ITIF Chapter 41

Blooming

“Wh-what on earth… H-how did this happen…?”

Some time later, as the Semper flowers bloomed, the nobles were divided between joy and despair.

First, those who had tried to obtain Semper bulbs but ultimately couldn’t due to the soaring prices breathed a sigh of relief.

On the other hand, Countess Minster, who had mortgaged her wedding gifts and even her estate to purchase Semper bulbs, turned not just pale but completely white.

This was because yellow and red Semper flowers were blooming beautifully in the garden of Count Minster’s estate.

The damage wasn’t even limited to just the Count Minster’s family.

Countess Minster hadn’t stopped at close family and acquaintances—she had gone around recommending the purchase of Semper bulbs to even distant relatives.

She had demanded payment, claiming it was exclusive, high-grade information.

Even those who had only half-listened to Countess Minster’s words eventually joined in belatedly when they saw the price of Semper bulbs skyrocketing day by day.

And this was the result.

“Stripes… there are no stripes at all!”

Countess Minster, who had been staring blankly at the bloomed flowers, grabbed the back of her neck and collapsed.

“Ma-Madam! Are you alright?”

The head maid quickly supported Countess Minster and shouted.

“The physician! Call the physician!”

“Yes!”

Soon, a nearby maid ran toward the mansion.

However, she had to stop in her tracks before getting very far.

A group of nobles was striding toward them. They emanated an anger close to murderous intent.

The maid flinched and stepped aside slightly. Then an elderly noblewoman with a stern expression asked.

“Where is Countess Minster?”

“Sh-she’s over there…”

The maid pointed in the direction she had come from. Then a middle-aged noble with a protruding belly shouted.

“Everyone, let’s go! Countess Minster is over there!”

The nobles immediately hurried toward where Countess Minster was.

“…”

The maid, who had been watching this scene blankly, suddenly remembered that her mistress had collapsed earlier.

Just as she turned toward the mansion to call for the physician again—

“Agh!”

A short scream like a death cry rang out, followed by shouting from where Countess Minster was.

****

“Wow, Miss. It’s complete chaos right now.”

Lindsey, who had gone to the commercial district to investigate the situation, shook her head as she described the nearly chaotic current state of affairs.

“The price of Semper bulbs has completely crashed!”

In fact, this was a predictable outcome.

People blinded by greed had simply failed to properly assess the situation for a while.

Stirring the red tea with a teaspoon, Giselle Grante nodded.

“Is that so?”

“Yes! Count Minster’s family seems to have suffered the greatest damage. They had been hoarding so many Semper bulbs.”

The Semper flowers bloomed beautifully in red or yellow.

While this alone was sufficiently beautiful, the expectations of those who had hoped for flowers with special patterns turned to nothing.

In fact, only Semper infected with a specific virus could bloom striped flowers, and this would later be revealed through subsequent research to be a very special case.

But there was no way to know this now—what conditions were needed for Semper to bloom striped flowers.

If it weren’t for the contents of the diary that Giselle Grante had written in the past, she too wouldn’t have known that this year’s Semper would bloom normally without being infected by the virus.

“Miss, so what will happen to Count Minster’s family now?”

At Lindsey’s question, Giselle Grante put down her teacup and answered nonchalantly.

“They’ll go bankrupt.”

Lindsey’s mouth fell open in surprise.

“Wow…! A noble family that dominated the capital’s social circles could fall overnight…”

“It’s the result of excessive greed.”

Giselle Grante had visited Countess Minster not long ago and casually mentioned some information, calling it high-grade intelligence.

Under the pretense of comforting Countess Minster, who must have been hurt by the incident at the Empress’s tea party.

That high-grade information was about Semper bulbs.

She said that currently, the supply of Semper bulbs was insufficient compared to demand, and consequently, prices would skyrocket.

When she first mentioned this, Countess Minster seemed not to believe it.

But soon she began buying up Semper bulbs as if scraping them together. This was proof that she had started believing Giselle Grante’s words.

And then Giselle Grante had given Countess Minster a warning-like remark.

To withdraw when she had made reasonable profit.

Of course, unlike with Count Frederick, she didn’t tell her exactly when to sell the Semper bulbs.

But she had definitely given a warning—that being too greedy would lead to serious trouble.

Moreover, Giselle Grante had recently encountered Countess Minster and her daughter while out in the commercial district preparing for an upcoming imperial ball.

Lady Minster didn’t stop at just silk shoes and dresses—she picked up only expensive items that were more costly than anything Giselle Grante had chosen.

Countess Minster allowed all of this.

Lady Minster strutted around proudly as if she had won a competition against Giselle Grante, and before leaving, Giselle Grante spoke to Countess Minster once more.

Please don’t forget the advice she had given before.

The response from Countess Minster was this:

“Why would we need to cut open the belly of a goose that lays golden eggs?”

This revealed her psychology of not wanting to sell the Semper bulbs and holding onto them tightly.

Thanks to this, Giselle Grante could feel at ease. Count Minster’s family would self-destruct due to their excessive greed.

And today, the expected result had arrived.

Buried in debt, Count Minster’s family had reached an irrecoverable state.

Now, one of the two families that had supported the Empress was completely ruined.

****

Count Frederick, who had visited the commercial district to stop by his owned shops, discovered that the price of Semper bulbs had fallen to an absurd level.

‘Even seeing it with my own eyes, I still can’t believe it…’

Just a few days ago, a single Semper bulb was worth nearly the price of a large villa.

Even without Giselle Grante’s advice, Count Frederick had already been suspicious that the investment fever might be somewhat overheated, so he had disposed of all the Semper bulbs he owned on the date she had mentioned.

And thanks to that, he had gained enormous profit.

As a single achievement accomplished without allying with royalty or nobles of higher status than himself, it could be called the best.

It was something that couldn’t happen unless magical stones were suddenly discovered in barren land bought at a cheap price.

Judging from this incident, he couldn’t even imagine what benefits he would gain by standing on Giselle Grante’s side in the future.

There was no reason to hesitate about heading to Duke Amaterasu’s residence.

“Turn the carriage around.”

“Where shall we go?”

“To Duke Amaterasu’s residence.”

****

It was well past lunchtime when Duke Amaterasu finally finished his morning duties and left his office.

This was because processing the continuously arriving correspondence had somewhat delayed his work.

He could have had simple food sent up to his office, but Duke Amaterasu, who preferred cleanliness, disliked having food smells linger in his space.

Therefore, to finish his morning duties before the afternoon alliance meeting, he had to have a rather late lunch.

As he headed toward the dining room, he happened to encounter Mikhail, who was walking in this direction.

“…Huh? Father, are you going to eat now?”

“Yes.”

“Then let’s eat together. I haven’t had lunch yet either.”

Looking at the book in Mikhail’s hand, Duke Amaterasu thought his son had missed mealtime while reading.

“I heard the Semper flowers have bloomed… Have you heard about it?”

As they walked together toward the dining room, Mikhail asked.

In fact, correspondence from alliance nobles had been continuously arriving during his morning duties.

They were checking whether Duke Amaterasu had also suffered great losses by purchasing many Semper bulbs.

Fortunately, Duke Amaterasu hadn’t been particularly interested in Semper bulbs, so he had suffered no damage either.

“Yes, I heard. It seems quite a few nobles have suffered significant losses because of it.”

“Yes. I heard the damage to Count Minster’s family was particularly severe.”

Duke Amaterasu was nodding when Mikhail suddenly lowered his voice and continued.

“But Father, what do you think of this incident? Count Minster’s family went bankrupt right after the Empress dismissed them.”

“Do you think this Semper bulb incident is related to the Imperial family?”

Mikhail drew in a breath and said.

“There would have been no way for the Imperial family to know in advance that the flowers wouldn’t have stripes, so I can’t jump to conclusions, but…”

However, before he could finish speaking, Mikhail closed his mouth.

“…?”

Duke Amaterasu, who had been facing forward, turned his head toward Mikhail.

Soon, Duke Amaterasu’s eyes widened as he looked in the direction of Mikhail’s gaze.

In the garden was Giselle Grante. Together with a young man.

From here, they couldn’t see the man’s face. But just from the clothes he was wearing, they could immediately tell he was a noble.

“Who is that with Giselle?”

“I wonder…”

At Duke Amaterasu’s question, Mikhail slowly shook his head.

And without anyone going first, both men turned their steps toward the garden where Giselle Grante and the young man were.

“Master, Young Master.”

Then they heard the urgent voice of the butler from behind.

“I have something to tell you.”

Both men turned their heads sharply toward the butler, their irritation clearly visible.

“What is it?”

The butler, who had stiffened momentarily at their fierce expressions, opened his mouth.

“I was just about to inform you that a guest has arrived.”

“A guest?”