I Want Money desu wa!

"I want money, desu wa!!"

The very next morning, as soon as she woke up, Koleha shouted those words.

Money is important no matter what you do. She had finally come to that realization.

"Even if I'm exiled from the country, having money will never hurt. With cash on hand, I can do anything! This and that, one, two, three — bam!"

Thrusting her fist into the air, Koleha lost herself in fantasies about money. The image in her head was a bath full of banknotes — though in this country, gold, silver, and copper coins were the norm, so it would probably be a bath full of gold coins instead.

Yeah, that would just be heavy. Would it feel like some kind of pressure massage?

(Besides, I'm starting to crave a bit of other people's misfortune… The instincts of a villainess are stirring, desu wa!)

Ever since she regained her memories, Koleha had been a little too well-behaved.

But Koleha was a villainess. Other people's misfortune was sweet as honey. She was itching to lap up some of that misfortune-honey already!

At this rate, she'd be barreling straight toward the condemnation ending rather than the serves-you-right ending… She needed to savor misfortune legally, in a way that wouldn't make people hold grudges.

With money, she could let them suffer a little, then amicably resolve things with a slap of a wad of cash — well, with coins, it would be more like tossing money at them. That sounded painful, but if they were gold coins, surely the other party would forgive her with a smile.

In short, it all came back to this: she wanted money!!

"Ojou-sama. If there's something you want, why not ask the master to give it to you?"

"Emma, the money I want isn't pocket money or anything like that. I want money that's mine alone — money I can move from right to left at my own discretion, freely, desu wa!"

"Ojou-sama is using difficult words…! But doesn't that basically mean pocket money?"

"I want a larger sum, desu wa. Business… yes, I'm going to do business!"

"If it's the allowance of a marquis's daughter, you could probably buy one or two small shops with it."

"… Th-that's, uh, wow, desu wa."

Once again, Koleha was struck by the sheer power of the nobility.

"But look, pocket money is ultimately Father's money. In other words, the people's taxes, right? That makes it hard to use for, well, dirty things."

"Dirty things? … For example?"

"Umm… buying snacks on the street!"

"Ojou-sama is more innocent than I expected."

She couldn't very well say "slapping people with stacks of cash," so she tried to wriggle out of it. But this made it sound like she was thinking, "They might resent me if they think, 'That girl used our tax money on dessert!'"

"So Ojou-sama wants to earn money herself and indulge without a care, is that it?"

"Yes, exactly! Emma, you're starting to understand me, aren't you?"

Fufun, Koleha lifted her nose proudly.

The Koleha in her heart — the one that wasn't from her past life — seemed to be saying something like, "Eh? Isn't it fine to spend money squeezed from the rabble? In fact, I'd love to see their frustrated faces, desu wa—"

But she hit the brakes, deciding that would be a straight road to ruin.

"I think that's a splendid idea. So, what kind of business will you pursue? And what about the initial capital?"

"… For the very start, I'll ask Father to fund me!!"

Selling the family's belongings on her own would obviously be out of the question, so Koleha straightforwardly decided to ask Marquis Yarkot.

 

＊ ＊ ＊

 

And what she obtained was a field.

She was granted permission to use a corner of the manor's garden — quite a large one at that — as a field, and immediately asked the gardener to transform it with Earth Magic.

There wasn't a single weed, just bare black soil formed into ridges. It looked ready for planting at any moment.

The marquis house's excellent gardener had done it in a single night. It seemed a rather generous bonus had been paid as well.

"Um, Ojou-sama. Why a field…? Rather than something like hiring a merchant?"

"? With a field, you can harvest crops over and over, so it's a bargain, desu wa!"

To Koleha, a field was an infinite resource that produced goods over time.

It would require maintenance, of course, but that could be paid for with the proceeds from selling crops.

And as a marquis's daughter, Koleha could simply ask the gardener to handle maintenance for her… Marquis Yarkot would probably cover the extra bonuses for the time being. Once profits started rolling in, Koleha could pay for it herself.

"Well, it's Ojou-sama's field, so I think you should do as you like. So, what will you grow?"

"Fufufu. I have a secret plan! This, desu wa!"

What Koleha produced was a weed she'd pulled from nearby. She'd grabbed a rough handful, roots still clinging with soil, and held it up triumphantly.

"… Um. Isn't that a weed?"

"There is no such plant as 'weed', desu wa!!"

With a snap, she pointed her finger — and the plant — at Emma.

"This is a magical herb I discovered with my magic!"

"Eeh? Really? Isn't that the kind that makes your stomach hurt if you eat it? It looks like something that just grows around here."

"Ufufufu. I looked it up in a plant encyclopedia. This is a medicinal herb, you know!"

"… It is?"

Emma looked dubious. And naturally so — it looked exactly like some random plant growing around the manor.

"Beck. Beeeck. Take a look at this plant!"

"Yes, Ojou-sama. You called?"

She clapped her hands and summoned the gardener, Beck, then showed him the plant.

"If we cultivate this, do you think it will sell?"

"… This is wild medicinal herb, Kias. I hear the buds have some efficacy, but as for whether it will sell… Hm? Wait. This is rather… unusually high quality, isn't it?"

Wild medicinal herbs. A catch-all term for plants that supposedly contained some recovery components, though only barely — herbs at the very edge of being called herbal medicine. Even among them, this Kias was the kind of weed that grew pretty much anywhere.

But Koleha had set her sights on it.

—Couldn't I boost medicinal herbs with my Poison Magic? They do say that too much medicine becomes poison.

And somehow, it worked.

Magic was all about image. Once she believed she could do it, it often worked!

And because the base plant was weak to begin with, boosting it with Poison Magic resulted in just the right degree of enhancement.

What's more, since Kias naturally grew wild, it should be hardy and easy to cultivate.

Easy maintenance! Two birds with one stone!!

And here was what mattered most to Koleha — this enhanced Kias was incredibly bitter.

Even just lightly wetting her lips with it had made her pull a face unbecoming of a young lady.

If enhanced Kias spread, those who drank it would surely go "Blegh!" and make bitter faces.

The Koleha in her heart was probably looking forward to it too, thinking, "Their agonized expressions will be quite the sight! Oh-ho-ho-ho!"

In other words! It was three birds with one stone!!

"Heeh! So Ojou-sama's Potato Magic works on medicinal herbs too."

"Water Magic! It's Water Magic, Emma! I, uh, did something good with the water content inside the herb, desu wa!"

Since the official story was Water Magic, Koleha promptly corrected her.

"So then, Beck. How about it? Will it sell?"

"Please wait a moment. I'll appraise it — Plant Appraisal!"

Beck, the marquis house's excellent gardener, had learned an appraisal spell that worked only on plants.

And he was astonished.

It turned out that the whole plant — not just the buds — had about half the medicinal efficacy of herbs commonly used for potions. In other words, with just two stalks, you'd get the equivalent of one standard medicinal herb.

"… Oh! I believe this could be a sellable product!!"

"Mufufun, I thought so, I thought so. And the resulting herbs will be sold through Father's connections, desu wa!"

"So in the end, we'll still be relying on the master for that part."

Well, that couldn't be helped at the start. But in time, she would become independent, and this would become Koleha's personal source of funds!

Since it started as a weed, it was practically free! And it turned into money!

Money falling right into her lap. What a windfall!

"So, if we're going to expand and sell this… where are the other wild medicinal herbs? With just one clump, we can't exactly multiply it, can we? The more we have to start with, the easier it'll be to propagate."

"… Oh?"

For this very large field, the enhanced wild herb currently numbered one clump… For the starting herbs, Koleha would have to enhance each plant manually, one by one.

To prepare enough to fill even half of this wide field — just how many plants would she have to cast magic on?

"… W-we should have started with a much smaller field, shouldn't we…!?"

"You asked for a big field right off the bat, Ojou-sama."

After that, it took Koleha three days to enhance enough wild medicinal herbs to cover about a quarter of the field.

… From there, Beck said he could handle propagating them somehow.

Truly, all hail the excellent gardener…! The young lady gave Beck a thumbs-up in praise, even as she lay there exhausted.