The Lady Only Deals With the Real Ones - Chapter 44

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Alter’s eyes as he looked up were fierce.

“A Knight Commander using violence against a citizen?”

His characteristic mysterious eyes glowed menacingly.

He looked ready to grab Ailren by the collar at any moment.

‘No!’

Even in my dizziness, I staggered and barely managed to stand, blocking Alter’s path.

“It’s not like that!”

“What do you mean it’s not? Then what is this mess I’m looking at right now?”

Alter glared at Ailren as he spoke harshly.

For Alter, who hadn’t seen what happened before, it was certainly a scene that could be misunderstood.

But.

‘Ailren really didn’t push me.’

Ailren hadn’t even laid a hand on me.

I was thrown back because of an invisible shockwave.

I couldn’t be certain if he had manifested magical power, but one thing was clear.

‘Ailren didn’t intend it.’

Ailren, who was now holding his head in his hands, had actually tried to catch me when he saw me being thrown back.

But I couldn’t honestly explain the situation to Alter. That would be shameful for Ailren.

‘Besides, no matter how notorious a criminal he is, his opponent is the Knight Commander! If they fight, Alter will end up like mashed potatoes!’

So what I could say was limited.

“Well, you see.”

I forced a smile and whispered to Alter.

“This knight was trying to pull another self-harm scam, so I thought this was my chance to try it too. That was my secret weapon.”

I had to send Ailren away first for this situation to end.

I was about to turn around to somehow persuade Ailren to leave.

“Lies.”

Alter’s extremely low voice caught my ankle.

I looked up at him.

“Do you think I didn’t see your expression?”

“…My expression?”

“Why are you trying to protect that guy?”

Alter let out a hollow laugh.

“You were going on about princes, did you fall for that knight? Or.”

What?

I was about to ask back but closed my mouth when I saw Alter’s expression.

“…Do you trust me less than that knight you’ve only met twice?”

It was a question I couldn’t easily answer.

I was indeed suspicious of Alter’s identity.

But if he was asking whether I was suspicious of Alter as a person.

‘That’s not it.’

However, before I could even answer, I heard the sound of a blade being drawn behind me.

When I turned around, I saw Ailren standing up using his sword to support himself on the ground.

Alter, who didn’t know the situation, seemed to judge his action as a threat. He also drew his sword and hid me behind him.

‘I need to stop them…’

But the distinctive aura made my stomach churn.

It felt like motion sickness.

“Haa, ha.”

As I couldn’t speak and was breathing heavily, Alter’s gaze became even sharper.

“What are you doing to this woman right now?”

It was a critical moment.

Just as I barely managed to lift my head and open my mouth.

“Wait, let me explain…”

A familiar voice interrupted my words.

“No. The explanation is my job.”

Someone in a black robe was standing inside the shop, though I hadn’t noticed when they entered.

The moment the customer pulled back their hood and revealed their face.

Ailren drew in a breath, and Alter stopped abruptly.

I was pressing firmly against my chest and muttered.

“…Lina?”

The voice, small lips, and the green eyes I had glimpsed.

It was Lina.

Ailren’s atmosphere gradually changed upon seeing Lina. I could feel the oppressive feeling he had been emanating slowly lifting.

At the same time, I could breathe again. It felt like I had been struggling underwater and just surfaced.

With my mind blank, I pulled on Alter’s arm.

“Cus, customer.”

What Lina’s identity was or how she had come back didn’t matter.

Right now, Ailren’s condition was unusual, and it was a critical situation where anything could happen.

‘He might think I’m pulling some trick. And if he rashly draws his dagger again? Lina will be in danger!’

I barely managed to lift my head and meet Alter’s eyes.

I whispered with my lips.

Please protect Lina.

Then Alter’s expression hardened like frost.

Was he also overwhelmed by the knight’s aura like me? As I stared blankly, I heard Ailren’s voice.

“Your Highness, how did you come all the way here.”

“I just came to check if the pendant I entrusted is safe.”

“Are you saying Your Highness personally entrusted the pendant? This is a pawnshop, Your Highness. If you’re trying to sell the sacred object you treasured…”

“No. You seem to be mistaken, Sir Ailren. I didn’t entrust my mother’s pendant to a pawnshop.”

Lina took a deep breath and said briefly.

“To someone trustworthy. …I asked a friend.”

“Your Highness?”

“So please return now. This is an order from your ‘master’ to you.”

Master.

When Lina said that word, the atmosphere changed.

Ailren, who had hesitated, bowed his head.

“I apologize. I was rude.”

I heard Ailren’s footsteps as he left.

Lina’s steps, which had been following him out, stopped briefly in front of me.

Her face showed she had so much she wanted to say.

“…I came out in a hurry, so I don’t have money today. I’ll definitely come back next time with the fee.”

Lina’s green eyes, having swallowed her words, were filled with tears like that day.

But today’s version of her didn’t seem to need tissues.

Was there some reason her mindset had changed? In any case, it was fortunate.

I also managed to smile slightly, though with difficulty.

“Alright, Lina. See you next time.”

I had definitely heard Ailren call Lina ‘Your Highness,’ but I decided not to ask about it.

Since she said she’d come back next time, she would tell me herself when the time came.

“Thank you. And I’m sorry. …There won’t be any more incidents like this.”

Leaving behind those words that sounded somehow resolute, Lina turned away.

As I watched her retreating figure, my legs gave out like last time.

Just as I was about to collapse, something supported me from behind.

“Snap out of it.”

It was Alter.

Was it because my vision was blurry?

Somehow his hazy expression looked like he was worried about me.

“Are you okay?”

“…Haha, I guess my energy got drained…”

“This isn’t something to laugh about.”

“You’re right, it’s not something to laugh about… I’ll just sleep for exactly thirty minutes. I’d like to faint if I could, but I still have things to do…”

“You’re going to use me as an alarm clock, is that it? No, wait, are you negotiating with fainting?”

Alter, who had been dumbfounded, paused at the following words.

“Actually… I was a bit scared.”

I blinked up at him.

“Since there’s a customer here… I thought it was fortunate.”

“You…”

“So, I’d like to ask you a favor…”

With his strange expression as the last thing I saw, my consciousness cut off.

***

Tesagh looked at Elisha with her eyes closed.

Her breathing was steady, so it seemed she really succeeded in negotiating with fainting.

“This is ridiculous.”

Tesagh, who chuckled without realizing it, only then became aware that he was in a position of half-embracing Elisha.

Tesagh, who was about to quickly move away, soon let out a deep sigh.

She had asked him a favor. She could say such things because he was a customer.

It was probably a roundabout answer to the question of whether she couldn’t trust him.

‘Obvious. It’s probably just her usual nonsense, wordplay again.’

Even so, Tesagh, who was mulling over Elisha’s words, muttered bluntly.

“If I left her on the bare floor, who knows what resentment I’d hear.”

Tesagh lifted Elisha up and headed toward the counter.

He didn’t forget to close the door leading to the 2nd floor.

When he rolled up a blanket to use as a pillow and laid her down, Elisha slept soundly.

“There’s a perfectly good blanket, so why use ledgers as a pillow of all things.”

Only after saying those words did the thought occur to him.

Wasn’t this the perfect opportunity to look at the ledgers?

Those ledgers that would contain information about Eivor.

‘If I just check the ledgers, my business with this place will be finished too. I won’t need to do troublesome things like torture. I’ll just watch and when Eivor appears, I can arrest him.’

Tesagh sat at Elisha’s feet and opened the ledger.

But somehow it didn’t register well in his eyes.

Was he afraid of being caught by Elisha if she suddenly woke up? No.

It was because of the thoughts filling his head.

‘…Why is she looking after someone else in that situation.’

The woman Elisha called Lina was definitely Princess Katarina.

There was no room for doubt since Ailren had called her Your Highness.

But why would Elisha care about someone who was a princess, of all people?

‘She wouldn’t be wrong to resent her instead.’

Today’s whole incident seemed to have happened because of the collateral the princess had left.

Then wouldn’t Elisha be unjustly caught up in this?

‘A pendant… It must be the Empress’s legacy. I had heard that the princess has been struggling since her mother’s death.’

Moreover, it was also puzzling why the princess had called Elisha a friend.

If they were really friends, the Royal Knights commander couldn’t have been unaware.

Considering that Elisha called the princess by the nickname ‘Lina’ rather than ‘Katarina’, it seemed more likely that the princess had approached the pawnshop using a false name.

‘This woman only found out today that Katarina was a princess.’

In other words, the relationship between the two was merely that of shop owner and customer.

But why.

‘She said the pawnshop was precious to her. She cried so sadly just from the roof leaking.’

Despite being on the verge of closing down, why was some item left by a mere customer so important?

Tesagh, who was turning the pages of the ledger, realized.

Perhaps, the reason the ledger didn’t register well in his eyes was…

‘Did I instinctively know? …That at least this woman is innocent.’

Indeed, there were no records about Rugenote in the ledger.

There were no customers with similar appearance and clothing to Eivor either.

All that was in the ledger were traces of Elisha working diligently day and night.

Then.

‘It must be that person called this woman’s grandfather who caused the trouble.’

He needed to find that grandfather who had dumped everything on his unknowing granddaughter.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————