Right now, Luke's contemptuous look was basically saying:
Miss Crownguard, I'm holding this over you for the rest of your life!
Lux kept her head down. Even in the heat, she felt like she was shaking with rage and humiliation—but all she could do was swallow it.
She swore to herself that one day, she'd take back everything she'd lost!
After Luke finished speaking, he was already in a great mood, humming a little tune as he headed for the kitchen.
He kept working on brewing, with Yurna helping him on the side.
Out back, Fiora was practicing her sword.
Sona and Kahina, the two sisters, played Connect Four to pass the time.
All morning, Luke stayed busy with the brewing process.
Moonshine was more of a hassle than beer. The fermentation time was the same, but the prep took more work.
Checking the progress, Luke clapped his hands and said, "That should do it. Let it sit for five hours—then we'll add a little something."
Then Luke went to prepare lunch. He'd been busy all morning, but he didn't feel tired at all—if anything, it felt satisfying.
After all, he was working for his own enjoyment. Once the work was done and he looked at the results, the sense of accomplishment was real.
It was the same as cooking. These days, whenever Luke cooked and saw the dishes he'd made with his own hands—like little works of art—even without anyone praising him, he still felt proud.
After lunch, Luke checked how Lux was doing with memorizing her speech.
And then he discovered she'd memorized every single word, without missing a thing.
That was fast—those two pages were easily five or six hundred words.
Could it be that Teacher Mors wasn't wrong?
Maybe she really was smart—she just refused to put in effort.
Seeing Luke's surprised expression, Lux felt a little smug. Her mood improved a lot, too.
"Pack up. We're heading out," Luke said, glancing at the sky. Noon had passed; it was already afternoon.
Lux, having memorized the speech, seemed to understand her "mission" now. She nodded.
As for Luke, he was ready to execute the first step of his marketing plan: celebrity marketing.
In the Great City of Demacia, House Crownguard's popularity was sky-high. Every member of the family had immense name recognition.
And Lux was at the very top of that. As House Crownguard's cherished jewel, her status shone everywhere she went—just as bright as her appearance.
She was, without question, a celebrity.
Of course, Luke qualified too. As the kingdom's second prince, his name carried serious weight.
But this time, Luke didn't plan to put himself out front. It wasn't that he didn't want to show his face.
It was that Lux, despite her huge popularity, was still far from ordinary people—so far she felt untouchable.
That distance had been decided the moment she was born.
And Luke wanted that distance to quietly disappear, little by little.
Before leaving, Luke looked at Fiora and Sona—who were staying behind to watch the house—and said, "I had Yurna contact Navis this morning. This afternoon, people should come by to dig the hot spring pool. Keep an eye out."
Doing the hot spring pool alone would be a pain, and it would take forever.
So he simply called in a few Royal Academy workhorses to help. With their skills, they could finish it in less than a day.
Why would Luke do it himself?
Free labor was free labor.
Fiora and Sona nodded to show they understood.
So Luke climbed into the carriage and set off with Lux and Kahina.
The sun was brighter today, and the air was a bit hotter than yesterday—though it wasn't the blistering kind of heat from early June.
The streets were bustling. The royal carriage rolling through drew plenty of attention.
When they reached a square with a large crowd, the carriage came to a stop.
Lifting the curtain, Lux took a look outside, drew a deep breath, and stepped down.
The moment she appeared, she attracted attention.
She walked to a slightly elevated spot, climbed up, and took out the megaphone she'd prepared.
"I'm Luxanna Crownguard. I'd like to borrow a little of your time."
Her clear, bright, pleasant voice rang out through the amplified megaphone, and even more people looked over.
The crowd slowly gathered beneath the platform.
"Is that the young lady from House Crownguard?"
"She's so pretty!"
"I saw her once on the street before—she's even prettier now!"
"What's she going to tell us?"
Everyone craned their necks, looking up at Lux on the platform.
As Lux watched the crowd grow, she saw that they'd filled nearly half the square. A few hundred people, at least.
Without meaning to, she got nervous. Even her heartbeat sped up.
This was the first time she'd ever appeared before people like this.
On the way here, Luke had already explained what she needed to do, and Lux had prepared herself mentally.
Now, her gaze shifted toward the carriage—and met Luke's eyes.
In that instant, it was like a surge of courage welled up inside her. Facing the crowd, she gave a bright, innocent smile.
"Next, I want to tell everyone about a new kind of information source called a newspaper."
"Far away, across almost an entire continent from Demacia, there's a city called Piltover. There, newspapers have already become the main way people get information in their daily lives. And we…"
As Miss Crownguard's confident voice continued, the murmurs below gradually faded. People stared up at the girl on the platform, growing more and more focused.
Luke sat in the carriage, smiling as he watched.
Her brilliant blonde hair seemed to shimmer under the sunlight. Her eyes were especially bright, and the sweet smile on her face felt like a cool breeze in the hot afternoon.
She stood on the platform with confidence and poise, and every little movement seemed to carry an effortless charm.
As she reached the end, Lux bowed slightly to the crowd.
"That's everything I wanted to say. I hope you'll all support the 'Royal City Bulletin' in the future."
"If Miss Crownguard says so, I'm definitely supporting it!"
"Yeah, yeah—Royal City Bulletin, I'm in!"
"Our own Demacian newspaper? That sounds great!"
"No need to say more—I'm buying ten copies myself!"
"I'm buying a ton!"
A wave of applause erupted immediately. Men and women alike looked at the young, lovable girl on the platform with the kind of smile a proud parent might wear.
Lux's beauty alone was unforgettable—never mind the kindness beneath it, which made her even more appealing.
People still remembered the Great City years ago—every morning, a blonde little girl would come bouncing along, cheerful and lively, greeting everyone she met.
Her smile was so infectious that anyone who saw it in the morning would stay happy all day.
Hearing the applause, Lux beamed. Then she looked toward Luke's carriage and gave him a playful blink.
Luke gave her a thumbs-up.
He'd assumed that for Lux's first public speech, she'd probably mess up a word or two from nerves.
But he'd been completely wrong.
From start to finish, Lux didn't make a single mistake, and the speech was practically perfect.
Back in the carriage, Lux leaned toward Luke, smug as can be. "So? Was my speech so amazing you just stared the whole time?"
Luke sighed dramatically, as if disappointed. "How did you not embarrass yourself? I was looking forward to laughing at you when we got back."
Lux instantly glared at him, then lifted her chin and huffed. "With something that easy, you thought I'd mess up? Not even close!"
Luke laughed. "Then I hope you can keep it up. That was only our first stop."
Lux, getting a little inflated with confidence, said, "Piece of cake!"
And so the speeches across the Great City began—stop after stop.
By the time the afternoon sun started to lower, it was already nearing evening.
After finishing yet another speech amid applause, Lux returned to the carriage.
Luke handed her a prepared cup of hot tea. "Good work. That was the last one."
Lux took it, drank it in two quick gulps, then let out a long breath. "Finally done… I'm exhausted."
Her small face showed clear fatigue now. She wasn't the same energetic firecracker she'd been earlier.
Even her voice came out weak.
An entire afternoon—an entire afternoon—she'd repeated the same speech to who knew how many different crowds.
Luke smiled. "For today, it's done."
Hearing that, Lux looked at him blankly. "For today? What do you mean?"
Luke sipped his own tea, casual as ever. "I mean tomorrow, and the day after—this kind of thing will probably take about two more days before it's really finished."
Lux froze, her eyes full of disbelief and confusion.
Luke chuckled and explained, "The Great City is huge. In one afternoon, we didn't even cover a third of it."
They'd traveled a lot, sure—but compared to the whole city, it was still nowhere near enough.
No choice—this era didn't have phones.
Otherwise, they could've recorded a video and sent it out. Done.
So for now, they had to run it stop by stop.
After Luke explained, Lux's face fell. She looked at him with big pleading eyes, blinking rapidly. "Can't we just… give up?"
"Nope." Luke smiled, patted her shoulder, and said gently, "Miss Crownguard, since you started, don't give up so easily."
Obviously, quitting wasn't allowed.
Right now, that normally warm, handsome face looked like a demon to Lux.
She slumped weakly, staring at the carriage ceiling with pure despair in her eyes.
She'd thought the suffering was over.
Turns out the suffering had only just begun.
Ugh… I really just want to tap out!
But the worst part was, that jerk still had blackmail on her.
Thinking about it only made her feel more hopeless.
Beside her, Kahina thought for a moment and tried to comfort her. "Lux, don't lose heart. Everything's hard at the beginning."
Lux's mood improved a little, thinking maybe tomorrow and the day after wouldn't be so tiring.
Luke, still drinking tea, added calmly, "And then the middle is hard. And the ending is hard."
Lux: (╯｀Д´)╯
When the carriage finally stopped outside Luke's house…
Lux stumbled down, completely drained, and trudged into the courtyard. The first thing she did was flop straight into the rocking chair.
She looked exactly like a dead-tired couch potato—just like Luke had yesterday morning.
Luke and Kahina came in after her.
Fiora, who'd been playing games nearby, glanced over. "What did you make her do? How is she this exhausted?"
Luke said casually, "Nothing much. I think it was fine. We only ran around half the city."
Hearing him talk like that, Lux didn't even have the strength to glare.
She shot him a resentful look, then went right back to lying there like she'd given up on life.
Fiora smiled at her, already understanding how someone could tire out an energy monster like Lux.
Half the city wasn't "small," especially when you had to stop and give a speech at every single spot.
Then Fiora added, "Oh—by the way, the Royal Academy people are out back. Want to take a look?"
Luke had heard the noise from the backyard anyway. After thinking for a moment, he headed back there.
A group in Royal Academy uniforms was working with various tools, building the hot spring according to Luke's blueprint.
The pool was already dug out. They'd reused the old fishpond—dug it deeper, widened it, improved the circulation system—and just like that, it became a ready-made hot spring pool.
The floor inside was already laid with pale blue-gray stone, and it looked great.
Around it, several tall wooden posts—each a few meters high—had been linked together into a circular privacy wall, wrapping the hot spring pool inside.
That was Luke's requirement.
After confirming everything looked fine, a few of the Royal Academy workers came up.
One of them reported, "Your Highness, as instructed, we've finished improving the hot spring pool. We also ran a check—we found a geothermal pocket roughly two hundred meters beneath your home."
"The water storage space down there is also quite large, so we made a small modification to the pump pressure pipeline and changed it to a model you can shut off at any time."
"If you want to start the water circulation, just turn the switch to the right. If you don't, turn it to the left."
"When the water pressure is full, the switch will open automatically."
As the report went on, Luke's expression grew more satisfied.
These Royal Academy people really were talented—fast and efficient. They got it done in a single afternoon.
If Luke had done it himself, it would've taken two or three days at least.
"Not bad. Each of you go to my maid and collect twenty gold."
Knowing he'd be able to soak in the hot spring tonight put Luke in a fantastic mood.
With a big wave of his hand, he rewarded everyone present with twenty gold each.
That instantly made the Royal Academy workers' faces light up in surprise and joy.
They'd assumed they'd just be working for free for the prince—never expecting a twenty-gold bonus.
Their monthly pay at the Royal Academy was only a little over ten gold.
Working one afternoon and getting twenty gold—especially when the job itself was easy for them—was an incredible deal.
His Highness was truly generous!
"Thank you, Your Highness!"
The workers bowed happily, then ran off to find Yurna and collect their reward.
Luke didn't care about that small amount of money anymore. Whether it was the printing press or the bicycle, the most expensive phase was already past.
In a few days, he'd be stuffing money into sacks.
After checking the hot spring pool all around, Luke was honestly tempted to soak right now.
But remembering he still had things to do, he reluctantly left the backyard and returned to the front.
By then, the Royal Academy team had already taken their leave.
Lux was still lying in the rocking chair, wilted.
Kahina had dragged over a small chair and was sitting there watching Fiora and Sona play.
Luke started dealing with the many barrels of alcohol he'd left sitting earlier that afternoon.
After glancing over them, he waved at Fiora. "Hey, Sword Princess—come work."
"Sword Princess…"
Fiora's mouth twitched. She lifted her eyes, clearly displeased, and glared at Luke.
But soon she remembered something. Still annoyed, she stood and walked over. "What do you want me to do?"
She'd almost forgotten she still owed Luke more than twenty days of "work time."
Luke tossed her a shovel with a grin. "Simple. Dig."
Fiora caught it, looking confused. "Dig for what?"
"To bury the booze," Luke said, giving her a look. "These barrels are best left underground for a while. Dig until you can fit them in."
The front yard was huge, so there was plenty of space to stash barrels.
Fiora didn't ask more. She silently started digging.
Kahina and Sona came over to help on their own, and Luke directed them to move the other barrels down to the basement.
As for Lux, she'd been drained all afternoon, so Luke didn't order her around anymore.
After placing the remaining barrels in the basement, Luke went back out front. He and Yurna each grabbed a shovel and joined Fiora.
All three of them were strong enough, so the work went quickly.
Before long, they'd dug a large pit.
They lowered several barrels into it, then started shoveling the dirt back in, burying them.
While shoveling, Fiora briefly thought that if they could bury Luke too, that would be even better.
After a lot of work, they finally packed the soil down flat. That was it.
Now they just had to let the alcohol ferment for a while.
By then, the sky had darkened, though it wasn't fully night yet. Only the moon hung above—there wasn't a single star in sight.
So Luke started preparing dinner.
But before cooking, he looked at Lux's miserable, droopy state and decided to make dessert first.
Today's sweets weren't just candy apples—he also made her favorite: cake.
Since they'd bought plenty of fruit, he made extra in one go—fruit cakes in all kinds of flavors.
The instant Lux saw the cake, she revived on the spot, snapping right back into her lively, playful self.
She hugged the cake and ate happily, praising again and again that Luke's baking was way better than anything outside.
Only then did Luke start preparing dinner.
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