I Bought the Villains With Money - Chapter 35

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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 35.
“Welcome back, Diana. Do you really have to keep working with this bastard?”
“Did you sort everything out while you were gone? So when can I start going to the Royal Palace?”
When I arrived at the Estate, several people were there to greet me.
Cherni and Rumdracks rushed toward me the moment I opened the office door, pelting me with questions.
“Hello, Aunt. Hello, Rumdracks.”
I greeted them first, as any well-mannered person would.
“I hope all is well with everyone.”
I asked it as a courtesy, hoping for an uneventful report, but Cherni pushed Rumdracks aside and stepped forward.
“Uneventful? This bastard committed fraud against me, Diana. I’m dragging him straight back to Bolta Prison.”
Cherni glared at Rumdracks as though she might kill him on the spot.
And Bolta Prison, of all places.
The prison had descended into chaos after Rumdracks escaped. We’d gone to such lengths to erase our connection to it—
‘Bolta Prison is a nightmare now, as far as everyone’s concerned.’
In fact, I’d heard that the guards dismissed from the prison for Rumdracks’s escape were still out there, eyes peeled, combing the kingdom to find him.
They weren’t professional trackers, but when people harbor resentment, there’s no telling what they might do.
‘I should spread a rumor soon that Rumdracks has fled the country.’
I looked at Rumdracks while thinking that.
“Fraud? I’m innocent, Diana.”
Rumdracks began to defend himself.
“Diana, for fraud to be fraud, damages must occur. But I caused this lady no harm whatsoever. We conducted our transaction by mutual consent.”
Watching the two of them bicker was giving me a headache.
“Please, both of you, stop.”
I tried to push between them toward my chair, but they grabbed me.
“Diana, listen to me.”
“Yes, Diana. You listen. Hear us out and judge for yourself. I’m innocent.”
Grown adults clinging to a thirteen-year-old—it was absurd.
“Since you both seem to keep forgetting, let me remind you: I’m thirteen years old. I’m too young to arbitrate disputes over fraud, especially when a major con artist like Rumdracks and the head of Cherni are both involved.”
“Ah…”
“Hmm…”
Both of them seemed to have experienced a moment of enlightenment.
“Now that you understand, the two of you can settle this matter on your own. Or take it to the Security Forces.”
I said it knowing they wouldn’t. Either way, I’d succeeded in silencing them both. At last, I could sit down.
“Good heavens, Diana is thirteen… I never thought about it once.”
Cherni muttered in a daze.
“Come to think of it, I’d never considered it either. Thirteen years old, indeed.”
Rumdracks said.
I shook my head vigorously and folded both arms on the desk. Interlacing my fingers, I looked at them both seriously.
“Now then, shall we set aside the matter of my age and discuss why you both came to my office?”
Rumdracks shuddered, then spoke like someone struck by sudden insight.
“Not thirteen at all.”
“Just looks thirteen on the outside.”
The two of them picked up where they’d left off, chiming in with agreement as though they’d never been at odds.
“Enough. Both of you, sit down. Rumdracks, let me be crystal clear one more time. We made a deal. No more fraud for now.”
Rumdracks protested quietly that it wasn’t fraud, while Cherni lifted her chin.
She probably thought I was taking Cherni’s side.
Adults could be so childish.
“Don’t commit fraud anymore.”
“But isn’t that a bit much?”
Rumdracks, who’d been listening quietly until now, retorted bluntly.
“How can you tell a con artist not to commit fraud? I love my work. I take pride in it.”
I could only shake my head at such thorough professional conviction. His sense of ethics was utterly beyond my comprehension.
“Fine, let’s adjust our agreement.”
“Adjust it how?”
“Let’s commit fraud.”
Rumdracks stepped back half a pace. Then he studied me intently with narrow eyes.
“You’re not Diana, are you? That’s expert-level disguise work—who are you really?”
Playing tricks on children seemed to amuse adults. Such is their level.
I clicked my tongue and spoke.
“Don’t you want to?”
“Who said they didn’t want to? But there’s a contract, and the fact that someone specifically told me never to do it makes it strange that they’re asking now.”
Rumdracks spoke as though he took contracts quite seriously.
“Isn’t this dangerous?”
Cho stepped toward me and asked. The moment Fraud came up, his expression hardened.
Cho tolerated the members of Cherni using every conceivable method to gather information, but he hated the idea of me becoming entangled in crime.
“This is none of my concern.”
I drew a clear line between myself and Rumdracks’s scheme.
Rumdracks’s eyes widened, and he moved closer. Now that I thought about it, his eye color was different today.
Rumdracks altered his appearance slightly every day.
Some days he lengthened the bridge of his nose into a hawkish profile; other days he enlarged his ears. Today, he’d changed his eye color.
“You look a bit different today, don’t you?”
Whenever someone who’d grown close to the Estate staff asked Rumdracks this, he’d answer casually.
“It’s just your imagination.”
When I asked why he kept changing his face, clothes, and hairstyle bit by bit, he explained it this way.
“So that when someone asks about me later, they’ll all describe a different person.”
He meant to sow confusion in any investigation. When I heard that, I felt a pang of sympathy.
Living without ever revealing your true self couldn’t be easy.
Every morning you’d have to decide which feature to change.
Yet there was no need to worry. After watching him these past few days, I could tell he was enjoying it.
“So I get to pick who you defraud?”
Rumdracks’s gaze turned toward Cho. Cho contorted his face and started to rise from his seat. The commotion we’d barely managed to suppress threatened to erupt again.
Heavens, my head.
I pressed my temples and laid out a condition.
“Let’s add a clause. My people are off-limits.”
“Then who’s fair game?”
Faces flashed through my mind—people I wished Rumdracks would teach a harsh lesson to. But I didn’t mention them directly.
Rumdracks caught the shift in my expression and grinned.
“Now you look like a proper thirteen-year-old. Someone’s been troubling our Diana. Just tell me who.”
Rumdracks chuckled as he spoke.
I shrugged.
I couldn’t mention anyone directly. From now on, Rumdracks would have to identify his targets on his own.
‘If he focuses his attention in that direction, maybe Cho and Jennis will stop being harassed.’
Two birds with one stone.
Ignoring the glimmer in Rumdracks’s eyes, I changed the subject.
“Let’s wrap up the Phoenix Bank matter. You’ll need funds—how much?”
Rumdracks’s expression fell with disappointment.
‘The Phoenix Bank is fraud too, yet I’m treating it differently!’
I started to protest why he was handling the same fraud so differently, then stopped—the question itself sounded strange.
“Tell me quickly. We don’t have much time.”
I pointed to the clock on the table, and Rumdracks explained.
He told me about his meeting with the Phoenix Banker and how much Funds he needed.
The Phoenix Banker was absolutely convinced that Rumdracks was a foreign nobleman.
To make Rumdracks appear as a wealthy foreign aristocrat, Cho had helped in every way possible.
‘And I provided the money.’
Rumdracks had approached the Phoenix Banker as though about to invest a substantial sum, won his favor, and then pulled back at the crucial moment.
It was inevitable that the Phoenix Banker asked why.
“The Phoenix Bank’s reputation hasn’t been good lately.”
When the Phoenix Banker asked how the Transaction might proceed, Rumdracks proposed that he sell the bank.
He suggested the Phoenix Banker sell now and wash his hands of it—wasn’t it a gain for him?
The Phoenix Banker, given a few days to consider, began meeting with the bank’s Investors behind the scenes.
Unaware that those Investors had already come under Rumdracks’s sway.
And this morning, while Julia was preoccupied with Deyson’s birthday breakfast banquet, the meeting to finalize the Phoenix Bank’s Transaction took place.
‘Rumdracks and I were both busy coordinating the timing and the date.’
We had to handle the business while Julia’s attention was fixed on Deyson’s birthday breakfast banquet.
Once Julia had free time again, she’d never leave the Phoenix Bank alone.
“But the Phoenix Banker raised the Transaction price. He’s saying he won’t sell just like that.”
The office fell silent at the news that my available Funds might not be enough.
“Don’t worry about the money.”
“How do you mean?”
Mother has a Safe, and besides, I’m expected to receive Marriage Permission in a few days.
I believed Karman would contact me immediately. And my prediction proved correct.
***
Rain pattered softly against the windows that afternoon.
Karman gazed intently at the visitor who entered through the door.
He set down the Fountain Pen that had been in his hand and spoke.
“You’ve come.”
He summoned them yet offered no warm greeting, no inquiry after their well-being. His manner seemed to dismiss them as uninvited guests, yet the two visitors remained courteous.
“Sit.”
Moments later, the sharp click of heels echoed through the room. Only after the two had settled onto the sofa did Karman rise from his seat.
The instant he took his place across from them came a soft knock. The Head Servant entered carrying a tray laden with tea and confections.
“Bring it here.”
Every confection the Head Servant set out was drenched in chocolate and cloyingly sweet.
Diana smiled faintly at the impossibly cute Chocolate Confections—the sort Karman could never be imagined eating.
Karman’s gaze lingered on Kasion, whose expression did not waver even as he regarded the Chocolate Confections.
“Children are fond of such things, I hear. Do eat.”
His tone was remarkably dry and blunt.
At the sound of his voice—as though eating chocolate might be scandalous—Kasion hesitated to reach for any.
“Thank you for the treat.”
Diana selected one of the Chocolate Confections. At the crunch of chocolate between her teeth, Kasion glanced sideways at her.
“Do try one yourself, Your Highness.”
She chewed thoughtfully, savoring the bittersweet chocolate, then sipped her tea to rinse her palate before speaking.
Karman was watching Kasion intently.
The chocolate felt like an enormous test. Despite his reluctance, Kasion forced himself to pick up a piece and place it in his mouth.
A low laugh escaped Karman upon seeing this. Whether it was kindly or mocking, there was no way to tell.
“That little performance in the Banquet Hall was quite amusing to witness.”
Diana and Kasion’s lips, which had been moving steadily, froze in unison.
Karman had leaned forward slightly to reach for his teacup, and so Diana could not see his expression.
“You felt the Banquet Hall so unbearable that you resorted to theater to escape? It was a place you should have maintained as a prince.”
I Bought the Villains with Money (Ongoing Serialization)
Author | Lee In-hye
Publisher | Kim Ju-hyung
Published by | J-Plus Media Co., Ltd. – Tiramisu
Marketing | Han Jae-hyuk
Address | 1101, 11F, 33-gil Digital-ro, Guro-gu, Seoul (Guro-dong, Ace Techno Tower 8th, 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. under contract with the copyright holder, and
may not be used in any form or by any means without permission of the company and author.
Violation of this restriction may 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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