An auction regularly took place in an event hall in the imperial capital once per month. Standing nervously in the corner of the fervent hall was Lucrezia, the daughter of the House of Viscount Wilderness, who had just turned fifteen years old as of yesterday.
The Wilderness domain that her father governed over possessed a vast quantity of land, a quantity unexpected from a normal viscount, but... the majority of it was barren wasteland that wouldn’t grow vegetation at all. Nevertheless, his family dedicated their efforts to continuously protecting the people of his territory. And the people responded in turn to Viscount Wilderness’ zeal by continuing to work in order to enrich the struggling territory. However, it had been approximately a thousand years since people started living in the Wilderness territory. With the lives of the people not improving, the amount of citizens living in the area diminished, causing management of the territory to hit its limits. On top of that, Lucrezia’s father, Viscount Wilderness, had collapsed yesterday from fatigue. At this rate, he wouldn’t be able to properly manage the territory or pay his vassals’ wages. If that kept up, the king would likely end up seizing the entire territory.
That was why Lucrezia had come to the auction grounds, her desire to help out her father burning strong. She had come to put up her brooch, a memento inherited from her mother, in the auction. Naturally, she had an aversion to putting a memento of her mother up for sale—even moreso since she knew it was a brooch that was passed down from generation to generation with her mother inheriting it from her mother, and so on and so forth. However, she ventured that her mother would allow it since it was to protect her father, the domain, and the people who lived within it. The real problem lied in how much she could sell it for.
The brooch had a magic stone set within it, but, unfortunately, it didn’t have any sort of enchantment built in. Be that as it may, it was decorated beautifully, so it wouldn’t go for less than thirty gold pieces. She could set her hopes on even fifty gold pieces, if she was lucky enough. The auction grounds were oddly fervent today. She might even be able to have her brooch won at an even higher price. Thirty gold pieces would cover the wages to their current staff of vassals. Fifty would cover the aid for the impoverished people of the territory in addition to that. And one hundred pieces might even finally get their stagnant land cultivation plans into motion. At least, that was what she dreamed. However...
“It... can’t be...”
Lucrezia stood off to a wing of the stage once the bidding began for her brooch, but what she saw wasn’t a dream—it was a nightmare. Any aristocrat was supposed to leap at the opportunity to own such a delicate brooch that had been put out to exhibit. Despite that, not a single one of the aristocrats showed any interest. Which meant...
“Eighteen gold pieces. I have eighteen gold pieces. Any other bidders? Going once, going twice...”
They were probably buying it to resell it. A handful of merchants went into a short bidding war, but the opposition quickly dropped out. It was looking likely that the winning bid would be for eighteen gold pieces. However, a mere eighteen gold pieces would make it difficult to pay their vassals’ wages. In which case, it made putting the memento from her mother up for auction pointless.
“...Mother, I’m so sorry. Mother... Hic... Sniff...” Lucrezia balled up her small white hands as large drops of tears poured from her eyes. As such, this tale ended in tragedy— or so it seemed, but there was still more to the story.
A few months passed since the auction had occurred, and with Lucrezia’s father still in bad health, the finances of the House of Viscount Wilderness had finally hit rock bottom. She had resigned herself to the fact that the end was drawing near, but one day, Lucrezia’s servant informed her that she had a visitor that had come to see her. However, she was clueless as to who it could have been, as she didn’t have any acquaintances who would be visiting her around this time of year. The best she could come up with was it possibly being a merchant or wealthy individual who was trying to marry her in exchange for providing aid to the House of Viscount Wilderness—with an ulterior motive of gaining the position of Viscount Wilderness. She was in such dire straits that she didn’t know whether that sort of proposal was even feasible or not.
Depending on the conditions, I’ll do it to protect the vassals and the people of the territory, Lucrezia thought to herself, setting her resolve.
“Who might this visitor be?”
“She introduced herself as a ‘normal girl passing by,’ milady.”
“...Come again?”
“It’s as I mentioned, milady, um... she said she was a ‘normal girl passing by.’”
“I don’t understand what you’re saying. A normal girl wouldn’t come to visit the house of a viscount, even if they do say they’re just passing by.”
“Yes, well, um... while I also believe your counterpoint is sound, she seems to be dressed in quite expensive and exquisite garb. Which means she might be...”
“A spy... correct? I understand. In any case, I will go to meet with this person.”
Lucrezia quickly tidied herself up and proceeded to the parlor where her visitor awaited. There stood a girl so adorable that it boggled the mind as to how she considered herself a “normal girl.”
“Pleased to meet you, Lady Lucrezia. I am a normal girl just passing by in the area.”
“Oh, um, yes. Hello, I am Lucrezia. As a note, we are the only ones here, so...” she said, trailing off with the connotation that it was fine for her to drop all pretense and reveal her true identity, but the self-proclaimed normal girl passing by just looked at her in an adorable yet confused manner. She was most likely playing dumb, a clear sign that she had no intention of revealing who she was. “Um, might I ask if you are a holy woman making rounds, kind sister?”
“—‘Kind sister’?!”
She didn’t know this girl’s name, and in an attempt to gain some more information, addressed her in the way she would a woman of the church, but the self-proclaimed girl passing by gave her more of a reaction than she bargained for.
“I-I apologize for my crass assumption. Did I strike a nerve with you by calling you a sister?”
“Huh? Oh, no, not at all.”
“I-I didn’t?”
“No, not all. In fact, I prefer it.”
While Lucrezia didn’t follow, this girl was grinning from ear to ear. And although she didn’t follow, she assumed that she was maybe fine—probably.
She seriously didn’t follow at all, though.
At any rate, Lucrezia decided to press on and ask for more details.
“In that case, um... what can I help you with?”
“Right, I wanted to ask you a few questions about this brooch.”
“That’s...!”
Lucrezia’s eyes opened wide. The self-proclaimed normal girl she couldn’t quite follow had pulled a brooch out of thin air. It was the same brooch that served as a memento from her mother, the same one that she had begrudgingly auctioned off.
“But why do you have that...? No, what a silly question. You must have bought it off the merchant that won the bid on it, correct?”
“Uh-huh, it was given to me. Seems that they noticed that I was interested in it.”
“...O-Oh, I see.” An item valuable enough to decide the fate of an entire region, and it was given to her as a present out of passing interest.
How does she even consider herself a normal girl by that point? Lucrezia thought to herself, comparing their circumstances and finding herself beset with sadness.