royal family and a shareholder of the mines, wouldn’t just let this opportunity pass.

She would also actively use the media.

I felt like a mastermind disturbing state affairs by mobilizing secret powers.

In reality, it was nothing more than sprinkling a little bit of salt, not even chili powder.

Still, I had to complete the necklace during the time earned this way.

So that even if someone visits this mansion or if I have to leave this place, no one would notice that the recessive Omega next to Philius is actually Jay, the jeweler who was a Beta, and who manifested as a dominant Omega.

Looking at the large blue diamond raw stone, I laughed a little. Once, looking at his eyes, I had thought of a blue diamond.

Actually, it was the first time designing an accessory for myself. Although it was actually an item to hide me, that’s why I had to make it with my own hands even more.

Honestly, I was at a loss. If it’s a one-of-a-kind design, it should be tailored strictly to the wearer, but this time, that wearer was none other than myself.

Choosing the raw stone wasn’t easy.

Looking at my face, still somewhat unfamiliar, in the mirror for a long time didn’t bring up an answer.

I had postponed picking up the pen with the excuse of estivation.

I couldn’t know my own taste.

But the moment I heard the news that the King finally made the generals return, the moment I heard he was aiming for just before Philius’s Rut begins, the moment I saw his calm blue eyes, I knew what I should make.

So this was his color. I intend to put a necklace made of Philius’s color around my neck.

Although it’s an embarrassing story to confess to him.

I glanced at where Philius was sitting. Our eyes met at that very moment.

I quickly turned my head and put the loupe on my right eye. His low laughter was heard.

****

“How was the work at the jewelry shop?”

Paul was awkward for a moment at my question.

It wasn’t because my slightly changed appearance felt newly awkward, as I was the one who taught him the basics about gems for the past few days.

Nor was he hesitating because he didn’t know in what tone to answer me.

Where his wavering eyes headed was the place where Philius was sitting. It seemed he still hadn’t gotten used to him being in this workshop.

Even though the number of times he saw Philius here was the same as the number of times Paul came to this workshop.

The situation of having to report to me, not him, also seemed unfamiliar.

Still, Paul soon suppressed his agitation and answered with a vigorously smiling face.

“It was a bit hard because there were so many things I didn’t know yet, but the new manager and Nathan helped me a lot.”

Paul was just put into the field after barely learning basic matters over a few days.

If it were someone else, far from helping the manager or Nathan’s work, it would have been fortunate not to be a hindrance.

But he said the manager and Nathan helped a lot. It meant there were customers he handled directly.

“It was interesting because the customer base was wider than I thought.”

High-ranking nobles are not our only customers.

As gems are essential materials for magic, people from more diverse classes than expected visited the jewelry shop.

“There must be many people Paul already knows.”

“Yes, it really was so.”

Understandable.

It seems he sold items properly to people he met like that. Paul not only had a wide network but also had a good memory.

He didn’t forget conversations once shared, and when he met them again next time, he would ask about those matters.

It wasn’t calculating meddling but natural goodwill coming from his kind nature.

“And Nathan entrusted a letter to me.”

“Indeed, Paul.”

Although I sent a note via him saying I quit working for the time being but am doing well, and to tell Paul if there’s anything special to inform.

But Nathan entrusting a letter to Paul, whom he spent only a single day with, was quite unexpected.

Having grown up in an environment where he had to suspect everything, his wariness was very high, but Paul broke down even Nathan’s wariness quickly.

At a glance, one might think he has the qualities of a spy, but since it’s an affinity Paul can exert because he is that honest and has no ulterior motives, he wasn’t suitable for deceiving others.

Looking at the quite thoroughly sealed envelope, I almost laughed inwardly.

Instead of untying the knots woven in a quite complex way one by one, I cut them with scissors and took out the contents.

Quite neat handwriting caught my eye.

The sentences repeatedly asking if I’m really doing well contained regret and suspicion intact.

The words saying he worried if I might have been harmed by scammers were a deduction quite close to the truth.

There was also a sentence saying Paul seems like a good person.

Other than that, there was a page full of stories about Sammy and the kids.

The sentence saying the brats always cause trouble and give him a headache finally made me laugh out loud.

After reading the letter to the end, I smiled at Paul.

“Thank you for your hard work. I won’t do separate lessons today. Rest comfortably.”

Paul’s complexion brightened noticeably.

No matter how much he likes new things, doing practical work in a field he’s not confident in yet couldn’t be easy.

“Then I will take my leave now.”

The moment Paul left and the workshop door closed, the smile I was maintaining relaxed.

“What is it?”

Philius’s voice also sounded not light.

I handed him Nathan’s letter.

The last paragraph, starting with words saying he doesn’t know if it’s news helpful to me, informed of Alea’s death.

Alea. A self-made man for a Beta.

A person with an innate talent for making money, earning big money with gambling houses by connecting even to the Prime Minister, and earning even bigger through speculation when the gambling business became precarious pushed by Philius’s organization Teneb.

But fellow Betas couldn’t like him either. Since he himself, who named himself in the Old Empire style, excluded Betas.

“It was precarious from the moment he stepped forward to buy Viscount Pera’s mansion.”

Failing to control that overflowing desire for ostentation eventually drove him to death. It would have been the trigger for the Prime Minister, who was already a discriminator against Betas, to completely let go of his hand.

Even if he gained a new collaborator called the King’s Brother, the Prime Minister wasn’t someone to cut off a profitable relationship carelessly.

But for a mere Beta to dare covet the noble’s territory was clearly an act crossing the line.

“He died in the hospital.”

“Since they said he suffered severe trauma, surviving there would have been a miracle.”

It was said he seemed to have suffered terrible assault. Alea, treated as having no family because he was unconscious, seemed to have died slowly neglected in a corner of that filthy hospital.

Those guarding his house searched the Beta district thoroughly due to the owner’s absence continuing for several days and eventually found his traces, but it was after he had already died.

Nathan’s news was that the guards even found a witness who saw Viscount Pera’s son in front of the hospital.

For nobles, it would be a trivial story. Viscount Pera who couldn’t hand over the historic mansion to a Beta’s hand no matter how fallen the family was.

The market price of the mansion fell further because a Beta coveted it.

Young blood trying to punish the Beta who dared to look down on them. An obvious development and an obvious ending.

This obvious ending, like what a villain in a morning drama eventually faces, took away my laughter.

Not that I harbored personal sentiments about his death. Nor did I feel guilty because of his indirect connection with Philius.

What I felt was bitterness stemming from rather selfish reasons. No matter how greedy a capitalist Alea was, trying to buy a house put up for sale itself couldn’t be a sin. His sin was that he was a Beta. His desire to dare live like a noble without knowing his place was the sin.

“I should speed up the work.”

I am neither a Beta nor a noble. The reason Philius works with me in the workshop isn’t just because we are lovers who have just started showing our hearts to each other. It was to protect me.

My safety was maintained solely because of him.

The face of the person keeping a secret even while damaging the country’s treasure for 20 years came to mind briefly. An unrealistic, inhuman face.

The blue diamond shone.