Chapter 1089: Chapter 1089

“Alright. So what's the reason behind this phenomenon?” Davey asked, having deliberately made a manifestation for Tsuna to analyze.

“Uh. Well... the mana structure is being distorted, and the magnetic field is—”

“That's not it, you idiot!” Davey shouted, making Tsuna flinch and take a step back.

She complained, “Why are you yelling all of a sudden?!”

“I’ve never seen anyone as dumb as you in my entire life! Structural distortion? Come on, it’s clearly a naturally fixed stable form!!”

She shouted back with indignance, “How am I supposed to know that?! I'm not a mage!!”

“So, if you don’t know, are you just going to sit back and get played like a fool? Huh?”

“Also, what kind of solution to your supply issues are you trying to pull here? Are you really going to trade off the trust built with Heins Territory and the huge favor your father owes to the Lyndis Empire like they’re worth the same?”

“Even if we take a loss, we can’t afford to let our credit drop! You’re the one who said we had to get the supplies to Heins Territory on time!” she yelled back in protest.

Davey flicked her forehead with a sharp snap.

“You might as well just give everything away while you’re at it! Just hand it all out and end up broke! If you keep throwing out your trump cards like that, don’t expect to play the role of a proper chancellor!”

Grabbing her head and growling, Davey scolded her harshly, while Tsuna barked back just as fiercely, unwilling to back down. It wasn’t the first time the same kind of scene had played out. Chapters first released on NoveI~Fire.net

[Unbelievable. My sweet and quiet Tsuna...]

'Does that look sweet and quiet to you? If you ask me, she’s got to be a fox. Not just any fox, either—one with nine tails.'

She was a little different from Aeria, but like the Gumiho Bi Yeon from Earth, her outward appearance and inner self were worlds apart. The way he saw it, her indignant arguing must’ve been her true nature all along. After all, it was common among nobles to hide one's real personality. Those with responsibilities due to their age, gender, or other circumstances especially. In fact, they were often even more restrained.

Although unintentional, Davey had apparently become the person who let her finally vent all the stress she'd been bottling up.

Watching from a distance as she busied herself with her appearance, Davey clicked his tongue. “Try to look more mature! And don’t let anyone look down on you.”

“Is the divine blessing my father stored on its way?”

“They’re getting it out of the vault now. Please wait a bit, My Lady.”

“I’m not ‘My Lady,’ I’m Your Excellency! I’m a Chancellor! I have to act like it!”

Still fixated on her appearance, she was completely absorbed in her preparations.

Davey bluntly criticized her, “You're not ready yet.”

[Sigh. Tsuna’s being too hard on herself.]

Though she seemed capable, in Davey’s eyes, it all seemed like a house of cards. She was forcing herself to act tough, like she was trying to prove she wasn’t some hurt little animal. She was always busy, constantly reminding herself of her position so she wouldn’t slip up or show weakness.

‘She might look fine at a glance, but anyone even slightly experienced will see through her right away. In the end, she’s just a kid putting up a front to protect herself.’

To him, she had too many openings to exploit. However, in terms of pure talent, Tsuna might even outshine her father, the late Chancellor.

[Hmph. Being Chancellor isn’t something you can pull off just by being a talented merchant.]

Davey silently watched as she finished her preparations and finally stepped out. When he didn’t say anything, Tsuna looked slightly uncomfortable and asked, “Do I look weird or something?”

“Drawing lines on a pumpkin doesn’t make it a watermelon.”

Her expression instantly soured at his demeaning metaphor. “At least I don’t look bad enough for people to call me ugly.”

“Who said anything about ugly? Everyone knows you’re pretty.”

Startled, she flinched. “Eh?!”

“But while you’re a perfect ten as a woman, you don’t even hit a three as a chancellor.”

“What do you even know?!” she shouted back.

“You’ll see for yourself soon.”

When Davey smiled, she clenched her teeth and glared at him. “You already know this, but today’s the day we have the economic talks with the diplomats from the Vatan Kingdom. I don’t know what all these useless things you’ve taught me will even do for me in there!”

“I guarantee something interesting will happen in today’s talks.”

She snapped and turned on her heel, “Hmph!”

Watching her retreating back, Davey muttered, “What do you think’s going to happen?”

[We’ll have to see what unfolds to know for sure. Though right now, all I feel is concern.]

Trust was the same as credit. At that moment, Tsuna didn’t have Davey’s trust, and neither did she have her late father’s.

“As a merchant, she’s above average, but as a chancellor? She’s hopeless. She doesn’t know when to push forward or when to retreat. She can’t even use her own value and presence to pressure her opponents.”

[Why didn’t you help her with that?]

“When it comes to some things, she just has to learn for herself.”

[Then what would you do if you were to change Tsuna right now?]

“First thing, I’d strip off that awkwardly adult outfit and all that jewelry.”

Sure. From the outside, she looked every bit the dignified Chancellor. However, it just didn’t suit her.

“Tsuna de Murgent isn’t you.”

She had no convictions of her own—she was just copying her father.

When Davey looked at her pink hair, twisted into an elaborate updo, he called over one of the knights assigned to escort her.

“What can I do for you, Saint?”

“Could you fetch me an attendant? I’m going to follow along as well.”

“Wait, does that mean it’ll be a joint attendance?”

“I am a foreign dignitary. If I show up next to her without any official connection, do you realize what kind of chaos that could bring to this country?”

The knight’s eyes widened, startled by his firm tone. “M-My apologies! I’ll call someone right away, but won’t people recognize you?”

“You don’t have to worry about that.” Davey lightly cast a transformation spell over himself, and the knight’s face froze in shock.

“My goodness, a disguise spell! Sir... I suspect the other mages there might notice.”

“Even if there were a hundred of them, they’d never figure it out, so don’t worry.”

No matter the task, the most important thing wasn’t to understand the opponent—it was to understand oneself first. Not arrogance or humility, but clear-headed judgment.

“Your Excellency, if you keep touching your hair...”

“I know! It's just so heavy.” Tsuna, the Chancellor of the Alberta Kingdom, muttered.

At that moment, she was officially attending a diplomatic trade negotiation with the neighboring Vatan Kingdom. If it were a minor agreement, there’d be no need for such formalities, but she was representing the noble faction as the official face of Alberta Kingdom in the talks.

Of course, only two or three people here genuinely followed her. The other five or so were basically just lackeys of her political rival, Marquis Barogo.

“Damn! All because of Instructor... No, that damned prince! Thanks to him, I couldn’t get any proper sleep.”

“Your Excellency, please refrain from using such harsh language.” Davey smiled gently, disguised as an attendant.

Having no idea it was him, she merrily continued to complain about him. “What’s that guy even doing right now?”

“He hasn’t moved an inch from the ducal estate. After all, he’s not the type to barge in and nitpick domestic agreements. ”

She let out a skeptical hum, but didn’t seem to suspect him to be nearby. In fact, most of the other attendants and maids hadn’t recognized him either. The head butler who had accompanied Tsuna had discreetly given a heads-up to a limited few, so Davey hadn’t had to deal with any bothersome tasks.

“Just wait! I’ll prove I can handle this on my own, even without him. I’ll show everyone that everything my father did was just baseless worry.” As she huffed her way toward the conference room where the nobles and the diplomats of the Vatan Kingdom awaited, something caught her eye.

“What are you doing?!” a gruff voice rang out.

Several knights were forcibly removing a child from the premises.

“What’s going on?” Curious, she stopped and walked over to where the commotion was happening.

There she saw a boy in filthy rags crouched on the ground, shoving flowers and grass into his mouth like his life depended on it. His appearance was so pitiful that it was hard to believe someone like that could be inside the royal palace.

“C-Chancellor!” one of the knights panicked.

“What’s happening here?”

“We’re sorry! We’ll remove him right away!”

“I asked you what’s going on.”

“That is...” After a moment of hesitation, the knight sighed and explained, “Well, we were on patrol when we found this boy we didn’t recognize. He was tearing up grass and flowers, then eating them like crazy.”

Tsuna looked at the boy. “Are you hungry?”

His eyes seemed empty of emotion. Still, Tsuna asked, “Can you tell me your name?”

After a quiet moment, the boy finally responded, “Belga.”

“Alright, Belga. Why were you eating flowers?”

He paused before replying, “Because... I was really hungry.”

Tsuna closed her eyes in pity.

“Take him with you. Clean him up and give him a proper meal,” she said to the knight.

“H-Huh? Your Excellency!”

“Being hungry is one of the saddest things in the world. The ducal house will cover all the expenses,” she said firmly.

The knights exchanged glances and then nodded.

When she was about to turn away, Tsuna clapped and pulled a large piece of jerky from her pouch. “Oh, right. Want something to eat right now?”

His empty eyes flickered for the first time.

Without waiting for permission, he snatched the jerky and shoved it into his mouth. “Slow down or you’ll choke,” she softly reminded him.

Despite the delicate look on his face, the boy tore at the jerky like a wild animal. His mouth and hands moved furiously, like he hadn’t eaten in days. Once he finished, he looked up with a hopeful expression, wanting more. Tsuna handed him another piece.

“You...” the boy said in a soft voice.

“You little runt. How dare you address the Chancellor like that?!” one of the knights raged.

She waved him off, “It’s alright. He’s just a child.”

She turned back to the boy. “So, do you have something you want to say to me?”

“Why are you helping me?”

Tsuna tilted her head at the question. “Is there a reason not to help a child who's so starving they’re eating flowers off the ground?”

He didn’t have a response.

“I don’t know how you ended up inside the palace, but hunger... hunger is the same for everyone.”

Belga remained silent. Tsuna slowly stood up and turned back toward the conference room. As she walked ahead, Davey—still in disguise—turned and looked at the boy called Belga.

Soon enough, Belga looked back at Davey. They stared at each other for a while before he finally closed his eyes and turned away.

‘A spiritual entity.’

Davey had thought they’d all been wiped out, yet clearly one still remained. Then again, the appearance of spiritual entities wasn't exactly a new problem. They had come into existence after Davey had saved the Arbute Kingdom in the past. Since changing history, they may have been lurking there ever since.

Sure, since they were all enemies of Goddess Freyja, eliminating him would be the logical thing to do.

“Consider yourself lucky.”

However, the boy didn’t give off a dangerous aura. Davey figured that placing a simple tracking spell and a few restraints would be enough to avoid exposing himself.

Wiping the boy out would be easy, but that would throw everything else he had planned into disarray. Still, the bigger reason lay elsewhere.

Though the boy was a spiritual entity, his physical structure bore many similarities to the Illyna of the parallel world, the Hero of Light Reina.

He wasn’t one of the Celestials, but still, there was a sense that he wasn’t just made of spirit. He felt like a real, living being.

When Davey turned away, he caught sight of Tsuna wincing and clutching her hair ornament again. The spirit of the late Chancellor smiled warmly at the sight.

[She really is a kind-hearted child. If only I’d given her the praise she deserved while I was alive.]

“That kindness could come back to bite her one day.”

“She needs to learn to be more suspicious. Did you notice that she never even questioned how that kid ended up in the royal palace? That alone constitutes a failing grade.”

[So you’re saying that boy isn’t just some hungry kid?]

“Think whatever you want.”

Even as the spirit continued asking questions, Davey gave no further answers.

After Davey and Tsuna left, the boy who had been following the knights, Belga, found himself alone with a nobleman who’d suddenly appeared.

“What exactly do you think you’re doing, Belga?”

The man, with his cold and piercing gaze, was none other than Marquis Barogo. Belga stared at him with a blank expression, offering no response.

“You nearly ruined everything! You made contact with that Tsuna girl before the plan was even in place. Are you insane?”

“I was just... hungry.”

Belga had always felt an abnormally large craving for vitality. Even when Marquis Barogo was supporting him, he had constantly devoured massive quantities of food.

“I was looking around, and I got hungry. I couldn’t hold back, so I started chewing on flowers.” Even so, it couldn’t satisfy him. Belga grimaced, seemingly in discomfort. “I was starving. Then that woman gave me food.”

Hearing his hollow response, Marquis Barogo’s brows furrowed.

Belga was a spiritual entity, as well as the hidden weapon of Marquis Barogo—his trump card, operating from the shadows.

“Don’t even think about getting any other ideas. If this operation goes south, you’ll be the one to kill that girl.”

Belga lowered his eyes. “You want me to kill her?”

“That’s right. Personally, I would rather she not die. After all, she’s far too valuable—I’d rather keep her in my grasp than let her die,” Marquis Barogo said with a wicked smile.

Belga quietly cast his gaze downward again.

‘So I might have to kill her...’

Suddenly, Belga recalled something that the human girl, Tsuna, had said to him.

“Hunger is the same for everyone.”

To Belga, hunger was a nightmarish, ever-present experience. He had always believed that he could one day eliminate whatever was responsible for his existence suffering the agonizing pain that had followed him all his life.

“It’s weird... I’m not hungry.”

He had only eaten a small piece of jerky, but something about it felt different.

Marquis Barogo’s eyes narrowed at Belga’s odd response, a sense of unease creeping over him. “Didn’t you say you had your own goal? Don’t you want to eliminate the reason for your creation?”

“I know. I just...” Belga had known what Barogo was talking about, ever since the moment he was born. He slowly opened and closed his hand in silence.

“Anyway, how long are you planning to keep using that body?”

He didn’t have a response for that. In an instant, his physical form faded away, turning into a pale, indistinct figure. Along with his return to form came the same gnawing, gnashing at him from within. The pain had struck back once again.

Marquis Barogo let out a chilling laugh.

“As long as the negotiations result in importing only dried white mushroom flowers, the ducal house will completely lose its standing. Even more importantly, that Tsuna girl will fall right into my hands. That’s all that matters,” he said with a cold smile.

Some distance away, Tsuna was forcing herself to hide her tension as the negotiations continued.

“So, for this final list of trade goods from your side, shall we consider it confirmed?”

“Yes. Everything seems in order,” she agreed.

“You’re quite thorough, Chancellor Tsuna. I must admit, I underestimated you because of your age. My apologies.”

“I also saw you as one to be taken lightly, and I apologize as well.”

Returning his provocation with one of her own, she calmly reviewed the trade items again. The other nobles and attendants accompanying her watched the negotiations silently.

Yet as she looked over the documents, her eyes suddenly twitched.

“Is something wrong, Chancellor?”

“Excuse me for a moment, please. Count Valoran?”

Count Valoran came to her side. “Yes, Your Excellency?”

“This item here, the dried white mushroom flowers.” Tsuna frowned. She thought it unlikely, but she couldn’t pretend not to recognize what she was seeing. “Could you pull up the related documents for me?

“Pardon? Ah, yes. Here they are.”

Count Valoran handed over the paperwork regarding the dried white mushroom flowers, part of the list from the Vatan Kingdom. Tsuna began reading it without saying a word.

“Is something wrong?”

Her frown deepened. She had said Davey O’Rowane’s teachings were all useless, but what lay before her was certainly among the countless tidbits he had drilled into her head.

“Count Trink, did you say the dried white mushroom flowers are used as a refined magical medicinal product?”

“Pardon? Ah, yes! Are you saying there’s an issue because it’s a magical product? I’m aware the Alberta Kingdom has a strict anti-magic stance, but to reject such an important item is...”

“Please explain the refinement process for the dried white mushroom flowers.” Her eyes sharpened. She had dismissed that man’s teachings as trivial and irrelevant, yet they were eerily relevant, almost as if he had anticipated the exact situation.

“Also of note are the sakharat stem leaves, paulo metal, and the livestock feed manufactured in the Night Field.”

As she rattled off several seemingly unrelated items, the nobles who had come with her exchanged puzzled and concerned glances.

Meanwhile, Count Trink, as the representative of the Vatan Kingdom, was beginning to look visibly uncomfortable.

“I’ll ask again. Was mana stone powder used during the refinement of the dried white mushroom flowers?”

“How long were the sakharat stems fermented? Are you aware that if the fermentation period is less than two weeks, the resulting product can easily act as a narcotic under certain circumstances?”

“W-Wait a moment, Chancellor Tsuna! We had no such intent...” he stuttered.

“Some of these items are downright ridiculous. What’s this, you even tried to pass off low-grade defective goods by altering their appearance with magic, just to sell them at a premium? I nearly missed it myself.”

“That’s—!” he panicked.

“If the contract had gone through, I would’ve had to take full responsibility for all the problems it would’ve caused.”

“This negotiation is over. If you wish to resume, bring different items next time.”

Tsuna stood from her seat, and Marquis Vatan reached out to stop her. “Wait! These are nothing but baseless accusations! There’s no proof! If you break the contract , the consequences will be—”

At that moment, Tsuna suddenly recalled a voice in her head, speaking words of wisdom that had echoed over and over like a mental scar.

- You are not your father. The late Chancellor was an unparalleled genius, I admit that. I understand that you're trying to protect what he built, by following in his footsteps like reading from a manual, but you're a Chancellor, too. You’d do well to remember that. If you want to surpass your father, start by understanding how you’re different from him, and how you can use that.

“Consequences?” For the first time, Tsuna revealed a colder, more assertive side of herself. “Hah!”

She removed the ornament from her hair and tossed it aside, her neatly rolled pink hair unraveling to flow down in waves. The image of a child pretending to be an adult vanished, replaced by the picture of a young woman who looked her age.

Given her beauty, she could easily stand alongside the six most beautiful women on the continent. Several of the younger nobles stared at her, dumbfounded. Beyond her superficial looks, her eyes were the sharpest they had ever been.

She hadn’t wanted to admit it, refusing to believe in Davey. Unfortunately, every piece of advice and warning he had given immediately rang true at the first possible opportunity. She couldn’t help but wonder if he was some sort of prophet.

Realistically, the truth was simple—she had been naive.

In such a short time, Davey O’Rowane had understood the entire nature of the trade between the Vatan and Alberta kingdoms, and all the possible ways things could be manipulated. It was to such an extent that it was hard to attribute it to just his skill or experience! It was as if he were toying with the very mechanics of the world and strings of fate.

She’d thought all the useless trivia he drilled into her didn’t mean anything, then it had all come together to make a huge impact. She had wanted to prove it was worthless, but instead, she had to admit the exact opposite. After all, the stuff she’d picked up in just a few days was shockingly useful.

While Tsuna had only considered the prices of goods, international relations, and common use cases, Davey had preemptively neutralized every hidden variable while only using facts most people would normally overlook.

His lessons were terrifying in how spot-on they were. No cheat sheet could ever compare.

Normally, such a blatant scam by the Vatan Kingdom would torpedo their negotiations. After all, Tsuna couldn’t allow her kingdom to import something that might turn into a narcotic.

Yet if she walked away right there, Tsuna herself would suffer a huge blow. Still, as Chancellor, she had to reject the deal. She knew that.

‘But now that I know how to take advantage of this, I can’t just let it go.’

Among the useless trivia Davey had force-fed her, there was also a devilishly clever method for flipping such a situation to her advantage.

That monster of a man, or rather that Saint, had turned a barren wasteland into the wealthiest territory on the continent in the course of just a few years. Not even the Empire could touch him.

“Well then,” she said with a chilling smile. “You still want to keep this deal going?”

No longer stiff or overly formal, she was finally becoming her true self. She felt as if she should’ve been like that from the start. There was a strange sense of lightness, as if she'd finally cast off a heavy burden.