Chapter 14
“Brother! Be quiet! I can’t hear my own voice!”
Marta glared at Ellen as she scolded him.
Leon and Sophie were quiet, but the way they looked at their teacher was just as full of admiration as her very first student.
Felix frowned.
“…Why is she over there?”
But soon, a helpless smile slipped onto his lips.
“I’d believe she was their granddaughter.”
She fit in so naturally among the elderly people that it was surprising.
A moment later, their eyes met, and just as Felix was about to waveā
Herman looked directly at him and said,
“Hmm. Everyone is here. Village Chief Felix, come over. Theo, you too.”
“Yes.”
“Coming.”
“Theo, when you go inside the shop, you’ll find the merchant Peddler tied to a pillar. Could you bring him out?”
Peddler was one of Elderwick’s officially approved merchants.
Naturally, every villager looked confused.
Silence fell over the crowd.
Then, a moment later, the merchant’s scream echoed loudly enough to hurt everyone’s ears.
“Let me go! I’m an Imperial citizen! An Imperial citizen!”
It seemed Peddler had regained consciousness while Theo was dragging him outside.
Twisting his body, he shouted at the top of his lungs, but in the end he was forced to stand before the villagers with blood smeared across his face.
Isn’t this too much?
Scamming people isn’t a crime worthy of death!
“…”
He opened his mouth to say moreā
Then froze.
His eyes met Celine’s violet ones.
Her calm purple gaze looked like the eyes of the Grim Reaper.
“AAAAH! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!”
He trembled violently.
‘What’s wrong with him now?’
Celine tilted her head.
The merchant had looked like he was about to deny everything, so she had only given him a small warning with her eyes.
‘He’s looking at me like he’s seen a ghost.’
But the moment their eyes met, the swindler had turned pale, screamed, and started shaking like a leaf.
What did I even do?
For some reason, his reaction reminded her of enemy agents she had encountered on previous missions, making her feel even more annoyed.
“Everyone, listen.”
“This man has been cheating our village.”
“What? Is that true, Elder Herman?”
Felix’s eyes grew wider.
The other villagers were equally shocked.
Herman continued explaining.
“When we traded goods, we should have received nearly ten times more value.”
“But this man deliberately lied about the prices.”
The villagers erupted all at once.
“My goodness! That scoundrel! We trusted him!”
“He deserves to be punished!”
The adults held back their curses because the children were present, but their angry expressions spoke for themselves.
After taking a deep breath, Herman continued,
“This morning, when Peddler was about to cheat me again, Teacher Celine Ravens happened to be passing by on her walk and stopped him.”
“She even made him hand over his secret ledger and recovered the money he stole from us.”
“Ooooooh!”
“Wooooow!”
Celine stepped forward.
Countless admiring eyes turned toward her.
Unable to endure everyone’s attention, she brushed her bangs back with one hand as if blocking a shower of arrows.
But instead of easing the attention…
The surroundings suddenly became even quieter.
‘I don’t know why… but I feel like everyone is staring at me even more.’
Hmm.
She quickly lowered her hand and raised her voice.
“Since I have some free time today, I’ll also recover the money the rest of you lost.”
“So please come see me one by one, so I can calculate everyone’s losses.”
‘Actually, I could simply compare Peddler’s fake ledger with the real one.’
But she had another reason for doing this.
A resident survey!
The moment she finished speaking, thunderous applause filled the courtyard.
Amid the cheering, Felix spoke to Herman.
“The teacher must be tired.”
“I’ll handle it instead.”
“Tsk, tsk.”
But Hermanāand even the other elderly villagersālooked at him as though he were hopeless.
“W-Why are you looking at me like that?”
Felix looked from one elder to another.
“What else is there to say?” Betty replied.
“Back in the village next to my hometown, we’d say this.”
“What do you mean, Grandma Betty?”
“The boy’s got a good heart.”
“…Pardon?”
“I’m talking about you, Village Chief.”
“Me?”
Felix blinked in confusion.
Toto rolled his wheelchair closer and casually said,
“Felix, I heard that scammer overcharged you by three times too.”
“Heh.”
“…Three times? Me?”
Olga, holding the handles of Toto’s wheelchair, joined in.
“So stay quiet today, Village Chief.”
“You’ve been living in this mountain village too long. You don’t know the current market prices either.”
“…Ah.”
Felix’s face turned bright red.
He looked toward Celine.
She had already gone back inside the store, carefully reading the notebook in her hands.
The defeated merchant followed behind her with his head lowered.
The villagers immediately crowded toward the entrance.
“Please help me first, Teacher!”
“Me first!”
If this kept up, someone might get hurt.
Coming back to his senses, Felix quickly stepped in front of them with both arms spread wide.
“Please line up!”
Seeing him, the villagers awkwardly smiled and stopped.
“Sorry, Village Chief.”
“We got too excited.”
“Thank you.”
“Then please leave it to us.”
Felix smiled brightly.
Ah…
So dazzling.
While everyone instinctively stepped back, clutching their heartsā
“We’ll help too.”
Lillian walked over beside Felix together with Rosie.
Rosie pointed toward the general store.
“Village Chief, you go inside.”
Felix nodded gratefully and entered the shop.
Soon, Lillian and Rosie’s loud voices echoed across the courtyard.
“Hey! No cutting in line!”
“Line up! I said line up! Haven’t you ever stood in line while evacuating during a war?”
The chaotic crowd was quickly organized into a long, orderly line.
Inside the shop, Celine made Peddler kneel beside the table with his hands tied.
She looked down at the jade abacus she had taken from him.
‘This is an imported item from the East… It’s expensive.’
‘Just how much money has this scammer made using it?’
Clicking her tongue, she glared briefly at the back of his bowed head before gently running her fingers across the abacus.
Clack, clack, clack.
‘It feels just like I remember… It’s been a while since I used one.’
Using an abacus had been one of the required subjects for earning her Master Ingredient Specialist qualification.
Ding!
“Teacher, we’re coming in!”
Felix’s cheerful voice sounded as the first villager entered.
A man with sun-tanned skin the color of mocha bread and a towel around his neck stepped inside.
‘Hmm… He looks like one of the young couples.’
‘An important person.’
Celine smiled as warmly as possible.
“May I have your name?”
“H-Hello, Teacher!”
“My name is Theo. I work at the mill.”
“If you don’t mind… how old are you?”
“My age?”
“I’m twenty-four.”
Theo blinked his wheat-colored golden eyes at her.
Just as I thought.
He’s in his twenties.
The right age to be the missing imperial descendant.
Before Theo could wonder why she was asking his age, Celine smoothly changed the subject.
“Theo.”
“What did you usually trade with Peddler?”
“Organic flour!”
“Teacher… how badly was I cheated?”
Theo took the bait immediately.
Looking nervous, he bit the end of the towel hanging around his neck.
Hmm.
Celine narrowed her eyes.
‘Maybe… this will actually work with someone like him.’
He looked like the type who became emotional easily and wasn’t very observant.
She smiled even more kindly.
“Could you explain the details?”
“I’d like to compare your account with what’s written in the secret ledger.”
“So…”
“We agreed verbally to trade 100 kilograms of organic flour twice a year for three years.”
“In return, I received ten well-forged sickles each time.”
“He said that was already a generous deal…”
His voice gradually faded.
Celine had frowned while pointing at an entry in Peddler’s ledger.
‘The current market price for one sickle is two silver coins.’
‘High-quality flour sells for one silver coin per kilogram.’
That meant 100 kilograms of flour should be worth fifty sickles.
‘And he only gave him ten?’
‘Even if iron farming tools are expensive… this bastard has completely lost his mind.’
Feeling Celine’s cold glare, Peddler’s shoulders shook.
Then Celine looked back at Theo with sympathy.
“You lost five times what you should have received.”
“F-Five times?”
“This quality of flour should sell for at least one hundred silver coins per one hundred kilograms.”
“So you should have received fifty sickles.”
“W-What?!”
“Even if it had been ordinary flour…”
“You still could have traded it for twenty-five sickles.”
Theo’s face turned completely pale.
“I worked so hard under the blazing sun to grow and harvest that wheat…”
“That rotten bastard!”
He muttered to himself before suddenly coming back to his senses.
Slamming both hands onto the table, he shouted,
“My goodness!”
“If Rosie finds out about this, there’ll be chaos!”
“She might actually kill him!”
As Celine watched the panicked Theo, she quietly twisted the body of the fountain pen beneath the table.
Instead of a sharp pen nib…
A rounded tip made of Berylline appeared.
Whoosh.
The entire fountain pen slowly became transparent.
Thanks to Celine’s stealth ability, objects she touched could also become invisible for a short time.
Naturally, she placed the invisible rounded tip gently against the back of Theo’s hand.
Tap.
“Please calm down, Theo.”
“Huh?”
One second.
Two seconds.
“I’ll make sure you get everything back.”
“And this year, because wheat production has dropped across the continent, you’ll receive even more than the current market price.”
Three seconds.
“In pure gold coins.”
Theo was completely captivated by Celine’s gentle voice.
He had no idea what she was doing to him.
Even if someone else had been watching…
It would have looked as though Celine’s hand was simply floating in the air.
