“That’s… an interesting idea.”

“I think it’s a good opinion. Making jams and candies isn’t hard to try. It would also be good for our peasants.”

Rubica stared at the roses in the vase for a moment. She recalled the pleasant conversation she had had with Lord Sesar about the flowers, but she hadn’t even imagined this would happen back then.

‘How would he react if I ask him to make a rose that tastes good?’

As he was Sesar, he was either going to be confused and stroke his beard, or say it sounded like an interesting challenge. Rubica had a feeling it would be the latter as he was Lord Sesar.

‘Oh, I’m already making plans to make candies from the rose.’

Rubica looked at Gabriel with much curiosity as she drank lemon juice, and she was now almost admiring this small and cute girl.

“I will do as you said.”

Then, she added after hesitating a little, “But is there something you want in return? Like you want your family to handle a part of the production of jam and candies or want the production of the packaging.”

Gabriel wasn’t a subject of Claymore like Carl and Ann. She was a Tangt. It was weird that Lady Tangt was giving business advice to Claymore instead of using the ideas for her family, but regardless of that, Rubica couldn’t shamelessly get her ideas and let Claymore monopolize all the profits.

“In return?”

Gabriel looked at Elise for a moment. Then, she blushed hard again.

“There is something I want, but it’s a little embarrassing… can I talk to you in private?”

Ann looked confused, but she willingly left the room with Elise. When Gabriel was alone with the duchess, she took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and yelled, “I want to be pretty like Ms. Solana!”

“What?”

“How did she change like that? You are her mistress, so you must know. I wanted to meet Madam Khanna and get her advice, but she is so busy now and doesn’t have time for someone like me. Could you let me meet her?”

Gabriel said all that without breathing and gulped down the rest of the lemon juice while Rubica looked at her a little shocked.

‘But you are already pretty enough.’

She wanted to say that. However, how did Elise react when she said that to her? Even though it let her recover a bit of her confidence, she just thought Rubica said it to cheer her up.

Gabriel was not like Elise who could change instantly with just a little work done on her hair.

Although her hair was in the slightly wrong style, Elise had known she was quite pretty in the first place.

On the other hand, although Gabriel was witty, she seemed to lack confidence when it came to her appearance as much as Elise had.

“If the person who transformed Elise…”

“So you know who that person is. Please, let me meet her.”

Rubica just couldn’t tell her the person was actually her. She didn’t want to become even more famous.

“Anyway, if that person tells you to stop wearing a corset, what would you do?”

“I should stop wearing my corset? But I cannot get a pretty silhouette without it, my waist is just too flat. Even girls, who are much thinner than me, tighten their corset.”

“And what if she tells you to stop penciling your eyebrows?”

“I haven’t come out without drawing my eyebrows ever since I was ten. My eyebrows are too faint,” Gabriel touched her thickly-drawn eyebrows and replied sadly.

Rubica studied the girl carefully. However, that made the girl afraid and she grabbed her by her sleeve to plead.

“Please let me meet her.”

Gabriel was not like Angela nor Elise. Elise was timid, and she was also submissive. When Rubica insisted, she ended up wearing the dress Rubica wanted her to wear and cut her forelocks even though she was afraid.

However, would Gabriel behave like Elise?

She seemed to be a girl who liked to ask questions until she could accept it and find the answers herself.

What Rubica wanted her to do was to stop tightening her corset and wearing thick makeup as her cute, lively bare face looked much better.

Rubica was sure that the girl wouldn’t accept such advice now. Plus, she wasn’t like Elise where Rubica could ask her to have faith in her and try her advice first.

‘And what has changed Elise the most was not me.’

Elise’s attitude had remarkably changed after what happened with Dashner at the training ground. Even though she usually wore comfortable clothes, now she didn’t hesitate to wear splendid dresses when it was needed.

She had stopped worrying about how she looked to the others and what they thought of it. Ironically, when she was free from the other’s evaluations, she could find her true beauty.

As every person had different kinds of beauty, the journey to find it couldn’t be the same. Rubica couldn’t repeat the mistake she made with Elise on Gabriel.

“Okay, I will let you meet her.”

“Really? Thank you, thank you!”

“But I have one condition.”

Rubica gulped hard. This time, she held Gabriel’s hand tightly. She didn’t know if what she was about to do would work, but she had to try. One good thing was that unlike Elise, Gabriel was extremely enthusiastic.

“A condition? Please tell me, I’m willing to do anything.”

“Every night before you go to bed, look in the mirror and say, ‘I am beautiful’ ten times.”

“What?”

“Then come back here a week later. You must do as I said.”

Gabriel blinked. She was supposed to say that to herself? That was somewhat embarrassing.

“Do I really have to do that? Can’t I just pay her? I have saved enough money in secret.”

However, Rubica shook her head.

“You must do as I said, or meeting the person who transformed Elise will do you no good.”

That was a strange request. Gabriel asked why she was supposed to do that, but Rubica said she couldn’t tell her now and she would tell her exactly a week later.

“Ha…”

Gabriel really wanted to say she couldn’t do that unless she was told why. That was how she usually was. But… she wanted to be pretty really badly. Whenever her mother sighed and said she wished Gabriel looked only half as good as her sisters, she just smiled and said, ‘Well, I never wanted to be born like this.’ That would get her what she wanted, but then she had to weep all night wetting her pillow.

She would rather die than to feel so miserable for her entire life.

“I will do it. But you are going to let me meet her a week from now, right?”

Duchess Claymore smiled mysteriously, and the smile made Gabriel believe in her. Ms. Solana’s change had been like a miracle. She had a feeling that the gods were about to grant her a miracle as well.

***

After Gabriel left, Rubica was finally able to see the books. She had shock, gloom, and resignation all mixed up together.

“What the, but the balance hasn’t decreased. It has doubled!”

“All thanks to you.”

Carl said with admiration, but Rubica wanted to grab him by the collar and yell, ‘Thanks to me? It’s all thanks to you who do your work too well!’ What kind of magic did he use that selling off some roses led to this outcome?

“I’ve heard from Ann about the decision. I will send the roses to the queen tomorrow, and we are planning to invest this amount of budget on the production of rose jam and candies.”

Carl wrote down the amount of money, but as it was about making food, it was less than 1/10 of the budget which had increased dramatically. Rubica sighed at seeing there were was still a lot of money remaining.

“What are we going to do with so much money?”

“You can use them as you want.”

Rubica named some jewelers and perfume makers, trying to see how the butler would react. She implied she was planning to spend as much as Edgar did last time, but Carl didn’t turn pale. He just smiled kindly and said he would add appointments with the sellers in her schedule. Oh, where did the Carl who told on her when she said she was going to invest in Sesar go?

“No, it’s fine. I already have too much jewelry.”

She said so and added milk and sugar to her tea which made Carl’s lips twitch.

“But madam, I think adding milk and sugar diminishes the tea’s unique scent.”

However, Rubica just lifted the cup and drank it pleasantly. She was punishing the butler for doing his job too well. As she had expected, he looked as if there had been bugs crawling all over his body. Then, he quickly ran away, saying he had to pay wages to some workers.

That made Rubica feel good for a moment, but then she became sad. Now she had no way to make Edgar hate her, and she was about to be sentenced to life as Duchess Claymore.

How would Carl and Ann react if she told them she was getting divorced as she had promised Edgar? Maybe they would chase her to the other end of the continent. Her lips curled up at imagining the scene and she had to push them down again with her hands to calm down.