It was an unmanageable situation. Something that was bound to happen, and impossible to prevent.

But Alfonso would be deeply saddened if Queen Marguerite passed away. Even in her previous life, the prince had noticeably become quiet after the Queen passed away.

The prince, who was far from happy at his wedding, held grandly soon after his mother’s funeral, did not seem happy.

But it has to be okay. It will be okay.

There were several unused rooms and barns in the de Mare mansion, and Ariadne needed one of them as a warehouse. However, the authority to determine the use of those rooms belonged to the hostess, Lucrezia.

She also tried to rent a separate building outside the Cardinal’s residence, but the security in San Carlo wasn’t that good.

Houses left unattended with goods in them were quickly broken into and completely ransacked by those who were embarrassed to be called thieves.

Ariadne did not have the manpower to guard a warehouse outside the mansion.

“I need a male servant.”

“What about butler Nicolo?”

“How can I use an opportunist who only looks around for the big task. I need someone loyal and trustworthy.”

Good staff did not fall from the sky. Ariadne decided to spend more time waiting for an opportunity.

Originally, she planned to hoard wheat, which had become cheap due to the bumper harvest, but without storage space, she had no choice but to collect small and expensive items instead of cheap and bulky ones.

What Ariadne chose instead was beeswax.

“Miss, why are you buying this? Are we going to sell candles?”

Beeswax was a material for highend candles, was used to seal letters, and was also used for cosmetics and simple medicine. In particular, it was known to be especially effective for skin diseases. However, the reason Ariadne was hoarding beeswax was not that.

“Isn’t it the way of life to not know when what will become important?”

In the summer of 1123, the Black Death struck the entire kingdom of Etruscan.

Wax was used to coat the outer garments and entire body to prevent disease during the plague outbreak.

Wax, a substance extracted from beehives, was considered a substance sent from heaven to earth, made by bees living their lives without mating and in purity.

For this reason, the highquality candles used in the cathedral were made only of pure wax.

However, when the Black Death broke out, wax was revered as a tool of mankind to oppose the divine punishment of the plague, which had been called a scourge from the heavens. In fact, less likely to catch the plague when their skin and outer clothes were coated with wax.

The Black Death of 1123 was also an event that claimed the life of young Arabella in her previous life. Ariadne intended to turn this crisis into an opportunity.

Ariadne had about 70 ducats (approximately 70 million won) as spare money.

It was the sum of the queen’s mourning money entrusted to the Lambuey orphanage, the emergency funds hidden during the debutante ball, the leftover from the pocket money directly received at the rate of 10 ducats per month from Cardinal de Mare a few months ago, and the money obtained by pawning some of the abundant gifts from Count Cesare.

She bought all the reasonably priced wax on the market with this money, without question or hesitation.

The topquality wax was an import from the eastern region of the central continent, Ratgallin, but Ariadne did not insist on the best quality and consistently purchased anything produced within Etruscan if the price was right.

She didn’t have a very large budget and had plenty of time, so there was no need to hoard goods to shake the market.

She stored the collected wax in a room attached to the kitchen of Cardinal de Mare’s residence.

Upon Ariadne’s audacious actions, Giada, a servant under Lucrezia, protested against Ariadne’s free use of the room.

“Miss, how can you use this room as you please!”

“Giada. Is that my mother’s will?”