Casey covered his mouth. Her pale hands were trembling. Touching the imperial treasury was a very serious crime.
“Who, who...?”
“I don’t know yet, but not many people can come into this room right now and touch the seal.”
Ines was suspicious of Heidi, but she held her tongue because she needed to be sure.
“Can you go out?”
“Yeah, I was planning on packing my bags and going straight home.”
“Have you ever sent money to the Orlando family?”
“Money, of course I have. But that’s from my salary...”
“Do you have any records of that?”
Casey nodded.
“Fifty percent of my salary goes to the Orlando family.”
“As soon as you leave, write a letter to the Viscount Orlando. Ask them if they’ve received any financial support or any such offers from the imperial family. If you have already received it, tell them to take the money to Landhill Castle immediately.”
“Yes, you mean our family is involved in this?”
“Even if they received it without knowing anything, they can still be implicated in a crime. I’m trying to prevent that from happening in advance. If they have received a letter offering help in any way, tell them to take that to the castle as well, and if they haven’t received it yet, tell them to send a letter of refusal immediately.”
“Understood.”
“Don’t send it by regular letter. Send it by the fastest method, even if it costs a lot.”
After Casey left, Ines returned to her room.
Fortunately, Heidi was not in her room. With the new master barging into the castle, the secretary maid and her maid, Heidi, had no choice but to be busy. Ines began to look through Heidi’s wardrobe one by one.
However, she couldn’t find anything particularly strange.
Wasn’t Heidi running an errand for the secretary maid?
Ines paced around the room a little anxiously. All she saw was Heidi sneaking in and out of Casey’s room. She couldn’t just blindly suspect her based on that.
Ines collapsed on her bed. At times like this, she needed to face the situation a little more calmly. She got up from her seat to read the Bible with a sense of anxiety.
Then she remembered that she had put her Bible in her luggage, thinking that she might be kicked out tomorrow.
Ines picked up the Bible on Heidi’s desk, which didn’t even have a single drawer. Every citizen of the empire had a Bible. It was common to borrow a Bible to read without asking permission.
Ines flipped through the pages to find her favorite passage.
While flipping through the pages, she found a letter. It wasn’t uncommon to keep precious letters in the Bible, so Ines tried to just leave it there.
However, her hands stopped for a moment when she saw the name Orlando written on the back of the envelope.
Ines took out the letter with trembling hands. The recipient of the letter was not Heidi, but Casey Hampshire.
Daughter. Thanks to the money you sent, the big fire was safely put out.
Even in this time of chaos in the empire, you gave us such a large sum of money, considering the circumstances of the maids. I am truly grateful to His Majesty the Emperor.
By the way, what will happen to you now that Her Highness the Crown Princess has left the palace?
Your younger sister still has three years left before she graduates from the academy.
I trust you, my father.
Don’t disappoint me.
Judging from the date written on the letter, it must have arrived only a day or two ago. Since it came to Chandera Castle, she could have received it for her. However, it didn’t make sense that the seal on the letter had been removed. The situation at Chandera Castle had become so urgent that it had been left unattended and left sloppily.
Everything became clear with this one letter. Ines’ job was to find solid evidence. The person behind this was naturally the secretary maid.
The secretary maid was in charge of the royal family’s financial affairs. It was also the maid’s job to receive the budget and decide where to spend it.
The largest part of that budget was none other than the luxury goods of the royal family.
And paying for them was only possible with the seal of the closest maid.
Feeling somewhat confident, Ines hurried to the room of the secretary maid.
After the sun went down, the secretary's maids would return to their rooms and stay. Unlike the closest maids, they were free in the evenings unless there was a special call or instruction.
So the time when the secretary maid and Heidi were eating dinner was the safest.
Ines went to the second floor of the main building and knocked on the door to check if there was anyone inside. When there was no answer, Ines opened the door and went in. Then, without hesitation, she headed to the desk.
Naturally, all of the desk drawers were locked.
Ines hit the drawer latch hard with the sledgehammer she had prepared. The lock was easily broken because it was an old desk.
Ines opened the drawer wide and began to search through it quickly. If she had to be punished for suspecting an innocent person and searching the room without permission, she would gladly do so. That much Ines was certain of the secretary maid’s guilt.
By the time she searched the second drawer, Ines had managed to get her hands on the ledger she wanted.
The secretary maid had bravely kept the double ledger in the same drawer.
A quick glance showed that it wasn’t just the Crown Princess’s Palace that was in trouble.
The palace’s finances had completely collapsed by now, and it was only natural for rats to swarm in a collapsed house. Furthermore, since it was like pouring water into a bottomless pit, no one would have noticed even if the hole had been a little bigger.
But then the door opened wide. The secretary maid and Heidi were standing in front of the door that had opened without a sound.
“Who are you?”
Ines held the ledger to her chest and got up. Looking down, she saw the sledgehammer that had broken the drawer.
“Ines Swenden, Casey Hampshire’s new page.”
At Heidi’s words, the secretary maid quickly figured out the situation. Her eyes widened as she saw what Ines was holding.
Ines hesitated and pulled away.
“Hand it over here.”
The secretary maid’s face, which was usually quiet and polite, was now stern and wrinkled, making her look like a completely different person. Ines shook her head and hurried toward the window.
“Why are you jumping out of here?”
The secretary maid laughed at Ines.
Ines knew all too well what that kind of laughter meant.
She glanced out the window, but it wasn’t high enough to fall. The first floor was so high that the garden was far away. Ines opened the window to throw the ledger she was holding out. However, the window made a clanging sound and didn’t open.
At that moment, Heidi whispered something in the ear of the secretary maid. The maid’s eyes widened at that.
“You’re that woman. Thanks to you, Casey survived, right?”
At that moment, the two women’s eyes flashed with murderous intent. If their crimes were revealed, it wouldn’t be a simple matter of being kicked out of the palace.
Heidi and the secretary maid locked eyes and strode inside. The door slammed shut, and the sound of the door locking pierced Ines’s ears.
“They’re going to kill me.”
The moment she realized this, she saw Heidi looking around. She quickly picked up a long stick in a corner. It was a woman’s whip used when riding a horse.
But Ines didn’t panic. Threats that were so life-threatening were something she experienced every day in Romfield.
Without hesitation, Ines picked up a sledgehammer on the floor and smashed the window. The sound of glass breaking echoed loudly in the quiet castle.
Ines threw the ledger outside without hesitation. She also threw the sledgehammer away. If it had been taken away, it would have turned into a weapon.
The two people’s eyes widened in confusion. And at the same time, they lost their sense of reason.
Ines turned to the window to avoid the two women who were like demons running towards her. If she fell outside, she would break one of her legs, but it was not high enough to kill her. She stuck her body out without hesitation. The broken glass scratched her face, but she didn’t feel much pain.
For a moment, Ines thought she had made eye contact with a man standing in the garden.
However, she was soon dragged inside the window by Heidi’s strong arm. The wind left a long wound on one of her arms.
“Ah!”
She knew that she was an unusually large woman, but when she sat down on the floor, she didn’t dare to attack. Heidi pressed her large foot hard against Ines’ thigh.
Ines tightly closed her eyes as she watched Heidi raise the whip.
At that moment, a rumbling knock was heard outside.
“Are you okay? Is anyone inside?”
“Please save me!”
Ines shouted with all her might. Then, the hand that had been knocking cautiously became urgent. The door rattled loudly several times and soon opened wide with a loud noise.
The protagonist who opened the door stood with his feet raised to shout at the door again.
The two women who had been attacking Ines turned pale in the face.
And Ines was surprised in another way.
“Sir Marcus?”
“Who, who...?”
“I don’t know yet, but not many people can come into this room right now and touch the seal.”
Ines was suspicious of Heidi, but she held her tongue because she needed to be sure.
“Can you go out?”
“Yeah, I was planning on packing my bags and going straight home.”
“Have you ever sent money to the Orlando family?”
“Money, of course I have. But that’s from my salary...”
“Do you have any records of that?”
Casey nodded.
“Fifty percent of my salary goes to the Orlando family.”
“As soon as you leave, write a letter to the Viscount Orlando. Ask them if they’ve received any financial support or any such offers from the imperial family. If you have already received it, tell them to take the money to Landhill Castle immediately.”
“Yes, you mean our family is involved in this?”
“Even if they received it without knowing anything, they can still be implicated in a crime. I’m trying to prevent that from happening in advance. If they have received a letter offering help in any way, tell them to take that to the castle as well, and if they haven’t received it yet, tell them to send a letter of refusal immediately.”
“Understood.”
“Don’t send it by regular letter. Send it by the fastest method, even if it costs a lot.”
After Casey left, Ines returned to her room.
Fortunately, Heidi was not in her room. With the new master barging into the castle, the secretary maid and her maid, Heidi, had no choice but to be busy. Ines began to look through Heidi’s wardrobe one by one.
However, she couldn’t find anything particularly strange.
Wasn’t Heidi running an errand for the secretary maid?
Ines paced around the room a little anxiously. All she saw was Heidi sneaking in and out of Casey’s room. She couldn’t just blindly suspect her based on that.
Ines collapsed on her bed. At times like this, she needed to face the situation a little more calmly. She got up from her seat to read the Bible with a sense of anxiety.
Then she remembered that she had put her Bible in her luggage, thinking that she might be kicked out tomorrow.
Ines picked up the Bible on Heidi’s desk, which didn’t even have a single drawer. Every citizen of the empire had a Bible. It was common to borrow a Bible to read without asking permission.
Ines flipped through the pages to find her favorite passage.
While flipping through the pages, she found a letter. It wasn’t uncommon to keep precious letters in the Bible, so Ines tried to just leave it there.
However, her hands stopped for a moment when she saw the name Orlando written on the back of the envelope.
Ines took out the letter with trembling hands. The recipient of the letter was not Heidi, but Casey Hampshire.
Daughter. Thanks to the money you sent, the big fire was safely put out.
Even in this time of chaos in the empire, you gave us such a large sum of money, considering the circumstances of the maids. I am truly grateful to His Majesty the Emperor.
By the way, what will happen to you now that Her Highness the Crown Princess has left the palace?
Your younger sister still has three years left before she graduates from the academy.
I trust you, my father.
Don’t disappoint me.
Judging from the date written on the letter, it must have arrived only a day or two ago. Since it came to Chandera Castle, she could have received it for her. However, it didn’t make sense that the seal on the letter had been removed. The situation at Chandera Castle had become so urgent that it had been left unattended and left sloppily.
Everything became clear with this one letter. Ines’ job was to find solid evidence. The person behind this was naturally the secretary maid.
The secretary maid was in charge of the royal family’s financial affairs. It was also the maid’s job to receive the budget and decide where to spend it.
The largest part of that budget was none other than the luxury goods of the royal family.
And paying for them was only possible with the seal of the closest maid.
Feeling somewhat confident, Ines hurried to the room of the secretary maid.
After the sun went down, the secretary's maids would return to their rooms and stay. Unlike the closest maids, they were free in the evenings unless there was a special call or instruction.
So the time when the secretary maid and Heidi were eating dinner was the safest.
Ines went to the second floor of the main building and knocked on the door to check if there was anyone inside. When there was no answer, Ines opened the door and went in. Then, without hesitation, she headed to the desk.
Naturally, all of the desk drawers were locked.
Ines hit the drawer latch hard with the sledgehammer she had prepared. The lock was easily broken because it was an old desk.
Ines opened the drawer wide and began to search through it quickly. If she had to be punished for suspecting an innocent person and searching the room without permission, she would gladly do so. That much Ines was certain of the secretary maid’s guilt.
By the time she searched the second drawer, Ines had managed to get her hands on the ledger she wanted.
The secretary maid had bravely kept the double ledger in the same drawer.
A quick glance showed that it wasn’t just the Crown Princess’s Palace that was in trouble.
The palace’s finances had completely collapsed by now, and it was only natural for rats to swarm in a collapsed house. Furthermore, since it was like pouring water into a bottomless pit, no one would have noticed even if the hole had been a little bigger.
But then the door opened wide. The secretary maid and Heidi were standing in front of the door that had opened without a sound.
“Who are you?”
Ines held the ledger to her chest and got up. Looking down, she saw the sledgehammer that had broken the drawer.
“Ines Swenden, Casey Hampshire’s new page.”
At Heidi’s words, the secretary maid quickly figured out the situation. Her eyes widened as she saw what Ines was holding.
Ines hesitated and pulled away.
“Hand it over here.”
The secretary maid’s face, which was usually quiet and polite, was now stern and wrinkled, making her look like a completely different person. Ines shook her head and hurried toward the window.
“Why are you jumping out of here?”
The secretary maid laughed at Ines.
Ines knew all too well what that kind of laughter meant.
She glanced out the window, but it wasn’t high enough to fall. The first floor was so high that the garden was far away. Ines opened the window to throw the ledger she was holding out. However, the window made a clanging sound and didn’t open.
At that moment, Heidi whispered something in the ear of the secretary maid. The maid’s eyes widened at that.
“You’re that woman. Thanks to you, Casey survived, right?”
At that moment, the two women’s eyes flashed with murderous intent. If their crimes were revealed, it wouldn’t be a simple matter of being kicked out of the palace.
Heidi and the secretary maid locked eyes and strode inside. The door slammed shut, and the sound of the door locking pierced Ines’s ears.
“They’re going to kill me.”
The moment she realized this, she saw Heidi looking around. She quickly picked up a long stick in a corner. It was a woman’s whip used when riding a horse.
But Ines didn’t panic. Threats that were so life-threatening were something she experienced every day in Romfield.
Without hesitation, Ines picked up a sledgehammer on the floor and smashed the window. The sound of glass breaking echoed loudly in the quiet castle.
Ines threw the ledger outside without hesitation. She also threw the sledgehammer away. If it had been taken away, it would have turned into a weapon.
The two people’s eyes widened in confusion. And at the same time, they lost their sense of reason.
Ines turned to the window to avoid the two women who were like demons running towards her. If she fell outside, she would break one of her legs, but it was not high enough to kill her. She stuck her body out without hesitation. The broken glass scratched her face, but she didn’t feel much pain.
For a moment, Ines thought she had made eye contact with a man standing in the garden.
However, she was soon dragged inside the window by Heidi’s strong arm. The wind left a long wound on one of her arms.
“Ah!”
She knew that she was an unusually large woman, but when she sat down on the floor, she didn’t dare to attack. Heidi pressed her large foot hard against Ines’ thigh.
Ines tightly closed her eyes as she watched Heidi raise the whip.
At that moment, a rumbling knock was heard outside.
“Are you okay? Is anyone inside?”
“Please save me!”
Ines shouted with all her might. Then, the hand that had been knocking cautiously became urgent. The door rattled loudly several times and soon opened wide with a loud noise.
The protagonist who opened the door stood with his feet raised to shout at the door again.
The two women who had been attacking Ines turned pale in the face.
And Ines was surprised in another way.
“Sir Marcus?”
The one who had stood in front of the door to save Ines was the red-haired man who had once been a knight of the castle and had wanted to become a council member.
“Ines?”
“Ines?”
He who had broken the door down from the outside looked just as surprised as Ines who had seen Marcus inside. However, like a knight, he quickly grasped the situation and took action.
Marcus quickly ran and subdued Heidi, who was holding Ines down. In the meantime, the secretary's maid started to run out the door. However, Marcus was not alone.
The knights of the palace quickly caught the secretary maid. The situation was resolved as quickly as it had happened.
Ines was handed over to the imperial guard along with Marcus. Casey, who was involved in this incident, was also summoned immediately.
However, since everything was clear, Ines and Casey were not treated as criminals.
Although he was a disciple of the imperial councilor, Marcus's identity was certain, and two more knights witnessed the situation where the two women threatened Ines at the time.
Above all, the double ledger was clear evidence of a crime that could not be avoided.
The atrocities committed by the secretary maid and Heidi were immediately reported to the minister in charge of finance. And the two were temporarily imprisoned in the imperial prison without delay.
Marcus quickly ran and subdued Heidi, who was holding Ines down. In the meantime, the secretary's maid started to run out the door. However, Marcus was not alone.
The knights of the palace quickly caught the secretary maid. The situation was resolved as quickly as it had happened.
***
Ines was handed over to the imperial guard along with Marcus. Casey, who was involved in this incident, was also summoned immediately.
However, since everything was clear, Ines and Casey were not treated as criminals.
Although he was a disciple of the imperial councilor, Marcus's identity was certain, and two more knights witnessed the situation where the two women threatened Ines at the time.
Above all, the double ledger was clear evidence of a crime that could not be avoided.
The atrocities committed by the secretary maid and Heidi were immediately reported to the minister in charge of finance. And the two were temporarily imprisoned in the imperial prison without delay.
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