Reynard had not witnessed any change in the flames when he talked to Lydia, but it was different with Eleanor.
'Was it my gaze on her body?' A bold idea arose in his mind, and once it surfaced, it couldn't be easily ignored.
The more he thought about it, the more he felt it made sense.
"Eleanor, I called you here because I need you to arrange some travel supplies in advance." Reynard looked at Eleanor as he spoke, letting his gaze wander over her curvy figure with unconcealed audacity, wanting to test his own thoughts.
He had no intention of hiding what he was doing.
And, just as he expected, the pale blue flame gradually intensified, gaining a more pink hue. It was a mix between the two colors, but blue still prevailed, with the pink being only a small piece of the flame.
Eleanor noticed Reynard's brazen stare at her body. The flame flickered above her head, but her expression remained unchanged.
It was as if it didn't concern her.
"Master Reynard, are you enjoying the view?" Eleanor frowned, her voice slightly displeased.
"Definitely. Now I know where Lydia gets her attributes from… They're grand." Reynard nodded casually, making Eleanor roll her eyes.
She seemed discontent with his comment, but her face gained a slight reddish tint.
'Heavens…' Eleanor was not used to being complimented so openly, especially by someone younger and in such a shameless way.
Despite being somewhat accustomed to Reynard's manners, this strange and confused feeling took hold of her chest. Even though she wasn't very old, the age difference between the two wasn't small.
Reynard seemed to be a little older than Lydia…
He was old enough to be her son!
But something about her was different.
Carefully assessing, the difference wasn't that big...
'What are you thinking?!' Eleanor clenched her fists and chided herself for thinking something so wrong, pushing away those sudden thoughts.
She turned her attention back to the information contained in Reynard's words, trying not to dwell on the internal mess she was feeling at the moment.
He wanted travel supplies, so did that mean he was traveling and leaving the castle alone? Could this have something to do with the visitor?
Not daring to ask too much, Eleanor merely nodded.
"I will prepare the supplies, but we don't have much money left. There are only three gold coins remaining in the castle safe." She added with a sigh.
Her tone sounded helpless, making Reynard feel as if he were intimidating her.
"We don't have any more money? Where did the rest of the coins go?" Reynard stopped looking at Eleanor's body, his expression a little surprised.
He clearly remembered that more than ten gold coins still remained in the castle safe.
All of that had been collected from the work done by the original Reynard.
The land where his castle was located was small, but it was still a piece of land belonging to an untitled noble, and there was enough land to plant grains and raise cattle. The commoners around the castle paid him a monthly fee, in addition to him collecting a portion of the production.
The ten gold coins in his castle's safe were all the savings the original Reynard had accumulated after a few years.
It was impossible for it to disappear so quickly…
"Master Reynard forgot that he spent it to buy those things? When we went to the nearest town, you didn't spare any money." Eleanor glanced at the books scattered across the table.
Perhaps it was his impression, but Reynard could notice the slight smile at the corner of her lips, feeling that she was rejoicing at his situation.
'Oh, there really was that.'
He had indeed bought those things a few weeks ago.
But he couldn't be blamed.
When he arrived in this world, Reynard needed information. So, without realizing it, he ended up buying some books that seemed important, such as the history of the Kingdom of Solaris, the division of the kingdom's lands, and related things that seemed like common knowledge.
The catch was that these simple books were very expensive. Information in this world was worth its weight in gold! If he had known that, he… would still have spent it anyway.
Releasing a sigh, Reynard shook his head and waved his hands. "Don't worry so much. I just want a little food, I'm not taking everything. Simple things will suffice." Saying this, he settled into his chair, placing his feet on top of the table and looking at Eleanor.
"Besides, I'm thinking of taking you with me."
Eleanor's expression froze for a moment upon hearing this.
"Take me with you?" Eleanor felt anxious. Her large brown eyes stared at him for clarification, waiting for him to explain what he meant by that.
"We are taking a trip to Baron Alderan's mansion in a week. Lydia must have mentioned the messenger's visit. The nobles have been summoned for a meeting, and I need to attend."
Eleanor nodded her head, but her expression remained stiff. She didn't know the figures of influence, so she didn't know who Baron Alderan was, but it seemed to be something important that was far removed from her status as a simple castle maid.
"If you allow me to ask, why does Master Reynard wish for me to accompany you?" she still asked, uncertainty shining in her eyes.
"It's obviously to warm my bed." Reynard joked, reaching his hands out into the empty air towards her body, squeezing the air with his hands as if feigning grabbing her two white peaks.
"Stop playing games!" Seeing this, Eleanor stepped back a few paces, her face blushing like a tomato, shattering her previous demeanor. The flame at the top of her head burned stronger, the pink consuming another piece of the original blue color.
'So it really works like this?'
Reynard retracted his hands and stopped smiling, returning to his usual self. "I thought about taking Lydia with me, but I changed my mind. I'll leave Lydia taking care of the castle, and you will play the servant's role. A noble needs to maintain his position, right? If I go alone, I'll be out of place."
"Oh… I understand." Eleanor nodded her head, her long eyelashes trembling as she looked at him with a suspicious gaze.
She seemed not to have fully believed his excuse.
"If the matter is concluded, I will retire to begin the preparations as quickly as possible." Seeing that Reynard had no further orders, Eleanor bowed politely.
She just wanted to escape from there as quickly as possible to organize her turbulent thoughts.
It was as if something… felt hot. Today, she had felt more affected than normal by his jokes, and the thoughts left her uncomfortable.
"Of course. Rest early." Reynard casually signaled with his hand towards the door, indicating she could leave.
Receiving permission, Eleanor turned, giving Reynard a glimpse of her rear figure. As she walked to the exit with restrained steps, her wide hips swayed from side to side.
It was almost as if she was intentionally provoking him.
When she reached the door, her steps suddenly stopped.
"Master Reynard…" Her tone was almost a whisper as she mumbled without turning her face, hiding her expression.
"What is the matter?" Reynard lifted his eyes from the enchanting rear view and stared at Eleanor with a curious gaze.
What did she have to say?
"Thank you again for everything." She turned to look him in the eyes. Her red lips closed, forming a contained, yet attractive, smile.
Before Reynard could say anything, she fled with light steps, closing the door in his face.
'This woman…' Watching Eleanor leave, he felt a sour taste in his mouth for being provoked so brazenly. 'Were my tastes always this peculiar?'
He didn't remember preferring older women. Maybe it was the remnants of the original owner?
As if something like that really existed. Besides, it was never too late to try a ripe peach that was ready to be bitten.
More important than that, he was starting to vaguely understand the use of the flames with this brief interaction.
They seemed to represent some kind of emotion and reacted in some way to his actions.
The blue color transforming into pink indicated something, and it seemed… To be related to Eleanor's feelings towards him?
Thinking about this, a smile appeared on his face. Perhaps this ability wasn't as simple and useless as he thought.
It seemed he would still need to conduct a few more tests with Eleanor to understand better, and he felt like he would arrive at a definitive answer soon.
This small interaction made him forget about his issues for the rest of the night. In a good mood, he picked up a book and continued reading.
Knowledge was never too much. Especially for him, who had been in this world for a little over a month and had no anchor.
There was still one week until the date of the meeting at Baron Alderan's mansion, but he would need to leave early to arrive at the Baron's lands on time.
The kingdom was truly large.
Besides, he remembered that the figure from the Shadow Cult would return for a visit tomorrow night.
The figure appeared every few days at his castle. Besides asking a few unimportant things, they asked suspicious questions, such as, for example, asking how the noble families around were distributed, or about their forces.
To these questions, Reynard simply shook his head, indicating he did not know the answer.
He truly didn't know. But, even if he did, he wouldn't dare to tell so easily because these questions gave him a feeling of crisis. Any idiot would understand that they were planning something, and combined with the messenger's information today, it seemed they had already started making their moves.
The scariest thing was that the kingdom had also already noticed. He just didn't know if it was because the Cult wanted to be noticed, or if the kingdom really had eyes everywhere.
Whatever they were planning, he, a member of the Cult, would be dragged down with them.
This made Reynard think of ways to escape this situation.
'I'm a simple, untitled noble... you won't care if I leave through the back door, right?'
When Eleanor said he had bought many books, she wasn't lying, but he concealed a few things from her.
Thinking about this, his hands reached out, opening the drawer and picking up a small, tiny piece of stone the size of his fingernail.
The stone emitted a bluish glow and pulsed with something that made Reynard's body tremble.
It was like prey staring at a predator. A primal feeling. A feeling that made him want to throw that small stone as far away as possible, as if it were something he shouldn't touch lightly.
'Is this mana?' He looked with interest at the mana crystal in the palm of his hand. It was so small, yet so powerful.
This was magic!
He had bought this stone when Eleanor wasn't around.
This small crystal was, more precisely, a sliver of a mana crystal, and even so, it was so powerful. Not to mention that he had to pay three gold coins to acquire it.
An old man knocked on his door and said he had found it in an abandoned mine.
It was common, after miners finished excavating a mine, for them to leave it open. The tunnels were like rabbit holes, and it would take too much work to seal them, so many commoners tried their luck and ventured into these caves.
If they found even just a sliver of a mana crystal that escaped the miners' attentive eyes, they could become rich overnight, and their families would no longer have to work for the rest of their lives.
But wanting wasn't enough.
Mines were the property of noble families. Possessing a single mine, even a small one, was enough to raise a noble family's status to the heavens, and money would no longer be a problem.
So, much less the difficulty of excavating and searching for remnants, you would first need to get past the guards at the mine's entrance. And if they were caught stealing, who knows what those families would do to them.
And if you were lucky enough to find one while walking around that had no owner? Well, that was harder than finding a needle in a haystack, but if you were lucky, it wouldn't be your turn to take the prize. If it was within the domain of a family, then it would be their property.
And if it wasn't? Then the kingdom would take it for itself.
The old man had truly been lucky, but he couldn't sell the crystal to just anyone. Before he could see the color gold, his body would already be in some ditch gathering flies.
Who wouldn't kill for this?
He couldn't sell this to a commoner who could barely gather enough to eat, so it would clearly have to be another noble.
For this reason, the old man kept this sliver hidden, waiting for a noble to appear to buy it. And in the surroundings, Reynard was one of the only nobles who fit his profile, especially considering his reputation as a born spendthrift.
After contacting him saying he had this sliver, the old man claimed not to have brought the goods with him for fear of being killed and robbed, so he arranged to meet in the city to complete the transaction.
The original price was six gold coins, but after a long conversation, Reynard managed to convince him to sell it for only three coins.
Perhaps he hadn't gained any remarkable abilities upon transmigrating, but his luck as a transmigrator should not be underestimated.
'Luck is also an attribute…' Caressing the surface of that mana sliver, he smiled gently.
His first trump card had appeared.