“More than that, we should look into her background. In the initial research we did about her, we thought she had no lover, but it turned out she had one. There must be more we missed then.”

Carl narrowed his eyes, and he didn’t have to ask to know Edgar was afraid of asking her.

“Thinking about it, a letter from her cousin at the Academy should arrive soon.”

“Yes, it will arrive any time now if she used an ordinary posting service.”

Only wealthy nobles could afford to exchange quick letters using messenger birds. Plus, Aron’s Academy was just too far from Seritos. Angela couldn’t have had the time to send a letter during the journey and, even if she had sent one as soon as she arrived at the Academy, it would arrive a day or two later.

“Bring it to me first before she reads it. I want to know if there’s any information on it.”

“Okay. I will also find out about her belongings, just in case.”

However, Edgar was hesitant.

“Is that necessary? She brought almost nothing, except for what she was wearing.”

“Your Grace, in my opinion, intercepting her letter is even worse.”

He was right, so Edgar couldn’t say anything to that. Actually, everything he was trying to do now wasn’t right, and Rubica would most certainly be mad if she ever found out.

‘But I cannot ask her right away.’

He didn’t know exactly what he was afraid of. Whatever the outcome will be, their relationship which he had managed to keep only barely till now was going to be no more. If it would change for the better, he would not hope for anything more, but if it was going to become worse, he just didn’t want to find out.

‘I need a safety net.’

He wanted to find a clue that would at least let him guess what Rubica would say when he asks her. He wanted to brace himself and carry it out after calculating how Rubica would take it.

“Just carefully ask the maids so that Rubica wouldn’t get to know. Don’t make it too big.”

“Okay then, I’ll ask them if something has happened to her. The smaller the risk, the better.”

It was like Carl could read Edgar’s mind. The risk he was talking about was probably not about Rubica’s heart but Claymore. However, Edgar was just glad to take a step back from that subject.

‘Don’t be nervous. I still have enough time.’

He decided to look into the matter in time and changed the topic.

“And what about Lord Sesar?”

“The searching party found his camp in the mountains. There were some of his belongings, so they will probably find him today.”

“Good, bring him to me as soon as he is found.”

After that, Carl left while Edgar sighed. Then, the duke opened a drawer to take out a blueprint. It was time to work on the development of the weapon which he spoke about with the king for a long time.

The king wanted to take the Golden Land from the dragon Ios to solve the kingdom’s problem. That was why he had agreed to send the new weapons from Claymore to the southern kingdom. He wanted to dispatch an army for that and steal strategies to fight the monsters and dragons’ underlings.

‘And research on the plants that only grow in the dragons’ territories has to be done as well.’

Maybe Lord Sesar’s wish was about to be granted. He could be permitted to write a book on the plants in the dragons’ territories. Edgar smiled at the possibility.

Carl was worried something bad might happen if he didn’t answer to the king’s summon, but actually, he was the one with the power.

The king had proposed attacking Ios from the sky as it was a land dragon that couldn’t fly. Edgar called the king a sly old man when he got mad, and the king called Edgar a serpent without any feelings when he got bored, but basically, they did acknowledge each other’s capability.

-You want me to make a weapon that can attack the dragon from the sky? Do you want me to die from overwork?

-Hahaha, well, even you are not that smart, right?

The king said slyly.

‘That fox.’

Edgar had to try hard to not yell at him. The king was doing it only because he knew Edgar would not refuse, and he was right. Edgar could never say ‘I can’t.’

‘Focus. I must finish it quickly.’

Edgar started to study the blueprint. Making a machine fly was an extremely hard try. A few scientists at the Academy had tried it before, but they all failed. Still, there was no other way to defeat Ios.

-Making the impossible possible. That is the power of Claymore.

Edgar remembered what all of his teachers had told him.

Yes, if birds could fly, why not humans? First, he checked if there were any helpful references among the previous works of the Academy’s scientists. Then, he started to draw the blueprint first.

He was going to work on an engine that could fly and test it first.

‘I should keep it a secret before I finish it all.’

He decided to name the weapon ‘Stella’. He wanted it to be the guiding star in the dark future of the kingdom. However, it was way too dangerous. He was planning to destroy it after driving the dragon out of the Golden Land.

What if it fell into the hands of conquerors?

He didn’t want to even think about it. It was good that the king of Seritos only cared about his people’s living.

If he could, he was going to make the weapon, get the land, and destroy the weapon and its blueprint while he was still alive. And for that, he had to make it as soon as possible.

However, what was going on? His hand was moving fast, but what he was writing had nothing to do with his work.

-Something needed for work, not necessary but good.

He kept writing it. Rubica had said she had ultimately fallen for Arman after he invented something that wasn’t necessary but really made her work easier. He wondered what it was.

-It helped a lot of people.

Now Edgar even drew a circle around it and added a star. He had to focus on the blueprint, but he couldn’t help being distracted.

‘But what is it?’

To find that out, he had to know what Rubica usually did and what she found difficult. However, she hadn’t had any reason to do anything difficult ever since she came to the Claymore Mansion. It was hard to guess without any information.

“Hu.”

Edgar sighed and looked at the handkerchief on his table. Imagining Rubica embroidering it herself made him smile. He couldn’t even dare to use it and just kept staring at it. She had embroidered the Claymore symbol on every corner, so she must have put a lot of effort into it.

‘Wait.’

This is the difficult work I’ve been looking for!

He immediately wrote a list of things needed for embroidering. Needle, thread, scissors, fabric, frame, etc. Then, he wrote what made embroidering difficult.

-Something that wasn’t necessary but made my work easier.

Edgar was going to find what it was and invent it. He then pushed Stella’s blueprint aside. Of course, the kingdom’s future was important, and the weapon had to be invented.

‘But I must survive first!’

What he was trying to invent now was about being creative. It wasn’t going to take much time. On the other hand, the development of Stella was going to take at least three, four years. Then, a delay of three, four days wasn’t going to be a problem.

He hadn’t been able to focus and that wasn’t just going to change now, so he decided to work on inventing what was more urgent to him.

Just like that, Edgar postponed what he was supposed to do today to tomorrow for the first time.

-Something that isn’t necessary but makes work easier.

His long journey to find it had just begun.

***

Elise had gotten used to working as a lady-in-waiting, and now Ann could trust her with simple things.

‘Will this amount of soap, perfume, and cosmetics be enough for Her Grace?’

She couldn’t read the overall flow of the household yet, but she had been assigned to the purchase of simple goods. She checked on the list of things she was supposed to buy from the merchant, who would come in two days, again and again lest she made a mistake.

Moreover, Rubica was working on her plan for the tea meeting that was going to take place in a month.

“Hmm, I think there should be a lot of sweet dessert at the tea meeting.”

Rubica wasn’t talking to anyone in particular, but Elise replied without noticing it.

“Dessert? Would it be necessary? Tea is so refreshing. I think serving only tea would be enough.”

“Ha, ha, ha.”

Rubica smiled awkwardly. To Elise, tea was a sweet-smelling drink, but to the others, drinking that bitter drink without a sweet cake was going to be torture.

“Carl said it is not strange to serve dessert at tea meetings.”

What Carl had meant was one candy and one cookie per person, but Rubica decided to ignore that.

She thought she had to give out at least a whole cake per person as compensation for drinking that weird drink.