To be safe, Elodie did not reveal her real name, but instead gave herself an alias: Lily Arsel.
Just as she felt that everything was heading in a good direction, a man in a black suit was staring at her from within the crowd. Only then did she react, but the man had already grabbed hold of her.
She realized that this guy was outrageously handsome.
In a low voice, the man said, "I finally found you, Ichio."
That was the name she had used before she transmigrated, and she was stunned on the spot.
At that moment, Carl also caught up. The man leaned close to her ear and whispered, "Before long, I'll come to you again." By the time she turned her head, the man had already vanished.
Elodie suspected that he might know something. She had a faint feeling that although it had been only a fleeting encounter, it somehow felt as if they had known each other for a long time.
Carl anxiously found his sister, but Elodie acted extremely resistant. She coldly retorted, "Whatever I do, hasn't it always had nothing to do with you as my brother?"
Carl was left standing there, stunned.
When he was little, Carl had heard from a maid that after his illegitimate sister came to the estate, his father and mother grew distant. So the young Carl came to hate his older sister, for no other reason than that she was an illegitimate child. He loathed her.
Elodie thought he was just afraid of their father. And so she said, "I don't want to talk to you. Stop making a scene."
The past rises up like a shadow. There's nothing to be done about it.
In any case, her next step was to investigate who that man connected to her previous life really was. She remembered that he had black hair and red eyes, and looked like some sort of noble.
Elsewhere, her eldest brother, Ashen, had always had people watching his little sister's every move. He also knew about her going to the magic tower, but he had no idea at all what she had gone there to do. As for that man, Ashen also said, "I've never seen him before."
Ashen keenly sensed that his little sister was like a different person. Not only had she exposed the fact that their father's aide was secretly involved with the second prince, she also frequently had afternoon tea with their mother, with whom she had barely exchanged a word before. This made Ashen wary. Just what kind of scheme is she playing at?
Meanwhile, Elodie received an invitation from the first prince and could only think, Are you all taking turns to bother me?
The first prince's sudden visit caught her somewhat off guard. Even though he had already been rejected several times, he had still shown up unannounced.
The first prince explained, "I only came because I received an invitation from your family."
Elodie looked as though she had no idea about this. So the first prince said, "If your body can handle it, then come to the evening banquet with me."
This sudden arrangement left her a bit dazed for a moment.
At dinner that very day, her father announced that the Angelos family was officially taking over the military supplies business. Ashen speculated that as they had frequent dealings with the southern magic tower, they must already have produced magical devices. It was said that the head of the family had also bought up all the magic stone mines that could be used as supplementary material for magical armor.
Angelos was one of the four great families, the Ducal House of Angelos, which had been granted the authority of regeneration. And the head of the house, Rod, was a man obsessed with boosting the family's prestige and wealth. He had only one goal, to suppress all other families and make Angelos number one, and his greatest rival was precisely the House of Pedia.
Her father believed they would not cause any major trouble in the short term, but in the long run there would be issues with raw material supplies. The Duchess suggested they could buy some magic stone mines themselves. The first prince, however, thought Angelos had already swallowed up most of the mines, so moving now would not mean much.
What none of them knew was that the Angelos family would ultimately fall into decline, and in the end this would instead complete the victory legend of the ever-victorious Pedia. Though things would be tough for a while, Ashen would eventually resolve it all.
What Elodie did not expect was that her father actually asked her to give her opinion as well.
Ashen thought this question was too difficult for his little sister, but he was sharply scolded by their father. "Don't interrupt." Ashen immediately shut his mouth and did not dare speak again.
Elodie knew she could not dodge this, so she could only take out Ashen's countermeasure and use it to deal with her father. She felt guilty, but survival was more important.
So she proposed, "Angelos has bought up and monopolized all the mines within the empire. But even for Angelos, this approach must put a serious strain on their finances, so we should monopolize as well."
Carl objected on the spot. "Didn't you hear? Weren't we just told that most of the mines have already been bought by Angelos?"
But Elodie said, "We don't need magic stone mines. The materials needed for military supplies aren't just magic stones. We only need to buy up all the other materials. Angelos has only just entered the military supplies business, so they definitely don't have many partners yet for those other materials. As time goes on, they'll reach out to Pedia sooner or later. When that happens, we can just sell the materials back to them at a high price."
Her father nodded in satisfaction. The Duchess also praised the proposal.
Elodie felt a little guilty, yet also thrilled. She had never thought she would get to play the intellectual in this life.
The first prince at her side also had not expected her to be so invested in business. But this only confused the prince even more. She's practically a different person. Combined with the suspicious bottles he had seen in her room and her delicate status in the House of Pedia, the prince simply could not figure out what she was really hiding.
After that, Rod learned that he had been played by Pedia, and in the end could only grit his teeth and accept defeat.
Rod asked his butler, "The one who came up with this idea must have been Ashen, right?"
The butler hesitated for a moment before reporting to his lord. "According to the information from the agent planted in House Pedia, it wasn't Ashen. It was the Duke of Pedia's youngest daughter, Elodie, who proposed the idea."
This made Rod resolve that he had to start preparing to get rid of this girl.
Afterward, her father specially called his daughter to the office, saying he wanted to reward her and telling her not to be nervous. Elodie only said it was just good luck. She understood that if she had not answered that time, she would only have disappointed the Duke.
In Elodie's eyes, her father had always been indifferent. So she could not help asking him something. "Back then, why did you ask for my opinion? Don't you not care about me?"
Her father immediately explained, "Because I knew that you, as you are now, could solve it."
Her father said that she really had been different lately. He just hadn't shown it. That did not mean he did not care. "You know I don't give off a friendly impression. I was afraid I'd make you cry when you were little, so I didn't get close to you. But I've always been watching you, Elodie."
Her father told his daughter to come closer.
Elodie knew full well her true identity, that she was not even an illegitimate child, and she thought that once he found out the truth, he would kill her without hesitation.
Her father asked her, "Say what you want."
But Elodie said, "I want Father to praise me."
So her father placed his large hand on her head. "You did very well."
This one sentence made her recall that he had praised her once when she was a child.