[An invention with great potential.jpg]
Elisa was deeply moved. The photo album feature had finally proven useful for once!
Pretending to be curious, she said to Maria, “Simon seems to have found something interesting. Let’s go take a look too.”
Once Maria agreed, she quickly made her way over to Susanna’s booth.
Let me see what kind of invention is going to bring me such handsome returns.
Her gaze quickly settled on the wooden table in front of Susanna. There was paper and a pencil on it. The paper was ordinary, while the pencil was a propelling pencil.
A propelling pencil was a decorative type of pencil used by the wealthy. Elisa owned one herself, though she had never actually used it.
Propelling pencils usually had casings made of gold or silver, with a stick of graphite held inside. To use one, you twisted the end, causing the graphite core to extend.
These pencils had been fashionable for a while, but almost no one used them seriously. They were mostly kept as ornaments. For one thing, they were troublesome to use.
Setting aside their weight, whenever you twisted the end, the graphite core would either extend too far or not far enough, and it could easily slip back inside. For another, the graphite core was too thick, so it could only produce large, heavy writing and made it difficult to maintain consistent strokes. The resulting handwriting looked nowhere near as elegant as writing done with a fountain pen.
After watching for a while, Elisa understood Susanna’s modification. She had replaced the twisting mechanism that advanced the graphite core with a push-button mechanism. The graphite core was also somewhat thinner, though it was still a little thick.
Compared with the innovations behind the other inventions, Susanna’s minor improvements to the propelling pencil were hardly eye-catching, so very few people had gathered around her booth.
Like the other visitors, Elisa didn’t think the invention had much of a selling point. Admittedly, pressing a button to advance the lead was more convenient than twisting it, and the lead seemed less likely to slip back inside, making the pencil easier to use.
But propelling pencils were expensive ornaments. What was the point of making them more practical? Adding a few more lavish patterns to the casing was obviously the right way to go!
If not for her male servant, Elisa definitely wouldn’t have given the pencil a second glance.
Even with his strong recommendation, she was still somewhat hesitant.
Wondering whether her male servant had any further analysis, Elisa opened the log.
[Simon wondered whether he should recommend Susanna’s invention to Miss Elisa, or borrow a sum of money from Miss Eleanor and invest in it himself.]
Why borrow from Eleanor? Oh, right. That night, my male servant and Eleanor formed an alliance and already agreed to share information.
[There was no rush about that. Simon stared behind Susanna, wondering whether he should purify the spirit haunting her.]
…What spirit?! How did we suddenly jump from mechanics to mysticism?!
And why is it another spirit? During the picnic, didn’t Eleanor already deal with the one haunting Susanna?!
Elisa activated [Spirit Vision], and sure enough, she saw the spirit of a cat behind Susanna.
Strictly speaking, this isn’t an evil spirit. It’s only a wandering spirit, which is why my spirituality didn’t warn me.
Even such a weak spirit can affect someone’s mental state, making them tire more easily and more prone to illness.
Miss Susanna really is unlucky. It hasn’t been that long, and she’s already gotten another spirit attached to her!
Does she have some kind of spirit-attracting constitution?
A wandering spirit was easy enough to deal with. Her male servant only needed to activate the [Scarab Badge]. He had wrapped the emblem in several layers, and since it was daytime, there was no need to worry about its glow attracting attention.
[After weighing his options, Simon decided not to act.]
He gave up? You helped her with the evil spirit before, but now you’re giving up over a mere wandering spirit?
Is something going on?
Being haunted by spirits twice really was strange. Perhaps she had been targeted by a Transcendent or an enthusiast of mysticism.
Still, even an evil spirit was only a very weak kind of supernatural creature. There shouldn’t be any need to be this cautious.
Should I step in? I could help Susanna get rid of the cat spirit, then use that favor to secure her invention at a friendly price. Since my male servant thinks so highly of it, he must have his reasons.
Hehe. If the investment loses money, I’ll squeeze every last penny out of my male servant and double the price of questions to the magic mirror! Until he pays off the debt!
After considering it for a moment, Elisa reluctantly abandoned the idea of exorcising the spirit.
To maintain my persona as an ordinary merchant’s daughter, I can’t get involved with mysticism. Investing is fine, but exorcising spirits is out of the question.
I’ll let my male servant deal with that headache.
[Miss Susanna noticed Simon and invited him onto the stage for a closer look. Speaking from a professional standpoint, Simon lavished praise on her invention, much to her delight. She once again invited Simon to enroll at the Royal Public University.]
That’s going too far! She’s trying to poach him from me again!
Elisa should have gone up there to assert her claim over her male servant, but the conversation between Susanna and her male servant was far too technical, so Miss Elisa didn’t dare approach them.
What if they suddenly turn to me halfway through their conversation? I don’t understand any of this!
She immediately turned around and left to browse the other exhibition booths.
Putting investment considerations aside, these inventions were all quite interesting. Their entertainment value was only slightly below her male servant’s journal.
After taking a quick look around the remaining half of the exhibition, Elisa saw her male servant return.
She opened the journal to read about the technical discussion between her male servant and Susanna.
[Simon and Susanna had a lively conversation. By subtly probing her for information, he confirmed that Susanna had not obtained a finger bone from William. Another faction searching for the finger bones was currently lying in wait around Susanna.]
“……”
What’s going on? Weren’t you two discussing technology? How did William, the finger bones, and some other faction suddenly get involved…?
I only looked around the exhibition for a little while. What did I miss this time?!
Elisa slowly sorted through what she knew. William was little Beth’s older brother, Ruth’s younger brother, and had died at the hands of the spirit baboon.
The [Finger Bone] was what the Fourth Princess was searching for. Butler Sheldon had one, and the spirit baboon had another. Both were now in my possession.
So what my male servant means is that William also had a [Finger Bone]?
Right. Butler Sheldon, who possessed a [Finger Bone], was killed by the spirit baboon, which also possessed a [Finger Bone]. In that case, if the spirit baboon killed William, that means… William must have possessed or come into contact with a [Finger Bone] as well?
The side effect of the [Finger Bone] is a kind of compulsion to gather them together. That side effect once made a complete fool out of me, but it can also be considered an ability. Is the spirit baboon using that gathering ability to hunt down the other [Finger Bone] holders?
Then why hasn’t it come to kill me or my male servant?
It’s probably because it can’t sense them. I threw the [Finger Bones] into the [Mirror of Mist], and I also have a divine artifact protecting me.
Back when my male servant had a [Finger Bone], even I couldn’t figure out where he’d hidden it, so naturally the spirit baboon couldn’t either.
It all makes sense now!
Susanna was William’s sponsor. After William died, the people most likely to have his [Finger Bone] were either his family or Susanna.
No wonder the gang was keeping little Beth’s family under surveillance.
Little Beth’s home has probably already been thoroughly searched, so the faction looking for the [Finger Bone] must now be focusing mainly on Susanna.
Could that faction have been behind the evil spirit Susanna encountered last time?
The [Finger Bone] grants the ability to turn into a spirit. If Susanna turned into a spirit, she could eliminate the evil spirit, so all they had to do was check whether the evil spirit was still there to determine whether Susanna possessed a [Finger Bone].
But what that faction hadn’t expected was for the evil spirit to be discovered by my male servant, who then lured Eleanor into getting rid of it.
That forced them to test Susanna again, which explains where the cat spirit came from.
That’s also why my male servant decided not to exorcise it. Doing so would alert them.
What a complicated mess. Back in the Archipelago, even when we made up stories, we never gave them this many layers!
So what do we do next? I actually think my investment project is more important. Could you put this whole search for the [Finger Bone] on hold for now?
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