Chapter 67: How to Fund Your Revenge

Chapter 67. How to Fund Your Revenge

"Do you still have feelings for her?"

The question came so suddenly that I blinked.

Seris glanced toward the garden where Elia had been standing earlier.

She was gone.

I looked back at Seris.

"I saw her chasing after you in the corridor," she said.

So much for thinking she hadn’t noticed.

"No." I leaned against the railing. "I never had feelings for her. I saw her as my sister once. Nothing more."

Seris’s shoulders relaxed. "Good."

That response came suspiciously fast.

I smirked. "Jealous?"

"No."

Liar.

Her faintly reddened cheeks betrayed her immediately, but I generously decided not to prosecute the case.

Seris took another sip of wine before her expression became serious again. "Among all of them, the Light Temple is the most active in trying to get rid of you."

My amusement vanished.

"Tell me about it."

"They consider you corrupted. Something fundamentally incompatible with the Light Temple’s teachings."

Nothing new there.

"But at the same time..." Seris hesitated. "They’re interested in your power."

I slowly turned toward her.

"They’ve been discussing the strange magic you demonstrated during the hunt. Especially what happened to those monsters."

"The mutations."

Seris nodded. "They don’t understand it. That makes them afraid of it, but it also makes them want it."

I laughed under my breath.

Humanity.

Thousands of years later, still beautifully consistent.

If something was dangerous, destroy it.

Unless it was useful.

Then put it in a laboratory and poke it until somebody exploded.

"They want to control you, Rey," Seris continued. "If they can’t control you..."

"They’ll kill me."

"Yes."

A low laugh escaped me.

This was almost funny.

Here I’d been thinking Raven and Garr were competing for first place in the ’Who Wants Rey Dead the Most?’ championship.

Apparently, Elia’s faction was quietly winning.

The Saintess herself might hesitate, but the institution standing behind her clearly didn’t.

And somehow that felt crueler.

One side wanted me dead because of revenge.

The other wanted to dissect the usefulness out of me first.

"We’ll see about that," I murmured.

Then a voice suddenly floated up from below. "Rey!"

I looked over the railing.

Lily was waving enthusiastically from the garden.

Apparently flower appreciation time had ended.

Ariel, Nia, Liora, and the others were with her.

Seris immediately stepped away from me.

Her face was already red.

I looked at her.

Guilty phoenix.

Cute.

"What are you two doing up there?" Lily called.

"Nothing," Seris answered suspiciously quickly. "Just getting some fresh air."

Sure. Very aggressive fresh air.

I leaned casually against the railing and looked down at them. "Did you guys have fun?"

"I did!" Nia answered immediately.

Liora nodded. "We all did."

Ariel looked up at me. "Let’s go home. I’m a bit tired."

Home.

Now that was the best suggestion I’d heard all afternoon.

I glanced at Seris.

She met my eyes, and judging by the warmth returning to her cheeks, apparently we were both remembering exactly what had happened on this balcony.

My smile sharpened. "Fine." I pushed away from the railing. "Let’s go home."

The banquet itself only continued briefly after that.

King Aldric eventually announced that the celebration would end earlier than originally planned because he was tired. A perfectly reasonable excuse for a king who had spent the entire day entertaining nobles, accepting gifts, managing political parasites, and watching five supposedly allied heroes return from a charity hunt looking like they’d accidentally reenacted the final battle against the Dark Lord.

Except according to one of his assistants, the king wasn’t particularly worried about himself.

He was worried about us.

After what happened in the hunting ground, he apparently wanted all five heroes to rest rather than remain at the palace until night.

How considerate.

I would’ve called him a genuinely good king who always thought about his heroes first.

Before our conversation in the study, anyway.

Now?

I wasn’t so sure.

Not because Aldric was secretly evil.

If anything, I’d gained more respect for him.

The man was simply far more calculating than the warm grandfatherly king he’d shown everyone.

Good king? Probably.

Harmless king? Absolutely not.

Before we left, each hero received a small wooden box containing several high-grade recovery potions. Apparently, the king wanted to make absolutely certain none of us suddenly collapsed on the road home.

Mine consisted of one box.

Then I looked at my wives.

Somehow, Nia had acquired enough additional boxes to supply a small military campaign.

Food. Desserts. Roasted meat. Bread. Fruit. Several dishes from the royal banquet. And... Were those bottles of wine?

How?

When?

I had left these women unattended for less than an hour.

Apparently, that was enough time for Nia to loot the royal banquet legally.

The explanation was somehow even more ridiculous.

During their walk through the garden, Nia had offered the queen one of Lily’s pastries.

The queen liked it.

A lot.

Lily, naturally delighted that someone appreciated her baking, offered another.

Then another.

Somewhere along the way, the queen received the remaining box of pastries, and Nia somehow transformed that friendly exchange into permission to take food from the royal banquet home with us.

Equivalent exchange.

Except Nia had traded pastries for roasted meat, expensive wine and royal desserts.

Fox princess.

Terrifying woman.

And naturally, who had to carry everything?

Me.

More specifically, my Dimensional Storage Ring.

I had become the household backpack.

But apparently, Nia hadn’t stopped there.

She had also spent her time in the garden promoting our jewelry.

Yes, she had turned the queen’s invitation to admire the flowers into her own advertising opportunity.

Then Nia found another business opportunity.

Perfume.

I nearly stopped walking when she explained that one.

Apparently, some of the stares I’d received in the banquet hall weren’t because people thought I was insane, dangerous, attractive, suspicious, or secretly planning to overthrow civilization.

They were because I smelled like flowers.

Lily’s botanical assassination had left enough floral fragrance on my clothes, hair, and skin that several noblewomen noticed it.

They liked it.

They wanted to know what perfume I was wearing.

I wasn’t wearing perfume.

I had been assaulted by petals.

But apparently, capitalism didn’t care about technicalities.

Nia immediately decided Lily’s floral scents could become an actual product.

And I didn’t complain.

Because everything needed money.

Soldiers needed money.

Information networks needed money.

Spies definitely needed money.

Weapons, enchanted equipment, safe houses, transportation, servants, ingredients, mana crystals, laboratories, monster cores.

Civilization had changed over thousands of years, but one scientific principle remained eternal. Money made people remarkably cooperative.

The Light Temple had donations from believers.

The Holy Knights had noble houses and affiliated territories supporting them.

The Iron Vanguard earned enormous amounts through mercenary contracts, military work, fortress protection, and monster suppression.

Assassins Valley...

They killed people for money.

Very straightforward business model.

And me?

Nothing.

I had no stable source of income.

Rey had received rewards from King Aldric after the war, and his wives possessed their own resources, but relying on royal rewards and my wives’ wealth wasn’t a foundation for an independent faction.

If I wanted power, I needed an economy behind it.

So jewelry? Approved.

Perfume? Approved.

Rare magical products eventually? Definitely approved.

I could enchant accessories. Lily understood plants. Liora understood mana crystals and finances. Nia could apparently sell sand in a desert and convince the buyer they’d received a bargain. Ariel could manage the household and logistics, while Seris already understood security and intelligence.

I suddenly realized something.

We weren’t merely building businesses.

We were accidentally constructing infrastructure.

By the time our crystal carriage finally arrived back at the estate, evening had already settled over the grounds. The last traces of sunlight had disappeared beyond the horizon, leaving the mansion illuminated by warm magical lamps.

The girls looked exhausted.

Even Nia’s tail had lost some of its usual energetic sway, while Liora leaned sleepily against Ariel. Seris was quieter than usual.

"Go rest early tonight," I told them.

We’d survived enough nonsense for one day.