The Duke was not wrong in what he said. But the reason I found him annoying was that I didn’t like his way of doing things as he pleased.

‘If the Earl had sought me out first, he should have spoken to me.’

Come to think of it, it had always been like this.

My escort Yan did things as he pleased and was replaced, and even my name was given to me by the Duke on his own accord.

Wasn’t it the Duke who sent knights to bring me to the Ducal house in the first place?

Upon contemplating each matter, there was not a single aspect that pleased me.

Then, the Duke spoke again to the Earl.

“You should have said what you wanted to say to me.”

“I have something I want to express directly to His Highness.”

“You laid your hands on my daughter before. That’s why I took the initiative this time.”

“I acknowledge my mistake that day. Didn’t I apologize in advance? I assure you it won’t happen again.”

“Hard to believe.”

The corners of the Earl’s mouth rose.

He seemed infuriated by the Duke’s forced manner, but he refrained from showing it, opting for a forced smile instead.

“Then, please allow me to show a small token of my goodwill to His Highness.”

‘Goodwill?’

Earl Lipe rummaged through his pocket and took out a small black box.

“I’ll look first.”

The Duke reached his hand towards the Earl, but the Earl discreetly moved past him to offer me the box.

Before the Duke could snatch it away, he quickly opened the box to show its contents.

Inside the black box was a purple gemstone.

At first glance, it looked like a common amethyst. Moreover, it was in its unprocessed form.

But upon a closer look, a faint red light could be seen circulating within.

‘It’s an unused magic stone.’

That red light was magic power. The gem contained stored magical energy.

“No, that is!”

“Isn’t it a magic stone?”

Others also couldn’t hide their astonishment, recognizing its value.

‘It’s certainly a valuable item.’

To use magic, one needed magical power as its source.

That was only possible for those born with innate magical power.

However, the only way for those without magical abilities to use magic was through these magic stones.

The number of people born with innate magic power was more than one might expect. About onefifth of the entire empire’s population, to be precise.

However, the problem was that most of them possessed an insufficient amount of magical power.

Of those born with magic, only an extremely small number were born with a considerable amount of magic. The rest had less magic than even a magic stone.

‘That’s why when the Duke’s twins were first revealed to the world, it caused quite a stir.’

For the first time in human history, they were children born with almost limitless magical power.

‘Although they never became part of the magical tower, they’ve been mischievously exploiting it.’

Since then, the twins had been neither a part of the magical tower nor working against it; instead, they’d been exploiting it ruthlessly.

This caused some magicians to suffer. A few had even attempted to attack the twins, only to disappear without a trace later.

‘If it’s a magic stone, like the Earl said, it will be useful someday.’

This was my first time seeing magical power, and I couldn’t manipulate it. The energy inside the gemstone seemed to ripple like a red wave.

“Your Grace, this is my small token for His Highness. You surely wouldn’t think of taking it away, would you?”

“… I’ll have it examined first.”

Despite the stone being clearly magical, the Duke reluctantly responded, his displeasure evident.

He then tossed the magic stone that the Earl handed over to a servant.

‘What’s bothering him so much?’
Count Lipe was the sort who would openly express his disdain rather than pretend to be amicable while acting hypocritically behind one’s back.

Moreover, I was still a powerless child, so there was no need to worry about the count threatening me.

“Thank you, Count.”

“You’re welcome.”

Upon my polite greeting, Count Lipe responded with a broad smile.

“Diane.”

“Hm?”

“I own a magic stone mine.”

“…Oh.”

Suddenly, the Duke boasts about his mine.

It seemed the assessment of the magic stones didn’t take too much time. The servant who had left the conference room returned in less than an hour.

‘I didn’t expect the Count to have something like this.’

Proudly, I clutched the box containing the magic stones with both hands.

I had forgotten that I was sitting on the Duke’s lap.

Then, one of the merchants leaned in with a smiling face.

“Your young lordship seems quite at ease.”

“Your lordship must be very fond of the Duke. I heard you even shared cookies with him while he was working last time.”

Sharing snacks with the Duke had occurred shortly after I entered the Ducal household.

‘Back then, I was caught trying to escape.’

In hindsight, all my previous escape attempts had been futile, but I still regretted the cookies the Duke had taken from me.

‘How did they even know about that?’

There was no way that incident would have become a rumor, so someone must have told them.