“Head Maid, I shall entrust the interior duties to your care.”
“Understood. I will see to everything as per your instructions.”
With the indoor assignments entrusted to the head maid, I gathered all the NPCs classified as field workers and headed toward the spot where the vegetable garden was supposed to be.
But…
My hopes were quickly shattered.
[You have entered a new area for the first time. Exploration reward granted: +300 Diamonds.]
[New Area 〈Belmond Ducal Castle — Backyard〉
A backyard once equipped with a greenhouse and a vegetable garden.
Now abandoned and repurposed as a graveyard, overrun with wild, mysterious, and unidentified plants.]
As I read the system message and took in the scene before me, I couldn’t hide my shock.
‘A garden, they said. A garden!’
My lips began to tremble.
The description clearly mentioned a greenhouse and a vegetable garden.
But what was that half-collapsed plastic structure over there? And why were there gravestones scattered all around?
Even just standing there, I could feel an overwhelming sense of foreboding in the air.
Then, as if trying to make excuses for itself, a faint system message slowly faded into view before my eyes.
[Soil overflowing with nutrients thanks to various types of ‘fertilizer’.
…With proper clearing, it could become a decent field.]
“Proper clearing,” my foot!
And now that I looked at it again, the mention of ‘fertilizer’ felt awfully unsettling.
Graves, fertilizer, buried corpses… No way. That couldn’t be it.
I forcefully pushed away the disturbing thoughts and tried to examine the area again with a calmer gaze.
It looked eerily similar to one of those ‘old countryside cemeteries’ you’d see in a horror TV special.
And despite how long the land had clearly been abandoned, the complete absence of weeds made it all the more chilling.
No way—just how intensely were they mowing the weeds around the graves… no, that’s not the point!
I clenched my fists tightly.
A sigh escaped me, but this wasn’t the time to give up.
There’s a saying that it always feels harder to deal with something you’ve been avoiding, right?
Okay, maybe it’s not a real saying, but I just made it one—so it counts.
“First. Let’s put the shovels down and start clearing the area.”
“Understood.”
Thankfully, the NPCs followed my command without question.
Maybe it was the AI, but they carried out orders like machines.
Still, with dozens of strong workers pitching in, it didn’t take long to clear everything, from the abandoned headstones to the greenhouse debris scattered across the grounds.
And so, by late afternoon.
As I looked out over the freshly leveled field, I opened the menu to check the details of the item I had just purchased.
[Clean Soil (20kg) – 500 Diamonds
∙ Soil that can grow fresh crops even in the most barren wastelands.]
Still suspicious about the system’s description of the garden, I selected the designated area and used the item.
[Cannot be used at this time.]
Huh? What?
[Currently in 〈Belmond Ducal Castle Backyard〉 the soil is contaminated by a powerful curse..
The curse can only be lifted through a purification ritual using holy power.]
…Hhmm.
In short, it meant I couldn’t use the item after all.
Letting out a deep sigh, I lowered my head, then turned to the nearest NPC.
“Excuse me.”
“Yes, Miss Windsor?”
“By any chance, is there anyone in the castle capable of using holy power? Well, like a priest, a cleric, or maybe… uh, a saintess?”
“There is no such person here.”
He shot me down so quickly, it was almost embarrassing.
Right. Come to think of it, even in romance-fantasy novels, priests usually stayed at the temple—they didn’t just hang around noble residences.
After a brief moment of thought, I asked again,
“Then… are there no rumors about the Duke being chosen by the gods or anything like that?”
You know, that kind of thing.
Like when the male lead turns out to be specially blessed or chosen by a divine being, and that’s why he suddenly has some kind of incredible power.
Unlike heroines in other games or novels who start out with a special class or profession, I—meaning the heroine of 〈Thump Thump: Fateful Love☆Crush〉—was completely jobless from the very beginning.
So my only hope was the male lead.
But the NPC just looked me in the eye, made a face like I was spouting nonsense, and shook his head firmly.
“…There is no such matter.”
He even gave me a quick glance and promptly walked away.
…So what now?
As I stood there, wondering what to do next, a small notification caught my eye.
[Beginner TIP!: Having trouble progressing? Check out the ‘S-Rank Draw Ticket’!]
“Ah!”
What a clever system!
As it rushed back to me, I remembered what I had forgotten.
[S-Rank Draw Tickets X 3]
Tickets that allow you to draw special abilities or rare items normally unobtainable through regular gameplay.
Try using them when the game becomes challenging.
That’s right.
The legendary S-Rank Draw Ticket.
‘No matter how I look at it, if I can’t purify the land, all of this will be for nothing.’
I could only hope I’d pull something related to holy power.
With that thought, a dazzling image of a golden, glowing ticket appeared before my eyes.
[Notice! Your first draw ticket comes with a Lucky Bonus, granting the ability most needed by the player at this stage of the game.]
Even special abilities, too? Was this the dev team’s way of making sure players didn’t collapse halfway through the game—a mercy drop to keep them from rage-quitting?
[Would you like to use it now?]
Of course. That’s not even a question.
The moment I mentally shouted yes, a triumphant fanfare rang in my ears—and with a brilliant flash, a flashy system message burst onto the screen.
Bloop!
[Congratulations! You’ve drawn the “Blessing of Purification (S)”.]
– Blessing of Purification
∙ A divine ability that cleanses all contamination using holy power.
There is less than 5% chance that purified targets will be imbued with special luck.]
‘S-Rank!?’
And it’s exactly what I needed?
This must be what they call beginner’s luck. Still, I figured the system was designed this way—since getting stuck here would make progressing to the next route nearly impossible, they probably built in a safety net like this.
The ticket-shaped ability shimmered briefly before vanishing, as if being absorbed into my right arm.
“So many bugs, and yet this part is weirdly well-polished…”
But then, a troubling thought crossed my mind.
Sure, everything’s free right now because it’s still in beta—but what about later…
Would they start selling stuff like: [10 S-Rank Draw Tickets – $49.90], [Lucky Blessing Hammer (Warning: Item permanently deleted on failure) – $19.90], or something just as evil?
….
‘Nope. Don’t even go there yet.’
I shook off the thought and turned my focus to using Blessing of Purification.
Just then, a glowing range field automatically lit up in my vision.
Maybe because the ability had fused with my body, I didn’t need to learn how to use it—its function came to me as naturally as breathing.
‘Blessing of Purification.’
As I stretched out my right hand toward the field, a golden light began to spread slowly.
The power to cleanse defiled land and completely erase all contamination at its source.
So this is what holy power feels like? I’d only ever understood it as a concept, but experiencing it firsthand was something else entirely.
The once gloomy, lifeless soil now radiated a soft, green vitality as the heavy darkness lifted.
“…Whoa. That’s amazing.”
I guess that meant the land was finally in a condition where I could actually use the item properly.
[Using ‘Clean Soil’]
[Effect triggered by Blessing of Purification, a stroke of special luck has occurred!
Growth time reduced by ×30 for the next 30 days.]
As the clean soil settled over the newly purified earth, the once murky land transformed into a proper, healthy-looking field, complete with the earthy scent of compost.
Sure, it smelled a bit like poop, but isn’t that the smell of real, nutrient-rich soil?
And to think—the less-than-5-percent chance effect triggered perfectly on the first try!
I opened the 〈HappyPlant Seed Package〉 I’d bought earlier and reviewed the details.
According to the description, it normally takes about three months to grow potatoes.
But with the ×30 growth boost from the blessing…
“I can harvest them in just three days?”
That meant the empty food storage could be fully restocked in no time.
And as if perfectly on cue, the NPCs, now that the soil was ready, grabbed their tools and seeds and headed straight into the field.
I watched in silence from a step behind before turning away and walking off without a word.
It was time to go find the head maid.
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