ICSM 07

Chapter  07

When I said that I wanted to try doing it all by myself from the beginning, my parents looked proud of me and only found someone to assist me.

She was a middle-aged woman named Vizella.

She was an employee of the trading company owned by my family, but when she heard that someone was being sought to assist me closely, she eagerly volunteered.

“I will do my best to serve you well, Young Lady.”

“I’m counting on you, Vizella.”

Together with my personal maid, Ena, and Vizella, who had newly become my assistant, I immediately headed to the coastal region.

I had no way of knowing whether this plant grew along every coast or only in certain areas.

After coming up empty-handed a few times, I was fortunately able to find it on my next attempt.

“A purple seaweed that looks like veins? Hmm? Are you talking about this? We call it Gasal.”

It was indeed purple, just as the prophecy had said.

I picked one up and tried eating it. The moment my teeth touched it, its surface popped with a soft pop. Along with its sticky texture, a thick liquid burst out from inside.

“Young Lady!”

Everyone gasped as if I had done something unbelievable by eating it. Even the resident who had shown me the seaweed looked shocked.

“My goodness, we only eat that when we really have nothing else to eat. It tastes terrible.”

They said that during times of hardship, when it was difficult even to put food in one’s mouth, they would collect it little by little and keep it for emergencies.

But things were different now.

For everyone to survive, the entire Empire had to eat this.

Wiping my mouth, which had become sticky from the liquid, with a handkerchief, I spoke to the resident.

“I’ll buy this.”

“Huh? This? Why would you? There’s plenty of it growing just ahead!”

“We can’t collect it ourselves. So I want to buy it from people who gather it and bring it here.”

But would there be enough?

If there wasn’t enough for all the people of the Empire to eat, this would all be a pointless effort.

I was worried, but the resident’s next words solved the problem clearly.

“Oh, don’t worry. If you cut it off while leaving only the bottom part, it’ll grow back exactly the same three days later.”

When I heard that it could be harvested almost endlessly, I breathed a sigh of relief.

When I announced that I would buy one basket of seaweed for one silver coin, everyone was delighted.

It was a poor fishing village. They could easily collect it just by walking around the nearby sea, and now someone was offering to pay them for it. Of course they were happy.

Since one adult’s monthly living expenses were about ten silver coins, someone who worked diligently could earn enough to live for a month in just a few days. If they worked harder, they could even build up some extra wealth.

After successfully finishing the contract and heading back, I noticed that Vizella did not look very happy.

She had not understood whether she had made the right choice by joining me after seeing me spend money on something that was practically garbage.

However, it was difficult for me to ease her worries.

I couldn’t explain it either.

After that, I hired pharmacists and had them study Gasal’s effects and ways to process it so that it would be easier to consume.

“If we dry it with hot air first, the liquid seems to shrink, so the sticky texture is greatly reduced. The texture is unpleasant, but it barely has any taste, so I think we can grind it into powder and make pills that can simply be swallowed.”

“Its effects are surprisingly excellent. It helps strengthen the liver, and its diuretic properties make it easier for the body to remove toxins. Unless someone has been poisoned by an extremely deadly poison, it could even be used as an emergency antidote without any problems.”

“Is it safe to consume a lot of it?”

“In fact, the more you consume, the better it may be. When the liver becomes healthier, inflammation in the body decreases, and when inflammation decreases, immunity improves.”

“Then how should we sell it?”

“For women, we could advertise it as a nutritional supplement that improves the condition of the skin. Removing toxins should make the skin healthier. For men, we could sell it as an energy and vitality supplement. If the liver is strengthened and toxins are removed, fatigue will decrease, and physical stamina should naturally improve.”

Following their suggestions, we made the medicine and began selling it.

At first, the response was lukewarm. However, once people learned that the owner of the pharmaceutical trading company was the daughter of Estarote, there were people who trusted the Count’s family and bought it.

And once they actually experienced the effects, word spread quickly, and people began buying it one after another.

When we also released a commoner version with the same effects but different packaging, there was hardly anyone who did not take my nutritional supplement unless they were struggling badly just to survive.

“Young Lady. Your foresight is truly amazing.”

Vizella had not understood me when I spent money buying what was practically trash.

But when I used it to earn several times more than I had spent, her eyes changed.

She seemed to see some incredible vision in me.

But I could only laugh inwardly.

‘If everyone takes this regularly like this, the mysterious epidemic should be fine.’

It would have been nice if I could sell it to other countries as well.

But there was simply too little time left for that.

And eventually, trouble came.

The mysterious epidemic broke out in another country.

Strangely, this epidemic mainly affected nobles or people who worked around nobles.

Perhaps because of that, it gained the strange nickname of the “Noble Disease.”

In truth, it wasn’t even an epidemic.

It was simply poisoning.

A strange metal had been discovered in a mine in another country.

It dissolved in alcohol, and when the alcohol evaporated, it left behind a beautiful pink powder with a healthy, rosy color, like a baby’s cheek.

The beautiful color alone was remarkable, but strangely enough, it also worked extremely well as a dye.

It could be used on cloth, paper, and even as a cosmetic.

Everyone began wearing it, applying it, and even sticking it onto their walls.

It spread throughout the entire continent like a trend, not just in the kingdom where the metal had been discovered.

As unexplained deaths continued to occur, people began searching for what the victims had in common.

They soon discovered that the metal was the culprit.

“But why are there so few deaths in the Empire?”

The trend had spread to the Empire as well, yet compared to other countries, the number of deaths was extremely small.

And most of those who died were elderly.

Something existed in the Empire but not in other countries.

Eventually, people found the answer.

It was the nutritional supplement I was selling.

“How much stock of the nutritional supplement do you have left? I would like to buy as much as possible!”

“You fool! If you buy it all, what about everyone behind you?”

“Don’t worry. We have plenty of stock. We’re producing it every day, so there’s no need to worry about running out.”

Although I had not been able to enter foreign markets because I had not received an export permit, merchants somehow found their way to me and bought the supplements anyway.

As lawsuits and accusations continued to pour in, the owner of the mine was desperate.

He insisted that people had not died because of his metal.

He insulted me, saying that I was a money-grubber who was making a fortune from other people’s unfortunate accidents.

He even had the audacity to sue me instead.

“Really? So you say you have nothing to do with the disaster that happened this time… Are you confident about that?”

“Of course I—”

“Then try this.”

I met him at the trial and placed the container I had been carrying in front of him.

It contained the pink powder I had kept so that I could test whether the nutritional supplement would work against it.

“If, as you say, there is nothing wrong with it, you won’t die from eating it, will you?”

“That…”

“Come on. Do you want me to feed it to you?”

As I opened the container, the people nearby held their breath.

When the container was opened, the powder shook and spread into the air.

The man standing in front of me did the same.

He trembled while holding his breath, as if he had completely forgotten how confident he had been moments ago.

‘A small amount is harmless anyway. And I’ve been taking the nutritional supplement that helps remove toxins regularly.’

Watching the man whose actions contradicted his words, I openly laughed at him.

In the end, I won the trial, and he was left with nothing but a hell of lawsuits lined up one after another.

And that wasn’t the only good thing that happened.

“I hereby grant Seiana Lovely Estarote, who saved the continent from crisis, an honorary medal and a noble title.”

The title was only that of a baron, but it was a hereditary noble title rather than a title that would end with me.

It was practically proof that even the Emperor considered this poisoning crisis extremely serious.

‘I’m not going to get married or have children anyway. Well, I can just pass the title on to one of my nieces or nephews.’

I didn’t think much of it.

Then, during the imperial palace banquet held alongside the ceremony for my medal and title, I secretly slipped away.

I headed toward the corridor where I had met that strange man on the day I had broken off my engagement.

I went there just in case.

But there was no one there.

I could only stare at the moonlight shining down on the corridor before returning.

My business continued to thrive.

Because of the poisoning incident, people began taking nutritional supplements as regularly as they ate meals, so my business couldn’t go under even if it tried.

The rumors about the seaweed, which was the raw material, spread quickly.

But no newcomers tried to follow in my footsteps.

That was understandable.

They could imitate me, but it was difficult for them to make a profit.

I only wanted to solve the continent’s hardship. I had no particular desire to make a huge profit, so I set the price of the nutritional supplements as low as possible.

The only way to beat me in a price war was to purchase the raw materials more cheaply.

But even that was difficult.

If I was buying the seaweed for one silver coin per basket, who would sell it for less than one silver coin?

In the end, I unintentionally created a monopoly.

Occasionally, those strange prophecies would suddenly appear before my eyes again, but nothing as serious as the poisoning incident happened.

Most of them were simply stories about the people called the heroine and the male lead.

As I continued seeing news about them, I unintentionally developed a strange sense of familiarity with them.

Sometimes, I even wanted to meet the two of them at least once.

But I held myself back.

If I went to the imperial palace and snooped around, and the gods noticed something strange and realized that I had discovered their conversations, it could cause serious trouble.

‘If we’re meant to meet, we’ll eventually run into each other by chance.’

I decided to think that way.

And so I spent several years doing nothing but running my business.

Then, one day—

[Golden Household Kim Siblings Fanatic]

What is this?

With those words, several panels suddenly popped up before my eyes.

Unlike usual, when only one appeared at a time, they appeared one after another.

They also seemed urgent.

Almost confused.

[I’m Getting Off at This Station]

LOL Author…

Auth. or. nim!!!

༼ง=ಠ益ಠ=༽ง

[Regret and Obsession Is the Most Perfect Home]

?????

Does this mean Part 1 is over????

[Please Watch Evil Baeksu ㅠㅠ]

No, this is fucking crazy, what the hell is this ending!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Send the Trash Car to the Junkyard]

The biggest trash car in this novel wasn’t even the male lead, it was the author ㅅㅂㅅㅂ

My life for reading this far is legendary.

I wondered what on earth had happened to make the gods act like this.

And just as I became seriously worried—

The world ended without warning.