🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 23
“I’m sorry.”
Count Preston offered a hasty apology, his eyes darting around nervously.
“I’m worried about my late wife. I need to go check on her.”
Just like the Countess Preston had done, the count began to move in a fluster.
“Please explain things to Tejer on my behalf.”
I watched him briefly as he rushed down the hallway, then ran straight to the parlor.
Throwing open the door, I flashed a victorious smile.
“Your Excellency, would you care to go on a little outing with me?”
“No issues, you say?”
“Yes.”
The man with a small magnifying glass over one eye cautiously responded to Preston’s question.
“There’s nothing wrong with the gold coins you brought.”
“Can you bet your life on it?”
“Oh dear, please, Count.”
The man pushed a set of scales in front of Preston.
“Look, it matches the weight of the coins you brought exactly.”
“…”
“There are no dull or rounded edges on these coins. There’s nothing that seems off about them.”
The man answered desperately, but suspicion still lingered in Preston’s eyes.
“The only sure way to tell would be to cut the coin in half—”
“Absolutely not!”
Preston roared.
“That would reduce its value by half!”
“Exactly.”
The man sighed and began to gather the scattered coins on the table, placing them back into the pouch the count had brought.
“I’ve done everything I can to verify their authenticity.”
Count Preston already knew. Every method of verification available had been used.
So these had to be real.
But then why…
“Why can’t I shake this bad feeling?”
Unconsciously, Preston began to chew on the tip of his finger.
If it had been someone else who provided the information, he might not have felt this uneasy.
But the fact that the tip had come from Ermia Tekins was what truly bothered him.
“That pushover lying?”
The fool who kept conceding to unreasonable demands in hopes of being loved—who eventually gave up even on that—dragged along like a doll.
That was Ermia Tekins.
Could an idiot like that lie?
Was she even smart enough to fabricate a lie?
So the coins must be real.
They must be.
“And then there’s Jeff. That bastard too.”
That sly commoner would even try to swindle his noble business partner.
Preston knew Jeff had been involved in a massive scam a few years back.
An untrustworthy man.
A major scam.
Multiple past dealings.
And finally—
“The money I entrusted to him…!”
To avoid a sudden tax audit, Preston had cooked the books.
He pretended to purchase goods and temporarily handed a large sum to Jeff.
Although he got it back after a few days, there had been plenty of time for it to be swapped out.
“Hey.”
Still chewing his fingertip, Preston glared at the man.
“Ever heard of fool’s gold?”
“Uh…”
The man scratched his head with a dumb look on his face.
“Yes, I’ve heard of it. It’s a mineral found on distant continents. If struck with a blade—”
“Damn it!”
Preston couldn’t take it anymore. He snatched the scale from the man’s table and rushed out of the store.
“Count? Count! You need to return that! Count!”
Cries rang out behind him, but Preston ignored them and ran off toward the marketplace, clutching the scale.
“Count?”
As he entered one of his own stores, the clerk on duty looked at him with wide eyes.
“What brings you here, sir? We didn’t expect—”
“Out of the way!”
“Ahh!”
He shoved the clerk aside and rushed upstairs.
“Are you okay?”
“My arm…”
The painful groan from behind went ignored as Preston entered a specific room.
It was the room he used when he visited the store to check sales reports and operations.
“No one else here?”
Now that he had arrived, his staff would know not to let anyone else upstairs.
Even if they were idiots, they were being paid. They could manage that much.
“Tsk. I’m the most pitiful one here, working with those morons.”
Paying those fools five coins a week—what a waste.
He suddenly felt it was too much.
Maybe this was a good chance to cut it down to three.
Let them quit if they wanted. There were plenty of people willing to work for just two coins.
“Let’s see…”
Preston approached a bookshelf, confirmed the room was empty again, and pulled something from his coat.
A faintly yellow, translucent magic stone.
As soon as he brought it near a certain book—
Thud.
With a heavy sound, a hidden passage opened.
“That’s it.”
This was why he’d purchased this decrepit, filthy building.
It was said that long ago, a mage had lived in this wooden structure—and left behind a secret passage.
Preston had been using it as a secret vault.
“The spare key is well hidden too.”
There were two magic stones that could open the door. One was his; the other was with his wife.
He had gifted her a box full of new jewelry and secretly embedded the stone into a bracelet.
It was his gift, so she wouldn’t throw it away—but as someone who only liked premium items, she wouldn’t wear it either.
It was surely still tucked away in her jewelry box.
“Perfect, perfect.”
Humming to himself, Preston entered the passage. The door shut behind him with a solid thump.
“Still, just in case…”
He pushed the door again to make sure it was locked, then used a small lantern to descend slowly.
How long had he been walking?
“Darlings!”
Finally reaching the last room, Preston shouted.
The massive space was filled to the brim with piles of gold coins.
“Oh my beauties. My beautiful darlings!”
He hugged a nearby pile of gold and kissed it repeatedly.
“My precious!”
His mouth stretched wide in delight. Just looking at them made him feel full. That’s what these coins did for him.
“My treasures.”
He gazed lovingly at the gold. This was the money he had saved by even cutting back on food for his own children.
Money wrung from the blood, sweat, tears, lives, and deaths of others.
“I’ll never let go.”
In front of the glorious mountain of gold, Preston murmured.
“I won’t ever lose this.”
He would use this to climb even higher.
Higher than Grand Duke Leandro, that silver-spooned brat.
“Oh, right, this isn’t the time for that.”
Snapping out of his daze, Preston shook his head and approached one side of the room.
Though the coins looked like they were stacked randomly, he more or less remembered where and when each stash came in.
It was chaos—but it had its own order.
“This is the money Jeff gave me.”
He flicked a coin with his finger. With a bright ring, it landed solidly in his palm.
“No difference in weight…”
He compared it with another coin—no difference. He even dropped it into water, just in case. Still nothing wrong.
“How am I supposed to check this? Should I try the scale again?”
“Shall I tell you how?”
“…!”
There was definitely no one there.
Yet suddenly, a voice spoke behind him.
When had they arrived?
“You can’t detect fool’s gold with just a scale,”
Ermia was standing there, smiling at him.
