Chapter 84
Chapter 84
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 84
Chapter Title: The Forged Check and Hidden Ledger
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I ran into Gila right in front of the study.
Grandfather raised an eyebrow when he saw me dragging along a woman tied up with rope alongside Gila.
The master armorer standing with him wore an equally peculiar expression.
"What is the meaning of this?"
"K-Kalenberg Duke..."
The woman's face drained of color in an instant.
She tried to scramble backward, pushing off the floor with her feet.
'Where do you think you're going?'
Her back was blocked by Gila's greaves, and Grandfather sat squarely in front of her.
At a loss, she bit her lip before choosing to flatten herself on the floor.
"P-Please spare me! I know nothing!"
"I wasn't asking you."
In the chilling atmosphere, I deliberately let my eyebrows droop, feigning disappointment.
"Master Armorer Grandpa, look at this."
When I held out the brooch I'd been clutching tightly, both grandfathers' gazes locked onto it.
"I almost got it taken away."
"Isn't that the gift from Grand Duke Nicholas that you gave her?"
"Yes, that's right."
"And someone tried to take it from her? Who dared lay a hand on your possession? That woman?"
"Not exactly..."
I hesitated, mumbling and glancing back. Gila stepped forward from behind me.
"Actually, the young lady recently met the wife of Professor Manfried, who handles theory lessons in the main family education."
"For what reason?"
"She said the professor, caught in an affair, hadn't contributed much to the healing donations for their sick son."
"And then?"
"The young lady heard her out and pitied her... She said she'd get it back later, but for now, take this and cover the boy's healing donation first."
It was exaggerated a bit, but not a single lie.
Grandfather's beard seemed to quiver slightly as he listened to the knight's explanation, the corner of his mouth twitching upward just beneath it.
I kept my head bowed, ignoring the warm, proud gaze that said, 'As expected of my granddaughter.'
"Another knight went to the pawnshop today to redeem the young lady's item with money he'd scraped together, and this woman was eyeing it."
"N-No, that's not true! I had no idea it was the young lady's! I just thought it was something Manfried bought for his wife, so..."
You shouldn't believe rumors so easily.
Grandfather looked down at the woman with cold eyes.
The master armorer stepped forward in place of my silent grandfather.
"Know your place. How dare you make excuses in front of such a person!"
The woman trembled, her lips quivering, but she kept her head down.
Grandfather, watching her, beckoned me over.
I scurried to his side and clung to him. He stroked my head once.
"I understand you're upset, and that both this woman and Manfried are vulgar, but attempting to buy a pawned item isn't grounds for punishment."
"Then... it'll be fine. I'm upset, but Mariella will yield. Uncle is heir to the vice-duchy, after all."
"What?"
"The red diamond sparkles so pretty. Uncle would like it too, right?"
I turned toward the master armorer, pulling the saddest face I could muster.
"Master Armorer Grandpa, I was gonna give it as a gift..."
Grandfather, about to gently teach me not to abuse power, clamped his mouth shut.
Just that made the study's air turn twice as frigid as before.
The only sound was the faint chattering of the woman's teeth as she shivered.
"What is this nonsense?"
Gila bowed his head under Grandfather's gaze.
"This woman came with a check bearing the vice-duke's signature for a large sum, trying to buy the brooch."
"Dominique's signed check?"
"Yes. Sir Peter said it seemed suspicious, so he brought her here."
I quickly pulled out the check Peter had given me earlier and placed it on Grandfather's desk.
He reached for it, examined front and back, then slammed it down with a sharp thwack.
'Grandfather would never fail to recognize Uncle's signature.'
Grandfather looked down at the woman kneeling and trembling on the floor.
"What is your connection to Dominique?"
Uncle already had a history of illegitimate children.
His eyes filled with deep contempt, suspecting a link between her and Uncle.
"I-I don't know him. How could a lowly thing like me know the vice-duke of the North?"
"No need for lengthy questioning, then. Klaus, take her to the interrogation room."
"P-Please spare me! No!"
The Kalenberg ducal family's interrogations were notoriously brutal.
Honed on enemy spies in a land rife with skirmishes and wars, their techniques were...
Ugh.
Just thinking about it made me shudder involuntarily.
Grandfather's gaze sharpened as he glanced at me.
"Don't make a scene in front of my granddaughter!"
...I was scared, sure, but not because of her?
At Grandfather's roar, the woman's face turned ashen. She alternated glances between me and him before crawling across the floor on her knees.
"Spare me. P-Please, spare me. I'll tell you anything. Everything I know! P-Please, Your Grace! Young lady! Y-Young lady!"
A knight grabbed her shoulder as she tried to crawl to me, pinning her to the floor.
A pained groan escaped her.
"Then speak. Where did this check come from?"
"M-Manfried had it. After buying the mansion last time... I knew he had leftover funds, and I coveted the b-brooch..."
"You mean he received more than this amount?"
"Y-Yes."
"For what reason?"
"Well..."
The woman hesitated, lips trembling.
But no one in the room would save her.
In the end, to avoid the interrogation room, she had to open her mouth.
"Manfried said he'd done the t-task well, so his abilities were... r-recognized."
"What task did he give you?"
"D-Diverting funds from the ducal family's scholarship foundation..."
Her words didn't finish.
A knock sounded, and Peter entered with Grandfather's permission.
He held a small notebook.
"What is this?"
"Found it in the house where Professor Manfried's having his affair. The check looked fishy, so I sent the butler ahead to search. It was hidden in the study safe."
Grandfather slowly opened the leather cover.
I tiptoed to peek at Professor Manfried's notebook spread on the desk.
×× Year, × Month, × Day
> Forged scholarship certificates for Riva Academy.
> 9,000 gold to Vice-Duke, 1,000 gold to me.
×× Year, × Month, × Day
> Leaked exam questions. Young Master Mark took second place.
> Vice-Duke gifted 100 gold.
※ Made him study all night, but Young Master Erich still got first. Got scolded by Vice-Duke over it. What now?
×× Year, × Month, × Day
> Young Master Erich collapsed during routine checkup.
> Told to spread rumors of illness among the children.
> Vice-Duke rewarded 100 gold.
It wasn't an ordinary notebook.
Now I understood why it was hidden so carefully in the safe.
It was a ledger explaining how he'd earned enough for luxuries beyond his professor's salary.
The records were meticulously kept from a few years back.
They aligned almost perfectly with when Erich began his main family education.
'How could someone go this far?'
My anger burned hotter at Uncle than the professor.
Erich, raised by Grandfather without a father—what part of him deserved such calculated abuse?
If they'd embezzled that much from the scholarships Grandfather had specially set up for poor children, the kids who should've received them...
I wasn't the only one furious.
A blank page crumpled with a crunch under Grandfather's hand after flipping through the professor's diary to the end.
"Mariella, return to your room."
He spoke to me with forced calm, suppressing his rage, then turned blazing eyes on the knights.
"You lot, go fetch Dominique and Manfried Seller. Use force if they refuse."
The knights sprang into action the moment Grandfather's command fell.