Rewriting the Trash Ending - Chapter 60

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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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60.

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A fortnight had passed.
The Director, the thugs, the guards who had accepted bribes and turned a blind eye to crimes—
all of them now languished in underground cells, awaiting their fate.
A dozen or so thugs who had conspired with the Welfare Facility had trafficked innocent people, while the guards had leaked the identities of informants, ensuring they faced retaliation.
The crimes were grave enough to warrant immediate execution, but killing seemed too merciful; instead, they were all to be sent to the Mine for lifelong forced labor.
No doubt they would suffer for a very long time.
Eating worse gruel than those they had trampled beneath their heels, their backs never straightening once in all their years, swinging pickaxes in the darkness until death claimed them.
As for the Welfare Facility, it had been placed temporarily under the stewardship of an administrator dispatched by the Grand Duke’s Household.
The spoiled grain had been destroyed entirely, and a plan was in place to care for those with nowhere else to go.
Based on the confiscated Ledgers, the Merchant Guilds implicated in the Facility’s corruption were now being hunted down with every resource the Grand Duke’s Household could muster.
The rest would be apprehended soon enough.
However, their crimes were not to be made public.
The guilds whose names appeared in the Ledgers still wandered somewhere in the Grand Duchy, and more importantly, the moment their crimes were revealed, the suffering endured by these women would be exposed to the world as well.
“Has everyone been comfortable these past days?”
Before the Welfare Facility.
Lumiere’s gaze swept slowly across the faces of a dozen or so women and children.
“Yes, we have lived in comfort thanks to your benevolence.”
“Th-thank you. Thank you for taking the time to look in on wretches like us…….”
The half-dozen children at most huddled close against the women’s sides, offering quiet, ant-sized voices of greeting.
“…Thank you.”
The women watched Axid carefully, then hastily pressed down on the children’s heads.
“We apologize—the children are still so young……!”
They curled into themselves, terrified of offending the Grand Duke.
The cause, unsurprisingly, stood right beside her.
Lumiere glanced sideways at the man positioned at her side like a bodyguard.
He was intimidating simply by standing still.
How frightening he must be to those exposed to violence and crime.
She should have insisted he stay at the castle and rest.
“It’s alright. What matters is the heart, doesn’t it?”
She took a step toward the child, knelt down, and met their gaze.
“There’s no need to be afraid. This gentleman may look a bit frightening, but he’s actually the most reliable man in the world.”
The women, the knights stationed here, the soldiers—all held their breath.
Had she just called the Grand Duke “mister”?
In the silence that followed, quiet as a dead mouse,
“…Sir?”
the child stared up at her and repeated the word, and Axid awkwardly nodded.
Lumiere burst out laughing at his uncomfortable reaction to this strange title he’d never heard in his life.
“See? Not scary at all, is he?”
She gently patted the child’s head, then rose to her feet.
“If you need anything, tell the administrator at any time.”
The Welfare Facility had been seized and transferred to the Grand Duke’s Household upon Ruan’s criminal conviction.
Lumiere intended to make this building the headquarters of the Fund Association going forward.
The women here would be its first beneficiaries.
If they wished, she would either hire them as Fund Association staff or teach them skills to support their independence.
After taking her leave of the Facility’s residents, she departed with Axid.
“Grand Duke, shall we walk for a bit?”
At Lumiere’s suggestion, Axid matched his stride to hers without a word.
Now that the rot had been cut from the Slum District, the streets that had been gloomy and ominous until recently were transformed beyond recognition.
The lanes had been put in some order, and the faces of those who dwelt there had begun, however tentatively, to brighten.
Once the Fund Association took root at the end of this street, things would improve still further.
“Perhaps it’s because you’re the most reliable man in the world—walking beside you makes me feel so secure and content.”
“…Must you call me that?”
At his meek protest, Lumiere teased him playfully.
“Then what should I call you—brother?”
“…….”
His ears flushed crimson as
he squirmed.
Watching his profile, I nearly burst out laughing.
In any case, he was the sort of man who looked utterly without pity or tears, yet harbored a surprising shyness beneath that cold exterior.
Despite that bloodless demeanor, whenever he revealed that strangely innocent side of himself, it was genuinely endearing…….
“But what brings you out here? You must be terribly busy.”
The incident at the Welfare Facility had only just occurred.
While we’d managed to contain the situation, he ought to have been confined to his office reorganizing the Guard Corps and administrative staff, attending to countless other matters.
Just as I was fretting over his responsibilities, he opened his mouth quietly.
“I was inadequate in my protection of you last time.”
“What? No, you did wonderfully. Thanks to you, we were able to apprehend the villains.”
True, his volatile nature made me a touch uneasy at times, but having Kaiden by my side had been deeply reassuring.
I knew well the extent of his abilities.
Yet he merely furrowed his brow as though dissatisfied, his lips pressed firmly shut.
“Did I do something wrong?”
Could it be because I came here in person?
He’d already pleaded with me not to go to the Slum District, saying the Grand Duke would have his head if he found out…….
‘There’s no helping it.’
I decided to speak up for Kaiden.
“Grand Duke, please don’t blame Kaiden too harshly. I forced my way…….”
“There’s no need for you to defend him. Failing to prevent you from entering a dangerous place was a lapse in judgment on my part.”
“Even so…….”
“Had you sustained even the slightest injury, what would have become of you?”
His low, controlled voice suddenly conjured the memory of that moment—his relentless gaze sweeping over me from crown to toe before the carriage.
I’d wondered at the time why he was staring so intently, but could he have been checking me for wounds?
“…….”
In truth, had I received even a minor scratch, the blame would fall squarely upon my escort knight.
His severity was simply the duty of a husband.
Still, I was the one who should look after my own knight—who else would?
“I told you, he stayed right beside me the whole time. There wasn’t even an opening for danger, so please don’t be so harsh.”
“…….”
Lumiere moved forward without noticing how Axid’s expression had grown even more formidable.
‘I wonder if the invitations have arrived by now.’
Several days prior, she had sent invitations to various noble households, including those whose representatives had attended the tea gathering, for the Inauguration Ceremony.
To put the gathered funds to use before the Harsh Winter Season, the ceremony had to be concluded as quickly as possible so that fundraising could commence.
She boarded the carriage while considering her plans ahead.

***

Pendro Manor, Office.
The Count tossed the gold-stamped card carelessly onto his desk.
“A Fund Association? Useless thing—the association will only languish once the Grand Duchess passes anyway. What’s the point in establishing it at all, tsk.”
He was in no mood to celebrate, since the meddling of that elderly fool from House Oswald meant coin flowing out of his own coffers.
If one reached such an age, one ought to retire to the back rooms.
“Bellia.”
“Yes, Father.”
Bellia, who stood before him with her hands joined decorously, lifted her gaze.
“Since matters have come to this, you shall prepare to attend the Inauguration Ceremony.”
“Yes……?”
“Your reputation took a blow from that spectacle at the tea gathering. There’s no better place than the Fund Association to rebuild your standing.”
A blow to her reputation?
Bellia let out an inward scoff.
What happened at the tea gathering was merely a trifling incident, long since forgotten by the public mind.
Even if they remembered, most would regard it as a simple mistake.
The image she had cultivated in high society was far too substantial to crumble so easily.
But the words that followed hardened her expression into something glacial.

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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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