The Eldest Daughter Walks Down The Flower Path - Chapter 34

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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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The Eldest Daughter Walks the Path of Flowers Episode 34

“Radis…!”

Eve Russel, who had come to Radis’s room to find her, stopped in her tracks at the unfamiliar scene before her eyes.

The estate’s maids were gathered closely together on the drawing room sofa, looking at a book.

In the middle of them, Radis, who had been reading a book with her head close to Berry’s, looked up at Eve.

“Lord Russel?”

At her words, the maids were startled and put down their books, rising from their seats.

While Eve was stammering, the maids quickly tidied up their spots and flowed out of the drawing room like a receding tide.

Eve, feeling awkward, said.

“Did I interrupt something?”

Radis also closed the book she had been reading.

“Well, it can’t be helped.”

“What were you looking at?”

“April, who heard about the play, lent me this book. Everyone wanted to read it, so we were taking turns.”

Eve picked up one of the stacked books and checked the front cover.

Judging by the crude cover, it seemed to be a poor copy.

The title was 【Knight Angela】.

It seemed to be the original work of the play Eve and Radis had watched.

Holding the book in her hand, Eve narrowed her eyes and looked at Radis.

‘Come to think of it, didn’t she say she learned swordsmanship?’

When she first investigated Radis, Allen’s report seemed to have included such content.

Though she hadn’t looked at it carefully.

“Anyway!”

Eve threw the book aside and continued speaking.

“I didn’t come here to talk about this. I want to give my stepping stone a gift that contains gratitude, apology, and encouragement to keep working hard in the future. What would be good? Isn’t there anything you want?”

“What? That’s not necessary. I didn’t do anything.”

“You were really angry back then. It’s an apology, so tell me anything!”

Radis, who had been trying to decline firmly, fell into thought at the word ‘anything.’

Eve smiled triumphantly as she watched her.

‘Yes, think carefully! Stepping stone… no, my golden goose…!’

That day at the theater, exchanging glances with Olivier, Eve was able to feel some kind of certainty she had never felt before.

Eve Russel had been making constant efforts to break through Olivier’s fortress-like defensive wall.

Though she hated social gatherings to the point of being sick of them, she diligently traveled back and forth to the north until the Gate’s threshold was worn down, attending imperial banquets and busily making her presence known.

Recently, she had even volunteered to host Olivier’s birthday banquet, pouring money and manpower into it.

However, Olivier’s actual reaction was cold.

That attitude as if he was reluctantly going along with it.

Though she had poured a fortune into that one night’s banquet, there wasn’t even a single perfunctory word of thanks.

‘That bastard.’

Compared to that, taking Radis from the House of Tilrod and presenting her before Olivier was hardly any trouble at all.

But who would have thought the effect would be this tremendous.

That day at the theater, Eve could tell that she had finally gotten one step closer to Olivier.

However, the road ahead would still be rough, and Radis’s help would be essential for traveling that path.

‘For that purpose, it would be important to humor this needlessly strong goose.’

Then, Radis, who had been lost in thought, opened her mouth.

“I….”

Eve said with delight.

“Tell me anything. A new dress? Jewelry?”

“No. I don’t need those things. I need a sword.”

Eve looked at Radis with a completely cooled expression, then turned her gaze to the pile of books stacked beside her.

‘She got carried away after reading novels.’

Radis hesitated but continued speaking.

“If possible, I’d like a sword made of mana-enhanced iron. An ordinary longsword would be sufficient.”

Eve nodded while glaring at the books.

“Aha, mana enhancement.”

“And… the simpler the hilt design, the better.”

“Oh ho, did the book even include such details?”

“What?”

Seeing Eve’s expression, Radis flinched.

There was a reason Radis was hesitating like this.

Mana-enhanced iron was incredibly expensive.

Even in her previous life, if Robert hadn’t noticed she could use mana and given it to her as a gift, she never would have been able to use it.

‘She told me to say what I wanted….’

Radis hunched her shoulders and added.

“Or a small sword would be fine too….”

Eve nodded.

“Alright.”

“Really? Is that okay?”

“It seems far from the gift I had in mind, but I was the one who told you to say what you wanted.”

Eve left the drawing room feeling absurd.

“She must have really enjoyed reading the novel. Well, where in the world is there a person without any ridiculous aspects?”

It seemed like Radis had learned swordsmanship in the past, at least for self-defense.

Since she had read a novel featuring a female knight, it wouldn’t be unreasonable for her to want a sword.

Thinking about it that way, it was quite a girlish idea.

“The author seems to have done quite thorough research. Considering things like mana enhancement and hilt design. Really, she’s too modest. The way things are now, even if she said she wanted a gem worth about 1 billion rupens, I’d buy it for her, but just one sword. A sword…? Is there anything suitable?”

Eve headed to her office, lost in thought while pressing her nose bridge repeatedly.

“No way. Won’t do it. Can’t do it.”

Luks, the captain of the Russel Marquis’s Extermination Corps, shook his head sharply three times.

“What if you can’t do it? What if you won’t do it? How will you handle the consequences if you can’t do it?”

Marcel, Lord Russel’s adjutant, tapped the thick red oak table three times with his finger and spoke rapidly.

Luks shouted indignantly.

“Do you know how vast the Marquis’ domain is? In winter, the Extermination Corps has to split into three squads and patrol all that vast land! And what? You want us to patrol the pioneer settlements too?”

“That’s why you should have recruited enough personnel in summer!”

“I did! Marcel, listen to me. When you recruit a hundred men, less than fifty of them are actually useful in real combat. But you see, when winter comes, twenty of those fifty quit saying they can’t do it anymore. That leaves thirty, right? After a month, fifteen of them drop out due to injuries or mana poisoning. And by the end of winter? They’re all gone. This repeats every year!”

“Then you should have recruited two hundred men.”

“I tried to! But Ardon, that guy, took away all the decent candidates!”

Ardon was the leader of the Black Knight Order, the Marquis’s knight order.

The Black Knight Order was the Marquis’s regular knight order.

Naturally, their treatment was bound to be different from the Extermination Corps that hunted magical beasts.

So if the recruitment periods were similar, it was natural for talented young people to flock to the knight order.

Luks said gloomily.

“Anyway, the pioneer settlements are too much.”

Marcel got irritated.

“Then at least suggest an alternative. You’re not telling me to report to Lord Russel that you can’t do it, are you?”

“An alternative?”

Luks looked at Marcel with a ‘what do you mean by that?’ expression.

At that innocent expression, Marcel’s face became like a bulging-eyed goldfish as he tried to suppress his rising anger.

“Right now….”

Just then, the office door slid open smoothly.

Marcel and Luks rubbed their eyes, seeing an illusion of black mist billowing beyond the open door.

When they opened their dim eyes properly and looked outside the door, standing there was….

The Demon Archduke.

“What did I just hear.”

No, it was Lord Russel.

His voice was like the sound of hell echoing from between cracked earth.

“I think I heard something about the pioneer settlement being too much to handle.”

Eve Russel’s disheveled hair looked like protruding horns, and the black cloak draped over her shoulders resembled the wings of a demon archduke.

Marcel thought it was extremely fortunate that Lord Russel’s eyes were hidden behind drooping bangs.

No one had ever seen Lord Russel’s eyes, though some said the pupils were vertically slit while others claimed they were horizontally torn.

The most terrifying rumor was that anyone who saw Lord Russel’s eyes would turn to stone.

That’s why the stones in the courtyard kept mysteriously increasing without anyone knowing.

Luks shouted.

“I’ll make an eight-line poem with ‘the pioneer settlement is too much’!”

“Pio.”

“Pioneer settlement extermination!”

“Neer.”

“Near or far, I’ll do it!”

“Set.”

“Set… I’ll work even harder than before…!”

Marcel sighed as he watched Luks shouting earnestly with moistened eyes.

‘So if you think you can’t do it, at least come up with an alternative. You can’t even make a peep in front of His Lordship…’

After Luks left the office sniffling, Eve sat down at her seat with a nonchalant expression as if nothing had happened and spoke.

“If the extermination corps is short on personnel, have them handle the distant areas while the knights take care of the nearby regions. They don’t have much to do in winter anyway.”

“I understand that winter is an important training period for the knight order.”

“What could be more important for the Russel family knights than protecting the estate? That’s also training. Send orders to the knight order.”

“Understood.”

While Marcel was drafting the orders, Eve brought over the armory’s inventory list and spoke while scanning through it.

“Is that novel called 【Knight Angela】 really that famous?”

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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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