Chapter 57

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter: 57

Chapter Title: Wicked Loan Shark

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All correspondence exchanged in the imperial palace was meticulously screened by the administrative officials in charge.

And since I needed to connect Genevra Golbro with the Marchioness of Embros as quickly as possible, preparations to leave the palace were completed in the blink of an eye.

It happened so fast that my time lingering in the palace until now felt like a dream.

The day after running into the Crown Prince, I boarded a carriage before the morning sun had even risen. Overwhelmed by crashing waves of drowsiness, I let out a yawn I couldn't suppress.

‘Ah… so sleepy.’

I’d barely slept a wink, racking my brain over how to win over the finicky Lady Golbro. I leaned back against the plush carriage seat and closed my eyes.

“Princess.”

Had the Duke not called out to me in that grave tone, I would’ve drifted off in an instant.

Shaking off the sleep that had been creeping in, I stared at him blankly.

“…Yes?”

In his hand was a sheet of paper that looked like a letter.

“You said you met with the Crown Prince yesterday, right?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“And you smoothly turned down his offer to stay in the palace?”

“Yeees…”

Just yesterday, after bumping into that lunatic Raiden in the garden, I’d rushed straight to the Duke and explained everything.

I thought it had all been settled after that, so why was he bringing it up again now?

Worried something had gone wrong, I quickly fired off a question.

“Why? What’s going on?”

The Duke fell silent for a long moment before responding in a puzzled tone.

“Nothing like that. This morning, the Crown Prince sent a letter, but the contents were… odd.”

“What did it say…?”

He tilted his head as if he couldn’t make sense of it and continued.

“He asked when I became a wicked loan shark.”

“Oh, a wicked loan shark?”

At that moment, yesterday’s events began replaying in my mind.

“What do you mean, I owe a debt to the Duke of Brail? He’s not one to deal in money matters lightly.”

“Ah, well… things just sort of happened, and now I’m getting all my meals and lodging covered at the Brail Ducal Residence.”

Sure, it started as prisoner life, but…

Since the Crown Prince couldn’t know the truth no matter what I fabricated, I stuck to my innocent-sounding lie.

“I offered to pay for my room and board out of gratitude, and he handed me a contract.”

“A contract?”

“It was basically calculating the costs for everything I eat and use there and billing me for it…”

While I was at it, I’d emphasized that I couldn’t set one foot outside the Brail Duchy until I’d paid off the full debt.

Fortunately, as I kept rambling on, the light faded from that nutjob Raiden’s eyes, so I figured he’d given up…

‘He actually called me a wicked loan shark!?’

And even wrote a formal letter about it?

Thinking back now, there were a few parts that felt off.

…Okay, quite a few.

I might’ve gotten a little emotional midway and ranted that the boarding fees were exorbitantly overcharged—practically a scam?

But that was my desperate flailing to dodge his recruitment efforts.

Having rationalized it that way, I looked back at the Duke—only to find his eyes brimming with suspicion.

“Princess.”

“Yes?”

My pathetically trembling reply was met with immediate interrogation, as if he’d been waiting for it.

“Seems like you have more to say.”

“Well, you see…”

After rolling my eyes desperately, I shrank into myself and started sputtering feeble excuses.

“He’s the Crown Prince, after all. I couldn’t outright reject his invitation to stay in the palace, so I needed a solid excuse.”

Rejecting his goodwill might hurt Raiden’s feelings, and his capricious nature meant he could come up with even more troublesome proposals.

I repeatedly stressed that my response had been the best option given the circumstances.

“I see.”

The Duke, who had listened quietly, nodded.

Had it… worked?

I gazed at him with a beaming face.

“So you slandered me as a wicked loan shark who’d devour even a flea’s liver.”

But his calm recitation left me horrified.

“Slander!? I never!”

…Of course, if I put my hand on my heart, it was slander, but I couldn’t admit it now even with a knife to my throat.

Besides, that tone he just used was dripping with lingering resentment!

“I was just faithfully playing the ‘social misfit’ like you told me to, Your Grace.”

Right—all this stemmed from that first misbuttoned step.

With my shameless deflection tucked into those added words, I did my best to act unfazed and look away from him.

“Enough.”

“Yes?”

After a brief silence, his voice came through, softened just enough.

Turning at the unexpected reaction, I locked eyes with his smiling green gaze.

The Duke replied with clear, deliberate pronunciation, word by word.

“If that got you out safely, then it’s more than enough. I didn’t want to lose you for nothing.”

“Uh…”

Huh? What did he say?

As I parsed the Duke’s words, I couldn’t hide my increasingly strange expression.

‘This sounds just like…’

Something a guy in the flirting stage would say to a girl?

Haha, no way.

The Duke was peak cool-and-suave male lead material—he’d never say something like that to me.

“Didn’t want to lose you for nothing” probably meant he didn’t want to lose the room and board fees I’d essentially entrusted to him, right?

This man… looks one way but is thrifty to the bone, scraping together every penny.

Smoothly dismissing the delusion-born hunch, I nodded vigorously.

“Haha, got it! I’ll be more careful so nothing like this happens again!”

“Is that all?”

“Yes?”

Was there more?

After pondering, I cautiously added one more thing.

“Um, I won’t leak anywhere. I’ll stick right to the duchy.”

I had to pay off that debt steadily, after all.

Moved by my debtor’s diligent attitude, perhaps—the Duke’s gaze deepened.

“Good.”

Perfect, satisfying answer.

But.

“……”

Sting.

Sting sting.

‘Why does he keep staring…?’

Ignoring the gaze pricking my cheeks like needles, I struggled desperately not to look back at him.

‘I, I wanna meet Lady Golbro soon…’

Otherwise, I’d burn up under that look.

A spire piercing the heavens.

Arch-shaped windows cleanly framing the building’s exterior.

Crossing through a labyrinthine garden, the place I arrived at looked straight out of a fairy tale.

‘Never thought I’d actually come here.’

We’d always communicated only by letter, so I hadn’t imagined seeing it in person. This was none other than…

‘The famous Golbro Mansion…!’

Mansion was an understatement—it rivaled the Kletan imperial palace in splendor.

How splendid? Even the servants’ clothes exuded luxury.

“Are you Miss April Salt?”

“Ah, yes. I’m here to see Lady Golbro.”

Due to the reclusive Golbro family’s nature, you couldn’t just drop by to see her on a whim, so I’d come as ‘April Salt.’

…Of course, I hadn’t been recognized as a princess back then either, so I’d been in my administrator guise.

Following the lightly dressed, airy maid, I walked awkwardly until we reached a door embossed with geometric patterns.

“Miss, you have a guest.”

As the maid announced me, I reflected anew on my connection with Genevra Golbro, forged through countless hardships.

Now, after endless written exchanges and personality analyses, we’d bloomed a friendship—but back then, catering to her prickly temperament had been pure torture.

“Come in.”

The door, which looked heavy, opened smoothly without a sound.

Distracted by the room’s lavish furnishings of every luxury imaginable, I spotted Genevra Golbro approaching me a beat late.

“…Miss Salt.”

Her tawny skin, ebony hair.

A sharp, upturned gaze. It almost felt like a halo shone behind her.

“Ah.”

But even more eye-catching than that was…

‘Why are you coming out from there?’

The bookshelf filling an entire wall behind her, packed floor-to-ceiling with… comic books.