A promise made in the past.
While Rasel fiddled with the graphite pencil with keen interest, the Queen spoke to Elen as if she’d never let her get away with it.
“Now then, Elen. What was that little scheme just now? Care to tell me about it?”
She smiled, but her eyes didn’t smile at all.
Gadiel tilted his head, utterly confused. What on earth was she talking about?
Elen sighed inwardly. This might be worse than I thought. For now, she gave a bland reply, just to play along.
“…I wasn’t scheming anything at all.”
“Of course you weren’t. But when Elen moves, the whole country moves.”
The Queen chuckled, low and dark. Gadiel and the others stiffened, turning to look at her.
Lovell’s brow furrowed. The air had shifted completely—something was off. Really off.
"Was that supposed to sell? You were thinking of ways to sell it under the Vanklyft Family name, weren’t you? Then how about us as the buyers?"
Elen fell silent, deep in thought. Then her expression shifted—something clicked. Seeing that, the King smiled.
Ravissel seized the moment, suggesting the royal family join the Vanklyft Family’s venture.
"Adding royal prestige to it…."
Elen murmured it so quietly that Gadiel and Lovell blinked, confused.
Only the King understood. He chuckled. Elen’s idea was clearly something that could move nations.
"But I haven’t talked to Uncle yet…"
"Talking about it now isn’t too late, is it? Wouldn’t my opinion be worth something, if this actually works?"
"…………"
Lovell, watching Elen lost in thought, finally asked if she was alright.
He had no idea what kind of storm was brewing behind her eyes—how vast it was, how deep.
But one thing was certain: it was going to drag the entire estate into it.
"...I was thinking about the market for this graphite pen."
"A market?"
Elen answered Gadiel’s confusion.
"Even if you make something, if nobody uses it, there’s no demand. No demand means no sales. So I figured... maybe I could make the demand itself?"
"Wait, Elen...?"
Lovell blinked rapidly, utterly baffled. What on earth was his daughter even talking about? Gadiel and the others stared, stunned into silence.
But the king couldn’t hide the glee in his voice—his smile was so wide it felt almost unnatural.
"Is that right? And then... what now?"
"Your Majesty, could you prioritize sending honey and beeswax supplies to Vanclift?"
“Hm...?”
“I’d like to keep beekeeping within my own territory as much as possible, but I’d also like to have supplies coming in from outside, just in case something happens.”
“Fine. Go ahead.”
“My territory has advanced medical techniques.”
“I know that… but what does that have to do with this pen and the bees?”
Gadiel tilted his head as he asked, and Elen replied, “Yes.”
“It’s a writing tool. It can serve as a substitute for charcoal, used as a drawing material.”
“Hm...? And how does that relate to healing?”
“Yes. Even after overcoming illness, the body remains weak and stiff. So we call the exercises to restore strength ‘rehabilitation,’ and we guide our patients through them at our facility.”
“Hm.”
“We’re thinking of using these drawings to help with hand movement, mental focus—and even healing the mind.”
“…Healing the mind?”
"People who’ve been injured or sick—they’re often sad. They can’t work, even though they have to for their families. They want to move, but can’t. Some craftsmen lose their hands in accidents and fall into despair. We call trying to heal their hearts without medicine ‘therapy.’"
"Therapy…?"
"We have patients draw pictures or make things, within their limits, as part of their rehabilitation. The pen becomes their tool. If they draw something beautiful, our Vanklyft Family will buy it. I thought—maybe if they can earn a little money while healing, they’d feel happy…"
Elen hadn’t even imagined someone like her thinking such a thing.
Not just Lovell—His Majesty and the others were all wide-eyed too.
"...Our territory grows plenty of wheat. Honey’s essential when making sweets. Plus, bee wax can be used for medicine, and it’s also a material for making paints. So we’d love to have plenty of it."
"Bee wax as medicine!?!"
Bee wax was basically the base of candles. Apparently, she hadn’t even imagined it could be used as medicine.
"You can make ointments from it. Useful for cracked hands or minor wounds."
"Medicine, huh. I’d definitely like to buy some."
"Elen… you’re not telling me you’re making this too…?"
"This ointment’s simple to make—just a bit of routine work. Healers are always short-staffed. If you can mix up medicine without much physical strain and earn coin, you could even use that money to pay for treatment. …There are people who can’t afford care, even though they desperately want it. Yet they won’t give up hope. That’s why so many come to our land seeking help..."
Sauvel was clutching his head, overwhelmed by the growing number of crimes committed by those people. He’d hoped, even slightly, that things might improve.
“If we restrict the distribution of medicine and pre-made paintings to the capital, with the king’s seal of approval, it’ll add prestige, boost the capital’s logistics, and we can use the earnings to buy supplies in the capital, hire help, and pay them. Just repeating that cycle might get money moving again…?”
Elen had thought up a way to create a system for supply and demand, and set it in motion, all within minutes.
Gadiel and the others were blinking in disbelief at the sheer scale of it.
The king chuckled, clearly pleased with the unexpectedly good response.
“Excellent. Lovell, tell your brother to adopt Elen’s plan exactly as it is. And the trading partner will be Gadiel.”
“Huh… Your Majesty!?”
Gadiel’s voice echoed through the room, stunned. The king laughed, murmuring something like, “This’ll be good practice,” and left it to his son.
Gadiel blinked a few times, then leaned in close to the king, whispering something—his eyes snapped open, and he stared at Elen.
Elen just tilted her head, confused. But Gadiel seemed to make up his mind right then.
He grinned at her.
“Elen… wanna help me make this happen?”
“Huh?”
“You said it yourself, didn’t you? That if I earned even a little of your trust, you’d talk to me. Well… now’s my chance, isn’t it?”
“Ah…”
Two years ago. That secret meeting. That promise.
Before she could process it, Lovell shouted from beside her.
“Elen?! W-when did you make a promise like that?! I didn’t even know—!”
“Elen-sama?!”
Even Kai, standing behind her, looked startled. Her face flushed a delicate pink as her secret meeting with him was suddenly revealed in front of everyone.
“W-why here?! Why’d you have to spill it like that?!”
“Ah… oh no. It was supposed to be our secret. I did promise you in private… just the two of us…”
“Ah… brother… you didn’t really… sneak around like that…?”
“Hm?”
Elen’s face turned bright red, seeing the emperor smirking and Rasel gaping in disbelief.
In this world, it was unthinkable for an unmarried nobleman and noblewoman to be alone together.
“N-no, not that…!”
“Isn’t that what you promised? Didn’t you say yes?”
“Y-yes, I did! But I didn’t mean—!!”
Gadiel smiled warmly at Elen’s flustered state, but suddenly, a chill drifted from beside her and behind—her face turned from red to pale blue in an instant.
“Huh...? I don’t know how you managed to meet my daughter, but sneaking around with secret promises? That’s quite a surprise…”
“Lady Elen… you didn’t call out to me, even though I’m your guard? What if something had happened…?”
Elen panicked—this was going badly.
She spun her mind in circles, trying to come up with an excuse, until the spinning got so intense she felt dizzy, like her head was about to split.
“Elen came to see me in secret. I was happy about it.”
Gadiel’s bombshell kept dropping. She wanted to scream at him to shut up, to cover his mouth—but the curse kept her from getting close. No way to stop it.
“Elen… what’s going on here?”
Lovell’s voice dropped to a terrifying whisper.
Elen sighed, cursing her own reckless past actions.