CHAPTER 25
The moment I stepped outside, my whole body was engulfed in a blinding light.
That light was coming from my bag—the same warning-labeled bag I had been holding up to shield my head from falling debris.
What the…?
Bewildered, I opened the bag.
Among the cash, coins, and various personal items, one object was emitting a dazzling glow.
A piece of wood. A sample of maple walnut lumber I had barely obtained after spending a hundred million on those nuisance Elf cult fanatics. It looked strange.
What is this?
Squinting, I pulled the wood piece out.
At that moment, the glow shot out in all directions like a laser show. And the earthquake suddenly stopped.
“…?”
A low humming sound echoed from somewhere.
It morphed into a gentle humming, like a mother cradling a baby, and then turned into a song.
Not a song by some fake Elf cult—but a real, beautiful, and mysterious melody, as if sung by true Elves.
The melody painted a picture before my eyes.
An ancient forest bathed in sunlight filtering through moss-covered trees. There, the wooden piece in my hand slowly began to change.
“Huh?”
Startled, I looked down.
The smooth surface of the maple walnut wood writhed. Intricate vine patterns—far too elaborate for any worldly craftsmanship—rose from it.
Everything intertwined organically, converging toward the center. The light the wood had been emitting was also sucked into the middle.
Eventually, all that remained was a thin line at the center where everything had gathered… then that line split open with a flash.
A clear, translucent emerald opened wide like an eye and revealed itself.
In that instant, a verse from the previously unintelligible song suddenly flowed into my ears with clear meaning:
“O covenant from the ancient days…”
Boom.
A powerful tremor swallowed the song, and the faintly quivering ground fell still.
What just happened?
I barely managed to collect myself.
The strange distortion in the space had returned to normal.
“Royal Aunt!”
I called out, but there was no answer.
“Are you all right? Royal Aunt!”
Clutching the piece of wood, I ran down the corridor. Then I saw someone standing tall in the palace hall.
But it wasn’t my aunt. It was an elderly man with white hair.
Huh?
As I got closer, he looked familiar. And when I saw his face, I was shocked.
“You… the old man?”
The stubborn old owner of the lumber shop—the one I wrestled over the contract with. No doubt about it.
What was he doing here?
“Ha ha ha…”
He laughed loudly, tilting his head back as soon as he saw me.
Behind him, something appeared. A wall of illusions, like a display of surveillance monitors.
Each screen showed someone collapsed in various parts of the palace.
They were the S-Class, A-Class, and B-Class merchants who had participated in the competition.
I was horrified.
“Wait—did you kill them?”
“Yes,” the old man replied.
But then, he immediately added,
“Just kidding!”
“…What?”
“You really have quite the imagination, Princess. They just fainted on their own. That guy tried to forge a contract after stealing lumber I refused to sell. That one disguised another wood as maple walnut. In short, they brought it upon themselves.”
I stared at him, stunned.
I could sense it instinctively. He wasn’t the mastermind behind a massacre, but he definitely wasn’t a normal lumber merchant either.
Based on my experience from odd jobs over the years, I recognized this vibe, tone, and expression…
“You’re actually a CEO disguised as a regular customer to secretly evaluate your own store.”
That’s what my gut told me.
“Is that your real identity?”
“Haha, close enough.”
“What’s your title?”
“Oh, Grand Spirit.”
…Excuse me?
My jaw dropped at the casual reply.
What did you just say?
“Surprised, aren’t you, Princess?”
My Royal Aunt appeared behind him, chuckling softly—the very person I had been desperately searching for.
“You, of all people, seemed like someone who wouldn’t shed a drop of blood even if pricked with a needle. Yet you searched for me so hard. I’m touched. Sorry for deceiving you.”
“Deceiving…?”
“The story about finding a merchant to sell my music box? A lie. All of this was orchestrated to find a new contractor for the Grand Spirit.”
“What…?”
“I used to be that contractor, but now that I’m in my seventies, I’m not what I used to be. I was worried I’d put the crown princes in danger, so we rushed to prepare this test.”
“…What?”
I could only repeat like a parrot.
Words were entering my ears, but I couldn’t understand a thing. My brain felt like it had short-circuited.
“Come, have a seat. We’ll explain everything step by step.”
The Grand Spirit and my aunt gently guided me to a chair.
“You already know, Princess, about the curse faced by those who inherit the blood of dragons. The First Emperor made all sorts of preparations to counter it—one of them being that.”
“To keep it secret, it has many names, but its true name is ‘The World Tree’s Lullaby.’”
As they explained, an illusion appeared before me—a baby dragon fast asleep, nestled against a massive World Tree.
A gold dragon?
Its eyes were closed, its breathing soft and even. It looked peaceful—adorable, even.
As twilight gently swept across its golden scales, that beautiful Elf song echoed again.
“So that lullaby I heard—it really was like a mother humming to her child.”
I said, looking at the old man.
“And you’re the Grand Spirit of the World Tree.”
“Correct.”
He nodded with a smile.
“I accepted the First Emperor’s request to maintain world peace and granted the heirs of the dragon’s blood access to a mysterious substance called ‘The World Tree’s Lullaby.’”
He raised one hand, and in his palm formed a round, transparent emerald, like sap solidifying in real time.
It looks like what appeared in my wood sample…
I glanced back and forth between them, amazed. The Grand Spirit waved his hand lightly.
“This is just an illusion. ‘The World Tree’s Lullaby’ must be mined from caverns connected to the World Tree’s roots. Spirits and dragons can’t trade directly—there must be a human intermediary.”
“But here’s the problem. Most of the chosen contractors became corrupted. Some fell in love with the transcendent and tried to obtain the lullaby by any means. Others sought to control them and seize power. Pretending to be pure while hiding selfish ambition… and it always led to disaster.”
The Grand Spirit nodded at my aunt’s words.
“After many trials, I finally reached a conclusion—what kind of person can carry out this mission the longest and most effectively. And that person is…”
He spoke solemnly.
“…Someone who doesn’t want the transcendent. Doesn’t crave power. Just coldly crunches numbers and wants the contract solely for stable income—a greedy little money-grubber, pure in their obsession with profit!”
His finger pointed straight at me.
So… that’s me? Is that a compliment or an insult?
“Statistics show that these types perform the best. Lady Peruvia here is a prime example.”
“Indeed,” my aunt chimed in.
“Decades ago, I passed the same test. Preliminary, main round, and final round. You skipped the imperial ball, ignored Prince Zikren who we planted as bait, saw the business potential in that pamphlet, and breezed through the preliminaries.”
“Then you found me—the Grand Spirit—and defeated me in our contest by cleverly eliminating the other candidates.”
The Grand Spirit smiled.
“And for the record, I wasn’t acting. I was genuinely furious. Lumber merchants are bad enough, but I really hate the Elf cult. How dare they spread my name around!”
“Oh… I apologize.”
“No need. What matters is, you won.”
My aunt waved her hand.
“You passed the main round, and then passed the final round by awakening the World Tree fragment. You had already escaped to safety, yet risked your life to save someone else. That act moved the sleeping fragment to open its eye.”
I just wanted to save my precious interviewer…
“Truly perfect!”
“Perfect indeed!”
The Grand Spirit and my aunt high-fived joyfully in midair.
Totally duped.
I thought blankly. Things were finally starting to make sense.
“So all the hardships I faced were just the organizers’ tests, and I smashed through them all just to win a business deal… Wait a second.”
As I retraced the explanation, I hit a snag.
“You said you picked a greedy little money-grubber with no interest in tying themselves to a transcendent or seeking power…”
I looked at both of them.
“So that means… you admit it, right? That I had zero interest in getting close to His Highness the Crown Prince and was genuinely only here for business. Can you testify to that in front of my father or His Highness?”
“Testify?”
They looked at me like I’d lost my mind.
“Why would we need to testify?”
“Is that… a problem? I was just so desperate, I—”
“No testimony needed! That’s the first thing I filter out. If you had any ambition to become the Crown Princess, you wouldn’t have even seen me. Many merchants came to the shop last night and didn’t even notice me.”
The Grand Spirit laughed heartily.
“But you did. You came in, faced me, and we’re talking like this now. No need for testimony—this is all the proof you need. Proof that you have no desire to be involved with anyone from the royal family—”
At that moment—
Loud footsteps echoed from the hallway, as if someone was stomping hard enough to crack the floor.
“What? Who passed the final round?!”
With a panicked shout, the doors burst open.
Aldensis and Zikren stood there.
Seeing me chatting with the Grand Spirit, they froze, speechless.
“…?”
Their faces said they couldn’t believe what they were seeing.
