Chapter 19.1

The butler continued to speak when Nadia didn’t reply.

“I calculated the amount of the dowry sent by Duke Balazit, and it seemed that most of the debts could be solved with it.”

“My father didn’t want to embarrass me, so he prepared a hefty amount of dowry for me.”

“You don’t know how happy we are to have you come during this crisis, Madam. If you could help us a little, Marquis would be very happy. A-Aha ha ha….”

He rubbed his palms with an awkward laugh.

He showed a pitiful look that Nadia wanted to comfort him for suffering at an old age.

A head butler’s pride was bound to be high as they were the most prestigious employees in the house.

Nevertheless, he was willing to set aside his pride and prioritize the family.

‘But that’s not it…’

Nadia shook her head firmly.

“We can’t!”

“W-Why is that?”

“It will be like we are pouring water into a bottomless bowl.”

Gordon’s expression was distorted by the unexpected cold response.

Of course, he didn’t expect her to easily release the dowry, which was the possession of the wife.

But wasn’t Nadia a Winterfell now?

Gordon thought she would not be able to ignore the family’s crisis.

However, it was clear that she was being decisive about it and trying to say that she wouldn’t give them a penny.

‘Th-That…! As expected, is it because she is the daughter of Duke Balazit?’

He was disappointed, but he should not be swayed by his emotions right now. As of now, Nadia was the only one who could solve the debt.

Gordon, the butler, once again begged with a pathetic look.

“Ma, Madam… The situation is really bad. In addition, the monster attacks are expected to worsen soon, so could you just try to consider it once? Hm?”

“It doesn’t mean that I won’t help the Winterfell family. Think about it carefully, Gordon.”

Nadia put the ledger in front of him and said.

“The debts have been accumulating even before the debts from the expedition were paid. You recorded a deficit almost every year.”

“As you know, there are only a few productive agricultural lands in the Winterfell estate. Also, due to the poor harvest over the past few years…”

“Exactly, that’s the problem! I don’t know what kind of person the first lord of the Winterfell family is, but one thing is for sure. One thing is that you’ve been scammed!”

“…Pardon?”

Territorial fraud? The butler made a puzzled face as he heard that.

Nadia continued fierily.

“Half of this estate is a useless wasteland. The weather is cold, so there are more cases of bad harvests than good one. There are so many monsters. There are no specialties, no tourist attractions, no ports! How could he choose this land? If he didn’t want to cause his descendants to suffer, he would have known that he had been frauded!”

“….”

Why did he leave out all the good lands? How could he settle at a place like this? If Nadia could, she wanted to grab Winterfell’s first lord and shake him.

Nadia took a deep breath, trying to calm down as she still had a lot to say.

“You don’t have enough farmland, and you have no productive industry. Even the size of Winterfell’s army was huge due to the numbers of monsters. In your situation, the military is nothing more than a money waster. Oh, of course, I respect the honor of the Northern military. But can’t we have those great knights to do mercenary work? We have to regard that the current Winterfell estate is not good and the measures we have to take.”

“….”

What Nadia said was so true that Gordon couldn’t refute. In fact, Gordon also resented the estate’s dire situation countless times.

Now that he thought about it, he wondered if they were really scammed.

Gordon sighed and asked back.

“But… What can we do? The estate has already been settled here, and going back to the past to prevent our first lord from choosing this land is impossible.”

“What do you mean we couldn’t make a difference? You can improve the constitution of this estate.”

“What do you mean by…”

“I mean, you have to make a hole for the money to come out. Otherwise, Winterfell will suffer from poverty for the rest of our life.”

“Hoo…”

Suffering from poverty for the rest of their life.

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For Gordon who was in charge of the housekeeping of the North lord’s castle, those words sent shivers down his spine.

He had been struggling with the ledger, of how to save even a penny somehow.

The butler asked as he trembled.

“W-Well… What are we going to do about it?”

“First, we should start with the dowry.”