NOVEL NEXT Chapter 7
As Elsez got on the carriage returning home, Leti, who had been hiding in her inner pocket, came out as if he was waiting.“Ugh, I thought I was going to die from frustration.”Leti seemed to be uncomfortable with it, and while holding his face with his soft hand, he groaned seriously.“Before going there, I felt bad. Tired and suffocating, near that yellow-haired man.”“Yeah, that’s right. You are a demon, and Astaire, who was a temple cardinal and divine power, is a person with the opposite power.”Elsez responded as if it was natural.Leti continued to speak, shaking his body as if it was terrible just thinking about it.“It was like a den of villains.”“The villain is you rather than him…”“Why do you say I am a villain?”Leti jumped like an injustice.Elsez responded with an absurd expression.“Didn’t you try to kill the heroes while conquering the world or something?”“They are trying to kill me first, I can’t just die quietly?”“Well….”As I listened, I thought I could understand Leti’s position a little.This is a game world, and Leti was created to dream of conquering the world from birth under the game system called “Last Heroes”.From the point of view of people and heroes, Leti is the villain, but from his point of view, there’s nothing Leti can do about it because he has been made that way since birth.Leti jumped up on Elsez’s lap and persuaded Elsez.“Let’s not go there in the future.”“I can’t do that. If you don’t like it, you detach your power from my body.”“Didn’t I already say that my power has become one with your body? There is nothing I can do now.”“Then you have to endure it.”In response to Elsez’s bitter reaction, Leti muttered dissatisfied, but I couldn’t hear what he was saying.‘By the way, the temple library is under renovation, so I won’t be able to go for a while. I can’t keep my hands on it all this time….’Elsez, who was engrossed in thought, suddenly thought of another route to access the information on the temple and the tower, and clapped her hands.“Wait, there was a guild.”The guild was a place where customers gave money and they performed various tasks on customer’s behalf.Among the tasks that came as a quest to the guild, there were simple but cumbersome tasks because they were repetitive labor, and there were also tasks that were risky in their lives.When I possessed Ruel, I knew better than anyone because I used to collect funds while carrying out guild requests.‘It would be better to ask the guild. To do that…’Again, the problem was money.‘As soon as I get home, I should check my financial status first.’Just in time, the carriage arrived at Viscount mansion.But as soon as I got out from the carriage, there were people waiting for Elsez.“Oh, the landlord just came.”It was the debtors who had lent money to Viscount Rohain, Elsez’s father.As soon as they saw Elsez, they rushed in.“Hey, Lady. When are you going to pay us back the money that your father stole?”“It’s already been a month since you said, “You have to pay it, pay it back!”“I know that you won’t pay me, so I won’t move even a single step until I get my money back. Go and talk to your handsome fiance!”Most of them were commoners who accumulated wealth by catching higher-level monsters.However, for those who lived and died dealing with various high-level monsters, the debtor, of the fallen noble lady, had nothing to fear.When Elsez was frozen in the face of an unexpected situation, Lenny, who jumped out of the mansion, blocked Elsez’s front.“We paid off all your debts two weeks ago! Why do you keep coming here?”“What is settlement? We got nothing!”“If you deceive someone who is already struggling, you will be punished!”A close battle ensued between the debtors saying they had never been paid and Lenny screaming.“Huh, really! Why is the maid interfering in the affairs of the family?”Eventually, the debtor pushed Lenny hard.The moment Lenny closed her eyes, thinking she would fall from the shock, Elsez’s arm supported Lenny’s waist and hugged her.When she opened her eyes, she saw Elsez’s face.“Are you okay, Lenny?”“Yes? Ah yes!”In the meantime, Elsez, who grasped the situation, pushed back as if protecting Lenny, and stepped forward.“There must have been some misunderstanding in the middle, but I will organize the books and settle the accounts myself. It’s late, so everyone, please come back today.”“You didn’t even send me back with those words once or twice.”“Then you can wait here until I review the books.”The debtors were angry at Elsez’s words at first, but they gradually became quiet at Elsez’s response, calmly responding without agitation.“Hmm, then I’ll give you a few more days, so pay it right before then!”The debtors left behind the threat.Seeing this, Lenny crawled to Elsez and expressed her gratitude.“Thank you, miss.”“Yes? what?”“You covered me.”“You were the one who embraced me, wasn’t it? I am the one who deserves to be reprimanded by the debtors.”Elsez said it was natural and tapped Lenny’s shoulder lightly.“Thank you for coming out.”Lenny looked at Elsez’s back as she entered the house with a puzzled expression.‘Are you sure you made up your mind now?’Lenny didn’t like Elsez very much, but seeing her suffer after losing her father made her feel pity.However, the appearance of Elsez, who was becoming more and more nervous, exhausted the people around her.However, since yesterday, Elsez has changed.It was as if she had become a completely different person, not just changed.‘Still… I think I like the lady I have now.’A smile crept onto Lenny’s face as she looked at Elsez’s back. **** Elsez, who entered the mansion, found the butler first.“You are here, lady.”But something was strange.Even if the butler is old, Lenny is the only one who came out to rectify this situation.Besides, the butler’s attitude is slightly awkward.Elsez asked him at once.“Butler. Where is the ledger?”At Elsez’s unexpected question, the butler was startled and questioned.“Why are you looking for the ledger all of a sudden?”At first glance, it may have sounded like a simple questioning out of curiosity, but it felt very defensive to Elsez.Like he has been hiding something.“Because. Now that I am the head of the family, shouldn’t I know the financial situation of the family?”At Elsez’s words, a displeasure appeared on the butler’s face.“Are you short of pocket money? Then I will give you more.”He seemed to think that Elsez was looking for the ledger first because she lacked money.Elsez frowned in surprise at the butler’s seemingly natural attitude.“Pocket money? I’m the head of the household, and I get pocket money? to whom?”“After the Viscount passed away, didn’t you completely entrust financial matters to me? You said you were afraid of wasting the fortune…”From what I heard, the original Elsez was shocked by his father’s death and seemed to let go of everything.“It has been a month since my father passed away. Now that I am the owner of Rohain, it is time to come to my senses.”“Bu-but you didn’t learn arithmetic, so you doesn’t know how to look at books, don’t you?”Most nobles did not know how to perform complex arithmetic unless they were taught otherwise.Because there are plenty of subordinates who can do the headaches and complicated calculations for you.Elsez was the same.She had a father who was good at arithmetic because of business, and had a butler to manage the family finances, so she did not learn arithmetic separately.When Elsez went out to look at the books, the butler was a bit embarrassed.‘Suspicious.’Seeing the butler procrastinating without going to get the book right away, Elsez narrowed her eyes.Elsez, who can’t read the books, and the butler who is in full responsibility for the family’s finances.Along with that fact, I remembered what the debtors had said a while ago.‘What is settlement? We got nothing!’Having thought of that, Elsez came up with a hypothesis.And she ordered the butler once again with a cold expression.“Since when has a butler been able to disagree with his master order? I’ll take a look, so bring it to me.”Unlike before, at Elsez’s command, which felt undeniable and intimidating, the butler went to pick up the books with a shaky expression on his face.And after a while, he returned to the reception room where Elsez was waiting with the ledger.“This is the ledger you ordered.”Elsez sat cross-legged and relaxedly opened the book.The items on the expense list were all household items, such as food and daily necessities.‘But the amount of purchase is too large for the number of residents.’At most, there were only four people living in Viscount: Elsez, Lenny, the butler, and Mrs. Mars, who works in the kitchen.‘And that’s what I felt every time I ate, but they’re too luxurious to use when I don’t have them.’Expensive, luxurious, and too many ingredients and items for four people to consume.Where did they all go?Elsez pointed my index finger at the number on which the purchase amount for each item was written.“Aren’t you buying too many ingredients? If this is enough, the rest of the ingredients must have rotted.”“Weren’t there three more, Jerome, Mayby, and Evelyn until a week ago? I bought it before they went out, so you may feel like a lot.”The butler answered calmly, but there was one thing he didn’t know.“Really? Then where do we calculate it?”For Elsez, who has gone to university before coming to this world, arithmetic is not a difficult problem.At the unexpected words, the butler’s expression hardened.