Since It's My First Time Being a Lady, I'll Cause Some Trouble - Chapter 27

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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 Does It for the First Time 027
The Gordon Family had two prison cells.
Miranda and Rosemay shared one, while Gordon—the head of the household, though I couldn’t quite recall his name—occupied a solitary cell.
As we passed Gordon’s cell, he let out a piercing shriek.
“My dear, Rosemay! You mustn’t tell those wicked women anything—not a single word!”
“Quiet! Can’t you keep it down?”
A guard rapped his baton against the cell bars—tap, tap—and Gordon fell silent.
The cell holding Gordon’s wife and daughter lay far down the corridor. Clearly they’d been deliberately separated to prevent the two from coordinating their stories.
Inside the cell stood two narrow, hard Simple Beds and a single small Drawer Cabinet. The cabinet seemed to serve as a table; atop it sat two dented Tin Cups and a Water Bottle.
I even spotted a Tea Strainer, which suggested the prison made some effort to extend hospitality befitting nobility.
“You’ve summoned us here for a reason, I presume? It’s hardly simple for an imprisoned convict to send word to the outside.”
Evidently, they’d set aside money or jewels beforehand for precisely this sort of contingency—slipping bribes to the guards.
Gordon’s wife and daughter had always dressed lavishly in large gemstones and elaborate gowns.
But now they wore shabby prison garb, their hair unkempt and unwashed. Their once-ruddy complexions had turned as pale as the dying. In a word: wretched.
And they’d only been imprisoned for a week.
“There’s something I want to ask you,” Miranda said.
Her voice wavered, weak and hesitant.
“Would you help reduce our Sentence? I know he did something foolish. Rosemay and I will likely face only Imprisonment, but my husband—”
“Treason carries Capital Punishment, Miranda. For anyone.”
Rosemay, beside her, let out a short, terror-stricken cry. Then she coughed violently, as if she’d choked.
A far cry from the woman who’d complained the Count’s Estate was cramped and shabby.
“Surely, with your Aunt’s influence and the Marquis’s power, it’s possible, isn’t it?” Miranda gripped the iron bars with both hands, her eyes pleading.
“Please. Anything but Capital Punishment for him. He may be worthless, but he’s still my husband—my daughter’s father.”
“That same husband of yours attacked our daughter right in front of me and my wife.”
The Countess’s voice carried a glacial edge. Miranda’s pupils trembled, and she turned her gaze toward me.
‘Well, well?’
She stood there, humbling herself when she ought to be begging, still weighing whether to swallow her pride and entreat me as well.
I shook my head firmly.
Just go, madam. Let these wretches face the judgment of the law. We should visit that new restaurant that’s opened nearby and have some meat. I hear their butter sauce is magnificent.
The Countess held perfectly still, her gaze fixed on Miranda with cold finality.
“That day—why did you say it was because of Ulfina?”
“I… I don’t know myself. My husband has always had a quick temper—”
“Then let me ask something else.”
I opened my mouth, and she looked at me in shock. A cripple wouldn’t be more surprised to suddenly stand and walk.
‘How much have you people been dismissing the Young Miss all this time?’
Granted, our Young Miss is an outsider to society, friendless, spineless, and has robbed others of their bodies and entire fortunes—but still, to disregard her so thoroughly?
“Shi—”
My sudden curse made all three of them flinch.
“How did you know the Imperial Palace would send soldiers to capture your family? And why did they come to our house, of all places?”
Before the words had even left my lips, Gordon’s voice echoed from far down the corridor again.
“My dear! Don’t you dare speak! You absolutely cannot!”
That old fool has sharp ears.
“If you fall into that sinister group’s hands, it’ll be catastrophic—! Cough, cough! Kack! Kack! Spit!”
I was sick to death of the noise, and now it reeked besides.
It seemed all human dignity and decorum had been confiscated the moment they’d entered the prison.
Miranda’s lips quivered. As if her legs had given out, she sank onto the Simple Bed without strength.
Rosemay followed suit, sitting down on the opposite bed.
She cast an resentful glance in my direction, but when I fixed her with a sharp stare, she coughed awkwardly and looked away.
From far down the corridor, Gordon’s coughing continued—a signal to invoke the Right to Silence.
Miranda stared at us with vacant eyes and whispered.
“I received word. A message saying the Emperor knew everything and I should flee at once. We threw things together hastily and tried to leave the Imperial Capital, but the roads were blocked.”
“Who told you that?”
“I don’t know. Truly. They wore a mask over their face. But they seemed to know me. Then they told me that if I had nowhere else to go, I should make for Count Nezer’s Estate.”
“A mask? What sort of mask?”
I pressed further, and Miranda pursed her lips as if deliberating.
“It was a black half-mask, covering only the eyes.”
A Black Half-Mask.
Omerta’s mask.
All the staff at Toggle’s social clubs wore masks. While the designs of each club’s mask were similar, their colors differed to avoid confusion between establishments.

‘So Omerta knew beforehand that someone would come to the Imperial Palace to arrest the traitors?’
In theory, it was possible.
If the Manager had discovered the unconscious waiters at the club the moment Tatio and I slipped away, realized at once that the treason had been exposed, and sent word for people to flee, then yes—it was possible.
But if the Manager was the one who sent people to the Gordon Family, his capture made no sense.
‘Even if he’d learned the situation just before his arrest, sending someone to Gordon would have been too unnatural.’
Wouldn’t he have fled himself first, before issuing orders to others?
If it were me, I’d have rushed straight to the Manager’s office to grab whatever was in that safe Calderon mentioned. There’d be no time to think about giving orders or any of that.
Suppose the Manager truly was so dedicated to his profession that loyalty to his clients ran that deep—say he sent word for their sake.
The Gordon Family, having received urgent news, would have gathered their things. And after confirming with their own eyes that the outside routes were blocked, they fled to the Count’s estate.
That meant there had been enough time for all of it.
‘Or was there someone else who infiltrated the club besides us?’
Someone like a club employee who tipped Gordon off to hide.
‘Since Gordon said it seemed to be someone he knew, he might have planted that person there himself. And that person noticed what Tatio and I did before the Manager did.’
That’s how Gordon could have been warned to flee before the soldiers arrived.
‘It’s speculation, but it makes sense, doesn’t it?’
Still, there were odd details.
“Why did that person tell you to go to our house? And why did Aunt do the same? Frankly, there’s bad blood between your family and mine.”
“That’s…….”
“And if we’d known that Aunt’s family was being hunted for treason, we wouldn’t have hesitated—we’d have reported them immediately.”
Miranda’s mouth closed.
Through the silence came Gordon’s rough cough, now and then.
“That’s precisely why they came to our house.”
The Countess spoke, and she flinched.
“Whether we helped them or not, the longer the Gordon Family stayed under our roof, we risked being suspected of harboring them. That’s what they were counting on. But it fell apart when we reported them first.”
“Ah!”
So that’s why the Countess had said she was already exposed.
Hit where it mattered, Miranda poured water from the Tin Cup and moistened her lips.
I decided to probe Miranda to confirm whether my guess was right.
“So why was I attacked? What did I do?”
“Well, obviously it’s because you embarrassed the Marquis!”
Rosemay, who had been cowering and staring at the wall, suddenly shot to her feet and let out a sharp cry.
“When you challenged the Marquis to a Duel, how much did our mother beg you? After the duel, she pleaded with you to apologize! But both times you coldly drove him away. And you even shot him with a gun! Regardless of the duel, there are basic standards of decency, aren’t there?”
“Is it decent to aim for someone’s neck while screaming ‘die’?”
“I was angry—I can say things like that! I didn’t actually kill you!”
“Of course not, because I dropped you first. And did you not know that blade had Poison on it?”
“That’s a lie!”
No, it’s the truth.
You wouldn’t know, locked away in a Prison Cell, but the newspapers flooded with articles about Marquis Penley, the ringleader of the treason.
Everything from his mundane daily habits to the meticulous details of his treacherous schemes.
In the course of those revelations, his confiscated sword was confirmed to have poison on it.
At first there was an uproar claiming the Poisoned Blade had been made to kill the Emperor, but investigation revealed the poison had been applied just before the duel.
‘Damn, if I hadn’t fired that gun, I really would have been finished.’
I suppose I should be grateful I’m alive—though I’m not sure whether to be happy or sorry about it.

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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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