I Bought the Villains With Money - Chapter 9

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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 9.
I was an obedient niece. Jennis was an obedient maid.
The noisy Alley fell silent in an instant. My heart, which had been pounding frantically, found its rhythm again.
I was startled when cold metal touched my throat.
After regressing, I’d thought that while searching for Chorne’s whereabouts, she might not recognize me — but I never expected her to draw a blade on me.
Because before her death, Chorne had been deeply attached to me as her niece.
In my previous life, I knew I had an aunt, but I didn’t know where she lived or what she did. It wasn’t until I turned twenty that I found Chorne.
After that, we met often. Each time we met, Chorne worried about me and told me to speak up if I ever needed help.
So I thought that the moment I revealed I was her niece, she would listen to my every word.
‘This settles it. Only I have regressed.’
A few days after the regression, I suddenly wondered: had only I regressed?
My regression was extraordinary.
It was thanks to three people — Jennis, Chorne, and Cashion — that I could regress. So what if they had also regressed? At least, wouldn’t they recognize me?
But Jennis had no idea, and neither did Cashion. And neither did Chorne.
I alone had regressed, and they knew nothing of how my past had unfolded.
“Did Sana send you?”
As I fell silent, thinking, Chorne asked. I’d expected her to be angry that I was pretending to be her niece, but the way she mentioned my mother’s name suggested I must resemble her quite a bit.
‘Disturbingly so.’
“No, Mother… she passed away.”
“What? Sana’s dead? Don’t lie to me!”
Chorne jolted, and her blade pricked my throat. With a sharp sting, blood trickled down my neck.
“Don’t — please, don’t do that!”
Jennis cried out. Then a rat darted swiftly at Chorne’s legs.
“Argh, what is this!”
Chorne thrashed her leg.
I stared with wide eyes at the fleeing rat, the excited Jennis, and I recalled what she’d often said: “The rat told me.”
Could it be that Jennis controlled rats?
“Miss, even if I die, I’ll keep you alive!”
Was meeting my aunt something grave enough to speak of death?
Various idle thoughts crossed my mind, but calming Jennis took priority.
“Jennis, I’m fine. So please, settle down. I’m asking you.”
Jennis bit her lip hard, then exhaled deeply. The Alley fell quiet once more.
“Is Sana really dead?”
Chorne stared intently at my profile. I nodded.
My mother’s death was long past for me, having regressed and returned, yet every time I spoke of it aloud, my chest ached.
Mother had been infinitely gentle, a remarkable woman. Someone I could never hope to emulate.
“Sana… is dead, then.”
Chorne’s blade fell. She stumbled backward, away from me.
It was strange that she, who pursued information, was unaware of the circumstances of Irenbell House.
“I deliberately avoided that side of things, so I couldn’t even attend my sister’s final moments. I was planning to come back once I’d made my mark, successful and vindicated… but….”
Chorne’s words solved my curiosity.
The woman who had fled a life ill-suited to nobility wanted to return home triumphant, to prove herself.
Afraid her resolve might weaken if she missed her family, she had deliberately kept herself from news of them. And while she kept her ears shut that way, someone precious died.
Sorrow flickered across Chorne’s face.
I was considering whether to offer comfort when Jennis suddenly gripped my wrist and pulled me back urgently.
Jennis positioned me behind her and held up a wooden plank like a shield, blocking the way forward.
“Do you know who this is? That is, well, this person is….”
“Diana Viola Irenbell, right? My niece.”
Jennis had begun my introduction, and Chorne finished it. While Jennis floundered about whether Jennis had known all along, I pushed her aside and stepped forward.
“Miss, it’s dangerous.”
Jennis whimpered behind me. But she no longer blocked my way.
“Yes, that’s right. I’m your niece.”
“You look so much like Sana. Your face, especially. But why did you come looking? Did Sana ask you to find me?”
“Mother, in her lifetime, longed for you deeply. She looked for you many times.”
I mixed truth and falsehood in my words.
If Mother had set her mind to it, she could have found Chorne as I had. So why hadn’t she?
I only understood after meeting the young Chorne.
Chorne carried the scent of wind. She was not a woman to be tethered to any one place.
So Mother, even if she found Chorne, had chosen not to reach out. She had left her be.
She longed for and missed her only younger sister, but she would not bind Chorne’s feet. That was Mother — that was her way.
‘I’m sorry, Mom.’
But I am different. I wished for Chorne to be at my side.
Not in body, perhaps, but in heart.
Let the body go where the wind takes it—but the heart, let that stay with me.
“Mother told me to seek out Aunt Chorne if ever I faced hardship.”
I’m sorry for lying to you, Mom.
I glanced up at the sky for a moment and silently asked her forgiveness.
“How long has she been dead?”
I’d expected Chorne to see through my lies and press me on it, but news of my mother’s death seemed to have shaken her—she merely looked troubled, nothing more.
“A year.”
Chorne’s pupils trembled.
“Was Sana at peace when she went?”
“My mother was… relatively so.”
I hoped she’d been at peace.
The truth was, their deaths were riddled with questions.
That day, we’d planned to visit my mother’s hometown. But the rain came down relentlessly. Ordinarily, they would have postponed—yet both my parents insisted on proceeding regardless.
The journey, difficult from the start, grew worse when the usual roads flooded. In the end, we had to take a detour, and that’s where the accident happened.
A carriage overturned trying to avoid falling rocks, plunging down a cliff. An accident, they said. Yet looking back, nothing sat right.
‘I wept and let it pass at the time.’
“Sana told you to seek me out?”
Chorne’s question pulled me from my thoughts. She exhaled long and slowly.
“Yes. She said you would help me. I’m still so young—I need you.”
I dropped my eyebrows low and clasped my hands together to look pitiful. It was the sort of lie I couldn’t have imagined uttering before.
But now I know that sometimes lies are necessary.
Because I’m no longer a child.
“Diana, is it? You need a guardian?”
Chorne took my hand and pulled me close against her side, then stepped back to lean against the wall. She drew out a cigarette and lit it.
White smoke drifted broad across the alley. As the smoke spread, dim light began to seep into the narrow passage.
“I don’t need a guardian. I need something else.”
“You really are naive. You think family is enough for everything? No, wait—you don’t, do you? If I help you, what will you give me in return?”
Give you what? I’m your niece. You came looking for my execution grounds—you didn’t come asking for anything from me.
My carefully constructed innocent expression nearly crumbled at her words.
Seeing the shift in my face, Chorne’s left lip curled upward. She tapped my cheek with the hand holding the cigarette—two quick, sharp taps—then tossed the cigarette to the ground. It landed in the sewage with a hiss.
I dropped my gaze downward, biting the inside of my mouth as I watched her grind the discarded cigarette beneath her sole.
I thought I’d shed all traces of foolishness and naivety, yet I’d nearly made a mistake again. Banking on another’s goodwill, hoping for a windfall.
‘When I know her so well.’
Chorne weighed gains and losses with everyone, regardless of their station. If she sensed her own position was weak, she’d refuse anyone.
A memory surfaced—how she’d later founded the Royal Intelligence Organization and, as payment for her cooperation, received treasures from the royal house.
‘At the time, I didn’t know she was my aunt. I only thought she had audacity. I believed the King got the worse end of the bargain.’
I was wrong. The intelligence organization that Chorne established proved to be quite effective for a state institution.
She demanded a transaction even before blood kin. My disappointment had transformed into trust.
“You need to learn this first: there is no help without a price.”
I scraped the toe of my shoe against the ground, digging in. Each time my foot moved, filth spattered onto my dress.
Right. Begging for help on the basis of sentiment is something you do when you have nothing. But I have plenty.
“Do you need payment?”
I lifted my head. I’d dropped the innocent act.
“Of course.”
Chorne’s interest seemed to kindle at the sudden shift in my expression. She took a step closer. I opened my eyes wide and looked up at her.
“I can give you something.”
“And what would that be?”
“Money. I know your guild members’ living expenses are in arrears.”
Chorne’s eyes narrowed to slits—suspicious, wondering how I could possibly know.
Chorne’s Chorne would later amass wealth by trading information across the continent, but in its early days, it suffered from a shortage of funds.
The foundation of the information trade is trust. Naturally, few people would entrust work to a guild not yet properly established.
People trusted Chorne, but not Chorne.
So Chorne was closer to an errand guild than an information broker, and the commissions it received were little more than menial work.
Yet it wasn’t so lax that sensitive information would leak from within.
Chorne studied me with a cautious gaze.
“I take after my aunt—I know how to buy information too. A fair exchange. Now I’m ready to engage in transactions. Will you trade with me?”
The information I possessed wasn’t purchased, strictly speaking—it was lived.
Chorne’s circumstances could be gleaned without difficulty from the conversations I’d had with Cho in the past.
After all, Cho occasionally spoke of her past struggles as if they were cherished memories.
Cho stepped back, studying me as if weighing whether my words were truth or lies. She crossed her arms over her chest and lifted her chin.
“Let’s make a deal then. Go on—what are your terms?”
I’d passed the first test.
When I’d drawn the blade, I thought it would be difficult to have a productive conversation with Cho today. I was relieved to be wrong.
“As you know, I am the heir to Irenbell House.”
“Correction—you’re an heir-in-waiting, not an actual heir. You have no guardian, after all. Are you trying to make me one? Forget it. I despise being bound to anything.”
“I understand that I cannot bind someone as free-spirited as you to my side, Aunt.”
“Then how exactly do you plan to give me a large sum of money?”
“Not yet, but I’m scheduled to become the formal House Head soon.”
“Ha ha ha—so you’re not naive after all, you’re just stupid?”
Cho laughed loudly, shaking her head as if she’d known this all along.
Cho passed by me without hesitation, tapping my shoulder twice as she went.
I spoke after her, feigning supreme confidence.
“I’m going to marry the Third Prince, Cashion.”
I Bought 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]
Homepage │ 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 manner without permission from the company and author.
Violation of this shall 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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