The Former Empress Roughly Hides Her Abilities - Chapter 44
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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【Chapter 44】
“I don’t understand your intention in saying this.”
“Didn’t you take Her Highness the Princess as your disciple?”
“My learning isn’t that deep.”
Rianel was uneducated.
Like most noble young ladies, all she had learned was etiquette and refinement from a tutor.
“Then I’m the only disciple.”
“I’m even less qualified to teach the Bureau Director.”
Asil openly showed a disappointed expression.
“You were so kind to Her Highness the Princess.”
“Children must be protected.”
How disgusting for a grown man.
Asil looked her over and clicked his tongue.
“Oh my, I’m definitely older than Master now.”
To be precise, ‘Rianel’ was four years younger than Asil.
“Are there no benefits for elders?”
“I shall show you respect.”
“Oh, please don’t do that.”
Asil was horrified.
Even if the body had changed, to receive respect in return from his master.
It felt like all the common sense he knew was being turned upside down, making it unbearable.
Rianel suppressed a sigh and asked.
“What’s your reason for acting like this?”
“You wavered.”
Weren’t you tempted when that young princess clung to you?
“Master has always been weak to affection.”
For a moment, Rianel almost forgot the situation and felt admiration.
Indeed, time was frightening.
As someone who had watched her most closely, didn’t he know her too well?
Rianel remained silent.
Then Asil let out a subtle smile and lowered his posture.
“If I had known you would stay like this, I should have tried kneeling back then too.”
The ‘back then’ Asil referred to was when Rianel had accepted the Emperor’s proposal.
“You would have stayed if I had.”
“Disgusting.”
“That’s too harsh.”
Rianel was gradually getting tired of denying her identity.
Whatever she said, that disciple would interpret it however he pleased anyway.
“….”
Asil took Rianel’s hand and buried his face against it.
“But you’re not leaving.”
Even while showing disgust and revulsion, you are here beside me now.
He lifted his head and looked out the window.
“It’s snowing.”
Through the window of the Special Tax Bureau building, white snow could be seen settling layer by layer on the garden.
“It was snowing on the day Master passed away too.”
You who loved plants so much left like falling asleep in the season when all trees were bare and the world slumbered.
Asil looked up at Rianel again.
“You’re alive.”
He felt warmth from Rianel’s fingertips.
It seemed like struggling to confirm something, or like a child craving parental affection.
“You’re alive, here beside me.”
Today it’s snowing like that day.
But you are here.
“Of course I’m alive.”
“I’m so happy…”
Asil’s hand moved slowly.
Starting from the back of Rianel’s hand, his fingers traced up her arm, past her elbow to touch her cheek.
He traced the outline of her face with his fingertips, like a craftsman remembering the form of an old sculpture.
That was the moment.
“Ah, I’m such an idiot.”
Footsteps came from outside, then the building door burst open.
It was Wilbrin.
She had returned to the building after everyone left because she had forgotten her bag.
“….”
“…Oh.”
Instead of finding her bag, Wilbrin’s pupils shook rapidly at what she saw.
After a long silence.
“I didn’t see anything!”
Bang!
The door quickly closed.
“Please come back.”
* * *
The Princess visited the Tax Bureau building four days later.
“The preparations were finished as of yesterday, so I went straight to the bank.”
“Isn’t this story development too fast?”
Mel asked as if bewildered.
At this rate, they might get criticized for rushed development.
“Fast progress is good. We don’t know how long it’ll take for assets to be seized.”
“That’s true, but…”
Even if information only circulated within the Special Tax Bureau, words were harder to control than expected.
It was better to start quickly before someone else took the business opportunity.
Seizing an embezzler’s assets wasn’t simple.
Since they had converted most of their stolen assets into real estate, auction procedures and conversion processes were necessary.
Moreover, Minister Royhum was still on the run, and finding his hidden assets would require investigating his associates’ networks.
Difficulties were expected on all fronts.
“So how did the loan go?”
“I was rejected…”
The Princess looked dejected.
“That can happen. Loan screenings don’t usually go through easily.”
Lending large sums to others requires considerable courage and determination.
Mel comforted the Princess while asking.
“So which bank did you go to?”
“Arman Bank.”
“At least you went to one of the Empire’s top 3 banks.”
“They said it had the lowest interest rates and simplest loan screening.”
Mel was shocked.
“…Where did you obtain such information?”
Comparing and analyzing conditions between banks was something even Mel only learned after becoming an adult.
“From prison.”
“I’m sorry, what?”
Only after asking twice more could Mel understand the situation.
“Ah, from the Head Maid.”
It was an excellent source of information.
The Head Maid was someone who had laundered the Princess Palace’s budget through various channels to purchase real estate.
Among the people the Princess could contact, she was someone who would possess a lot of ‘that kind of information.’
Moreover, since she was locked up in prison, there was no worry about information leaking to the outside.
“Did you perhaps trade information in exchange for a reduced sentence?”
“I don’t make deals with criminals. We just had a conversation.”
“Oh….”
Mel felt pity for the Head Maid he had only seen once.
The image came to mind of her withering away in a sunless prison, then desperately doing her best to spill information to grasp at the faint lifeline that had suddenly descended.
Of course, she was in prison to pay for her crimes, but thinking of how she must have desperately clung and tried to offer everything she had still made him feel sorry for her.
“Hmm…. Your talent is remarkable.”
The way she gave false hope was truly like a budding torturer.
“Hehe.”
What’s with the ‘hehe.’
Rianel examined the documents the Princess had supposedly submitted for loan screening.
Starting with the business plan, all documents including collateral documents and seal certificates were prepared without exception.
Since she had written them together with the Princess, she already knew all the contents, but she took time to review them once more just in case.
‘At least there are no problems with the documents.’
Since they had reviewed and perfected them together, there was nothing to find fault with.
‘If the loan doesn’t work out, we can just find another bank.’
Being rejected by one of the Empire’s top 3 banks meant there were still two places left to visit.
“Did you say the loan screening was simple?”
However, this was somewhat suspicious.
The head of Arman Bank, Norman Rikel, was one of the people Rianel trusted.
When it came to documents, he was more meticulous than anyone, a principled person who thoroughly followed procedures.
Thanks to this, work was slow, but it was correspondingly accurate and thorough.
He was a master of finance who had acquired the nearly bankrupt Arman Bank and built it into one of the Empire’s top 3 banks in just a few years.
For such a person’s bank to have rumors that ‘loans are easy’?
“Oh, about that.”
The Princess explained.
“The person who was originally the president retired, and most of the work is now handled by the vice president.”
She said that along with this, the bank’s internal procedures had been simplified, among other changes.
“Come to think of it, I heard something. That president was the first Bureau Director of the Special Tax Bureau, right?”
Mel showed off his knowledge.
“That’s correct. He was someone the Former Empress appointed for his excellent financial sense.”
But her words ended on a bitter note.
‘Retirement.’
Of course, Norman was old enough that retirement wouldn’t be strange.
But he wasn’t someone who would easily give up his domain.
‘He was someone who repeatedly declined the Bureau Director position I offered, saying civil servants couldn’t hold concurrent positions.’
She understood him stepping down from the Bureau Director position right after her death. She knew he was someone with great attachment to the bank he had nurtured and built up.
However, it seemed strange that he would hand over the bank he cherished so much to the vice president and just stand by.
“Maybe the Head Maid got something wrong?”
“Desperation makes people truthful. I judge it to be credible.”
Though she didn’t know what percentage of it was true.
‘This is concerning.’
It was Norman, of all people.
He was a talent who had laid the foundation of the Special Tax Bureau with her and discussed the Empire’s future.
Someone with whom she had sometimes played trivial pranks and shared meaningless comfort and time.
To think that such a person was withering away alone in his mansion.
“I need to look into this.”
Rianel found herself agreeing with something Asil had once said.
[Master is weak when it comes to personal feelings.]
Certainly. She was indeed someone weak when it came to personal feelings.
“Since it’s one of the Empire’s top 3 banks, it wouldn’t hurt to assess its financial condition.”
The results of that investigation could be concluded in a single line.
‘What a mess.’
Arman Bank was on the verge of bankruptcy.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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