It was about 3 hours that, for anyone else, could be sidered torture.

  The two women (girls) spent all that time ing me in different types of fabrics. They pced one or after another, jewelry and anything else they could find, while they discussed in a heated way which color would look better on me, which fabric would make me prettier, or which gems would go better with my hair.

  It was 3 hours in which they moved me from one side to the other, treating me almost like a rag doll.

  But you know what? It was a lot of fun. While being treated that way, with no way to refuse or escape, made me feel a little anxious, seeing myself in the mirror with dresses of different types and colors, made me feel pretty. And well, the smile on my mother's face was a bonus that made it all worth it.

  I smoothly accept my current situation, even though it is difficult to uand that this is my new physical appearance. After all, I've only been able to see it twice, and the first time I didn't get to internalize things pletely. But now that I've spent so much time looking at myself, with different styles, I work on this better.

  I know I said I didn't mind at first, and I'm not lying, I don't mind, but "accepting" and "adapting" are two pletely different things. I know it will take some time getting used to, but I'm fident it won't be difficult. After all, I'm happy enough to see myself this way.

  Once everything was over, the maids who arrived with Kar left my family's grounds. Acc to what I heard they left with the order to remember every word of what was discussed during my "fashion show". So, there were only four of us left; Mom, Kar, the ninja secretary, and me.

  Almost as if she had p from the beginning, Mom invited both women over for tea and versation, and without the slightest iion of refusing the request, Kar readily accepted.

  I was quite tired from all the activity I'd had so far, but realizing that there might be some iing topics, I couldn't just let myself give in to sleep.

  Irna POVI don't know how long Kar and I were trying different styles on my baby, but I feel it was worth it. No matter what we put on her, everything looked perfect. Just as expected for mine and Hal's daughter, she certainly is the cutest little girl ever.

  Of course, my other daughters are too, but now that Sarka has grown up, her childish ess has been repced by adult beauty, and with Zenya, her baby look has been slowly disappearing, and she doesn't usually let herself get dressed. Sometimes I wish my girls would stay babies forever, but that really 't happen. After all, I want to have grandchildren too.

  But, let's put that aside. I had already ordered Tina to prepare the private room so I could talk to Kar about the thing I requested from her.

  We walked through the corridors to the west wing, where I had my offid guest room. In a short time, we arrived at a rather ornate door, made of itia wood, a type of wood with a soft reddish hue and which has great patibility with mana.

  On the sides, two guards in uniform, one of whom opehe door upon notig our presence. We entered, and as I expected, the pce was devoid of decorations or furniture. The only thing inside was a small white wooden table with a beautiful sky-blue floral design. It ositioned in the ter of the empty room, with 3 matg chairs pced around it.

  This room was inteo be used when I o have private versations. Things I did not wish to be overheard. Various anti-sound, anti-spying, and prote spells were put in pce, and guards were always at the orance, making sure no oered without permission.

  I sat with Tya on my p and Kar right in front of me. Lady Crofeld seemed to hesitate a bit, but in the end took the remaining chair to Kar's right, leaving her fag the window. Another of my maids, Sera, appeared shortly after with a dessert and tea cart, served us each, and gave a bottle to Tya, who drank happily.

  The atmosphere was somehow starting to get tense, and little Orinthya seemed to notice, so I stroked her head to reassure her, then turo Kar.

  "So. What happeo the favor I asked of you?"

  "..."

  Kar was silent for a short while. She took a small sip of her tea, enjoying its aroma, the out a small sigh and looked at me with a serious expression.

  "Lana, when you asked me to tact her and told me about your pn, I holy expected her to reject it, or eveion me about it. But as soon as I fielling her everything, she agreed without hesitation."

  Kar took another sip of tea, giviime to take things in. I was a little... no, actually I was pletely speechless. I knew she was the type of person who would lend us her help if we ever asked, but that she agreed to it was... shog.

  "That was two weeks ago. Two days ago, I got a letter, tellihat..." Kar paused, hesitating for a moment before tinuing. My heart felt heavy. I didn't have to say it. I was sure it had all failed-

  "The letter said that she mao make tact with the Axios and that they had e to an agreement."

  "..."

  ...what?

  "You 't be serious," I asked incredulously. Has she really do? tag the Axios and striking a deal with them...was it that easy?

  "I'm pletely serious" Kar responded immediately, her gaze fixed on me keeping her expression uurbed.

  "This is... I 't believe it."

  "Nor do I. It's beyond just amazing. In just a couple of days, she mao iate with the Axios and e back with a positive respohe empire has been trying to initiate talks with them for at least 200 years. How did she pull it off so easily?"

  I nodded in agreement. Kar put her hands to her face. She looked pletely exhausted as if she bet on a winning rag Doral and it came in st pce.

  I was hoping that Kar would arrive with good news. Although realistically, the normal thing would have been for her to tell me that everything failed, which would have forced me to start everything from scratch.

  "I 't believe Katarina succeeded, even more unbelievable that she did it in such a short time. When I asked you to talk to her and pass on my message, I expected the response you would bring would be something along the lines of 'How dare you ask this of me after all these years?' I never imagihat she would agree and... that she would make so much progress."

  "I couldn't agree more. But that's just the way she is, isn't she? Sweet, hardw Katarina, it's impossible for her to say no when we ask her for a favor, let alone when it's something with good iions behind it." ented Kar as she took another sip of her tea. She kept a nostalgic expression before speaking again "When I told her what you were pnning, do you know what she did?"

  "What did she do?"

  "She hugged me and started jumping up and down with me all over the room." Kar started ughing, remembering the moment. I shared her ughter. I could imagiarina screaming with joy as she carried Kar all over the room. "As she kept me trapped in that strange embrace she ughed as hard as she used to, just like in the old days."

  "The old days..." I repeated sadly. I remember the years when we were friends and spent our youth together, having fun, and talking about our future. I remembered the st time I was able to talk to her before...

  "After that... "Kar tinued. "She told me 'If it's for my little sisters, I'll get it.' I almost started g, you know? It had been so many years since we had seen each other, a she..."

  "She still siders us her little sisters."

  Katarina es from one of the sedary branches of the Nazzik family. Ohat, at the time, possessed almost no power at all, and were in one of the lowest positions in their family. Thanks to that, when Kar and I arrived at the academy we were able to ect easily, which made us inseparable friends. Katarina being the older and wiser, immediately took on the role of our older sister. Something Kar and I were more than happy to accept.

  During those years, Katarina took it upon herself to scold us every time we did any of our pranks. However, she only did it because it bothered her that we didn't include her in some of those. They were some of the best years of my life.

  "What's wrong, Dilia?"

  The young girl jumped a little when Kar brought the attention to her.

  "I-I..."

  "Do you want to know?" I asked with a smile. I khis girl was curious about my friendship with Kar by how she watched us talk so fortably. "I wouldn't mind telling you."

  Dilia, who now wore a rather shy expression, with her cheeks and even part of her ears pletely flushed, nodded slightly in response. I shifted my gaze to Kar, who gave me a knowing smile in respohis girl is so cute. I didn't expect that Ficslians could be so adorable.

  "Do you want the honors?"

  "*sigh* Yes, I think it would be good to tell her, she is my daughter-in-w after all."

  "Right?"

  "You see Dilia, Katarina, Irna, and I have been friends since we were young. The three of us attended Virials Academy iy of Alhaab when we came of age. We were put in the same css, and thanks to the fact that we were... well, quite naughty, we hit it off very well. Of course, Katarina was the oldest of us, but she was also the most i."

  "I remember perfectly how she would blush and lose her speech whealked about ao marry," I added, ughing as I remembered that girl screaming at me with a bright crimson face. "Katarina used to call me an ‘i child’ in those days. And look at her now, with six children."

  Kar shared my amusement at the irony, ughing out loud. It was a shh as we both felt the sad nostalgia of those times.

  "We were together for 3 of the 6 years of the academy, until, in our sed year, they annouhat Katarina would be getting eo the Nazzik heir, the current Duke Leviant, and at the end of that year, she had to drop out to prepare to learies of her future position."

  "At that time, I was just the daughter of a baron, a ckey of the Baelian family, and Kar was the heiress to the current Riviera tailor shop. We never expected either of us to be lucky enough to enter a Ducal family or even the sedary branch. At least, not so abruptly."

  That moment was so devastating for me that I thought I would never smile again. My best friend was being taken away from me. I hought I would feel so heartbroken. Fortunately, my Maki was by my side, she was the one who helped me the most to overe the lonelihat threateo sink me.

  "Actually." Kar took back the fliving me a reproachful look. "In our sixth year, you ended up eo Halfred, too, and you didn't tell me anything until almost graduation day. Do you know how bad I felt at the time?"

  Th-that's... true. Well, Kar has always been a very important part of my life too. It's just... there was something special about Katarina that... No, I shouldn't dig up things I've already left behind.

  What happe that time is that, while I was feeling lonely for Katarina, I met Halfred and, well, we fell in love. Fia, in part, was the cause of things moving that way. And... I could never say anything to Kar because she always had bad luck with her retionships. I didn't see fit to tell her that I had gotten ehe year after Katarina had dohe same. Then it got harder the lo went on...

  "e on, I've already apologized to you many times...it's not like I annou either...my family forbade me to talk about it and you know how scary and hard to deal with my mother is."

  "Jum. Only with you. She always treated me normally."

  Kar may say that, but even she knows how scary my mother be.

  I remember when we were about 10 years old, Kar and I were in the garden, pying, and actally; actally, we destroyed part of her flower bed. Her favorite. As soon as it happened, Kar told me that we should tell her right away, but I was so scared that I tried to repair it, I tried many ways, but we couldn't do anything. When I gave up and turned around, on my way to tell her, she was standing right behind me. Both Kar and I were spahat day and then punished for a full month. I never set foot near my mother's yard again.

  Dilia seemed more fused than before, and also a bit worried about our iion, so we both looked at each other and ughed at the pirl.

  "By the way, how did Katarina mao vihem?"

  Kar put a hand to her fad sighed heavily.

  "Katarina be very i and ho, but she's also very smart. You'd be surprised what she do." As Kar fihat sentence, she ged her posture and expression to a more serious o was her business face.

  "Since Dilia doesn't know anything about this, and we need her with us iure, I think it's best if we start from the beginning."

  I decided to just nod a her take the lead in expining things.

  "As you well know, the Baelian and Nazzik houses have a long history of flict." Dilia nodded, in response, allowing Kar to talk about the history between the Baelians and the Nazzik.

  About 600 years ago, there was a situation in a vilge north of the capital. This vilge no longer exists today, but it art of the territory administered by House Nazzik. Lady Remina Nazzik, the sed daughter of Aberiol Nazzik; Duke during that period, had married aled in that territory to ma. Public history has it that she was attacked on her way to the capital by soldiers eared to be from House Baelian.

  Although some bodies were found wearing such armor, none of them beloo the Baelian troops. Of course, the Nazzik accused them of being spirators, murderers, and much more.

  Despite the uproar it caused, the then Emperust IV carried out an iigation under his name.

  There was silence about it for several months, until it was cluded that the assassination was orchestrated by an unknown group, disguised as Baelian soldiers. It was never determined who the culprits were or if it loy by an enemy try. It was a time when there were many flicts with neighb tries, so the in of all this could not be determined.

  Although the Nazzik had to accept the emperor's verdict, internally they were furious because they did not believe it was a the Baelians. This is because, on that day, Remina Nazzik was to deliver a report about a new medie that could revolutionize current alchemy. And it was all too suspicious that shortly after her murder, the Baelians had in their possession a recipe strangely very simir to the one Remina was trying to deliver.

  "Though all this had been nothing more than a great ce, given that at the time the alchemists' guild was dug such research, funded entirely by the Baelians, who had hundreds of years of sp them." After pleting the story, I took the st sip of tea and ordered Sera t us more. Tya had finished her bottle and now sleep seemed to be g her, so I shifted her position to try to put her to sleep.

  "Unfortunately, the Nazzik remaiubborn and no matter what the Baelians did, they never believed a word of it."

  This war betweewo houses, geed a lot of fri and ges in the political structure, pg the opposing fas in real chaos and stantly fag each other in a war of power much more intehan in previous times. Sometimes when the Nazzik would take advantage by putting the prince or prihey supported ohrohey would spire to diminish the influence of our family as much as they could, even trying to overthrow us. Fortunately, they never succeeded.

  Thus tihis cold war, until about 200 years ago Valeriana Nazzik decided that she had enough and decred in her family a cessation of hostilities, as this flict was destroying the empire internally.

  She had seen the history in a more unbiased and logical way, resulting in officially accepting that the Baelian house had bee up and therefore they were i. With that said, one would expect things to move in pursuit of peace, but in her family, voices were raised in opposition.

  For Valeriana, it was a very difficult leadership to lead, and she was only able to stop things superficially. However, thanks to her efforts, the direct flicts stopped pletely.

  At this point, Sera had returned with more tea and had poured us each a fresh cup. Tya, as hard as I tried to put her to sleep, I couldn't get it, so I decided to settle her bay p to make her more fortable. Kar looked straight at her with a smile, which made my baby giggle. Her ughter was the medie that gave me the strength to keep going every day.

  Ever since I found out I regnant, and that it might be a difficult pregnancy, I k would be my st child, but also the greatest joy of my life. I don't know why I had that thought, but I was sure of it. Maybe it was the work of the goddess, of the Great Pilrs, or maybe it was my maternal instinct. I couldn't say for sure. But when she was born, I knew she would be my greatest happiness.

  Dilia took advantage of this short break to assimite all the information we had told her. From her expression, she seemed to be struggling with it. It had all been quite revealing. To learn that, in principle, the enmity inated from a trap set by someone unknown, had been a lot for her. Perhaps knowing about it had made her doubt whether it would be wise to stick by our side.

  I decided to take the opportunity to clear up some of her doubts by getting right to the most important part of the versation.

  "That art of what I found out after I married Halfred. Even he retty fed up with all this flict. He even sidered Leviant his greatest rival during our youth, and he had great respect for him."

  "Katarina told me something simir" Kar added with a smile. "Leviant would never admit it publicly, but he respected Halfred, especially that goofy hoy of his. She said Leviant always wao be friends with Halfred, but because of their positions in their families it was very difficult for him, even with the retive peace betweewo houses."

  "Wow, I'm surprised Leviant admitted that to Katarina. He always had that aloof, cold attitude towards her."

  Kar shrugged, implying that she did not know what Katarina had doo make Duke Leviant open up like that. All I could think was that Duke Leviant was the type of person who acted serious and unging oside because he didn't know how to express his feelings well. It was either that, or Katarina mao dissuade him. Something that would be just as surprising as what Kar had already firmed to me that she had done.

  "Um... I still don't uand what all this has to do with us. Is it okay for me to know all these secrets about your family, Duchess?"

  "Oh, it's something you o know, little Dili."

  "M-Mrs. Kar, please don't call me that!"

  "Fet it. You never call me mother no matter how many times I've asked you to, so get over it."

  "Ugh."

  "Stop b her, Kar. To answer your question Dilia. The reason we are telling you all this is because we will need you iure, as the first stage of our pn has succeeded."

  "n?" Dilia asked in fusion, but looked sideways at Kar, with an accusatory expression. She almost looked like she was w what kind of silly prank her mother-in-w had been pnning.

  "You don't have to look at her like that." I ughed, trying to calm this adorable Ficslian. "This is all my idea, so don't get mad at her. You see, for a few years now I've been thinking about how to get the two families to be able to recile little by little. After talking with Kar, we cluded that we o find a type of busihat would allow both houses to cooperate, but there roblem with that."

  "Out of all the busihat both families had, there are very few that are reted to each other," added Kar exhaling a sigh. "And those few that are reted, wouldn't work the way we hem to."

  "That had been the case until I received a certain object. We mentiohem a moment ago, but have you heard of the Axios?"

  "Never heard of them before."

  "I see. They are said to be an isoted tribe living in the forest of Jisk, about a week east of here. For a long time now, the empire has tried to ahem in many ways, but they never made it past the forest border. The location of their home is a bit fusing. Once you ehe Jisk forest, you start to feel disoriented and before you know it you are several miles away from the pce. It is believed to be a small town, perhaps 1000 inhabitants, sidering the size of the forest. We only know this because a few have mao engage in versation with them, and even fewer were able to trade.

  The important thing here is this. A few months ago, one of my acquainta the Garnd trading pany, provided me with some information about the Axios. Acc to what they said, one of their employees had mao unicate with the Axios thanks to helping them with an i outside the Jisk forest. In thanks for that..." I motioned for Tina t a small chest repared. She pced it oable in front of Dilia, who upon opening it showed very little rea beyond appreciating the beauty of the object.

  Carefully, Dilia took out the tents of the box. A small pearl no bigger than the nail of my little finger, extremely beautiful and shiny. It looked as if a star had fallen from the sky and she was holding it between her fingers. Its white color with a rainbow luster was marvelous.

  "That little gem is, believe it or not, pure densed mana."

  "What?! That's...!"

  "Impossible, I know. But we have researched it arduously, and everyone who has subjected it to studies has e to the same clusion. This is one of the 10 pure mana stones we have. Well, now there are 8 of them, we use 2 of them to test their efficy."

  "And how much of a...?"

  "They're amazing," Kar interjected in a tohat souired. "A single one of these keep a magic furnace going for 2 days straight. No monster core is capable of doing that, they barely keep it going for a few hours before they have to replenish them.

  Dilia kept looking at the small pearl with a somewhat frightened look on her face, possibly imagining the implications it would have iure.

  "H-how?"

  "We don't kher. Whether the Axios manufacture them, harvest them somehow, or are mined from the earth somehow, we have no idea. This could revolutiohe industry. Artifact manufacturing, magical research, ons, alchemy, all of that would advance leaps and bounds."

  For hundreds of years, thousands of magis, alchemists, and schors have tried to create something simir to these pearls, but they never succeeded. After many failures, they cluded that it was impossible to create them, and all those who tried to iigate it aba in a short time. But out of nowhere, this little pearl appears, which has now bey hope to achieve my dream.

  "This... Duchess, what are you pnning to do with this?" I took a sip of my tea and then smiled at her reassuringly.

  "We po send Katarina to strike up some sort of friendship with the Axios. With that, we would seek to either ahem into the empire or create some trade deal, either temporary or perma. We would offer anything they needed, from medies, fabrics, furs, food. Once we had secured a steady supply of raw materials, we would then introduce them to the market little by little, spreading the word. Finally, we would announce who discovered them, and from there Katarina would be in charge of tag the Baelian to propose a cooperation to unch it to the market in an official way."

  "Initially, all we needed was to create a gap, an opeo talks with the Axios, and over time, gairust and be able to trade with them. Being positive about it, we figured it would take us at least 10 years." Kar let out a tired sigh. I could see that, like me, she too felt as if all our pns had been shot down by that incredibly pure and ho big sister of ours.

  "But I seem to have uimated sister too much, exceeding our expectations. On the bright side, our pn is now several years ahead of schedule."

  "Dili, the reason we need you is because of your family."

  "My family...? Wait! You're not thinking of..."

  "Oh yes, that's just what we're thinking."

  "M-Mrs. Kar, please don't be unreasonable!"

  I could uand why Dilia reacted that way. Her family, the Barlonds, were merts who had domihe jewelry and accessories market. Also, and this was the important thing, they were in charge of buying, refining, distributing, and selling the raw materials fical items, from monster cores, magical ink, skins, bones, and other monster materials.

  The Barlond, while teically subordinates of the Baelian, had es to the Nazzik, something we o take advantage of and turn into the link that would lead to cooperation.

  "Dili, we are not going to force you to do anything, but to recile both families, we need your help. We know this carry a tremendous amount of danger, so we want to take our time to make sure every step is done safely."

  "D-duchess, I… I don’t know…"

  "Rex, you take your time and think about it calmly. Since we have just pleted the first phase of the pn, we take some time to prepare for the step. Once you've made up your mind you talk to Kar, okay?"

  Dilia closed her eyes and thought for a moment, then nodded and said she would give it some serious thought. With me and Kar smiling, we decided to end this very serious versation and move on to more muters.

  FivesZeta