This Reincarnation Requires a Subscription Fee

Was he upset because, as the head of the household, he hadn’t been asked for permission to create the garden? Or maybe he was just irritated by the commotion of someone wandering the halls distributing four-leaf clovers.

‘Either way, it’s my fault.’

So, it wasn’t right for Lily to bow her head in apology—it should be me doing that. Just as I was about to step forward and bow to the Duke myself, a large hand suddenly appeared in front of me.

It was Duke Elpinard’s hand.

I blinked, unsure of what to make of this gesture, and stared at his hand. Despite his elegant appearance, his hand was strong and calloused—befitting someone who wielded a sword.

As I stood there, bewildered, the Duke prompted me again.

“Why aren’t you giving it to me?”

“Huh…?”

“The four-leaf clover. Weren’t you giving them out?”

Snapping back to attention, I nodded quickly.

“Y-yes, that’s right!”

I reached into the basket, grabbed a large handful of four-leaf clovers, and carefully placed them in the Duke’s outstretched hand.

He stared at the pile of clovers in his palm for a moment before clenching his fist tightly. The once pristine clovers were crushed instantly.

‘Is this… a warning?’

Was he telling me that if I continued causing a commotion, he’d crush me like these clovers?

‘That must be it.’

Resigned to my fate, I sighed deeply and offered the entire basket to the Duke.

“You can have them all.”

I’ll just give everything up and quietly return to my room!

“You’re giving them all to me?”

The Duke’s previously cold expression softened slightly, as if this was the correct response.

“Yes.”

I quickly nodded and handed over the baskets that Lily, Rose, and Daisy were holding as well.

“Take these too! You can have all of them!”

“Hmm.”

The Duke looked displeased but didn’t refuse the baskets I was offering. Clearly, he had intended to confiscate everything from the start.

[Message from Heaven]

(Notification) Quest Completed!

Congratulations. You have been awarded 100 Heaven Coins. Would you like to claim your reward now?

[Yes/No]

To my relief, giving all the baskets to the Duke counted as a successful quest completion, and this time, over a hundred message windows popped up at once. After all, I had been handing out the clovers for the Heaven Coins, so I got exactly what I wanted.

‘Phew.’

I sighed in relief.

‘Thank goodness I’m quick on my feet!’

I had narrowly avoided getting on the Duke’s bad side.

* * *

“Oh, so these are the famous four-leaf clovers.”

The administrator, who had come to the Duke’s office to deliver a letter, smiled as he eyed the baskets filled with clovers.

“I heard the Saintess was going around the estate handing them out to people.”

It seemed the four-leaf clovers in question had indeed ended up in the Duke’s possession. Although the administrator wasn’t sure why all of them had wound up with the Duke, the fact that the baskets were prominently displayed on his desk suggested that they were meant for visitors to take one as a gesture of goodwill.

A superior who shares luck—who would have thought?

‘Could it be that the usually stern Duke has this considerate side?’ the administrator mused, as he reached out to pick up a clover from the basket. But the moment he did, he felt a piercing gaze as sharp as a blade bore into the back of his hand.

Turning his head with a creak, he saw the Duke glaring at his hand, his chin resting on his fist.

“Why… why are you looking at me like that?” the administrator asked, shrinking back slightly.

“Put that down,” the Duke ordered with a slight nod of his head.

“Excuse me?”

“The four-leaf clover. Did I tell you to take it?”

“Huh? But didn’t you leave them out here for people to take?”

“No.”

“Then why did you put them on your desk…?”

The administrator blinked, puzzled. The desk was already cramped with piles of documents, so why crowd it further with clovers?

The Duke leaned back in his chair with a slightly arrogant posture. “They’re just for display.”

“For… display?”

“So, put it back.”

“Y-yes, sir…”

With a mix of confusion and disappointment, the administrator placed the clover back in the basket. 

‘He’s got so many of them, yet he’s still so possessive…’

‘If he wasn’t planning to give them away, why did he put them somewhere so conspicuous?’ the administrator grumbled inwardly as he complied. The Duke remained as inscrutable as ever.

But there was no time to dwell on it—he had other tasks to attend to.

“A letter has arrived from Kydsha,” the administrator announced.

“Kydsha?”

The Duke’s expression, which had been relatively relaxed as he scanned through his paperwork, suddenly hardened.

“Who is the sender?”

The shift in the Duke’s demeanor made the administrator tense up as he continued his report.

“It’s from Cardinal Kaltas, sir.”

The mention of the sender’s name caused the Duke to grow even more serious as he extended his hand.

The administrator quickly handed over the letter from Kydsha. The Duke opened it with swift but unhurried movements, reading through its contents, which weren’t particularly long, allowing him to quickly grasp the message.

“The central church is requesting the Saintess. They’ve asked for her to be sent to Kydsha.”

“At this time?” the administrator asked, his confusion evident.

“Yes. They believe that as she is nearing five years old, it’s appropriate for her to be raised within the temple.”

The administrator furrowed his brow at the unexpected news.

“Until now, the church hasn’t shown any interest in the Saintess. They haven’t even inquired about her well-being.”

“That’s true.”

“Moreover, it was His Holiness the Pope and Cardinal Bael who entrusted the Saintess to Elpinard…”

And yet, out of nowhere, Cardinal Kaltas was now demanding the Saintess’s return.

“It’s puzzling, to say the least. They’ve already sent someone to retrieve her.”

“What?!” The administrator jumped, startled by the sudden revelation.

“So this isn’t a request…”

It’s an order.

The Duke crumpled the letter in his hand, a smirk playing on his lips.

“I can’t fathom what confidence they have to inform us without seeking our permission. Reshia ‘Elpinard’ may be the Saintess, but she’s also an ‘Elpinard.'”

In this empire, and especially within the walls of the Elpinard estate, the fact that Reshia was the Duke’s daughter held more weight than her being the Saintess.

“They must have crossed the border by now, given that they sent someone as they wrote the letter…”

The Duke’s eyes gleamed coldly.

“We’d better prepare to properly welcome our guests.”

The chilling tone of the Duke’s voice made the administrator hold his breath.

“And…”

The Duke tossed Cardinal Kaltas’ letter into the trash, then asked, “When exactly is the little one’s fifth birthday?”

The unexpected question widened the administrator’s eyes.

“You mean… the Saintess’s birthday?”

* * *

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), Karlson was not expelled from the Ivory Tower. However, he stopped bullying Leonid and dragging other kids into it. 

He must have been severely reprimanded during his “counseling.”

‘Well… the first time is usually just a warning.’

He probably realized that if it happened a second or third time, he could actually face expulsion.

With Karlson, the ringleader, silenced, the other troublemakers naturally fell in line, leading to a period of relative peace.

But the truly surprising thing was…

“Hello.”

Leonid started greeting me first and casually sitting beside me.

If he were an ordinary kid, I would have thought he was simply grateful that I had helped shut Karlson down.

‘But Leonid isn’t just any ordinary kid.’

Unlike me, who had passed the entrance exam by sheer luck and intuition, Leonid had legitimately earned his place in the Ivory Tower at the age of six. He was a true genius. 

He was also a sly fox, perfectly capable of pretending to be an innocent child in front of adults.

‘…What’s he up to?’

I was deeply suspicious of Leonid.

His father, the Spirit Sorcerer Servian, also had a habit of acting in this oddly ambiguous way when he had some hidden agenda.

Sensing my skeptical gaze, Leonid turned his head. When our eyes met, he flashed me a smile.

With his neat appearance, it was a very charming smile, but to someone as guarded as I was, it only seemed more sinister.