Chapter 47: A Little Game

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“Huh? Huh?? B-But… I-I… I don’t know anything about jewels…”

Jewels were something that I could only see from a distance being worn by my stepmother and stepsister occasionally when they went to a ball…. The only jewelry I had ever touched was that ‘cursed necklace’. 

“Yes. That is fine.”

“Huh?”

“You just only need to pick the one you like the best. As simple as that.”

“These are all the gemstones our store could prepare as of now. If you need me to get another gemstone then I will need to…”

NO!! Don’t say something so scary like ‘another gemstone’!!!!

“Please do not worry about the price. Everything has been taken care of by Lord Lönnrot already.”

“Huh?”

….Oh, does that mean every gemstone in here, all of them are the same price? Well, I can see why. Even though they all differ in size and colour, they all are shining so brightly. 

“Yes. That’s why Miltia, you only need to pick the one you like the best.”

But still… I have a feeling any of this jewellery costs a frightening amount of money… However after they went to prepare all of this for me, things would get awkward if I kept on insisting I don’t want it…. 

I gazed at the rectangular jewellery box. All of the beautiful gemstones inside made me feel like I was selecting a star from the milky way. 

Suddenly, between all those selections, one smaller green stone that looked strangely muddy caught my eyes. 

I wonder why? ….. All of the other gemstones in here are so sparkly. Only this gemstone doesn’t have the same bright transparency as the other…. Somehow, this muddy gemstone is looking somewhat sad and shunned upon by the others in my eyes…

“Umm… This gem is…?”

“Oh, that’s gemstone is called『night rose』.”

“Fufu, actually…”

This ‘night rose’, while it could work as a powerful magic protection charm… This gemstone was actually a little bit hard to handle because it also had the property to automatically absorb any ‘bad things’ such as curse or miasma. Because of that, this gemstone needed to be purified constantly if you wanted to maintain the stone’s beautiful shine. 

Thanks to the stone’s natural property in absorbing ‘bad things’, this stone was usually given to saint candidates as their final examination. 

“Miltia, if you like ‘night rose’,then they also have another ‘night rose’ with better transparency here.”

Maricle-sama pointed to another night rose. This night rose was very big and unlike the other muddy one, this night rose had a beautiful, almost transparent, light green shine. 

“Ah, no… I mean… I’m just… Curious about this gemstone….”

“Fufu~ Miltia-sama, do you like this gemstone?”

For some reason, a smile that gave off the impression of triumph appeared on Gina-san’s face. 

“Ah, y-yes…”

Somehow, I felt like there was some sort of bond between me and this muddy stone. I then picked up the gemstone and placed it on my right palm. Gently, I stroked the gem with my fingers and I could feel the gemstone feeling a bit happier, making me feel a little warm and fluffy inside. 

“I understand. Since Miltia likes it, we will take this stone.”

“Fufu~ Duke Lönnrot… This time… I guess it is my victory.”

Huh? Victory? 

Gina-san smiled delightfully, she took out a folding fan from between her chest and spread it to cover her face as she laughed elegantly. 

“Good grief… In terms of money, Gina might’ve won but since Miltia actually found the gem she likes,I don’t mind it.”

It appeared for this occasion, Gina-san had prepared an array of her best of the best and very special gemstones to something more relatively reasonably priced. However, Maricle-sama had only paid just enough to buy high quality gemstone, not to the extent of Gina-san’s “best” gemstone. It seemed that the ratio of the gemstones Gina-san had prepared went like… 10% best of the best… 20% high quality… 70% second-rate… and one third-rate gemstone. 

In other words, if I had the aesthetic sense to choose a jewel, I could’ve chosen Gina-san’s best gemstone out of the collections which gave a good deal for Maricle-sama and if I had chosen high quality gemstone, Maricle-sama would get a fair deal and… If I choose something on the lower side, Gina-san would be the one happily stuffing the excess money into her pocket. 

And what a gemstone I’ve chosen! …..A third-rate gemstone…. Which means I had chosen the only worst choice possible… 

“Miltia, please do not fret. I still have 3 wins over 2 loses with her so I’m still on the winning side.”

“Fufu~ But because of this one bout, I’m leading in terms of money, you know?”

It turned out my aesthetic sense was so bad that even though Maricle-sama still had 1 win in terms of quantity, he was now losing in terms of quality. 

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T/N: Don’t worry Miltia, if I were you I think I’d also only get the second-rate at best ଘ(੭˃ᴗ˂)੭