CH 54.1

For Jenna, who was cautious about everything, it must have been a difficult decision to confess all this. It was clear that she had deliberately brought up Irvan’s story because she was worried about Emma. However, Emma wanted other people to see Irvan differently.

“I have a slightly different view of Mr. Irvan,” Emma said.

Jenna’s eyes widened. “Yes?”

“Irvan, whom I have met and spent time with, was not violent or cruel. I have never seen him lose his temper while we were together. That being said, the apprentice knights who were killed last month don’t seem to belong to the Knights of the Black Awl. I don’t think they were directly under Irvan.”

Emma witnessed a faction split in Van Wert. There was the Muns faction represented by the Muns twins, Karina and Collin, and the authentic Van Wert faction, led by Irvan. Even if they were all knights of Van Wert, there was still a division between the guards in the Black Awl Knights following Irvan, and guards following Countess Karina; the knights must have been split into two factions as well.

Jenna’s complexion darkened at Emma’s assertion. “I didn’t know about that. Because like I said, I don’t know the details of what’s going on inside the estate.”

Jenna wasn’t a Van Wert person, but a maid of the Berne family. Lady Evelyn, whom she was serving, ws neither a bureaucrat nor had a crucial role in politics, so it was natural to not know of the conflict within Van Wert estate. It seemed like a waste of time to chat with Jenna over reckless speculation.

“Yes. I’ll calmly think about it again. Once again, thank you so much for the important information.” Emma finished the conversation with a light smile, and looked out the bright window. Soon after, she changed the topic to something light that matched the sunny weather.

* * *

“This smell…”

As soon as they arrived in the Grok area, they came across something unexpected. After getting off the carriage with Jenna and walking through the deep forest for a while, Emma suddenly stopped and focused on her sense of smell. Not long after, she was surprised to find a pile of Luphenyls in the shade of a large rock.

“It’s the wild plant I’ve been looking for,” Emma said joyfully.

Jenna stared at it. “It looks unique. The leaves are elongated and have lines. Like a willow tree,” she commented.

“Yes, but the scent is completely different from that of willow trees. It’s sweet and refreshing.”

Jenna’s expression brightened as she smelled the leaf Emma was sticking out. “That’s true. What kind of herb is this?”

“Luphenyl. There may be more.”

Jenna looked at the herbs in surprise. “Oh my, so this is Luphenyl. You often talked about it.”

“Yes. If you boil it, it tastes really good and it’s also good for your body.”

The two were excited to dig up a basket of lupenyl, however the volume would decrease when it was dried, so they were disappointed when their forage was less than a handful.

“It’s not much…,” Jenna said.

Emma smiled. “It can’t be helped,” she answered.

The roots were left for future use and the trunk of the tree was marked with a knife, but this was a mere formality. A Luphenyl plant dies when harvested. If one was fortunate, one or two roots would remain and sprout again the following year, but that was unlikely. It was because of these characteristics that Luphenyl and other wild herbs were classified as rare.

Fortunately, in the neighboring country ‘Dukram’, Luphenyl was easy to harvest because the colony was large. However, there was no way to get it because of the civil war, so Emma was grateful that she could even touch :uphenyl like this. Since then, they searched the forest again with no luck.

“It’s dangerous to go deeper from here.”

“…Yes.” Sometime after noon, the guards who followed them from Berne began to glare at her. Seeing their frightened and nervous faces, she thought that they shouldn’t stay in the mountains for long. Inevitably, she had to withdraw her former plan to find rare herbs. After roughly looking around and exploring the foot of the mountain, Emma got up and shook off her dress. At that moment, an idea suddenly crossed Emma’s mind.

“Oh.”

“What’s wrong?” Jenna asked curiously.

“There’s a garden in the Van Wert Castle. That place was built by Layna, and it is full of rare plants; Luphenyl may also grow there.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“Then it would be good to take it there and grow it.”

“I can’t plant them now, so I’ll just remember the location.”

“Yes.”

As she was going down the forest again with regret, the narrow path split in two. It was a crossroad. If she kept walking the way they came, she would find the entrance to the village of Grok, where they first started, but she wondered where the other side was going. The ground on the other side of the road seemed to have been cleaned well.