I Became the Daughter of a Disgraced Duke - Chapter 36

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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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Episode 35
“No. I pay my taxes and I’m a law-abiding citizen—shouldn’t you be on my side against a loan shark? Who taught you to plaster a Red Seal on a house that just finished renovations? That’s shameless!”
“I’ve told you several times, sir. The loan sharks never demanded interest exceeding the Legal Interest Rate from you, and the records show they deferred your payment deadline multiple times.”
“That’s exactly it—I paid that money off just days ago, didn’t I?”
“Your total debt is 580 million Gold. You’ve only repaid 120 million of that. And there’s also the matter of you exploiting the loan shark’s employee unfairly.”
She’d played with her fingers alone, tugged at her father’s hair, taken a nap, woken up—and he was still arguing with the Court House official.
His fury over the Red Seal plastered on the house burned on.
According to the women at the Court House, the Red Seal was basically their way of saying: This isn’t yours anymore—it’s ours now.
That injustice was what made him so angry.
‘He’s going to cry.’
She tore open a tissue and pressed it into his hand.
He wiped her mouth roughly with it, then launched back into his rapid-fire complaint.
“If I throw those loan sharks in jail, will the seal come off?”
“No, sir. That’s a separate matter—you still have to repay the debt.”
“But I have no money. How am I supposed to repay it?”
“I’m afraid I don’t have an answer for that.”
The tissue shredded mercilessly in his grip, flecked with cookie crumbs.
Traces of the snacks the office women had given her before her nap.
“How many people work as hard as I do? Is this what I deserve?”
The official’s eyes suddenly looked like rotting fish.
The bare Court House, devoid of toys, bored her into a yawn.
She crawled up onto her father’s back, wrapped her arm around his neck, and draped herself across his shoulders.
“Dad. When do we go home?”
“We don’t have a home anymore, sweetie.”
“Then we go to Uncle’s house?”
“If we show up now, your uncle will kill me.”
“So we’re beggars now? We can’t eat chicken?”
“Not a chance. I can fix everything today.”
He hoisted her higher, securing her weight against him.
“Life is all about the one big break.”
* * *
He’d paid 20 million Gold because he was proud of the renovation work, and they dared slap a Red Seal on his house?
Why repay loan sharks who prey on ordinary people?
They should understand that anyone who lives off others’ suffering can end up suffering the same way—yet they brazenly weaponize the law.
‘Baron, you better pray I never set eyes on you.’
When I do, I’ll make sure you never father a second generation.
Kasian’s jaw clenched, and he began to dig.
Anticipating a day like this, he’d buried Gold Coins in the earth—payment he’d extorted from assassins—rather than risk it in a bank or at home.
‘The official said paying back some of the debt won’t make the seal disappear anyway. Just as well.’
Once he’d dug down to Iris’s height, the sack of Gold Coins appeared.
He shouldered the sack, then picked up his daughter, who lay sleeping soundly nearby as if knocked out.
She’d dozed through the Court House, dozed again after he bought her dinner, and the moment they reached the Back Mountain, she’d drifted off, breathing deep.
‘I won’t lose her home sweet home like this.’
Zenovion’s house wasn’t bad, but the needlessly sprawling manor had terrified him when he’d searched for Iris—he had no desire to live there.
So Kasian carried sleeping Iris to the Tavern, where he often went.
The usual illegal games were underway.
“Long time no see.”
“Why’ve you been scarce lately?”
“Who’s the kid? Your niece?”
The regulars greeted him with open arms.
They were already thinking: a good mark just walked in.
‘I’ve lost plenty to them before.’
The man who’d once gambled away his fortune and ended up homeless.
But things were different now.
Back then, he’d had no reason to live, no need to play with discipline or strategy.
All he’d sought was immediate dopamine.
Now, though, Iris existed.
She was his only daughter—the one he fed, clothed, put to sleep, and raised.
‘My child won’t grow up like I did.’
She wouldn’t skip meals, wear rags, or work herself to exhaustion just to chase the next high.
I’ll raise her right and proper. In her own words—shalalala.
Kasian settled Iris gently into a chair and tossed down a money pouch.
“It’s been a while. Let’s play a round. I need money badly.”
Life is all about one decisive moment, isn’t it? Money, games, ruin—all hinge on a single bet.
And five hours later.
After losing three games in a row, Kasian trembled as he glared across the table.
Eighty million Gold—gone in an instant.
He’d walked in to make money and was about to be thrown out with nothing but his skin.
The man who’d won the streak flicked a single Gold coin toward him.
“Look, the kid needs to eat. I’ll call this charity and give you one Gold.”
At that moment, he flipped the table and roared.
“You rigged this! You cheated, and you think I didn’t notice?!”
* * *
I opened my eyes at the noise—Father was honking and squawking like a goose.
Had these men stolen some snack Father was fond of?
‘But where am I?’
I rubbed my eyes and yawned, and a familiar bespectacled man handed me a cup of water.
“Hello there!”
“I can’t fathom how such an angelic child came from a man like that.”
Looking closer, I recognized him—the restaurant owner who’d made that delicious chicken for us last time.
Sleep kept tugging at me, so I gulped down the water, and slowly my mind cleared.
Father had the men by the collar now.
I recognized their faces—they were the same men who’d been playing Cards at the next table while Father carved the meat.
They were the same men from that evening.
“Owner! Report him! Report this bastard! Look at him throwing a tantrum because he lost!”
“How else would you lose all your money in three rounds unless they cheated?!”
“Your skill only goes so far. Honestly, you’re not the type with luck or talent.”
“That’s—!”
As the tension thickened, I grew frightened.
Father was about to turn into a true hunting eagle.
‘But hunting scares me.’
Realistically, I was far more likely to be the rabbit caught by the eagle than the eagle doing the catching, so I couldn’t help but identify with the hunted.
Just as Father raised his fist, the owner spoke.
“Kasian! Your daughter’s crying!”
“What—what?”
Father spun around instantly, releasing his grip and spreading both hands in surrender as if he’d done nothing wrong.
But tears were already welling up and my nose was stuffy.
“When did you wake up?”
“Don’t you know that you and your friends should get along?”
“Friends?”
Teacher Anneumari says when friends fight, they should talk it through.”
Father wasn’t good-looking, wasn’t funny, and was dumb—that was fine. But I didn’t like him when he was frightening.
“No, no, Father, don’t fight. We were just playing. A War Game!”
“Liar!”
“I’m not! Just ask them. It was a War Game, wasn’t it?”
Father tapped at me encouragingly, and the other men quickly chimed in.
“Yeah, that’s right! It was a War Game! Your father was playing the vanguard commander.”
“See? Father’s right, isn’t he? The War Game was almost over anyway, so we were about to do something else.”
Father draped his sleeve over my nose.
“Sniff!”
“What should we play? Hehehehe!”
“Um, well… C-Cards! Cards games!”
“Cards?”
You have to be smart to play Cards well. But Father’s dumb.
I tilted my head uncertainly, but the other men—Father’s friends—began gathering up Cards from the floor.
“This will be the final round, the one where we stake everything. Cheer for your father from the sidelines.”
For some reason, the eyes of Father’s friends as they looked at him seemed terribly cold.
* * *
Iris’s instinct about those cold eyes had been correct.
The gamblers who’d had Kasian by the collar were planning their revenge now that the child had rendered him immobilized.
‘We did scheme and pocket the profits, that’s true.’
A man who’d spent his days crushing monsters was actually about to throw a punch?
It was something a former hero should never resort to.
‘He’d use those monstrous fists to kill us? I’ll never forgive that.’
The three of them exchanged a look before their daughter—a silent pact to flatten him.
They meant to strip away everything he owned, down to his last coin of gold.
So when they saw their chance, they laid down every coin they had, eager to mock him all the more thoroughly when he lost.
“All-in on this hand.”
“You lose, you kneel to us.”
“Every last coin of gold.”
“Okay, I call.”
And so began a card game that wagered pride and fortune alike—a thing of no consequence, yet oddly grandiose, as if the world itself held its breath.

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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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