REDA | Chapter 15

~Chapter 15~

Why did time pass so quickly?

It had already been a week since Ruby and the children started living in Duke Lux’s mansion.

The deadline had come.

Duke Lux called Ruby into his study.

“Do you know what day it is today?”

“I do. Today is the last day of the one week we agreed on.”

Ruby did not look nervous at all.

“Now, prove to me that you were right.”

“Then, shall we go to the armory together first?”

Duke Lux stood up, and the two of them headed to the armory.

To get there, they had to pass through the training yard, so the knights who were training greeted the Duke politely.

“Noona, where are you going?”

Calix, who had been training with the knights, came over to Ruby.

“Keep training, Calix. I have something to do.”

Calix glanced at the Duke and Ruby, seeming to understand what was going on.

Ruby pushed her worried little brother back toward the field.

“Go on.”

Calix reluctantly went back to his spot. The other knights also returned to training.

Hans, who looked like he wanted to follow, was stopped by the Duke.

“You don’t need to worry about this.”

At the Duke’s firm words, Hans stepped back.

Only Duke Lux, Ruby, Balt, and the knight in charge of the armory entered the room.

Balt opened the heavy iron doors, revealing the armory inside.

“You’ve been keeping strict count of the weapons, right?” the Duke asked.

“Of course. We regularly count all the weapons.”

“Did you count them today?” Ruby asked the manager.

“Yes, of course,” he said confidently.

“And the number matched?”

“Yes, exactly.”

Ruby nodded.

“So, as you can see, no weapons are missing. Where exactly is this ‘spy’ you mentioned?”

“Spy?”

The manager looked shocked. No one in the armory staff or knights had been told about any spy, so his surprise was natural.

“There is a spy,” Ruby said firmly.

“There is no such person!” the manager denied immediately. “I have never done such a thing, and none of my knights would, either.”

His trust in his knights was absolute.

“But weapons really have gone missing,” Ruby said.

“What do you mean?” the Duke asked.

Ruby walked deeper into the armory, stopping in front of a glass display case holding valuable-looking weapons.

“Those are treasures, so we don’t actually use them,” the manager explained.

“And yet they’re so poorly protected. That’s surprising,” Ruby said.

“What do you mean? This glass is set so that if anyone touches it, an alarm will trigger.”

“Really?”

“Yes,” the manager replied proudly.

Ruby reached out her hand, and to everyone’s shock, it passed right through the glass display and into the weapons—only for her to find they weren’t solid at all.

“See?”

Everyone gasped.

“Do you have some strange ability?” the Duke asked suspiciously.

Ruby stepped aside so he could try. The Duke, doubtful, reached out—and his hand passed right through as well.

“What is this…?”

Balt tried, and so did the manager. The result was the same.

“These weapons and the glass case are illusions,” Ruby explained. “Someone stole the real weapons and put magic here to make them look real to everyone else.”

“How did you know?”

“If the armory looked fine but weapons were still missing, there had to be some trick involved.”

The manager tested other weapons, and indeed, several were illusions. They were all expensive ones that weren’t used often—clearly chosen on purpose because people rarely touched them.

“But touching these should trigger an alarm…” the manager said weakly.

“They probably broke the alarm system without you knowing,” Ruby said.

Checking confirmed she was right—the alarm had been disabled for the valuable weapons.

“You didn’t notice this until now?” the Duke scolded the manager.

“He’s just another victim,” Ruby said. “The real fault lies with the thief.”

“And who is that?”

“I think we can find out,” Ruby replied.

“Find out where?”

Ruby signaled to Balt.

“Where the stolen weapons are.”

“What do you mean?”

Balt explained to the Duke, “At Lady Ruby’s request, I placed a valuable weapon near the entrance of the armory and put a tracking spell on it.”

“Why the entrance?”

“Because the thief would know new items are placed near the front. They’ve already taken the valuable ones inside, so they wouldn’t bother with those.”

Hearing this, Duke Lux clenched his teeth, angry that the thief had stolen only the most valuable items.

“If they can recognize valuable things without a display case, they must be one of the knights who has access to the armory,” Ruby said.

“That’s right. The missing weapons were all expensive,” the manager admitted in a hopeless tone.

“Has the tracking spell shown where they are? Let’s go get them.”

“There’s no need for you to go yourself, Grandfather. I already asked Balt to capture the knight,” Ruby said.

“Hmph.” The Duke was amazed that Ruby had actually proved herself right.

“How did you know this would happen within a week?”

“Because stealing weapons from Duke Lux’s mansion is a huge risk. Only someone desperate for money would do it—and they’d have to sell regularly to get cash. I guessed they would act soon.”

In a way, it had been a gamble. If the thief had a longer selling cycle, Ruby might have been kicked out.

But she had been confident she wouldn’t be sent away—almost as if she could see the future.