The matter Rest had entrusted to Celestine was his request to sort through the royal family's assets that he had inherited.
When the third prince of Aiwood, Rodele, was poisoned with the cursed cup, Rest had inherited his estate according to his last will and testament.
Since it was Rodele's inheritance, it was also the inheritance of the queen dowager who had once ruled the kingdom.
Items designated as national treasures or anything over which the royal family held ownership had been seized, but everything else — money, goods, land deeds, and the like — had become Rest's property.
(Right, I asked Lady Celestine to handle the sorting of that inheritance...)
Up until recently a commoner, Rest had no sense of the value of artwork or books, let alone the money.
So he had asked his father-in-law, Marquis Albert Rosemary, to oversee the sorting, but Albert had told him it would be better to entrust it to House Crocus instead.
(The reasoning was that since these were royal family assets, House Crocus, being related by blood, would have more expertise... I felt bad asking Lady Celestine to take it on, but she accepted readily, and I'm grateful for that...)
He had also told her she could accept some compensation for her trouble.
In fact, he had so much money it was becoming a problem — he practically wanted to shove it at someone.
"I will deliver the detailed inventory to you at a later time. Since you mentioned wanting us to take in any items that would be difficult to dispose of, I have also prepared a full accounting of the sales."
"Sorry to have put you to all that trouble. It must have been a hassle."
"Oh, no... The ones who actually handled the work were my family's butler and his favorite appraiser. I didn't do much of anything myself."
Celestine lowered her tone ever so slightly. "However..."
"There were a few items that caught my interest, so I thought it would be best to speak with you in person and share this with you as well."
"Items that caught your interest...?"
"Yes..."
Celestine cast a brief glance toward Yuri.
Yuri had white bread stuffed in her cheeks and was tilting her head at the pause in conversation.
"Ah... that's fine. I don't mind."
Among this group, Yuri was the outsider. His fiancées Viola and Primula were one thing, but the silence had been about whether it was appropriate to speak freely in front of Yuri.
"Understood... then, if I may."
With Rest's permission, Celestine continued.
"First, there are several magical tomes. Among the inheritance, there were some exceedingly rare grimoires."
"Magical tomes... now that's interesting."
"Yes. For anyone who aspires to magic, there were truly priceless treasures — coveted beyond measure. As for the books classified as forbidden texts, the royal family did confiscate those..."
"There were other valuable books as well...!" Primula's eyes widened with excitement.
Her love of research and reading was one of the ways she differed from her sister.
"Then how about sending those magical tomes to House Rosemary? I am the chief court mage, so it seems a perfect fit."
That way, Primula could read them whenever she pleased.
Rest was interested too, and it seemed like the right arrangement.
"Understood. I will arrange it accordingly."
"As for historical documents and reference materials, I'd like to donate them to an appropriate institution. They'd just be wasted in my hands. The artwork that's hard to dispose of monetarily can be donated as well."
"Certainly. I will make the arrangements... The director of the Royal Art Museum will surely be delighted."
"No matter how valuable something is, it's meaningless in the hands of someone who doesn't understand its worth."
Rest gave a wry smile and shrugged.
He had heard that many of the world's wealthy collected artwork and antiques only to lock them away in storage.
It would be put to far better use than sitting with Rest, who couldn't appreciate it.
"Then, one more thing... among the inheritance, there was a peculiar item. A land deed for a plot in a remote frontier region."
"A land deed? Like a royal family demesne?"
"No, it is something quite different. It appears to be a villa that His Highness Rodele... well, that Her Majesty the Queen Dowager personally owned, though...?"
Celestine's puzzled expression made it clear she had no idea why the queen dowager had possessed that land.
"What kind of land is it?"
"It is a seaside plot on the western side of the kingdom. It is neither a summer retreat nor a tourist destination, and it has no notable products to speak of... According to those I sent to investigate, it seems Her Majesty the Queen Dowager spent her final years there in seclusion, her identity concealed."
"............"
Even the queen dowager, so consumed by power struggles, had perhaps wanted to live out her last days in peace.
It seemed like the kind of thing he could simply let go, and yet something about it nagged at him.
"...Is there anything else known about that land?"
"Nothing beyond the fact that there is a small fishing village along the western coast. Oh, one distinctive feature is that they have the unusual custom of eating raw fish."
"Raw fish... like sashimi?"
This country had no culture of eating raw fish.
There was no soy sauce or miso either, and Rest felt a faint twinge of dissatisfaction about that.
"Now that I mention it... apparently the queen dowager used a false name in that village, and the locals knew her as 'Sanada Shoko'?"
"............!"
Hearing that name, Rest's eyes flew wide open.
The name that had come from Celestine's lips was one Rest recognized — a Japanese-style name.