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Chapter 01
“Just what do you plan to do about all this debt?!”
Inside the study, filled with the chill of night air.
A man viciously barked as he slammed a bundle of documents down in front of the woman who had been tapping the desk with a troubled expression.
Bang!
“Do you have any idea how much debt the family is in right now because of your parents?!”
I know.
Of course I know.
Aria Renesty glanced at the papers scattered across the desk.
20 billion.
A massive 20 billion Marni, violently circled again and again in red pen.
For reference, this was news that had arrived fresh and hot just this morning.
So now even here I’m buried under debt. My head throbbed for a moment.
“Damn it! With the title succession coming up, what the hell is this?! Do you think I crawled through hell just because I wanted to take over this garbage family?!”
“……”
“Say something, you crazy bitch! What are you going to do about all this debt?!”
“Well, yeah.”
We’re seriously screwed.
What the hell do I do…?
It was a miracle the family hadn’t gone bankrupt already. Ah—guess that’s coming soon too.
Aria picked up one of the documents.
[Payment Demand Notice]
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Bengsti Bank: 20 billion Marni
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Repayment deadline: Within 180 days of notice issuance
“Wow. They want me to pay this back in half a year?”
For a moment, I doubted my eyes.
It was impossible unless you were insane.
“This is f**king hopeless.”
“R-right?!”
The man stared blankly, mouth hanging open. Hearing profanity from her—usually obedient and meek—was so jarring that he froze.
After a moment, he snapped back to his senses.
Bang! He slammed the desk again and shouted with a fierce expression.
“That’s why I’m telling you to settle all this debt before I inherit the title. Got it?! Damn it. This is humiliating for a noble house! What am I supposed to do about my business?!”
“Uncle.”
“Ah, what now?!”
“If we can’t pay all this debt… what happens to us?”
“What?”
It was a strange question—barely even a question. The man’s face twisted like he’d bitten into shit.
“You don’t know? We go bankrupt, obviously, and sell off the noble title. And if that’s still not enough? You get sold as a mining slave. Huh? Someone like you wouldn’t even last half a day before croaking.”
He made a slicing gesture across his own throat. Aria carefully asked again.
“…Is it really that bad?”
“Are you out of your damn mind? Mining slaves are finished—finished! Dying is only a matter of time! Damn it! Why did that bastard brother of mine ever stand guarantor…!”
He vented his rage in a stream of curses.
After spewing insults to himself, he left the room, tossing out nothing but an order to deal with the debt somehow.
Crazy bastard. At least close the door!
Aria jumped up and shut the wide-open door.
She didn’t forget to lock it tightly, just in case he barged back in.
When she returned to the desk, countless payment notices were waiting for her.
Tsk. Smacking her lips, Aria bent down.
“Hoo.”
She pulled out a large bag from under the desk. When she opened the zipper, gold items she had secretly collected over time came into view.
Aria Renesty hugged the bag with a satisfied expression.
Alright, if it’s come to this…
Let’s just run.
…That was what I thought thirty minutes ago.
“Damn it!”
Holding back tears, I crossed the threshold of the mansion again. As I entered the main building, Sofia, a maid who was crossing the central hall, approached me.
“Oh my, miss. Did you go out?”
“Huh? Uh… yeah…”
Out? I did go out. Aside from getting caught halfway through, it was a pretty satisfying outing.
Sharp-eyed bastards.
They’d put a travel ban in place already.
Guess everyone thinks the same way.
People with massive debts were temporarily placed under travel restrictions—legal measures designed to prevent escapes like mine.
Once the ban was imposed, I couldn’t leave the capital until the debt was fully repaid.
In other words, I had nowhere to run.
Just my rotten luck.
After roughly asking Sofia to prepare bathwater, I headed straight for the study. Thanks to the overwhelming debt, most of the staff had already left.
At first, I thought about sending Sofia away too, but she said she couldn’t abandon me after serving me since childhood and insisted on staying by my side.
So I planned to contact her after escaping and settling down somewhere.
But—
“Haa.”
Contact my ass. When I came to my senses, I was right back here.
I shoved the bag under the desk and collapsed into the chair.
I’m screwed.
It’s not that I absolutely can’t leave.
There are always underground routes.
They just cost an absurd amount of money.
Even handing over this entire bag wouldn’t be enough.
And it’s not like I had anyone to ask for help.
That damn guarantor issue burned every bridge.
Once praised as a business genius, now that reputation was a thing of the past. All that remained of House Renesty was an enormous mountain of debt. Who would lend money to a family on the brink of collapse?
Apparently, my parents had even fought with close acquaintances over standing guarantor.
They had damn good foresight, Mom and Dad.
Aagh!
I clenched my fists and swallowed a scream.
No matter how I looked at it, this situation was the absolute worst.
At first, right after possessing this body, things were fine. The noble life I’d only heard about wasn’t so bad.
But one year into possession, the count and countess died suddenly of illness.
And not long after that, 20 billion in debt wrapped itself neatly around me.
Who said transmigrators have it easy? Who said we get buffs?!
Try sitting on a mountain of debt, huh?!
A surge of injustice welled up.
“Ah, seriously, this isn’t right!”
The Aria Renesty I possessed was a low-ranking extra in Once Again, a Rising Tycoon!.
No—more precisely… a supporting character who clung to the protagonist who would later become a mega-rich tycoon.
Simply put, I was bottom-tier of the bottom-tier.
And Benjamin is still dirt-poor right now too.
The protagonist, Benjamin Briggs.
After his family collapsed under debt, he struck it rich with a revolutionary business idea and reclaimed his house.
So when Aria later came to ask for help, he gladly assisted her, saying she reminded him of his former self.
But that was years in the future.
I’m twenty-one right now. At this point, Benjamin’s family has just collapsed too.
If I went to him now, I’d probably end up helping him instead.
But I can’t just sit around and wait.
A few months, maybe—but it would take years before Benjamin succeeded. I couldn’t live doing nothing that long.
“And I have to pay it back in half a year.”
If it were just me, maybe I could manage. But there were still several staff members by my side, including Sofia.
They stayed purely out of loyalty, even when I told them I couldn’t pay them. I couldn’t let them starve.
I straightened up from my slumped position in the chair.
Live. The living have to live.
Right. It was do-or-die now. Denying reality wouldn’t change anything.
I knew better than anyone that there was no retreat left.
One wrong move, and I’d be sold as a mining slave. The only “family” I had left was a man telling me to pay off debt.
If it came to it, he’d sell me without hesitation. In the end, it was every person for themselves.
First, pay off the debt.
I’d already died from overwork in my past life—I had no intention of becoming a slave here too.
I just have to pay it back within half a year, right?
Damn it. I could barely manage personal loans—now this guarantor nonsense?
Holding back tears, I pulled out a pen and paper.
[Things to Do Tomorrow]
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Ask if the 20 billion can be paid in installments!
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Sell off all dresses and jewelry!
“First, I need to put out the immediate fire.”
Yeah. Life is a brutal, hands-on battlefield.
“Impossible.”
Shit. But did you really have to be this heartless, sir?
