Me, a Princess? My Lord! - Chapter 105

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 105

“Tell me. What kind of expression am I looking at you with?”

At Deshion’s question, Heidi’s face turned a little redder.

“That’s…!”

“…”

“Right now you look exactly like…”

Heidi frowned slightly. Her lips trembled several times before she squeezed out her voice.

“Someone who’s fallen in love or something. Though that can’t be possible.”

“…”

“Stop looking at me like that. Anyone would misunderstand. Don’t just… don’t smile like you find me endearing.”

Deshion shrugged his shoulders.

“I didn’t make that expression on purpose. But seeing that you felt that way…”

Deshion looked into Heidi’s eyes and slowly blinked. Heidi’s face, backlit by moonlight, was half swallowed by darkness, but he could vividly picture her expression.

Eyes widened round. Light purple pupils trembling in confusion. Two cheeks that would be flushed red.

It was exactly as Heidi had said. To Deshion’s eyes, she seemed endearing.

He wanted to deny it, and had actually stubbornly turned away from his own feelings, but it seemed that too had now reached its limit.

“Well. I suppose that’s how you appear to my eyes. Endearing.”

* * *

‘What on earth did those words mean?’

On the way back to the capital city, Heidi’s mind was completely jumbled with the enigmatic words Deshion had thrown at her.

‘He said I was endearing? Does he just mean I looked pretty in that moment? Or that he loves me… No, that’s going too far. It’s probably more like the sentiment you feel when looking at a cute cat or puppy? But if that’s all it was, there’d be no need to be so ambiguous about it.’

Her thoughts endlessly chained together. She’d been thinking so much that now she was starting to wonder if yesterday’s events were a dream or reality.

But an even bigger matter was waiting for Heidi when she returned to the capital city.

“Truly admirable. I knew you’d do well, but you did far better than I expected. I recognized your qualities from the start. Well done, Heidi. Really well done!”

Before she could fully savor The King’s lavish praise and Anastasia’s crumpled expression, Heidi received a letter.

“I would like to see you briefly. It’s urgent.

-Deon”

Heidi secretly summoned the herbalist Deon to her palace. Though she hadn’t even recovered from her travel fatigue yet, she had an intuition that this wouldn’t be an ordinary matter.

Deon, who had plopped down in a chair, opened his mouth without even catching his breath.

“About what you asked me to investigate before.”

“You already have results? It wasn’t difficult to investigate?”

At Heidi’s words, Deon shook his head.

“It wasn’t difficult. Actually, it was ridiculously simple. They were things I knew well. There were some ornamental plants mixed in, but most were herbs used for medicine.”

A faint line appeared between Heidi’s brows.

“Not poisonous plants? Lawrence clearly said…”

Deon shrugged and answered.

“There are poisonous ones too. But originally, medicinal herbs and poisonous plants aren’t so clearly distinguished. Used well, they become medicine; used wrongly, they become poison.”

Deon took a deep breath before speaking.

“Most were common herbs. Very widely used.”

“Then there’s no problem…”

“In principle, that’s correct.”

Deon leaned his bear-like large body against the table and asked.

“But you said last time that all these leaves were picked from a greenhouse, right?”

“That’s right.”

“Are you certain? This is an important question.”

Heidi nodded with a puzzled expression.

“Yes, I’m certain. I heard it directly from the person who picked the leaves. Why do you ask?”

Deon made a groaning sound.

“Because this herb cannot be cultivated artificially. At least, that’s what’s known. Since it can only grow in specific environments, it could only be obtained by foraging from nature.”

Deon lowered his voice and whispered.

“Whose greenhouse exactly did you discover this in?”

“That’s…”

After pondering briefly, Heidi confessed truthfully.

“In Viscount Pretium’s greenhouse.”

“Viscount Pretium… you mean Clovis Ervin Pretium?”

Heidi’s eyes widened.

“You know him?”

Of course, there would be few people who didn’t know the Pretium family. Since Deon had dealt with countless people traveling between the capital city and provinces, he would know them even better.

‘But he knows even the exact name?’

Heidi looked puzzled as she met Deon’s eyes. As if understanding Heidi’s question, he immediately answered.

“Viscount Pretium is famous among herbalists. Nobles usually have no interest in plants and such, but he’s different.”

Heidi nodded.

“Seeing that he has greenhouses of that scale even at his capital city estate, I can understand that.”

“That’s not all.”

“Not all?”

“Pretium Trading Company imports all kinds of plants and herbs from foreign countries. Other trading companies occasionally bring them in too, but compared to the quantity Pretium imports, it’s a negligible level. So herbalists couldn’t possibly not know the name Pretium.”

Deon shook his head and laughed.

“Now that Princess mentions it, it makes sense. If someone found a way to cultivate these herbs personally, it would surely be that person.”

Heidi slowly nodded, trying to understand Deon’s words.

“I see. But is that a problem?”

“There’s something strange about it.”

“What’s strange?”

Deon placed a pouch full of dried leaves on the table and answered.

“At some point, it became increasingly difficult to obtain these herbs in Panther. It’s been going on for several years. At first, I thought it was just a blight or problems caused by environmental changes.”

Deon raised an eyebrow.

“But as if someone had deliberately swept them away, all the herb colonies were completely devastated. Some places even had traces of being burned.”

“…!”

“There are rules tacitly observed among herbalists. A kind of business ethics. We absolutely never harvest more herbs than necessary. Unless the roots are absolutely needed, we rarely uproot plants entirely. That way these herbs can continue to grow.”

Heidi’s expression became more serious.

“Then it must have become increasingly difficult to harvest herbs.”

“Exactly. So herb prices had no choice but to keep rising. Princess, you know this well. Nora Dalton’s medicine costs also skyrocketed day by day. That period was the beginning.”

Heidi’s pupils shook greatly. Her skull felt numb as if someone had struck the back of her head with a brick.

“These days we mostly buy from herb shops. Since most are imported, the prices are extremely expensive. But isn’t this strange?”

“…”

“If the Viscount has the ability to cultivate this, and could mass-produce it somewhere…”

Heidi muttered as if whispering.

“He could be selling it to herb shops at high prices for profit.”

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