I Bought the Villains With Money - Chapter 31

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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 31.
It was absurd, really.
“If you’re just going to spout useless nonsense, go out and do some work. I want to wrap up the Phoenix Bank situation within this week.”
Once the Phoenix Bank came under our control, I could erase every document related to the Twilight Mansion.
After all, the disappearance of a fictitious debt wouldn’t actually harm the Phoenix Bank.
‘I’ll clean up the Twilight Mansion on paper and hand it over to Cassion, and then deal with the bank.’
The bank had been purchased solely to acquire the Twilight Mansion, but I couldn’t just leave it sitting idle.
‘I’ll have to run it properly.’
Restoring its tattered credit and image would take considerable time, but once I built it up solidly, it would prove invaluable.
‘And I need to find out who’s connected to Julia.’
To do that, I’d have to acquire not just the bank, but its staff as well. It wasn’t an appealing condition, but it couldn’t be helped.
“This is all such a headache. Maybe I should just carve up the bank and sell it off in pieces.”
“No, you can’t.”
Rumdracks responded immediately to my muttering.
“Why not?”
“Where else can you launder money as easily as a bank? You shuffle it around, shuffle it again, make it impossible to trace whose money it is—it’s really perfect…….”
“Rumdracks!”
There he went again with his criminal talk.
After a rough agreement with Rumdracks, we fine-tuned the contract details a few days later.
I’d asked him to refrain from criminal activity while working with me. No matter how skilled he was at Disguise or Fraud, I wanted to avoid trouble if possible.
Rumdracks had agreed surprisingly readily.
‘In exchange, I promised him an enormous sum of money.’
I’d even given him the Dragon’s Covenant.
“That’s a breach of contract.”
I spoke coldly, and Rumdracks shrugged his shoulders.
“Not even allowed to talk?”
“You should be careful with your words too.”
Rumdracks muttered something like “so finicky” under his breath—or perhaps loud enough for me to hear—then gulped down the milk.
“Hey, that was Miss’s milk!”
Jennis, who’d been embroidering next to me, threw down her frame and protested to Rumdracks.
Rumdracks and Jennis bickered back and forth for a while.
Since Rumdracks arrived, my study hasn’t known a moment of peace. He couldn’t endure even a brief silence.
Sometimes I wondered if hiring him had been the right decision.
“By the way, I’ll be gone all day tomorrow.”
“Where are you going?”
After separating Jennis from him—Rumdracks had the gift of gab, so she’d surely lost—I watched him peer at the bottom of the now-empty snack plate as he asked.
His hand hovered over the empty dish for a moment, then fell away with a look of regret.
“The Royal Palace.”
Rumdracks straightened in his seat. His expression grew suddenly serious, and he dragged his chair closer to mine.
“When can I get into the Royal Palace?”
“Just wait a bit longer. Let’s settle the bank situation first. But why are you so fixated on the Sacred Object anyway?”
I asked something I’d been curious about for a while.
“Is there some reason behind it?”
Rumdracks’s eyes glistened with moisture.
Seeing his eyes glistening with sorrow, Jennis seemed to conclude that Rumdracks harbored some untold tragedy, and her gaze filled with anticipation.
Rumdracks leaned against the window. Standing with his back to the sunlight, he cast shadows across his face.
‘What an act.’
I rested my chin on my hand and watched him. At least I had to admit his acting was exceptional.
“It must be quite a sad story,” Jennis said, her voice suddenly gentle as if they hadn’t been quarreling moments before.
She turned her full attention to Rumdracks.
Rumdracks released a low sigh, then swept his hair back. Jennis folded her hands together, completely focused on him.
‘What is this—you quarrel and suddenly you’re fast friends? I need to keep an eye on Jennis.’
I’d brought in someone to deceive the enemy, but now it looked like our own side was about to be thoroughly duped.
I grabbed the hem of Jennis’s dress as she leaned toward Rumdracks, pulling her to sit back down beside me.
“This is frustrating. Skip the buildup and just tell us.”
Rumdracks ignored my prompting entirely, his eyes fixed only on Jennis.
“To me, the Sacred Object means… would you like to hear, my lady?”
Jennis’s gaze was riveted to his lips. Rumdracks leaned closer to her, tilting up her chin. Jennis nodded as if under a spell.
“If my lady wishes to hear it, come to my room tonight and… Ugh!”
I’d held back as long as I could. I swung the cushion, landing it squarely on Rumdracks’s ribs before it fell to the floor.
“Hey, Diana!”
Rumdracks’ shout snapped Jennis back to attention. She flinched, stepping backward, and Rumdracks clicked his tongue with obvious regret.
“Jennis, don’t forget—Rumdracks is a con artist.”
Jennis glared at him, the realization that he’d deceived her rekindling her anger.
“Go meet with the Phoenix Bank director right away.”
I threw Rumdracks out. Only after he’d shuffled from the room, muttering complaints, did my study finally fall quiet.
***
At last, Dayson’s birthday arrived.
I made my way to the Third Prince’s Palace in the early dawn.
I would have slept longer, but I bustled about to prepare Cassion.
Once again, the supply cart passed smoothly through the Royal Palace gates.
The straw—holding just the right measure of sunlight and moisture—stirred an odd nostalgia in me.
‘Not unpleasant, but I’d rather not experience it twice.’
Wrapped in straw like this, I felt less like a person and more like cargo.
‘This will be the last time I arrive by cart.’
I clenched both fists. With my eyes closed, I felt the uneven ridges of the Palace floor beneath me—the cart bouncing rhythmically, thump-thump-thump.
As I felt the bumps in the Palace road, my mind drifted to all the preparations for the banquet ahead.
Over the past several days, Flac, Jennis, Robert, and Rumdracks had gone to great lengths to prepare for Dayson’s birthday dinner.
This was no ordinary meal—it was the First Prince’s dinner. Everyone invited would dress far more elaborately than they normally would.
Yet Cassion had neither suitable clothing nor proper accessories to wear to the birthday banquet.
We’d hit an obstacle even before the event. The clothes we’d purchased beforehand were fine—premium off-the-rack items—but they couldn’t compare to tailored garments.
And commissioning a custom design would consume time we didn’t have.
‘I should have had something made in advance.’
Despite meeting several times in this short span, I’d never thought of it. Regrettably, we settled on the best ready-made outfit we could find and planned to embellish it as ornately as possible.
The designer proposed adding ruffles to a child’s off-the-rack garment. Cassion was horrified, but his objections were overruled.
Normally, alterations would require the tailor to take measurements from the person wearing it and conduct multiple fittings. We skipped that entire laborious process.
The designer crafted a remarkably convincing outfit based solely on Flac’s measurements and my descriptions of Cassion.
For accessories, I selected pieces from my own collection that were gender-neutral.
Jennis, who’d never styled a man’s hair before, took on Cassion’s grooming. Her commitment to mastering the skill was so intense that Rumdracks became her unwilling practice dummy.
As for Robert,
“I need something very strong for pain relief. But it also has to include an alertness component so he can maintain sharp mental clarity. Can you make that?”
To fulfill my impossible request, he worked around the clock, blending and reblending medicines.
In the end, he succeeded brilliantly. I couldn’t speak to the analgesic potency, but the stimulating effect was undeniable.
Two nights prior, I’d taken the medicine and stayed awake through the entire night. And I hadn’t merely passed the time—I’d read straight through a scholar’s entire treatise on sedative medicine.
All these remarkable accomplishments completed in mere days—there was only one way I could repay these people.
“After this is over, I want you all to take several days rest. I’ve set aside generous compensation.”
I handed out vacation time and purses of money. Everyone except Rumdracks waved me off, but there were certain courtesies one simply had to observe.
I shoved the money into their pockets despite their protests. That was how the past few days had unfolded.
“It’s time to prepare, Your Highness.”
That morning, I roused the groggy Cassion, had him eat, and gave him the medicine. His eyes gradually sharpened.
At my gesture, Jennis brought out the clothing.
Cassion obediently let Jennis dress him. But as she moved forward with his hair, he suddenly frowned and began pushing her hands away.
“Don’t touch my bangs.”
“But Your Highness, your hair would look far more striking pinned up.”
Jennis shifted from foot to foot, brush and hair cream in hand. Cassion shook his head firmly.
“Miss Jennis.”
She turned to me for support.
“Your Highness, let’s pin your hair up.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“It’s uncomfortable.”
“In what way?”
“Only I—only I have Golden Eyes.”
Knowing that Jennis and I wouldn’t back down unless he gave us a reason, Cassion spoke honestly. Yet even after hearing it, we couldn’t relent.
“That’s exactly why they should be displayed! You must show that only you possess eyes the same color as His Majesty Karman’s!”
Currently, the kingdom had three Heirs to the Throne. First was Dayson, second was his sister Yumire, and third was Cassion.
Yumire had been born merely one month before Cassion, which made her the second in line of succession.
She was born as a Premature Birth, never completing the full ten months. She’d arrived after only seven months of pregnancy.
Had Yumire been born at her proper time, she would have been Cassion’s younger sister instead.
‘There are rumors that Julia deliberately induced Yumire’s early birth to have her born before Cassion.’
I don’t know if it’s actually possible, but Julia is the sort of person who could pull it off and more.
‘She’s terrifying.’
I set aside my thoughts about Julia and turned my attention back to the three Heirs to the Throne.
The three of them had inherited Karman’s features evenly among themselves. Dayson had inherited Karman’s bone structure, and Yumire had inherited Karman’s distinctive jet-black hair.
Cassion, however, bore an entirely different presence from Karman overall, yet he had been born with the Golden Eyes—the symbol of the royal house.
Jennis and Dayson, who resented this, wore expressions of displeasure whenever they looked into Cassion’s eyes.
“Today I’ll hold my head high. Should I trim my bangs a bit while I’m at it?”
Perhaps it was from the cold stares he’d endured for so long that Cassion couldn’t bring himself to decide.
“Give me the scissors.”
So I made the decision for him. When someone hesitates, all it takes is a gentle push from behind to give them courage.
I Bought the Villains with Money (Serialized)
Author │ Lee In-hye
Publisher │ Kim Ju-hyung
Published by │ J Plus Media Co., Ltd. – Tiramisu
Marketing │ Han Jae-hyuk
Address │ 1101, 33 Digital-ro, Guro-gu, Seoul (Guro-dong, Ace Techno Tower 8th Building, 11th Floor)
Email │ [email protected]
Website │ http://blog.naver.com/jayplemedia1
ⓒ Lee In-hye 2021
※This work is published by J Plus Media Co., Ltd. pursuant to a contract with the copyright holder,
and the content may not be used in any form or by any means without the permission of the publisher and author.
Violation of this will result in criminal and civil legal liability.

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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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