? Suspiciously.. (2) ?

It wasn’t an overstatement to say that the Duff Village, which was sitting at the entrance of the southern plains that slowly grew to the size of a village from a carriage platform, was living off of that industry.

Mac, who was in charge of the wyvern landing zone, was one of those people. His job was to manage the safe landings of wyverns and the ‘monster carriers’ on the landing zone of the village.

[This is Reff One. This is Reff One. Approaching Duff for the VIP.]

“Mr. Mac! Reff One is here!”

“I heard that too!”

Reff One. That was the broad title of the wyvern squads and the monster carriers of the Dunareff Family, which was in charge of the hyper-mega plantation all across the vast plains of the south.

“Was something happening at the Dunareff this month?”

“Umm~. It’s probably because of the Academy holiday.”

“So the Princess is coming back, huh.”

In the southern regions of the continent, the Dunareff family was overwhelmingly more famous than even the royal family. There was no way the people wouldn’t know about the genius mage who regularly returned to the household every holiday.

While the guardians representing the east were the Sword Emperor Garrand and Sword Master Lunia, the people of the south were supporting Marie as the future representative of the south in a war of regional pride.

“Ah ah. This is Duff. We will now organize the landing zone. Cat 1. Cat 1. A visual reference confirmation is required when 200 feet in the air.”

[Roger that. We will arrive in 10 minutes. We are slowly lowering the altitude.]

– Copy that.

Mac used a magic communication device to announce to the workers of the wyvern landing zone.

“Reff One. Reff One is about to land soon. Bring the wyverns of the zone indoors. And make sure you clean up the area.”

Some organization work was mandatory when there was a VIP. Stopping the other wyverns from setting off and landing on the area, they readied themselves to accept Reff One.

[This is Reff One. Landing soon.]

“Roger that. Reff One.”

Mac replied while looking at the squad of flying beasts that were slowly coming down from the air.

“Now now. Reff One is about to land. That means Ms. Marie is also going to come very soon! Get ready for some hot, burning welcome!”

While the squad of wyverns were coming to pick up Marie, the workers of the landing zone dropped everything they were doing and prepared themselves to welcome the VIP.

****

Wyverns were expensive.

Like, I wasn’t just throwing that out there because I didn’t know about their exact price; they were extremely, extremely expensive.

Sometimes on the news, they show how fighter planes and helicopters cost this and that, right?

Wyverns were exactly the same.

550 gold coins. 5.5 white gold coins.

That was about 550,000 in dollars, but that was the bare minimum, and wyverns with a good heritage easily went over 10 white gold coins.

But that wasn’t even the end. The cost to maintain wyverns was also abnormally ridiculous.

Maintenance fees, hiring riders, training fees, and food. I heard how each wyvern costs about 60 gold coins each year.

In the game, you only had to buy it once, and that was it, but here, you had to consider the maintenance fees on top of that so buying wyverns in real life was definitely not an easy feat.

“Wow.. there’s a whole squad of them.”

So in other words, that meant that those 12 wyverns that were swarming in from the distant sky cost at least 6,600 gold coins and ate up 720 gold coins each year.

It was scary how that was still the bare minimum cost.

“Huh? Poppy’s not here? Ah, he swapped places with Jun from the 8th Squad, huh! Maybe he’s sick?”

O~kay then!! Right now, the minimum number of wyverns in Senior Marie’s family just soared all the way up to 96. 96 wyverns meant it was at least 52,000..

“Oh, shit.. This is making me dizzy.”

I didn’t even know what to say after thinking about the sheer cost of that thing. But there was more.

“Y, you also have.. a monster carrier?”

Wyverns weren’t the only ones that were slowly descending from the sky. There was also a monster carrier that was carrying a whole ‘house’.

Monster Carriers.

It was a common way to refer to enormous flying monsters that were domesticated through long years of genetic modification and training.

Although they were demonic beasts by nature, these docile monster carriers that were a result of several genetic modifications were able to carry more than 50 tonnes and still carry out a stable flight.

The one coming down right now was an eagle that was mainly white. One thing to note was that it was even bigger than 6 wyverns combined.

“..Hresvelgr.”

“You know what it is!?”

Of course I did, because that was the end-game mount of ?Heroic Legends of Arhan?.

That was the final mount of the game that could only be earned after collecting materials like a madman and doing everything, including a special egg quest, training quest, private nest construction, and more.

You had to have a Hresvelgr to call yourself a veteran on the web because otherwise you’d be flamed.

As for the price.. I’d just say that it’s more expensive than the most expensive price of that wyvern squad. It wasn’t an end-game mount for nothing.

– Guung

The fact that the Hresvelgr gently placed down the large cubical ‘building’ hanging on its neck on the ground without even making any noise, was proof of how perfectly trained it was.

Soon, the wyverns also landed one by one, and an experienced middle-aged veteran came down from the biggest wyvern.

“Lady Marie!”

“Uncle Verg!”

Marie was about to approach the man called Verg, but he politely stopped her before gesturing at his men with his eyes.

– Toot toot!

Along with a noisy fanfare, an old gentleman and an old lady wearing butler clothes came out of the cubical ‘building’ and walked up after rolling a red carpet in front.

“Great job studying as always, Ms. Marie.”

“Grandpa Paul~. Seriously. I’m telling you, you don’t have to do this every time.”

“That won’t do. After all, you are the first daughter of the Dunareff of the South, Miss.”

Butler Paul, with a benevolent look on his face, greeted Marie before turning towards me.

“This gentleman over here is..?”

“Ah, he’s Korin! Korin Lork! He’s a freshman this year!”

“Ah~. So he is the one..”

Paul walked up to me and suddenly grabbed onto my hands.

“Thank you sir. Thank you so much.. for saving our miss. It is an honor to see you.”

“Umm.. okay.”

It seemed that they were already aware of what had happened to Marie. Paul wasn’t the only one – all the wyvern riders and workers simultaneously lowered their heads at me.

“T, thank you?”

Honestly.. I was quite overwhelmed by the wyverns and the Hresvelgr in front, so I didn’t even know what I was supposed to say.

“Now! Please come into the guest room!”

“Thank you for everything!”

After shouting that, Marie greeted all the wyvern riders and nonchalantly walked on top of the red carpet all the way into the so-called guest room.

“What are you doing, Korin? Hurry up and come inside!”

“..”

On top of the ‘guest room’, the Hresvelgr was looking down at me with a majestic gaze.

Damn it.. I seriously want one of these.

By the way, I only gained access to the Hresvelgr at the end of the game scenario. I barely got to ride this handsome eagle towards the end and yet..

****

Dunareff Family.

They were apparently the practical rulers of the southern regions of the continent, who possessed 2 million hectares of land and operated a super-megalo farm.

Using the vast piece of land that they have possessed from a long time ago, they supported the kingdom’s finances, and it seemed that they were in charge of ? of the crops of the entire El Rath kingdom.

Starting from crops and produce like potatoes and cotton to pastoral farms that have hundreds of thousands of domestic animals freely roaming around the green pasture – they even had plantation factories that produced magic plants like Mandrakes.

Instead of thinking, you only needed to listen to Marie’s explanation to tell just how enormous everything was.

“From all~~ the way there to there, we have flour farms, and from there to there – hmm, we can’t see because of the horizon – anyway, for about 30 minutes on a wyvern, we have potatoes! That mountain over there is this year’s grazing land! We will be moving back to that mountain over there next year! Oh right. Was that where our gold farm was?”

“Miss. The gold farm is further north. That place is the diamond farm.”

“Right right!”

Hmm, I see. When it’s millions of hectares big, everything’s just on a whole different scale.

“..Is that a corn farm?”

“Nn! Ah~, you saw the Audhumbla!”

It was so far down, and yet I could still see their shapes through the window of the guest room. Just how big were they exactly?

“That’s called an Audhumbla, and it’s su~per big! Hmm~ Probably about twice the size of the carriage that we were on!”

So.. it’s bigger than the King of Iron Mountain, huh.

Those unimaginably enormous animals were collecting corn with a harvesting tool on their necks. Twenty or so of those massive monsters moving around in a group was.. truly a mind-numbing sight.

S, so this is normal for rich people huh.. But wasn’t this still too much?

While I was dumbfounded by the ridiculous scale of the farm, Butler Paul brought a large roast turkey from the kitchen of the guest room.

“This is a special meal we have prepared for our two esteemed guests.”

He said while serving a gold roasted turkey, beneath which was a garnish made with a potato puree. The cocktails had several tiger prawns sticking inside – this was something I only saw in movies!

After having the best food that I haven’t even had on the ground, we arrived at the wyvern landing zone that was just outside the big city of Reff in about an hour and realized that there were still many things to be surprised about.

“Lady Marie! Congratulations on your holidaayyyyy!!!”

“Congratulations on your promotion to semi-Unique Gradeeeee!!!”

Around the landing zone were thousands of people welcoming Marie, who just got down on the red carpet.

“U, uhh..”

It was fearsome at this point. I had never seen such a warm welcome, even when the stupid Mr. Park was saving the world and being called a Hero, and even when he returned after defeating the Unique Grade demonic beast that attacked the city.

“Umm. Grandpa Paul? Why are there so many people?”

“They have all heard about the things that happened to you, Miss.”

“I see.. they must have been worried.”

It seemed that even Marie wasn’t used to such a big welcome when returning from the Academy, so she had a slightly embarrassed look on her face.

“Uncle Verg. How many people are there..? And it was just yesterday that I had my grade adjustment. How do they know about it already?”

“Well, we have already heard news from our wyvern riders. And there were so many people that we had to return some of them back home.”

What? This is after you sent some back?

“I’m sure you guys are busy with other things though. I feel a bit sorry.”

“Please don’t say that, Miss. Ms. Marie, you are the pride of everyone in the south after all.”

It’s not like I couldn’t understand her popularity. In this day and age, the most popular and well-received occupation was a guardian.

They were few in numbers, and had the public image of heroes that protected humanity from tonnes of demonic beasts.

If the most well-known guardian across every generation was Garrand the Sword Emperor, the current representative of guardians was Sword Master Lunia Arden from the Arden family of the east.

There were several famous guardians in the west and north, but there was no one that was particularly famous in the south.

Marie, who was well-known for being a genius mage, was definitely more than enough of a talent to become the iconic figure of a generation. Regional pride was probably one of the other reasons as well.

“Now then, let’s head straight to the mansion.”

Waiting for us at the landing zone was a carriage – not the magic carriage that moved with a crystal but a horse carriage that was dragged by horses. It was surprising that this was the first ‘normal’ domestic animal that I was seeing for the first time today.

Getting on the carriage, we entered Reff City.

Wait.. the name of the city was ‘Reff’. Don’t tell me..

“Senior Marie. Is the name of this city..”

“It comes from our surname! There’s also Duna City if we go slightly to the east!”

“..”

Looking back, the name of the platform was also ‘Duff’ Village!!

It was in fact surprising that I was unaware of this until now. Although I hadn’t been to the south very often, it was still shocking that I had no idea about this.

Even when we were inside the city, I could still spot the influence of the Dunareff family.

[Dunareff Barber]

[Dunareff Groceries]

[Dunareff Post Office]

[Dunareff Farming Cooperation Association]

[Dunareff Professional Wrestling Club]

Seriously.. the entire city was full of Dunareff. And why the heck was there a pro wrestling club?

“We have arrived at the entrance.”

We soon arrived at the mansion that was standing tall inside the city and.. I was trying not to get surprised by size at this point, but I couldn’t help it.

There was a time when I went to the royal courtroom of the El Rath Kingdom. Back then, I was shocked by the size and fanciness of the royal palace of the fantasy world but..

“It’s really.. not any worse than the palace.”

“Wow~ Korin. Have you been to the palace? I haven’t even been there that many times myself!”

At the entrance of the mansion were ornaments and an emblem of a potato flower, and those flower petals appeared like they were sculpted with pure gold.

Starting from the entrance all the way down was a vast garden and a fountain. There were several sculptures and artworks that were most certainly made by famous artists that were decorating the roadside.

The most mesmerizing of them all were the flowers blooming all across the garden. It reminded me of the overwhelming tulip fields of the Netherlands that I saw on TV.

The only difference was that it was FHD resolution back then, whereas this was about 16k.

Plus, there was a queue of countless guests lining in front of the entrance. What exactly were those people?

It seemed that Marie wasn’t sure either, and she, therefore, asked Mr. Paul.

“Do we have a party today?”

“Ah~. Guests are coming from all across the southern regions including the mayor of Reff City, after hearing news about your grade adjustment, Young Miss.”

Again, let me reiterate this.

The grade adjustment was yesterday, and the news of Marie’s promotion was something she shared at the Duff platform about 2 hours ago.

Considering the time it would take for wyverns to fly in and send the news, that meant that those people had come here in less than 30 minutes immediately after hearing the news.

“Currently, we only have guests that either live nearby or have private wyverns, but we will have more guests coming very soon.”

“Aiya.. I’m sure they’re all busy though.”

Judging from her words, I could tell that even Marie wasn’t seeing anything strange about the current turn of events, as if it was natural for people to come congratulate her.

What kind of life have you been living, Marie-noona..?

“Senior Marie. Why did you never tell me you were rich?”

“Hmm. My parents are rich, but I’m not, right?”

“That’s what rich people always say!”

You sell this mansion and that alone would be enough to feed 100 generations!

“Haha. Miss. You will be inheriting all this eventually anyway because you are the oldest child of the Dunareff family.”

“You didn’t need to say that, Grandpa Paul!”

Marie wasn’t denying his words though. Ah.. what’s this sense of betrayal that I’m feeling?

“The Dunareff Family often takes in in-laws when the head of the family is a lady. Of course, we also provide a portion of the businesses that we own to the in-law’s family along with incredible support.”

O.. kay? But why are you looking at me when saying that?

“Ms. Marie has been renowned for being both beautiful and clever ever since her childhood, and has been called the Flower of the South. There were so many people that wanted to marry our young miss, that the marriage proposal letters didn’t even fit into one of our potato warehouses.”

“Umm.. I see.”

“In the last generation with Sir Lergen, Miss Leticia, who used to be the family head back then, even gifted him with a mansion built with jewels. Hahaha. Even that was only worth less than 8 hectares of a potato farm, though.”

It seemed that this old gentleman was a person of the Dunareff family, after all, considering how he was comparing things to potatoes..

“G, Grandpa Paul! Why are you talking about that all of a sudden!?”

“Hahahaha. I’m just saying things. Hahaha..”

His expression facing me was a bit burdensome, so I changed the topic.

“Sunbae. You know the castle that I was talking about?”

“Ah~ You mean Castle Duke, right?”

I asked her if she could look into the castle of Sebancia Duke, who used to be hailed as the hero of the south hundreds of years ago.

“It seems that someone has bought the castle recently!”

Right.. Castle Duke was one that was under someone’s possession even in the last iteration. The owner was like.. a trader from the archipelago at the southern tip of the continent or something.

“Castle Duke has indeed been recently purchased by Count Casseus, who does trading at the archipelago.”

“Oh~. He’s a noble?”

By the way, nobles were an honorary title in this world, like how famous actors were knighted and old nobles appeared on TVs in the modern Earth.

“Miss. Our Dunareff Family also has peerage.”

“Oh, right. What were they again?”

“The family head is the duke of Reff, marquis of Rangol, count of Cardriol, viscount of Crancia —skip—. He has the above 25 peerage titles.”

“I’m sure you’re the only one who remembers all of that, Mr. Paul.”

“It is a must as the Head Butler of the Dunareff.”

Right.. the thing called peerage existed per region, and it was indeed possible to have multiples of them, like how King William I of England was both the king of England and a duke of Normandy of France.

But still, isn’t 25 too much?

“I think Korin wants to visit the count’s castle!”

“We are very lucky then. Count Casseus has visited Reff City for his business. If we invite him to our mansion, he will gladly join us for the party.”

“I see! That’s great, Korin! We can talk to him about it today!”

Count Casseus.

That was indeed the name of the one who possessed Castle Duke in the last iteration. But.. was this quest meant to progress this easily?

In any case, after 30 minutes on the carriage, we finally arrived at the actual mansion.

“Grandpa Paul. Where’s mom and dad?”

“The family head and madam will be coming tonight. They told me to apologize for not being able to make it in time. The other young masters and young misses will have their holiday starting in 3 days.”

“Then we can rest until then! Korin, follow me! I’ll show you your room!”

After getting off the carriage, I followed Marie, who was hopping up the stairs.

“The 1st floor is where all our workers stay! We have rooms starting from the 2nd floor, but our family stays on the 3rd floor!”

“Then should I stay on the 2nd floor?”

“No! You can come here, Korin!”

She led me to one of the rooms on the 3rd floor, with Mr. Paul following from behind.

“This is my room! And yours is here!”

“The Evergreen Room, I see,” commented Mr. Paul.

“Evergreen Room?”

“Yes. For generations, it has been reserved for the future family head’s fiance—”

“M, Mr. Paul! You don’t have to say that! I’m just giving this to him because it’s the best room we have!”

After saying that, Marie explained several things about the Evergreen Room, before going into her room which was connected to the Evergreen Room.

The bed was a queen-sized bed that was a bit too big for me to use by myself. It was my first time seeing such a fancy and large bed.

– Knock knock!

I came out after a shower in the bathroom connected to the room when someone knocked on the door.

“Who is it?”

“My name is Wilson, sir, and I am a massager working in the mansion.”

“Umm.. Please come in?”

The man who then walked into the room looked like a professional massager that you would see at expensive spas. He asked whether I wanted to have the massage in another room or not but I told him that I wanted to do it here.

– Creak! Crackkk!

“Aah. That feels good..”

“Haha. You have a lot of cramps. Let me start from your shoulders.”

“Thank youuu..”

This was so relaxing..

Was this paradise?

I wanted to spend my whole life here if I could.

****

Meanwhile, Marie was being served by maids for the first time in a long time.

“Oh my. Miss. Your skin is as soft as a baby’s!”

“Your skin’s very beautiful. Even prettier than last winter!”

While looking after Marie’s skin, which was as soft as a mochi, the maids were bustling with noise. It was normal for maids to say things that would put their masters in a good mood, but all their compliments for Marie were genuine.

Actually, there was something the employees at the mansion had decided on before Marie’s arrival.

‘You remember right? Don’t ever talk about vampires in front of Lady Marie!’

Everyone was greatly shocked when they heard how Marie had awakened as a vampire. Even though it wasn’t that rare for people to sometimes awaken into a demi-human, the reception and public consensus against them was by no means positive.

But even so, Marie was still Marie.

Those who knew about Marie knew how adorable and gentle she was. The maids who had been serving her for a long time felt like they were sending off their daughter when she headed to the Academy, and yet she had come back as a demon!

In order to make sure she didn’t feel down, they decided to be careful with their words. Actually, the newspaper companies that the Dunareff had shares in made sure to portray her as a victim, and the public perception was therefore not as bad as it could have been.

As long as there was enough money and power, it was possible to make a serial killer into a saint in this world. And besides, who would dare openly pick a fight with the royal Princess of the Potato Empire?

“Ms. Marie. How is life at the Academy?”

“Nnn.. I think I need another uniform. It feels stuffy around my chest.”

“Oh my~. That proves you are still growing even more. We will prepare the best designers and master dressmakers.”

“Hmm.. And, can we get one for a male as well?”

“For a male?”

“Ah~. Is that for your peer that you came here with?”

This is it! The maids looked at each other, before immediately deciding on the next topic.

“He was a very handsome-looking gentleman, right? Very amicable and had a great personality as well.”

“Nn. He’s a great person.”

Marie replied while slightly burying her head into her clothes with flushed ears. The maids paused after seeing that conspicuous change.

‘That’s youth.’

‘Youth it is.’

‘Does anyone know anything about that gentleman?’

‘He’s a Grade 5 Knight, apparently. It’s a bit low for him to become Miss’s spouse, don’t you think?’

‘No no no. Mr. Verg told me he’s a Grade 1 Knight. Apparently, he is on a similar level with Sword Master Lunia Arden of the East!’

‘Hoh..’

After silently sharing information in less than 3.7 seconds in front of their master with nothing but eye contact, the maids decided on the next direction of the conversation.

“Oh really~? He looked like a very reliable person. What kind of person is he?”

“Hmm.. First off, he’s handsome..”

‘Is he?’

‘Objectively speaking, I guess?’

‘But not as much as our Miss.’

“Very responsible, nice..!”

‘His personality seems good at least.’

‘How about his family?’

‘It doesn’t matter when Miss is from the Dunareff.’

‘You’re right.’

“He said he wanted me to be happy. He called me a good person, nice and pretty..! Hehe..”

““....””

Hearing those last words, an ominous feeling struck the three maids.

‘His tongue.. is quite smooth.’

‘Is he a player?’

‘No way.. right?’

The maids all got an ominous feeling, because this lady from the Dunareff family had been protected from the surroundings due to her absolute position in the south that she had been living a life that was very distant from men.

Even though there were enough marriage proposal letters to fill up a warehouse, that meant nothing because someone burned them all down while screaming,?‘These guys are all after my daughter’s wealth!’

In other words, it meant that Marie Dunareff knew nothing about men!

“Umm.. By the way, Miss. This might be a very sensitive topic, but..”

“Nn? What is it?”

“Did you perhaps, provide the young gentleman with any financial support.. or were there talks about borrowing money by any chance?”

‘Y, you idiot! That’s way too straight-forward!’

‘But! She won’t tell us if we don’t ask like this!’

For some reason, she was right on the mark.

“Hmm~. I did invest some into his business!”

“Ohh..”

None of the maids had the room to scold the one who accidentally let out an audible gasp. After a while, they carefully asked a question with a shivering voice.

Their hands weren’t even moving at this point.

“Umm, by business, you mean..?”

“He said he wanted to create an inn! And he said he would definitely multiply the money by three times! Korin is very smart and capable!”

‘..Shit.’

The maids all shared the same sentiment.

****

Considering how all the influential people of the area were invited, including the mayor, the party itself was a comparatively normal one held at the garden.

Of course, even a normal one was extremely big when held at the Dunareff mansion.

“Korin..! Everything here is delicious! Do you want some hash browns?”

“Yes please.”

Marie was in a casual dress, leading me forward by the hand. Since she was the protagonist of this party, we naturally ended up gathering a lot of eyes from the crowd.

“It was called a party, so I was thinking of a banquet of nobles, but this is quite different from what I expected.”

“Hnn? Well, it’s because everyone’s just here to say hi~”

She said as if it was natural for the influential people of the area to greet her. Seeing how there was a whole crowd that was eager to strike up a conversation with her.. it might be correct to say that it was a part of everyday life for her.

“Oh right! We need to deal with your thing first, Korin!”

“With Count Casseus?”

“Nn nn! He’s right there!”

It seemed that she was going to prioritize my business first.

“It’s your party so how about you enjoy it first?”

“Hmm~. Why bother?”

“..”

Damn, she was just built different or something! Was she implying this was just an everyday stuff for her that she didn’t need to bother enjoying it? Was this the dignity of the rich farmers that had control over the continent?

Together with Marie, I headed to a corner of the garden, where a man with a slightly darker skin that was normal for people from the archipelago was sharing a conversation with the guests.

Count Casseus.

He was a named character that you inevitably had to meet when clearing the quest of the Unique Grade demonic spirit sealed inside the Great Library, Sebancia Duke.

While looking for news about Sebancia’s wife and his daughter, Ruina Duke and Cecilia Duke, there was a need to visit his castle and the player had two choices.

One was to infiltrate Castle Duke in secret and look for clues. Of course, patrol guards-->>

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