Since It's My First Time Being a Lady, I'll Cause Some Trouble - 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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A Lady’s First Time Causing Trouble — Episode 14
I thought it was some kind of tasteless joke, but the Margrave’s eyes were serious.
“You should think about how to stop it first. What will you do if you start thinking about fleeing overseas?”
“Stop? Do you even understand what it means to stop the Imperial Family?”
“Well, I’d ram into them… oh.”
I was about to say we’d ram into them, but I quickly grasped what I’d just said.
To ram into the Imperial Family would be nothing short of treason.
The Margrave leaned back against the chair and drew on his pipe.
White smoke as intricate as his thoughts curled from his lips and wrapped around his head.
“Don’t misunderstand me. I care for the people of my territory. Count Batori feels the same way. Besides, if the Imperial Family raises taxes, the Imperial Authority will only weaken in the end.”
Imperial Authority grows and diminishes based on the number of nobles who support it.
But who would support an emperor who ignores the opinions of the nobility and acts on a whim?
Not all territories were created equal, and not every noble was wealthy.
From what I knew, Batori and the Netzer Territory were among the more prosperous.
Yet if even here people were driven to rebellion, then the circumstances in other territories must be far more dire.
“When that happens, oppression will begin. The weakened power will try to govern the people through force and fear to pacify itself. And eventually, inevitably, there will be those who rise in treason.”
“It may not come to that…”
“In the worst case, foreign invasion will follow.”
The Margrave spoke with such certainty that even I lost the will to argue.
His words to the people about storing up their strength were not mere talk.
He meant it literally—prepare for the worst that could happen, and when that moment comes, rise up.
“But must we leave? If we could find another way…”
“Then let me ask you this. If a rebellion or war breaks out, what do you think will happen to us?”
The Margrave asked sharply.
“Don’t talk nonsense about choosing neutrality. That’s just a euphemism for turning a blind eye.”
He was right. In the current situation, neutrality was nothing but opportunism—watching the tide and waiting to attach oneself to the winning side.
If rebellion came, one had to choose a side. Either defend the Imperial Family or join the treason.
Either way brought no good to the house of Netzer.
If we sided with the Imperial Family, our heads would roll under the fury of the masses—it was only a matter of time.
But supporting a rebellion came with its own problems. There was no guarantee the uprising would succeed.
And even if it did, there were other troubles. The fundamental question of who would take the throne and which faction would seize power would unleash a bloodbath.
If we were unlucky, we could end up as political sacrifices in that process—humiliated and executed.
‘In the worst case, the emperor would ask foreign powers for aid to suppress the rebellion.’
Foreign intervention could prolong the civil war in Rodinia.
To replace the empire’s government to their liking and seize its resources.
‘And when that happened, Rodinia would weaken while their national power grew.’
But was it truly the answer to abandon the homeland I’d lived in my whole life? Wasn’t it the right choice to act for one’s country?
Even if my head were to be severed and displayed as a warning…
“Which country’s language should I learn, then?”
* * *
I love Rodinia, my homeland. So fleeing abroad was a last resort.
Would an exiled foreign noble even receive proper treatment?
‘We’d spend through our savings and end up poor and destitute in our final years.’
Even with the Margrave couple’s considerable talents, settling elsewhere would require great hardship.
‘So the best thing is to live peacefully in our homeland!’
On a night when everyone in the Margrave’s household slept, I put on a simple robe and climbed over the wall. It was quite high, but a young lady’s body cleared it easily.
I’d trained my body diligently every night, driven by a single obsession: to become a pirate.
‘I found out through the diary the young lady had hidden.’
That her wish to become a pirate was genuine. And that she was a driven idiot.
‘I wonder what kind of education the parents gave…’
I clicked my tongue at the Margrave couple’s failed child-rearing and ventured into the night streets.
The street, moonless and unlit, was quite dark and gloomy. Gas lamps were scattered here and there, but their dim light barely reached beneath the posts.
My footsteps led toward an alley where even those lights didn’t reach.
After threading through winding, narrow back alleys, I arrived at a shabby building with a thick iron door.
When I rapped on the door with my fist, a pair of eyes appeared through the door slot.
Finding nothing particularly suspicious, the eyes that had been scrutinizing me soon vanished.
The door slot closed, and with a loud clang of iron, the door swung open.
The interior was unremarkable for a tavern. The lighting was somewhat dim, though brighter than the gas lamps outside. But the patrons here were anything but ordinary.
I approached the bartender, who was wiping a glass, and spoke.
“I’d like to get some information from the Master.”
“Information confirmed by the Master comes at a premium.”
He spoke in a flat, disinterested tone without lifting his gaze from the glass. His manner suggested that even a cheap tumbler was worth more than this new customer.
“No, I’m free.”
I lifted my chin with deliberate pride, and only then did the bartender look at me.
“I hear the Lightning Hand of the Swift Wind has come. Then you’ll understand.”
His eyes narrowed.
“Wait here a moment.”
The bartender set down the glass and cloth, then descended into the cellar—to confirm my identity with the guild master.
“The Lightning Hand of the Swift Wind was looking for me?”
A middle-aged man with slicked-back undercut hair climbed the stairs from below.
It was Calderon, the master of a guild known throughout the Empire—the so-called Resolution Guild.
The Resolution Guild was exactly what its name suggested: a guild that resolved anything.
Mercenary work, intelligence, commission brokering—it had earned a reputation for competence across multiple fields and occasionally received contracts from abroad.
Before my work at the Netzer Territory, I’d often been in his debt.
Upon spotting me in my deep hood, he made a low sound and smoothed his stubbly chin with one hand.
“But are you really the Lightning Hand of the Swift Wind in person? I need to verify.”
Calderon reached toward the hood covering my head to see my face.
Click.
Before his fingers could make contact, my gun barrel was already aimed at his forehead.
The guild members, a beat behind in reading the situation, hastily drew their weapons—but they all knew their master had already fallen into my hands.
Even with his life about to end, Calderon’s mouth curled into an amused smile, and then he burst into hearty laughter.
“Ha-ha-ha! It’s you. It’s really you!”
“I told you not to try confirming my face. Are you already losing it to dementia, old man?”
I holstered my Revolver back at my waist, and the guild members, taking the cue, hesitantly lowered their weapons.
“Sorry, sorry. Your voice sounded a bit different. I had to check—you can’t be too careful about imposters.”
“……Do you know my face?”
“No way. I don’t know it. Even if I did, I don’t.”
Calderon deflected with a casual grin.
In truth, if he wanted to, he could have identified my face just now and overpowered me as easily as anything.
But he wasn’t the type to harm others for personal curiosity. In fact, he despised those who did.
“So what brings you by after all this time?”
“I need some information.”
I paused deliberately, then spoke with gravity.
“Is there a way to repay National Debt and reduce taxes at the same time?”
Calderon fell silent.
He studied me for a long moment with his deep, blue eyes, then opened his mouth.
“Have you lost your mind?”

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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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