Even if there weren’t magic on the seal, there’s no way it would be possible to forge a contract, sell this house, and run off with the money. If I were a real estate agent and some kid who looks like my body tried to sell the prince’s estate on his behalf, I wouldn’t even laugh—I’d report it straight to the city watch.
No more stupid thoughts. I should just sleep. Or do mana breathing all night.
I lifted my wrist and checked the time. There were only six hours left before I had to start the morning routine again, but the moment I looked at the watch, I couldn’t hold back a smile.
It wasn’t something like the prince’s—128 diamonds screaming, I’m expensive!
At first glance, the face looks plain. The only time markers are a crystal piece at the 6 and an amethyst piece at the 12. But if you tilt the watch, the dial changes with the angle of reflection, shifting from deep blue-black to a pale sky blue, revealing the splendor it had been hiding. The hour, minute, and second hands moving over that lake-like dial are made from mother-of-pearl taken from freshwater shells—simple, yet elegant.
I boldly excluded a perpetual calendar. I didn’t want to cram in functions and ruin the design. In that sense, I poured my heart into making the day-and-night indicator intuitive without being childish. I also integrated the mechanism that lights up the dial so you can check the time in the dark into the day-and-night marking. I paid special attention to the brightness control—so that when it becomes night, you can feel a soft, moonlight-like gentleness, while still being able to read the time clearly.
The finishing touch is the sapphire glass covering the dial. A crystal made by processing sapphire powder with a Mohs hardness of 9. On twenty-first-century Earth, it’s an option you’d see even on a watch around 500,000 won, but here, even with magic as a cheat code, it was unfamiliar enough that it took trial and error.
But there was more than enough reason to put in the effort. Covering this beautiful dial with this era’s weak, flimsy glass was something I could never allow. Magic could hide even crude glass quality, but I couldn’t tolerate that kind of trickery on this watch.
Yeah. The sapphire crystal was purely for my personal satisfaction. But it would satisfy not only me, but every customer who bought this watch.
Its hardness—only one step below diamond—doesn’t tolerate everyday scratches. It’s weak against impact, which is a downside, but even so, it lets you reduce the mana needed for protective magic compared to glass, which is weak against both scratching and impact. Which means the jewel inside the watch—the one acting as the battery—will have a longer lifespan. The chance of failure naturally drops, too.
More than anything.
I reflected light off the sapphire crystal. As expected, the reflected glow shone dazzlingly. It doesn’t even allow comparison with this era’s crude glass. This light is a beauty only a gemstone can show.
It looks modest at a glance, but the smooth grace of the design itself, and its secret splendor, will definitely draw praise.
This watch is serial number 1. A dial shaped after crystal and a lake. The top-tier line among the products sold only in Wesel.
Just to prevent misunderstandings, I opposed the prince giving this watch to me. Because it was obvious it would produce the exact opposite effect of what I was aiming for when I had him wear the 128-diamond watch. What noble would want to buy the same watch as a mere attendant? Especially when the price was downright vicious.
“You don’t like it? It’s one of only two products you designed entirely by yourself. Is this one better?”
The prince convinced me by showing off his glittering left arm. If I’d been trying to roll the entire design fee into the watch itself, I would’ve held out and refused to take it to the end, but the design fee had been calculated separately. The watch was, literally, a bonus.
Of course, unlike the prince, I’m the type who pays attention to other people’s eyes, so I won’t wear this watch when I go outside. Honestly, if the prince hadn’t handed it to me before today’s magic lesson, I probably wouldn’t have worn it at all.
Maybe the reason I barely managed not to faint today was because I was trying to protect this watch. It’s sapphire crystal that shouldn’t scratch easily, but if I got unlucky and clipped a corner on the marble floor, it might have cracked.
It wasn’t something to wear while working, either. It’s not like I do the kind of labor that uses my body a lot, but I didn’t want to do something that would make me stand out uniquely among the servants in this estate. I already stood out just by working close to the prince—but wrapping an entire house around my wrist was on another level.
With my mind a bit unsettled, I looked down at the watch again. My feelings were complicated, but I couldn’t help smiling anyway. Even to my own eyes, it was a satisfying design. Given the era, I’d aimed for classic—and there was a reason classic was classic.
And a product sold only in a limited location.
This would definitely work.
I unclasped the watch and carefully put it in my pocket.
It’s mine, but I can’t let people see that it’s mine. That’s how it will succeed on a bigger scale.
※
Yesterday had definitely not been a bad day. A little tiring, sure. But after mana breathing, I slept deeply—even if only briefly—and when I woke up, even that fatigue had been washed away clean.
So I could start the morning fairly refreshed. The coffee I made to announce morning to the prince bloomed with proper aroma, and the prince—who now kept his three-cups-a-day limit pretty well—didn’t pour it down his throat all at once like it would burn his esophagus, but savored it slowly. He looked painfully reluctant with every sip, but thanks to that I didn’t need to prepare a second cup of coffee. There was nothing urgent that needed reporting in the morning, either.
For the first time in a while, it was a remarkably relaxed start to the day.
Even the newspaper didn’t have any articles worth prickling my nerves over. If anything, I was satisfied to see an extremely detailed description of the watch that had been on my wrist last night hanging in huge letters under the headline, “Why You Need to Leave for Wesel Right Now.” They even praised it to the skies, giving it the nickname “the elegant lake.”
And then.
“Since you finished the lesson yesterday without fainting, I think it’s about time I tell you about magic circles.”
The prince permitted me a new lesson. From the moment I first encountered magic, what I’d wanted to learn most was magic circles that used gemstones.
“How about today?”
I couldn’t help it even if I sounded impatient. That had been my goal in learning magic from the start.
“Will you be okay?”
“I’m completely okay.”
The prince fell into thought for a moment, like he was gauging the rut timing. When I didn’t take my eyes off him, he finally nodded.
Holding back a hum that almost escaped, I cleaned up the coffee cup the prince had used.
In a word, I was in a very good mood.
The prince did twitch an eyebrow when he saw that, instead of the limited, top-tier watch he’d given me, I had a cheap entry-level model on my wrist—but other than that, the day was so smooth it was almost too smooth.
Until before lunch.
The servants worked in two shifts with no gaps, and lunchtime was the only time all the servants working in this estate gathered in one place.
“You buy a watch?”
The person who spoke to me was Paul, the coachman sitting across the table. He had taken a seat at the far left end, which put him in the complete opposite position from me at the far right. It was a table for twenty, so it was pretty wide—yet he’d spotted the watch on my left wrist. That eyesight was insane. His voice was loud, too.
Thanks to that, the servants who’d been chattering over lunch turned their attention to me. Even servants sitting at other tables.
“Yeah.”
“I heard even the cheapest wristwatch is still pretty expensive. Is it something we can afford too?”
“It’s a bit pricey, but I’m an orphan, so I don’t really have anywhere my money needs to go. If I’m ready to tighten my belt for a few months, it’s a price I can manage. And it feels like the price might jump later, too.”
I spoke while being conscious of everyone’s eyes.
The part about having to tighten my belt for months was, unavoidably, a small, well-intentioned lie. There was no reason to create awkwardness among fellow servants.
“Come to think of it, the butler at Count Mons’s place had a watch too when he visited the other day. He kept nagging me to get one. Should I really buy one too?”
It had been Paul, too, who drove the carriage when I first met the prince. If I had to sort the prince using the MBTI trend that was popular in Korea, he was definitely an I-type. He didn’t go out often, but there were many visitors. Paul seemed like an E-type, but he couldn’t exactly take the carriage out alone when the prince didn’t leave. So he spent more time waiting at the estate and caring for the horses than going out, but strangely enough, he had connections with the visitors.
From the type who deliberately volunteered as a messenger just to meet him, to those who were merely on greeting terms—the closeness varied, but it was hard to find a visitor who didn’t exchange even one word with him. Even nobles would tell him to take good care of the carriage.
Considering he’d noticed the unfamiliar thing on my wrist from all the way down the table, I could understand how he managed to build ties with so many people. I also had enough familiarity with him that I made the effort to speak loudly so my voice could reach him.
And, while I was at it, I meant to do some watch promotion.
“If you’re going to, I think it would be best to buy one of the models sold only there, next time the duke goes to Wesel.”
“So that’s how it is. Well, he goes once a year. I should start saving from now on.”
At Paul’s words, the other servants nodded in unison. Even the ones who would be left behind at this estate and couldn’t accompany the prince to Wesel would obviously have things to ask of the people who went.
I couldn’t mention the timing directly to Paul, but the Wesel limited line wasn’t only this season’s F/W products—an S/S line was being planned too. The prince’s trip to Wesel was scheduled to match the timing when the S/S products would go on sale.
The thought of applying an employee discount crossed my mind. If we offered a 30% discount, these people would definitely buy not one, but two.
And one of them would be resold. Maybe both.
In the end, it would become known that Wesel watches had not only collectible value, but investment value as well. The resale price of a hard-to-get Wesel limited edition wouldn’t drop. Like how people said that, for a certain brand’s quilted bag, the moment you buy it is the cheapest it will ever be.
If word of mouth spread and it became normal that you had to put in effort to obtain a Wesel limited edition, then sales of the non-limited products would rise as well.
I decided I had to propose this to the prince. It would raise the servants’ goodwill and raise watch sales, too.
On the last trip to Wesel, the servants’ expressions had split starkly. The faces of the people going to Wesel with the prince looked like they were heading to their deaths, while the people staying behind at this estate were beaming.
Sure, traveling on assignment with your employer can’t exactly be fun—but being unable to hide it even in front of the employer was a bit severe.
Now they’d start thinking that going to Wesel wasn’t an ordeal.
“Thanks for telling me.”
“It’s nothing.”
There was a reason Paul was popular. If anything, I’d gained more through the conversation with him, but Paul didn’t forget to say thank you.
I was about to continue eating with a warmed heart.
If someone hadn’t slammed into my right shoulder like a tackle.
“Oh—sorry. I didn’t watch where I was going.”
Even an artificial intelligence would apologize with more sincerity than that. It wasn’t a flat tone like reading a book—it was nakedly obvious they wanted to start a fight.