Chapter 41

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter Title: 41

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Leroy answered shamelessly.

He didn’t want to see Iona lose money, so he accepted defeat in her place. It was a statement that made him look like the ultimate lovesick fool.

Though it was a situation she had planned in advance, Iona found herself a bit flustered because he had unexpectedly brought up the gift. There was a bite to his words.

“Games should be played fairly, don’t you think? Shall we switch seats, then?”

Iona gave Leroy a light rebuke within acceptable bounds and proposed changing the order.

As Leroy swapped places with Josephine, who had been sitting beside him, Iona naturally ended up facing him directly.

Now that he was no longer in a position to sacrifice for Iona, the game proceeded much more normally from the next round.

Over several rounds, Iona won and lost money repeatedly.

Her expression rarely changed, which gave her an advantage in bluffing, but she intentionally folded when she could read her opponents’ hands, so her win rate was less than ten percent. She hadn’t come here to make money through gambling in the first place.

Well, she did intend to make money, but not through gambling, at least.

“I’ve been lucky again.”

Frida grinned widely as she raked in Iona’s share of the gold coins.

She had brought a considerable number of gold coins, but now only a handful remained in front of Iona.

As Iona let out a sigh, looking troubled, Josephine glanced around cautiously and spoke up.

“You’ve been playing non-stop without a break. Shall we take a moment to catch our breath?”

With that, she pulled a leather cigar case from her pocket.

Frida, who had been beaming nonstop after winning money, rummaged through her own pocket as well.

Josephine lit the end of her cigar with a match, then noticed that Iona and Leroy’s hands were empty and made an “oh” face.

“Ah, would you two like one as well?”

“It doesn’t really appeal to me.”

Leroy declined, and Josephine turned her gaze to Iona.

“Please, have one.”

Iona naturally accepted the cigar Josephine offered.

Frida, sitting nearby, used the still-burning match to light Iona’s cigar for her.

Iona put the cigar in her mouth and inhaled a puff of smoke.

She hadn’t expected much in terms of quality from someone like her host, but it tasted better than anticipated.

Iona closed her eyes a few times, relaxing her face, then spoke with a sigh.

“A few rounds of dice, and you’re liable to lose your fortune.”

“Haha, there are days you win and days you lose, and days you lose and days you win.”

“I must just be unlucky. They say siblings take after each other, but I never thought I’d find something in common with Nils here.”

“Lady Iona, do you know how much I’ve lost to Nils? Whatever I won from you today is all thanks to that accumulated bad luck.”

“Hm, then where did the land deed Nils sneaked out without Father knowing go?”

At Iona’s casual question, Josephine and Frida’s smiling faces froze solid.

As if sensing something had gone wrong, the corners of their mouths slowly turned downward.

It was common for noble heirs to gamble among themselves in private.

Though gambling outside of official venues was illegal, nobles didn’t face severe punishments like commoners did.

Even Count Modroff, Nils’s father, frequently hosted games with his friends, so he had no grounds to scold his son for it.

But dipping into family assets behind his father’s back because personal funds ran short was another matter.

Iona slowly scanned Josephine and Frida’s faces as she continued.

“If you won and lost about the same, there should still be some left, but it doesn’t seem like that’s the case.”

“L-Lady Iona, there must be some misunderstanding.”

“Hm? Misunderstanding? With family assets vanishing, it couldn’t possibly go unnoticed. Just recently... let’s see... yes, it seems the land in the Siam region was siphoned off.”

Only then did they realize excuses were futile, and their faces drained of color.

“It... it was just some worthless land we handed over. You know that, right? The mine there has been abandoned for ages, it doesn’t produce taxes or anything... The buyer wouldn’t take anything less, so we had no choice but to give it up. We didn’t mean any harm...”

“I’m sure. Of course that’s how it was, but family assets changed hands without the Count’s knowledge, didn’t they?”

Iona tapped the table with her fingertips, zeroing in on the heart of the issue.

Even his friends, who had been trying to cover for Nils, fell silent.

They were probably regretting inviting her here.

Far from gaining a new connection through Iona, their existing ties to Nils were about to be severed.

Iona eyed their dismayed faces and, right on cue, put them at ease.

“Well, I didn’t bring it up to make a fuss. With Nils as the new face of the Modroff family, digging up stains would trouble me more than anyone.”

She could visibly see Josephine and Frida relax.

Iona looked at them one by one and continued.

“But if you truly care for Nils, it might be good to discuss together how to resolve this. Everything needs to be back to normal before he’s announced as heir. Before the Count finds out, that is.”

It was a convenient pretext.

Hayden was only interested in money-making ventures, so he had likely forgotten all about the Siam territory from the start.

As Josephine had said, no silver was being mined there anymore, and it was impossible to collect taxes from the slash-and-burn farmers in the area.

It was a worthless plot of land except for the one silver mine to begin with.

The Siam territory had been directly granted to the Modroff family by the emperor ninety years ago.

Even then, due to its steep mountains, it was seen as useless land—nominally imperial territory but practically abandoned.

The situation changed drastically when a silver vein was discovered in what was thought to be barren land.

The imperial family recruited workers directly and dispatched them to Siam, soon beginning full-scale mining.

In the early days, output was decent, serving as a solid revenue source for the crown.

But things shifted once mostly low-quality ore started surfacing.

The traditional method of crushing and smelting ore couldn’t meet production demands.

On top of that, inexplicable deaths occurred steadily, and mine operations gradually faltered.

Mindful of public opinion, the emperor transferred ownership to the Modroff family in an indirect bid for profit.

Expectations for buried resources still lingered, so the sale price was paid via annual tribute of a portion of silver output.

Yet fatalities didn’t decrease after the transfer. If anything, they surged.

No one would work cheaply in a mine notorious for danger, and high wages made it unprofitable.

The mine limped along for a few years before temporary closure proceedings began.

Both the imperial family and the count’s household soon forgot the troublesome land, and its value naturally plummeted.

Since it’s useless anyway, the imperial family won’t care if Nils sold it off in a wager.

And rightly so—it had been eighty years since silver production halted.

The environment wasn’t fit for habitation, so aside from indigenous folk, no one set foot there.

Even if Nils’s misdeed came to light, the crown would turn a blind eye out of sheer hassle.

That is, if silver couldn’t be mined again.

“It seems I’ve upset you all with idle talk. Don’t worry too much. Problems can be solved, after all.”

Iona soothed Frida and Josephine in a gentle voice.

Only then did they nod in agreement, their tension easing.

Nils had merely lost a useless chunk of land, and as Iona said, restoring it wouldn’t be difficult.

“Haha... Thank you for your concern, Lady Iona.”

“Ahem, then we’ll step out to the washroom for a bit. We’ve been sitting too long, it seems. Haha.”

Josephine rose from her seat, patting Frida’s back as if to hurry her along.

Iona quietly watched as they left the table, called over one of their friends who had been playing ninepins, and headed outside.