At Fluorite Castle, the family enjoyed a warm and harmonious dinner.
After dinner, Russell sat on the sofa, sipping the tea soup brought by a servant as he considered his wording.
His elder brother Roland animatedly recounted stories from the snowfields, making his younger sister Laura laugh so hard she could not close her mouth.
Russell had to admit that Roland had a gift for storytelling. He could turn dull, trivial incidents from the snowfields into wonderfully vivid tales. If Russell were the one telling them, the story would probably end dryly after three sentences.
"Do you know about Quail-like Dragons? They're beautiful descendants of pseudo-dragons... This boy Russell was greedy, insisting on catching a Quail-like Dragon to roast..."
"I wasn't."
"You were. In a story, you can be." Without turning around, Roland waved Russell off, signaling him not to interrupt. "I grabbed Russell and said, 'Kid, are you trying to destroy the Four Seasons Flower Sea?'"
"Ah, why?" Laura asked in confusion.
Roland said, "That goes back to a long, long time ago, when our great-grandfather was still alive..."
From modern times all the way back to ancient times, Roland's story was nowhere near its end.
Not only was Laura listening intently, but Madam Meryl watched Roland and Russell with smiling eyes, listening attentively to Roland's story as well.
This left Russell, who had already prepared his words, unable to find an opening.
After all, borrowing money—no, seeking investment—was something he had never done before. He was somewhat hesitant to bring it up.
As for Baron Roman, he held a glass of red wine and idly looked through a knight novel.
But Russell had noticed that a full half hour had passed, and the knight novel was still open to only its first two pages.
In other words, Baron