Isn’t Being A Wicked Woman Much Better? - Chapter 14

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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 14
I stared at him intently and flipped open my premium leather bag with a flourish.
“Look. Does this explain things?”
The man watched my trump card tumble from the bag, then burst into laughter once more.
“Well?”
“It’s certainly an item difficult to obtain unless one is a noblewoman.”
What I had produced was a high-grade mana stone with a blue luminescence.
Since all high-grade mana stones mined in the Empire flowed directly to the Magic Tower as first priority, the blue mana stone was nothing short of a symbol of my backing—the Duke Simour himself as my father.
‘I’m glad I secretly set one aside, just in case.’
Beyond my wealth, I possessed the backing of Duke Simour.
“Now it’s your turn to demonstrate your ingenuity.”
For a moment he hesitated, but soon retrieved a pouch with a reddish glow from a drawer. Peculiarly, the cord binding the pouch was threaded with three small high-grade mana stones.
“I hope it pleases you, Miss.”
“What is this pouch?”
“It is a pouch woven with space expansion magic, weight reduction magic, and summoning magic.”
No matter how thoroughly I searched Deborah’s memories, there was no such wondrous item.
Could this be the legendary rare artifact I’d only heard whispers of?
“One can store within this pouch the amount of gold coins that would fill approximately fifty large safes. There is no risk of loss either, since you simply designate your palm as the coordinate and summon it. The weight, when filled completely with coins, is approximately one pound.”
“Surely you didn’t craft this yourself?”
“I did.”
I marveled at the convenience of this pouch. With just one of these, it would be equivalent to owning a small bank.
“Transfer this pouch to me.”
I spoke with complete sincerity.
“I shall craft one for you.”
Master began drafting a contract regarding the slush fund pouch.
However, the contract contained a clause stipulating that I would not disclose anything about the pouch to anyone outside. He clearly did not wish for the idea of operating slush funds through magic to spread.
‘Ah, I see. He’s using this pouch as a tax evasion portal.’
Master undoubtedly conceals black money earned through illicit dealings within the magical pouch. That’s why he desires my absolute discretion.
“But… is there a particular reason it had to be a pouch?”
As I muttered this thoughtlessly, Master tilted his head.
“Because it offers excellent convenience.”
“The convenience is good, but the amount of gold coins one can conceal seems limited, making the efficiency rather poor…”
The moment my words trailed off, Master’s expression hardened. A cold atmosphere emanated from him, just as it had when we first met, and I felt a wave of dismay.
‘Of all things, by mentioning concealment, I’ve given him a hint that I’ve seen through his tax evasion scheme.’
I should have let it pass unnoticed, but the water was already spilled. I barely maintained my composure and continued speaking.
“If I possessed your proficiency in spatial magic, rather than a pouch like this, I would have purchased an island in the nation with the lowest tax rate and established a shell company there.”
I spoke as though my own purpose in acquiring the slush fund pouch was also tax evasion. Acting as an accomplice would lower his guard.
“Manage gold bars on a remote island through convenient teleportation, and complicate the flow of money through the fake company established on the island. Tax audits wouldn’t easily reach the island, so wouldn’t that be killing two birds with one stone?”
With teleportation magic added to the equation, even twenty-first-century tycoons would weep at the tax haven that would be born.
At my words, something flickered in Master’s eyes. He drummed his fingers on the table thoughtfully for a moment.
“It’s certainly a creative idea, but crossing the sea via long-distance teleportation magic is currently impossible. You’d need to be a 9th-class mage for that to work.”
“I see.”
Even Duke Simour, the Empire’s greatest mage, had yet to break through the 7th-class barrier. A 9th-class mage? That was impossible unless you were a legendary dragon.
“But it’s quite inventive. Far more so than this pouch I created.”
Suddenly, Master announced he wouldn’t accept a single coin for creating the slush fund pouch. It was payment for the ‘creativity’ I’d displayed.
‘Oh yes. I hit the jackpot.’
I realized that the broad yet shallow knowledge I’d accumulated in my past life—serving as a group project bus driver through countless liberal arts courses—had become a high-value item I could trade with Blanche Master. I’d instantly earned the exorbitant price of the magical pouch through the concept of a ‘tax haven’.
From the pink diamond that fell into my hands to this transaction with Blanche Master. As my luck continued to explode like a jackpot, confidence erupted in a way that was utterly unlike me.
“You won’t find a client like me anywhere else—one who possesses wealth, power, and creativity all three.”
He let out a faint laugh at my bluster.
“Humor too. You’ve got all four beats covered. Or rather… five beats? …because.”
He muttered something quietly, so I tilted my head.
“What did you say?”
“Nothing.”
The man placed the contracts for the three commissions into an envelope, then began melting black sealing wax with a flame that appeared at his fingertip. He picked one stamp from the dozens arranged in a line on the table, pressed it firmly into the flowing wax, and lifted it away.
The image stamped into the seal was a swan.
‘What does this mean?’
My mind twisted in confusion. The fact that he hadn’t used the cat-with-a-tail-shaped stamp meant he wasn’t entirely satisfied with our transaction.
‘I don’t know whether to interpret this favorably or unfavorably.’
It could mean I’d gained more from the deal, or it could imply he had no intention of continuing to do business with me.
‘If he cuts off the transaction, I have no way to find this place again.’
Since it was connected by teleportation, I couldn’t even guess at its location.
“My lady.”
He called out to me as I was growing anxious.
“…Yes?”
“If you wish to inquire about the progress of your commissions, don’t come to Atra District. Instead, visit the information broker in Yones District.”
He wrote down the address of a shop located within the district where high-ranking nobility resided.
‘This is Maison D.’
I was startled by the familiar name. Maison D was the most popular dessert shop in Yones District lately—so popular that Deborah frequented it. Servants from noble houses lined up from 3 a.m. to purchase exquisite desserts handcrafted by a master pastry chef of royal descent. It was the kind of place where only 77 desserts were sold each day.
Deborah wouldn’t be satisfied unless she had one of those desserts at teatime. Thanks to her, I’d been getting quite the bargain.
But to think that Maison D, like Diana, was also a shop managed by Blanche Master.
‘I thought he was just an information broker, but he’s quite the wealthy entrepreneur.’
His business acumen was extraordinary. I clicked my tongue inwardly and rose from my seat, holding the empty bag that contained only the contracts.
“If I want to make another commission, I can come anytime, right?”
As I moved toward the arched doorway, I asked with a slightly timid feeling. The swan-shaped stamp had been nagging at me.
At my question, he narrowed his eyes into crescents.
“Wealthy clients are always welcome.”
Only then did my tension completely dissolve.
To think I’d gained the Crown Prince’s all-purpose cheat… no, his strategist. For a foreigner like me with no one to trust, Master’s existence was nothing short of a blessing.
My carefully maintained dignified expression kept threatening to crumble, so I hurriedly turned and walked quickly toward the exit.
* * *
“If you ever need to place a commission, feel free to visit anytime.”
Isidore gazed quietly at Deborah Simour’s beautiful eyes—reminiscent of rubies—before speaking.
“Wealthy clients are always welcome.”
For a moment, it seemed a faint smile had graced her crimson lips, which had remained cold and rigid throughout our exchange. Yet she turned away swiftly, as if concealing that fleeting expression, and walked toward the exit, leaving me uncertain whether she had truly smiled at all.
Soon the sharp sound of hinges closing echoed through the space, and the lady disappeared from view. Isidore stared at the firmly shut door before letting his body sink back into his chair.
‘Now only my questions remain.’
He traced his fingertip across the swan embossed on the black seal, murmuring to himself.
A black swan.
An entirely unexpected existence, yet one that had appeared before me nonetheless—something I could only accept.
The moment I met the lady, stroking Cookie while her crimson eyes gleamed toward me, my chest lurched with shock as if I had witnessed that black swan myself.
‘…This is different from the rumors I’ve heard.’
Did Deborah Simour truly possess such an enigmatic aura?
The Duke’s daughter whom Isidore had come to understand through information gathering was violent, vain, and incompetent. Her inferiority complex ran so deep that her reputation in High Society had hit rock bottom.
Yet the Deborah before me felt entirely different from the figure I had constructed in my mind through rumor and intelligence.
‘It must be my imagination. After all, Cookie has never shown affection to anyone but me before….’
However, as the conversation stretched on, Isidore realized he had misjudged her entirely.
Of course, one could not say her temperament was good, as the rumors suggested. With an expression as cold as frost, she glared at me menacingly whenever the transaction proved unsatisfactory, and when I mentioned pricing for the method of taming Cookie, she sarcastically offered to sell it for ninety-nine gold—a one-gold discount.
A laugh escaped me unbidden. I never expected to have my own crude wordplay—which I so often inflicted upon clients—turned back upon me.
‘Yet that quality is rather attractive.’
One could never predict where she might pivot next, leaving no room for boredom.
Above all, her final commission had caught me off guard. It was tantamount to asking me to reveal one of my trade secrets. Just as I hesitated, mana stones appeared from her bag.
Information and wealth, creativity and power.
Because the lady’s clever parrying intrigued me, Isidore impulsively revealed how he managed his slush funds. Yet that was not the end of it.
‘Purchasing islands in low-tax nations to establish shell companies….’
Truly befitting the Empire’s most notorious villainess.
The tax evasion scheme she proposed was both creative and ruthlessly cunning. Moreover, its applications were vast. Rather than islands alone, one could establish dozens of phantom trading companies in the Heleia Autonomous Region, which the temples controlled, then funnel profits through those companies to manipulate the ledgers—making it far more difficult for the Asteia Emperor to trace the taxes.
A far grander and more sophisticated method of tax evasion than concealing gold bars through spatial magic.
This was the first time I had felt such a peculiar sense of defeat during a transaction. Simultaneously, my curiosity about the client had only deepened.
Until now, every client Isidore had encountered moved and reacted exactly as predicted, like pieces on a chessboard. But Lady Deborah had burst onto the board without warning, leaving only questions in her wake as she departed.
How had she found me? What was her secret for taming the timid Cookie so effortlessly? Why was she attempting to raise slush funds by selling a pink diamond? The questions were endless.
Though curiosity gnawed at me, as an information broker, I could hardly ask….
“I can’t stand unanswered curiosity.”
At Isidore’s murmur, the mist that had hung thick throughout the office dissipated, and a man who had been lurking in the shadows stepped slowly forward.
“Young Master. Shall I investigate Deborah Simour directly?”
Isidore shook his head at the question from Miguel Drain, one of the Visconti House’s retainers.
“Why would you step in when this finally seems interesting?”
“…Surely you don’t mean to investigate her yourself?”
“The Academy opens soon anyway. I’ll run into her frequently whether I want to or not.”
His lord, who habitually claimed there was nothing to learn at the Academy, had scattered bribes throughout the previous semester with the implicit request to overlook his absences.
“…You’re going to the Academy? After spending that much money?”
“Building connections with Duke Simour’s distinguished daughter isn’t a waste, is it?”
“Didn’t you say you’d already established all the necessary connections? That you’d focus solely on your relationship with the Crown Prince for now….”
Isidore paid no heed to his words, instead stroking Cookie’s head with a gentle touch.
“I’ll discover how I trained my precious Cookie without spending a single copper. It’s a matter of pride as an information broker, you see.”
Watching Isidore display such petty resentment, Miguel had to swallow his exasperation.
With his obsessive cleanliness and extreme aversion to women—he wouldn’t even tolerate the slightest contact with them—Miguel couldn’t fathom why he would suddenly take the trouble to cultivate a relationship with Deborah Simour.
Suspicious as it was, she remained merely a noblewoman. She hardly seemed important enough for his master to personally invest such precious time.
‘He can be quite capricious at times.’
Isidore oscillated between being chillingly calculating and suddenly impulsive, acting on whim. He was a man Miguel’s limited capacity could never fully comprehend.
Accepting that his master must have some grand purpose beyond his understanding, Miguel opened his mouth to speak.
“But how do you intend to approach her?”
Isidore shrugged once and unfastened the bracelet enchanted with a polymorphic spell.
His grayish-brown hair transformed into a golden blonde that seemed to have melted the sun itself, and his previously unremarkable, waxy complexion shifted into the breathtakingly beautiful visage of a handsome man—one impossible to forget once seen.

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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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