Chapter 13

On Friday, when the mansion was overturned, Elrose took her belongings there and handed it to Lakshan.

It was quite a heavy bag. Lakshan looked surprised as soon as he opened it, but he just closed it again without saying anything more.

He was more worried about Elrose’s well-being than money, and it was the same back then as it was now. His face was full of worries when he asked what she would do in the future.

“That’s about it. There were some things that the treasury people stole before the mansion was checked. Well, they turned a blind eye from it.”

Elrose fumbled through her pocket. Fortunately, the gold coins were still there. But, Elrose knew that it was far from enough to make ends meet.

‘But I don’t need to worry.’

Elrose put her hand on the necklace she always wore.

(t/n: This part below continues from the weird pov switch back in chapter 9 until…)

On her first day back in the capital, when she was gazing out in the garden at night, she touched the necklace while recalling her mother’s words to wear it and pray when she was in trouble. Then, under the moonlight, the necklace gave off a bluish glow that had never been seen before.

In the corner of the room, the same light leaked as it did from the necklace. Elrose then approached the wall in amazement and tapped it with her hand. As expected, unlike the other walls, there was a hollow sound as if it were empty.

When she looked closer, she saw a small square crack in the wall. As she pressed her finger there, a spot from the wall turned while revealing a hole inside. Inside the hole, which was barely big enough to fit two fingers, was a rolled piece of paper.

Elrose had hurriedly taken out the paper and unfolded it. In the middle, letters and numbers were written in her mother’s handwriting which she remembered. It was the number of the security deposit box.

Banks had security deposit boxes for customers who wanted to keep their money or other things stored secretly. Those safes were open to anyone if they knew the exact number and password. Therefore, it was also used as a means of secret transactions.

Elrose couldn’t keep her mouth shut as she looked at the name on the bank paper and the number of the security deposit box.

“This… is a lot.”

The total amount contained there exceeded 100,000 gold. At the bottom of the paper was a short sentence.

<My daughter, I am sorry for the low emergency money.>

“…”

This was low?

She didn’t know exactly what and how much she could buy with that money, but it was definitely not a small sum.

When she came to the capital to visit the guild, she passed by the front of a real estate building. There was an advertisement for sale of a large mansion in the capital city center. The mansion that seems to have several servants cost 30,000 gold, and it was not as much as Elrose’s original mansion.

But the 100,000 gold… was enough to buy a nice house in a big city and live leisurely for the rest of her life. She couldn’t believe her mom felt sorry for leaving such an amount as an emergency fund.

Elrose then realized again that her mother was the owner of one of the best businesses in the empire. She then memorized the bank name number on the paper. Originally, she was good at memorizing things, but she was stronger at numbers. She could still remember a list of numbers she once saw in a book.

Afterwards, Elrose tore the paper into small pieces and threw it in the fireplace so only she knew about the safe that was hidden by her mother.

(t/n: …it ends here.)

“Elrose?”

“Huh?”

Elrose, who was reminded of that time, came back to her senses when Lakshan called her name. He asked her the same questions again.

“And where are you going?”

“Well.”

Elrose recalled the names of the cities with security deposit boxes that she had memorized. Wherever she went, she would get a lot of money by opening just one of them. However…

‘It’s still dangerous.’

Just from Camila, who wanted to kill her because her property was taken away. The same goes for other relatives, who might try to grab and threaten her to cancel the donation.

No, she was sure that would happen.

‘Then…’

She would be better off going to a faraway place where people in the capitol wouldn’t go to often and live there quietly until they had forgotten about her.

‘It’ll be exactly 1 year.’

According to the law, donations to the empire could be cancelled within a year. That meant those people wouldn’t give up on Elrose for an entire year. On the contrary, after a year, everyone would give up.

“I haven’t really thought about anything yet. But if I want to avoid relatives and people like Camila, I’ll have to go as far away as I can.”

Elrose said that and smiled broadly.

“Can you recommend any good places?”

She said it like a joke, but Lakshan replied slightly seriously.

“What about my hometown?”

Elrose looked surprised at his words, but Lakshan was more embarrassed than she was.

‘What am I talking about?’

He unknowingly recommended his hometown to Elrose.

‘Why did I do that…’

So far, Lakshan had not told others where he was from. Even his brother, who was the emperor, only knew the area, but did not know which village it was. It was the land of his memories and the land of his father and his colleagues.

The people who stayed there were mercenaries who had been with them for a long time. But now, he was suggesting to a woman who he had known for less than a week to go there?

Sure enough, Elrose was also staring at him while blinking in surprise. Lakshan hurriedly opened his mouth.

“No, I just thought you were going to go a long way…”

“Where is your hometown?”

He hoped… that Elrose would’ve dismissed that. Far from that, Elrose approached with sparkling eyes and asked instead.

Her shining green eyes suddenly became burdensome, but he didn’t even think of pushing her away.

“Well, it’s in the north.”

“Of course, you look like a northerner.”

Elrose looked at Lakshan. Black hair, blue eyes, tall and strong. It was the typical characteristic of the northern people.

“And it’s a small town, with about 100 households at most?”

“I like that.”

Smaller towns were better off to avoid people’s eyes.

“And the land is fertile, so anything you plant there grows well. The wheat there turns golden, and the nearby orchards produce thick fruits every season. The local children are always finishing in the river too.”

A faint light flashed across Lakshan’s face as he explained.

Elrose looked at his face for a moment as it seemed like he sincerely missed his hometown.

‘You really liked it there.’

The longing on his face was not a lie.

Lakshan’s hometown, which was all she had heard so far, sounded like the perfect place for Elrose to go to.

‘Very few aristocrats go to the north.’

It was only decades ago that the north was incorporated into the empire. Before that, the empire was referred to as the center of the southern part of the continent. Therefore, there was a strong perception that the north was still the land of the barbarians.

‘In addition, the scars from the war remained…’

Restoration had already begun, but it would take a long time for the north to completely erase the traces from the war. In the meantime, the aristocrats would also stay away from there.

‘The more I think about it, the more perfect the place sounds.’

Elrose then felt Lakshan staring at her. She was momentarily lost in thought, so after a while, she asked him a question.

“Lakshan, why are you so nice to me?”

“Huh?”

“I’m saying this because even after the fake marriage, you could’ve just left me in the hospital, but you even took me separately and brought me to the inn… and now you’re offering me a place to get away.”

“That’s… Oh, just in case, it’s not because I want money or anything!”

“I know. If you did, you would’ve already robbed me.”

Elrose slapped the pocket which had the gold coins rolling in there.

If he came to the inn with her in his arms, he would’ve definitely heard the noise the gold coins would have made. Plus, anyone who was after money would’ve already taken those. After that, he could’ve abandoned her… but he still didn’t touch anything even after she had woken up.

She knew well enough that she should be wary of strangers, but somehow, she felt like she could trust him.

“Do you offer this to every woman you meet? And if I go to your hometown, will there be 100 women gathered there (since he said there’s about 100 households earlier)…”

“No!”

Lakshan shook his head in a hurry. Elrose ginned and asked.

“So, is there anything you want from me?”

Lakshan, who had been thinking for a while, opened his mouth.

“Actually… there is something I’d like to ask you.”

“What is it?”

Lakshan hesitated before asking.

“Will you be my companion?”