Who Regressed the Timekeeper? - Chapter 24

“Where are you going?”

Noah’s head turned sharply. His golden eyes sparkled as he stared intently at Amy.

“The person who told me earlier has given me more information. I’m going to find it.”

As they finished walking through the corridor, the doors of the hall appeared in the distance. Noah’s pace slowed.

“Is it another magical artifact?”

“Yes. But they don’t know about it.”

“…Ah.”

Noah blinked and lowered his eyes slightly. He was somewhat touched that Amy had told him something she hadn’t shared with the others she seemed close to.

Amy opened the hall doors and said energetically:

“You should always have a hearty breakfast.”

Noah looked up and smiled.

“Yes, I know.”

His precious head maid was always serious about meals.

After the meal, Noah first summoned Vernon, the captain of the guards, and ordered him to send knights as quickly as possible to find the magical artifact Amy had mentioned. He rushed them so urgently that Dwayne and Jack had to leave the grand duchy that afternoon as if they were being chased out.

As Amy turned back after seeing them off and wishing for their safe return, Noah asked her quietly:

“So what kind of magical artifact is it?”

Curious about why they were searching for it so urgently, Amy lowered her voice and explained to Noah:

“It will bring Your Highness tremendous wealth and fortune.”

“!”

Noah’s eyes widened. Then, after looking around to see if anyone was listening, he lowered his voice even more.

“Is that why Amy told me I should become the Grand Duke of the North?”

Amy’s lips twitched as she held back a laugh. How perceptive her lord was.

“That’s right. Once the knights find it, the North will be turned upside down.”

Seeing her flushed face and shining eyes, Noah fell silent. The entire empire was already in an uproar over the weather-changing incident, and now something even more incredible was about to happen. He couldn’t even imagine it.

He swallowed dryly before speaking.

“If that happens… will Amy be happy?”

Amy always spoke with him as the standard. Even when she left her guaranteed position as head maid to the Crown Prince with all its wealth and glory, her first words to him were…

‘I’ll get you out of this wretched imperial palace.’

Even when she was busily making him the Grand Duke and heading north…

‘Your Highness, just enjoy what I do for you.’

Look at her now, talking about bringing him wealth and fortune.

But above all, Noah wanted Amy to be happy.

“…Of course, Your Highness. Your joy is my joy.”

Amy looked at Noah for a moment before nodding. Only then did Noah feel relieved and grin. Then he puffed out his chest and asked enthusiastically:

“What should I do now?”

“Hmm… it should be about time now, actually.”

Amy tapped her chin with her finger, calculating something, then grinned.

“It’ll arrive today at the earliest, or the day after tomorrow at the latest.”

Noah was bewildered.

“So what’s coming?”

“Your Highness is a genius.”

The tutor Amy had carefully selected declared, waving Noah’s answer sheet.

“Oh my…”

Amy covered her mouth with her hand, holding back the laughter that threatened to burst out. How is it that our lord is so good at everything?

The elderly tutor excitedly explained how exceptional a student Noah was, spitting as he spoke.

“Your Highness has mastered not only the trivium taught at the Imperial University in the capital and other prestigious universities—that is, grammar, logic, and rhetoric—but also the quadrivium—arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. You could enter the upper faculty of a university right away.”

“Isn’t it only those who have passed the lower faculty who can enter the upper faculty?”

Amy glanced at Noah, who was sitting quietly at his desk, as she spoke. His tightly clenched fists were trembling slightly. Though he was trying to hide it, he seemed surprised to learn his own level for the first time.

“That’s right. It means he has already surpassed the level of the lower faculty.”

Amy leaned towards Noah and whispered:

“Your Highness, are you thinking of attending university?”

“…But then I’d have to go to the capital, wouldn’t I?”

Noah frowned. Amy mentally listed a few universities he could attend outside the capital based on his reaction. But before she could speak, Noah shook his head and continued:

“I want to stay here.”

“I see. But you’d still like to take classes, right?”

Amy realized how full of life Noah was when faced with a problem. This poor boy had been starving for knowledge.

“Yes.”

Noah nodded reflexively, then hastily added:

“If the situation allows. I don’t want to learn at the expense of everything else.”

At those words, Amy said firmly:

“The money spent on Your Highness’s education is an investment. A smart lord makes for comfortable subjects.”

Then she turned to the tutor and asked:

“Do you have any professors you can personally recommend? Preferably retired ones.”

“I’ll contact some people I know for each subject in the upper faculty.”

The tutor, who had agreed to receive a large sum regardless of employment when coming to the North, gladly offered his connections.

Amy and Noah conversed as they headed to the office.

“I never heard that the Second Prince’s Palace had a private tutor. Where did you learn?”

Noah scratched his cheek with his hand.

“I learned from my mother.”

“From the Empress?”

Amy was inwardly surprised. The Empress was a princess from the Southern Kingdom, and little was known about her apart from her sensational romance with the Emperor. Despite Amy’s reaction, Noah calmly recalled his memories.

“The universities in the South admit women too. Mother was the top student.”

“My goodness…”

“And unlike the Empire, the universities in the Southern Kingdom have a special subject called magic research… It was Mother’s favorite subject.”

Noah slightly furrowed his brow and fiddled with his earlobe.

“That’s probably why she had magical artifacts.”

“I see. Then how many magical artifacts did you receive from the Empress?”

Amy recalled the jewel Noah had given her and asked. Noah rolled his eyes once, then said in a small voice:

“Three…”

“Three… What? Three?”

Amy was shocked.

“Wait, you gave me two of them?”

“Ah, um…”

Noah’s eyes shook uncontrollably. Amy put her hand to her temple and sighed.

‘They say raising children is a waste of effort…’

Then she blurted out:

“I’ll return them to you.”

Noah panicked and waved his hands.

“What? No, just keep them. I gave them to Amy. As you know, they’re a hairpin and a colored stone. What would I do with them?”

“At least the future Grand Duchess should have them, that makes more sense.”

Amy said firmly and reached for the pin in her hair. Seeing her about to take it out and return it, Noah hastily intervened.

“Then I’ll just give Amy the hairpin.”

“Pardon?”

Amy frowned. She had been using it without much thought since it looked like a simple pin, but now that she knew it was one of the few magical artifacts in the world, she felt burdened. Noah hesitated before speaking.

“Honestly… that pin might not be a magical artifact.”

Her ears perked up at once.

“Really?”

“Yeah. Mother definitely said the others were magical artifacts, but she didn’t say anything about that one. It might just be a pin she brought from the Southern Kingdom.”

At those words, she slowly lowered her hand that had been about to remove the pin, thinking:

‘Come to think of it… it does seem rather unremarkable.’

It didn’t have anything in common with the other magical artifacts… If she had to find a similarity, it was that its material and color were similar to the weather-changing artifact.

Seeing Amy lost in thought, Noah seized the opportunity to persuade her.

“There’s no use in returning it right away… I might just lose it somewhere if I put it away.”

Amy hesitated at those words. It sounded plausible, as Noah tended to be terrifyingly indifferent to things that didn’t interest him.

“You got me out of that hellish imperial palace, Amy. Mother would understand.”

Noah arbitrarily thought that since he liked Amy, his mother would like her too.

‘They belong to Amy anyway.’

He had no intention of taking back the magical artifacts. If he could, he would have given her the black stone embedded in his earlobe as well. But his mother had insisted that he must never remove that one when she passed away, so he couldn’t give it to her.

Meanwhile, Amy, who had been contemplating, finally organized her thoughts and made up her mind.

“I’ll accept it as Your Highness’s gift. But if it turns out to be a magical artifact later, I’ll return it immediately. Is that alright?”

“Sure.”

Noah inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. Then Amy rummaged through her pocket, took out the colored stone, and held it out to him.

“Please take this. Keep it safe and give it to the future Grand Duchess later.”

“Alright, fine.”

Only when Noah accepted it without protest did Amy’s expression relax.

“Now, you must be tired from the test. Shall we go eat?”

“Okay.”

“We’ll be busy from now on. There’s a mountain of work to do.”

More than two months had passed since Jack and Dwayne left. During that time, Amy and Noah accomplished many tasks.

They invited merchants from the North to trade with the grand duchy using each trading company’s main products, screened recommendation letters from people who wanted to work and sent them for verification, checked the quality of milk, flour, honey, and other supplies to be procured from the village below the grand duchy, and signed contracts with farm owners.

Amidst their busy schedule, the banquet was suddenly upon them. Melvin and the employees put their hearts into sweeping, cleaning, and decorating the castle. They hoped their precious Grand Duke wouldn’t be intimidated by the native nobles who had deep roots in the North.

So they decorated the castle with utmost care. The guards also memorized patrol routes and strengthened security to prevent any problems.

Amy was so busy supervising all of this that even having two bodies wouldn’t have been enough.