Chapter 9

Late at night at the Duchy of Cedric Family.

While feeling tired, Bastian opened the door of his office and just went in.

Yuan, who had arrived first, bowed to him.

Bastian passed by him coldly and sat down on the chair.

When Yuan saw his cool face, he was very much familiar with this kind of silence prevailing.

“Correspondence.”

“It has already been sent.”

Bastian nodded satisfactorily at the prompt return.

“Did you encounter any problems along the way?”

“I’ve got a guild to avoid the surveillance of the royal palace. We’ll probably reach the western continent next week.”

“Next week…”

It’s a little slow, but given the fact that he’s sending them without the Emperor’s permission, it was an acceptable time.

“Good work.”

The western continent is a perfectly neutral region.

The war continued for a long time to occupy an unoccupied continent, but none of them occupied the western continent.

Finally, three hundred years ago, five continents gathered to form a peace treaty.

Therefore, permission from each head of state is required to contact the western continent in any way.

Bastian is no exception, either. According to the principle, the emperor had to be granted permission after his private treatment.

But he didn’t have a clue about following the procedure. It’s illegal to trust a slow administration.

They should be quick to get  done with it.

Of course, if they get caught, he would be punished relentlessly, but Bastian is both capable and able to escape imperial rule.

“If the Emperor finds out, he’ll flip.”

I won’t let him know for the rest of my life, so it doesn’t matter.

Bastian laughed quietly. Yuan, who is looking at him from the other side, shut himself up.

The head of the knights, who has been with him for a long time, became nervous when he did such a bold thing without a blink of an eye.

“By the way, who reported?”

Bastian suddenly raised his head and asked.

Yuan came to his senses late when he refuted. He put down the document he was holding.

“Fortunately, she’s been in the eastern village for the past five years. The relationship with the villagers was good, especially Zera, who is close to the common people.”

“Is Zera the commoner who tipped off Amel’s whereabouts?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“My sister has a cute friend.”

He is wondering what he would have done if he had seen a rough ride far from the capital.

In the last five years of Amelia’s disappearance, Bastian searched every corner of the empire but found no sign of her sister.

With his last hope, he was told to investigate every small town close to the border.

And then he found Amelia in one of them. It was a miracle.

“We believe that she arrived in the village five years ago in the fall and with the help of the villagers. For the last three years, she’s been working at the town’s largest inn.”

“Then there is nothing unusual about it.”

“In general, all the villagers were good. However, the owner of the inn where she worked as an employee had some attitude issues.”

With what Yuan had added, Bastian raised his eyes.

“Samuel, 39, single, immediately unfriendly, molested female employees. Of course he didn’t get along with her either.”

“He touched her three years ago, and I don’t think he’s been in contact with her since she almost broke his wrist with her bat.”

“He touched her.”

Yuan shivered in an instant.

He is a lord who is always stuck with a smile on his face, but he often felt vitality more than feeling creepy.

“…do you want me to silence him?”

With his careful question, Bastian closed his eyes and tilted his head obliquely.

A drowsy and elegant neckline was revealed under the chandelier light.

“No.”

It was not long before he smiled.

“Bring him before my eyes. I’ll deal with him myself.”

He can’t just kill a human being who touches his sister.

Yuan expected Bastian’s comments and just nodded.

“I left him in the basement. You can go down right away.”

Although he almost lost his voice in the afternoon, Yuan is a competent man. And he knew Bastian’s madness towards Amelia better than anyone else.

Bastian laughed delightfully.

“Great.”

He felt chill in the basement of the main building that they had gone down. The air was filled with the scent of ominous blood.

The place he is in right now is the execution site of Bastian, a place that very few people knew of in the mansion.

As he entered the innermost corner, he saw the man shaking with his hands and feet tied. It was Samuel, the innkeeper at the eastern village.

“W-why are you doing this? Save me, please. I’ll give all the money I have.”

He looked confused when he was captured without any reason.

Bastian scoured the man lying on his stomach with dry eyes. He had a relentlessly cold expression on his visage.

‘A tooth bug touches my precious sister.’

“You shouldn’t have played with her hands if you wanted to live.”

“Pardon, w-what d-do you m-mean?”

“I’ll let you go in pain.”

“Sa, save me! Ugh.”

The grinning Bastian pulled out a knife.

With a groan, the sharp, piercing slash from the knife shone under dim light.

“Go to the depths of hell and regret.”

There was despair in Samuel’s face.

It was then, blood splattered on the cold stone floor.

***

“Good morning, miss!”

“Violet, good morning to you too.”

Early in the morning, she hummed to Violet who was beside her bed.

Looks like Violet’s the winner of the day.

The duality of the annex maids is beyond my imagination. I guess it does make sense to say that I am the only one who they have waited for the past five years.

These kids even drew lots to decide who would wake me up in the morning. Mina the day before yesterday, Amy yesterday, Violet today.

When I opened the window with the hanging curtains, cool air rushed into the room.

Violet, who arranged the sheets, glistened her eyes and looked at me.

“Lady!”

“Hmm?”

“You’re pretty today, too! Our lady is really the best!”

Now that’s not surprising at all. I smiled awkwardly and gave a look as if I want get out of here.

Violet, who had been winking for a while and sending a heart with her fingers, slightly closed the door.

In my quiet room, I stretched myself and basked myself with the pouring sunlight.

“Ah.”

It’s been four days since I came into the duchy.

In other words, four days have passed since that nerve wrecking incident.

To sum it all up, I’ve spent a few days within the duchy already.

“…it’s so comfortable.”

It is just too peaceful. It’s a place where people die from time to time, and I wondered if I could do this every day.

Bastian, who said he was busy, seemed to be really busy, and the staff of the annex are also having a remarkably busy day.

In conclusion, I am the only one taking a long break among all of them.

“Hmm.”

It was nice during my first day and second day, but it is painful to keep doing this.

Besides, I was an inn worker until a few days ago. The habit of cleaning and doing laundry from morning to evening still remained in my body.

I would rather be busy than laze around, so I finally visited Monica right after I had breakfast.

“Work you mean?”

“Yeah. Cleaning, laundry, whatever it is, is there anything you need help with?”

“Pardon?!”

In an instant, Monica’s face turned white.

No, don’t be so surprised.

“Oh, miss! That’s not going to work. How can I do that with your precious hands…”

“Then other things are fine. I am hella bored as you can see.”

Monica flinched as she grumbled, sticking out her mouth.

“Well, then…”

After a moment, Monica looked at me as if she had made a decision. She had that kind of expression that had made a big decision in her entire life.

“There’s one thing you can do.”

“Really?”

“Will you follow me?”

Monica guided me to the last room on the third floor of the annex.

After a while, I opened the door, I sensed the fragrant scent of wood…

Sunlight was pouring from the big window, there was a bookcase filling up one side of the wall, and evenly organized documents.

The desk in the middle of the room is neatly lined with quills and paper.

“This is…”

“The office of the annex.”

“Did the annex have an office?”

“Of course.”

She led me to the desk that is in the center. Then I took out an old book from the drawer and stuck it out.

“What is this?”

“This is the annex records. I’ve been managing it as a substitute because you’ve been away.”

When I opened the cover, I saw a lot of numbers.

“The annex is run independently with budgets. I planned to show this all to you when you got used to the Duke, but if you don’t mind, why don’t you start administering the annex?”

She said in sincerity and full force that I was momentarily frozen.

No, I was just bored, so I thought I’d make time.

“…but why do you have so much money?”

No one would have spent it all for five years, but isn’t the allocated budget way too much?

It is already enough to buy a castle in the countryside. Wait, castle?

“Well, Monica.”

“Please say it.”

“You’re saying all this money is mine, right? Are there any restrictions on how much do I have to use?”

Monica shook her head when I asked carefully.

“No, there are no restrictions. That is all the money allocated for the annex. The report goes up to the main building, but that’s just for formality sake. You can use it all whenever you want.”

A light bulb went on in her head at her definite answer.

“Hoho.”

In short, what I do with this money is not my freedom.

Let’s see, from now on, if I steal this money and save it…

I then showed her a grin and looked at Monica.

“Good work, Monica. Leave it to me from now on.”

All right, if you save money from now on, I will be able to fly way up to the sky.

***

After Monica went back, I stayed alone in the office and held a quill.

“Let’s see.”

It usually takes about 50 gold a month for ordinary households to live without luxury.

If one reached a centennial age, that would be roughly 5,000 Gold. Five thousand gold is plenty of money to buy a house with it, and emergency money.

“60 thousand gold is already enough.”

This money is enough to play and eat for life.

“As expected, there is a hole in the sky that will open even if it collapses.”

[T/n: The last phrase she had said is interpreted as there is still hope even if you have face a hard obstacle.]

There’s nothing wrong with our old ancestors. I stopped looking at the books with pride.

“Hold on, shall we get some money for business?”

Come to think of it, it would be easier there than making a double account and siphoning it away. It’s not bad to do business because she already has enough money.

“But what kind of business should I do here…”

A light bulb then flashed through my mind as I pondered.

Cheat key that only I can use after reading the original.

“A full moon stone.”

Full Moon Stone is one of the minerals in the world.

It is a piece of stone that shone softly like the moon when the surrounding area darkened, and the price is ridiculously low compared to scarcity because the stone itself is soft and useless.

“But if you smelt it…”

A life stone is more precious than a diamond after all.

It is a rare mineral that harbors the life force of a goddess.

Life stones are still unavailable, but it is not revealed until the second half of the original novel that Full Moon Stone is the raw material of the life stone.

This is because Tricia finds out with the help of an imperial wizard.

“It is considered stealing, but whatever.”

I think I can get a concession from the heroine who’s going to grow out anyway.

“If I smelt and sold all of this, it’ll be about this price, but if I do a good job in a few years… Hmm.”

At the time when I even hummed down the numbers.

“Wait a minute.”

I think I forgot something important.