First, Seal Off My Own Mansion
Hmm.
Cassian Berdel.
Fee for adjusting the register.
Five thousand gold coins.
Twelve additional names requested.
The handwriting was clear. The ink hadn’t bled, and there was no trace of anyone hastily inserting the entry.
At least on the surface.
“My sincere congratulations, Count. To personally uncover such a horrific corruption… You truly are a loyal subject whose name will be remembered for generations.”
The Finance Minister smiled. It was a leisurely smile hard to believe belonged to the man whose face had gone deathly pale only moments earlier.
“It seems you’ve found the culprit you were looking for.”
Every gaze in the room fixed on me.
The Ministry of Finance officials.
The royal guards.
And me, holding the ledger.
Mere minutes ago I had turned the Ministry of Finance upside down with the princess’s seal. And now my name had surfaced in a hidden record—as the man who had taken five thousand gold coins to put twelve names on the traitor list.
What a beautiful turn of events.
Why had the original Cassian climbed the gallows? I’d assumed he’d merely flattered the princess until he died alongside her. Apparently he’d been far more industrious than I imagined.
“Why so quiet?” the Finance Minister asked. “Explain it the way you did earlier.”
“Explain what, exactly?”
“Why you accepted five thousand gold coins to put twelve names on the register.”
“I’m curious about that myself.”
The Finance Minister’s eyes narrowed.
“Are you planning to claim you don’t remember?”
That was true. But I couldn’t say it outright.
I was possessed and have no memories.
That would get me dragged off as a madman long before they ever reached the charge of treason.
I slowly closed the ledger.
“Do you believe this record is genuine?”
“Your name is written there, is it not?”
“Answer the question.”
The Finance Minister’s smile stiffened a little.
“Do you believe it is genuine?”
“Of course.”
“Very well.”
I walked to the center of the room with the ledger.
“Then Your Excellency has been concealing a bribe ledger inside the Ministry of Finance building.”
The Finance Minister’s face froze.
“What?”
“This is the Special Accounts Office of the Ministry of Finance. The hidden iron door and the records inside it were all discovered within a building owned by the ministry.”
“I knew nothing of that ledger’s existence.”
“The master of the Ministry of Finance knew nothing of a secret ledger under the ministry floor.”
I nodded.
“I’ve heard that one before.”
A few officials bowed their heads. They weren’t holding back laughter; they were calculating how far their own necks might fly.
The Finance Minister gritted his teeth.
“Someone could have hidden it in secret.”
“Indeed.”
I tapped the cover of the ledger with my fingertip.
“Then there is also the possibility that this record is a forgery.”
“……”
“Someone forged a ledger inside the Ministry of Finance to frame me—the princess’s close aide—as the one who manipulated the treason register.”
The Finance Minister’s mouth closed.
“If it is genuine, Your Excellency must take responsibility for hiding a bribe ledger in the Ministry of Finance.”
I took a step closer.
“If it is a forgery, Your Excellency must take responsibility for a document framing the princess’s close aide being produced inside the Ministry of Finance.”
“Sophistry.”
“Which will you choose?”
The Finance Minister did not answer.
I smiled.
“Take your time. Neither option will be good for you.”
The Finance Minister glared at the ledger in my hand.
“Hand over that record.”
“I refuse.”
“It is evidence related to you. A suspect cannot hold the evidence.”
That was true. This old man hadn’t received the Finance Minister’s seat as a decoration, it seemed.
“Correct.”
I held the ledger out toward the guards.
“Bring a sealed evidence case.”
The Finance Minister’s eyebrows rose. A guard brought a thick leather document case. I placed the ledger inside.
“Place of discovery: Special Accounts Office, third floor, Ministry of Finance.”
One of the guards wrote it down.
“Time of discovery.”
“A little past noon.”
“Discoverer.”
The guard who had first found the scrape marks under the document shelf stated his name.
“Witnesses: everyone present in this room.”
The Finance Minister frowned.
“What are you doing?”
“Officially registering the evidence.”
I closed the lock on the document case, dripped red sealing wax across the top, and pressed the princess’s seal ring into it. The imperial crest and the regency mark stood out clearly on the red wax.
“Now the only person who can open this ledger is Her Highness Adelia.”
I handed the sealed case to a guard.
“Take it to Her Highness Adelia immediately. Do not hand it to anyone along the way.”
“Yes, sir.”
The Finance Minister glared at me.
“You mean to take the evidence in your own case to the princess?”
“Isn’t that only natural?”
“No intention of hiding it?”
“If I had intended to hide it, I would never have brought Your Excellency and the ministry officials into this room in the first place.”
The Finance Minister bit his lip.
“That still does not mean you can continue leading the investigation.”
“Why not?”
“What law allows a suspect to investigate his own charges!”
“I will not investigate my own charges.”
I looked around at the Ministry of Finance officials.
“Send a messenger to the Inspectorate.”
One of the guards stepped forward.
“Summon the Chief Inspector or his deputy. Tell them that Cassian Berdel’s charge of register manipulation is being transferred as a separate case.”
The Finance Minister sneered.
“So you’re giving up the right to investigate?”
“Only for my own case.”
I held up the Blood Register.
“My investigative authority over the one hundred eight names on this register remains intact.”
The Finance Minister’s smile vanished.
“Who authorized that?”
“Her Highness Adelia.”
“Now that you are a suspect, the situation has changed.”
“The only person who can revoke my investigative authority is Her Highness Adelia.”
I raised the ring on my finger.
“Not Your Excellency the Minister.”
The Finance Minister’s face flushed red.
“When the princess learns of this, she will have you arrested at once.”
“That may well be.”
“Aren’t you afraid?”
I was. Terrified. I had no idea how Adelia would react when she saw this record. The one hundred ninth name might end up on the register sooner than expected. But if I backed down here, I would die even sooner.
“I’m hurrying precisely because I’m afraid.”
I left the room. The Finance Minister shouted after me.
“Where do you think you’re going!”
I did not stop walking.
“To look for evidence.”
“Where?”
“At my own mansion.”
Everyone in the corridor stared at me. I ordered the guards.
“Seal off the Berdel count’s mansion and annex.”
A moment of silence. One guard asked again.
“You mean Your Lordship’s own mansion?”
“Yes.”
“Including family and servants?”
“Do not let a single person leave.”
“What about the assets?”
“All disposal and transfers are suspended.”
I looked down at the ring on my finger. The first noble mansion I seal with this ring is my own. Quite fair from the start, isn’t it?
“Seize every private ledger, correspondence, safe, and merchant transaction record.”
The Finance Minister followed me out into the corridor.
“This is madness.”
“Why?”
“You’re going to search your own mansion yourself?”
“If I received five thousand gold coins, they must still be somewhere.”
“You could have already hidden them.”
“That’s why I’ll attach people from the Inspectorate.”
I added to the guards.
“The moment the inspectors arrive, send them straight to the Berdel Mansion. Record everything from the instant I touch any evidence, and if I hide even one thing, arrest me on the spot.”
The guard’s expression grew peculiar. The Finance Minister also seemed at a loss for words. I smiled at them.
“Isn’t this rather fair?”
The Berdel Mansion was the sort of place that invited suspicion of guilt by its mere existence.
A grand estate set among the noble houses not far from the Imperial Palace. Gilded iron gates. A front courtyard wide enough for four carriages to pass at once. Marble columns that looked larger than those of a temple. In the center of the garden, a nude goddess statue spouted water.
What appalling taste.
It certainly wasn’t mine. Probably the original Cassian’s.
Guards were already posted at the front gate. Dozens of servants milled about the courtyard, murmuring. When I stepped down from the carriage their faces brightened.
“My lord!”
An elderly butler was the first to hurry forward. He did not look especially shocked by the presence of the guards; if anything, he seemed used to them.
“Have you brought more confiscated goods today, my lord?”
I stopped walking.
“Today as well?”
The butler clamped his mouth shut. The gazes of the surrounding servants wavered. Apparently the original Cassian had made a habit of seizing other people’s property and hauling it home.
Wonderful. A model sycophant.
“The place to be seized today is right here.”
The smile vanished from the butler’s face.
“Pardon?”
“The Berdel Mansion and its annex are to be sealed.”
I deliberately used formal speech even with the butler.
“My lord?”
“Have every servant’s identity verified in the front courtyard, and allow no one to leave.”
The guards began to move. The butler hurriedly blocked my path.
“Please wait just a moment.”
“Why?”
“This is rather inconvenient if you suddenly do this.”
“What is inconvenient?”
The butler glanced around. Guards and servants were all watching us. He lowered his voice.
“If we go inside, I will explain.”
“Do it here.”
“My lord.”
“From this moment on, every word exchanged with me will be recorded.”
Behind me stood a young inspector dispatched as deputy for the Chief Inspector, along with two clerks. The inspector silently looked back and forth between me and the butler; the clerks held paper and pens and stared only at the butler’s mouth.
The butler’s face went pale.
“We will begin with the annex.”
When I started to move, the butler caught my sleeve. The guards immediately put their hands on their sword hilts. The butler hastily let go.
“Forgive me.”
“Speak.”
He swallowed dryly.
“You must not open the safe.”
A clerk’s pen scratched across the paper.
Scratch. Scratch.
“Reason?”
“Well…”
“Butler.”
I met his eyes.
“If you do not speak now, the guards will break down the door.”
“It was by your order, my lord.”
“What was?”
The butler looked around once more. Apparently he had decided there was nowhere left to run. He spoke in a very small voice.
“You ordered me to move five thousand gold coins into the annex safe.”
A breeze stirred. Leaves rustled in the garden. Only the Inspectorate clerks’ pens kept moving.
Five thousand gold coins.
Exactly the amount written in the ledger.
I closed my eyes, then opened them again.
The possibility of fabrication. The possibility that someone had framed me. Those hopes linked hands and leapt off a cliff together.
Apparently this body had been a far more diligent sycophant than I had thought.