Everyone but Me Is a Spy - Chapter 33
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 33
The fake family, having received no signal from either the Intelligence Agency or the young master next door, forced themselves to appear composed as they led the notary into the Reception Room.
Meanwhile, Katahali, who had gone ahead, whispered to the spy close behind her.
“Are you going to make her open the safe first?”
“Do you have a plan? We don’t know what information is in that safe, and we don’t know how Nina Bonze will use it. What makes you think we should just hand it over without knowing more? This is exactly what I mean about flighty Lujein types—tsk.”
…….
Realizing the spy was none other than Natalisha, Katahali gritted her teeth silently in frustration.
We can’t let Nina run away again. We all have our complaints about each other, but we can’t afford to look like we’re in conflict.
Right. As much as I hate it, we need all four of them to keep Nina here. Tsk. I still think we should just knock her out and draw a little blood to open the safe, but here we are playing family.
Is it really the case in Holitch, with all its gun-loving fanatics, that the nation exploits people’s personal property like that?
Flighty Lujein type or not, she’s certainly sensitive about property rights.
This is just ridiculous.
Please, all of you, stop. I’m not asking you to get along well—just don’t fight.
They’re bound to fight again. There’s not a single trustworthy person among them.
After Nina returned to the Townhouse, they had all agreed to make an effort to appear friendly in her presence, but it was proving difficult.
Katahali, suppressing the urge to grab Natalisha by the collar right then and there, sat quietly in one corner of the Reception Room.
In the center of the Reception Room, surrounded by the family, Nina and the notary sat facing each other.
Nina examined Floben, the notary who was said to have been her grandmother’s butler, with careful scrutiny, her tension evident.
The elderly gentleman Floben had snow-white hair and a neatly trimmed beard—the quintessential appearance of a proper butler.
Though his eyes held a weary expression, there was a tenderness in the way his fingers brushed the brooch on his jacket as he looked around the Townhouse.
A spider-shaped brooch……. It looks similar to the decorations on the landing railing. Grandmother must have given it to him.
Nina, upon noticing the brooch that Floben was touching, found herself all the more confused.
If Grandmother cherished him enough to give him such an expensive brooch, why didn’t she leave him anything but that?
Unlike the valuable-looking brooch, the formal suit Floben wore, though immaculate, showed signs of age and wear.
There must be a reason why Floben had left when the other servants remained at the Townhouse.
Nina found herself wanting to know more about her grandmother.
At that moment, Floben withdrew an envelope from his document case and held it out.
“Here, Miss Nina.”
“Miss…… Nina?”
Taken aback, Nina accepted the envelope before she could think.
The honorific felt as strange and unfamiliar to her as the very fact that she was now the protagonist of her own life.
“I appreciate the respect, but please, just call me Nina.”
“Then I shall call you Miss Nina.”
She found herself marveling at Floben’s insistence on maintaining formality even after leaving the Townhouse.
But what truly startled Nina was something else entirely.
When Floben’s fingers moved slightly, revealing part of the envelope he had been covering, small letters flashed briefly into view before disappearing again.
Beware of your family.
……?
Nina’s eyes widened, and she looked up. Yet Floben sat perfectly straight, as though nothing had occurred.
Family—to Nina, they were the most precious and special people in the world.
Right now, they were staying in the Reception Room with her, sharing in her anxiety. How could she be told to beware of them? What could he possibly mean?
“What was that just now?”
“What do you mean? I was only about to explain the details of the will.”
Floben maintained his feigned ignorance and began unraveling the difficult language of the will, phrase by phrase.
Nina glanced back at her family in the Reception Room and made her own guess.
He must be worried that I’ll inherit all of Grandmother’s estate alone and that it will cause conflict with the family.
But Nina had already experienced her family’s quarrels once.
And after enduring that difficult time, the family had eventually gathered together in one place.
Listening intently to Floben’s explanation, Nina smiled gently and spoke.
“I want to inherit Grandmother’s estate equally, divided among all of my family.”
…….
The atmosphere in the Reception Room became strange all at once.
As the fake family exchanged glances with unfathomable expressions, Floben suddenly drove a short sword deep into the table with a sharp thud.
“That cannot be allowed.”
……!
Nina’s shoulders jumped, startled.
The fake family was even more shocked than Nina.
None of them had seen Floben draw the short sword from his garments.
He’s no ordinary person.
When did he draw that blade? The fact that someone with such skill remains unknown is suspicious.
‘So Likita’s butler indeed…….’
‘There’s a possibility he was a master of Poison Assassination.’
Nina, who had been frozen for a moment, brightened her eyes in admiration.
“To think you still carry a Short Sword, the essential tool of a butler……. You truly were an exemplary butler until the very end.”
Floben paid no attention to her words and tapped the bottom of the testament with his fingertip.
There, written clearly, were these words:
[The Short Sword entrusted to Floben’s safekeeping shall also be inherited by Nina.]
Nina realized that the Short Sword was the one embedded in the table, and her heart sank.
Even the Short Sword she had entrusted to her butler—everything was being left to her alone.
Struggling to comprehend the testament’s contents, Nina returned to the matter at hand.
“Why can’t I receive the inheritance together with my family?”
“How you use the estate after inheritance is entirely your discretion. However, the method of inheritance itself cannot be altered. A notarized testament must be honored—such is the law.”
“I see…….”
Rules. They had always been the most important thing.
It had been that way when she worked as a maid. Each command had a prescribed method, and every maid was expected to follow that method without question.
Nina nodded, her expression growing melancholy as she understood Floben’s meaning.
“So then…… I’m to receive everything?”
“Indeed. You have only two choices: either inherit everything as the testament dictates, or renounce the inheritance entirely.”
“What happens to the estate if I renounce it?”
“Since Lady Likita was born in the Docen Kingdom, a Defeated Nation, her assets fall under Alliance Law and would revert to the ownership of the victorious Alliance. However, the precise distribution would require a lengthy process to determine.”
“So my other family members receive absolutely nothing? Not even this Townhouse?”
“You understand correctly.”
Nina felt a guilty, shameful sting—as though she ought to be angry on her family’s behalf.
“Grandmother was too much. How could she think only of direct blood relations? What about the rest of the family……!”
Crack!
Floben withdrew the embedded Short Sword, and a long fissure split across the table.
“I would ask that you refrain from such remarks. Lady Likita held her blood relations very dear.”
The false family members watched Floben’s movement intently, their attention fixed on the hand that gripped the blade.
Now that they knew he was skilled, they could only remain vigilant of the hand that wielded a weapon.
“Lady Likita did much for her blood relations.”
Floben extended the hilt toward Nina, whose eyes had widened like a startled rabbit.
“Things that no one could ever imagine, in fact.”
Nina hesitated before grasping the hilt of the Short Sword.
As her hand touched it, the Magic Stone embedded in that spot glowed blue and stirred a gentle breeze.
“……!”
Her hair rustled softly before settling.
“The Short Sword…… fits perfectly in my hand.”
“Of course it would.”
Nina, curious, turned the Short Sword this way and that, even tossing it lightly.
It felt as if she held a blade she had wielded for many years—it fit her hand perfectly. Even each line and fingerprint seemed to find its original resting place.
‘Could this happen even if Grandmother and I had the same hand size?’
As Nina spun the Short Sword about with an astonished expression, the family members gradually closed the distance until they stood right beside the table.
“Nina. We truly don’t mind about the inheritance. So, Floben, I think that will be quite enough.”
While Natalisha wrapped an arm around Nina’s shoulders, Floben kept his eyes fixed on Nina and spoke without expression.
“Remember that the state cannot legally seize an inheritance that an individual has received.”
Exie then interjected urgently.
“They can’t seize it, but there are exceptions. If the state has need of it, they can take it and use it.”
“That’s right. Just as the state requisitions land when they need to build roads or bridges. Of course, they do provide compensation.”
Natalisha hastened to add.
Floben rose slowly, his gaze still fixed on Nina.
“Miss Nina. Do not forget what I said to you at the very beginning.”
“At the beginning…….”
Nina recalled the moments just after she had sat across from Floben, and her eyes moved to the testament envelope.
Though it was not visible now, words had surely been written there.
‘Be wary of your family…….’
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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