The Lady Only Deals With the Real Ones - Chapter 164

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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 can understand me pretending to be a loan shark, but why do you want to pretend to be my lackey?”

“You can understand pretending to be a loan shark?”

“The Border Guard used to say that about my appearance from time to time, so it’s not unfamiliar.”

It seems the Border Guard raises his son quite strictly.

Anyway, we managed to enter safely, which is fortunate.

‘The staff member guiding us also has something like a receiver in their ear. They seem to be sharing information about the characteristics of people entering.’

Of course, I didn’t choose this disguise identity based on clothes alone.

It was also a matter of efficiency.

‘There’s definitely going to be a VIP area. To check that place, I’d need to act like someone with money, and for that, a loan shark would be optimal.’

My acting like a lackey was for similar reasons.

‘Even if I act rowdy and peek around here and there, they won’t think it’s strange.’

That’s why I deliberately wore a loose jacket and baggy pants.

It was to look like a loan shark’s errand boy.

It was also a disguise in case there were people who might recognize my face.

“Then please enjoy your time.”

The place we arrived at was a dressing room located in the very corner.

After the employee left, I exchanged glances with Tesagh and pulled back the curtain.

‘To think the entrance was hidden in a place like this.’

The revealed door showed winding stairs leading down to a mini basement.

It was the moment we reached the last step.

“…Ha.”

Tesagh let out a hollow laugh, and I was left speechless.

“This time… this time feels good, there will be luck this time….”

“Ugh, ugh, huh. I lost everything! I lost it all!”

“Please, please. This is this month’s rent money, please! …This, this doesn’t make sense! Next, next time….”

That place with people who had hollow, dead eyes mechanically betting money, losing, betting again, and losing again was.

“…Hell.”

Just as Tesagh said.

It was a cunningly designed hell.

*

“What is this? What’s going on?”

Edwina was standing in the middle of an empty building.

She looked around every corner in confusion, but it was all the same – nothing was there.

“It clearly says there’s a workshop here….”

What she held in her hand was a rental contract.

It was a contract that cost a whopping 100 million gold per month just to rent the building.

So there absolutely had to be Snowflake’s workshop here.

Of course, there should be jewelry designers, metalworkers, craftsmen, and tools.

‘There were definitely expense records. But why is it completely empty with no one here?’

Edwina bit her lip.

‘Father’s reaction was different from usual, so I thought I needed to find out for myself….’

Edwina, who had been severely scolded just for inviting an appraiser, couldn’t understand her father, Count Hestian.

So she asked her mother, the Countess, but she also didn’t give her an answer.

She said it wasn’t something she needed to know in detail, that she should just continue living as she was.

‘What does living as I am mean? That I should just stay ignorant of everything?’

At first, she was angry.

“Why does it matter that girl is an appraiser? It’s not like Snowflake uses fake gems.”

“Right, of course they’re not fake gems. But…!”

And then, she became anxious.

‘I was even thinking of asking that girl about it.’

But her pride was too hurt to do that.

…Especially since all her attempts to humiliate that woman had failed, she felt a bit small, thinking that woman would mock and look down on her.

‘Why don’t I know something that Elisha or whatever appraiser could notice immediately? It’s my brand.’

If I just look into it a little, I should be able to figure it out!

With that thought, Edwina clenched her fist and opened the file folder she had only pretended to look at before.

Contracts, expense reports, income certificates, accounting books….

‘Was this stuff here? What are these blue blueprint-like things?’

These were things Edwina had never encountered before, but even to her, there seemed to be something strange about them.

‘Why do the amounts work out so perfectly?’

Gems in different conditions had the same price, and raw stone prices came out to exactly zero.

Is there some rule I don’t know about?

Edwina, who had been frantically flipping through documents, concluded that if she asked Snowflake’s employees like a proper noble, they would give her answers.

So she had secretly come out, urged the coachman, and arrived at the workshop address on the contract.

The result was as she could see.

“…Then where is the 100 million gold going?”

There were more than one or two questions.

“Who makes the jewelry in the showroom, and where do they source the gems that go into them…?”

But there was no one to give her answers.

Standing there with a chill running down her spine, Edwina shuffled out of the empty building.

Sitting in the carriage and biting her nails, she lifted her head with an “Ah.”

‘Father has been going out every night lately. I heard the maids talking about it.’

So Edwina decided to follow her father.

Maybe the address was wrong. Maybe they wrote the ledger incorrectly.

Returning to the manor and waiting until her father left, Edwina kept muttering such things.

She didn’t realize that her rationalizing words were proof of her anxiety.

‘Floren Street?’

Her father, who got off at the edge of the commercial district, went around to the back of a building for some reason.

Edwina’s heart pounded as she followed her father from a distance as he entered through some old door.

Surprisingly, below that old door was an underground waterway that looked like it was no longer in use.

‘Does this… have something to do with this?’

Edwina returned to the carriage, clutched the blue blueprint that was mixed in with the pile of documents, and stepped into the underground waterway.

After walking for a while, panting, she pushed open a door from which light was faintly seeping out.

‘Where is this place?’

A maze-like complex and dim corridor appeared, and something like an overwhelmingly strong perfume smell hit her.

Edwina, who had unconsciously covered her nose, listened to her father’s muttering voice from behind the wall.

“…Haah, right. Is there any other way to launder slush funds besides this?”

Slush funds? Launder?

“Since Rosaline’s situation, they have high expectations of me, so I can’t disappoint them….”

Rosaline? Expectations? Disappoint?

“They said once this gets established, they’ll make Snowflake independent, so yes. This will work. With this, even Edwina….”

…Snowflake?

It was the moment Edwina stood there in a daze.

“Mmph!”

Some damp cloth covered Edwina’s nose.

What Edwina saw when she turned around in shock was.

“Shh. Breathe through this.”

Though the eye color was subtly different, I could tell.

It was Elisha, dressed as a servant.

*

A little while ago.

After wandering around the noisy and flashy areas, scanning the faces of people, I whispered to Tesagh.

“I don’t see Princess Devin. She must be in a space other than the main hall.”

“It’s likely a VIP room.”

“Yes. You should try playing a few rounds, then say these small stakes are boring and ask about the VIP room.”

Tesagh sat at a table, and I lingered around within his line of sight, looking around.

‘What is this smell?’

A strong scent, more like air freshener than perfume, filled the entire space.

Frowning, I pretended to cough and covered my mouth with my sleeve, then quickly reported the building structure to Ailren.

“There are stairs hidden by curtains behind the innermost dressing room. Go down there and you’ll find the main hall…”

「There’s interference… once more…」

After barely finishing my explanation in a corner due to interference and noise.

I suddenly tilted my head in confusion.

‘Didn’t the knights who went in first report properly? Why is Ailren asking for details?’

Wondering if communication was difficult due to the usual interference, I froze solid while looking around.

The knight who had entered first was sitting at a card table.

But…

“If I try one more time, I think it’ll really work this time.”

His eyes were glazed over.

That wasn’t all. The other regular knights had the same expression.

The faces of those holding cards and pulling slot machine levers looked half-dazed, as if bewitched by something.

Falling into gambling addiction in just a few dozen minutes?

‘No, that’s not right. Even though they’re regular knights, they’re all people trained under Ailren. There’s no way they’d fall for something like this so quickly…’

‘Regular knights’.

I noticed that the holy knights who entered after me were different from them.

They seemed flustered by the sight of the regular knights who had instantly fallen into gambling, but they were managing their expressions.

Why did only the regular knights fall into addiction while the holy knights remained fine?

I quickly turned my head and realized.

‘No way.’

Something came to mind.

The interrogation magical tool that smelled of mint.

The ‘worst memory’ air freshener that was used to drive Hugo away.

‘This strange fragrance was a magical tool!’

It was magic that bewitched people!

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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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