CBH 26🔐

Chapter 26 ….

Carrying all the keys of the Count’s family and the butler with her, Helena’s first destination was the former Count’s study.

Standing before the study, Wesley was overcome with emotion.

“The late Count always worked here. I also served him diligently. In the summer, when he would complain it was too hot, or in the winter, when he’d say it was too cold… I carried ice, adjusted the fire… so many things for him…”

Helena ignored Wesley’s words and inserted the key into the keyhole.

With a click, the door, which had been closed for five years, swung open.

Seeing the inside of the study, Wesley couldn’t help but exclaim, and Helena let out a sigh of relief.

“Oh!”

“Phew.”

Although a thick layer of dust had settled, the room itself didn’t seem significantly damaged.

“Ledgers! Ledgers!”

She began rummaging through the shelves stacked with bundled documents and drawers filled with loose papers.

Then Wesley called her.

“Milady.”

He walked to the innermost part of the study, to what appeared to be the late Count’s desk.

From among the many paintings on the wall, he removed a rather nondescript landscape frame.

“Ohhh!”

Inside, there were documents that clearly looked important.

While Helena pulled them out, Wesley quickly dusted off the desk and chair with the cloth in his hands.

Thanks to him, Helena could spread out the documents on a clean surface.

“Wow, it’s all here. Bank account agreements, deposit ledgers, business ledgers, business contracts…!”

Helena’s green eyes sparkled brightly.

“As expected… just five years, yet there’s no way everything could have completely collapsed. Quite a lot remains.”

Flipping through the ledgers swiftly, she looked at Wesley.

“There must have been a reason the butler stayed at the estate all this time.”

Wesley let out a heavy sigh at her words.

“I couldn’t afford to lose the estate. The Ishpern Count family holds significant shares in several of the Count’s enterprises. I knew it wasn’t my place, but I’ve been managing those businesses on behalf of the Count.”

“I see.”

Normally, nobles appointed agents when engaging in business. Some participated directly, but unless the business was substantial, it was rare.

Even if successful, it might only break even, and if not, it would tarnish the family’s reputation.

There must have been countless agents within the Ishpern Count family as well.

But the Count’s estate had fallen entirely.

In that situation, how many people in the world would come forward to say, “I’ve been managing these matters on behalf of the late Count, I’ve delivered this much profit each year, and I will continue to do so”?

Most would just take what they could and wash their hands of it.

‘I would have done the same.’

But with these ledgers and contracts, if one tracked down the agents, things could be very different.

Helena swept her hand over the documents before her with a proud smile.

“With these, I can crush those annoying opportunists.”

At her confident words, Wesley was moved.

He thought to himself:

‘It seems the fate of the Count’s family rests in the hands of the new lady.’

He hadn’t spent all his time idly at the estate. He had been monitoring Benjamin’s movements in his own way.

From what he had observed, Benjamin didn’t seem to intend to lead the Count’s estate.

Benjamin was indifferent not only to managing assets or other businesses but even to basic estate administration. The only thing he concentrated on was expanding the frontier lands.

Wesley couldn’t understand it.

Burwood was vast. Although more than half of the territory was overrun by monsters, even excluding unusable land, there was no shortage of arable land.

In other words, the frontier land project wasn’t urgent, nor was it profitable. It couldn’t even attract investment.

Yet Benjamin spent all the estate’s income on the frontier land project.

Meanwhile, all the essential affairs within the estate stalled due to lack of funds.

Given all this, it was no surprise Wesley thought that if things continued like this, the Ishpern Count family would fall, and Burwood would go down with it.

Then Helena seemed to have fallen from the sky.

She tirelessly flipped through ledgers, chattering in a melodious voice as if singing.

“This must be the most recent ledger. Let’s set aside the small stuff for now…”

Honestly, she didn’t particularly enjoy managing money. Her clever half-brother Eliza would like it more and be better at it.

“What I need to tackle first are the big things. Then the small ones will crawl out on their own.”

What she enjoyed was asserting her dominance, and what she excelled at was driving people.

With the ledgers in her hands, she was absolute, a relentless pursuer of her prey.

How could she not relish the chance to track down and punish the Count’s agents who had taken off with the estate’s money?

“I’ll start by reclaiming what’s been embezzled, add in the audacity penalty, plus interest, and make them pay dearly.”

As she spoke, a rosy blush spread across her creamy cheeks, and her glossy lips curved into an utterly charming smile.

Wesley felt a strange thrill.

‘Come to think of it, I once dreamed of serving a beautiful lady.’

Of course, that dream had been thoroughly destroyed by a demanding and irritable former lady.

Caught in a peculiar excitement, Wesley silently vowed:

‘Milady, though I may be lacking, I will follow you.’

In the following days, Helena’s schedule was exhausting to the point of losing her soul.

After rumors spread throughout Burwood that the Count’s estate was hiring workers, countless people flocked, turning the castle into a bustling hub.

With more hands on deck, the interior of the castle became cleaner day by day.

Helena summoned the estate’s carpenters and stonemasons to carry out repairs.

There were countless places in need of fixing. Old castles were inherently money-draining monsters, and after years of neglect, major renovations were inevitable.

She instructed the workers:

“First, let’s focus on completing the essential repairs before winter fully sets in. At least enough to get through this winter.”

She also met a new gardener.

Finding a skilled gardener in an unfamiliar area was nearly impossible, but with the help of former steward Kurt, she found a young gardener seeking independent work.

The gardener whistled at the sight of the jungle-like garden.

“This will be rewarding work.”

Helena groaned inwardly. The thought of turning the overgrown garden around made her head throb.

“It would have been better if the fire had been in the garden rather than the castle.”

“Haha, at least by next spring, it will have taken shape.”

Next came the merchants.

New curtains, wallpaper, carpets… Each room had its own purpose, and every item tested the mistress’s discernment, leaving nothing to be decided carelessly.

If the major items were hefty, the small ones were endless.

Jo went among the workers, making lists of needed items and bringing them to Helena every evening.

The lists were so long that Helena could have used them as a whip, even imagining Benjamin being struck from afar.

“What’s this?”

Benjamin was baffled as he watched Helena wildly wave the endless lists.

Without changing her expression, Helena snapped the order sheets sharply.

“I want to hit you with this.”

Benjamin frowned at Helena, irritated.

‘What is this woman?’

Telling someone you want to hit them is provocative, yet Helena had a way of speaking that made it impossible to be angry at her.

Benjamin ignored her and sank into an armchair, checking the letters that had arrived.

As he casually flipped through the envelopes, something caught his eye.

He muttered, half under his breath:

“The castle looks chaotic. What if guests come?”

Helena retorted succinctly:

“What is that? Are you picking a fight?”

She wasn’t joking. The Ishpern Count estate was not in a state to welcome guests. Anyone refined enough to be called a guest would wait until the estate was properly arranged and invitations sent before visiting.

Helena said firmly:

“Ah, let them come. I’ve never lost when someone tried to fight me…!”

Her tone rose at the end because one of the order sheets she was vigorously waving tore.

“Why did this tear? What a mess!”

Helena had to dash off to retrieve the torn pieces of the order sheet.

Thus, she didn’t see Benjamin’s amused smile.