I Became the Keeper of a Suspicious Forest - Chapter 2

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 2

Just because you’re reincarnated into a novel doesn’t mean your life changes dramatically.

The Harbel Family she was born into was a viscount family that wasn’t even mentioned in the novel, and Ponia also didn’t appear in the story.

But so what? I’m a noble!

Unlike modern times where you have to work to earn money, the life of a noble who collects taxes and manages territory was extremely satisfying.

Especially for her, who had experienced the life of a college student working five part-time jobs to pay off student loans while shouldering the family debt under naive parents who got scammed every single day!

“It’s bankruptcy.”

But bankruptcy, really?

A monotone voice rang in her ears. Since it was delivered in such a plain tone, like saying ‘It’s morning,’ Ponia couldn’t react to the speaker in time.

Seeing no response from her, Kustin, the butler of the Harbel Viscount Family, delivered a more precise statement like passing down a sentence once more.

“Let me correct that. It’s a bankruptcy crisis.”

“….”

“If we can’t repay 20,000 gold within six months, the viscount family will go bankrupt.”

What’s different from before?

“Sir, is this a dream?”

“Do you have a habit of calling me ‘sir’ in your dreams?”

Ah, this is harsh reality.

Instead of asking Kustin for additional explanation, Ponia turned around.

She spotted someone standing awkwardly with an expression that looked like they really needed to use the bathroom.

“Father?”

Startled

His obvious surprise was clearly indicating with his whole body that he was related to this situation.

“Would you please explain?”

“For the details, wouldn’t it be most accurate to hear from Kustin…”

“Father.”

“My lovely daughter. How cold to call me ‘Father.’ You should call me ‘Dad.'”

Watching him drag out his words while subtly trying to escape, her patience rapidly declined.

Ponia slowly inhaled to store up sufficient energy. And then.

“Yes, Dad! Where did you get scammed this time!”

“Go, Gordon! Gordon came with a really good business idea! Even I thought it would really succeed this time!”

“But you messed it up!”

“Ah! That’s not it. He said he’d double the investment and return it.”

I guarantee he took all that money and ran. I’d bet the family on it.

Oh, the family is on the verge of bankruptcy? Then I’ll bet my castle. Wait, that’s going to disappear soon too?

‘Gordon, that bastard Gordon!’

Gordon was the second son of the Rambo Marquis Family who had been with Father since their teenage years, and while he called himself a businessman, he was a scammer who spouted absurd nonsense and constantly bled Father dry.

Though she was living in a completely different environment from her previous life, some things remained unchanged from her past life.

A father who was gullible and only got scammed, and me who had to clean up the mess.

These aspects could have changed.

“Listen, there were so many groundbreaking ideas!”

“Oh, I see.”

Seeing Ponia’s rather lukewarm reaction, the viscount hastily pulled out a red egg from his chest.

“He said it was a dragon’s egg he barely managed to obtain from the Northern Rugged Mountains. If you keep it in your chest for just 100 days…”

“That’s just a regular egg…”

There’s even red stains on his hands.

“Then… then, something that turns water into gold…”

“Crazy alchemy!”

I might understand if it turned iron or copper into gold. But water? Water!

This didn’t even have the sincerity to properly deceive!

“Ponia, how can a noble young lady shout like that?”

“Mother, please stay quiet!”

“Sister, you’re really too much. Father is doing this with good intentions…”

“You die!”

Albio, who had butted in without knowing anything, immediately got intimidated and backed away.

‘They all just cover for Father without even knowing how serious this situation is!’

“It’s all over…”

Ponia collapsed right there on the spot.

There was no one in this place who could understand her feelings right now.

“Miss, please calm down.”

At that moment, a shadow fell over her head. When she looked up, a man with an indifferent expression was looking down at her.

“…Kustin?”

Kustin knelt down to match her eye level and took Ponia’s hand to help her up.

Kustin was a young butler who had joined the household three years ago, a talent that Ponia had personally selected after driving out the previous butler who had been secretly embezzling the family’s money.

He had been handling many of the family’s administrative duties in place of her father, who had no practical abilities whatsoever. The reason he hadn’t been hired by other families in the first place was simply because he was too young.

“Do you want to have our family…?”

“I refuse. This damn family is like pouring water into a broken jar.”

Maybe he wasn’t hired because of his foul temper.

“Don’t speak so weakly. It’s not all over yet.”

How unusual for him to say something positive?

With that stoic face, he always delivered nothing but bad news, so she had been busy avoiding him just at the sight of Kustin’s wheat-colored hair.

Come to think of it, for three years, despite all the countless accidents her family had caused, Kustin had never left the household and had helped clean up the mess together.

Right, maybe she could get through this bankruptcy crisis together with Kustin too.

‘First, I’ll pay back a tiny portion with the 1,000 gold I’ve personally saved up…’

Tap.

“Huh?”

She felt paper against the hand that Kustin was holding.

“It’s a dress bill sent from the boutique.”

She frowned briefly at the densely written text, but the number written in bold at the bottom stood out particularly.

1,000 Gold

Naturally, her head lifted. Kustin was just pressing his characteristically tired-looking eyes.

“What you meant by ‘not all over yet’…”

“I meant that the money calculations aren’t all finished yet.”

“…”

“It’s the dress fee that the Baroness put on credit. They’re demanding immediate payment.”

“…Why didn’t I know about this?”

Since the boutique her mother frequented in the small territory was obvious, she had arranged to be contacted whenever her mother went to the boutique.

“I suspect the young master secretly intercepted the letters meant for you, miss.”

Like a wooden puppet that wasn’t properly oiled, Ponia’s head creaked as it turned toward her family members.

As if they had seen a ghost, they began speaking one by one with pale faces.

“I felt so sorry for mother who always endures and lives frugally…”

Who lives frugally…?

“I was really going to buy just this once and not buy anything for a long while!”

How many times have I heard this?

“If we help each other, it all comes back later.”

When does it come back?

Since she wasn’t responding and just listening, Albio finally added one more comment.

“Sister, you weren’t originally like this!”

“…”

“Just a few years ago, you believed in father’s abilities, enjoyed shopping with mother, and were nothing but kind to me.”

“…”

“Honestly, I think those times were better!”

“Albio, what kind of rudeness is that to your sister.”

Mother immediately pointed out Albio’s lack of manners, but her face actually showed agreement. So did father’s face beside her.

Snap.

She felt something break inside her.

What am I doing this for right now…

“I’m not doing it.”

“Ponia?”

“I said I’m not doing it anymore!”

A lion’s roar fell upon the hall. Familiar fear appeared in her family’s eyes.

“Fine! Let’s all go bankrupt together!”

“Si… Sister.”

“Shut up! Don’t follow me!”

Bang!

The storm swept through the hall in an instant and passed.

Some leaned against pillars, others felt a chill, and still others staggered backward.

Only Kustin remained unaffected in that place.

This was because he had prepared rubber earplugs and inserted them into his ears from the moment Ponia remained silent without responding.

He too was about to leave when Baron Harbel grabbed his arm.

“Kustin. Ponia seems very angry this time…”

“Who wouldn’t be angry after hearing the word bankruptcy? Oh, except for the people in this household. There doesn’t seem to be anyone normal here besides the young lady.”

Though it was an impertinent remark, the Baron, who had steadily lost his authority as head of the household over a long period of time, didn’t find it strange.

“…Ponia will come back, won’t she?”

This time, perhaps quite shocked, the Baron asked in a dazed state.

Kustin removed the Baron’s hand that was gripping his shoulder.

His main duties were administrative and financial management of the family. He declined to take on mental care for a mentally weak head of household as well.

To ask a butler who had only been there for three years about his own daughter’s feelings, when she was someone he had watched his entire life.

If I had been a child of this household, I would have left long ago, starting from two years ago when the Baron squandered two-thirds of the estate.

“The young lady will return.”

But even after being treated like that, the young lady who couldn’t abandon her family would return this time too.

“So please just wait quietly without causing any more trouble. I beg of you.”

In this household that lived seeing the world as if it were surrounded by flower gardens, the young lady was the only one struggling alone.

Leaving behind his words of advice, Kustin climbed the stairs.

There was only one thing I had to do.

Work as much as I was paid.

* * *

“I’m screwed…”

Kustin’s prediction was exactly right.

Ponia, who had left the Manor in a huff, had been staring intently at the job posting board in the Town Square for thirty minutes now.

‘It would be nice if there was a sitting transcription job like last time.’

Whenever she needed money, she would borrow servants’ clothes and find work in the Village within the Estate.

Daily sales clerk, medical assistant helper, inn cleaning, and so on—there was nothing she hadn’t tried.

Ponia, who had regained her sense of reality along with memories of her past life, soon discovered the serious financial problems of the Baron’s household and learned how much money her parents had been throwing away.

‘That’s how my path of hardship opened up.’

Thanks to that, she had long given up on her aspiration to confess again in three years.

As she was collecting flyers with decent conditions, a loud voice came from the center of the Town Square.

“Extra! Extra! There’s shocking news about Young Master Devenham!”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————