The Villain is Being Suspiciously Kind

that’s right.”
His curiosity seemed to have diminished dramatically at the word Silmaril.
So he was one of the people in this world that thought of Silmaril as a lower quality stone.
Especially since Silmaril was as common as stars in the sky.
“Why do you want Silmaril?”
“It’s my favorite gemstone.”
It was not a particularly convincing excuse, but the dwarf did not seem very suspicious.
‘Who would think there is a gem spirit hiding in low-grade Silmaril.’
Citrina looked at him with a relaxed face.
“Nice.
I’ll give you one.”
Citrina thought a bit.
So far the conversation had been smooth sailing.
Now was the time to seal the deal.
“I’d like to pick one and pay now.”
This was her final move.
“You’re going to choose it yourself? Alright.”
It was a haughty voice.
Few people could distinguish between good quality Silmaril and poor quality.
Oslo grinned at the newcomer’s calm face.
“Yes.”
Citrina responded.
If she could distinguish between the Silmaril stones, she would make a good student, and it wouldn’t hurt if she was bad at it.
It was a profitable deal for him.
“I’ll write up the contract tomorrow.
It will be a dwarf’s contract, which swears on the ancient Holy Kingdom.”
“Alright.
Let’s do that.” Citrina answered calmly, but felt her chest swelling with emotions.
Citrina loved jewelry, so it filled her with enthusiasm.
This was because her past as a jewelry design was still vivid as well.
Everything was for this moment.
“Anyway, let the friend who came with you stay in the atelier, and we’ll go in here.”
Citrina walked into a small room with Oslo.
“Here is the shelf with Silmaril, so look carefully.”
“Yes.”

She fixed her eyes on the shelf.
At a glance, she could see scratches on one of the gemstones.
When she looked more closely, pink leaked through the cracks in the white gem.
Anyone could tell this was a lower quality stone from that.
And there had to be a jewel spirit hiding in that seemingly insignificant gemstone.
It was a sleeping spirit pretending to not exist while hiding all of its energy.
“Give me this one.”
Oslo smirked as Citrina tapped on the shelf.
It was a cheap grade stone.
That was apparent just by looking at the flaws.
“It looks like you don’t have a very discerning eye.”
“…is that so?”
Oslo glanced at Citrina’s smile.
“It’s plain to see you chose a low-grade stone.
You know you can’t break the contract, right?”
“Yes.
I understand.”
Her eyes were clear and calm.
The contract with the dwarf could not be destroyed.
The dwarf asked again suspiciously since the contract was based on an ancient kingdom whose people were disappearing.
“You understand?”
“Yes.”
It was a very ballsy act.
Olso seemed pleased with Citrina’s boldness.
He answered cheerfully.
“Alright.
Then let’s do this.”
Oslo handed over the Silmaril.
Citrina smiled radiantly.
Somehow she felt a bit uncomfortable.
“Now you are my trainees, we’ll need to get you your accommodations.”
Oslo began with quite an annoyed expression.
That was the first meeting between Citrina, Oslo, and Adilac.
In a way, it was a meeting that would change the fate of the the continent’s jewelry industry.

****

After signing the dwarven contract and collecting the Silmaril, Citrina headed to the atelier’s shared house with Adilac.
The atelier provided individual rooms for the disciples.
After saying goodbye to Adilac, Citrina went to her room and took out the Silmaril.
“What if this isn’t it?”
In a way, she had gambled away four years of her life.
Citrina’s lips opened.
“Hi, Gemma, will you appear?”
When the world tree had died, pieces of it had scattered all over the world as Silmaril.
The jewel spirit had hidden in this piece since the fall of the Holy Kingdom.
Unlike other spirits, summoners did not need special abilities to call her.
It was said you could summon her if you called her name close to the jewel.
……
But it was surprisingly quiet.
‘Oh, is this not it?’
Citrina turned the gemstone back and forth.
It was close to the depiction of Silmaril from the original work.
‘No matter how much I look, I think Gemma is the hidden boss.’
Citrina was deep in thought.
She thought that this gemstone was the correct one, but didn’t know how to wake her.
‘How did Elaina’s assistant call Gemma?’
She thought all she had to do was call Gemma’s name.
‘Should I do it kindly?’
‘Is being kind the key?’
Gemma was said to be a delicate spirit.
Citrina put the Silmaril on top of the small bedside table.
And she called the name of the spirit as if she were singing, friendly and quietly.
“Gemma.”
A little wind tickled her hair.
Citrina closed her eyes and felt the wind.
The calm wind was lovely.
-Who are you?
Citrina didn’t open her eyes or answer.
The warm, tranquil wind surrounded her.
-Are you the one who woke me up?
-Yeah, it’s me.
 Citrina answer Gemma’s wary whisper with an extremely sweet voice.
-How did you know my name? Do you want to form a contract?
An insubstantial low voice reached Citrina ears.
It was a neutral voice- neither male nor female.
-A contract?
-Yeah.
Do you want to form a contract?
-That’s right.
What do you want, Silmaril? I’ll give you that.
What Gemma wanted was Silmaril from the world tree.
Only with that Silmaril could Gemma advance to an intermediate spirit.
-I like only the finest Silmaril.
Gemma didn’t speak for a while.
‘The spirit is sensitive to authenticity.”
In particular, the jewel spirit was good at measuring real and fake, true and false.
Therefore she could probably tell that Citrina’s words were not a lie.
The gentle breeze stopped.
Nevertheless the voice in Citrina’s ear was different from what she expected.
She had red cheeks and a doll-like appearance, about as small as Citrina’s palm.
A winged spirit appeared with twinkling hair and sparkling eyes.
– Give me Silmaril and the music box.
-Music box?
-Yeah.
What will you do with it? I’ll usually sleep in your necklace, but sometimes I’ll sleep in the music box.
The magic in there feels awfully good.
Gemma whispered with a dreamy face.
Citrina looked at the music box.
It was the music box that Desian had cast magic on and Aaron had given her.
What kind of magic was in there that a spirit would admire?
-The contract is set.
I’ll help you in the future.
When is the deadline of the contract?
-Just until I die.
-Alright.
I’m really excited!
Gemma flew around the room.
Something glittery fell along the wing’s path.
Citrina was very happy to leave Gemma to her own devices.
The spirit was invisible to other people.
She was only visible to the person she protected.
Therefore she was fine leaving the spirit to fly happily.
Also, she thought about how she would begin learning about the process to make jewelry tomorrow.
It felt like the world she had dreamed of was opening up.
Her heart sang.
It was just enough to look forward to tomorrow.