🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 6
“…My Lady. Are you sure this is the right place?”
“I think so.”
At Laura’s deeply dissatisfied voice, I nodded weakly.
Then I looked gloomily at the old building in front of me.
The sign hanging above the building read ‘Pawnshop,’ although most of the color had faded.
It was so old and worn that even part of the first character had fallen off.
This was completely different from the luxurious pawnshops mainly used by wealthy nobles.
This was the kind of shabby place mostly frequented by people from the back alleys.
There was a very simple reason I had come here today.
“Haah. I really can’t believe this…”
I sighed and unfolded the letter.
At first, I had been too shocked and confused to examine it properly.
But there was actually a second page.
When I checked the back, I found it covered in writing too.
[I urgently needed money, but I’d run out of all the money I had on hand, so I had no choice.
I pawned the ring you were wearing, okay?
I’ll include the address, too. The shop is called…]
That’s right.
The front page had simply described her situation and what she had done.
The back, however, contained a very detailed list of all the trouble she had caused.
You said you couldn’t remember! You said the only thing you were sorry about was the incident with Leon Obsidian!
Even reading it again made my blood boil, and I ground my teeth.
No wonder my finger had felt strangely empty ever since I woke up.
The ring I always wore on my index finger was gone.
“That crazy woman! How could she exchange that ring for money?!”
It was customary to wear the ring that represented the head of the family on the right index finger.
And that ring was not just a family heirloom passed down through generations.
It was a treasure and a symbol of the family itself.
And yet, she had taken something that important and—
“She pawned it?! How could anyone in their right mind even think of doing that? If she needed money, she could have charged it to the House of Zaherete’s account! Or she could have used a check! There were so many other options!”
I felt like I could cry over the sheer recklessness of this woman.
Why did I have to go through all this trouble because of some woman whose face I didn’t even know?
After a long bout of self-pity, I entered the shop.
“Oh, you mean the ring that was displayed outside? If that’s the one, it’s already been sold.”
“What?”
“What on earth were you thinking?!”
“…”
“You suddenly went to a pawnshop, so I wondered what was going on. And then I find out you pawned a ring? The ring you always wore? Do you have any idea what kind of ring that was?!”
Exactly.
Laura shouted with veins standing out on her neck, completely worked up.
But—
I’m a victim too!
From the problem with Leon Obsidian to the family ring, none of this had been my fault.
But explaining the whole situation in detail would only make my mouth hurt.
And Laura probably wouldn’t believe me anyway.
So I had no choice but to accept everything and keep it to myself.
Still, it was so unfair that I felt like I was going crazy.
What on earth did I ever do to deserve this in my life…?
At this rate, I was starting to resent God too.
“First, we need to get the ring back. The pawnshop owner said he’d look into the buyer’s information, so let’s wait and see.”
“What about the estate, then? You said you were going down there tomorrow, so I’ve already prepared everything.”
Laura patted her knees as she spoke.
She’s right.
I had already finished all my delayed work and prepared everything for my escape.
But another sudden problem had thrown my plans off once again.
And it didn’t end there.
[Oh, right. I also got into an argument with a drunk person while I was walking down the street. He kept bothering me, so… before I knew it, I beat him up pretty badly.
Your body is surprisingly strong, you know?
Anyway, I think he was someone who knew you, so just in case, be careful!]
She had actually beaten someone up too.
She’d only stayed in my body for a week, yet somehow she’d managed to get into every kind of trouble imaginable.
Thanks to her, I felt like I’d aged ten years just from cleaning up the mess.
Still, the pawnshop owner said he’d find the ring, and as for the assault… well, if the victim comes to the House of Zaherete demanding compensation, I can probably settle it appropriately.
There was just one thing that bothered me.
― Saintess ‘Irene’ appears
*― Leon Obsidian (mastermind) rebellion incident
― Leon Obsidian executed
― Fall of Bernstein
What on earth did this mean?
On the back of the letter, where she had written down the major crimes she had committed in painstaking detail, there was a section at the very end that looked almost like a timeline.
For some reason, it really bothered me.
“If you’re going to write something, at least make it clear. This isn’t some kind of riddle. What am I supposed to do with something this vague?”
The name mentioned most often was, unsurprisingly, Leon Obsidian.
The problem was that almost everything written after his name sounded like a curse.
And then there was ‘execution.’
If I take the words at face value, does this mean the Grand Duke dies? But why? And what does ‘rebellion’ mean? As far as I know, the Grand Duke and the Emperor have a good relationship.
Those crimes didn’t seem to fit the man I knew in the white priest’s robes at all.
“Ah, I don’t know anymore!”
After groaning over it for a while, I raised both fists in the air and shouted.
Maybe because I’d spent so many days thinking about one problem after another, I felt like my head was going to explode.
Meanwhile, the carriage arrived at the marquis’s residence.
“My Lady! You’re finally back. I’ve been waiting for you!”
“Nothing else happened, did it?”
The moment I got out of the carriage, the butler, who had been pacing anxiously near the entrance of the mansion, hurried over to me.
His behavior felt strangely familiar.
When I asked him suspiciously, he looked like he was about to cry.
Even then, his painfully thin legs were fidgeting restlessly.
Yep. Something else happened.
“A guest is waiting for you.”
“A guest? Who?”
It isn’t the Grand Duke, is it? He said he’d give me time to think.
The butler immediately answered my question.
“Countess Oscar and Young Master Valentine have arrived.”
“What? Why are they here?”
Just hearing their names made an instinctive feeling of rejection rise inside me, and I frowned.
Countess Oscar.
Her maiden name was Sylvia Valentine.
She had been my classmate and roommate during our time at the academy.
But although we were technically classmates, she was the complete opposite of me.
She was what people commonly called the ‘flower of high society.’
I had heard that after getting married, she had become an example for all noblewomen and now practically ruled high society.
But why would she suddenly come looking for me?
Could it be about that incident again…?
Puzzled, I headed to the drawing room for now.
As expected, there was a beautiful noblewoman sitting inside, dressed in an extravagant gown as always.
Her dress sparkled as though it had been made entirely of jewels, clearly chosen to match the dazzling diamond necklace around her neck.
It must have cost a fortune.
And that wasn’t even counting her elaborate hairpiece and other expensive accessories.
She wasn’t wearing a crown, but her overall appearance was enough to make her look like a princess from an incredibly wealthy kingdom.
In comparison, I was dressed rather simply because I’d come straight from work.
My clothes were made from fairly expensive fabric, but they were nothing compared to her dazzling gown.
Perhaps that was why, the moment I entered the drawing room, Sylvia quickly looked me up and down before giving me a small smile.
It was the kind of look that seemed designed to establish dominance right from the start.
What on earth is going on that she came here dressed to the nines like this?
Just as I turned my head—
Huh?
My gaze stopped on the man sitting beside the noblewoman.
Because his face was a complete mess.
His mouth was split in several places and covered in dried blood, while his face was covered in dark blue bruises.
He looked so battered that if someone told me he’d been rolled around in a field of rocks, I would have believed them.
His already potato-like face looked even more pathetic, like a moldy potato.
“Sorry to have kept you waiting. I had something to take care of… But, um, why does the young master look like that?”
“Hah! Are you really asking because you don’t know?”
The man sitting beside Sylvia scowled at my cautious question.
“It’s all because of you!”
“What? Because of me…? Ah.”
At that exact moment, something from the letter suddenly flashed through my mind.
[I got into an argument with a drunk person while I was walking down the street. He kept bothering me, so… before I knew it, I beat him up pretty badly.
I think he was someone who knew you, so just in case, be careful!]
Oh.
Apparently, this man was the person she had been talking about.
