A Fortune-telling Princess

If Edsen had seen it, he would have made some remark about how she was wearing that fake smile again.

“May I bring your nightly snack tonight?”

“Of course.”

The Duke of Sorpel carefully stroked Camilla’s hair. His eyes were full of regret and apology.

“I’m sorry, but would that be alright?”

Camilla even asked Rania’s permission.

“O-of course!”

Rania clearly hadn’t expected Camilla to ask her for permission; she couldn’t quite hide her surprise.

Watching her glance nervously at the Duke of Sorpel, Camilla clicked her tongue inwardly.

‘I really had no greed for this place.’

She had truly meant to step aside quietly.

‘But I can’t just step aside now, can I?’

You dare challenge me with acting? You tried to make a fool of me with that paltry performance?

‘Let’s make this clear.’

You started it.

Camilla’s smile deepened as she looked at Rania.

Chapter. Ghost Trading House

“Lin, let me help.”

“Oh my! My lady! No, it’s alright.”

“I want to help. I’m good ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) at this.”

“You really don’t have to...”

Rania blended into the ducal house with disarming ease.

The first to open their hearts to her were the household employees.

They welcomed Rania, who approached them warmly by name and helped with their tasks without hesitation.

Most of them looked at her with pity as she handled rough work skillfully, and everyone wanted to give her something, anything.

‘So just being the Duke’s trueborn daughter makes everything look good to them.’

If I had done the same, they would have sneered that one can’t help one’s birth.

[ I don’t like her. ]

[ She is a bit strange. ]

The ghosts, on the other hand, were markedly wary of Rania.

Ferrol, whose opportunities to cook in the kitchen had decreased thanks to her, showed his displeasure outright; the butler-ghost Derrin’s expression was no better.

Derrin, too, felt what Camilla felt—that Rania was subtly trying to put Camilla in a difficult position.

[ So the reason you asked about the twins before was because of that girl. ]

Even Zeno kept rubbing his jaw, head tilted.

His gaze, fixed on Rania as she hung laundry with the maids in easy camaraderie, was notably serious.

[ Even for twins, this is too identical, isn’t it? My brother and I were identical twins, but not to this degree. ]

The first reason Camilla hadn’t been able to take her eyes off Rania at the orphanage was exactly that.

A ghost.

There was a ghost clinging close to Rania.

Of course, ghosts were beings Camilla was very used to, but the ghost attached to Rania was a bit special.

Because the ghost looked exactly like Rania. To the point one could insist it wasn’t a twin, but herself, and you’d believe it.

[ There was no reason. No rational mind. ]

Zeno had already approached the ghost by Rania’s side and tried speaking to her—that was the best way to learn what she was.

But he got no answer from the woman-ghost. Her eyes stayed fixed on Rania; she gave no response at all.

Other ghosts tried speaking to her as well, but it was useless. As Zeno said, there was no sense of reason from her.

Rania. A name he was encountering for the first time. In all those countless repeated lives, not once had he met her.

‘Did she appear after I died?’

If so, that he could understand. Camilla herself knew nothing of what happened in this world after she died.

If she assumed the timing had just come a bit earlier this time, it made sense.

“Oh! Camilla!”

A moment later Rania spotted Camilla and came pattering over. Camilla didn’t know why that girl always wore such a delighted face whenever she saw her.

“Where are you going?”

“Mm.”

“Where’s that? Can I come along? I was a bit bored anyway...”

“It’s personal business.”

“Oh...”

Rania’s face fell at once.

“If you’ve nothing to do, go to Father.”

“Huh?”

“At this hour he often takes a walk over there, in the Mist-flowers Garden.”

“......”

“Why?”

“N-no reason.”

Leaving Rania staring at her with a peculiar look, Camilla took her leave.

****

“You’re here.”

“Hoo.”

Camilla pulled off the robe she had been wearing deep over her head. She kept sighing.

Now that the weather was fully hot, wearing a robe like this around was a bit much.

‘Should I ask Ravi to put a spell on it?’

There were supposedly spells that maintained a chill.

Of course, there were already plenty of magical products on the market.

But when she looked into it before, the prices were astronomical. The moment the word “magic” attached to it, a few extra zeros appeared.

‘When there’s a mage idle in the family, why buy it?’

Save where you can, even a penny.

“There were a lot of people today, too.”

The reason Camilla insisted on the robe despite the heat was that when coming here, a robe was a must-have item.

“The items you designed last time are very popular.”

The place Camilla had come to was a trading house. Specifically, a Mana Stone Trading House.

As the mana stone business grew, the Duke of Sephra had made a proposal: why not set up a trading house that sold mana stones exclusively and have Camilla run it herself?

The plan moved quickly, and it had been exactly two months since the Mana Stone Trading House opened separately.

“Here is this week’s sales report.”

The man addressing her in a polite tone was a young man in his late twenties. The glasses made his face look especially cool and composed.

Chris Miller. He was the one publicly known as the current representative of the Mana Stone Trading House in Camilla’s stead.

As expected from someone introduced by the Duke of Sephra, his capabilities were unquestionably strong. He more than made up for Camilla’s lack, as she was nearly a novice in business.

“You said you would show new items and designs today...”

“Mm, here.”

She had been producing new items using mana stones for some time.

After the brooches engraved with defensive magic, Camilla reached for the area she knew best.

“We’re running short on the newly released earrings with a brightening effect. As written here in the documents, it would be best to increase headcount for production.”

Across eras and generations, what women show keen interest in are beauty-related products.

So Camilla tailored the new magical items to that.

The very first product she came up with produced a visual brightening effect.

Simply by wearing earrings or a necklace, the item would cleanly conceal specks and blemishes marring the face.

It also had the effect of making the skin tone visibly brighter; as soon as it launched, it drew hot interest from ladies and young misses.

‘I also happen to know jewelry inside and out.’

As an actress, she’d been invited to all manner of jewelry collections. She had walked runways wearing them more times than she could count, and the sponsored jewels alone could stock a shop.

“Everyone was very pleased with the last design, too.”

“Yeah? Good.”

She made full use of that sharpened eye from experience.

Camilla also brought in renowned artisans from across the Empire to make the mana stone items feel as modern as possible.

“This design will be good, too.”

Chris finally examined the new items Camilla handed over. His eyes widened slightly as he flipped the pages without much thought.

“An item that changes eye color and hair color.”

“The dyeing business is going to vanish over the horizon.”

This time, the product Camilla designed was a hair accessory. Wearing the ornament changed your hair color.

“In addition to the base colors, if a customer wants a specific shade, custom orders would sell well.”

“Good. Push that, too.”

As expected, tell him one thing and he would add two.

“But lately we’ve had many eyes stick to our side.”

“Hmm.”

There was a great deal of interest in her Mana Stone Trading House, which had split off from the Duke of Sephra’s enterprise.

The Duke of Sephra still served as a shield, but the single fact that she had stepped out from under his direct protection meant there were far more watchful eyes than before.

Everyone was curious: what sort of person was the owner of this trading house, that the Duke of Sephra would hand over such a gold vein without hesitation?

“I’ll be more careful.”

This place, too, was an underground space—connected to the basement of a small house a little removed from the trading house, and to the trading house’s own underground.

So Camilla always came down through that house to the underground and worked with Chris on various business matters.

“Lady Camilla.”

Chris adjusted his glasses and lowered his voice.

“We won’t be able to hide you forever.”

“I know.”

The business was growing far faster than expected.

The sale of mana stones alone brought in astronomical income, and with the jewelry business added on top, public interest had only grown.

There was a limit to putting Chris forward and having him act as the owner.

Even now, important business proposals coming from outside couldn’t be processed at once.

One way or another, she had to review everything and give direct approval.

And it was a strain to sneak here every single day without fail. In the end, it was certain that at some point the work would suffer.

“And...”

“What else?”

“Are you truly going with this as the trading house’s name?”

“What’s wrong with it?”

She had named it with the meaning of slipping quietly in among people and then saturating them all. It had a meaning, in its way.

“Ghost. Isn’t it good?”

Ghost Trading House.

That was the name Camilla had given the mana stone trading house.

‘Well, they did all give me bizarre looks.’

The moment they first heard the name, not only Chris but the Duke of Sephra and even Arsian had given her odd looks.

“I’m sorry, but I think it’s a name that inspires no confidence. Many jest that the trading house will vanish like a ghost.”

“Oh? Sharp of them.”

“Pardon?”

Seeing Chris’s eyes widen a touch, Camilla smiled as if she knew nothing.

She had started the business to raise getaway funds in the first place.

It had grown far beyond expectations, which was a bit flustering, but even if she shut it down suddenly, it wouldn’t be strange.

She had thought perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad to remain at the ducal house, believing herself a little further from the death flag...

‘But the trueborn daughter has appeared.’

She herself couldn’t know how things would change from here.

‘Ghost Trading House.’

So what? The ghosts around me loved it. Even now, it strikes me as a very well-chosen name.