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Yustaf’s POV
The tone is light but the content is serious. Yustaf looked at Ran in thought for a moment.
‘Do you usually receive and eat food so easily even after experiencing such a thing?’
That behavior will be taken differently by different people.
Some might call it stupid, and some might say it’s bold enough that it was ridiculous.
“And what about him?”
His silence lengthened, but Ran was looking at him without moving. No matter how much he looks at her, he can’t see any signs of her being worried.
Yustaf knew himself well. He had a suspicious and cunning personality. Whether that was good or bad, he knew that’s how he was.
Yustaf exhaled lightly and said.
“You’re the only one who can betray me.”
Ran frowned at the words.
“I won’t.”
“Yes.”
Yustaf nodded. Ran’s eyes narrowed, but Yustaf was surprised by his words. To be betrayed means to first trust.
Trust.
Yustaf accepted Ran’s behavior as being similar to a deer’s. If a deer had come up to a human, that it’d never seen before, curiously, and licked their hand, no matter what kind of hunter the human is, they wouldn’t be able to stab the deer.
In the eyes of Yustaf, what Ran was doing was similar to that. Sticking out her neck and saying, “Trust me.”
‘While causing a lot of suspicions.’
Well, he’s not honest with her either.
Yustaf thought so and nodded.
“Okay, let’s make a deal.”
“It’s a wise choice. Then can I decide on the details? I need pocket money.”
Yustaf raised his eyebrows lightly as Ran muttered.
“Please feel free to take out and spend as much money as you want from the Duchy’s private funds.”
“But we have negative balance.” Ran murmured and Yustaf replied, “That’s true.”
He nodded his head.
“But, when the money comes in, you can take as much as you want.”
“No, don’t give it to me as the head of Lachia. But give it to me as Ran, I need pocket money for my personal use.”
Yustaf’s blue eyes narrowed slightly and then opened again.
“All right.”
“Okay, that’s the establishment of an alliance.”
“It’s established, but what will you do once I become the head?”
“Well? Come to think of it, you said you’ve never thought about it.”
‘Well, as the Lady of Lachia Dukedom, does Ran have to get married? Isn’t she supposed to be connected with the second male lead? But he’s not really my type.’
Yustaf got up from his seat. As he approached, Ran raised her head. Yustaf’s fingers lightly brushed under her eyes.
“It’s all gone.”
“What?”
“The signs of fatigue.”
Ran laughed at the words.
“Because I slept for 3 days.”
Oh, that’s why Ran’s head was so clear. It’s true that she’s been really busy with work lately.
To exaggerate a bit more, she felt like she’d been born again.
“Can I talk to you a little more in the evening? About dispositions and alliances.”
“Okay.”
Ran nodded. Yustaf’s hand came down and gently pulled her robe’s collar to tighten it further.
“Then excuse me.”
Greeting politely, Yustaf left the room. Ran thought, putting another bite of salad in her mouth.
‘Maybe Yustaf likes me, maybe he dislikes me, or maybe he plans to use me.’
‘I don’t know.’
‘But I don’t think he hates me. There’s no way he’d feed someone he hates. ‘
Thinking so, Ran finished the salad.
* * *
“Returning to work was more troublesome than Ran thought.”
Ran’s uncle claimed that the attempt to rape Ran was conceived by Robbie alone, and that it was because Robbie loved her so much.
“If you love someone, do you rape them?”
When Ran muttered, Yustaf replied coldly, “I heard that it’s the ‘passion of youth’.”
Passion of youth.
Ran was speechless at the thought that everything was acceptable as long as someone used love as an excuse. Ran was annoyed.
In addition, Ran’s uncle defended his son, saying, “He wasn’t trying to rape her, he just wanted to watch her sleep.”
A man who adored his beautiful cousin and made a bold plan to get his hands on her who became a housekeeper.
Baron Lindbergh defended his son so much.
Ran asked Yustaf.
“What do you think, Yus?”
“I don’t think we should let it go.”
“That’s what I think too. If so,”
Ran grinned.
“I’ll just need to be a strong woman.”
Yustaf thought for a moment and said,
“You don’t have to.”
“Huh? Why?”
“Certainly, you and I both know that you have to put an end to Baron Lindbergh.”
“I was originally going to put him to death, but instead, let’s issue a deportation order for Robbie. And take away Baron Lindergh’s rights to succession.”
“His succession rights?”
“Yes.”
“In fact, you were trying to take away their titles and expel all of them, right? Isn’t that better? What would happen if you pushed a little harder?”
“It’ll hurt your reputation as the head of the Duchy among the people of the Dukedom. Besides, it’s not worth it.”
Ran pondered, “Really?” It would have been nice if he could root out her uncle’s power using this opportunity, but it might have been an unreasonable operation to try to stop him.
‘But we’ve managed to capture all of my uncle’s spies in the mansion.’
This is a good thing.
“But wouldn’t it be better to put Robbie in jail indefinitely?”
“No.”
Yustaf answered clearly. He lifted his blue eyes and said, looking up at Ran.
“Exile.”
Isn’t that a worse punishment?
Well, it could be a luxury prison or something like that.
This was Ran’s weakness.
She did not know everything in the world, and was especially weak in customs and judicial systems.
“Well, let’s do that. Instead, I’ll ban my uncle from entering the Sky Mansion.”
Yustaf lowered his head slightly.
“That would be great.”
“Then let’s do it.”
Ran said so, slammed the seal and handed over the document. The trials in the estate was one of the main tasks of the lord. Of course, the Duchy of Lachia had a separate court system because it was so large, but she was also the judge because it was a case between blood relatives.
Baron Lindbergh may post a petition later, but she intended to ignore it. This showed that being on the side of Baron Lindbergh would make someone an enemy of the Duchy.
If you’re not an idiot, you won’t abandon the Duke of Lachia and choose Baron Lindbergh.
“And, although it is a problem to select the people to fill in for those that were fired, I tried to cut down on the number of people working when I cut our finances anyway, so I don’t have to choose new employees right away.”
It takes people to verify people.
Ran flipped over the papers. Yustaf opened his documents and said,
“I’m also working on arranging a magic craftsman. I put a notice in the guild, and it was said that about two volunteers came out.”
“I hope they can come as soon as possible. It seems that Levory’s side is also on the way.”
“Do you think the debtors have noticed anything suspicious?”
“Yeah, not yet? But as long as we use people to mine, there’ll be rumors. For now, I told the miners that I found a crystal mine.”
“They’ll soon discover that it’s different from crystals.”
“Yeah, but there’s not much time left until the yearly interest is due. It’ll be fine if we hide it for five or six months. Oh, so I’m thinking of selling some of my mother’s jewelry on top of the Golden Rose.”
“Jewelry?”
“Yes, so using that money, I want to repay the money I borrowed from the vassals. I feel so ashamed.”
To pay off the Duchy’s various debts, the easiest way was to borrow money evenly from the vassals and the three families.
The amount of money borrowed from the vassals alone amounted to about 50,000 verat. And 300,000 verats were put on mortgage and borrowed from the nearby Marquis Salmon. 200,000 verats were borrowed from Count Simil….
As the amount of money was large, the interest was enormous, and it was almost impossible to pay back the yearly interest.
And to top it all off, the loan was about 150,000 verats.
‘It’ll be difficult for the Duchy of Lachia to escape from debt.’
Ran sighed.
Originally, her uncle was the head and sold the land of Lachia in pieces, as if dismantling it.
The only thing left was a title and the Sky Mansion.
At this point, it’s almost impossible to call him a Duke. Eventually, a plague hit, killing Ran’s uncle, the Duchy’s citizens and the vassals, leaving only an enormous debt.
Such a Dukedom was succeeded by Yustaf.
Do you see how much awaits him now?
’If it were me, I would have just given up on Lachia. I don’t know.’
However, despite all the circumstances, Yustaf did not give up on Lachia.
‘I’ve been thinking of him as the male lead so far..’
Or maybe Lachia is really precious to Yustaf.
‘And then Sina comes.’
Then the moment when Sina, a dimensional mover, falls and finds herself in the poor manor, Yustaf becomes a little happy!
Another hardship!
Ran shuddered.
“Yus.”
“Yes.”
“If it weren’t for Yus, I would have stolen some money and ran away from the Duchy.”
Although this world was not created from the book she wrote, the affection she felt for each and every character remained.
At Ran’s words, Yustaf tried to say something, but Ross intervened.
“That’s a good thing that master is here.”
He said, slamming down the teacup in a loud voice. The tea overflowed slightly and fell over the edge of the cup.
Ross turned around and politely lowered the cup in front of Yustaf this time. How annoying.
While staring at him, Ran didn’t say anything. But it’s a good thing that there’s someone devoted to Yustaf like that.
At that time, Yustaf got up from his seat and exchanged his cup with Ran’s. Ross’s face turned red.
Yustaf said, in a quiet voice.
“Your fingertips are getting dirty.”
“Huh? I’m fine.”
While saying so, Ran grinned at Ross and quickly raised her cup.
“Thank you, Yus.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Yustaf said so and sat down at his desk. Ross approached and wiped the surface of Yustaf’s cup with his handkerchief.
‘Who told you to put the cup down like that?’
‘By the way, Yus is amazing.’
Rather than saying, “Don’t do that,” it was clearly demonstrated through actions. Ross won’t do that again in the future.
Ran thought so, sipping cold tea and handing over the documents.
“Sister, speaking about the jewelry.”
“Uh, yeah.”
Ran looked up.
“Are you sure it’s okay to sell the jewelry?”
“Yes, but they won’t make that much money since they’re being resold, so I’ll sell the most profitable ones. Still, there will be some rumours going around.”
Ran looked at Yustaf with a smile.
“And I’ll leave the rest for the future Duchess.”
Ran’s never seen Sina, but she’s sure that she’ll be a pretty person.
Ran concluded that she wouldn’t let Yustaf suffer this time. No, if she can read the future then, ‘Isn’t it around this time?’
‘But to me, it’s the same feeling as the original.’
It doesn’t matter if Ran says this. Ran concluded.
“The future Duchess.”
As if asked by Yustaf, Ran nodded.
“Yeah. She might fall from the sky, right?”
Ran laughed again, telling the truth like a joke. If Sina comes and they fall in love later, she’ll have to bring up this story again.
Ran will say, ‘Didn’t I tell you she’d fall from the sky?’
But somehow Yustaf was showing signs of nervousness. Ran was embarrassed.
’Huh? What is happening? Fear of women. That can’t be true. Even so, didn’t I stop it?’
One of the traumas caused by Yustaf’s stepmother and tutor was gynophobia.
’But this time, it wasn’t that bad……’
Ran looked worriedly at Yustaf.
‘Well, it could be a mild symptom. Won’t it get better?’
First, let’s do our best to observe. Ran nodded inward, determined.
It was true that there were many shortcomings. My mother supported Ran, who had died and survived. It was all the more so because Ran, who fell into the world, was confused.
Even though she had tragically lost her real daughter, Ran followed her mother as much as she could.
As a result, she could not actively appeal in favour of Yustaf.
Ran’s greatest achievement was sending Yustaf to the Academy. So, rather, Yustaf’s vassals were miserable, thinking that Yustaf had been driven away.
‘But was that the best I could do?’
At least, she stopped her mother from mixing Yustaf’s meals with poison, and punishing, smacking, and insulting Yustaf.
‘I’m scared. I’m scared.’
Ran thought so and came up with some jewelry to dispose of.
Oh, yeah. And-
Ran had thought about asking Levory about getting an Elven healer to cure Count Illuminity’s daughter.
At the same time, Ran contacted Levory through the magic communication device.
Even if it’s a magic communication device, it doesn’t work if the other person’s far away, but fortunately, Levory was still in Lachia.
Ran had heard that it was because of the transportation of the Ice Crystals.
‘Good thing for me.’
Ran said hello thinking so.
“Hello, Ms. Levory.”
“Long time no see, Lord.”
Ran asked because Levory’s voice sounded tired.
“Are you busy these days?”
“It’s a busy time. But if I don’t do it now, when will I work? So what’s going on?”
It was just like a person whose time was like gold, to get straight to the main point.
Ran said she wanted to sell jewelry, and she also brought up the doctor she had asked for.
“I’ll send someone for the accessories. And also the healer you mentioned.”
Levory sighed.
“I don’t think they’ll respond. Elven healers don’t even react to money.”
“I see.”
Ran bit her lips lightly and said,
“Then I’ll send you something. Let’s just say that they can’t help but respond after seeing it.”
“Oh, my gosh.”
Levery’s voice was full of pleasant curiosity.
“What could it be?”
“I’ll send it with a letter.”
“Then I’ll call you and send you a person tomorrow. You can send it through them.”
“Yes, call me right away if you need anything else.”
“Whoa, I’m looking forward to December.”
December is the beginning of the social season. Ran also laughed at Levory’s words.
“I’m looking forward to it, too.”