“Your Highness should only shed tears of joy. I will serve you so that you can do so.”

From the day his mother was taken to the palace, Bethany, who had been his mother’s maid, served him as the Duke, taking the place of an absent steward.

Bethany, who could have gone to a better place with just the honor of being a northern magician, served me and this Vicander more faithfully and devotedly than anyone else.

And Bethany kept the promise she made to herself. Since that night, there had never been a time when Bethany cried.

Even when Vicander’s honor fell to the ground, or when the recognition in the green eyes became irreversibly bad, or even when the news of his mother’s death arrived.

By the time Edwin had approached Olivia’s room, the door was slightly ajar.

Unlike a little while ago, when everything had turned white before his eyes, Edwin was gradually regaining his composure.

As always, he had to bow. He was thinking about knocking on the door and entering when he heard Olivia’s voice through the slightly open door.

“Why are you like this, Bethany!”

Edwin pushed open the door without thinking in response to the bewildered voice.

And at that moment, Edwin doubted his eyes.

Bethany, who had never knelt before anyone except my mother, not even before me, was kneeling before Olivia, her forehead touching the floor in a bow.

“Edwin, help me, please. Bethany, get up. Please.”

In front of them, Olivia was desperately trying to lift Bethany, who was exerting all her strength.

.

.

.

“Edwin, help me, please. Bethany, get up. Please.”

Feeling his presence, Olivia turned around and urgently requested help. No matter how much she tried to lift Bethany’s body, Bethany showed no signs of getting up.

Bethany, who had been shedding copious tears as if exhausted, suddenly found the strength to kneel before me, her forehead on the ground.

The firsttime ever sight left Olivia staring dumbfounded, but she quickly tried to stop Bethany, to no avail.

“Thank you, truly, truly thank you.”

The faintly audible crying mixed with her words was merely proof that Bethany was not delirious.

“Olivia, what on earth is this?”

“I don’t know either. Bethany saw this and suddenly said that she had to tell Edwin right away, then started crying… Please, help me get Bethany up first.”
I had been so distracted, I didn’t know what I was saying. Edwin, who had been dazed, finally seemed to come to his senses, and he quickly approached, picking up Bethany with a heave. Bethany, who hadn’t budged no matter how much force was applied, was lifted in an instant.

“I’ll borrow the bed.”

“Of course.”

Olivia hurriedly rolled up the bedcovers. Bethany, who had been limply sprawled out, struggled again.

“You mustn’t, my lord. How can I be in the lady’s bed….”

At the word “my lord,” Edwin hesitated. Since Bethany began to treat me as Duke, she had never once called me “my lord.”

But Olivia, who was most surprised by this situation, spoke firmly with an incredulous face.

“Lie down comfortably, Bethany. If you don’t, I’ll be so disappointed that I won’t see you tomorrow.”

Finally, Bethany stopped talking. Edwin carefully laid Bethany on the bed. Bethany kept shedding tears. Olivia sighed, looking at her as she seemed to calm down a bit.

“What’s going on, Olivia?”

Oh dear. Edwin was more surprised than I. Olivia quickly looked around the room for the document.

The moment I saw Bethany’s face turn pale, I thought I had put it somewhere.

Fortunately, there was no need to look around many places. Handing over the properly placed document on the desk, Olivia spoke cautiously.

“Bethany said she had to show this to Edwin now.”

Edwin, who had been looking at Bethany, turned his head to look at the document Olivia was holding out. And the moment he read the top of the document, Edwin’s mind went entirely blank.

Even after restoring the fallen honor of the family, he had imagined it hundreds of times.

What would it feel like to find the white crystal mine tied to the emperor? Would it be as happy as when I rebuilt my family, or even happier?

Every time Edwin felt emptiness that could not be filled as he traveled through battlefields, he always thought of the white crystal mine.

“It may be taken by the Emperor now, Edwin Lowell Vicander. Remember. You must come. This is yours. It’s Vicander’s and Lowell’s!”

The night before being taken to the palace, amidst everyone’s tears, his mother spoke to him with dignity.

It was when news of his father’s death, who had been the commanderinchief, had reached. The Emperor asked for responsibility for defeat instead of consolation. Everyone argued that the battle was lost anyway, but to no avail.

The Emperor demanded the most prosperous gem mine of Vicander territory and the sacred sword Ailaluten and the white crystal mine of the fallen Lowell kingdom.

Everyone knew that his hidden intention was a sinister desire to swallow up the Duke’s wife and the entire house of Duke Vicander.

And everyone thought it would happen as the Emperor wished. The Duke’s wife, his mother, was beautiful but weak. Like the fallen Lowell, Vicander was expected to be left behind in history.

But his mother, the Duke’s wife, didn’t shed a tear. At the same time as hearing of her husband’s death, she became stronger than anyone else.

The last princess of Lowell.

She was strong enough to bear the responsibility according to that honor. After negotiating with the Emperor and saving the people of Vicander, she chose to be taken to the palace herself.

Whenever Edwin recalled what her unyielding face without tears had said, he always rethought the meaning of his name.

Edwin Lowell Vicander.

A name that embraced the collapsed house of the Duke and the vanished kingdom.

The head of the Vicander family and the last bloodline of the vanished kingdom of Lowell.

Edwin always thought it was because he lacked “Lowell,” looking at himself somewhere empty.

The white crystal mine, like the sacred sword Ailaluten, was Lowell’s treasure.

He thought that if he owned that mine, the last relic of his mother, he could fill this unfillable emptiness.

But reality was him shaking his hands stupidly like this.

“HHow is this….”

Edwin couldn’t continue his words. And he pressed his eyes. His vision blurred beyond his graceful, long fingers.
The sound of water flooding was clear between the spreading noises, Olivia’s voice sharply pulled Edwin back to reality.

“This is the wedding dowry I received from the Princess. On the day we went to the Imperial Palace together, I brought this back.”

What Olivia brought after meeting the Princess.

The expectation I had whimsically at the Pink Diamond mine had come to reality.

I felt the floor under my feet. The texture of the documents in my hand was vivid. Edwin gritted his teeth at the vividness of the reality rushing at me.

Olivia asked carefully.

“……Is this important to Edwin?”

“Olivia, do you not know what you have done?”

“……Yes.”

“Olivia, you did something I couldn’t do in the battlefield for over a decade.”

“What is that…….?”

“You found my mother’s legacy, the treasure stolen from Lowell.”

The legacy, a treasure? That this was something so tremendous…

Not knowing how to react, Olivia blinked her eyes.

In the meantime, Edwin walked towards Olivia, clutching the documents tightly, and buried his face in her small shoulders.

“Thank you, really, thank you, Olivia.”

Edwin’s heartbeat, so close, was clear. Olivia, frozen for a moment, slowly raised her hand to pat Edwin’s back.

The warm breath touched the nape of her neck with the affectionate touch, but Olivia said nothing. The tears falling on her shoulder were hot.

(This is a time separator.)

On a night when the moon was high, a carriage left the sturdy Duke’s castle. The destination was the White Crystal mine.