K-Eldest Daughter Possessed a Childcare Novel

It didn’t take long for the time to come.

A few days later, the long-awaited family dinner took place.

As we were enjoying our meal, Father quietly began to speak.

“A strange cave has been discovered in the northern mountains.”

“A strange cave?”

Meldor, who was cutting his steak, looked up at our father with wide eyes.

Sitting at the head of the table, Father nodded as he took a sip of water.

“An old man who was picking herbs in the mountains found it and thought it was unusual, so he reported it.”

‘It has come!’

I steadied my trembling voice and asked.

“Is there a problem?”

“Hmm…”

After a brief hesitation, Father looked at us and continued.

“Some scholars warned that the cave could be very dangerous. If they try to explore it without caution, the ground itself might collapse.”

“Then we should restrict access to the area!”

At Meldor’s suggestion, Father raised an eyebrow.

“However, the mages… have reported that there is a considerable amount of natural magic accumulated inside the cave.”

Magic created by humans was called , while power that wasn’t artificial was known as . This natural magic was said to move like a stream with a steady flow.

But about 50 years ago, a neighboring kingdom discovered a cave where natural magic was pooled like a lake.

The kingdom quickly formed an exploration team to investigate the magic, and they found an enormous vein.

‘The entire cave was a magical amethyst mine.’

Jewels like diamonds that could have magic embedded in them!

The chances of such magical jewels being found in one mine were very slim. Usually, only a tiny portion of the jewels exposed to the flowing natural magic transformed into magical jewels.

However, the cave was remarkably situated right in the middle of the flow of natural magic. As a result, many jewels were exposed to the magic over a long period, and the mages concluded that the jewels were the reason the natural magic had accumulated.

To sum it up.

‘The neighboring kingdom hit the jackpot by discovering a magic jewel mine!’

The kingdom quickly grew into a powerful nation on the continent thanks to this amethyst mine.

And right now, such a place had been discovered in our territory.

Meldor, too, seemed to understand its significance at once, his eyes shining.

However, Father, who brought up the topic, remained calm.

“We can’t be sure if it’s a jewel mine or not. Sending an exploration team without proper caution might lead to a major accident.”

Indeed, even after that, several caves with pooled natural magic were discovered across the continent.

The local authorities greedily explored the caves, but all of them turned out to be fake. Worse, they triggered man-made disasters like landslides due to reckless exploration.

But would the protagonist’s family in the novel have stumbled upon such a hollow cave?

I held back a grin as I thought to myself.

‘Father! That cave is a mega jackpot magic ruby mine!’

Our family was already known for owning a high-quality iron ore mine. We had amassed considerable wealth by selling the iron ore extracted from it.

But the value of magic rubies was incomparable to mere iron ore.

‘There are no discovered magic rubies yet.’

Diamonds were rare but did exist. However, magic rubies had not been found yet.

Rubies were already one of the most popular gemstones on the continent, and if our family were to present magic rubies?

We could instantly capture the attention of the entire world.

‘Astronomical wealth is just a side benefit.’

Of course, this was a conviction I could have because I had read the original work.

‘To others, it would be a risky gamble with a lot of uncertainty.’

In the original work, the family continued to hold meetings over this cave.

The eldest son, who was the successor, insisted on exploring the cave, and his father gave him full authority.

The eldest son, who went to the north, cautiously explored the cave.

‘And eventually, he discovered that it was a magic ruby mine.’

The eldest son spent a long time in the north, overseeing the ruby mine he had discovered.

As a result, he became the last to meet the protagonist Nesia, who had come to find Father.

‘But the situation is different now.’

No matter how much I insisted on exploring, my father wouldn’t send me to the north. He was not likely to send Meldor, who was still young, either…

Aside from us, there was our grandfather, but he was quite old.

‘Given the importance of a jewel mine, he wouldn’t send someone who isn’t a direct family member.’

In the end, that left only my father.

After taking a sip of water, I spoke up.

“I think we should explore the cave.”

“Why?”

“Because the benefits of a jewel mine are too great to ignore due to the risk. If we investigate thoroughly and proceed with caution, it won’t be dangerous.”

“I think differently!”

Meldor immediately refuted my statement.

“We could trigger a man-made disaster like in previous cases while exploring! There’s no need to take such a risk when our family isn’t in any rush!”

Meldor glared at me as he said that.

In the original work, he had insisted on exploration, following his brother’s lead, but now he was strongly opposing my opinion.

‘… interesting?’

I found it so ridiculous that I wanted to hit him, but I held back, as usual.

As a chill settled between us, Father sighed.

“I’ll decide on this matter myself. Let’s forget about it for now.”

From Father’s tone, I could sense his thoughts.

‘He plans to follow Meldor’s opinion.’

I had anticipated that Meldor would argue against me and that Father would accept his opinion.

It made sense that Father wouldn’t easily leave the capital.

‘But I won’t let it end like this.’

I pretended to comply with Father’s decision, taking a bite of my steak.

All the while, I was quickly formulating my next plan.

***

At dawn, when everyone was deeply asleep.

I, who hadn’t been sleeping, threw on a thick shawl and left my room.

The well-oiled door opened without a sound, and the dark hallway greeted me.

I paused for a moment, gazing at the hallway illuminated by the bluish light of the dawn moon, then walked down the corridor, relying on the light of a portable magic lamp.

My destination was the fourth floor, where my mother used to spend her time.

As I ascended the stairs, I recalled a passage from the original work.

-Dohemia always felt that her belongings were taken away by her brother. So, she hid her most precious things under her bed, out of habit.

This was a whisper from the spirit of the snow that had raised Nesia.

Remembering the spirit’s words, Nesia later found Mother’s memento under her bed. I was now moving to find it first.

After silently reaching the fourth floor, I passed Mother’s bedroom and headed to the end of the hallway. There, a door stood sturdier and more unadorned than the others.

‘Mother’s laboratory…’

The bed mentioned by the spirit of the snow was not the large, plush bed in Mother’s bedroom. Mother often spent more nights in her laboratory than in her own bedroom.

When I turned the doorknob of the laboratory, the door opened without a sound.

Squeak.

‘There used to be a spell on it so that only Mother could open it…’

Now it was just an empty room without its owner.

The study beyond the door looked desolate. Mother had bequeathed all her research notes and results to the magic tower in her will.

I ran my fingers over the empty table. A thick layer of dust had accumulated over time.

‘It’s natural since I excluded this room from the cleaning schedule.’

I didn’t want the maids to discover the memento before I did while cleaning the empty study.

Meldor and Father were more likely to reminisce in the greenhouse or bedroom, making it easy to neglect the laboratory.

After shaking the dust off my hands, I approached the small, old bed. Then I bent down and shone the magic lamp under the bed. I could see something deep inside.

‘As expected, it’s here.’

I reached out and grabbed it. My shawl got dirty with dust, but I didn’t mind.

What I pulled out was a thick notebook with a deep blue hardcover. It was old, but the surface was clean, as if protected by magic.

‘Is this Mother’s diary?’

Nesia found Mother’s memento. It was a diary that Mother had kept after she moved to the Alton family.

Nesia later used this diary to win over her father and brothers. Of course, I had no intention of using it that way.

After a moment of staring at the diary, I swiftly left the study and returned to my room.

I threw the dusty shawl onto the floor and collapsed into a chair. I placed the diary I had brought on the desk.

‘Now I have to check it…’

After tapping the desk with my finger for a moment, I made up my mind and opened the diary.

‘I don’t have time to leisurely read through my mother’s life from the first page.’

As I flipped through the pages, I searched for the content I needed.

Fortunately, I found it quickly.

My birthday is approaching soon.

Whenever my birthday comes, I always think of that.

The past I left in the Spirit Forest before I followed Theodore to the capital.

Shannon called it my most precious treasure, but I’m not sure.

She prophesied that this treasure would someday become Theodore’s treasure too…

How could that possibly become his treasure?

I don’t really want to tell Theodore about something I don’t understand myself.

If Shannon is right, he will find out eventually.

Until then, I plan to keep it a secret.

Shannon was the spirit of snow who had been with my mother. The treasure this spirit spoke of was .

The snow spirit would bring Nesia to the mansion in the capital on my mother’s birthday. And then she would leave Nesia in my father’s care.

This was the beginning of the original story.

‘If I show this diary, Father will leave for the North immediately.’

He was the kind of man who would be extremely eager if it involved something about Mother, so there was no way he’d stay still after seeing this suspicious diary.

Father was going to the North.

Then, naturally, the snow spirit who had business with him would head to the mansion in the North instead of the capital.

And that was where Father would meet Nesia for the first time.