IDSTD 06

Chapter : 06

“……Marquis. Are you sure this is really the right place?”

“I suppose it is.”

At Laura’s deeply dissatisfied voice, I nodded weakly. Then, with a troubled expression, I looked at the shabby building in front of me.

A sign on the building read ‘Pawnshop,’ though half the color had already faded away.

It was so old and worn that even part of the first character had fallen off.

This was on an entirely different level from the upscale pawnshops frequented by wealthy nobles. It was the sort of seedy establishment mainly used by people from the back alleys.

The reason I came here today was very simple.

“Haah, seriously……”

I swallowed a sigh and unfolded the letter.

At first, I had been so shocked and flustered that I hadn’t properly looked through it.

But there was a back page.

And when I checked it, I found even more densely written words covering the entire page.

[I suddenly needed money, but I had run out of the money I had on hand, so I couldn’t help it.

So I pawned the ring you were wearing at the pawnshop, okay?

I’ll include the address, too. The name of the shop is……]

That’s right.

If the front page had simply been a record of her circumstances and what she had done, the back page contained a detailed account of all the trouble she had caused during her stay.

You said you didn’t remember! You said the only thing you were sorry about was that incident with Leon Obsidian!

Even now, the contents made my blood boil, and I ground my teeth.

No wonder.

Ever since I regained consciousness, I’d felt like something was missing from my finger.

The ring I always wore on my index finger was gone.

“That crazy woman. What kind of ring was that for her to exchange it for money?!”

It was customary to wear the ring signifying the head of the family on the right index finger.

And that ring was both a treasured heirloom passed down through generations and a symbol of the family itself.

And yet—

She had pawned something that important.

“Who in their right mind would pawn it? If she needed money, she could have charged it to House Zaherette’s account! Or used a check! There were plenty of other ways!”

I felt like I was about to cry over the sheer insanity of what that woman had done.

Why on earth did I have to go through all this because of a woman whose face I didn’t even know?

I entered the shop after lamenting my miserable fate for a while, only to hear—

“Ah, you mean the ring that was displayed outside? That one’s already been sold.”

“What?”

***

“What on earth were you thinking?!”

“……”

“I wondered what was going on when you suddenly went to a pawnshop, and then I found out you were trying to pawn a ring? The ring you always wore?! Do you even know what that thing is worth?!”

Exactly!

Laura was so worked up that the veins on her neck stood out as she shouted.

But—

I’m a victim too!

From the problem with Leon Obsidian to the family ring.

I wasn’t the culprit behind any of this.

But explaining all of that in detail would only make my mouth hurt, and there was no way the other person would believe me anyway.

So I had no choice but to simply swallow my grievances.

Still, the injustice of it all was driving me crazy.

What on earth have I ever done in my life to deserve this much trouble……!

At this point, I was starting to resent even God.

“We need to get the ring back first. The pawnshop owner said he’d look into the buyer’s information, so let’s wait and see.”

“Then what about the territory? You said you were going down there tomorrow, so I’ve already finished preparing everything.”

As she said this, Laura slapped her knees repeatedly.

The Marquis had even finished all her overdue work.

She was right.

I’d already completed all the preparations for my escape.

But once again, everything had been thrown off course by an unexpected variable.

And that wasn’t even the end of it.

[Oh, right. I also got into a little argument with a drunk man while I was out. He kept hitting on me, so…… before I knew it, I beat the crap out of him.

Your body is surprisingly strong, you know?

Anyway, I think he might have been someone who knew you, so just in case, be careful!]

She had even beaten someone up.

She’d only been here for a week, yet somehow she’d managed to cause every conceivable kind of trouble.

Thanks to her, I felt like I’d aged ten years just cleaning up after her.

Still, the pawnshop owner said he’d find the ring, and as for the assault…… Well, if the victim comes to the Marquis’s family and demands compensation, I can probably settle it appropriately.

There was just one thing that bothered me.

― Appearance of the saintess ‘Irene’

*― Leon Obsidian (the mastermind) rebellion incident

― Execution of Leon Obsidian

― Fall of Bernstein

What on earth was this supposed to mean?

On the back page of the letter, where she had written down the major crimes she had committed in painstaking detail, there was a section at the very end that had been scribbled down almost like a chronicle.

For some reason, it bothered me.

“If you’re going to write something, at least make it clear. This isn’t some kind of riddle. What am I supposed to do with something this vague?”

The name mentioned most often was, unsurprisingly, Leon Obsidian.

The problem was that the words attached to his name were practically curses.

And then there was ‘execution.’

If I take the words at face value, does this mean the Grand Duke dies? But why? And rebellion? I was under the impression that the Grand Duke and the Emperor were on good terms.

Those charges hardly seemed fitting for the man dressed in white priestly robes.

“Ah, I don’t know!”

After agonizing over it, I raised both fists above my head and shouted.

Maybe I’d simply been thinking too much these past few days.

My head felt like it was about to explode.

In the meantime, the carriage arrived at the Marquis’s estate.

“Marquis! You’ve finally arrived. I’ve been waiting for you!”

“Nothing else happened, did it?”

The moment I stepped out of the carriage, the head steward, who had been pacing around the entrance to the mansion, came rushing over.

His behavior felt strangely familiar, so I asked suspiciously.

The steward immediately made a face like he was about to cry.

Even then, his bony legs continued to fidget nervously.

Yep. Something else happened.

“There are guests waiting for you.”

“Guests? Who?”

It better not be the Grand Duke. He said he would give me time to think.

The steward answered immediately.

“Countess Oscar and Young Master Valentine have arrived.”

“What? Why are they here?”

Just hearing those names triggered an instinctive sense of rejection, and I frowned.

The Countess of Oscar.

Her maiden name was Sylvia Valentine.

She had been my classmate and roommate during our academy days.

But calling us classmates was about all we had in common.

She was what people commonly called the ‘flower of high society,’ the complete opposite of me.

I heard that after getting married, she had become an example for all noblewomen and now ruled high society with an iron grip.

But why has she suddenly come looking for me?

Could it be about that incident again……?

Puzzled, I headed toward the drawing room for now.

As soon as I entered, sure enough, I saw a beautiful noblewoman sitting there in another extravagant dress.

Perhaps she’d chosen the dress to match the dazzling diamond necklace around her neck, because it sparkled as though it had been studded with actual jewels.

It looked incredibly expensive.

From the elaborate hairpiece to the various glittering accessories—

She wasn’t wearing an actual crown, but judging by her bearing alone, she looked like a princess from an extraordinarily wealthy kingdom.

I, on the other hand, had just come straight from work and was dressed relatively comfortably.

My clothes were made from fairly expensive fabric, but they couldn’t compare to that dazzling dress.

Perhaps that was why.

The moment I entered the drawing room, Sylvia quickly looked me over and gave me a small smile.

It was a gaze that seemed intended to establish her dominance from the very beginning.

What on earth is going on that she came here dressed to the nines like this?

Just as I was thinking that and turned my head—

Huh?

My gaze fixed on the man sitting beside the noblewoman.