The Duchess Consort quickly pulled her hand away, but nearly half the parchment was soaked in ink, rendering the contents unreadable.
“No! Do you have any idea how expensive that was?!”
Oliver stood frozen in utter disbelief.
There was no way to reproduce the contract again.
“What… what have you done?!”
Iris looked at him with a face on the verge of tears.
“Wh-what should I do…”
“Do you know how much this cost?! Do you know how much gold I poured into securing—!”
Oliver’s furious outburst was cut short when he noticed the deadly silence behind Iris.
“You just raised your voice… at our Lady?”
The harsh tone he had directed at Iris could not be taken back.
The attendants who had been quietly guarding her stepped forward, their qi laced with cold fury.
“How dare a mere viscount raise his voice before the Duchess Consort? This man must be unhinged.”
“My lady, must we proceed with this transaction? If we inform our Lord, he’ll have it broken off immediately.”
“That’s right. Even if other troubles arise in the North, we’d rather not deal with someone like him.”
Iris gave a soft smile and gently calmed her people.
“No need for that. It was my mistake, after all.”
“My Lady, you’re far too kind! Still, we must inform the Lord. This is nothing short of an insult to House Leonteim.”
Hearing that, Oliver turned ghostly pale.
If the deal falls through, I’m finished!
He had already begun mass-producing goods in anticipation of the northern trade agreement.
If he couldn’t sell them in the North, it would all become debt.
And then I’ll be bankrupt on the spot.
Worse yet, failing to carry out the Emperor’s command could cost him his life.
Swallowing nervously, Oliver quickly bowed in apology.
“I-I apologize. The item was just so valuable that I lost control for a moment. I beg your forgiveness.”
“It’s fine. It happens.”
Iris looked at the ink-stained magic-sealed contract and spoke in a sorrowful tone.
“But… with the magic contract ruined, I suppose I’ll have to settle for a regular one.”
“N-no! I want to use the magic-sealed contract!”
“Why?”
Iris tilted her head, feigning innocent confusion.
“Surely a regular contract would still be legally binding?”
Oliver racked his brain while maintaining a stiff expression.
It has to be a magic-sealed contract!
His entire con hinged on the premise that once the contract was sealed with cultivation engravings, it would become unbreakable.
If it could be nullified midway, Oliver alone would take the fall.
“It’s just… this is the first major deal for our merchant guild,” he said with a forced smile.
“I wanted it to be memorable—sealed with a magic contract.”
Iris pouted slightly. Her pure sky-blue eyes shimmered with concern for him.
“In that case, perhaps it’s better to find another supplier…”
“Th-that’s unthinkable! We were your first partner, remember?”
“Still, shouldn’t a merchant lord avoid taking unnecessary losses just for sentiment’s sake?”
“Please, don’t worry! I’ll procure another magic-sealed contract right away!”
“Oh, is that so? That’s a relief.”
Seeing her serene smile made Oliver’s insides twist.
Where on earth am I supposed to get another one of those?
Honestly, acquiring the last one had been a miracle.
And now it’s all gone… just like that?
Looking at her seemingly innocent face made it worse—it didn’t feel like she’d done it on purpose.
Just when things were finally going well…
But he couldn’t afford to upset this gentle-looking Duchess. So he forced a pleasant smile.
“I’ll head to the capital at once and send a new magic-sealed contract.”
With that, Oliver quickly bowed and left. Soon after, he sent a freshly acquired contract to the Duchess.
He had already instructed her on how to sign it, so getting it sealed as soon as possible was key.
But what awaited him was something completely unexpected.
“Oh, that magic contract?”
Iris gave a slight nod, as if she had only just remembered.
“Will you be able to procure
another one
, by any chance?”
“P-pardon…?”
“I heard magic contracts can’t be burned because of the cultivation engravings within them.”
“Th-that’s correct…”
Oliver stared at her with growing dread.
“But this one… it burned quite nicely.”
“…Excuse me?”
“Must’ve been defective.”
Iris smiled innocently.
“So I burned it.”
Oliver’s brown eyes trembled violently.
Do you know how much that was worth?!
He stammered in disbelief, his voice cracking.
"That... soul-bound contract only becomes flame-resistant once the spiritual formation within is fully activated."
"Ah, is that so? No wonder it burned so easily."
Iris clapped her hands lightly and nodded as if she had just learned something useful.
"I’ll make sure not to do that again next time."
“W-Wait, are you saying… you
actually
burned it?”
Even now, Oliver was half-convinced Iris was making a cruel joke.
‘No way… She really did? She seriously burned it?’
With an expression as pure as a clear sky, Iris responded,
“I burned it by accident. I was curious to see if it was the real thing.”
“……”
“You said it was easy to obtain, didn’t you? Then surely it can be replaced again, right?”
She really had burned it.
Oliver stood frozen, mouth agape, unable to process the blow.
Just acquiring that soul-bound contract had been a nightmare—he’d gone all the way to the capital for it.
The item was so rare it couldn’t even be dispatched through normal channels. He’d had to offer a bribe the size of a small estate just to get his hands on it.
“H-How could you do something like that…?”
“So it really
was
difficult to obtain.”
“This is outrageous—!”
Oliver was about to raise his voice in fury when he noticed the sharp glint in the eyes of the guards nearby, standing like silent blade cultivators ready to strike.
“Are you raising your voice at our Lady?”
“N-No, of course not. I simply… got caught up in the moment, with the situation changing so suddenly.”
Plastering on a gentle merchant’s smile, Oliver turned back toward Iris.
‘I can’t just let this go.’
He no longer had the funds to procure another soul-seal contract.
“This is the second time now. Until now, I’ve borne the loss in good faith.”
His voice turned firm.
“But moving forward, I’m afraid I must request that your side assist in covering the cost of a replacement contract.”
“I understand.”
Iris nodded, her sky-blue eyes shining innocently.
“Then I suppose I have no choice.”
“Yes. Our merchant guild had no intention of causing trouble either, but—”
“We’ll take the Snow Chain deal to another trading guild.”
“…Pardon?”
Oliver blinked, wondering if he had heard her wrong.
“A different… merchant guild?”
But Iris only looked at him with a worried expression, as though
he
were the one she felt sorry for.
“Yes. I had been in talks with another guild that handles Snow Chain trades anyway.”
“…What?”
“So you don’t need to force yourself to carry out this contract. There’s no need to take more losses.”
“……”
“How fortunate, right? You don’t need to make any more sacrifices.”
Oliver’s mind reeled in confusion.
‘No… this isn’t how it’s supposed to go!’
He had expected to finish the swindle quickly, especially with a dim-witted Grand Consort as the opponent.
But now, what
was
this situation?
“N-No, please. That won’t do.”
Oliver frantically tried to dissuade her.
“If you could just help me obtain another soul-bound contract, then we can—”
“No. I’ve already kept you waiting too long. I couldn’t bear to cause you any more harm.”
“It’s no trouble at all! I misspoke earlier, please disregard what I said.”
“Is that so?”
The Grand Consort gave him a bright, innocent smile.
“Then that’s a relief.”
Seeing that guileless face somehow made Oliver’s chest tighten with anxiety.
‘No, this was all by the numbers… it should’ve gone perfectly.’
The only thing left to do was bring another soul-seal contract.
Even if the deal broke him financially, at least he could still carry out the imperial decree.
‘So why does everything feel like it's going wrong?’
Inexplicably, this was more exhausting than dealing with the icy but straightforward butler, Vincent.
‘No. I must be overthinking it.’
He consoled himself with the rumors he’d heard back in the capital.
If Iris truly had a brilliant mind, surely word would’ve spread by now.
But no such rumors existed.
So this gentle, clueless smile must be her
true
self.
“I’ll procure a new soul-bound contract and resume the negotiation.”
“I’ll be waiting, then.”
Iris nodded with graceful composure.
As he watched her, Oliver’s brown eyes burned with obsession.
‘I will recover this loss, no matter what.’
He had already poured too much coin into this deal to turn back. There was no other path now.
Oliver retreated into cold calculations of profit and cost—
And so, he failed to notice the change in Iris’s gaze.
What had once been the soft light of naiveté… had cooled into something far more chilling.
‘Why am I suffering so much over some empty-headed consort?’
Oliver had no choice but to hunt down another soul-seal contract.
‘I could’ve ended this already!’
But soul-bound contracts were limited in number each year.
At this point, not even vast wealth could guarantee another one. Whenever there was a delay in securing the contract, Oliver ground his teeth in frustration.
Had it just been the contract that was burned and everything else unraveled easily, he wouldn’t have been so cornered.
Truthfully, Oliver had planned to go through with the transaction in a swift, underhanded manner by securing a signature or seal in advance.
But the Grand Consort Iris, with that innocent and guileless face of hers, wouldn’t fall for any tricks.
“Damn it. What do I do now? I signed as Valentine too naturally.”
“With this signature alone, it won’t work, will it? I’ll probably have to redo it all from the start.”
It was sheer idiocy—he had been far too foolish!
“Oh my, did you need the seal ring right away? I already lent it to someone else. What should I do?”
“Would it be difficult if I lent you another ring from the heirloom chest?”
The Grand Consort didn’t even seem intelligent enough to properly understand what he was saying.
No wonder she was always looked down on by her House.
Now Oliver understood why House Valentine had kept her so carefully out of sight.
Ironically, this realization gave him peace of mind.
If his opponent was that kind of woman, there was no danger of things going awry.
And so, within the ducal manor, he let down his guard.
But Iris had seen straight through Oliver’s mindset.
“Thank goodness.”
As she expected, it looked like she had bought herself about a week.
However, the real issue lay elsewhere.
Every time Oliver was gone, Iris would secretly send out coded messages to check whether the flower had bloomed.
[Not possible.]
[Anomaly detected. Growth far too slow.]
The answers were always negative.
“Will I really be able to make it in time?”
The one week she’d hoped to earn had nearly passed, and yet the cultivation had not reached full bloom.
She sighed, spinning the dried
Hellis
flower between her fingers.
“I underestimated this.”
She had believed she could rely on what she’d learned at the Academy. But her shallow knowledge was not enough.
“I should never have been so arrogant…”
Having always been surrounded by kind words, she had lost her objectivity and handled things too recklessly.
“I need to start preparing another plan.”
In that case, what should she do with the blooming
Hellis
flower and those still rooted in the field?
Iris stared closely at the flower, which gleamed like a gem.
Her pale fingertips brushed against the slick petals, then came to a halt.
“Why didn’t I think of that sooner?”