Chapter 48

“Hm… Because you like my tea?”

When she brought the morning tea, she clearly saw Theon, who had tasted it, smiling faintly.

‘It must be tasty. Who does he think brewed it?’

Theon was staring at Ayla, who couldn’t hide her triumphant expression, as if she were pathetic.

Soon after, Theon spoke in a firm voice.

“It’s amazing that you were the top student at Fencers with that head.”

‘He’s disregarding me again. Being handsome is everything.’

Ayla frowned at his sarcastic tone.

She seemed to be right about him being born with no manners.

Despite expressing her displeasure with her whole body, Theon’s expression did not seem to have a single feeling of sorry towards Ayla.

“Then what?”

Ayla said bluntly as she gave a side-glance at the huge pile of documents.

“Find them.”

“Find… What?”

“I think I said I don’t like repeating myself.”

‘It doesn’t matter if I press him to speak properly…’

He was exceptionally picky today.

At Theon’s sarcastic response, Ayla looked around, biting her lower lip awkwardly.

All that was there were documents.

When Ayla silently pointed her finger at the tower of documents, Theon nodded, giving a positive response.

Ayla, who picked up some of the documents and scanned through them, let out a deep sigh that she had been holding back.

She saw it the other day too, but the contents of the documents were really terrible.

She couldn’t find any part that was written correctly.

The amount was not the problem. It was literally a mess.

Looking at the money flow chart, which describes how the national assets are moved, she didn’t know what to do.

Just looking at the documents, the country was in deep debt.

Thanks to the clever displacement of money and expenditure clauses here and there, the state coffers had been reduced ridiculously.

‘Don’t tell me… He wants me to find all these accounting errors?’

In order to find all the accounting errors, all the financial statements written so far must be investigated in reverse; but it was possible.

She couldn’t guarantee how long it would take to turn everything upside down and confirm the expenses, income, big and small events that happened meanwhile, and of course, the distribution process of goods and money.

And she didn’t know whether she could find all the errors.

Above all, the biggest problem was that it was impossible to know since when the calculations and data got screwed up.

“Hm… Is this all?”

“There’s a lot in there too.”

Theon smiled, as if trying to make fun of Ayla, and he pointed his finger towards the archive room in the office.

Ayla grimaced and screamed silently while grabbing her hair in despair.

Soon, as if she thought of something, Ayla’s eyes sparkled.

‘Then I don’t have to be a maid anymore?’

Ayla’s mouth went up in a crescent-shaped line at the sudden thought.

If she is free from being a maid, she no longer has to wash plates and glasses with her hands in cold water.

She doesn’t need to put her hand in hot water while preparing a bath, and she doesn’t need to do the laundry one by one with her hands.

She doesn’t have to force herself to please the nobles.

Most of all, she can be confident in front of that wicked woman, Claire Charne.

Of course, she will be able to go out of the palace more freely than now.

If she looks at the overall financial situation while checking for accounting errors like this, she will be able to access her father’s case more easily… It will be easy to reach the answer she wants.

Thinking it was a better condition than expected, Ayla nodded quietly with a satisfied expression.

“Then, when should I go to work?”

“Go to work?”

“Work as your personal accountant. Of course, there must be a fixed time to go to work.”

“Hm… Make sure to come at every teatime.”

‘Every teatime?’

Ayla tilted her head with a serious expression, as if she couldn’t understand what he said.

Theon glanced at her once, picked up the teacup, and brought it to his mouth.

“Why… At every teatime?”

As she couldn’t make sense of Theon’s intentions, Ayla asked straightforwardly.

Theon laughed lightly at Ayla’s question.