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Chapter 87

Unfamiliar Feeling (1)

"There are flowers that only grow where there are diamonds. Vallogia candida... My mother taught me a lot about that." Lily lowered her body. She was there to see the little ugly flowers blooming at her feet, the deep pink petals, clustered like insect eggs. "This flower grows where there are copper veins. It's not always like that, but since the floor of the greenhouse had copper buried..."

The petals were soft against her fingertips.

"It means there are copper veins. On the Ataka Plateau..."

She had grown up knowing that these little flowers grew in one place only.

Ataka.

A harsh highland desert that refroze the dead in winter and burnt down all living things in summer.

It was the most barren land on the continent and a habitat for monsters.

Watching Lily mumble, Vlad folded his arms as if intrigued. "There is a lot of copper and granite in Ataka. It is buried deep enough to supply everyone in the territory."

"Granite..." Lily squatted, staring blankly at the plants.

Jewelry, after all, was a luxury. But metal and stones were needed more than jewelry everywhere.

Now that the continent had suffered from war, those who owned metal mines were in fact the wealthiest.

Iron mines belonged to the imperial family, so copper was practically the most precious metal.

Granite was also a much harder and more practical stone than marble. Even if the palace was built with marble, the walls had to be made of granite.

Therefore, copper and granite are buried....

"It's a land that has it all. Arcadia..."

The landscape that looked like a masterpiece oil painting now looked completely different.

This is it. It's money. All money.

"Do people know about this?"

Unlikely.

Vlad himself managed it.

The area had a low tax rate in the first place, so there was no need to be conscious of the imperial family.

Those who happened to find out about his wealth thought it was just a temporary glory from the wars.

Still, it took a lot of hard work to cover up such wealth. If information could be easily discovered like this, he had to come up with another solution.

Lily slowly got up and turned to look at him. "Those who know how to write are not usually interested in things like flowers."

It was not easy to find someone whose interests and education intersected like so. That's why it was practically information only she knew.

"You're amazing, Lily." He narrowed the distance. "Memory, information organization, and even judgment. They're exceptionally wonderful. You..." His large hand gently stroked Lillie's cheek. "You're an extraordinary woman."

Lily almost burst with the excessive praise. She lowered her eyes down and wiggled her toes. "That, not much... It's nothing great."

The compliments felt nice. It was the first time she was recognized for her ability.

She'd been a dumb girl all her life.

Her father did not recognize her, even though the flowers that Lily had spoken of were found near the mines he had bought at auction.