A Fortune-telling Princess

“Going out again?”

“Huh?”

Camilla, who had been getting ready to go out, widened her eyes at Ravi standing in front of her.

“What’s the occasion?”

“What is?”

“You actually came outside at this hour.”

“You kept worrying so much I’d grow mold on my body.”

Tap, tap.

“...What are you doing.”

“Praising you.”

“You’re being ridiculous.”

He quickly slapped away Camilla’s hand as she ruffled his hair. Frowning nonstop, Ravi flicked something toward her as she giggled.

“Here, take this.”

“Oh!”

What Ravi handed her was a robe. The robe she had asked him not long ago to infuse with cold!

“Why a robe in this season?”

“I’ve got plenty of use for it.”

“What have you been running around doing lately?”

“Good things.”

“Hey.”

“I’ll make good use of this.”

As soon as she said that and tried to walk past him, Ravi grabbed her again.

“You’re not out doing something dangerous again, right?”

“I can’t say it’s safe.”

“What?”

“There’s no such thing as something perfectly safe in this world.”

“Hey!”

A faint smile spread across her lips.

“Don’t worry.”

Camilla lightly thumped Ravi’s chest with her fist.

“I’m not going to make my brother an orphan either.”

“......”

“I’ll be back.”

He couldn’t grab hold of her again as Camilla walked past him like that.

Short sighs kept slipping out of his mouth, but his expression was more relaxed than ever.

“She really has a weird way of making people feel these days.”

Before he knew it, a faint smile had formed at the corner of his own mouth.

****

“An auction?”

“Yeah.”

Chris, who was in charge of the Ghost Trading House, skimmed the documents Camilla handed over. It was an auction he already knew about.

“As you know, there are a lot of people aiming for this item.”

The product she had marked this time was a mine. And not just any mine, but one that countless nobles currently had their eyes on, said to hold an enormous amount of iron.

Iron was always in high demand. Rumor had it that not only ordinary nobles but even all three ducal houses would be participating in the auction to buy this mine.

“Why a mine all of a sudden...?”

Chris couldn’t easily understand. It wasn’t as if they owned an armory, so he had no idea why she suddenly wanted to buy an iron mine.

“Because iron isn’t the only thing buried there.”

“Excuse me?”

“The jewel of jewels is buried in it.”

Isn’t the king of jewels, no matter what anyone says, the diamond?

Deep inside that iron mine, a ton of ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) diamonds are buried. And not just any diamonds—top-grade diamonds with incredibly high purity!

Is that all? Of course not! If you dig even deeper inside, you even find blue diamonds, known to be rare, which once sent people into utter shock.

“That’s why we absolutely have to get it.”

Thinking back on it now, the Duke of Jevillan really was lucky. That mine had always ended up his in the past too.

While mining iron and discovering diamonds, he would, without fail, come running to the Duke of Sorpel to brag about his good fortune to his heart’s content.

“But Lady Camilla, it won’t be easy to win the bid.”

Chris shook his head slightly.

“The others have been preparing for this for a long time already. Even if we jump in now, the chances of us winning the auction are very low.”

“Of course.”

Camilla agreed readily and nodded along with his words.

“But, you know.”

Dragging out her words for a moment, she curled a playful smile at the corner of her mouth.

“What if I told you I know the winning bid?”

“...Even if you knew the Duke of Sorpel’s bid, I do not think that would be of much help.”

Chris assumed Camilla had somehow found out the amount the Ducal House of Sorpel would be bidding. Since she lived in the same house, it wouldn’t be strange if she’d gotten the information easily.

“No.”

But Camilla immediately shook her head.

“What if I know the final amount the mine will go for?”

“...What?”

This time, Chris’s eyes went wide like lanterns.

“What are you...!”

“If we add just a little, just a tiny little bit on top of that amount, wouldn’t we be able to win the bid?”

“Well, of course we would, but...”

In that instant, all the rumors about Camilla sped through Chris’s head.

Foresight.

He’d heard about it in passing, so he sort of knew, but he hadn’t really paid it any mind. He hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, so it was hard to believe.

“Do you really know the winning bid?”

“Yeah.”

But hearing her answer, so firm and unwavering, sent his thoughts into confusion. Could he really trust this and move forward with it?

‘Of course he can.’

Camilla roughly understood what was going through his mind, but she didn’t bother to explain further.

She remembered the amount the Duke of Jevillan had bid for the mine very clearly. He’d named the same amount every time.

Once the diamonds were discovered, people wouldn’t stop noisily comparing the price he’d paid at auction against the value of the diamonds.

News like that, which she was weak against, had reached Camilla’s ears in exact detail. That said it all.

“I’m only going to spend 30,000 gold more.”

She had no intention of bidding more than exactly 30,000 gold above the amount the Duke of Jevillan would offer.

Honestly, even 30,000 gold felt like a waste. She wanted to win it by going just a hundred gold higher, really just that much...

But if she did that, it felt like the Duke of Jevillan really would grab her by the scruff of the neck, so she decided to hold back.

“Are you really sure this is all right?”

Chris asked one last time.

“Yeah.”

At her decisive answer, Chris stopped bringing up the auction.

****

“First time at an auction?”

“Yes.”

She’d meant to leave everything to Chris and stay back, but her curiosity got the better of her and she ended up here. She’d begged the Duke of Sorpel to come to the auction house with him.

When she said she wanted to go along to the auction house, the Duke of Sorpel gave his permission easily. If anything, he seemed pleased to be going somewhere together.

“It’s not that big inside.”

After being guided in, the auction hall she entered was smaller than she’d expected. The overall atmosphere, however, was very luxurious.

“It’s a place only a very small number of nobles are allowed to attend.”

Once word spread that the three ducal houses were participating, most of the nobles had already dropped out. They couldn’t even compete starting from the bid amounts.

Because of that, there weren’t many nobles sitting inside the auction hall.

“You’re here.”

“Camilla came too.”

They were mostly familiar faces. The Duke of Sephra and the Duke of Jevillan were the first to come over and greet them.

Off in the distance, she could also see the Marquess of Gabuel shooting them a sideways glare.

“So that’s the man from the Ghost Trading House.”

At the Duke of Sorpel’s words, she turned her head to see Chris taking his seat and giving a small bow in their direction. He also gave her a brief nod as a greeting.

“He’s younger than I thought.”

“True.”

Camilla gave a perfunctory response and went to sit down. Chris glanced her way.

Seeing that he still couldn’t completely hide his unease, Camilla sent him a broad smile as if to tell him to relax.

CLICK.

A moment later, the door opened and the auction staff walked in. Each of them held a single sheet of paper.

“We will now announce the result of the auction for Listing No. 127, Areas Mine.”

The auction method was simple. Anyone who wanted to bid had to write down their amount beforehand and submit the document within a set time, and the one who had offered the highest amount would become the owner of the property.

Everyone stared at the auctioneer’s mouth as if they would bore a hole through it.

“Twenty-one million three hundred eighty-seven thousand gold! Areas Mine has been awarded to the Ghost Trading House!”

“...What!”

“The Ghost Trading House?”

“No way!”

Exclamations full of astonishment burst out from all over.

“H–how much did he say just now?”

The most shocked person was the Duke of Jevillan. The difference from the amount he had bid was razor-thin.

‘And I even went 2,000 gold higher out of goodwill.’

She’d meant to go only 30,000 gold higher, but out of conscience she’d added another 2,000. The amount the Duke of Jevillan had bid was 21,355,000 gold.

“Ha...”

Chris looked over at where Camilla was sitting with an expression that said he still couldn’t believe it.

‘Told you to trust me.’

Camilla had also made sure to secure a final safety net.

Just in case, she had quietly checked the amounts bid by the Duke of Jevillan and the others through the ghosts.

“Congratulations.”

“A young man like you is impressive.”

Watching people come up to congratulate Chris, Camilla had to work hard to hide the satisfied look on her face.

“Congratulations.”

At that moment, she heard a very familiar voice. It was the Duke of Sorpel.

He too offered his congratulations.

The problem, though, was this.

“Well done.”

His eyes were not on Chris, but on her.

Side Story. Another Life

[Best] Got a handwritten letter from my favorite actress!

Views: --- Comments: 762 | 20xx.06.04 20:57

Fuck! I’m still not calmed down.

I’ve liked her for 3 years! I got into her fan life after watching her drama when things were rough in the army. For 3 years I’ve been a fan. Never missed a single fan signing!

But yesterday, for the first time, I got a handwritten letter!

[Photo]

OurSia_LookAtTheseCookies_Waaah.jpg

You see it? Those cookies! Our Sia-nim made those herself! TTT

Comments (762)

➥ Agree. I’ve never once seen her leave a comment on the fan café.

➥ Yeah, I’ve seen posts in other places too saying they got letters or presents from Sia Lee.

➥➥ Whoa?

“Sia.”

“Yeah?”

“Aren’t you tired?”

“Not at all.”

Hyunseok, Sia’s manager, gently shook his head as he watched her writing letters even in the car.

She had received countless gifts and fan letters from fans in the past too, but it was almost unheard of for her to single people out like this.

Looking at the posts going up recently on the fan café and social media, Hyunseok let out a short sigh.

Taking care of fans was a good thing, but personally sending letters or presents like that was a problem.

It could give fans who didn’t receive anything a sense of relative deprivation, and it could also easily cause pointless misunderstandings.

“This person says they found hope to live from watching the drama I was in.”

“...Yeah.”

Even so, he decided to leave her alone for a while.

Because Sia’s face, glowing with a bright smile as she read the letters fans sent, was both very unfamiliar and... not bad to see.

‘When did she change like this?’

It had been since then.

That day a few months ago, when he’d found Sia fast asleep in the waiting room, so unlike her.