“But there won’t be enough dresses for you.”

“The dresses I have looked at will be so uncomfortable for Elise.”

“If we mend them well…”

“Elise is thin, but she is taller than me. Of course she would be able to wear them, but it wouldn’t look good.”

Ann moaned. Her mistress was just too kind. However, Ann didn’t want the money for Rubica to be spent on a lady-in-waiting. Rubica had looked so beautiful in that dress made by Khanna. Dresses made for her were much better than the mended ones that had been made for the duke’s grandmother. She had just become the duchess, so she had to beat the noblewomen in the neighborhood with her dresses.

‘… there are good things with planning the budget with Ann, but this is a problem.’

Rubica had been thinking completely different thoughts while looking at the same books. If she had been planning the budget alone, she could have spent as much as she wanted. The housekeeper would have no choice if the mistress said that management of money was her duty and her duty alone. But now, Rubica couldn’t plan the budget without Ann’s help. Helping with the management of the abbey and running a noble household had many similarities, but there were many differences as well. Preparation for the upcoming summer, things needed for the festival, goods to be distributed to servants and relatives. Rubica didn’t know the details about them and, as the needed quantity was much bigger than her imagination, it was rather impossible to guess the appropriate amount.

“Isn’t there anything we can decrease?”

Rubica decided to take a step back. She couldn’t assign the budget as she wanted while Ann was watching. It would be better to take a step back for now and spend later when she had the opportunity.

“There are many things to spend money on, right? I’m sorry that I cannot satisfy you.”

“No, it’s enough already.”

Actually, Rubica was already spending many times what normal noble mistresses spent. It was just that she needed many things, including dresses, as she had come with nothing, unlike other noble wives.

“Hmm…”

Rubica decided to hold on for now, so she could take part in even bigger extravagances later. She put down the document on last year’s budget and started to study this year’s budget.

Ann was thorough and had been recording all the needed information.

‘I definitely have spent a lot of money on Lord Sesar.’

Almost two-thirds of the entire budget was being spent on gardening. Rubica didn’t regret her decision to invest on Sesar and his roses, but she thought she should not have spent that much. She was about to move on to the next page, but then she stopped.

‘No, the total expense is many times what I paid Lord Sesar.’

Decorating the garden cost that much? Rubica took a walk in the garden every afternoon. She hadn’t looked around every part of it, but it seemed unlikely that maintaining the garden cost as much as Sesar’s work. There wasn’t any greenhouse, and there weren’t many strange or rare plants. There were just plenty of mazes and roads with trees that required nothing more than water and fertilizer at the right time. What on earth was costing this much of money? Rubica wondered if the gardener was embezzling money.

‘But he can’t possibly get much by lying about the prices of the fertilizer and saplings…’

She had met the gardener a few times while she was taking strolls, and he seemed someone very nice. He sometimes made mistakes too, so he was the type of person who would find things that required much thinking like embezzling too troublesome.

Rubica’s eyes slowly followed the list and were fixed on one line.

‘… mana quartz!’

The garden of Claymore had flowers and trees that were common in the Seritos Kingdom. However, there was one thing that they spent a huge sum of money on, and that was mana quartz.

“Ann, what is this?”

“Oh, one mana quartz sculpture loses its light every year. We start finding mana quartz in March and the sculptor starts to work in June. Then, the finished sculpture is installed in October. One of the sculptures has just lost its lights… we must quickly get mana quartz to replace it.”

Mana quartz were from Iber’s territory. Knights who would fight with the dragon’s underlings, men who carried their things, and expenses for them eating and sleeping. It cost very much.

‘It costs as much as deploying an army.’

Moreover, the budget included the danger pay and compensation for the dead’s family, so probably many people died during the quest.

“Do we really have to get it?”

“… yes. It is a tradition to show a new mana quartz sculpture to the people during the harvest festival to pay a tribute to the duke.”

Ann explained why getting mana quartz was necessary. As it was about showing off the Claymore’s power, the thing about mana quartz was a very old and meaningful tradition. When aristocrats, royals, and ambassadors came to the Claymore Mansion, they were all overwhelmed at seeing all those mana quartz sculptures in the garden. Many relatives and peasants were proud of that garden as well. However, Rubica didn’t agree to that explanation and just stared at the list.

‘The budget will be increased by a lot if we don’t spend this money.’

She could buy Elise at least a hundred dresses with that money. That was very tempting. Ann was still explaining about the family’s honor and pride, but Rubica couldn’t hear her more.

‘Wait, all those sculptures are about to be shattered when the war breaks out.’

So were the Claymore’s pride and honor.

‘They are pretty, but they cost money and the people’s lives. I don’t like it. I’m sick of people dying. It’s not like that is necessary. They will all live if we just don’t get that trivial thing for pride and honor.’

Rubica had been impressed by the beautiful mana quartz, but now it was just ‘that trivial thing’ to her. She had always loved beauty, from her birth to her death and even in this second life. It was really hard to repress her passion that was capable of doing anything for beautiful things in life.

She had been able to tolerate with Edgar’s arrogant way of speaking to some extent when they first met only because he was handsome. However, no beauty could come first than people’s lives.

-Father, why aren’t you selling lanen? It’s pretty and very profitable.

That’s what Rubica asked her father who mainly sold food. She was 13 back then. Lanen was a gem that had been popular lately and the demand was high. Although her father was a commoner, her mother was from a count’s family. As long as they had her mother’s connections and rank, they could easily get permission to sell lanen. Moreover, judging from her father’s skills, it seemed it would be easy to get lanen. It was going to bring them huge money, plus the opportunity to see pretty lanen for Rubica.

However, her father looked very sad at hearing his little girl’s innocent question.

-Rubica, kingdoms where lanen can be mined are all having a civil war because of it. And, those who mine the gem are all children as young as you.

-Children like me?

Rubica was surprised to hear that. She had followed her father to the mine once out of curiosity. It was a noisy, dusty, and dangerous place. She felt fear to see the dark cave that looked like it would engulf everything at any moment and couldn’t dare to get in it.

-Lanen is very clear and beautiful, but many people must bleed for its beauty and they are still bleeding. Of course, I will get a lot of money if I sell lanen, but I don’t want to feed you and dress you with the money made from other’s blood.

-I don’t want it, either.

Rubica’s mother kindly stroked her hair at that. Her gesture was so elegant.

-There are many beauties in this world, but none of them are worth more than people’s lives. Rubica, I prefer your father selling food and saving many lives than making huge money.

Rubica had never forgotten what her parents told her in her long life. It was okay to spend money and work hard for beauty. However, no matter how much she liked beautiful things, she couldn’t value them more than people’s lives, especially those around her.

Of course, she wanted to see new mana quartz and sculpture made with it. Apart from her pride and honor as the duchess, beauty always stirred the lust inside her. The world was full of people who did all kinds of crazy things for beauty. Some abused their own bodies until their lives were in danger. Some even abandoned their parents and children. Rubica’s lust wasn’t smaller than theirs at all. However, she didn’t do what they did because she didn’t think of beauty as the most valuable thing in the world. Beauty was good, but nothing could be higher than life. In the end, what mattered to her was to enjoy the beauty with people around her and to be happy together.

Rubica made up her mind. It had nothing to do with Elise. Whether they had enough money or not, she would have made that same decision in the end.