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Chapter 58
I stopped in my tracks and pressed my face into the gap.
It was to get a better look at the men’s features.
“Beard and mole.”
One man had a scruffy beard, and the other had a large mole above his eyebrow.
“Hss, keep your mouth shut! Do you want to ruin everything?”
“Who’s going to hear us up at the top of this tower?”
The bearded man barked with a frightening expression, but the one with the mole just shrugged.
There was some truth to what the mole-man said.
At the entrance to the tower, knights from Black Dragon Castle and workers from the Rose Guild were keeping a vigilant watch, and the key to this room was held only by Yelloyz.
So naturally, there was no way any secrets could leak from the top floor of this tower.
Under normal circumstances, that is.
“Whether it’s day or night, the squirrels hear everything!”
I narrowed my eyes and focused on their conversation.
“That damn branch leader turned out to be Princess Kreutz, huh.”
“Right? Honestly, I was half-doubting it until ‘they’ mentioned it. She looked suspicious, but I’m glad I believed it.”
The bearded man spoke, glancing around.
Apparently, he thought this place was suitable for discussing secrets.
But wait—‘they’?
That word was suspicious in the extreme.
Yet even the workers seemed to have no knowledge of ‘them’.
“This Rose Guild doesn’t matter to us. Huh, what exactly are they?”
The mole-man chuckled wryly.
It made sense—the Rose Guild was a massive trade guild that extended its influence beyond the Empire to the Western Continent.
The royal family and high-ranking nobles—there was practically no part of the capital untouched by the guild. One could say it was a “rolling vein of gold.”
“If they’re kicking around a guild like that…”
They were clearly the kind of people for whom money wasn’t important.
However, for the bearded man, it didn’t seem like a big deal.
“Wasn’t it odd in more than one way? Even with her whole body covered, the smell of blood was overwhelming.”
He added that the smell of blood seemed to have been on her for a long time.
“For guys like us, as long as we know we’ll get what we want… but those bright blue eyes really left a bad feeling.”
The mole-man shuddered, recalling an unpleasant memory.
‘Bright blue eyes that give a bad feeling?’
As I silently listened to their conversation, a memory flashed through my mind.
Even after three years, it occasionally appeared in my dreams, tormenting me.
Bright blue eyes that attacked my family in the middle of the night and stole everything.
Of course, I couldn’t be sure if these two were the same person.
But my intuition was insistent: someone was targeting Yelloyz and the Kreutz family, and for some reason, it was connected to my own family.
“Anyway, it’s a shame to leave these treasures right in front of us.”
“What’s there to be sad about? In two days, it’ll all be ours anyway.”
The men vanished with only sly smiles.
Listening to their footsteps fade, I thought:
‘It won’t be that easy.’
Now that Cherry knows about this, there’s no way she’ll just let it slide.
“Tch!”
‘That greedy bird… might as well go bald!’
[Hehe, I’ll take that as a compliment.]
Bishop hummed as he disappeared.
I stomped onto the bed, fuming.
On the way back after checking the crystals, Bishop had bargained with me in an absurdly unreasonable way.
[Since you came back and even waited, the fee is double-double.]
Double-double? Not just double, double-double?
Where on earth did he even learn that expression?
I had so many things I wanted to say, but there was no time to argue.
The sun was beginning to rise, chasing away the darkness.
I could finally return just before dawn.
‘Thankfully, Kenih is still asleep.’
Tiptoeing carefully onto the bed, I finally exhaled in relief.
“How, Cherry… what were you doing so early in the morning?”
Drowsily, Kenih’s voice reached me from above.
“Chu… Chuut?”
Huh? What?
I forced my heavy eyelids open and adjusted my posture.
On the low table in front of me, tea and snacks were laid out.
It was the reception room where I had spoken with Yelloyz yesterday.
“Cherry, are you feeling okay?”
Yelloyz, wearing a stylish black dress, looked at me.
Behind her stood Gerard, nodding quickly at me.
It was a silent signal.
‘Not sure why, but I guess I should nod?’
As expected of a first-class schemer, he had concocted a plausible story.
When someone goes to such lengths, it’s only natural to play along.
“Chuut!”
I nodded slowly, raising a hand as if nothing was wrong.
“Oh my… still as cute as ever. If you ever want to visit me, just let me know, okay?”
Yelloyz, eyes narrowed slightly, tapped one finger against the palm of my hand.
‘Uhh… sister?’
Hearing that title for the first time ever made my heart tingle.
Twisting slightly, I looked at Yelloyz.
“Cherry.”
Kenih’s voice sounded low and firm.
He didn’t continue, but it seemed to remind me of what he had said yesterday.
‘Am I not supposed to even hold hands?’
Before I could ponder that, a mocking voice reached me.
“Jealous men aren’t popular, you know.”
Of course, it was Yelloyz.
“There’s nothing uglier than someone greedy for everything.”
“You have a good sense of self-awareness, little sibling.”
The dreaded Kreutz sibling war was about to erupt.
“Ahem. Since there’s a guest, you two should hold back a bit.”
Gerard inserted himself smoothly between the siblings.
My gaze naturally moved to Yelloyz’s side.
‘Guest… is that the right word?’
It was a middle-aged man shaking violently.
His gray hair stuck out messily, and he wore casual home clothes below.
‘Who on earth is he?’
But my question didn’t last long.
The high-end equipment he carried, and the ore placed in front of him, gave it away.
‘Crystals!’
He must have been an appraiser kidnapped to verify the authenticity of the crystals.
Soon after,
“Y-yes, they’re definitely crystals.”
The appraiser, who had been hunched over with a magnifying glass, spoke slowly.
“Are you sure?”
“Y-yes… My family has operated treasure and appraisal businesses for generations. There are minor scratches from storage, but they are definitely crystals.”
Shivering like a dry tree in the winter wind, the appraiser reported the results.
“However… whether due to low purity or age, the mana cannot be confirmed.”
“I see. So the crystals are genuine.”
Kenih slowly stroked his chin, deep in thought.
Gerard then guided the appraiser.
“You’ve traveled a long way, please rest for a bit.”
Though polite, it was practically a form of confinement.
During the uproar over the crystal mine auction, the mere presence of an appraiser visiting the Kreutz family would make the bidding even more competitive.
“R-really resting…? You’re not leaving me to rest forever, right…?”
The terrified appraiser disappeared with the knights.
A moment of silence fell over the reception room.
Confirming the authenticity of the crystals wasn’t enough.
“We should visit the mine in person.”
“I agree. This mine requires a huge budget, so we need more solid evidence. Let’s prepare for a site inspection first.”
“Do that.”
As Gerard spoke, Kenih nodded.
“The preparations are done. I made sure everything is ready so we can leave tomorrow.”
Yelloyz leaned back on the sofa, fanning herself confidently.
‘Tomorrow…’
That’s the date they mentioned for the ‘operation.’
“Chuuuuut…!”
No. I have to stop this operation, no matter what!
