Rewriting the Trash Ending - Chapter 57

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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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57.

An alley thick with the stench of death and poverty.
Deep within it stood a Welfare Facility.
“My lady, look there…….”
Hannah pointed carefully toward the end of the alley.
A long line of people stretched before the Welfare Facility’s walls, and beneath it lay others clutching porridge bowls, filling their bellies.
It seemed to be the lunch distribution hour—and the timing was perfect.
If we lined up for food, we could assess the actual conditions of the Welfare Facility.
“Let’s get in line.”
“What? You mean to stand in line?”
Kaiden’s voice pitched upward.
“We can’t simply observe from beyond the walls and leave, can we? We need to see firsthand just how generous the Welfare Facility’s provisions truly are.”
“No, please don’t. Truly! If His Majesty finds out, I’m done for!”
“Lower your voice. Do you mean to announce this inspection to the entire neighborhood?”
Lumiere cast him a sidelong glance, then took her place in line with perfect composure, and Hannah followed suit.
“Ah…….”
Kaiden pressed both hands to his face.
Whatever the Welfare Facility distributed would surely be nothing but oat porridge.
If His Majesty learned that Her Highness had consumed oat porridge made in such an unsanitary place…….
He truly wished he could simply die, yet there was no way to disobey Her Highness’s orders.
If His Majesty grew angry, surely he would shield her somehow.
Half resigned, he took his place in line behind her.
But then.
“Wait.”
A man standing beside the distribution counter scanned the line, then positioned himself directly before Lumiere and Hannah.
“What’re young, able-bodied women like you doing standing in line?”
The man jerked his chin and continued.
“Come inside and lend us a hand with the work, and we’ll give you something better than this foul-smelling oat porridge. What do you say?”
In the frigid silence that fell, Lumiere’s eyes narrowed.
Those who had kept their gaze fixed on their porridge bowls moments before now all turned their eyes downward in unison.
One woman among them even shook her head slowly and without sound.
A warning not to go.
“What, you don’t like it? Women standing in a line like this—are you really in a position to be choosy?”
When no answer came, the man scowled and reached out his hand.
But.
“I—I beg your pardon! I have a husband!”
Before Kaiden could step forward, Hannah cut in quickly.
“This man here is my husband, and this is his sister! My husband has quite a temperament, and if he finds out I’ve been anywhere with the women, there’ll be hell to pay! Isn’t that right, dear, dear?”
“…….”
Dear.
Caught off guard by the word, Kaiden stiffened entirely and stammered.
“…Y-yes. My temperament is, ah, quite foul.”
Whether from shock or anger, the words squeezed through his teeth with a rather menacing edge.
The man scanned Kaiden’s eyes and massive frame in turn, then clicked his tongue.
“A man with a perfectly sound body feeding his wife in a place like this? Pathetic.”
His gaze held genuine contempt.
Veins rose at Kaiden’s temples, and his neck flushed a deep crimson.
On the verge of throwing a punch, he felt Lumiere step firmly on his foot and shake her head.
Creating a scene here would only complicate matters.
“…….”
And so the three of them collected their thin oat porridge and slipped out beyond the walls.
For some time, a strange silence persisted.
The instant they rounded the corner of the alley, Kaiden and Hannah both opened their mouths at once.
“Why did I say husband——!”
“I’m so sorry, my lord——!”
Kaiden’s words caught short at Hannah’s apology, leaving him frozen in place.
“But still, I couldn’t exactly introduce you as Her Highness’s husband, could I…….”
“But that’s still…!”
Kaiden’s jaw clenched as he swallowed his outburst.
The reason was too reasonable to argue against.
Lumiere chuckled softly at his expression, then let her gaze fall to the porridge bowl in her hand.
……
Her smile faded by degrees.
Beneath the murky water, a handful of oat grains were barely visible.
And the smell—sour, like something on the verge of rot.
The Grand Duke’s Household sent no small amount of funding, yet here was oat porridge made from grain destined for the rubbish heap.
And then there was the matter of luring a young woman inside.
Her eyes turned cold as winter frost.
“We’re leaving.”
Something was clearly amiss at that Welfare Facility. She needed to know what.

***

Late into the night, in the Study.
The Crimson Lamp cast a dim glow across the Study, whose shelves groaned under the weight of countless volumes.
“On paper, it’s impeccable.”
Clothing and meal allowances distributed to the Welfare Facility’s residents and the Slum District’s inhabitants, season after season.
Ledgers of medicines provided to the sick, each with its cost carefully recorded.
The Expenditure Reports the Welfare Facility had submitted to the Grand Duke’s Household painted it as the most generous establishment in the North.
But what she had witnessed with her own eyes told an entirely different story.
The reports claimed they had purchased grain of moderate quality; in truth, it was oats days away from spoiling. And the streets were choked with abandoned souls.
Lumiere set down her pen and unfolded the Inspection Report.
Two audits had been conducted over the past year; both had found nothing amiss.
‘An expert overlooked what I caught at a glance. That’s peculiar.’
Flipping through the papers in puzzlement, her eye caught on the Welfare Facility’s history.
Founded by Baron Ruan.
He had died last year, and his son had inherited the Director’s position.
‘The Director changed only a year ago.’
When she dug through the Inspection Reports from previous years, she discovered that the Inspector assigned to oversee the facility had been replaced around the same time.
“So they’re both in on it.”
In her past life, she’d never heard of any wrongdoing at the Welfare Facility—but if the Inspector himself was involved, it explained how they’d stayed hidden.
Without this visit, they might have continued their crimes indefinitely.
She had no intention of letting this refuse fester on her husband’s lands.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
She drummed her fingertips on the desk, lost in thought.
Apprehending merchants who had defrauded the Grand Duke’s Household and searching their servants—those acts fell within her authority.
They had all taken place within the city walls.
But this situation was different.
Of course, the Grand Duke’s Household possessed Extralegal Authority, so a lower noble’s facility could not refuse to open its doors at her word.
What family in the North would dare defy the Grand Duke’s will?
But what mattered was justification.
Everyone was watching her now, and she was about to launch the Fund organization besides.
It was best to avoid any whispers or scandal.
‘I’ll use an audit as my pretext to demand entry.’
The Welfare Facility was a charitable institution founded by a noble, but it was the Grand Duke’s Household’s funds that kept it running.
Where the Grand Duke’s money flowed, auditing its use was the Grand Duke’s prerogative.
‘And if they refuse to open the doors, their refusal itself is as good as a confession.’
Either way, there would be no escape for them.

***

The next morning.
The City Gate swung open, and the Grand Duke’s Household’s carriage rolled through.
Behind it came five knights and twenty soldiers, flanking the carriage in an escort fit for war.
The troublesome Inspector had been locked in Prison at dawn to prevent any flight; now they were heading straight for the Welfare Facility.
Lumiere stared out the carriage window, her face carved from stone.
While her husband fought dangerous monsters, these wretches had indulged in filth—and the thought kindled an icy fury in her chest.
“Take my hand, Your Highness.”
Kaiden, dressed properly for once unlike the day before, extended his palm.
Lumiere grasped it lightly and stepped down to the ground.
“…….”
She surveyed her surroundings.
When armed soldiers suddenly poured into the Slum District without warning, everyone scattered in terror, hurrying inside their homes.
She watched them with composed, piercing eyes for a moment, then positioned herself before the Welfare Facility’s gate.
A sound came from within the firmly locked doors.
Bang! Bang-bang-bang-bang!
“Open up! We’re here on behalf of the Grand Duke’s Household!”
A soldier approached and pounded on the door, and from inside came the sound of held breath.
Whispered murmurs like rats scurrying, the hurried shuffle of panicked movement—all of it reached her ears.
Kaiden whispered low.
“…They’re trying to destroy evidence, aren’t they?”
“Appears so.”
She exchanged a glance with Kaiden.
“Well, we can’t very well leave Her Highness standing outside. This is troublesome. Is no one in there?”
After speaking with feigned innocence, Kaiden kicked the door with his boot.
Bang!
The sound rang out, and simultaneously the decrepit bolt shattered, the heavy gate swinging wide open.
“The door was rather poorly maintained, wasn’t it……?”
As Kaiden spoke with mock surprise, the man who had been turning to hurry inside the building froze awkwardly.
“What—what is this about!”
It was the man from the Distribution Counter yesterday.
His gaze swept across the soldiers lined up behind them, then landed on Lumiere’s face.
“Yesterday, you were so eager not to let me inside.”
“That was…….”
Blink, blink, blink.
“……!”
In that instant, the color drained from the man’s face as he blinked stupidly.
Yesterday, he had seen only a face half-hidden by a hood, but that slender jawline, the shape of those lips—unmistakably…….
The woman he had tried to drag inside.

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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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