Despite her exhaustion and clothes soaked in sweat, Rosily’s face remained bright and cheerful.
“Today, I am not the same person I was yesterday, hmph!”
However, she didn’t plan on looking for Estelle again anytime soon.
She wanted to wait for that competition to settle the matter of who would be the older sister once and for all!
Rosily walked with a brisk pace, humming a light tune.
As she neared her home and saw the light shining through the window, a bad feeling stirred in her heart. Still, she couldn’t just not go home.
“…”
Rosily stopped in her tracks, looking as if time had frozen for her.
She was thinking…
‘How should I explain this to Mother? If she finds out I wasn’t sleeping in the middle of the night and came back covered in sweat, how can I stop her from hitting me?’
Rosily didn’t spend too much time pondering the answer. After a moment, she quickened her pace and ran toward the stone fence.
With a light, effortless leap, she vaulted over it. Landing gracefully, Rosily dashed straight for the front door. Standing before it, she finally looked down at herself.
Because her clothes were soaked with sweat and she had been rolling around on the grass, she looked filthy. Her hair was a mess, making her look like a drowned rat.
Rosily patted her clingy, pale gray dress. She tucked the stray hairs sticking to her cheeks behind her ears and took a deep breath. Lifting her hand, she knocked on the door.
Knock, knock, knock—
Silence followed, then the sound of slippers.
The person inside slowly approached the door, and the lock turned with a click.
The person who pushed the door open was, naturally, a silver-haired woman dressed in a plain white nightgown.
Rosily gave a brilliant smile and said in a sweet voice, “Mom~”
“Heh, where did you run off to?”
Enya raised an eyebrow, feigning dissatisfaction. she raised a fist and gave Rosily a light rap on the head.
“So, you actually know how to come home? Running out in the middle of the night without giving your mother a heads-up… do you have any idea how much I was worried?”
“Hehe…”
Rosily pouted slightly and lowered her head, though her eyes darted upward every now and then.
She held her arms straight down, twisting her hands together, her body swaying slightly from side to side.
She spoke in a soft, silky voice.
“Mom, didn’t I get selected for that Elite Class? I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to keep up with everyone else, so I got up in the middle of the night to practice in secret. Your daughter is working very hard; I definitely won’t let you down!”
“Is that so?”
Enya’s eyes widened slightly, seemingly buying Rosily’s explanation.
She hadn’t intended to keep Rosily stuck at the door anyway, so she stepped aside slightly after hearing that.
The moment Rosily saw an opening in her mother’s defense, she crouched low and swiftly darted past Enya’s side.
As she ran, she called out, “Mom, I’m going to take a shower. Go back to sleep!”
Enya slowly turned to watch Rosily’s retreating back. As she saw her daughter rush into the bathroom, she smiled and sighed helplessly.
‘This silly child, did she forget to bring a change of clothes?’
With that, Enya closed the front door and went to Rosily’s room. she picked out a nightgown and brought it downstairs to the bathroom door.
She knocked and said, “Come out and take your clothes.”
“Oh~”
Inside, Rosily emerged from the warm water in the tub.
She stepped over the wooden rim and hurried to the door. Opening it just a crack, she stretched out her hand.
Outside the door, Enya looked at her daughter’s slender, fair arm and gave it a small pinch. It wasn’t hard.
Even so, Rosily let out a cry. “Ouch, that hurts~”
“Hmph, good. It’s supposed to hurt.”
Enya stuffed a set of white undergarments and a nightgown similar to her own into her daughter’s small hand.
Rosily peeked through the crack in the door, half of her small face visible. She looked at Enya with resentful eyes and pouted.
“You have to pinch Sister like that later, too!”
“Why?”
“For the sake of equality, of course! Whatever I get, Sister must have too!”
“Fine, fine. Hurry up and wash. I’ve made some late-night snacks for you two.”
Enya didn’t argue with her further.
Hearing that there was food, Rosily immediately became much more motivated.
She pulled her hand back at lightning speed, closed the door, placed her clothes on a stool, and returned to the tub to scrub herself with a towel.
Enya finally heard the sound of splashing. Rosily wasn’t just soaking and playing with the water like before.
Satisfied, Enya left the bathroom door.
She walked down the hallway into the living room and returned to the kitchen.
A device sat on the stove—square and sturdy, it was difficult to tell exactly what its purpose was just by looking at it.
Enya tinkered with it for a moment before saying, “Done!”
Although it was square, there were some unique features.
There was a square recess in the front. Inside the recess, there were four tubes at the top and a special groove at the bottom.
Enya picked up a glass from the side.
When she placed the glass into the recess and lightly pressed a button on the top, the base of the glass was quickly locked into place.
After it rose to a certain height, a dark liquid flowed from the tubes above, accompanied by a large amount of bubbles.
Once the liquid in the glass reached a certain level, the tubes stopped immediately, and the base lowered back down.
Enya picked up the glass and took a small sip, then gave her evaluation.
“Whoa, not bad.”
‘Using the Authority of Essence and magic-conducting materials to make something like this is much simpler than I thought. It only required some basic magical assembly.’
Naturally, she hadn’t just made a beverage dispenser; she had created a Magic Potion Bottling Machine, though it could certainly moonlight as a drink machine.
This was actually a prototype.
Enya planned to take advantage of the Blue Ocean Market in Red Pine City, utilizing the various shops she had happened to acquire previously.
Her idea was to recycle potion bottles of a uniform size.
Through reuse, she would eventually fill the entire market of Red Pine City, gradually regulating potion production and establishing industry standards…
Well, in short, it was a whole series of plans.
High-end potions could remain high-end, but low-end ones could be even more accessible. Enya wanted to make sure everyone could afford potions.
As for why she was doing this…
It wasn’t out of the goodness of her heart or just to earn gold coins.
She felt she needed to make some preparations and, while she was at it, give Phil something to do.
‘Hmph, want to play cards? In your dreams!’
Red Pine City was a backward region. When Enya left the Zephyr Empire one year ago, the Empire had already begun decentralizing magic. This allowed magic, which was once reserved for those on high, to be used by commoners, increasing the economic circulation at the bottom levels of society.
Whether it was magic lamps, magic stoves, or even magic-conducting bathtubs—once the mindset was opened, the uses for those “useless” magics were truly discovered.
Runes and magic-conducting materials could create a machine that ran on nothing but Magic Power, further increasing productivity.
It was as if some great master was giving directions from behind the scenes, yet Enya had done nothing!
And she knew that this was actually the work of Vivienne and Antiros.
They were leading the Zephyr Empire away from the Old Empire Model toward a new transformation.
However, this also created a problem. To the old system and the old faiths, this was an act of rebellion—it was like taking a knife to their privileges.
Thus, the confrontation between the North and South of the Zephyr Empire was formed.
Most of the stubborn nobles in the North had been cleared out by Vivienne. This was also thanks to Enya’s duel with the Duke of Frennard.
Vivienne had used her victory to completely break the backbones of those fellows who still clung to tradition.
The South, however, belonged to the sphere of influence of another prince. They huddled together for warmth, maintaining the old systems of the Empire days.
“I suppose she’s currently in the Zephyr Empire, wrestling with that whoever-he-is, right?”
She couldn’t quite remember the prince’s name, but she did remember that the daughter of a Grand Duke was engaged to him—an arranged marriage from birth.
Furthermore, that girl was Enya’s… older sister.
Enya took another small sip of the potion in her glass.
Aside from being refreshing, the bursting bubbles gave a very stimulating sensation. The taste was a faint bitterness followed by a sweet aftertaste.
Making something like this wasn’t difficult for her.
Enya turned her head just as Rosily walked out of the bathroom.
The girl saw her mother holding a glass and realized there was something to drink inside.
Wearing a thin nightgown and small slippers, the girl ran over.
With no intention of stopping, she slammed right into Enya. Fortunately, Enya’s hand was steady; not even a drop of the potion in the glass wavered.
“What’s this? Something tasty?”
Rosily’s orange-red eyes were fixed on the glass in Enya’s hand.
Enya smiled and handed it to her.
Rosily let go of her mother, took the glass, and tilted her head back to drink. She didn’t care what was in the cup or whether it would actually taste good.
Originally, Rosily had wanted to finish it in one gulp.
She had sweated a lot and needed to replenish her fluids, but after just one swallow, she found herself choking slightly on the sensation.
“Pfft!”
Rosily frowned, her small mouth open as she stuck out her pink tongue.
“Ah! Whath ith thith? My tongue ith numb!”
“Hehehe.”
Seeing Rosily’s distressed look, Enya immediately began to chuckle.
“It’s just a drink. Drink it slowly.”
“Oh.” She had thought it was medicine.
Hearing it was just a drink, Rosily looked down at the dark brown liquid bubbling with tiny orbs.
She felt it looked a bit like the witch’s potions in storybooks that would turn people into croaking frogs.
‘Hmph, what a childish book.’
She took another tentative sip. Honestly, it was quite good.
Rosily looked up at Enya. “It’s delicious!”
Enya smiled and turned around to prepare the late-night snacks.
Just then, Estelle returned. She pushed the door open and looked at Enya and Rosily, then simply watched them without saying a word.
Enya waved her over. “Estelle, go sit at the table with your sister.”
Estelle nodded and walked straight to the table, pulling out a chair and sitting down.
Rosily remained standing where she was until Enya forced her over with a single look.
The two sisters sat opposite each other.
Rosily took small sips in front of Estelle, as if doing it on purpose. Eventually, she said, “Do you want some?”
“No.”
Estelle shook her head calmly, her response immediate. Rosily was momentarily left speechless.
Enya walked over, carrying two bowls.