“W-What in the world… H-How did this happen……”

Soon after, as the Semper bloomed, there were mixed reactions among the nobles.

Those who had first tried to obtain Semper bulbs but couldn’t due to soaring prices were relieved.

On the other hand, Countess Minster, who had mortgaged her wedding gifts and estate to buy Semper bulbs, turned pale, her complexion going from blue to white.

This was because yellow and red Semper flowers were beautifully blooming in the garden of the Minster estate.

Moreover, the loss was not limited to just the Minster family.

Countess Minster had urged not only close family and acquaintances, but even distant relatives to buy Semper bulbs.

She even demanded compensation, claiming it was hard-to-obtain premium information.

Even those who had half-heartedly listened to Countess Minster joined in belatedly when they saw the price of Semper bulbs skyrocketing day by day.

And this was the result.

“Stripes… There are no stripes at all!”

Staring blankly at the blooming flowers, Countess Minster grabbed the back of her neck and collapsed.

“M-Madam! Are you alright?”

The head maid quickly supported Countess Minster and shouted.

“Call the doctor! Call the family doctor.”

“Yes!”

Soon, a nearby maid ran towards the mansion.

However, she had to stop in her tracks after just a short distance.

A group of nobles was striding towards them. A murderous anger could be felt from them.

The maid trembled and stepped aside slightly. Then a stern-looking elderly lady asked.

“Where is Countess Minster?”

“Sh-She’s over there……”

The maid pointed in the direction she had come from. Then a middle-aged noble with a protruding belly shouted.

“Let’s all go, Countess Minster is over there!”

Soon the nobles hurriedly moved in the direction where Countess Minster was.

“……”

The maid, who had been staring blankly at the scene, suddenly remembered that the lady had collapsed just moments ago.

Just as she was about to turn back towards the mansion to call the doctor again.

“Ahhh!”

A short scream like a death cry rang out, followed by shouting from where Countess Minster had been.

“Wow, miss. It’s absolute chaos out there right now.”

Lindsey, who had gone to the bustling streets to find out what was happening, shook her head and explained the current situation, which was close to pandemonium.

“It seems the price of Semper bulbs has completely crashed!”

In fact, this was a predictable outcome.

People blinded by greed had simply failed to properly assess the situation for a moment.

Stirring the red tea with a teaspoon, Jieselgrante nodded.

“Is that so?”

“Yes! It looks like the Minster family suffered the biggest loss. After all, they had monopolized so many Semper bulbs.”

Semper produced beautiful red or yellow flowers.

That alone was sufficiently beautiful, but the expectations of those who had hoped for flowers with special patterns had been shattered.

In fact, only Semper infected with a specific virus could produce striped flowers, which would later be revealed by research to be a very rare case.

But there was no way to know that now.

What were the conditions for Semper to bloom with stripes?

If it hadn’t been for the contents of the diary Jieselgrante had written in the past, even she wouldn’t have known.

That this year’s Semper would bloom normally without being infected by the virus.

“Miss, what will happen to the Minster family now?”

To Lindsey’s question, Jieselgrante put down her teacup and calmly replied.

“They’ll go bankrupt.”

Lindsey gaped in amazement.

“Wow…! So a noble family that ruled the Imperial social circles can fall overnight……”

“It’s the result of their excessive greed.”

Jieselgrante had recently visited Countess Minster and dropped some hints, calling it premium information.

Pretending to comfort Countess Minster, who must have been hurt by the incident at the Empress’s tea party.

That premium information was about the Semper bulbs.

That currently, the demand for Semper bulbs exceeded the supply, and consequently, the price would skyrocket.

At first, when she conveyed this message, Countess Minster didn’t seem to believe it.

But soon she started buying up Semper bulbs as if scraping them clean.

It was proof that she had started to believe Jieselgrante’s words.

And at that time, Jieselgrante had given a warning-like remark to Countess Minster.

To withdraw when she had made a moderate profit.

Of course, she didn’t tell her the exact time to resell the Semper bulbs, as she had done with Count Frederick.

But she had clearly warned her. That if she got too greedy, she would pay a heavy price.

Moreover, Jieselgrante had recently encountered Countess Minster and her daughter in the bustling streets while preparing for the upcoming Imperial ball.

The young lady of the Minster family chose not only high-end silk shoes and dresses, but picked only the most expensive items, beyond what Jieselgrante had selected.

Countess Minster approved of all this.

The young lady of the Minster family proudly strutted about as if she had won a competition with Jieselgrante, and before leaving, Jieselgrante once again told Countess Minster.

To please not forget the advice she had given before.

The response she got from Countess Minster was this:

‘Is there really a need to cut open the belly of a goose that lays golden eggs?’

It revealed her psychology of not wanting to sell the Semper bulbs, but to hold onto them tightly.

Thanks to this, Jieselgrante could be at ease.

That the Minster family would self-destruct due to their excessive greed.

And today, the expected result had arrived.

Burdened with a mountain of debt, the Minster family had reached a state beyond recovery.

Now, one of the two families that had supported the Empress had completely fallen.

Count Frederick, who had visited the bustling streets to check on his owned shop, learned that the price of Semper bulbs had fallen to an unbelievable level.

‘Even seeing it with my own eyes, I still can’t believe it……”

Just a few days ago, one Semper bulb was close to the price of a large villa.

Even without Jieselgrante’s advice, Count Frederick had been suspecting that the investment fever might have been somewhat overheated, so he had disposed of all the Semper bulbs he owned on the date she had mentioned.

And thanks to that, he had gained enormous profits.

It was arguably the best single achievement he had accomplished without colluding with royalty or nobles of higher status than himself.

It was something that couldn’t happen unless magic stones were suddenly discovered in barren land bought at a bargain price.

Judging from this incident, he couldn’t even imagine what benefits he would gain in the future if he stood on Jieselgrante’s side.

There was no reason to hesitate in heading to Duke Amaterasu’s mansion.

“Turn the carriage around.”

“Where shall we go, sir?”

“To Duke Amaterasu’s mansion.”

It was well past lunchtime when Duke Amaterasu finally finished his morning work and left his office.

He had been delayed in his work due to the constant influx of letters that needed to be dealt with.

He could have had simple food sent up to his office, but Duke Amaterasu, being a neat person, disliked having food odors permeate his space.

So, to finish his morning work before the alliance meeting in the afternoon, he had to have a somewhat late lunch.

As he was heading towards the dining room, he happened to run into Mikhail who was walking in this direction.

“Oh? Father, are you going to have your meal now?”

“Yes.”

“Then let’s eat together. I haven’t had lunch yet either.”

Looking at the book in Mikhail’s hand, Duke Amaterasu thought his son had missed mealtime because he was reading.

“I heard the Semper flowers have bloomed… Have you heard about it?”

Mikhail asked as they walked together towards the dining room.

As it happened, letters had been constantly arriving from nobles of the alliance during his morning work.

Checking if Duke Amaterasu had also bought many Semper bulbs and suffered a great loss.

Fortunately, Duke Amaterasu wasn’t very interested in Semper bulbs, so he hadn’t suffered any losses either.

“Yes. I heard. It seems quite a few nobles have suffered great losses because of it.”

“Yes. I heard the Minster family in particular has suffered heavy losses.”

As Duke Amaterasu nodded, Mikhail suddenly lowered his voice and continued.

“But Father, how do you view this incident? The Minster family went bankrupt right after the Empress dismissed them.”

“Are you suggesting this Semper bulb incident is related to the Imperial family?”

Mikhail drew in a sharp breath and said.

“There’s no way the Imperial family could have known in advance that the flowers wouldn’t have stripes, so we can’t jump to conclusions, but……”

However, before he could finish his sentence, Mikhail closed his mouth.

“…?”

Naturally, Duke Amaterasu, who had been facing forward, turned his head towards Mikhail.

Soon, Duke Amaterasu’s eyes widened as he looked at the end of Mikhail’s gaze.

Jieselgrante was in the garden. With a young man.

From here, they couldn’t see the man’s face. But just from the clothes he was wearing, they could immediately tell he was a noble.

“Who is that with Jiesel?”

“I’m not sure……”

To Duke Amaterasu’s question, Mikhail slowly shook his head.

And without anyone taking the lead, the two men turned their steps towards the garden where Jieselgrante and the young man were.

“Master, Young Master.”

At that moment, an urgent voice of the butler was heard from behind.

“I have something to tell you.”

The two men turned their heads sharply towards the butler, their brows furrowed with irritation.

“What is it?”

The butler, who had frozen for a moment at the two men’s fierce expressions, soon opened his mouth.

“I was just about to inform you that a guest has arrived.”

“A guest?”