It was the second day of the New Year. In the castle's study, Lucas and the beast-ear girls were playing cards.
"Hee hee… I got a match! Only two cards left! Master, it's your turn," Annie giggled, waving the two cards in her hand, her fox ears twitching.
"Don't get too happy now," Lucas said, blowing at the paper strip stuck to his eyebrow. He had strips on both eyebrows, meaning he had already lost two rounds.
"Either way, I won't lose this round," Annie said, puffing out her cheeks, which also had a paper strip on them.
"Be careful your joy doesn't turn to sorrow," Lucas said, amused as he looked at the five paper strips on the fox-ear girl's face. He reached out and drew a card from her hand. It was a three, making a pair. He now had two cards left as well.
"My turn," Ayesha shouted enthusiastically. The force of her words made the three paper strips stuck to her nose flutter.
"Okay, go ahead and draw," Lucas chuckled, holding out his two cards. The cow-horn girl only had one card left.
"I'll take this one," Ayesha said, reaching out and grabbing a card at random. She flipped it over and shouted excitedly, "Hahaha, it's a pair of sevens!"
"Uh…" Annie was stunned. How was Ayesha's luck so good? She was out of cards already.
"Annie, it's your turn. You have no one left to draw from, so you'll have to draw from me," Lucas said, raising his eyebrows, making the paper strips flutter again.
"A fifty-fifty chance," Annie mumbled, biting her lip. Her brown eyes stared intently at the two cards, her small hand hesitating, moving left and right.
"Annie, hurry up and draw," Mina urged. She already had a paper strip ready in her hand. She was the first one to run out of cards, so she had the right to stick the strips on the losers.
"This one!" Annie chose the card on the left. She flipped it over and saw it was an eight. Her face fell instantly. Her remaining card was a four.
"Looks like you didn't get a match. My turn, then," Lucas chuckled, wiggling five fingers as he watched the fox-ear girl, who was busy trying to shuffle her single card between her hands.
"Go ahead, Master," Annie said, her brown eyes wide, staring nervously at his card. She chanted in her head, Don't pick the four, don't pick the four.
"This one," Lucas said, quickly drawing a card. He flipped it over. It was a four, making a pair.
He recalled how happy the fox-ear girl had been just a moment ago and couldn't help but chuckle. "Ha, Annie."
"Hmph~~ Go on, stick it on. I'll definitely win the next round," Annie pouted, turning her little face towards the cat-ear girl.
"Here it comes," Mina said, taking a paper strip and sticking it on the fox-ear girl's chin, making it look like a goatee.
"Again!" Annie said, gathering the cards and beginning to shuffle.
Knock, knock, knock…
At that moment, someone knocked on the study door, which surprised Lucas. Who would be coming at this time? All the beast-ear girls were here, either reading or playing cards.
"Come in," Lucas said calmly. The cat-ear girl immediately reached out and pulled the paper strips off his face. It was fine to be casual while playing in private, but in front of others, he had to maintain the demeanor of a noble.
Creeak…
The study door opened, and Aiden strode in, holding a linen sack. When he came in and saw the paper strips on the faces of the beast-ear girls and his own sister, he immediately understood what they were doing and felt he had come at a bad time.
"Aiden, what's happened?" Lucas frowned. Aiden's duty was to patrol the outskirts of the territory and stand guard. If he was here now, it was likely because something was up.
"Master, there is something I need to report to you," Aiden said quickly. He opened the linen sack in his hand, revealing a dozen or so blackish, flat, palm-sized objects inside.
"What is this?" Annie asked in astonishment. This thing was so ugly.
"Where did these come from?" Lucas asked in surprise. He recognized what they were: mussel.
"This morning, I was patrolling the port and saw the bridge builders pulling them out from the bottom of the river. I thought they looked peculiar, so I brought them for the Master to see," Aiden explained briefly.
"I didn't expect the Whispering River to have these," Lucas chuckled, reaching out and picking up a mussel. It was quite large.
"Master, you recognize this thing?" Mina asked with surprise, her cat ears twitching slightly.
"This is called a mussel," Lucas said, the corners of his mouth turning up. He glanced at everyone present and chuckled. "Let me ask you all a question."
"Master, what question?" Helen's rabbit ears perked up.
"Do you know where pearls come from?" Lucas asked faintly.
"Pearls?" Nicole frowned, then shook her head. She really didn't know.
"Master, you're not going to say that pearls come from mussels, are you?" Elisa asked, astonished.
"Correct," Lucas nodded and held out his hand to Mina. "Knife."
"Yes," Mina said, and with a flick of her wrist, a combat knife appeared in her hand, which she passed to him.
"Mussels have a certain chance of producing pearls," Lucas said flatly. He inserted the knife along the edge of the mussel and pried the shell open.
"Wow! There really are pearls! And so many of them!" Annie shouted excitedly, her eyes shining as she stared at the dozen or so pearls of various sizes inside the mussel.
"So this is where pearls come from." Elisa, Nicole, Mina, and Helen were all stunned.
They had heard that pearls came from the sea and were extremely precious pieces of jewelry, that you had to trade lives to obtain them. To think they were produced by such an ugly thing!
"Surprising, isn't it?" Lucas said, taking out the pearls and giving one to each of them. "The ocean has pearls too, produced by similar mussels, but those pearls are usually a bit bigger than these ones."
"Master, do all of these have pearls in them?" Ayesha asked, eyeing the unopened mussels. She wanted to try opening one herself.
"You'll know if you try," Lucas said, handing her the knife. Seeing the eager looks on the others' faces, he smiled. "You can each open one."
An interesting idea occurred to him, something that could both make money and be fun: pearl gambling. However, he would need some knowledge first. He had to look up how to select pearl-producing mussels. Moreover, artificial cultivation could also be very profitable.
"Yay, I want this one!" Annie immediately hugged the largest mussel.
"Then I want this one," Ayesha followed, quickly picking one as well.
"I'm not in a hurry, you all pick first," Helen said gently.
"..."
.
.
.
.
You can read advance chapters and view R-18 images of the characters on pat reon page.
pat reon.com/GreenBlue17
300 Power Stones for 1 extra chapter.
5 New reviews for 1 extra chapter.