Pura. It is a red magic stone with concentrated powerful mana, and just one was enough to run a huge mana amplification train for a month.
...I won't be able to do it any time soon, but that's something that hasn't happened yet.
Anyway, Pura has the highest mana content among the magic stones and is highly efficient, so it was used in various places other than trains.
However, because the quantity produced was not large, the price was high.
"Pura. It's really rare and expensive."
"That's right. Then do you know where the most Pura is produced?"
Perdes thought for a moment and answered.
"I guess this is the place."
"Yes, that's right. More than 60% of the pura supplied to the continent is produced here, in the Duchy of Leopold."
"Besides, I don't see much of Pura around."
Perdes said, scanning the cave again.
"This is a cave that contains only the purest pura. Pura sold commercially is mined from a quarry at the very bottom of the mountain."
"That means the Pura made here is sold at a very high price."
"Maybe so. I've never sold it, though. The Puras generated here are purely used for the duchy."
Sometimes, when the imperial palace asked for help, it was given reluctantly.
"How much of the history of the empire have you learned from Lord Aldor?"
"I studied up to the 7th Emperor."
"You learned it just before."
That happened during the time of the 8th Emperor.
"A long time ago. There was a knight that had nothing special about it other than being an excellent speaker."
As I entered the cave. I told an old story.
"Then one day, while wandering lost in the forest, the knight meets a dragon covered in red scales."
Perdes followed me in silence and listened to my story.
"The knight pleases the dragon with his excellent speaking skills. The dragon, which was about to disappear, bestows its blessings on the knight who made his final days happy.
"Dragon's protection?"
When Perdes asked, I pointed to my red hair.
"It's proof that this fiery red hair has the dragon's protection. All members of the Leopold family are born with red hair."
If the mother or mother's side of the family had a different hair color, at least one person might have be born with that color, but it was not Duke Leopold's family.
Except for the children brought in from outside, all of the people who inherited the blood of Duke Leopold had red hair.
"That means that the knight is the first Duke Leopold."
"That's right. The dragon did not stop there and gave the area where he lived to the knight, and that became the Duchy of Leopold."
We arrived at the final destination just in time for the story to end.
"...!"
Perdes' eyes grew as big as a flower lantern as he saw Pura sparkling red from all directions.
"It's pretty, right?"
"I know."
From his parted lips, a sincere admiration without a single trace of falsehood flowed.
"Really pretty. This is my first time seeing Pura before it was refined."
Of course so. Unless you worked in a mine, you had no chance of seeing this scene.
"Question here. Why are so many Puras created only in the Duchy of Leopold?"
"... Is it thanks to the blessings of the dragon that the first head of the family met?"
"That's right. I've never seen it before, but they say the dragon sleeps inside this volcano."
I looked up at the high ceiling.
"Because of that, the dragon's mana dwells throughout the volcano and creates Pura."
"It's truly a legendary story."
When Perdes lightly touched the Pura on the cave wall with his fingertip, the Pura flashed an even brighter red light.
"So, Duke Leopold built his mansion with his back to this volcano, even though it was dangerous? Because there's even a red dragon in Pura."
"That's right. And as I said before. It's not dangerous. As long as we don't disobey the dragon."
"Does that mean that when the dragon gets angry, the volcano erupts?"
"As far as I know, yes."
"The answer is vague."
"It's something I've only read about in books, and I've never seen it in real life."
He had only read in books that the red dragon was sleeping here.
He looked at Pura in silence and then asked me.
"Isn't this Pura the reason why the Emperor is targeting Duke Leopold? If he sells Pura, he can make money and he can use it for various things."
"I thought so too at first, but it wasn't."
After experiencing the first and second lives, I thought that maybe it was because of Pura that the Emperor was like this, so I tried to transfer ownership of Pura to the Emperor, But the Emperor did not even pay attention.
If I think about it, even in my previous life, he had no interest in Pura at all.
"Are you not sure?"
"No. If the Emperor is doing this because he is greedy for Pura, there is no reason to force Perdes to have a child. You probably just asked me for Pura mining rights, giving me all kinds of excuses and reasons?"
"That's right."
Perdes nodded in agreement.
"Then it seems that it is related to the Duke's bloodline. Do you know anything about it?"
"All I know is that the blood of Duke Leopold is born with red hair."
"It's not because I want to see the red-haired baby."
I don't know.
Perdes muttered to himself and wrinkled the bridge of his nose. A thick layer of cold sweat flowed down over it. Now I realize that Perdes's face is redder than before. It seems like the limit has been reached.
Thanks to the dragon's blessing, I was stronger against heat than an average person, but Perdes was not. It would be dangerous if he stayed any further, so I pulled on his arm.
"Enough of the sightseeing, let's go back to the mansion and talk about the rest."
***
I searched all the key houses in the duchy, but no one who recently used the duchy of Leopold had made a copy of the key.
Then there were two possibilities.
Since I had the master key, there was no need to copy the key.
You asked someone else to copy your keys.
The only people in the mansion who had the master key were me, Hannes, and Sarah, the maid.
No matter how thick the wall of disbelief was due to the events of the third life, these people were exceptions.
Jack, Perdes' personal servant, may also have a spare key, but he is also someone Perdes trusts, so we should make an exception.
'Then it's probably the latter."
Considering various cases, the latter was the most likely.
If it's the latter, things get quite complicated. Since it had to be done secretly, it became more difficult to find the culprit.
'I can't help it."
I have no choice but to ask about this here.
And I need to be more alert to my surroundings.
In particular, I had to be careful around Perdes.
I told Perdes to write down the names of the people he met every day.
If there is a surveillance station among them, there will be people who overlap unnecessarily.
There was a very high possibility that that person was the culprit.
First, let's do this like this, then...
"I heard you found it."
"You came at the right time."
It was perfect timing. I handed him the documents I had set aside.
Perdes blinked slowly and looked down at the document I held out.
"What's this?"
"Well, anyway. It's a fief financial report."
"I know that."
His eyes quickly scanned the front page of the document and landed on me.
"So why are you giving this to me?"
"When I asked Lord Aldor. I heard that Perdes is good at math."
"However?"
"That's why I'm asking you to help me. Please check that there are no calculation errors in the financial report and that everything is entered correctly."
The more I talked, the more his expression crumpled, but he continued to pretend not to see it.
"If there are any mistakes, please fill out the form again."
"...Is this the purpose of the training?"
"It was a combination of both."
Perdes laughed and shook his head as if it was absurd.
"My labor costs are high."
And yet you take the documents.
"If you look at the documents, I will give you the appropriate allowance."
"How much?"
"Well. I have to calculate that too. Would you like to calculate it yourself?"
"No thanks?"
Perdes quietly and firmly told me not to do any more work, then quickly left the room.
Ah, I got caught.
***
Giving Perdes the financial report was a test of sorts.
A test to see if he will be able to do the work I ask him to do well in the future.
He took the test, but I didn't expect him to do well.
It's definitely a mess.
However, I wasn't disappointed or had any intention of doing so.
Because it was natural to not be able to do something for the first time.
All you have to do is not repeat the same mistake.
So, based on his results, I tried to point out the mistakes and tell him what to fix.
***
He has written a surprisingly good report.
It would be a lie if I said there was no place to fix it, but this was great.
I didn't think it was the skill of the person who first wrote the report.
"I mean barley. I looked into it and found that if you buy it directly from the Belbourg estate in the south without going through the merchant, you can get it 30% cheaper."
In addition, although the current report is perfect, I found areas that could be improved and provided opinions.
Is this really your first time doing this?
As I looked at him in surprise, Perdes asked worriedly.
"Strange?"
"It's strange. I was surprised that you did so well."
"Really?"
Then Perdes smiled brightly, saying it was fortunate.
"And I think it would be difficult to purchase barley directly from the Belbourg estate because of transportation. The cost of moving several tons of barley from the southern region to here would be enormous."
"I calculated that too...”
Perdes showed another document as if he had been waiting.
This was a separate investigation from what I asked for.
He is really good at your job. Every time I looked at the report he brought. I was filled with admiration.
"Are you sure this is your first time doing something like this?"
I couldn't believe it so I asked, and Perdes nodded.
"I'm asking the obvious. There is no way there is someone in the imperial palace who would do something like this to me."
"But why are you so good at it?"
When I asked curiously, Perdes put his hands on his waist and lifted his chin.
"I'm good at it."
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