Please Repay Me with Marriage! - Chapter 28

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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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Pay me back by marrying me!
Chapter 28
“That idiot Walter lost ten million rarc, or was it twenty million, on his so-called business ventures… Good thing he made that ‘mistake’ early on. Otherwise, the Countess would have taken whatever dowry was left.”
Leonard understood at once what Count Miles meant by “mistake.”
He was talking about Leonard’s birth.
“I lent that fool money despite seeing all of that because of the dowry the Countess took. It’s not as if I lent such a large sum without a plan.”
Leonard knew what came after.
The sum Walter Elpias had borrowed from Count Miles was a staggering 25 million rarc. The Elpias Count had squandered that enormous amount not on business but on gambling. In a single month.
The Late Elpias Count had groveled at his wife’s feet, begging her to repay the debt.
Naturally, the Late Countess Elpias declared that she would never pay it, and in the same breath, she slid a divorce document across the table.
And so the Late Elpias Count was left with not a single coin to his name and a mountain of debt. To everyone’s surprise, he ran. He abandoned his family and his territory without a second thought.
The Late Countess Elpias immediately sent people out to find her husband. But one month passed, then two, and still the Late Elpias Count’s whereabouts remained a complete mystery.
It was then that the Late Countess Elpias deliberately refrained from filing a missing person report for her husband.
Count Miles, unaware of these circumstances, sent someone to press for repayment. When he learned the Late Elpias Count had vanished, he immediately filed a missing person report with the Imperial Family.
It was a perfectly reasonable decision on his part. He had lent a massive sum of 25 million rarc, and now the person who was supposed to repay it had disappeared.
Because of that, only the Late Countess Elpias was left in a bind.
Once a missing person report was filed, the person would be declared dead automatically after one year.
Then the Count Title would be left hanging in the air, and her only daughter was still too young. It would take another five years before she could inherit the title.
Under Imperial Law, a spouse cannot inherit a title.
If Zenis Elpias had been the sole heir, the succession could have been put on hold. But the Late Elpias Count had a grown nephew. If the Elpias Count were declared dead like this, the title would go to him.
So the Late Countess Elpias summoned Leonard. The one who carried the blood of the Late Elpias Count.
‘My husband had the nerve to come to me with a birth registration form, asking me to enter you into his family register. I never imagined I’d put the documents I kept as proof of his infidelity to use like this… I’ll place you on the family register and make you an Elpias. Hold the title and guard it for me until my daughter comes of age.’
Until Zenis came of age, there were five years left. In exchange for this five-year long-term contract, the Late Countess Elpias promised ten million rarc.
The amount he could receive as an advance was five million rarc.
It was certainly a large sum, but for an illegitimate child with a mercenary background, it was not nearly enough to justify enduring the ridicule of the other nobles as a count.
Yet Leonard signed the contract the Late Countess Elpias put in front of him without a moment’s hesitation.
It was because, at that very time, the Iron Blood Mercenary Corps had been ambushed by a rival mercenary company, and most of its members had been killed, while the few survivors were badly wounded, barely clinging to life.
Leonard handed over all five million rarc to cover the treatment of his men, and became Leonard Elpias.
Then, until the Late Elpias Count was declared dead, he learned noble etiquette and high-society manners from the Countess. To put it bluntly, he scrubbed the mercenary off himself and soaked himself in nobility.
That was all he needed to concern himself with. Naturally, he paid no mind to the debts the Late Elpias Count had left behind.
That was because the Late Countess Elpias had explained why she wasn’t repaying the debt.
She was afraid that the Late Elpias Count, hiding somewhere, would hear that his debts had been paid and come crawling back.
‘The debt owed to the House of Miles will be settled once our Zenis inherits the title. Leave it to me, and don’t trouble yourself with it.’
By then, Count Miles had also understood the Late Countess Elpias’s intentions, and he stopped pressing for repayment, collecting only the interest. He figured that if he just waited long enough, the money would eventually come to him.
But just before Leonard was due to inherit the title, the Late Countess Elpias died in a carriage accident. It was truly a sudden misfortune.
The problem was that the Late Countess Elpias’s will, which she surely had drawn up while she was alive, was nowhere to be found, and her estate had also vanished without a trace.
There was no gold to be found in the Count’s Residence, not in the vault or the storerooms. Even when he visited the bank the Countess had frequently used, the bank manager merely shook his head.
Amid all this confusion, the day came when Leonard inherited the title.
The principal debt alone was 25 million rarc. And the interest, which grew every month, was beyond any calculation of how far it might swell if he failed to pay it.
His client was already dead. Ordinarily, in such a case, the contract would be voided. By any sensible measure, the proper course was to abandon the title, which had become a hollow prize, and leave.
Zenis, whose eyes never had a chance to de-swell from crying every single day, was the one who pushed him toward the door.
Yet Leonard did not leave. He stayed and became the Elpias Count.
Even as he hoped that finding the Late Countess Elpias’s estate would resolve everything…
‘Brother, you really won’t leave, will you?’
Half-blood or not, blood is blood, and so she called him brother.
His natural father had abandoned him, and his birth mother had sold him to a mercenary company.
Zenis was the only blood relative he had in this world. How could he abandon someone like her and walk away?
‘If you truly feel it’s wrong, you’re free to run away. I’ll handle what comes after.’
Unlike him, a mercenary who had grown up seeing all manner of cruelty, Zenis was a fragile young lady the Late Countess Elpias had raised with great care. Even if he had to suffer hardship, he felt it was right for him to bear it.
Leonard had only one goal. Somehow resolve this debt, find a decent and well-mannered man to take as the Countess’s consort, and then return the title to Zenis.
It was for that reason alone that he had kept up with social engagements for a full year, though they had been nothing but mockery.
If there had been any household willing to pay off the debt owed to the House of Miles, Leonard would have sold himself to whichever family it was.
But no one seriously regarded him, an illegitimate child with a mercenary past, as a potential husband. The women who approached him wanted nothing more than a sweet night together.
Realizing that his body was worth no more than a single glass of wine in these circles, Leonard gave up all social activities and became a mercenary again.
But the money he earned from mercenary work was barely enough to keep up with the mounting interest.
And so today, the debt had swelled to thirty million rarc, with no way it could be repaid. Leonard thought so, and so did Count Miles.
“To be honest, I suspected you had harmed the late Countess to seize her money.”
“What nonsense is that?”
“Yes, if that were the case, you would have fled long ago and wouldn’t be standing here. I still wonder, though. Was the Countess’s death truly an accident? And whose hands did her vanished estate end up in…?”
Leonard had no trouble catching the implication hidden in that faint, trailing voice.
-The late Count Elpias killed his wife and stole her fortune.
But Leonard shook his head.
“The late Countess’s death was an accident. There were plenty of witnesses, and they all gave the same account.”
“Is that so? …Well, it’s a bit ridiculous to dig up something that happened years ago.”
Count Miles downed his drink in one go, the ice having melted just enough to chill it.
Leonard, too, drained what little remained in his glass, and a conversation from long ago drifted back to him.
‘What? Did you think I’d lose my mind when I saw you, or burst into tears of grief?’
‘There was a time when your existence felt like a wedge driven into my heart. Back then, I still believed in my husband…’
‘But that’s all water under the bridge now. Whatever that scoundrel gets up to with other women, why should I care?’
‘Looking back now… I even think that leaving you behind was one of the few decent things that wretch ever did.’
-Knock, knock
“Count, I’m back.”
“Good. So, how did it go?”
Count Miles’s aide glanced at Leonard’s face for a moment, then nodded.
“The cheque is genuine. Please, see for yourself.”
Count Miles confirmed that exactly 30 million rarc had been deposited into his account, then stole a wide-eyed glance at Leonard.
“Well, I’ll be… So, are you going to tell me how you came by this money?”
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
Because Leonard had been racing without rest, news from the capital had not yet reached this place.
But soon enough, Count Miles would learn of it too: the news of Marquis Blair’s marriage, which had shaken the capital to its core.
“Now, please write out the debt repayment certificate.”
“Yes, I’ll write it. I’ll certainly write it.”
Yet Count Miles’s expression was somehow odd.
For a man who had received money he never expected to get back, he showed remarkably little joy, and though he didn’t seem to doubt where the money had come from, he was clearly stealing wary glances at Leonard’s face.
“There you go.”
Because of that, Leonard examined the debt repayment certificate Count Miles had written out with great care.
Having to return to the Blair Marquis Residence and undergo Groom Training, he checked every document down to the smallest misprint.
Thankfully, the certificate appeared to be in perfect order. Leonard tucked the papers safely into his coat and rose from his seat.
“Then I’ll take my leave. I doubt we’ll meet again.”
Leonard bowed his head stiffly, hoping with all his heart that it would be so.
“House of Elpias will not forget the kindness Miles has shown us. I wish you well from here on.”
“Hmm… Before you go, there’s something I need to say to you.”
Count Miles let out a murmur, his face wearing an awkward, uncertain look.
Leonard realized it. The attitude Count Miles had shown a moment ago was because of what he was about to say.
“Is there a problem?”
“To be honest, I didn’t think you’d be able to repay the debt. Isn’t that right? Thirty million rarc is hardly pocket change, after all.”
“Please, just get to the point.”
Count Miles let out a short sigh.
“My son has already set off for Elpias County. He’s going to bring his bride back himself.”

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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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