Chapter 4
“…How could I protect anyone with legs like these?”
But he quickly wiped the surprised expression off his face and spoke with self-deprecation.
His voice sounded a little hollow.
“Albus, actually, I had a dream.”
I said seriously.
“A dream…?”
“They say there’s an incredibly precious diamond here. If we can get it, all our debts will be cleared. Then nobody has to suffer anymore.”
I added gloomily, like a discouraged child.
“Because I want you, Grandpa, and all my uncles to be healthy… and for the uncles to come back from the war…”
The Albus I remembered had a rough demeanor and a striking way of speaking.
Maybe because he was a former mercenary, he had an unruly air that made it hard to believe he was the replacement for a composed chamberlain.
“…For our sake?”
And surprisingly, he was someone quite sensitive.
“Yeah. A beautiful lady with the same pink hair and green eyes as me told me in the dream. She said I had to go for sure.”
I added a convincing reason with effort.
‘It’s totally absurd, but…’
There was no choice.
If I was going to step up to save the family, I needed a reason this ridiculous.
“Pink hair… and green eyes?”
“Yeah. Pale skin… Oh! And she had a beauty mark! Under her right eye.”
“…Could it be Lady Evelyn?”
Fortunately, Albus reacted exactly how I wanted.
That’s right.
Pink hair and green eyes.
Evelyn Altad.
That was my original name before I died.
‘Come to think of it, this body only has a different eye color from mine.’
“Lady Evelyn must have been so wronged…”
Albus muttered quietly, brushing his dry eyes with his hand and sniffing.
“It didn’t feel like just a dream. So let’s just take a look.”
Albus rolled his eyes, clearly hesitating, so I stared at him with determination.
“I’m not going back until I find it!!”
When I screeched like I was about to throw myself on the ground, he finally nodded reluctantly.
“…Alright.”
Albus limped over and picked me up.
Looks like he finally felt like helping.
And so, quite some time passed.
“My Lady, look. It’s an aurora.”
When I followed his gaze, the sky was filled with a beautiful multicolored curtain of light.
“That! We have to follow it!”
“Sorry? How would you follow an aurora…”
“No, look, it has an end! We follow that light. The lady in my dream told me to follow it!”
It was a phenomenon that appeared for about an hour when the moon aligned perfectly with the mountaintop.
And this light had a starting point.
If we followed it to its origin…
“Found it!”
There was the treasure I had been searching for.
Albus’s mouth fell open.
“…The light…”
He looked utterly shocked.
And for good reason.
The light of the aurora that filled the sky was all originating from here.
“Amazing, right? This stone creates auroras when it’s touched by moonlight. And…”
I grinned and pulled Albus closer.
He followed my lead and placed his hand on the largest boulder.
His eyes widened.
“This is… a diamond?”
“Yup.”
And it was an unbelievably large raw stone.
For a raw gem to emit this kind of light—once it was cut, it would shine with even more beautiful auroras.
“I’m going to put this up for auction.”
I gave the biggest diamond a pat with my palm.
“…Excuse me?”
“I’m calling it the Aurora Diamond. I’ll just put the biggest one up for now.”
And that wasn’t all.
There were at least dozens more similar-looking stones all around us.
Albus collapsed to the ground, folding his hands together.
“Oh, dear God… No, Lady Evelyn…”
He placed a hand on the massive raw gem and began to cry.
‘Thank goodness that silly rumor about Rogas Mountain is still going around.’
No one would come here this late at night, especially not this deep into the mountain.
The mountain used to be infested with monsters, so people avoided it. That’s why it hadn’t been discovered yet.
‘Of course, in Part 2, the new protagonist who doesn’t care about rumors ends up discovering it…’
They stole the credit, but so what?
I was on the brink of starving to death.
“Albus, let’s dig this up and take it with us.”
“Y-Yes, ma’am!”
That night, we dug through the frozen earth until morning.
And we descended the mountain with a giant raw gem the size of an adult man’s upper body.
＊ ＊ ＊
Albus carried the young duke on his back and clutched the huge gem to his chest as he walked.
Limp. Limp.
‘This isn’t a dream… is it?’
He pinched his cheek several times, remembering the sting of pain.
Limp. Limp.
When he was a child, he’d been beaten so badly that the immature bones in his knee had been knocked out of place and never properly healed.
When the Altad Grand Duchy was purged, the chamberlain who had taken him in—and most of the loyalists—were killed.
Any retainers or families tied to Altad couldn’t escape misfortune.
Many died. Many turned their backs. Many fled.
The heroic house that once saved the nation from monster invasions and beast hordes had been ruined overnight.
A fading, forgotten, and vanishing family.
Now the Altad family was buried under debt, barely surviving on the pity, tolerance, and malice of others.
Long ago, when the Altads had nothing except their reputation and title, there was a girl who rebuilt the disgraced house that others mocked as shabby and pitiful.
Evelyn Altad.
She was the first to be executed at the time of the purge.
Beheaded by the guillotine…
She was the one who was supposed to become his master.
“Albus? Whoa, you look great in formalwear! I’ll be counting on you to take care of our house. I’m terrible at managing the mansion, so I’ll need a lot of your help.”
The girl who smiled so brightly never even got to see him officially become her chamberlain.
‘Has her soul really returned…?’
Otherwise, how could this young duke, barely born, describe the exact same features of a person no one remembered anymore?
And if all those glowing stones from earlier really were diamonds…
‘Maybe we can finally pay off that endless mountain of debt…’
For the first time in decades, hope stirred in Albus’s heart, and he struggled to suppress it like a child.
He quickened his steps a little more.
＊ ＊ ＊
We had left late in the evening, but by the time we returned to the mansion, it was early morning. The moment I stepped inside, something felt off.
As I tilted my head in confusion, sharp-eyed Albus set me down and pointed to a luxurious carriage parked near the mansion.
“A carriage…?”
“Yes.”
“The Finance Guild.”
Judging by the crest emblazoned on the carriage, it was clearly from the Imperial Financial Association.
“You recognize it?”
“Uh-huh. I’ve studied a bit…”
The Evelyn in my memories was illiterate, but I just bluffed my way through.
“But why is the Finance Guild here?”
“The acting Duke’s health has deteriorated so much that, for the past few years, he’s entrusted our finances to the Guild. There’s no one left in the mansion who can manage it…”
He trailed off, turning his head with a somber expression.
‘Most of them were purged, and the survivors are fighting monsters on the frontlines.’
I retraced the memories that came to mind.
“Actually, we owe them quite a bit in late service fees, so they might be here to terminate the contract this time.”
“Let’s go.”
“…Excuse me?”
“I have to tell them we’ll repay the debt. The Finance Guild’s reputable, right?”
Conveniently, I’d been wondering how to sell the raw gem through auction. This was perfect timing.
I headed straight for the drawing room.
