The Lady Only Deals With the Real Ones - Chapter 10

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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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‘I think I’m going to get indigestion…!’

Did I breathe too loudly? Are my eye movements too noisy?

Can they hear the sound of the bread I ate earlier digesting? Maybe I should have eaten it later…

“Milton.”

Milton, who had been in the middle of all sorts of self-censoring, jumped up.

“Yes!”

“What did you do today?”

Milton barely managed to answer.

“I contacted the Information Guild that agreed to cooperate with our identity disguise to inform them that we have arrived locally and are carrying out our mission.”

“And?”

“Officially, Your Grace can act as ‘Alter’ from the Information Guild. I also requested information gathering about the pawnshop from the guild.”

“And then?”

“…I ate bread.”

“What kind of bread?”

Milton opened his mouth with an expression on the verge of tears.

“Cream… it was cream bread with strawberries…”

“Milton.”

“Yes? Yes!”

“Do my questions sound like an interrogation?”

While his lips were just twitching, Tesagh said briefly.

“Your inability to answer is answer enough.”

“Huh? No, well, um.”

“Right. No matter who hears it or how, my words wouldn’t sound like expressions of interest.”

“Yeeees…?”

Maybe expressions of threat, but expressions of interest?

Milton was wondering what on earth this meant.

Tesagh said monotonously.

“That pawnshop owner. She seems to know I’m from the Moro Duchy. She doesn’t know my identity though.”

“What? How? Did that mage bastard who stole the sacred sword give her a hint?”

“She confidently said she doesn’t deal in stolen goods. But considering the jewels Eivor stole were circulated through that pawnshop, it’s hard to believe her words.”

Eivor.

That was the name of the mage who stole the Moro Duchy’s sacred sword.

After painstaking efforts, Tesagh had found a clue.

He had finally tracked down where Eivor disposed of stolen goods, and it was the pawnshop across the street.

“Didn’t you say the magical tool for tracking sacred objects also glowed! That place is definitely Eivor’s stolen goods broker or money laundering source!”

There was one more piece of evidence.

Tesagh’s cufflink clip was a magical tool made to glow when it detected the sacred sword’s aura.

But the moment he entered the pawnshop, it flickered faintly.

This would be impossible unless Eivor, who stole the sword, had visited that pawnshop.

“That woman there is definitely Eivor’s accomplice!”

“Not only that, but there was one more unusual thing.”

“What do you mean?”

“She wasn’t afraid of me.”

Milton was genuinely surprised.

“Whaaaat-?! That can’t be?! Then, then she must not be an ordinary person. Maybe she’s a vicious criminal broker deeply involved in Eivor’s crimes…!”

“That must be right. Magical tools don’t lie.”

But Tesagh’s expression was still shadowed.

A year ago, a series of fires occurred in the eastern part of the duchy.

While they were struggling to find neither the culprit nor the cause, that man appeared.

Eivor.

Eivor, who revealed that the fires were a clever curse, even caught the culprit after tracking them down.

Thanks to this, it didn’t take long for him to gain the duchy’s trust.

Soon he became one of the advisors providing magical counsel to the duchy.

Eivor, with his gentle and mild personality, was trusted as much for his reputation as his skills.

Everyone believed in him.

Until he stole the sacred object and disappeared overnight.

Only one person had instinctively suspected and been wary of that mage: Tesagh alone.

“But…”

The red cigarette Tesagh smoked in the pawnshop was actually a magical tool for interrogation.

Inhaling the smoke makes one drowsy and compelled to tell the truth.

But even after inhaling the smoke, the woman’s attitude remained unchanged.

She clearly and firmly retorted that she didn’t deal in stolen goods.

‘There’s no way a young woman could run such a business alone. So I thought if I made a job offer, someone higher up would appear, but that was also rejected.’

The offer to buy her was actually a disguised employment proposal and a way to probe who was in the shop.

For Tesagh, who had only seen criminals during interrogations, he thought this might be how they typically communicated.

However, the woman rejected it without hesitation.

There was conviction in her pale violet eyes.

“Why weren’t that woman’s words false either.”

Tesagh looked at the business card placed on the desk with complicated eyes.

The business card he gave the woman was also a magical tool.

Being thin, it couldn’t contain much magical power, so it could only transmit surrounding sounds when in contact.

The woman’s voice flowing from that business card echoed in his ears, just like when she whispered near his ear moments ago.

“Pretty name.”

At this point, there’s only one way to determine what the truth is.

Tesagh, roughly running his hand through his hair, muttered.

“I have no choice but to check the 2nd floor myself.”

***

“Hmm… ten million gold.”

Checking the account list I had pulled from the Central Bank during a brief visit, I shook my head.

‘Grandfather didn’t secretly lose money on failed investments or gambling, did he?’

The account under Grandfather’s name that was transferred to me contained about ten million gold.

Of course, objectively speaking, it’s not a small amount.

But considering that cash reserves are important for the pawnshop business, this is, well.

‘In terms of cash alone, it’s practically nothing.’

The brief inquiry results were disappointing, so I came all the way to the distant Central Bank just in case, but the details were the same.

‘Let’s keep that money as emergency funds for now.’

Thinking rationally, that probably isn’t all of Grandfather’s private wealth.

‘The amount that can be inquired at the bank is just ten million gold.’

The Rionet Family wouldn’t have kicked me out in my previous life just to steal a mere ten million gold.

However, since I inherited everything except the house, I can’t just leisurely assume it’s somewhere else.

To prepare for the family members who will come charging with bloodshot eyes, I need to accurately understand the scale of Grandfather’s assets.

So where is the rest?

I smiled wickedly. Something came to mind.

‘When will Hugo come?’

First, let’s target Hugo, that coward.

2. I always do my best regardless of who my opponent is

“Damn it, damn it.”

Hugo bit his nails.

He was already overwhelmed by the flood of debt collection notices, and now even his sister, Baroness Rosaline, was pressuring him.

Buying time with lies had reached its limit.

But he couldn’t report such a failure either.

‘How could I tell them I was fooled by some twenty-year-old girl…!’

He couldn’t say that instead of securing Uncle Michele, he had taken on a pile of debts and let him slip away.

So he had to do something. He had to make that girl sign a proper contract!

Hugo anxiously waited for his aide, who had gone out to spy, to return.

“Count! I’ve finished surveying the pawnshop!”

“How was it?”

“Business seemed to be doing quite well. About five people went in and out every hour…”

“Do I look like I care about that right now? Huh?”

Hugo frowned deeply.

“Was Uncle there or not!”

Hugo wondered how Michele, who claimed to be sick, had disappeared.

There was only one conclusion. That damn girl had moved him somewhere in advance. But where?

The hospital? A secret warehouse? A safe house?

Or could it be… the pawnshop?

“No, he wasn’t there! I watched all day long and didn’t see even a hair of him! I casually asked the customers coming out too, and they said they hadn’t seen him!”

“Are you certain?”

“Of course! If His Grace had been at the pawnshop, wouldn’t he have come out at least once, no matter how unwell he was? It’s a shop he cherishes so much.”

The aide’s words made sense.

The uncle Hugo remembered was a thorough perfectionist.

He would never trust and leave things to someone other than himself. Even if it was his granddaughter.

‘Unless there were unavoidable circumstances. Like being absent.’

Hugo feared his sister, but he feared his uncle even more.

Once he was convinced his uncle wasn’t there, he finally found the courage to go to the pawnshop.

“Let’s secure Uncle’s whereabouts later and go fix the contract first.”

“Yes, Count. Anything else to prepare? Documents or…”

“Bring a sword. A really sharp and scary-looking one.”

“A, a sword?”

“Yes.”

Hugo ground his teeth.

“That insolent girl, I’ll teach her proper manners this time!”

The aide thought as he brought the sword.

My master seems to be seriously planning to fight a twenty-year-old girl…

‘But that looks kind of pathetic, doesn’t it…’

Unaware of what his aide was thinking, Hugo kicked open the door and stormed out.

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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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