Show Me Your Stats!-Chapter 151

“Um, could it be... that the Lord of Solar is behind this? Since she also knows how to rear the spiders, maybe she’s the one selling them...?”

Kaikar cautiously raised the possibility—only to be struck on the head by the luxurious wine glass Orseng hurled at him.

“Are you insane?! Look at the supply levels! It’s even higher than when Bolni was at peak production! How could such a small domain possibly pull this off?!”

Kaikar shut his mouth immediately and dropped flat on the floor, silently absorbing Orseng’s fury. Other objects began flying at him, pelting his body.

“And are you saying that I was tricked by that brat?!”

Kaikar kept bowing his head, apologizing repeatedly, but beneath Orseng’s anger, he could feel hints of suspicion and confusion. He too had sensed that someone was scheming behind the scenes to make Orseng ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) look like a fool. The timing was just too perfect to be a coincidence. However, Orseng—too proud to admit he may have been played—seemed determined to ignore the possibility.

Trying to save face, Orseng ordered the remaining skitte silk to be dyed as quickly as possible. At this point, their only chance of profit was in marketing the blue skitte silk as a rare, premium product.

I have a bad feeling about this...

Dye ingredients weren’t cheap either. Kaikar wanted to talk Orseng out of it but feared the backlash, so he simply nodded and agreed.

They mobilized the entire estate—household staff, soldiers, anyone available—to dye skitte silk around the clock. But on the very day they brought the freshly dyed blue silk to market, they saw merchants selling skitte silk in all sorts of vibrant colors. Half of them were blue. When they investigated the dyeing methods being used, they found out the process was much cheaper.

Someone who had ties with the Morunka Temple, knew how to rear silk spiders, and held the secret to dyeing skitte silk.

Anyone could see that the culprit was almost certainly the Lord of Solar.

Enraged, Orseng finally collapsed clutching his neck, swearing he would not let the Lord of Solar go unpunished. His underworld moniker—“The Merchant with Bloodstained Hands”—was no exaggeration. He was not a merciful man. Terrified, Kaikar fled toward Solar in an attempt to fix the situation before Orseng did something truly reckless.

He rushed straight to the castle without resting and requested an audience. But unlike last time, he was forced to wait at the gates, shivering in the cold. Solar’s lord wasn’t even busy with work. Through the wide-open gates, Kaikar could clearly see her chatting casually while receiving an enormous bouquet of flowers from a handsome red-haired man.

By the time his fingers and toes had gone numb from frostbite, he was finally admitted to the castle. This time, instead of the receiving room, he was led to the upper floors of the castle. He still had to wait. Fidgeting in both anxiety and anger, Kaikar was finally told by the steward that he could enter.

Except, the door creaked open on its own.

“L-Lord?”

“Yes, come in.”

With permission granted from within, Kaikar swallowed nervously and stepped inside. From the bookshelves and desk crammed with scrolls, it looked like this was the lord’s personal study—a place where official business was conducted. To be brought to such a sensitive place... He scanned his surroundings cautiously.

Then, spotting the Lord of Solar standing before a display case, Kaikar stepped closer and immediately fell back in horror.

“AAAGH!”

What the hell was he seeing? Was he hallucinating from exhaustion? But even after rubbing his eyes, the contents of the display case remained the same. It wasn’t wine, jewels, or swords on display.

It was eyeballs.

Dozens of glass jars, each containing eyeballs of various colors and shapes, floated within. Worse yet, the eyeballs’ gazes followed Kaikar as he moved. And the young, beautiful lord was lovingly gazing at them.

Damn it, I swear I’ll never deal with labyrinth mages again!

Despite his legs trembling, Kaikar clenched his courage, remembering the fury of Orseng looming over him like a death sentence.

“Lord! How could you do this?!”

Finally, the young lord turned around. With one finger, she affectionately stroked the surface of a jar as she looked at Kaikar with unreadable eyes.

“What do you mean?”

“The temple is now selling massive amounts of skitte silk, and the market is flooded with blue-dyed variants! Didn’t you deliberately release the dyeing method after I bought it for a high price?!”

“Well...”

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The lord put on a thoughtful expression for a moment, then shrugged slightly.

“A while back, I banished a family for embezzling military funds. I heard rumors that they’d stolen my dyeing method and sold it. In any case, I know nothing about it.”

“W-What?! Are you even serious?!”

Kaikar’s face turned red and blue with rage. If he went back empty-handed, he was as good as dead. Yet the Lord of Solar stubbornly feigned ignorance. Though his suspicion was clear, he had no proof, and that made Kaikar’s face burn even hotter.

There had been a reason why neither Orseng nor Kaikar had doubted Solar’s lord when they paid her such a massive sum for the dyeing method. Compared to Sobletz, Solar was a tiny, powerless domain. Kaikar couldn’t understand how this woman had the audacity to act like this.

“Y-You won’t get away with this! I swear, Duke Orseng will make you pay for this insult!”

“Do as you like. But before that, give Duke Orseng this message from me.”

Rather than cowering, the young lord calmly shot back a warning of her own—without even blinking.

“Unlike the rest of my family, I won’t go down so easily. Don’t mistake my words for empty bravado.”

Kaikar spluttered in disbelief, but deep down, unease gnawed at him. Surely the lord of such a small territory must realize that Solar was no match for Sobletz. So why was she so calm? Was it because she was a labyrinth mage—because she had some hidden ace up her sleeve?

While Kaikar stood there, rattled, the Lord of Solar let out a small sigh and gently stroked the only empty space in her display case. Then she turned her gaze on him, her expression unreadable and eyes glowing with something between mischief and menace.

With a breathtaking smile that felt more like a threat than anything else, the labyrinth mage said,

“That empty spot’s starting to feel awfully lonely. How about we fill it with your eyeball?”

At the same time, something pale and translucent emerged from the lord’s body and came flying toward him like a ghost. Kaikar let out a scream and fled the study in terror.

❄

“This is the first time I’ve received a bouquet like this...”

Ayra absentmindedly stroked the "bouquet" and realized she was smiling a little too brightly. She quickly smoothed her expression. But Hera had already been watching her with a deeply peculiar look.

“...When did you get here?”

“How is that a bouquet? The only thing it has in common with one is the word ‘bunch’.”

“A collection of creatures flamboyantly flaunting their reproductive organs?”

The “bouquet” Ayra was petting had been caught by Janus that morning. It was a mass of magical creatures. Some magical beasts behaved like animals, while others resembled plants or anemones—immobile and rooted. This “bouquet” was of the latter kind.

Janus knew Ayra so well now that he deliberately attacked her weak points. And though Ayra was aware of it, she couldn’t help reacting. Just that morning, while everyone else had screamed at the sight of the bouquet, Ayra alone had jumped up in joy at spotting a rare communal specimen she’d only ever read about in books.

She gently stroked the tentacle cluster that was trying to inject her with neurotoxin, her hand cloaked in protective mana. Then she narrowed her eyes and glanced toward Hera, who was staring at the “bouquet” with barely contained horror.

“These little clusters that look like flowers? They’re actually eyeballs.”

“Ugh—no thanks. I really didn’t need to know that. Gods, that just made it worse.”

Ayra had shared the info thinking Hera, a veteran magical beast hunter, would appreciate it. Her reaction stung a little. Honestly, Ayra had also been a bit disappointed when Gretel freaked out after seeing the silk spiders. In the end, she forgave Hera because the woman promised to catch rare magical beasts as bribes later.

After their idle chatter, Hera brought up her reason for visiting.

“I’ve escorted Gretel’s family safely to the secure house. They’ll be safe for now.”

Ayra, who had just sealed the bouquet inside a glass jar for safekeeping, nodded approvingly.

As she’d told Kaikar, the people who had spread the dyeing method throughout Bolni and Sobletz were none other than Gretel’s family. Hera had just returned from escorting them to a secret shelter that only she knew about, to protect them from any retaliation.

Back when Ayra first discussed how to swindle Sobletz, she’d asked her vassals if anyone knew a trustworthy merchant to handle the skitte silk trade.

To her surprise, Gretel had volunteered first.