“C-Come outside? What if a thief breaks into the library while I’m gone…?”
“Librarian, what did I tell you before?”
“B-breaks, breaks, breaks… Rest is a worker’s basic right…”
“Exactly. So just sit here for a bit. Look, doesn’t it look completely different now?”
Standing in the backyard with the trembling librarian, I pointed toward the field spread out before us.
The plants that had received the growth-rate bonus had already been harvested just yesterday, yet they were already bearing fruit again.
I had also remembered to ask the head maid in advance to thoroughly clean the library while the librarian and I were away.
After repeated rounds of gaslighting, the librarian had become thoroughly brainwashed. She still looked extremely anxious, but at least she wasn’t throwing a fit about immediately running back to the library.
I’d rather not use methods like this if I can help it.
But it was the only way to drag a shut-in recluse outside.
“The ducal estate I knew wasn’t like this… Ah, no… maybe… maybe it was….”
Leaving the librarian behind as she stood confused in front of the fertilizer-scented soil, I checked how many diamonds I had left.
[Current Diamonds: 20]
At first, I had spent them little by little just to keep myself fed, but once I started properly managing Belmond Ducal Castle, I had been spending diamonds like water.
Quest rewards included diamonds, sure, but part of the problem was simply my own greed.
Who would’ve guessed a single dairy cow costs 400 diamonds and a chicken costs 200?
After unlocking the farm and stocking it with all the livestock I needed, I was practically broke.
The reason I was this desperate for money?
Because this quest could actually be solved pretty easily if I spent diamonds.
I had found an incredibly useful item in the cash shop.
[Library Organization Deluxe Set — 3,200 Diamonds]
· A comprehensive kit capable of organizing up to 3,000 books. Includes an indexing manual, index and spine-label stickers, shelf classification signs, and more. However, be careful not to attach labels or stickers to living creatures, as they may become confined to the library or archive forever.
The problem was that I didn’t have the money to buy it.
After realizing just how much diamonds affected quest progression, I naturally found myself agonizing over it.
I can’t exactly refund what I’ve already bought.
Even now, I still thought buying the dairy cow had been a great idea.
Besides, I loved cheese.
Once the chef made rice cakes from the wheat, I was planning to buy tteokbokki sauce from the cash shop and make cheese tteokbokki so good that two people could eat it together and not notice if one died midway.
The quest reward diamonds aren’t even that much. The numbers don’t add up at all.
Eventually, I came to one conclusion.
No matter what, if I kept doing quests, my diamond supply would eventually hit rock bottom.
But thinking about it like a normal game, it was rare for a game to make players this poor to the point that gameplay suffered.
Usually, if that were the case, there’d be some sort of renewable income source built into the system.
Unless…
A sudden thought struck me, and I snapped my head up.
An S-Rank Ability Draw Ticket?
Was it time to borrow that power again?
But drawing an ability didn’t guarantee that I’d gain more resources.
Or maybe there were cheaper items or rental passes available instead of full-fledged abilities?
Even just getting access to the manual would improve things tremendously.
Cash shop!
After much deliberation, I opened the catalog again and started browsing through everything carefully.
Then I noticed something I had completely overlooked before.
▶ Purchase
· Highest Price
· Lowest Price
· Recommended
· Popular
▶ Sell
At first, I had been so focused on spending money that I never paid attention, but there was a Sell tab beneath the sorting options.
I should’ve looked more closely from the start!
With trembling hands, I pressed it.
A new screen appeared before me.
[Sellable Item List]
White Bread – 50 Diamonds
Tomato – 10 Diamonds
Potato – 15 Diamonds
Oh.
I had actually been worried because I had an excess of ingredients.
After all, I had grown crops while accounting for the servants’ portions too, only to discover later that the people living in the estate didn’t actually eat meals at all.
From a gameplay perspective, I understood why it was efficient, but it still felt wasteful to watch perfectly good food go unused.
But if I could sell surplus produce?
That changed everything.
I immediately picked a fresh tomato and tried selling it as a test.
[Fresh Tomato – 10 Diamonds
A tomato grown in clean soil.]
It really works!
As excitement bubbled up inside me, another notification appeared.
[Beginner Tip! In the cash shop, you can sell anything you personally produce or obtain. However, worthless trash will not be purchased.]
…Per-son-al-ly ob-tained?
“Librarian, wait a moment. I need to go somewhere urgently. If you stay here just a little longer, I’ll be right back.”
“E-excuse me? But…”
I sprang to my feet and immediately ran to my room.
The first thing that caught my eye was the upside-down holy statue that had annoyed me from the very beginning.
Selling things turned out to be surprisingly simple.
All I had to do was touch the statue and think about selling it. It instantly dissolved into light.
A system message soon informed me that the transaction had been completed.
[Upside-Down Holy Statue – 500 Diamonds
A holy statue imbued with a minor protective spell, but due to a manufacturing defect, it constantly hangs upside down. Its value has further decreased due to age and damage.]
Ooh!
Five hundred diamonds wasn’t exactly a fortune, but it was still far better than selling food ingredients.
I was too distracted by the price to read the description carefully, but honestly, I was just glad the stupid thing had finally disappeared.
I had worried because the system said it wouldn’t buy trash, but apparently this counted as a defective product rather than garbage.
Feeling energized, I kicked the door open and began thoroughly searching every accessible corner of the estate.
Starting today, my job wasn’t the Duke of Belmond’s fiancée.
It was trash collector!
“Oh, what’s this?”
While wandering the corridors, I spotted an axe leaning against a wall.
It was stained with something dark and blotchy like blood. I couldn’t tell whether it was rust or something worse.
Why hadn’t the head maid thrown this away?
Had she simply not noticed it?
Who cares? Lucky me!
Without hesitation, I picked it up.
[Old Platinum Hatchet – 1,500 Diamonds
A hatchet used by someone for a very long time. Forged from platinum, which is no longer produced, making it an even rarer weapon. Its value increases if the blade is sharpened and restored.]
That wasn’t the only treasure I found while turning the estate upside down.
[Cursed Excalibur Filled with Resentment – 2,000 Diamonds
A cursed sword imbued with the grudges of countless people. Anyone not chosen by the sword will be consumed by it and driven mad.]
Wow, that sounds pretty dangerous. Better sell it immediately!
This was exactly why you should never overlook even the smallest details when playing games.
Maybe the system had noticed I’d never used the selling feature and had deliberately given me this quest as a hint.
Still, hiding the Sell tab that well definitely deserved a feedback report.
Making a mental note not to forget, I headed back toward the vegetable field.
But when I arrived, all that greeted me was an empty chair.
She’s gone!
I never imagined she’d run away while I was gone.
I immediately sprinted toward the library.
The head maid should still be cleaning!
And, as expected—
“Y-you can’t touch that!”
“We’re only dusting and cleaning the shelves, Librarian.”
The moment I arrived, I found the librarian standing alone against the head maid and her group of maids.
“B-but books are delicate… If the pages get wet or torn while you’re handling them…”
“We’ll be careful not to touch the books. So please don’t worry.”
It was truly a battle between spear and shield.
But the head maid stood perfectly straight and unshaken, completely unaffected by the librarian’s obsessive objections.
In the end, the first one to surrender was the librarian.
“Please be careful… very, very careful…”
“Librarian.”
I approached her and handed over the Library Organization Deluxe Set I had purchased on the way—a whopping 3,200 diamonds.
“What… is this?”
“You’ll understand once you read it.”
Awkwardly accepting the book, the librarian soon retreated to a corner and began turning the pages one by one.
The reaction came even faster than I expected.
“S-such a revolutionary method…! This is a revolution in the field of library organization!”
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