I had a great deal on my plate these days—keeping tabs on Andrew and Hillen, preparing for various contingencies involving Kavala—but that didn't mean I neglected the daily life I had finally reclaimed.
I refused to let them steal my joy.
"My heart is pounding."
I placed my hand on my chest as I spoke.
"Are you scared?"
Lamia asked with concern.
I shook my head and smiled brightly.
"No! I'm just excited! I'm riding alone!"
I had been learning horseback riding these past few weeks.
There were so many things I wanted to do before the curse might trigger again—I didn't know when it would strike next, so I was working quickly through the list of skills I'd resolved to master. Horseback riding was one of them.
'I can't be a burden every time I need to travel somewhere.'
Until yesterday, I'd been practicing my posture while Leviche held the horse's reins and led me around the courtyard.
The people of Ronheim said that children could ride horses independently from the age of six. I was the only person here who couldn't ride, and since everyone was so skilled at horsemanship, I'd been learning from Leviche without needing to hire a special instructor.
Before I learned to ride, I'd never realized how difficult it was just to sit still on a horse by myself.
'If I hadn't been carried by Callius when I first came to Ronheim, I would never have made it here—no matter how slowly we traveled...'
Simply holding the proper posture had caused me terrible muscle aches every night.
But now that the soreness had faded and my posture had improved significantly, I was finally ready to hold the reins with my own hands for the first time.
"Let's go!"
I shouted enthusiastically.
Compared to my grand momentum, the horse started off at a very slow, cautious pace.
'I'm so excited I feel dizzy.'
It felt different from a headache—this was pure exhilaration.
In all my life, I never thought I would be able to ride a horse by myself.
I couldn't stop smiling. The simple joy of accomplishing something so ordinary—yet so impossible in my previous life—filled me with warmth.
My destination was to pass through the castle courtyard, follow the path beside the main building, and reach the training ground where Callius's knights were drilling.
It wasn't a long or particularly difficult route, but I found it quite challenging because I had to change direction a couple of times along the way.
Lamia and Leviche followed on either side of me, ready to catch me if I fell from the saddle.
Whenever castle employees and soldiers passed by, they waved at me encouragingly.
"You're doing wonderfully, my lady!"
"Keep it up!"
"You can do it!"
Everyone had witnessed how hard I'd been practicing my posture in front of the castle these past weeks, so they were genuinely cheering me on.
I rode forward like a triumphant general—though my "triumph" consisted mostly of staying upright.
"Left. Turn left. No, left... Wait, this is right now. Right! That's it! Right..."
Although I was speaking almost exclusively with my mouth rather than my body, somehow—whether the horse understood my intentions or my earnest heart simply got through—I arrived safely at the training ground.
From a distance, I could see Callius training his knights.
I wanted to wave, but I was afraid I'd fall off the horse if I let go, so I simply called out to him.
"Callius!"
At my call, Callius spotted me immediately and waved back with a brilliant smile.
The knights exclaimed in unison—"Oh...!"—when they saw me, but they remained quiet afterward, clearly worried that if they applauded and cheered too loudly, they might startle the horse.
I continued riding cautiously toward them.
But my desire to go to Callius and the horse's own intentions seemed to be... diverging.
"Uh... um...?"
The horse veered toward a corner where there was no clear path, carefully avoiding the gathered knights.
"Where are you going?"
Callius followed me, his shoulders shaking with barely suppressed laughter.
Because he was following me, Leviche and Lamia had fallen behind—and I could hear them laughing as well.
I couldn't turn my head to confirm with my own eyes, but I could tell from the sound.
The horse kept heading toward the corner.
"I can't stop it..."
"Give me the reins."
"I can't move my arms."
"Just extend your arm slightly toward me."
"No, I really don't think that will work."
"Relax your shoulders. And stop talking for a moment."
I tried to signal the horse as Leviche had taught me.
But the horse refused to stop, so I kept muttering my desperate pleas without even realizing it.
"Stop. Please stop. Stop, stop, stop..."
Callius couldn't help but laugh outright.
"Who on earth taught you that you have to beg a horse to stop?"
"No one! That's not what I'm doing! I'm giving it signals with my body right now—stop teasing me!"
The knights burst into laughter, holding their stomachs.
I was the only one shouting indignantly while Callius just stood there grinning at his men instead of reprimanding them.
"Everyone, stop laughing at me!"
But even as I protested, I was smiling too.
'This is what life should be like. Laughter. Warmth. Small victories.'
In my previous life, I would never have dared to make a fool of myself like this. I would have been terrified of being judged, of being called mad, of giving Andrea more ammunition to use against me.
But here—now—I could laugh at my own clumsiness without fear.
Because I was free.
* * *
Meanwhile, Andrea had recently found a new business partner.
His new associate, Truro Levant, was a decent man—if not quite as impressive as Viscount Pelsus had been.
Though Truro owned a fairly large trading business, he wasn't conservative about expansion. He harbored clear ambitions for social advancement and didn't hesitate to bow and scrape before Andrea in pursuit of a title.
'You can't accomplish anything if you're only given a title without effort.'
Andrea sneered inwardly as he thought of Truro, so desperate to impress him.
'I'll prove how brilliant I am at business. I'll amass a fortune and earn Mother's approval at last.'
He didn't have the confidence to take up a sword and march onto the battlefield. The political arena was so tightly controlled by Kavala that there was no room for him to interfere.
The only field where he could prove his abilities was business.
'Mother thinks I'm just wasting my time with foolish ventures...'
Although Kavala didn't recognize Andrea's business acumen, she at least hoped he would stay quiet and avoid meddling in politics. She'd rather he spent his time making money than causing trouble.
But Andrea had no intention of wasting his time merely gambling or carousing.
'It has to be big. So big that Mother will finally be surprised. So big she'll have to acknowledge me.'
A burning desire for recognition consumed Andrea's heart.
So he'd gone to meet Truro again today, determined to figure out how to make a significant fortune quickly.
But the news he received from Truro was... less than pleasant.
"The Elford Merchant Company succeeded in pioneering the new trade route?"
"Yes, Your Highness. The ships arrived at port one after another—a majestic procession. They were laden with gold, silver, and exotic treasures from the new colony."
"Didn't you tell me that Elford's venture was unlikely to succeed? What happened?"
Truro—short, portly, and perpetually sweating—dabbed at his forehead with a handkerchief.
"I... not only I, but no one expected Elford to succeed, Your Highness..."
"No one expected it? Then how did Elford's company have the capital to launch so many ships? It must have been difficult to manage with just their own funds! They couldn't have poured all their capital into such an uncertain venture!"
"That's... it seems there was a major investor who lent them substantial funds..."
"No one expected Elford to succeed—and yet someone funded them? Who? Who would take such a risk?"
Andrea's voice rose with each word.
Truro fidgeted nervously, shifting his weight from foot to foot.
"Well, that... everyone in the merchant's guild unanimously agreed it was impossible... ah, not the guild exactly, but the investors—"
"Who? A nobleman? Who the hell was it?"
"The Elford Company has kept their major investor's identity strictly confidential, Your Highness. No matter how hard anyone tries to dig up information, they can't discover who it was."
"What? If you've been so successful with an investment, wouldn't you want to reveal your identity? Why hide it? Why?"
Investors typically rushed to announce their successful ventures before anyone even asked. That way, they'd be recognized for their business acumen and could easily expand their influence as major players in the industry.
If you succeeded, wouldn't you want to associate with other successful people? To share information and build alliances?
Andrea felt like he was going mad with jealousy over this mysterious investor who had made a fortune by backing Elford—the very company no one else had dared to support.
He ranted and raged for several minutes before finally calming down enough to ask another question.
"What about Bielefeld? Have the ships I invested in from the Bielefeld Company arrived yet?"
Ironically, he didn't even know the current status of his own investment, yet here he was, consumed with jealousy over someone else's success.
Andrea leaned forward with an expectant expression.
"If Elford succeeded, then Bielefeld shouldn't have had too much difficulty either, right? Right? You invested in Bielefeld too, didn't you? I trusted you so much that I even issued promissory notes to make that investment!"
When Andrea had heard that the merchant's guild was investing in Bielefeld's maritime expedition, he'd taken out loans and made what he'd considered a bold, calculated investment.
But Truro's expression was... abnormal.
"Well... Your Highness must understand that maritime trade is inherently dangerous... ships often sink due to pirates, or typhoons, or outbreaks of infectious disease on board..."
"So? What are you trying to say?"
Andrea's expression gradually hardened into something cold and furious.
Truro looked like he wanted to cry.
"You must know, Your Highness, that it's incredibly difficult to succeed in such ventures... that's precisely why those who do succeed make tremendous profits... I told you from the very beginning that it was a high-risk investment—"
"So! What! What happened?!"
"They... sank. Every single ship."
"What?! Are you telling me all my money just disappeared into the ocean?!"
Truro squeezed his eyes shut, bracing himself.
He had never understood how much he'd envied Viscount Pelsus—how Pelsus had been so close to Prince Andrea, had been granted a viscountcy, had been able to associate with true nobility.
So when Viscount Pelsus disappeared and Andrea came looking for a new business partner, Truro had thought it was a gift from the gods.
But lately, he'd begun to suspect it might be a temptation from the devil, not from any benevolent deity.
Truro watched Andrea with exhausted eyes.
The prince was raging like a madman, hurling furniture and smashing whatever he could reach.
'That's the devil himself. That's what he is.'
Truro was genuinely resentful. After all, Andrea had been the one who insisted on investing so heavily. Wasn't investment supposed to be about personal responsibility?
'I didn't threaten him into investing. He made his own choice.'
After several minutes of violent outburst, Andrea finally shouted his next declaration.
"The Bielefeld investment failed, but I'll make absolutely certain we succeed with the Terramo acquisition! I'll stake everything on it! Do you understand me? Everything!"
Andrea didn't know.
He had no idea that the mysterious major investor in the Elford Merchant Company had already moved on to the next target—that this same investor had used the massive capital earned from Elford's success to jump into the acquisition of the Terramo Company.
And he certainly didn't know the identity of this formidable rival who kept snatching away every opportunity he sought.
The mysterious investor was none other than his own half-sister.
Chloe.
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