TCS - Chapter 7
When I said I wanted to try doing it all on my own from the start, my parents looked at me with pride and helped me find someone to assist me. Her name was Vizela, a middle-aged woman.
She was an employee of the family’s trading company, but when she heard they were looking for someone to assist me closely, she eagerly volunteered.
“I will do my best to serve you well from now on, Miss.”
“Thank you, Vizela.”
Together with Ena, my personal maid, and Vizela, my new aide, I immediately moved to the coastal area.
We didn’t know if this seaweed grew all along the coast or only in certain regions.
After a few failed attempts, we were lucky to find it on the next try.
“Purple seaweed that looks like veins? Oh, you mean this? We call it gasal.”
Just as the prophecy described, it was purple. When I picked some and tasted it, the surface burst softly upon biting, releasing a sticky texture and a rich juice inside.
“Miss!” everyone gasped, shocked that I would eat it. The local who showed me the seaweed was surprised too.
“Well, we only eat this when there’s really nothing else to eat. It tastes awful.”
They said they only gathered it during tough times when food was scarce. But now, it was different. For survival, everyone in the empire had to eat this.
Wiping the sticky juice from my mouth with a handkerchief, I told the locals,
“I want to buy this.”
“What? This? But there’s plenty just ahead by the shore.”
“We can’t gather it ourselves, so I want to buy it from those who collect it.”
But would there be enough? If there wasn’t enough for the entire empire to eat, it would all be pointless. I worried, but the locals quickly eased my concerns.
“Don’t worry. If you cut it leaving just the root, it grows back in three days.”
Hearing that it could be harvested almost infinitely, I felt relieved.
I offered one silver coin per basket of seaweed. Everyone was thrilled. In this poor fishing village, they could easily gather this seaweed from the nearby sea, and now someone was willing to pay for it.
One silver coin was about a tenth of an adult’s monthly living expenses, so if they worked diligently, they could earn enough for a month’s living in just a few days, and even save some surplus.
After successfully sealing the contract and on our way back, Vizela looked uneasy. Seeing me pay money for something so useless made her wonder if I had aligned myself with the right people.
But it was hard to ease her worries. Even I found it difficult to explain.
Afterward, I hired pharmacists and worked on figuring out the seaweed’s benefits and how to process it into something more palatable.
“If we dry it with hot air, the juice thickens, reducing the stickiness significantly. While the texture is unpleasant, the taste is almost neutral, so grinding it into powder and making pills should make it easy to swallow.”
“The effects are surprisingly excellent. It helps strengthen the liver and promotes diuresis, which aids toxin elimination. Unless someone is exposed to a fatal dose, it can safely be used as an emergency antidote.”
“Is it safe to take a lot?”
“Actually, the more you take, the better. A healthy liver reduces inflammation, and less inflammation boosts immunity.”
“How should we market it?”
“For women, it would be good to promote it as a nutritional supplement that improves skin texture by removing toxins. For men, it could be sold as a stamina booster. With a healthier liver and fewer toxins, fatigue decreases and physical strength naturally improves.”
We sold the medicine based on these suggestions. At first, the response was lukewarm, but when people learned that the owner of the pharmaceutical company was the daughter of Estarote, a countess, the noble family gained trust and customers started purchasing.
Once the effects became evident, word spread quickly and everyone wanted to buy it. We even released a version with the same effects but different packaging for commoners. Unless someone was struggling desperately to make ends meet, almost everyone bought my supplements.
“Miss, your foresight is truly remarkable.”
Vizela didn’t understand when I was buying what seemed like trash, but once it brought in several times the profit, her expression changed. She seemed to see great vision in me, but I just smiled inwardly.
‘If everyone eats this regularly, that mysterious epidemic should be no problem.’
I wished I could sell it to other countries, but time was too tight.
And then, disaster struck. The mysterious epidemic appeared in another country.
***
This epidemic was peculiar—it mainly affected nobles or those working near them. Because of this, it earned the strange nickname “the noble disease.”
In fact, it wasn’t an epidemic at all but poisoning from a toxin.
A rare metal had been discovered in mines of a foreign country. It dissolved in alcohol, and when the alcohol evaporated, it left a soft, rosy pink powder with a baby-cheek-like flush. Besides its beautiful color, it was unusually good for dyeing fabrics, paper, and even cosmetics.
People everywhere used it—wearing, applying, and sticking it on walls. The trend spread across the entire continent, not just the kingdom where the metal was mined.
As unexplained deaths continued, investigators looked for common factors and soon discovered the metal was the culprit.
“But why are there fewer deaths in the empire?”
Although the epidemic spread to the empire, deaths were far fewer compared to other countries, and most who died were elderly.
The empire had something the others didn’t. Eventually, people found the answer: the nutritional supplements I sold.
“How much stock of the supplements do you have? We want to buy as much as possible!”
“Hey! What about the people behind you? What will they do if you buy it all?”
“Don’t worry, we have plenty in stock. We produce them daily, so there’s no shortage.”
Although export permits were denied, merchants found ways to come and buy them.
Amid the ensuing lawsuits, the mining company owner insisted that their metal wasn’t the cause of death, accusing us of profiting from people’s misfortune and calling us “money’s ghosts.” They even filed a lawsuit against me.
“Oh? You claim this disaster isn’t your fault... Are you confident?”
“Of course...!”
“Then try this.”
At the trial, I met him and placed a jar before him. It contained the pink powder I had saved to test if the supplements would work on it.
“If you’re right and there’s no problem, you won’t die if you eat this, right?”
“Well...”
“Here. Should I feed it to you?”
As I opened the jar, everyone nearby held their breath. The powder scattered inside the jar, and the man in front of me trembled, no longer so confident.
‘Small amounts are fine anyway, plus he’s been taking the supplements to detoxify.’
I laughed inwardly at his contradictory behavior. In the end, I won the case, and he was left to face a flood of lawsuits.
But that wasn’t all the good news.
“To Seiana Lovely Estarote, who saved the continent from crisis, we bestow this honorary medal and title.”
Though the title was only that of baron and not a princely rank, it was a hereditary noble title. This meant the emperor took the poisoning incident seriously.
‘I’m not going to marry or have children anyway, so I can just pass the title on to my nephew.’
I thought of it lightly.
At the imperial banquet held alongside the awarding of the medal and title, I quietly slipped away. I went to the corridor where I had once met a peculiar man on the day I finalized a broken engagement.
I hoped someone might be there, but no one was. I just watched the moonlight streaming down the corridor before returning.
***
My business flourished. Because of the poisoning incident, people started taking supplements regularly like meals, making it impossible to fail.
Rumors about the seaweed spread quickly, but no one dared to follow in my footsteps. Even if they copied me, making a profit was difficult.
I only wanted to help the continent overcome hardship, so I set the supplement’s price as low as possible. To beat me in price competition, others would have to find cheaper raw materials, but that was tough.
Who would sell the seaweed for less than one silver coin per basket when I was already paying that much? This unintentionally created a monopoly.
Sometimes, prophecies would suddenly flash before my eyes, but nothing as serious as the poisoning incident. Most were stories about the female lead and the male lead.
Watching their stories built an unexpected sense of closeness, and though I sometimes wanted to meet them, I held back.
If I nosed around the imperial palace, the gods might sense something strange and realize their conversations were overheard by me, which could cause big trouble.
“If it’s fate, we’ll meet by chance someday.”
That’s what I decided.
Years went by with just business, until one day—
<Best> [Golden Family Siblings Obsession]
What is this?
From this point on, multiple panels popped up before my eyes. Unlike the usual single-panel appearance, they now came in urgent and chaotic bursts.
<Best> [I’m Getting Off At This Stop]
Haha, author...
Au- thor- naem!!!!! ༼ง=ಠ益ಠ=༽ง
<Best> [Huffy's House Is the Most Perfect House]
?????
Does this mean Part 1 is complete???
<Best> [Please Help the Evil Beggar ㅠ]
No, what is this crazy ending!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
<Best> [DumpThatCrapCar]
The worst thing about this novel wasn’t the story, it was the author, damn it
My life is legendary for reading this far
I wondered what could have happened for the gods to act this way, and at that serious moment—
Without warning, the world ended.
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