My Youngest Keeps Bringing Home Male Leads - Chapter 80

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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 80
After that, Heder slipped Romaline into Agnes’s tea two more times.
Ruppert fell ill each time, as expected, but just as he’d said, a ten-minute nap put him right again.
Agnes made sure to appear worse off, refusing to leave her room at all.
She also barred everyone from entering except Martha and Ruppert.
A week passed.
As if on cue, Valdemar’s representative arrived at the Laberose Mansion.
He came bearing a promissory note claiming that a debt to Valdemar remained unpaid.
The next day.
To avoid raising suspicion, Heder entrusted Lilia with some errands and sent her to Kalborn City.
For once, House Laberose’s guests gathered together with Agnes and Ruppert.
“So you’re saying this is a forged promissory note?”
Lapitor, whose hands were delicate enough for fine work, examined the document first, then passed it to Kesenor.
He barely scrutinized it, as though he’d already guessed what it was.
“I’d wager it’s made from special paper manufactured with twisted Mana to prevent Magic from functioning. Most prominent noble houses use this commonly, so it’s difficult to prove forgery based on this alone.”
“It was created to prevent forgery through Magic in the first place, then.”
“Precisely. When Magic is involved, both forgery and verification become easier, so families typically manufacture and use their own materials instead.”
At that, Lapitor perked up and leaned forward eagerly.
“So what you’re saying is that a mage is useless here? Well then, I’m the one who should shine. Ignitan, do you know anything? Any way to prove it was forged?”
Ignitan and Lapitor had worked together on village matters long enough that they’d grown quite close.
Ordinarily Lapitor did all the talking while Ignitan responded quietly, but the ease between them spoke volumes.
Of course, Ignitan—a giant with no special techniques to speak of—simply shook his head.
“Well, giants like us have nothing but brute strength; there’s not a shred of delicacy in us, no matter how hard you look.”
Despite the near-reproach, Ignitan let out a soft laugh.
His expression showed he didn’t mind Lapitor’s chatter in the slightest.
The promissory note passed through the three men and returned to Agnes.
Agnes reviewed the contents once more, lost in thought.
The date written was from two years ago.
It was the very day she’d renegotiated with creditors, deferring repayment and increasing interest annually instead.
The contents naturally matched, and at the bottom of the document were the signature and seal of Lady Valdemar as guardian, side by side.
Nothing appeared overtly wrong, yet she was certain this document was forged—for one reason alone.
Her own memory.
“Lady Valdemar did sign as my guardian at the time, but she never renegotiated with Valdemar himself. She simply didn’t mention it, and I was grateful for that silence. I was relieved by her generosity.”
“You’re certain of this?”
Agnes nodded deeply in answer to Kesenor’s confirmation.
“I’ve guarded the promissory notes scrupulously to prevent any future disputes. Had a contract been drawn up, we would each have kept a copy, but all debt-related documents have been destroyed—nothing remains on our end.”
“They’ll claim you lost it, won’t they?”
“Or that I hid it.”
“In any case, the sum is genuinely close to usury rates.”
“Exactly. If not for the money Amy brought back, this contract alone would require us to sell off both the territory and the mansion—and it still wouldn’t suffice. That’s precisely why I couldn’t have renegotiated. Had Valdemar produced such a contract, I’d have abandoned everything from the start and sold it all.”
Looking back now, she wondered if her father’s debt had been real at all.
What if it had been fabricated in exactly this way?
The money already paid couldn’t be recovered, but the thought that Valdemar might have secretly deceived her father—addled as he was by Romaline—made her chest burn with anger.
‘Valdemar must have thought five years ago that we’d collapse any moment.’
Perhaps it was a blessing they’d endured this long.
At fifteen, she’d have been incapable of mounting such a defense; he may well have thought her powerless.
With that thought, the painful years spent alongside Alfred and Ruppert suddenly felt less like suffering and more like something hard-won.
According to this document, Valdemar was essentially demanding that either she hand over the fortune Amy had earned or surrender the Laberose Territory.
“If I were still addicted to Romaline right now, there would be no one in this mansion capable of responding to this.”
“That’s not true. I’m here, aren’t I? If we’re betrothed, I have more than enough authority to speak on your behalf.”
“But we haven’t done anything together.”
“Doesn’t my lingering here this long serve as proof enough?”
“Really, Your Grace…….”
Agnes didn’t hesitate; she simply laughed, and Kesenor played along as if it were all a light jest, but the faces of the men around them turned cold.
Still, because Agnes had once asked them not to fight, they couldn’t openly reproach him.
-Isn’t that a bit shameless? Wrapping himself around Agnes like that…….
-Quiet. He’ll hear.
Seeing the two of them gaze comfortably into each other’s eyes, Lapitor deliberately spoke up loudly.
“In any case, I think I might be able to verify something.”
“Can you really, Lapitor?”
“It will take a little time, but if we can prove the document is forged, what will you do then?”
“I’ll take it to trial. Valdemar will assume I can’t judge the matter clearly, so he’ll expect an easy victory. That’s exactly where I’ll strike him down.”
If she could prove the document was forged and expose Valdemar’s crimes besides.
At the thought of such a future, her fingertips trembled faintly.
“We’ll proceed straight to trial.”
Lapitor spoke with confident conviction.
“I’ll prepare the evidence for you.”
* * *
A week later.
Lapitor, who had seemed to be conducting various experiments in the Empty House at the edge of the village, appeared at Agnes’s door looking exhausted.
His eyes were shadowed with fatigue, yet his pupils burned with confidence.
“I told you, didn’t I? That it could be done.”
With those words, Lapitor spread out what he’d brought on the table.
Two large sheets of paper bore transfers of Agnes’s seal and Valdemar’s seal, and there were also reproductions of signatures.
Among them, the signature reproductions were particularly unusual—he had expressed the height variations of the lettering three-dimensionally on something like a rubber mold.
“What is this?”
“Let me explain this first.”
Saying so, he unfolded the paper bearing the transferred seals.
“Look, this is the Promissory Note we received. And this is the Debt Repayment Certificate that he claimed to have drawn up recently. What do you think? Identical, aren’t they?”
“Yes… they’re exactly the same.”
When magnified and examined, even the minute cracks aligned remarkably.
“It seems he copied Agnes’s seal after seeing the Debt Repayment Certificate. I can’t say exactly how he copied it, but he may have created a replica by studying the impression.”
“If they’re identical to this degree, wouldn’t that prove the document is authentic?”
“Not at all. Because this contract is dated two years ago. Look, let’s examine the seal Agnes used two years ago.”
The seal from two years ago was replicated from the one Agnes kept stored at the Mansion.
As if cast in the same manner, it aligned remarkably with Agnes’s current seal, but…
When Lapitor peered through a magnifying glass at the section he’d marked with a red pen, a subtle difference became visible.
“Objects in use inevitably wear down. Even the hardest stone becomes worn or scratched with use. So seals too develop fine cracks and become worn.”
Agnes, understanding at last, gasped silently.
In other words, perfect identity became proof of forgery.
“Beyond that, he didn’t even copy it perfectly. Since he was copying from what he saw, the lines are somewhat blunt, shall we say. But it’s not wear—it’s a lack of refinement.”
“Yes, you’re absolutely right.”
“Also, I transferred this three-dimensionally based on paper depression to compare pen pressure. People have habits—they tend to press the paper similarly when writing specific characters. But looking at these characters… they’re different, aren’t they? It proves this wasn’t written by Agnes.”
The three-dimensional model showing letter pressure truly showed varying depths only in certain characters.
Running her fingertips over the contract and Debt Repayment Certificate, she could indeed feel the different pen pressure in those sections.
Having finished his explanation, Lapitor met Agnes’s eyes and smiled confidently.
“So, do I look rather impressive now?”

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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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