Since It's My First Time Being a Lady, I'll Cause Some Trouble - Chapter 23
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
This Is My First Time as a Lady, So I’ll Cause Some Trouble – Episode 023
* * *
That night, Club Omerta descended into chaos.
Two waiters were found unconscious, sprawled across the basement floor and stairs.
The bartender had come down looking for a colleague who’d gone to fetch wine and vanished without a trace.
“Who attacked you two? Who was it?”
The manager rushed downstairs upon hearing the bartender’s report and demanded answers immediately.
“They struck us from behind, so we didn’t see their faces.”
“Damn it all!”
The manager cursed and vented his fury.
Six years ago, a deeply shameful incident had occurred at Omerta—a waiter had stabbed a guest.
Investigation revealed the attacker wasn’t actually an Omerta employee.
The perpetrator had smuggled out a waiter’s uniform and infiltrated the club; he and the victim shared a complicated history, one so convoluted it could have come straight from a third-rate melodrama.
The manager had paid off the authorities to keep the scandal contained, but too many witnesses had already seen what happened.
Omerta earned a reputation as a place where management was hopelessly incompetent, and members clamored to have their membership fees refunded, claiming the establishment was far too dangerous.
‘We can’t let it collapse like this!’
After much deliberation, the manager introduced a service offered by no other club.
Women.
Moreover, he implemented a strategy of obscuring the waiters’ faces to market them as mere background fixtures, not people.
The nobles who prided themselves on their dignity forgot their protests entirely and soon worn pathways into Omerta’s doors.
After launching the new service, Omerta recorded its highest revenue since opening. Word spread quietly among high society about the club’s allure.
Other clubs soon began imitating Omerta’s methods to poach members, so Omerta devised yet another strategy to maintain its distinction.
A rental safe requiring a Special Key. The expense was considerable, but this time no competitor could replicate it.
Taking the incident from six years prior as a lesson, Omerta recruited staff with meticulous care, rotated uniforms frequently, and maintained strict order within the club.
Armed mercenaries were stationed throughout the grounds and alley, and also positioned before certain interior spaces, including the Manager’s Office.
Yet now another scandal had erupted!
“Who is it? Who on earth is responsible?”
As if in answer, a faint moan echoed from somewhere in the basement.
The sound came from an Oak Barrel in the corner.
After clearing away flour sacks and opening the lid, the manager found a naked man crammed inside upside-down—the bartender who’d said he was fetching wine and then disappeared.
Three staff members in total had been trapped in the barrel.
The men stumbled out, gasping for breath, and described their attackers’ appearances.
“There were two men we’d never seen before. One had long black hair, and the other had red hair—”
“Red hair?”
At the mention of red hair, a particular man came to mind at once—an extravagant customer popular with other members.
Tatio Nomen. The very man the manager had banned from entering today.
“Could he have done this because we turned him away from the club?”
The manager couldn’t fathom why this hedonist had disguised himself as a waiter to infiltrate the club, but it was unmistakably Nomen who’d orchestrated whatever had happened.
The bartender who’d first discovered the unconscious waiters spoke up.
“The red-haired man—I saw him too. He was heading to serve someone.”
“Serve? Which room?”
“The one where Lord Penry was staying.”
The manager hurried to his office.
Two days earlier, a few of the club’s most valued members had given him a substantial sum and issued an instruction.
‘When Count Nomen arrives, throw him out by any excuse necessary. If you do that, we’ll compensate you double for whatever revenue his usual patronage would have brought.’
‘Heh heh, rest assured.’
The manager had assured them with greedy gleaming eyes.
He didn’t know why they wanted to bar Count Nomen specifically, and he had no desire to ask his premium customers for explanations.
Yet this disaster had unfolded regardless.
‘I’ll grab the Account Ledger and documents and slip out the back door. Then I’ll hide out at the Villa for a while—’
Just as the manager was turning the safe’s dial, the thick wooden door burst open with a thunderous crash.
“Rolpiers Unger, you are under arrest for Illegal Prostitution, Human Trafficking, and Treason!”
All color drained from the manager’s, Rolpiers Unger’s, face. Though a pistol hung at his hip, he couldn’t resist the countless weapons trained upon him.
“This is all lies! It’s a frame-up designed to ruin me!”
“Who did this to you?”
“The count! That scoundrel Nomen—!”
“What does he look like? Could he have red hair?”
“Yes, yes! That vicious noble conspired against me and the members—”
The manager froze mid-sentence as he tried to explain the conspiracy.
Between the soldiers, a red-haired man stood smiling directly at him.
“Well, whoever the bastard is, he’s a rotten one indeed. The fact that you’ve kept someone like him alive this long tells me everything.”
Jereon’s threatening gaze fixed on the manager.
“Take him out.”
As the soldiers hauled the manager to his feet, Jereon knelt before the safe.
The manager’s safe was enormous. The floor supporting its massive weight deserved commendation.
“There’s definitely something inside this.”
Jereon, muttering to himself, turned back to the manager.
“What’s the combination?”
“I don’t know.”
It was obviously a blatant lie.
“You insolent swine! Can’t you speak the truth?”
The Captain of the Guard snarled menacingly, but the manager kept his lips sealed.
Whenever customers left items in safekeeping, the manager verified what they were and recorded everything. He was collecting ammunition—leverage to squeeze a fortune out of them later.
Then he’d found the Oath of Loyalty Document. His soul nearly left his body from the shock, but he’d quickly composed himself.
If they succeeded, he would sell the names of the conspirators to promote the establishment. But if they failed, he would steal the oath and surrender it to the Imperial Palace, securing himself a comfortable position.
Either way, he stood to gain. So he’d made a copy and stored it in the safe alongside other valuables. If the safe opened, it was all over.
“Well then, before the technician arrives, let’s just try our luck with the dial.”
At Jereon’s casual tone, the manager’s heart soared.
‘I might actually escape thanks to this fool.’
There were only three chances to spin the dial. Get the combination wrong, and the mechanism would detonate—destroying everything inside the safe.
He could be badly wounded standing this close, but that was a small price compared to exposing his secrets.
Unaware of the manager’s thoughts, Jereon’s hand moved across the dial without hesitation.
Click, click, click-click, clunk.
“Hmm.”
Click-click, click, click, clunk.
“Not that one either.”
Now came the final chance.
The dial spun again with a mechanical whir.
The manager’s eyes darted nervously.
In a few seconds, he’d be caught in the blast—though the fool crouched before the safe would shield him from the worst of it.
The moment Jereon grasped the safe handle and turned it, a sinister smile spread across the manager’s lips.
‘Farewell, you young fool!’
Click.
“Oh, it opened!”
“What?”
Rolpiers Unger’s eyes widened in disbelief.
‘How did it possibly open!’
He convulsed with frustration, but it was no use.
“You’ve collected quite a lot here.”
If Rolpiers had been a squirrel instead of a man, the oak forests in this entire region would have withered away. But instead of acorns, he’d been gathering other things.
Inside the safe lay the copy of the Oath of Loyalty Document that Jereon had obtained from Marquis Penry, along with several other ledgers stacked neatly.
As Jereon withdrew one ledger and flipped through its pages, the detailed records of crimes committed by the manager and the members lay bare before him—every single one worthy of capital punishment.
‘Now I understand why she said the material to prevent the tax increase would be here.’
The Guild Member who had arranged the commission, unaware she was dealing with Jereon himself, had revealed the safe’s combination before departing.
‘The combination is your wife’s date of death. Right, left, right in that order. You only get three tries, so you absolutely cannot get it wrong.’
Finding the manager’s late wife’s death date had been simple enough—though his confusion had been genuine, given that he’d buried three wives, and he hadn’t known which anniversary to start with.
Despite her violent conduct and extreme language, she was ultimately the benefactor and hero who had saved both Jereon and Rodinia.
‘But that Guild Member…’
Jereon’s silver eyes turned toward the interior of the safe door. The now-inactive Detonation Device greeted him with a cheerful little click.
‘You could have mentioned that the safe was rigged with explosives…’
I nearly died.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————