“...You are truly sp-spending, spending quite a lot today.”
A nameless noble beside me asked. It was my first time seeing him today, and his whole body was trembling uncontrollably. The aftershocks even made my hand shake.
“It is worth that much, so I am spending that much.”
“Great Tycoon.”
This trait, composed of two financial nouns, exuded an extraordinary intuition when it came to “value.” Not only could it measure an object’s potential, its judgment of an item’s quality and worth was almost animalistic.
Based on that trait, I immersed myself in the auction, and of the twenty-four items that had appeared by the midpoint, I won eleven.
—The next item is “Tranquility.”
But from now on, I had no intention of intervening.
After that “ancient relic necklace” just now, the condition of the items had been rather underwhelming. Besides, the maximum estimated price of Snowflake Stone was thirty million. I would need to have around three times that, ninety million, to feel secure.
—Lokhan’s horn...
The auctions that followed were peaceful without me raising the prices.
The other ordinary nobles, who had been watching the room, slowly began to join in as well.
And within that gentle calm, at last—
The item I had been waiting for appeared.
—This is an ore that has played a remarkable role even in the history of the Empire’s famed swords. So-called nature’s magic, winter’s fire. Snowflake Stone. The starting price is five million elne. Bids will rise by two hundred thousand elne.
Snowflake Stone.
As soon as the ore appeared, the first bid was called by number 1089.
—Number 1089, five million elne.
I looked toward seat 1089, which had boldly made its entrance.
It was a familiar back of the head. Her glossy hair had at some point been twisted up like an apple, and her attire was white light armor, as if to flaunt her status.
...Yulie.
In her eyes dwelled the resolve that she would never back down.
* * *
Yulie took part in the auction with passion. She bid without any technique, and she did not even take a single breath.
But given the item, it was not an easy task. The price quickly soared to ten million, thirteen million, seventeen million, nineteen million... sky-high.
—Number 1089, thirty million elne! Any further bids?!
Fortunately, when it reached the expected maximum price of thirty million, most gave up.
At this rate, I’ll be able to buy it cheaper than I thought, Yulie thought optimistically, satisfied.
“Phew.”
...It was precisely at that moment.
An unimaginable competitor appeared.
—Number 777, thirty-one million elne!
“...!”
Yulie’s eyes widened as she looked for number 777.
A VVIP seat not far from her own. There sat a man exuding an aloof elegance.
Deculein.
Feeling her gaze, he turned to look at her.
As always, he was cold, seeming indifferent to everything, but for some reason, Yulie felt as though she could tell what was inside him.
—Number 1089, thirty-two million elne.
Yulie clenched her fist and quietly bid. She had no intention whatsoever of backing down.
Deculein was the same.
—Number 777 again, thirty-three million!
From then on, it was a contest between only the two of them.
When Deculein raised the price, Yulie answered.
The auctioneer’s calls continued without pause, and as everyone in the hall watched the two of them, gasps and cheers rang out like background music.
The reason the venue was so excited was likely not due to the financial struggle, but because the ones fighting each other were Deculein and Yulie.
—Number 777, thirty-seven million elne!
Even up to thirty-seven million, Deculein remained at ease, but Yulie’s hand began to tremble. Her balance was slowly reaching its limit.
Even so, she did not want to lose.
—Number 1089, thirty-eight million.
The amount Yulie raised with all her might—thirty-eight million.
Deculein immediately, without the slightest delay, crushed it.
—Number 777, thirty-nine million.
Yulie’s shoulders flinched.
For a moment, the noise in the room stopped. Everyone held their breath and looked at Yulie.
After steadying her breathing for a few seconds, Yulie abandoned the idea of giving up. She bid with the resolve to sell even her mansion in the capital.
And so, once again—number 1089, forty million.
A second silence settled.
Deculein remained still for quite a long time.
With his eyes closed, he thought.
Yulie seemed desperate for the Snowflake Stone in her own way, but if I took this Snowflake Stone...
Would she come to resent me?
Could it possibly lead to a death variable?
...There is no way.
Deculein—no, Kim Woojin—trusted Yulie’s character.
Above all, he himself was just as desperate for this Snowflake Stone as Yulie was.
“Hoo... hoo...”
Meanwhile, the top of Yulie’s head, tense to the limit, began to bristle. Unable to control her hurried breathing, her shoulders kept rising and falling. Yulie was the type to reveal her emotions with her whole body.
—It seems the owner of the Snowflake Stone is about to be decided as number 1089...
Thirty seconds passed.
Only then did Yulie seem relieved, gently placing both hands on her knees. Calm and peaceful, she looked as though she intended to enjoy her victory.
At that moment—
—Number 777, forty-two million elne!
“Ah!”
Yulie’s eyes flew open, and she screamed. However, the entire auction hall was already in an uproar, so her uncultured cry did not stand out.
“Ugh...”
Yulie gritted her teeth and her hands trembled, but in the end, she closed her eyes and lowered her head. Her lower lip and eyelids quivered.
The helplessness of not wanting to acknowledge defeat, yet having no choice but to do so. That unpleasant emotion spread all the way to her extremities.
She had no money left.
—We will call it three final times. Forty-two million elne, forty-two million elne, forty-two million elne! The owner of the magical metal, Snowflake Stone, is our esteemed guest number 777!
Thus victory and defeat were decided, and Deculein remained calm even in victory.
Clap, clap, clap—
The distinguished guests in the auction hall applauded him. He responded with nothing more than a dignified glance.
—Holding onto this excitement, we shall proceed to the next item.
Of course, the auction continued afterward, but neither Yulie nor Deculein found anything particularly noteworthy.
According to Deculein’s trait, the latter half of the auction was full of nothing but overpriced, overvalued items.
And so, Deculein waited for the auction to end while maintaining the utmost dignity.
The sight of Yulie’s back, trembling with the crown of her head flushed red, was, in its own way, worrying to him.
* * *
The auction ended. Yulie staggered to her feet. Just as she was about to leave the auction hall, someone blocked her path.
Deculein. Those blue crystal-like eyes were looking down at her.
“...Congratulations.”
Yulie did not want to say anything, nor did she want to hear anything.
But Deculein, without fail, spoke.
“Did you want the Snowflake Stone too?”
“...Ha.”
In that instant, her heart creaked.
The torrent at the bottom of her emotions stirred—throbbed.
Yulie felt as though she knew what he was about to say.
The day of their engagement, that worst memory, replayed in her mind.
“...If you want, I can give these to you. If you wish it, I can do anything for you.”
That was what he had said. With “everything” she had once wanted lined up inside the room.
What Yulie felt there had not been happiness or ecstasy. It had been nothing but humiliation.
However, the “true disgrace” had come afterward.
After the day Yulie cast Deculein aside and left, all sorts of bizarre rumors rose like fog.
That lofty flower had finally been broken by Deculein—Yulie had been promised Hadekain’s knight order by Deculein—Yulie was actually the one who had wanted the engagement first—
They were words that sullied her beliefs.
Did he think doing that would make me return to him?
What a foolish man.
A man whom, no matter how hard she tried, she could never love.
This time, too, surely he would...
“I’m sorry.”
“What exactly are you trying to say—pardon?”
Deculein turned around.
That single inexplicable apology was the end of it.
Deculein immediately left, and Yulie stared blankly at his back.
“Uh... hmm.”
She was rather flustered, but soon decided it was fortunate and went out into the lobby. At the very least, as long as it was not a repeat of one year ago, that was enough.
“...Haa.”
Surely that should have been enough, and yet a deep sigh escaped her.
Snowflake Stone.
It was the first one on the market in two years, and the first auction in three.
She had looked forward to it that much.
And yet, it had been taken from her.
By the person she least wanted to lose to, no less.
—...Why do you think Professor Deculein bought the Snowflake Stone?
A voice that suddenly reached her hovered by Yulie’s ears.
—Who knows? Well, obviously...
They, the nobles, were always chattering. As if spreading rumors were their calling.
No, not only them. Everyone in the waiting room was talking about what had happened today.
Just like back then, one year ago.
Pouring words she did not want to hear into her ears.
—It must be to give as a gift to his fiancée, right?
Yulie gritted her teeth.
—Hohoho. That must be it, of course. But then shouldn’t he have just yielded it to her?
—You know Professor Deculein’s personality. I think he went that far because he wanted to make it into a sword himself and give it to her.
She knew one should not judge based only on words that happened to be heard.
But his precedent was far too clear...
And in the first place, Snowflake Stone was a metal that could not be used magically. Its internal mana was too solid, so it could only be used as a sword.
It was a difficult metal that would only barely allow one to clad it in sword aura after swinging it thousands, tens of thousands of times and forming a certain degree of rapport with it.
So why on earth had Deculein, a mage, purchased it?
“...”
Yulie swallowed the sigh rising from deep within her dantian.
—His fiancée is truly enviable. A gift worth forty million elne. I would be honored just to receive a necklace worth forty thousand.
—Exactly. And yet that Lord Peuhaireuden is doing such useless push and pull. When they’ve already seen everything there is to see...
If she stayed amid this gossip of wild guesses and speculation, she felt as though she would go mad. Yulie pushed through the crowd and immediately ran out of Schatzinsel.
A street where the sea wind pierced through.
In the bitter chill, Yulie hunched over. She steadied her breathing and calmed her wavering heart.
It’s fine. It’s nothing.
There was no need to be swayed by words that were not even true. She was now sickeningly used to experiences like this, so she should not be shaken anymore...
A car approached her side.
Quietly, the rear door opened first.
“Yulie.”
A familiar face called her name. At the unexpected tone, Yulie blankly raised her head.
“...Sister?”
The woman smiling at Yulie was the eldest daughter of the Peuhaireuden family and her older sister, “Yusefin.”
“I knew this would happen. Hurry and get in.”
Yusefin was a beauty in a different sense from Yulie.
In Yulie’s opinion, hers was a “charm on another level.” Her bob cut around her shoulders was more beautiful than anyone else’s, and her bright, elegant features always made Yulie feel shabby.
“What are you doing? Hurry and get in.”
“...”
Yulie found her sister, who was so very different from herself, uncomfortable in many ways, but today she got into the car without saying much.
Yusefin, whose authority in high society was as great as Deculein’s—perhaps even greater—was the only support Yulie could lean on in such a situation.
* * *
...Indeed, Yulie was a good person.
She, at least “she herself,” was an existence far removed from the “Villain’s Fate.” No death variable applied to her as she was now.
I had been able to confirm that in the auction hall. It was an intuition I was certain of through “Vision.”
How pathetic I was to worry about retaliation merely because I had taken the Snowflake Stone from her.
“How much must she have suffered...”
But truly, how much must she have suffered?
For that kind Yulie to have killed Deculein with her own hands.
I found myself looking back anew at the Deculein from the game I had played.
Just how far gone were you, exactly?
“We have arrived.”
While I was thinking all sorts of things, we arrived at the mansion.
“...Good work.”
“Yes. Rest well, sir!”
When I checked the clock, it was well past midnight.
I got out of the car and walked through the garden leading to the main building.
“...?”
But for some reason.
At the mansion’s entrance, the servants were gathered, unable to sit still. Upon seeing me, they rushed over with quick steps.
“M-My Lord. My Lord. Miss Yeriel has—”
“I know.”
I went upstairs without asking about the situation. Waving off the servants who tried to follow, I climbed the stairs and opened the door.
“······.”
In the center of the living room where moonlight seeped in, a dark silhouette stood. That gloomy shadow turned around the moment the door opened.
Shadows veiled the face, but I could tell.
It was Yeriel.
I was about to ask what she had come for.
But Yeriel opened her mouth first. It was a dry, cracked voice.
“······It was the payment to acquire the Jereon Mine. You said you’d hold onto it for a moment—was this what you were planning to do?”
Tears welled in the corners of Yeriel’s eyes as she said that.
I felt a pang, but I didn’t show it.
Ah, no wonder. I had thought there was far too much money in the personal account.
Since he was such a wealthy character, I had thought two hundred million was only natural.
It was a glaring oversight.
“Don’t worry. I only bought things that are certain to turn a profit.”
However, this was the unvarnished truth.
At the auction house, I had only purchased items whose value would rise far above their original price, and I planned to sell them later after causing their potential to bloom with the 「Hand of Midas」. Two or three times the purchase price would be child’s play······.
“You—!”
But right now, none of my words seemed to reach this girl. A piercing cry tore at my ears.
Yeriel, having screamed out once, panted like a growling beast.
“You’re treating me······ like a trash can.”
I looked at Yeriel. The tremor in her voice was spreading throughout her entire body.
“Do you think I’m someone who just cleans up your shit beside you?”
I was bewildered.
In my not-so-short life, I had never once faced rage of this magnitude.
“On top of everything, laws have changed lately, so the retainers can’t even sleep and work all day long, yet you blow all the wealth we accumulated in one go? You crazy bastard! What kind of dog-shit profit is that! Are you gambling with territory money?!”
A thick red aura was bursting wildly from Yeriel’s entire body. It was the manifestation of 「Villain’s Fate」.
But at the same time, golden light was rising brilliantly as well. It was the manifestation of 「Wealthy Tycoon」.
“You, you, you······.”
The meaning of this contradiction was simple.
If I couldn’t smooth over this situation, Yeriel would become a death variable for me, and if we got past it safely, she would become an enormous source of money.
For some reason, I felt like I knew the answer to such a complicated problem.
Fortunately, I already knew what this girl wanted.
“Don’t worry.”
“Bullshit! This isn’t worry, you fucking moron! You, you shitty bastard, you, you always dump shit on us!”
Yeriel hurled the words like she was convulsing. Spittle mixed with tears splattered in all directions.
“You think I’ll live like this forever? I dropped out of university because of you! Fuck, I haven’t even had a single ordinary relationship!”
“You don’t have to.”
“What do you mean I don’t have to! You, after our parents died, what have you done for the family! All you do is go out and have fun, pissing away money like water. Wow, you shitty bastard who blows 150 million in a single day—”
“I will give you the position of head of the house.”
“You piece of shit! No, you’re not even worth that. You dung beetle! Just roll······ just roll around in shit and drop dea——······?”
Yeriel’s curses cut off.
She had the look of someone repeating in her head what she had just heard.
Still unable to understand at all, she widened her eyes and tilted her head.
“What, what did you just say?”
Dekyulrein is the head of House Yukrein.
But I know.
What the ending of ‘Lord’ Dekyulrein is.
“Wh-what did you just say······?”
If Dekyulrein returns to the territory and plays the part of a lord, the best possible ending is being poisoned to death.
From the beginning, in the game, Dekyulrein was a professor, not a lord.
So even if I stubbornly clung to the position of head, it would only become a death variable.
Even if by some chance it didn’t become a death variable, I had no intention of playing SimCity.
“······Listen well. I will say this only once.”
Moreover, the position of head was originally Yeriel’s due. In the game, Dekyulrein was ‘Professor Dekyulrein,’ but in the later half—that is, the ‘Count Yukrein’ after Dekyulrein’s death—was always Yeriel.
Therefore······.
It is a simple matter.
“The position of head of the house.”
That which I have no need for whatsoever.
That which is nothing more than a death variable.
That which you will usurp later even if I don’t give it now.
That which was originally your due.
“I will give to you.”
To you,
To you, my younger sister.
I shall bestow it upon you as if granting a favor.
“······Huh?”
Yeriel asked back cutely.