In the duke’s territory, Opal was unexpectedly welcomed.

There is no malice emanated from anyone towards Opal. The housekeeper Debbie or the maids, including the butler, Lind were very happy of her arrival.

It was rather the feeling of someone who hasn’t seen for a long time their masters and now they have returned. That kind of anticipation and happiness.

The room is, of course, the master bedroom for the duchess.

They didn’t even know about the Duke’s debt.

The food was fine but not luxurious, but of course, something worth of a duchess.

Only Omar, the territory manager, was in alert, and that could be seen even behind his smile.

Apparently, he is worried that Opal could question the difference in luxury between the royal residence and the consulate.

So, Opal pretended to know nothing about it, and instructed Hubert to carry the luggage she had brought from her territory to her new appointed room.

Later, Omar offered to her guide around the territory, but Opal refused.

Later she asked where to shop and socialize around here and Omar replied reassuringly which places would be best to visit.

The town is not large enough for the Duchess to be satisfied, and it is said that the best places are in the next city in the marquis territory, which takes two days by carriage.

“Two days in a carriage? Well, it takes so much …”

“Yes. The Duke’s territory is unfortunate and has been poor for the last couple of years.”

“That’s right. I’m disappointed. I wonder if I’ll return to the capital soon.”

Opal murmured in a frivolous tone, while looking at her hands as if not interested in the Duke’s territory. That was the plan to stop Omar from being alert about her.

The result is an arrogant Duchess who is only interested in socializing and shopping.

When Omar left the room, Nadja said, “I’ll gather information.”

Opal, alone in the room, decided to go to the library, bored.

When she was guided by a housekeeper, Debbie, in the morning, she could only look at the library through the door, but now that Opal walked in, she was surprised.

Unlike the Duke’s mansion in the royal capital, this library had as many books as her house in the capital.

There are also a number of things that can be rarely seen such as a rare book that can be noticed as special from a simple quick glance from Opal, and selling it to collectors could bring a fortune.

There was no value for the special things in the royal Duke’s residence.

It is unlikely that such a rare and precious collection of books would be left alone at the hands of a stranger, if it were the library of the royal residence. And it’s also plenty strange that Hubert would have let go of this immeasurable amount of cash.

If he had sold any of these books, he should have paid all his debts and maintained the territory and his state for at least one year. And that would have mean, not having to get married, that he has so much hated.

(If he would have come to the territory even one time, he would not have had any debt, right?)

Opal would have gained freedom at the age of twenty without having to marry him and without having to pay a dowry to some ingrates.

She was starting to get seriously angry with Hubert.

(But maybe I could have been married to a greasy hairy old man who could possibly benefit father, right? So I might have to thank my husband a bit for being so stupid…)

It seemed that those thoughts subdued a little her anger.

Even if she was treated poorly in the Duke’s mansion, she would not suffer violence or kissed against her will.

Opal left the library with a few books of her favorite stories to avoid being suspicious.

It seems that Omar is also unaware of the value of the books.

Of course, the culprit has not yet been determined to be Omar.

Two days later, Opal went to the city of Novoli, in the next marquis state.

Opal said as excuse that someone who knows the land is a good master, and so, accompanied by a servant chosen by Omar, she went there.

In the meantime, she asked Trevor to find the back book as soon as possible.

She wanted to bring Omar so Trevor could look without worries, but she was turned down by Omar because of work.

Opal arrived in the city of Novoli and learnt on the second day of her stay why Omar did not accompany her.

A man named Lebow visited Opal who was staying at an inn.

Opal was initially wary of someone she had never heard of, but decided to meet him for the time being, as the man had sought a regular visit.

“Do you want information?”

“What? About the debt?”

“Here is the letter of petition for money.”

Lebow raised a letter with Omar’s name on it.

You can understand how cunning the man, when you see the place where he signs.

“… why give it to me?”

“Our intelligence is also an important part of doing business. It’s hard to get any more money out of the Duke. That’s why Omar hasn’t come to this city in the recent months. I’m afraid I would have collected it long ago if not because I heard that the Duke was married and decided to wait for a while. That’s why I came to ask the rich duchess to pay. “

“… How long did Omar go to the gambling ground? And what about other debt collectors other than you?”

“Is it going to be more than a decade that this started? At first, the stakes were low. It grew bigger and he had to borrow this amount. Omar is still a cautious guy, he doesn’t seem to have borrowed money from anyone except me, because I have a reputation for being the most trustworthy in this area, and my services are used by many gentlemen as well. “

“I see…”

In short, Omar had been gambling since the duke’s death.

And, as is often the case with addicts, they used to bet on the bet, taking advantage of the fact that they were in charge of managing the territory.

And to keep the debts in check, he only borrowed from Lebow, who was the most credible lender, so Hubert doesn’t know.

Omar in this city may have been easily identifiable.

For the money lender Lebow, Omar was an embarrassing gambler and debtor, but a client as long as he returned the debt.

Lebow has asked Opal to take over the debt, perhaps because he knows exactly what the Duke is doing and doesn’t miss this opportunity.

As it is now, Omar can suddenly disappear, from one day to another.

“… There are conditions for me to repay that money in his stead.”

“What is it?”

“Of course, you must give me the letter where he borrows the money, and a signed certificate of no more debt. Finally, I need a record of the money you’ve lent to Omar, and the books of guarantee of payment, that are from the territory. ”

“Obviously, the loan petition letters and certificates are fine, but when it comes to the territory books…”

“You’ll never lend money to Omar again, because it’s unlikely he will have money to repay you in the future, and you shouldn’t need those books for anything not? “

“… I’m not asking what you’ll do with the books, but if you go whispering this to the legendary king who is said to have turned everything he touched into gold… I might lose this job… You’re the daughter of the legendary king of the merchants, Count Holloway.”

“I don’t care about my father.”

Opal, who made a clear statement, finished all procedures the next day and returned to the Duchy.

(My money is gone anyway, and I don’t have any problems to get evidence so to get more flexibility and power to negotiate my conditions.)

Opal grinned, however, she might be opposed as that’s a bold move and she’s being reckless about it.

“Lady, was there anything interesting?”

“Yes … I’ll tell Nadja about my plans for the future. I’m sure there will be some turmoil when I return to the consulate.”

Opal told Nadja about what she discovered in her travel, on the way back to the Duke’s territory, but in fact it was already an uproar.

Apparently, while Opal was away, Omar was trying to escape the territory with some gold from the mansion.

Trevor found out and caught him.

“It seems it’s too late to run away, Omar.”

“If you didn’t come, I could have done better!”

“Is it? Without me, wouldn’t you have been worse off by Lebow? So you must thank me instead.”

Opal raised the letter from Lebow.

Then, Omar falls off immediately to the ground.

“Trevor, did you find the back book?”

“Yes, it was easy, because Omar had it when he tried to flee.”

“Oh… so he thought of taking it with him as commemoration… I see…”

Opal looked down at Omar, who was still tied with a rope, thinking about what more she needed to see and what more evidence could she get.

Omar, sitting on the floor, gave up any hope of escaping.

“… I guess I want to throw you into prison right now, but my husband, the lord here, will need to hear your testimony, until then… Let’s go “

Opal’s decision was heard by the butler, Lind, who had been standing by with a pale expression.

He must have been shocked to know the true nature of Omar whom he trusted and worked together with, for so many years.

Of course, Opal couldn’t abandon the possibility of Lind being an accomplice, but she’ll look into it later.

“Trevor, how many people have learned of Omar’s injustice?”

“Not many. There’s only Lind and the housekeeper Debbie, and the two servants from your territory lady… for now.”

“… Lind, is that correct?”

“Yes, yes …. we didn’t realize that Omar was guilty of this kind of crime. It was midnight, and rather than us, it was Trevor that noticed. That was … “

Opal and Trevor smiled at Lind’s answer.

Trevor noticed because of the night.

Perhaps he caught Omar trying to escape, trying to find the location of his back book.

Trevor seems to have benefited from improving his farming skills with the folks.

Unusual for a land manager, Trevor is quite strong.

“My husband absolutely dislikes this leaking out, so Lind and Debbie I don’t want you to tell this to anyone.”

“Understood”

“Yes, yes!”

Opal’s words reminded them to keep it secret, and Debbie, the housekeeper who was standing pale, like Lind, replied with an inverted voice.

These two are reliable.

This was just intuition, but Opal decided to leave Omar’s lookout over to his two servants and consult with Trevor.

Translated by Djurasico (dot) home (dot) blog