CH 169

Rany’s eyes sparked once she accepted the heavy jewel box.

“Woah, so this is the Imperial family’s treasure.”

My feelings turned strange when I saw Rany open the box with a delighted face.

If I thought about it, the damage suffered by the Rocke Merchant Guild was far greater than mine.

Not only the credibility of the guild, but also Rany’s honor as a ‘noble lady’ was attacked.

“You’re the one who was harmed, though.”

Rany shook her head with a bright face.

“I don’t envy the other things except for this jewel box, so it’s fine.”

“ . . .”

The psychologist called by Orion insisted that I, who kept saying I was fine, was in the ‘denial stage of the case’.

He spoke with a wistful look on his face, closing his eyes.

“The young lady wants to forget the hard times she went through. She pushes down her troubled heart by not bringing up the accident.”

The more I said that I was fine, the more everyone’s eyes turned moist, so I gave up.

If there was anything good about it was that they immediately prepared a carriage when I said I would go to meet a friend and gave active cooperation such as waving for me to have a safe trip.

“But, did you come all the way here to give this? Why don’t you just send this through someone?”

“Well, I didn’t come just for that.”

I hesitated but then asked Rany who wore a quizzical look.

“I’m wondering if I can meet the artisan who made Mom’s earrings you said last time.”

“Why that person?”

“I heard he is a quite famous master artisan. Is that true?”

She nodded with a sour face.

“Well, he is. Though his dirty temper is a flaw. There’s not many artisans at his level. Even those earrings in fact would sell at an awesome price if they went to the auction.”

“I’m asking you. Let me meet him.”

Rany, who looked at me intently as though she was curious, told me about his workshop instead of asking for the reason.

* * *

The size of the workshop was smaller than I expected.

However, as though the words about his good skill weren’t a lie, the reception room to accept the commision was quite neat.

As I waited while drinking tea, I heard a loud noise from the hallway.

“The Rocke Merchant Guild?! That woman?! I told you to not welcome her!”

“. . .”

No wonder she didn’t say she would come with me.

You must have done something here, Rany.

I thought, slurping down the tea as I listened to the vexed voice.

“It’s not that person this time. She’s just here to ask something.”

“Tell her that I’m on leave. Say that I’m on vacation.”

That’s not good.

I, who paid attention to the situation, raised up and opened the door.

The two people, who were quarreling in the hallway, stopped as if they were confused with my appearance.

“I’m here because I have a few questions to ask. I’m begging you. I won’t take much of your time.”

The middle-aged man with a bushy mustache coughed at my words.

I showed out a handkerchief before him, who clearly looked uncomfortable.

His eyes got a little bigger as he saw the wrapped earrings.

“I want to ask about this item.”

Glancing at me, he closed his mouth tight and walked past me to the reception room.

The artisan, who plopped down on the sofa, cocked his head.

“What do you want to know?”

“I heard you personally made these earrings.”

“Didn’t you come and ask me a while ago? Those are truly mine.”

“I’m sorry for troubling you. However, this is a very important thing to me.”

The funky smell of the corpse was fresh as if it still lingered at the tip of my nose.

I genuinely couldn’t understand how the earring I took from that grasp was Mom’s earring.

At my serious expression, he took over the handkerchief and clicked his tongue.

“Look at the tip of the ruby here. Any craftsman leaves his mark on the work he puts a lot of effort into. Hence, isn’t this proof that this is mine?”

I could see an initial that was smaller than rice grain through the magnifying glass he gave me.

After looking thoroughly, I nodded.

“Actually, I lost one of these and found it recently. However, the place I found it was a location where it shouldn’t be, no matter how much I think about it.”

“It’s fine as long as you find it, right? The place you found it was a location where it shouldn’t be? What? Was it in the mistress’s house?”

With sarcasm, he opened his mouth when he saw me fiddling with the earrings.

“If you want, I can find out the rough estimation where the earrings went.”

“How?”

“My customers are mostly the nobles. As much as they are obsessed with precious items, they put magic on insurance. I think those earrings too were set so its location could be tracked.”

He asked me, who looked down at the earrings absent-mindedly.

“Do you have any intention to find out where the earring was lost and how you came to find it?”

When I nodded, he breathed out with a heavy expression.

“I’m reluctant though. Actually, when the noble ladies come and say they lost this kind of precious accessory, it never ended nicely when the items were found. There are a lot of cases where their husbands or sons took it and gave it to a woman.”

He was worrying about me, who he met for the first time today.

How come this kind of kind person wanted nothing to do with Rany?