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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 29
Chapter Title: Partnering with Azel
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Anyway.
Azel had been safely rescued, and Muniel had reconnected with an old comrade from her past.
"So, what about Nini's investment?"
However, with their planned investment opportunity gone, Nibelria couldn't just be purely happy.
To help her out, Kaleo and Seletrina created an even better chance.
A partnership with Azel.
"Azel, you developed that liquid fertilizer that keeps cut flowers fresh for a long time, right? And the flowers planted in the farm must be your handiwork too."
"Why don't you come work with us? We were just planning to start a pharmaceutical company, and you could be its director."
Azel was dumbfounded at the sudden opportunity to become the head of a pharmaceutical company overnight.
"Then Nini will invest!"
Nibelria flashed a brilliant smile, showing her pearly white teeth.
Azel, who had grown close to Nibelria over the past few days, nodded after some thought.
It felt just like having a little sister.
So she wanted to protect this small child's happiness.
But there was a condition.
"Please hire only witches as the pharmaceutical company's employees. And protect us. That's the condition for partnering."
Azel said she wanted to shelter the wandering witches under the umbrella of the pharmaceutical company.
"In that case, we're the ones who should be grateful."
"Having the world's top experts in plants and herbs join us would be perfect. We'd better get preparations underway quickly."
The Dayamor family and the witches.
It was a historic moment of collaboration.
But.
"……."
Unlike how smoothly things were going.
Seletrina couldn't fall asleep even deep into the night.
After tossing and turning for a while, she finally headed to her study.
The desk was piled high with documents brought from Lubeo.
The Plaud couple's fraudulent schemes, along with their falsified ledgers and other papers.
Seletrina had pored over them endlessly, both at the office and at home. The edges of the papers were crumpled from her grip.
And every time she read them, doubts arose.
'Why didn't I notice?'
It was a business she had carefully selected with great effort for Nibelria's first investment.
She had investigated it far more thoroughly than her own ventures, and even after deciding on it, she had kept a close watch just in case.
The employees who had looked into it hadn't spotted anything suspicious either.
But now, examining it again, the flaws were everywhere—not just one or two. The trading partners listed in the ledgers were all fake from the start.
"Haa…."
Seletrina leaned back in her chair and squeezed her eyes shut.
"I knew something like this would happen."
When she slowly opened her eyes, Kaleo was gazing down at her with a face full of things to say.
"I told you not to work late into the night and then pull all-nighters like this."
"Did I wake you?"
"You know I wake up right away if you're not there."
Seletrina rested her head against Kaleo's body as he perched on the arm of her chair.
"Why didn't we notice?"
She lightly tapped the stack of documents with her finger.
"Just a little more scrutiny, and we would've seen it wasn't just one or two odd things."
"I didn't notice either."
Kaleo had personally investigated Nibelria's investment target as well.
The secretary who had handled the investigation back then had lamented repeatedly, 'How could someone as sharp as me make such a stupid mistake...?'
It wasn't just Seletrina's mistake.
Kaleo too, and the secretary.
Even Lubeo's sharpest employees.
As if their eyes had been veiled by something, no one had detected the Plaud couple's bizarre behavior.
"...Nini."
Kaleo ventured carefully.
He recalled what Nibelria had said to him that day.
"She said she saw something?"
"Saw what?"
"Pink poison mushroom."
While preparing the children's lunch, Kaleo had suddenly asked Nibelria,
"But Nini, how did you know Azel was trapped in the warehouse?"
"I saw a poison mushroom."
"Poison mushroom?"
"Pink. Pink poison mushroom!"
The small window near the warehouse ceiling.
Through the dust-caked glass, too grimy to see inside, Nibelria said she had spotted something pink.
But then Nibelria added something strange.
"But no pink."
"No pink?"
"Yeah. Azel has no pink. Nini saw pink, but Azel has no pink at all. Weird, right?"
Nibelria thought the pink she saw was Azel's hair or eyes.
But Azel's rescued hair was earthy brown, and her eyes a vivid orange.
The clothes she wore then weren't pink either.
"After hearing that, I immediately sent the secretary to the flower farm in the afternoon. Along with other employees."
The flower farm, abandoned after the witches vanished, had turned into ruins overnight.
The flowers had all withered, reeking horribly, and the empty houses were now claimed by forest bugs and spiders.
"But there was no pink."
Not in the warehouse, nor anywhere on the farm or in the buildings.
Nothing related to pink at all.
Not even in the luggage the Plaud couple had packed when they fled.
Nowhere.
Preparations for the partnership with Azel progressed at a rapid pace.
With her conditions accepted, Azel immediately sent out word.
The method was peculiar.
She blew breath onto some dirt particles and scattered them on the ground. The particles glowed warmly and swiftly swept across the earth.
Less than a day later, a flood of letters arrived in the Dayamor mansion's mailbox. All from witches.
"Most of them were positive replies."
Nibelria was thrilled.
Thrilled enough to hop along like a bunny, her mouth stretched in a goofy grin from smiling so much.
"Miss, no running."
Arep warned her she'd get hurt if she fell.
Nibelria, who had been hopping ahead, stopped dead.
Then she scampered back to Arep's side.
"Hey! Nini's gonna invest now! With Azel!"
"Yes, that's great."
He had heard her brag about it at least twenty times already, but Arep congratulated her sincerely, without a hint of annoyance.
The pharmaceutical company's site was decided to be the flower farm owned by the Plaud couple and the surrounding land they purchased.
"Now if Nini invests, we'll make tons of money, right?"
"Yes."
"What about Arep? Will Arep invest too?"
Nibelria asked.
"I'm not sure."
Arep found the fifty million Uba now in his possession a bit overwhelming.
Weeding and helping the hired help while steadily saving into his paybook had been fun.
But suddenly having a huge sum made all his past sweaty labor feel meaningless, which left him a little sad.
And a bit scared too.
"Miss."
"Yeah?"
"Aren't you going to work anymore?"
Arep asked.
"That paybook…."
"I am?"
Nibelria tilted her head as if wondering why he'd ask such a thing.
Arep's eyes went wide.
"R-Really?"
"Money's supposed to be earned through hard work. Mom said even her first earnings came from odd jobs here and there."
"I want to keep earning into my paybook too."
"Then let's pull weeds again! Work together!"
"Yes…!"
Arep nodded eagerly, his cheeks slightly flushed.
"But you have big money now. Better to save it."
Nibelria shared what she knew confidently.
"No gambling, ever. No cards either. Got it?"
"Yes."
"Or, uh…."
To recall some knowledge she'd heard once, Nibelria flailed her arms in the air.
Arep cautiously mimicked her, raising his arms too.
"Savings account!"
Finally remembering, Nibelria flapped her arms like a chick.
Unfortunately, the info had a slight error, but neither knew it.
"Put it in a savings account, and it gets interest!"
"Interest?"
"Interest is like, money they give you as thanks for depositing."
"Wow…!"
Arep's eyes sparkled.
"Miss, you're so smart even though you're little. Amazing…!"
At his genuine admiration, Nibelria modestly agreed.
"Guess I am kinda like that."
Being too smart meant she'd have to conquer the world.
Nibelria shook her head, troubled.
As they chattered away happily about silly, pointless things that were fun just between them.
"There you two are."
Dether came looking for the kids.
"Dether!"
Nibelria hugged Dether's legs tightly.
"……."
Arep thought Dether's skin was exceptionally radiant today.
Her face glowed smoothly, and her updo shone more lustrously than he remembered.
A faint floral scent wafted from her too.
"Dether looks like a flower today?"
Nibelria noticed it too.
"How come?"
When she asked why, Dether chuckled.
"I helped rescue Lady Azel, remember? The masters rewarded me with plenty of rose petals for my bath."
"Dether loves flower baths. She's a fairy."
Fairy Dether stated her purpose.
"The young masters from the Degladis Duke family are here."
"……."
"Master Al and Master Rubens."
"……."
Even after hearing the names, Nibelria just blinked her blue eyes slowly.
"Miss, you didn't forget them again, did you?"
"…No, not that."
Fortunately, Nibelria barely recalled who they were.
"You know, the annoying kids who keep bugging Nini to play."
"That's not wrong, but don't say that in front of them."
In the drawing room, Al and Rubens were waiting.
Solles, who had arrived first, was chatting with them.
"Oh, you came!"
Spotting Nibelria and Arep, Rubens waved his arms wildly.
He even hopped down from the sofa and approached them, asking,
"The paybook thing—you guys started it first, right?"
Then he pulled his own paybook from his back pocket. Unfolding the slightly crumpled booklet revealed a decent record of his labors.
"We've been earning our pocket money with these lately."
"Ooh, cool!"
Nibelria praised him loudly.
"We did it super fast! Rubens is kinda slow!"
"Annoying! Super annoying, but cute, so I'll let it slide!"
Grinning, Rubens turned to Arep too.
