I Guess I Haven't Developed Immunity to the Flirting of a Rich, Cool Married Noona

Chapter 63

Rattle, rattle. Screeeech—!

With a noisy clatter, the huge a.k.a. two-and-a-half-ton truck came to a stop.

I massaged my stiff neck and jumped down from the carriage.

"Ah, I'm sore all over."

Thanks to the motion-sickness medicine Lucius had prepared, I avoided the disaster of having my stomach turn inside out.

Still, there was nothing I could do about the physical agony of having to sit on that narrow, uncomfortable wooden seat for so long.

But as soon as I arrived, a very familiar and dazzling silhouette caught my eye.

A muddy leather apron, utterly out of place in the scenery of the Academy.

But the real thing was a rich landowner, my sponsor, my patron, the investor who would hand me gold bars.

Hmm.

Now that I think about it, I feel like I should be praying to her before bed starting today.

It's wrong for a saint's guardian to do cultish things, but still, I should be praying every night for the viscountess's happiness.

I quickly straightened my clothes and tossed the words at Lucius standing beside me.

"See you next time. I think I've got an important guest waiting for me right now."

"Understood. It was an honor to grow closer during the tour. Contact info, a matchmaker? Talk about our appointment?"

What a bastard.

"Anyway, I'll be eagerly waiting for some good news."

Lucius grinned brightly.

What a disgusting bastard.

I threw in the towel against that despicable sister-peddler's persistence.

"Ugh. Fine, fine, I'll contact you. You think I won't?"

"No. I think you will, and that makes me very happy. I'll go straight home and deliver the good news to my younger sister."

"......Fine, get going."

I waved him off half-heartedly.

Lucius kept his cheerful smile to the very end and disappeared with brisk steps.

He really does look happy. That's terrifying.

So that's what real madness looks like, not the fake kind.

Tap, tap.

Then familiar footsteps sounded from behind me.

"Cassian!"

A pink fluffball, no, Lily, trotted up to my side.

Her gaze naturally drifted toward Viscountess Müller standing far away.

"Ah, looks like the professor came to see Cassian."

"What, you think she just came to see me? She came to see you too."

"R-really?"

Lily widened her eyes and scratched her cheek.

She lacks confidence way too much.

I pointed politely, with my palm instead of my finger, toward the direction where Viscountess Müller stood and said,

"Of course. Professor Müller's student is you, not me, Lily. Go on and greet her first."

"Ah. Yep!"

Lily dashed off the moment I finished speaking.

'There we go, good girl.'

Before I knew it, a compliment that sounded like I was training a dog slipped out in my head.

"P-Professor. Hello."

Lily stood before Viscountess Müller and bowed at a full ninety degrees.

Viscountess Müller smiled elegantly, as if Lily's behavior were adorable.

So you can actually pull off an elegant smile while wearing leather.

Is that what real moneyed class looks like?

"You've worked hard, Lily. You're not hurt, are you?"

"Yes! Thanks to Cassian taking such good care of me."

"Hehe, I see."

After lightly patting Lily on the crown of her head, she walked toward me at an unhurried pace.

"You look absolutely terrible."

Viscountess Müller inspected the haggard dark circles under my eyes and teased me.

I stretched my mouth into the brightest capitalist smile in the world.

"Yes, well. To exaggerate a little, I thought I was going to die."

"Oh dear. If I'd known you'd be that busy, I should have just said let's meet another time. You must rest well."

"No, not at all."

She was a VIP sponsor who'd poured in hundreds of billions.

Even if the coffin lid was about to close on me, if my patron showed up, I'd have to spring up and go out to greet them.

"If it's to see the professor, I can crawl out of my grave."

"My, really? I'll have to check that for myself someday."

I flinched.

Shit, she sounds dead serious.

Viscountess Müller burst out laughing.

A cheerful curve formed at the corners of her eyes.

"You've still got enough energy left for a cup of tea, right?"

"Of course. I can stay up all night and still be fine."

"Good. Then let's go to my private research lab. I've prepared top-grade black tea."

Viscountess Müller turned naturally and gestured to me.

Then she gently asked Lily, who'd been standing off to the side and only reading the room,

"Would you like to come too, Lily? There's plenty of delicious snacks as well."

"Ah. Yes, Professor. Thank you."

Lily's answer was so bright that I could almost see cherry blossom petals scattering behind her in a hallucination.

I looked closely at the back of Lily's head.

'There really seems to be one.'

I mean, a tail.

I'm certain there's an invisible tail swishing left and right because she's so happy.

Maybe my eyesight's just a little off.

If I got LASIK or something, maybe that vigorously wagging tail would come into crystal clear view?

Of course, there's nothing wrong with my eyesight, and this world doesn't have LASIK or anything either.

With those silly thoughts in mind, I started following behind the walking gold bar and the pink puppy.

* * *

The room was packed tight with all kinds of rare potted plants, filling the space with the thick smell of earth.

But apart from that natural scent, the wealth that hit your eyes was incredible.

Even the sofa for guests was top-grade leather.

The spacious desk also looked like something even a noble house wouldn't be able to use easily.

The woodwork and that pattern looked like a master artisan had embroidered it stitch by stitch.

Even the vase placed in the corner was making a very clear statement: 'I'm expensive.'

But there was a different crowning touch.

The truly overwhelming wealth came from the fact that dust from the soil was casually clinging to all those luxury furnishings.

'So true swagger is just using luxury goods like they're nothing.'

As I looked around, Viscountess Müller took off her leather apron and asked,

"What are you looking at so intently?"

"Oh. Nothing in particular. I just thought you really exude wealth."

"You're awfully blunt."

"Wasn't that why you liked me in the first place?"

"That's right. Being honest in front of money is the best."

Viscountess Müller laughed heartily.

Fair enough.

Nine hundred ninety-nine out of a thousand people who act indifferent to money are definitely rotten inside.

Being a frugal, morally upright official is basically as hard as becoming a sage.

Structurally speaking, it's a realm fewer than one in a thousand can actually reach.

The rest are either scammers or future scammers.

Trickle, trickle.

Viscountess Müller poured red-tinged black tea into a teacup and handed it over.

A fragrant aroma tickled the tip of my nose.

"Drink up. It'll help restore your stamina."

"Thank you."

I lifted the cup and took a light sip.

And then.

"……!"

My eyes flew wide open.

I could feel the knots in my whole body slowly melting away, and the fatigue that had seeped into my bones washing off as if it had never been there.

What?

Why is this actually relieving my fatigue?

Beside me, Lily was also clutching her teacup with both hands, wearing an ecstatic expression as if her whole body were melting.

"Hweeee……."

A delightfully stupid sound leaked out of Lily's mouth.

Viscountess Müller watched that and laughed, propping her chin on her hand.

"It's an expensive item. A top-grade product compounded personally by alchemists."

What's with the "compounded" part?

Like flavored coffee or flavored tea, are they saying they added some sort of drug to it?

The taste of capitalism really does play by a completely different set of rules.

"Isn't it expensive?"

"It is. It's about 400,000 hwan a cup."

Gasp.

400,000 hwan.

Even rough math makes your eyeballs try to pop out.

Fuck.

Isn't this the kind of top-shelf wine or liquor reserved for pretentious braggarts you've never even heard of, the sort that doesn't even get stocked in duty-free shops?

Four hundred thousand hwan a cup?

"Hic!"

Beside me, Lily's shoulders jerked up hard.

She couldn't even set the teacup down, and without having drunk it, her pupils were already shaking.

Right? You want to spit it out, don't you?

Me too.

Since I was born a bronze spoon from the Korean Peninsula, drinking tea that costs 400,000 hwan a cup was the kind of luxury my stomach rejected on instinct.

But Viscountess Müller simply tilted her teacup with relaxed ease.

"Feel free to drink comfortably. I'm willing to lavish this much on you."

"……."

"And the same goes for Lily. I can do this much for my disciple without a second thought."

"Th-thank you……."

Lily barely managed to answer in a tearful voice.

Damn, that's cool.

If that's not just bluster but the real thing, then maybe my stomach's rejection will settle down once it gets used to it.

At this point, she's not a mama, she's the master.

As expected of the woman who tried to inject a toe fetish into me.

"Then I'll gratefully accept it."

"M-me too."

Viscountess Müller naturally shifted the topic.

"So. How was the Legion Tour? Judging by your looks, it doesn't seem like it was a smooth schedule."

Oh, boy.

That was less changing the subject and more like going from wolves to tigers.

"……."

In an instant, Lily broke out in a cold sweat and started looking back and forth between us, all flustered.

Viscountess Müller picked up on that subtle atmosphere and looked at me with interest.

"I guess you'll have to be the one to explain it?"

I set down my teacup and answered very calmly.

I didn't even hesitate over how much I should say.

This person is Lily's patron, after all. She needs to know everything about the potion issue too.

"Lily gave me a saint-grade potion."

"……."

A heavy silence settled over the research lab.

The hand holding Viscountess Müller's teacup froze in midair.

"……Pardon?"

"A saint-grade potion."

"Am I hearing that correctly?"

"Yes. A saint-grade potion."

Viscountess Müller set the teacup down on the table with a sharp clack.

Her gaze moved back and forth between me and Lily.

I could almost hear the sound of enormous calculations and mental scenario-sorting running through her head.

Viscountess Müller's gaze fixed on Lily, who was trembling all over.

"Lily. Is that true?"

"H-huh…… y-yes……"

Lily darted her eyes around, searching for an excuse.

"C-Cassian…… he looked really, really bad."

"How bad?"

This is where I should explain.

"According to Professor Iris, I would've needed to recuperate in a half-broken state for several months."

Viscountess Müller's expression grew very grave.

Lily shrank back as though she were bracing for a verbal barrage.

But the words that came out of Viscountess Müller's mouth were unexpected.

"Well done."

Lily blinked back at her with a blank expression for a moment.

"……Huh?"

"If it was used to save one of my people, then the potion did its job. Good work."

Viscountess Müller said that while looking at me.

"However, if we're going to solve the problem, I need to hear the full details of what happened before and after. It would probably be better if Cassian explained rather than Lily. Would it be all right if you came home a little late today?"

*

A little while later.

After hearing the full details of what had happened, Viscountess Müller's expression turned grave.

Of course it did.

It meant that he'd swallowed a national-treasure-class item the cardinal had practically begged him not to use.

But in that heavy silence, Viscountess Müller once again showed overwhelming mama energy.

"Relax your face. Let me be the only one to look serious here. I'll be the one handling this problem, after all."

Behind that leather apron, it felt like a gigantic golden halo was shining.

"I won't say this is a problem that's easy to solve, since saint-grade potions are the kind of thing you can't easily obtain even by throwing money around."

Viscountess Müller lifted her teacup gracefully and flashed me a smile.

"The value I place on you is at least higher than the trouble of solving this or the monetary value of a saint-grade potion, so don't worry."

Fuck.

At this point, isn't that flirting?

I'm ridiculously excited.

I Guess I Haven't Built Immunity to the Flirting of a Rich, Cool Married Noona.