🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter: 8
“W-What? Really?! My lady, I knew it! You must have had something in mind all along! I believed in you! In your incredible insight!”
“To begin with, this contract itself is a scam.”
“W-What?! A scam?!”
I explained it to Naol step by step.
“Think about it. Doesn’t something feel off? No matter how foolish the previous duke may have been, would he really have borrowed money under conditions like these?”
“Well….”
“At the level the previous duke was at, the family wouldn’t have declined so badly that they couldn’t even afford firewood like now. Back then, other noble houses would’ve lent him fifty million marks easily. So why did he specifically borrow from the Fox Merchants’ Guild, and under such unfair terms?”
“Now that you say it, my lady, it really does sound strange.”
“Exactly. There must be some trick in this IOU that we don’t know about. And if we can prove that we were scammed—”
“Then we don’t have to pay back the money!”
“And on top of that, we can even receive compensation for damages!”
Naol clasped his hands together as if praying to the gods.
His eyes shone with admiration.
“My lady, you truly are amazing! I only ever thought about how we needed to repay the money quickly—I never once thought the contract itself might be suspicious. To catch that detail… it really is a blessing that you’re in charge of the household.”
He even pulled out a handkerchief and wiped his tears.
“If it weren’t for you, my lady, just imagining what would have happened to this castle is terrifying…. Aren’t you proof that the gods still haven’t abandoned House Valfruga?”
“What matters now is finding evidence of the fraud as soon as possible. When is the repayment deadline?”
“Next Monday… so we have five days left.”
“Good. For the next five days, suspend all other work and focus entirely on finding proof of fraud! And you know this has to stay secret, right?”
“Of course. I’ll keep my mouth shut. If those fox-like bastards find out we’re onto them, who knows what they’ll pull.”
“Good!”
Three days of sleepless nights followed.
Naol and I worked through the nights, desperately searching for proof that we had been scammed.
“The family seal?!”
“It’s genuine!”
“The contract paper?!”
“Also genuine!”
“Did they alter the numbers?!”
“There are no signs of tampering!”
“Then what the hell is it?!”
In the end, I threw the documents I’d been reading onto the desk.
No matter how many times I looked at them, I couldn’t figure out how the scam had been pulled off.
Outside the window, I could see members of the Fox Merchants’ Guild strolling around the grounds.
I narrowed my eyes and stared down at them,
as if that might somehow reveal their true intentions.
“Achoo! Why is it so damn cold here?! And what’s with that little brat?! Isn’t this just blatant disrespect toward us?!”
One of the Fox Merchants’ Guild members sneezed.
This damned castle—he hadn’t liked it from the moment he first saw it.
The ducal castle was perched atop a steep mountain, hard even to climb, exhausting people to no end. And then, at the contract signing, the one who appeared was a young girl who looked about fifteen.
Her fluffy pink hair and blue eyes were doll-like and lovely—but a child was still just a child.
The Fox Merchants’ Guild completely dismissed Pellia.
“If they’re resorting to appointing a mere child as duchess, then I guess it really is true that House Valfruga has completely fallen! Do you think we’ll really get a billion marks?”
“They did say they managed to get money somehow. If not now, when else would we ever get paid?”
The man leading the merchants’ guild, Rewan, replied with a smile.
“Haha! Who cares if they don’t have money! This castle is the collateral! We’re probably the only ones on the continent who’ve ever taken a ducal castle as collateral! But do you really think a place like this will sell? It’s white and pretty enough to look at, sure, but the location is awful…. Is the weather ever good here? Is there anything worth seeing nearby? The territory is ruined, and the mountains are full of monsters.”
“Well, still—it’s Valfruga, isn’t it? I heard even the stones used to build this castle are incredibly rare materials….”
Another merchant chimed in.
“Rare materials? What do you mean?”
“Something about stones that repel magic? You’ve heard that rumor, haven’t you?”
“Oh, come on. Do you know how expensive that would be? That’s just something people joke about because House Valfruga was so formidable! If it were true, when they were drowning in debt, they’d have torn out these walls and sold the bricks ages ago!”
“Well… that’s true, I suppose. Then why are you so interested in the castle, Mr. Rewan?”
Rewan had appeared out of nowhere one day.
Though he had inherited the merchant group from the previous leader, none of the Fox Merchants’ Guild members had ever seen a man named Rewan before.
In an industry where connections were everything, that was unusual.
Usually, successors were introduced early and brought along to meet other merchants.
Of course, considering how well he ran the guild—and how he dug up an old IOU they themselves had forgotten about and promised to make them a billion marks—he certainly seemed capable.
Before coming here, Rewan had made one condition.
If they managed to receive the full billion marks, the money would be divided according to shares. But if they failed to receive it and instead ended up taking the castle as collateral, he would pay them its value—on the condition that ownership of the castle be sold to him.
Rewan seemed far more interested in the castle than in the billion marks.
He gazed up at the castle with a gentle smile.
“Because it’s Valfruga.”
That single sentence was his answer.
A white castle built atop a snow-covered mountain.
It boasted delicate beauty, but anyone who had studied imperial history knew just how impregnable a fortress it became in wartime.
In the days when the empire was in chaos, Valfruga had held this very castle and, with a thousand soldiers, repelled an invading northern army of a hundred thousand.
The gatekeeper of the empire—its sword.
That was House Valfruga.
The Fox Merchants’ Guild looked anew at the castle they were standing in.
Anyone born and raised in the empire knew the name Valfruga.
And now, that great house was on the brink of destruction—by their own hands.
Someone spoke up anxiously.
“Is it really all right for us to press them this hard over the debt?”
“It doesn’t matter. They’re a ruined ducal house anyway.”
Rewan answered firmly.
“I’ve said it many times before coming here—anyone who lacks confidence is free to leave. But remember this: the money we’re owed is one billion marks.”
At Rewan’s words, greed once again filled their eyes.
One billion marks.
Even split up, that was a hundred million marks each.
Enough money for a family of four to live their entire lives without ever working.
‘That’s right. Valfruga is already a fallen house.’
‘No matter how great Valfruga once was, how could they recover from a situation like this? It’s impossible.’
‘If I just close my eyes for a moment, my family will never have to worry about money again.’
An unspoken agreement passed among them.
In the end, Naol and I failed to uncover the method of the scam.
We even postponed reading picture books to Lus and put our heads together, but still couldn’t figure out how they’d done it.
The most common methods of fraud usually involved forging a house crest, seal, or handwriting.
After reviewing the IOU for what must have been the twentieth time, Naol spoke with conviction.
“I truly don’t know. The contents match the copy we have as well. I may have been away from this line of work for several years, but my eye for these things hasn’t dulled.”
Ugh. I was seriously going crazy.
Time kept slipping away, and we had nothing to show for it.
Naol spoke anxiously.
“My lady… it’s already Saturday. In two days, we’ll need to produce some kind of result. Should we try to gather some money now, just to delay the deadline a little?”
“Do you think they’d agree to an extension?”
“No….”
“…Then leave it.”
“Yes….”
Completely exhausted, Naol and I collapsed in the study.
‘The original novel should’ve explained things like this, not just the romance between the heroine and the male lead….’
Write the male lead’s life story properly!
Who scammed whom, when, where, what they did, how they did it, and why!
Explain it according to the six Ws!
When I read the original story, I’d complained that the author went into too much detail with the settings and descriptions—but now that I was in this situation, I regretted it to death.
I seriously wanted to send the author a carrier pigeon and ask.
“It’s so frustrating—we know we’ve been scammed, but we don’t know how.”
“Exactly… maybe we should just pay them back with counterfeit money….”
“My lady, if we get caught, we’ll be arrested…. Counterfeiting currency is a serious crime….”
We let out long sighs at the same time.
“At this point, we don’t have a choice.”
I rose from where I’d been slumped over the desk, my expression resolute.
“Huh? As expected of you, my lady! You’d been hiding a trump card all along!”
I didn’t want to use this method because success wasn’t guaranteed—but things had come to this.
Whether we went under this way or that way,
if we were going to be ruined anyway, we might as well try something.
“We’ll use the blank-shot strategy.”
“Blank shots…?”
Ah. Right. Guns don’t exist in this world.
“It’s a thing. Naol, you trust me, right?”
“I’ve always trusted you, my lady.”
“Good! Then summon the Fox Merchants’ Guild. But before that…”
The Fox Merchants’ Guild, summoned so suddenly, looked bewildered.
In particular, they seemed uncomfortable with the changed atmosphere of the reception room.
I was decked out in lavish jewelry, and behind me stood soldiers lined up, their posture rigid and disciplined.
Even if they knew our castle’s circumstances inside and out, people were weak to what they could see.
As before, Rewan was the first to speak.
He really did seem to be the representative of the guild.
“I was under the impression that there was still some time left…. It seems you’ve already secured the money. As expected of a ducal house.”
“No. I haven’t secured the money. There’s no need to.”
I replied coolly.
Today, my concept was that of a proud, aloof duchess.
An elaborately styled head, an arrogant gaze, and a necklace so heavy it weighed down my neck.
I didn’t know if this would work—but I had to try whatever I could.
“Pardon?”
Rewan looked puzzled and then explained again.
“Duchess. You do understand that if you fail to repay us, this ducal castle must be handed over, correct? I’m asking whether you’re truly fine with the castle passing into the hands of a merchants’ guild. We intend to sell it immediately if necessary. Since it’s the castle of House Valfruga, there will be many houses eager to buy it.”
“You needn’t worry about that. Rather, should you be worrying?”
Propping my chin on one hand, I barked at the merchants.
“How dare you commit fraud against House Valfruga. Did you really think you could survive after doing such a thing?”
