The Lady Only Deals With the Real Ones - Chapter 1

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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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Prologue

A pawnshop bustling with customers.

Among them were some particularly loud customers.

“Dad, let’s just go! What kind of money could we get from appraising a single coin like this!”

“You never know, you brat.”

“I don’t need to go to college or anything, so…!”

A daughter with a distressed expression, and a father who looked even more distressed.

They were father-daughter customers whose circumstances were obvious without asking.

‘They must have come because they’re short on money for their daughter’s college tuition.’

With that thought, I smiled and greeted them.

“Hello, customers. I’m Elisha, the appraiser. Could you show me the item?”

“Ah, yes. Could you take a look at this coin? I got it gambling when I was young and worked on ships! It’s like my lucky charm.”

“Dad…”

“Don’t say anything, Inseok. Even if we get just 100,000 gold, that would be good, wouldn’t it?”

I glanced over and saw the daughter’s expression was dejected.

‘She must feel bad that her father is trying to sell his lucky charm filled with memories because of her tuition.’

She’d probably feel even worse if the appraisal came out low.

I’d like to give them a high price, but principles are principles.

As I examined the coin with my loupe, I smiled slightly.

‘Hmm, it really is a lucky charm, isn’t it?’

I smiled at the father who was watching me with an anxious face and asked.

“You got this coin while gambling?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“By any chance, was the place you gambled at Calico Strait?”

“H-how did you…?”

“I can tell just by looking.”

Looking at the father’s bewildered face, I unfolded a newspaper clipping I had saved.

There it was.

[…The so-called ‘Calico Gold Coin’ sold at auction for ten million gold…]

“What?!”

“T-ten million gold?!”

I handed a card to the father and daughter who looked like they might faint from shock.

“The condition is good, and it’s pure gold. This is my first time seeing a Calico Gold Coin in person, so I’m tempted to buy it myself.”

It was a card that would grant them entry to the auction house.

The father and daughter took the card and looked at me in bewilderment.

“But you should sell it directly at the auction house to get more money. If you say you came on my recommendation, they’ll treat you well. Give it a try.”

“G-goodness…!”

“Thank you! Thank you so much, appraiser!”

In a way, it really was a lucky charm.

Since their daughter’s tuition problem was solved in one go.

I waved at the father and daughter as they left excitedly.

The next customer, who had been watching this scene, whispered.

“I heard rumors, but as expected… You really are a conscientious appraiser. I’m glad I came here.”

“Haha, you flatter me.”

“Is that why Princess also uses this place?”

“*Cough*”

When did that become a rumor?

The unexpected name made me choke and cough, while the customer whispered secretively.

“There are rumors that Captain of the Royal Knights and Cardinal of the Temple also visit here, right? Is that true?”

“Well, that’s…”

“That’s not all though.”

The customer looked around and their eyes lit up.

“I heard even Duke of Moro from the neighboring country comes and goes here?”

“That’s… hmm.”

“Right? Right?! Wow, that’s so amazing. To think such people use pawnshops too!”

‘What’s with this customer’s information network?’

As I was thinking, the customer asked with a face full of curiosity.

“What do such people usually buy? I’m really curious.”

“Well, they don’t buy anything.”

“Huh? Then do they come to sell?”

“They don’t really sell anything either.”

“What? If they don’t buy or sell but still come and go, then they’re just… problem customers, aren’t they?”

‘They say problem customers don’t know they’re problem customers.’

A customer who only asks questions doesn’t seem like a very good customer either.

I swallowed my sharp retort and thought.

Right, those people.

‘They are problem customers, I suppose.’

But then again?

‘They’re not problem customers either, geez.’

To trace back how those people who seem like problem customers but aren’t problem customers but are like problem customers became customers of our pawnshop.

I’d have to go back a bit in time.

That is.

‘Back to when I had just regressed.’

I, Elisha Rionet.

Am living my second life, after all.

0. First Life

The end of my first life was miserable.

I was beaten to death.

“Hey, this girl coughed up blood!”

“S-she’s not dying, is she? That’s why I said to hit her moderately! We were just trying to steal a necklace…!”

“Let’s get out of here before the Duchy Guard comes!”

More precisely, I was in the process of being beaten to death.

As snow fell softly, a newspaper blew away in the wind.

In the article visible below the wanted poster:

[…Unidentified corpse found at fire scene in slums near the Empire’s capital revealed to be former Duke Michele Fiochedade Rionet, shocking…]

‘Grandfather is dead.’

Having seen the article about Grandfather being found as a corpse, I had no more reason to live.

I couldn’t even feel the pain anymore.

‘Grandfather…’

I, who had lived alone with Grandfather in a small house, was driven out three years ago.

The relatives who suddenly barged in said that Grandfather was a disgraced duke.

“O-our grandfather is a duke?”

I was forced to sign documents before I could even be surprised by this story I was hearing for the first time in my life.

《Status Renunciation Agreement》

《Property Renunciation Agreement》

《Rights Transfer Contract》

These were documents that absolutely should never be signed at first glance.

But I had no choice but to sign without even having time to understand the situation.

“If I just sign, you’ll cure our Grandfather, right?”

“Of course! How could we abandon His Grace the Duke that we finally found?”

The promise to cure Grandfather’s rare disease.

I couldn’t possibly refuse that condition.

“However, there’s a condition. Never set foot in this Empire again. Absolutely never.”

And so I left the Empire overnight.

The place I barely managed to reach was a country called the Moro Duchy.

I lived day by day doing manual labor, and my body was severely damaged from the harsh life.

‘Still, I could endure it. As long as my beloved Grandfather was safe, I was fine. But…’

[…The Rionet Family begins procedures to sell the former Duke’s assets including the pawnshop, inheritance proceeding smoothly…]

Grandfather had died.

Not peacefully in bed, but caught in a fire.

Moreover, an unidentified corpse found in the slums?

The expensive medicine, the top-class facilities – it was all lies.

“How… how could this happen…”

And they sold the pawnshop too.

Grandfather always said

that no matter what happened, he would never close or sell the pawnshop.

The Rionet Family had let Grandfather die and didn’t even grant his wish.

‘They didn’t take the necklace, but they took everything else.’

I stared emptily at the red necklace I had protected even while being beaten to near death.

The only thing I could bring when I was kicked out, my sole connection to Grandfather.

Red blood like the necklace spreads across the ground.

It was unfair. It was sad.

The moment I sensed the end, despite not believing in gods, I found myself praying.

‘World Tree. Just once, please just give me one more chance…’

Thud.

Before I could even finish my prayer, the strength left my hands.

My eyes close.

The last thing I saw was snow gently falling on the necklace and

“How pitiful.”

the shadow of someone who stopped in front of me, muttering those words.

***

When I had closed my eyes, it was definitely a dark winter night…

But it was brightly lit before my eyes.

I opened my eyes and stared blankly at the window. More precisely, at the curtains hanging on the window.

“No way.”

I couldn’t mistake it even if I tried.

Those were curtains that Grandfather had made by getting fabric himself.

I hurriedly got up and looked at myself in the mirror.

Light purple eyes that weren’t swollen. The checkered pajamas I used to love. Long, smooth light pink hair.

And the necklace I’d worn since childhood, so long ago I couldn’t even remember.

“I’m back…”

I had returned. Home.

To the time before I died on the streets of the Moro Duchy.

Then that means?

“Grand, Grandfather.”

I hurriedly ran down the stairs.

There was…

“Grandfather-!”

“Look at that voice. Am I going somewhere?”

Grandfather was there.

“Grandfather! It’s really you, right? Do you recognize me? Who am I, Grandfather?”

“This child is testing her grandfather the moment she wakes up? I took my medicine, don’t worry. You’re Elisha, aren’t you? My one and only granddaughter.”

Grandfather was drinking black tea.

When I ran to hug him, he grumbled but stroked my face.

When his wrinkled, large hand touched my face, I finally felt real that I had returned.

“Why do you look like that? Did you have a nightmare? Hmm?”

“Yeah. A really, really bad dream. A really bad dream.”

“What, did carrot monsters appear or something?”

“…Yeah, a dream similar to that. Grandfather, you still remember I can’t eat carrots?”

“Even if I forget everything else, I won’t forget that, you little rascal!”

I was so happy that Grandfather was still the same, I almost cried.

But there was no time for that. I checked the calendar and jumped up.

“Three days ago.”

It was three days before the relatives suddenly barged in and kicked me out.

“Three days. That means three days left.”

I looked around the house covered with memo papers, snorted once, and approached Grandfather.

“Grandfather.”

“What, you rascal.”

“You know I really, really love you, right?”

“…Hah, really. What’s with the flattery?”

Though he snorted, Grandfather’s lips slowly curved up as if he was secretly pleased.

“Do you want me to buy you something delicious? Or do you need ribbons or new clothes?”

‘No. I don’t need those things.’

Grandfather who raised me for 20 years in place of my parents who died early.

The reason for my existence and my only family.

After looking at Grandfather’s face with affection for a moment, I soon cleared my throat innocently.

“Grandfather really is quick to catch on. But what I want isn’t that.”

“Then what do you want that’s making you act like this?”

“Hmm. Well, it’s nothing much…”

I clasped my hands together as if praying.

And I completed the prayer from my previous life that I hadn’t been able to finish.

‘This time, I absolutely won’t let them take it away.’

“Give me Grandfather’s seal.”

Grandfather, the pawnshop, and my life.

I won’t let them be taken away again.

I smiled coldly.

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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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