CH 8

“I usually eat wheat flour at every meal, so let’s start with wheat flour.”

Elsez found the flour item in the ledger and tapped it with her index finger.

“If one person eats 500g of flour a day, which is enough for one person, one sack of 10kg flour can be eaten for about 20 days.”

“……”

“Then, even if we estimate the flour consumption for the past three weeks when there were seven people, roughly according to the number of people, with seven bags, and for the last week, roughly ten days for easy calculation… Four men will consume only two sacks in ten days.”

The butler looked at Elsez in surprise.

‘The calculation… Aren’t you too fast?’

It wasn’t a difficult calculation, but it was unbelievable for Elsez’s calculation speed, who had never learned arithmetic.

Also, while it is difficult for ordinary people to quickly determine how to calculate to accurately infer the answer they want, Elsez quickly reached the answer she wanted.

Moreover, it was surprising that Elsez, who does not work in the kitchen, knew how much flour it takes to make bread and how many grams of 1 kg.

Elsez continued the arithmetic as if it was natural.

“If you add seven and two sacks, the total is nine sacks. By the way, the flour I bought is forty bags. Even if I took it as generously as possible and calculated it, isn’t it too much of a difference?”

Elsez, who looked at the butler who couldn’t say anything with a bewildered expression, gave instructions to Lenny, who was watching the situation with a bewildered expression next to him.

“Lenny, go to the kitchen and check how many sacks of flour we have left.”

“Ah…. yes!”

Lenny hurriedly ran to the kitchen.

Since the scale wasn’t that big, it didn’t take long for Lenny to return.

“Exactly ten sacks left.”

Elsez looked at the butler, who was sweating and couldn’t say anything.

“You bought forty sacks, and if I ate nine sacks, there should be about thirty sacks left… Where did the other twenty sacks go?”

“That, that…”

“Even if you count the sacks just by looking at them, you can see how absurdly you bought them.”

“…….”

“Why did you buy a lot of expensive food when we already have a lot of debt?”

Elsez’s questioning as if she already knew the answer, the butler didn’t answer anything with a bluish face.

Elseez answered on his behalf.

“The more expensive the item, the higher the price per piece. To embezzle this much with cheap goods, you have to record that you bought a much more exorbitant amount than this.”

“…….”

“Shall we count where and how much we ate?”

Elsez asked, covering the book as if there was nothing more to look at.

The butler knew what Elsez’s actions meant.

She knew it all, so it meant confession without bothering me. It was pointless to step away from this situation.

“I’m sorry, lady!”

The butler kneels in front of Elsez.

“I have dedicated my life to this house. So it seems like I made a mistake with such a pathetic thought as to whether this is acceptable.”

“… … .”

“Yoi will soon become the Duchess of Rittenhouse, and I have to go home without a job.”

What does it have to do with being a Duchess and having a butler eating his owner’s property?

Elsez frowned at the absurd rationalization, but for the time being, she listened quietly.

“I will leave the money tomorrow and go down to my hometown. Please have mercy and forgive me…”

“Well, yes. A few sacks of flour and a few boxes of spices with a penny.”

Elsez forgave generously.

No, she pretended to be.

“That’s it, how did you settle the debt?”

To pierce the ‘core’ that the butler, who meekly admitted his guilt, is trying to hide.

But the butler responded calmly.

“As it is written in the books, the money has been paid in full. But why are you making such a fuss….”

“Then what about the receipt?”

When I mentioned ‘receipt’, the calm butler’s expression hardened.

When borrowing a large amount of money, you must use a loan certificate, and when you repay the money, you will receive a receipt with the seal of the family.

That way, there won’t be a case where the words are mixed like this time.

It was a story that Elsez, who lived a life far from managing money, would not know.

However, ‘The current Elsez’, who raised the four heroes by earning money in the first game, knew.

“Are you sure you didn’t get a receipt?”

“That, that…”

“If you are the butler, you must take responsibility and deal with it clearly. If I bring the butler to court over this matter, you will not be able to avoid the responsibility.”

It was obvious that they would listen to Elsez, a noble girl, rather than the butler, a commoner.

In addition, in this case, the butler’s mistake is obvious, even more so.

Elsez put the ledger on the table in front of him and stood up and said in a cold voice.

“Return the property you stole. If you don’t want to rot in prison for the rest of your life.”

****

Elsez, who came up after dinner, summarized the financial situation in a notebook.

Leti, who was observing the grape-flavored candy he received as a reward for staying quietly at the temple, pointed to the number and asked.

“What are all these little worms?”

“It’s a number. A unit of money counting.”

“What do you do with it?”

“You can count how many candies you can buy.”

Over the past two days, Elsez has noticed that Leti is quick when she uses candy or cookies to explain.

“Ohh.”

As expected, Leti was interested and started counting the numbers one by one.

Elsez sighed with a bewildered look on her face as Leti’s slender hands counted.

lack of money

‘After paying off the debt, there is not much money left. Even if you use it sparingly, it is only about the cost of living for three people, including Lenny, me, and Mrs. Mars, for a month. To use this as a guild request fee….’

Elsez wrapped her hair again.

‘Damn, at this rate, I’m going to starve to death before the demon’s power is removed?’

In the novel, other people are really good at being a noble girl who doesn’t have to worry about money.

“Why can’t I possess a noblewoman who is free from worrying about money….”

When Elsez was taking a deep breath in her pitiful condition, Lenny’s voice was heard along with a knock.

“Lady, I brought milk.”

“Come in.”

Lenny entered the room and put down the mug with milk.

“It’s milk with honey. It is said that if you drink it will make you sleep better. You are having a hard time with insomnia these days.”

“Ah, thank you.”

Elsez took the milk Lenny gave her and drank it.

However, I saw that Lenny’s curious gaze was directed elsewhere.

‘Huh?’

Elsez, who was chasing Lenny’s gaze in wonder at her, almost spit out the milk she was drinking.

At the end of Lenny’s gaze, there was Leti, who was sitting on a notebook and counting while eating candy.

Leti also made eye contact with Lenny and froze as it was, and Elsez, who saw the scene, did the same.

It was Lenny who broke the momentary silence.

“Lady, that doll… Didn’t it just move?”

Lenny asked, squinting her eyes as if she couldn’t believe it.

Elsez quickly grabbed Leti, who was about to introduce himself.

“Oh no! Can the doll move? you must have been wrong ha. ha. ha.”

And with an awkward laugh, I whispered ‘Five candies, five candies’ to Leti.

Leti, who was struggling to get out of Elsez’s grasp, fell silent at the whisper.

Lenny rubbed her eyes and looked at Leti once more, admitting that she was wrong.

Instead, Lenny’s attention shifted to the notebook Elsez was jotting down.

Noticing that Elsez was struggling with the cost of living, Lenny cautiously spoke up.

“Lady, how about going to the Duke of Ritenhouse and asking for it?”

“Duke?”

“Yes. The Viscount already borrowed a lot of money, but… you are still his fiancée, wouldn’t he help?”

Duke of Rittenhouse.

It’s a name that’s been mentioned over and over again.

Elsez decided to check whether the ‘Duke of Rittenhaus’ was the old duke she knew three years ago.

I have no intention of getting married, but anyway, whether my fiancée is an old man or a young man is also very important to knowing Elsez’s reputation.

“That… What is the Duke’s name? Suddenly I can’t remember.”

Lenny said to Elsez, who had suddenly forgotten her fiance’s name, while puzzled.

“It’s Master Tezette Rittenhaus.”

“What!?”

Hearing the familiar name, Elsez jumped up from her seat in shock.

Then I remembered The game setting is that Tezette is an illegitimate child of a noble family.

That family must be the Duke of Rittenhaus.

‘It wasn’t that I skipped the character narrative….’

I looked at the strategy and worked hard to calculate the skill damage, but I didn’t think to see the story behind each character that didn’t affect the game progress.

‘By the way, there is no way Tezette would have arranged this marriage in the first place.’

Judging by his personality and the actions of Viscount Rohain that I had learned so far, he must have had something that needed this marriage conversation.

The Viscount would have pushed Tezzete to be engaged to Elsez and borrowed business funds in return.

‘Anyway, we have to break this marriage.’

If Tezette knew I had the power of a demon, he would surely kill me without a blink of an eye.

So it’s best to avoid him as much as possible until this problem is resolved.

‘But it’s a marriage that was made through debt, so you’ll have to pay off the debt to break it….’

The bottom line was money again.

Elsez pressed down on his flabby temples.

“Tezet… No, I can’t go to Duke.”

“I’m sure it’s the same, right? So me and Mrs. Mars, we’re going to…”

“No, don’t do that.”

Elsez, who had already lived in this world for ten years, knew how to overcome this situation.

“Don’t worry. I’m not going to starve you both.”

As Elsez said that, her eyes lit up with enthusiasm.

The second round of game.

The thing I was most confident about was making money.