A Fortune-telling Princess - Chapter 144

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Is he trying to con someone? If he’s not careful, he’ll end up taking every last coin I have. I need to stay sharp!
“What are you talking about? I already handled the deposit and final payment.”
“Oh, did you?”
“Huh?”
Watching Jainer laugh so shamelessly, Camilla gave him a light glare. Where did he think he was getting a second payment from?
The one I had entrusted with handling this matter regarding Dorald’s shop was Khan.
I hadn’t met Jainer directly—I’d gone to the Khan Branch officially and placed the request.
To send a warning arrow at Dorald once a day.
‘Actually, it was two arrows, not one.’
One arrow bore the exact amount of damages the shop had suffered from their actions written upon it.
The other carried a warning. This was precisely why Dorald’s complexion had grown increasingly haggard as D-Day approached.
“Did you receive the money properly?”
“Thanks to your arrangement.”
In the end, when an arrow pierced dangerously close to his heart yesterday, Dorald sent someone to deliver the compensation.
I also secured his firm promise that he would no longer cause trouble at the shop.
“What would you have done if there was no response until the final day?”
My request to Khan contained no assassination clause. In other words, even if the final day came, they wouldn’t have killed him.
“I would have found another way.”
“Money wasn’t the objective, was it? You wanted to stop him from causing trouble at the shop, right?”
“That’s right.”
A little over a thousand gold. An astronomical sum for ordinary people, but mere pocket change for someone like me who earned in mana stones on a different scale entirely.
I had no intention of even considering hiring an assassination agency.
‘That’s not what matters.’
What I wanted was to firmly stop Dorald’s behavior—the way he kept clinging like a pest, causing damage.
There was also a desire to properly repay, at least in part, the emotional suffering that Laila and the other employees had endured.
“Suffering in silence simply isn’t in my nature.”
“Then there are simpler ways to handle this than that.”
“Simpler ways?”
At her question, watching Jainer’s eyes narrow gracefully, a short sigh escaped Camilla’s lips.
She immediately understood what kind of “simple handling” he was referring to.
She clicked her tongue at how he still treated human lives—no, death itself—so lightly.
‘There’s truly no understanding him.’
Whether it was his nature or the result of his repeated existence.
“Take this instead.”
“What?”
Camilla retrieved something from the small drawer beside her bed and held it out to him. It was a rose-shaped brooch with a dark luster.
“A mana stone?”
“You recognized it immediately. It contains protective magic. I had it specially commissioned.”
“You’re giving this to me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Wariness flickered across his face. His lips still curved in that familiar smile, but his eyes gleamed with the intensity of someone trying to discern hidden intentions.
“Repayment for what you did before.”
Back then, I had been too overwhelmed to even offer proper thanks.
Now, expressing it in mere words felt somewhat hollow, so I simply prepared a small gift instead.
He accepted the brooch and stared at it with a somewhat dazed expression.
But soon, a smile settled habitually at the corners of his mouth.
“But why two?”
“Hm?”
“Why are there two brooches?”
“That’s…”
‘I should have made just one.’
While crafting the rose-shaped brooches, I had prepared an extra one.
After all, I had received considerable help from that person during my time in the Gracia Empire.
But when it came to actually asking him to deliver it, the words wouldn’t come easily.
“How generous of you to give two.”
“…Yes.”
Ultimately, I swallowed my words with a brief sigh.
“Then may I give one to someone else as I see fit?”
“Someone else?”
“Yes, I’d like to give it to Father.”
“…What?”
“I think he would be delighted.”
Watching Jainer laugh playfully as though he already knew everything, I found myself momentarily speechless.
Eventually, I too offered a faint smile and gave a light nod.
“Speaking of which, about the Tower of Guardians…”
I hastily changed the subject, feeling oddly flustered.
“Is this the first time?”
“That it collapsed?”
“Yes.”
Until now, the Tower of Guardians had never crumbled even once.
Wondering if perhaps my memory was faulty or if there was something I had overlooked, I asked Jainer to confirm.
“It’s the first time.”
He too seemed unable to hide the intrigue in his eyes, as though experiencing something unprecedented.
Watching Jainer’s face light up with such delight at the occurrence of something different—whether lives were lost or not—I exhaled another short sigh.
‘He wasn’t like this at first.’
Before me, he seemed to be dropping his mask more and more with each passing moment.
Whenever I faced that side of him—the way he treated others’ lives as mere dust for the sake of his own amusement—my entire body would prickle with dread.
“So you don’t know about it either?”
“No.”
“How strange.”
Encountering something that has never happened before in all my years leaves me somewhat bewildered.
There was Lania, who appeared claiming to be Duke Sorpel’s daughter, and now the Tower of Guardians has collapsed.
‘Why do these things keep happening in this life?’
Could my actions—subtly altering the circumstances around me differently than before—be influencing other events?
‘Is that why events that were supposed to happen are occurring slightly earlier?’
I had wondered the same thing when I met Lania, but since I knew nothing about what happened after the original Camilla died, it was difficult to draw any firm conclusions.
As for Jainer, since he supposedly died when Camilla died, I likely knew nothing more about the future anyway.
“Still, you know.”
Jainer’s voice reached my ears, pulling me from my thoughts.
“Not a single event that happened has ever failed to occur.”
“Is that so?”
Now that I think about it, he’s right.
While the outcomes of events have changed because of me, not once has an event itself failed to occur.
“Then I suppose a rather significant incident will break out soon?”
“A significant incident?”
Around this time? What was it again…?
“Ah!”
I remember now!
“The Guardian Sword.”
That sword will be stolen very soon!
* * *
“Dessert is served.”
“….”
“….”
“Please enjoy.”
“…Eat it?”
“…Are we supposed to drink it?”
“Of course.”
“What exactly is this dark liquid?”
“I’ve never seen a beverage like this before.”
I had invited Arsian and Petro to the cafe. A new menu item had just arrived, and I thought it would be perfect for them.
“Coffee.”
At last, the black beans that the Gracia Empire had been waiting for arrived.
Having already prepared everything from the grinder to the filter paper, I had gone through countless trials and errors to discover the perfect coffee taste for my palate.
‘It’s definitely not the coffee beans I knew before.’
Remarkably, these black beans required no roasting whatsoever.
From the start, the black beans appeared as charred little granules, and they already exuded a subtle coffee aroma on their own. When properly dried, the fragrance became even richer.
“Coffee? What is that?”
“Just try it.”
For the two who disliked sweets, I prepared a pure original Americano without any syrup, generously filled with expensive ice.
“You really want us to drink this?”
“May we partake?”
These people!
Yet both Arsian and Petro merely repeated the same question, hesitating to reach for the coffee.
The color alone made it look like something no human should consume.
“Is this perhaps poison?”
“It is not.”
“You’re really sure we should drink this?”
“Would I give you something I couldn’t eat myself?”
Their eyes remained skeptical, but the two lifted their cups to their lips.
Gulp.
“It’s bitter.”
“Quite bitter indeed.”
Such was their initial assessment.
“However…”
“The aftertaste is remarkably clean.”
“There’s more to it than just bitterness?”
“It has a nutty quality, and I detect a subtle tartness as well.”
Ah! They grasped coffee’s exquisite complexity at once?
Perhaps because it wasn’t a sweet beverage, the two seemed genuinely pleased with the coffee despite tasting it for the first time, judging by their behavior.
They continued lifting the cup to their lips, sipping gradually, one draught after another.
“This is also a new product from our cafe.”
I set down the desserts Laila had recently perfected before them—tiramisu and other confections crafted with coffee.
Naturally, these too were desserts born solely from my memories, yet Laila had flawlessly recreated their flavors once again.
Truly, our genius pastry chef!
“Hmm.”
“What do you think?”
“Better than the others, at least.”
“I find it quite delightful.”
Their praise for the sweet dessert remained lukewarm, yet unlike before, they didn’t immediately set down their forks after a single bite.
Isn’t this a complete success?
“The sweetness pairs remarkably well with this beverage.”
Exactly! Coffee is indeed the perfect companion to sweet desserts!
Camilla nodded with satisfaction. I was already planning to create a set menu pairing coffee and cake with a discount.
“By the way, Petro.”
That settled, I shifted the conversation to another topic.
After all, there was an original purpose to arranging this gathering.
“How is Duke Jebillen doing?”
At that question, Petro’s eyes widened slightly. Surprising, wasn’t it? We were never particularly close.
No, rather we were distant with each other.
But Petro soon wore his characteristic gentle smile.
“Yes, I’ll convey my regards to Father.”
No, there’s no need to convey anything at all.
“Just in case, you see.”
“…?”
“Isn’t Duke Sorpel planning to leave for somewhere distant soon?”
“Pardon?”
“I was just wondering if there might be something that would keep the Sorpel Household vacant for a while.”
This too was such an unexpected question that Petro stared at Camilla in silence for a moment.
He looked puzzled as to why she would ask such a thing. Then his head nodded gently.
“Next week or so, by His Majesty’s orders, Father will depart for the Evlica Kingdom. It concerns inter-state business, so I’m afraid I cannot speak of the details. Please understand, Camilla.”
“That’s it!”
“Yes?”
“Ah… haha….”
Camilla, who had sprung to her feet and cried out without thinking, quietly sat back down with an awkward laugh.
‘So that’s when it happens.’
That must be when I lose the Guardian Sword.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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