“What? That can’t be right.”

Miki’s eyes widened as if this was the first he had heard of it.

Judging from his reaction, he truly seemed not to know.

“Could you come here for a moment?”

I tapped the simple chair beside me.

At that, Miki hurried over as if he had been waiting and sat down.

“Looking at the first page of the financial statements, there was a temporary receipt five years ago. The amount was just under two hundred million.”

I pointed to the list with my index finger while unfolding the Imperial Vault deposit certificate with my other hand.

“According to the vault deposit certificate, the temporary receipt recorded on the financial statements was indeed stored in the vault. It was probably generated to secure funds in the early stages of the business.”

I pointed that out as well so Miki could see it clearly.

Miki fell deep into thought for a moment, then soon parted his lips.

“At the time, Elia must have been running the business alone. I only joined this business as a partner three years ago.”

A woman running a business in an empire where women were not even allowed to handle outside affairs unless it involved men?

How?

The question rose in my mind, but for now, I decided to listen quietly.

“Then I suppose this two hundred million gold belongs to Lady Elia?”

“I don’t think so. Elia doesn’t have that much money.”

Now that I thought about it, there was no way a baronial house would possess such an enormous sum.

Two hundred million gold was enough to purchase an entire territory.

And that was not the only strange thing.

As far as I knew, the Erinique territory was very small, and in the empire, barons—like viscounts—were nobles in name only.

So how had they been able to use a business vault held by the Imperial Bank?

Business vaults were only granted from the rank of count upward, so the fact that Erinique, a baronial house, possessed one in the first place made no sense.

“Ah! Maybe that was my parents’ consolation money.”

His parents’ consolation money?

When my brow twitched, Miki scratched the back of his head and gave a sheepish laugh.

“My parents died on the battlefield, you see. It’s already been more than twenty years, though.”

Judging by the way he spoke, he seemed to be referring to the war started by the rebel army during the chaos of the civil unrest.

“Then why is it in Lady Elia’s vault?”

“Well… um.”

Miki crossed his arms and groaned, as if squeezing his memory for every last detail.

“They say that if those who distinguished themselves in war die, their families are given consolation money. My grandfather refused it, saying they had only done what was natural for the country.”

“And then?”

“Later, when I told Elia that my parents had passed away, she said the consolation money would be received by me anyway, since I was their child. Then she suggested using that money to sponsor orphans.”

“So after you received it, you handed it over to Lady Elia?”

“No?”

Then what was this talk about the money being his parents’ consolation fund?

“At the time, I was busy attending the academy, and Elia said the process was complicated, so since she had time, she would receive it on my behalf. I just filled out a few documents she asked me for.”

“And after that?”

“She said she received the consolation money and placed it in the vault.”

As I listened, I looked over the vault deposit certificate again. There, the owner of the vault was listed not as House Erinique, but as House Odin.

Well, of course. A baron could hardly possess a vault.

“In that case, Lady Elia received the consolation money on your behalf and created a vault under House Odin’s name.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Then did you check the vault?”

“She said she had placed all the consolation money in the vault, so I did see it back then.”

“Was it there?”

“Yes, at the time.”

From the way he spoke, it seemed he had seen it a long time ago.

“You have the vault key, don’t you?”

“Yes. I got it back not long ago.”

Not only had he let her receive the consolation money on his behalf, he had allowed her to create the vault… and even entrusted her with the key?

At this point, I began to wonder if Miki was simply foolish.

To put it kindly, it was because Miki had trusted his friend Elia far too much.

“Then make sure you check the vault later.”

For some reason, I had a feeling Elia had swallowed all that money.

“I already checked everything when I returned to the country this year. The vault was empty.”

Sure enough.

Miki rummaged through his coat again, then handed me the vault usage statement.

The statement he handed over said that there was currently no money being kept in the vault at all.

“What did Lady Elia say?”

“She said she had used all the consolation money for unfortunate children. She said it cost a great deal to build the children’s residence like a castle. She apologized for using it without telling me first and said she would slowly pay me back someday.”

Miki, who had been answering calmly until now, gave a slightly sorrowful smile.

“I told her I understood. Since she said she hadn’t used it elsewhere, but for the children, I honestly had no intention of taking it back. After that, I decided I would cover all the necessary expenses for the children.”

Listening to him, it seemed Miki had found out that the consolation money had all vanished three years ago.

And starting from that day, it seemed he had joined the business as a partner.

“I thought this was a profit-making business, but charity work was the main focus?”

“Yes. Together with Elia, I ran a home for children who had nowhere to go.”

But when I examined the documents he had brought more closely, there were traces of art transactions with House Agatha.

Aside from that, there were countless records of large sums moving between them and various houses under the pretext of payments for paintings.

“But it seems you weren’t only doing charity work. You were also dealing in artwork.”

“Since I had to do it without asking my family for help, we needed funds. So we handled artwork on the side. Painting was the only thing I knew how to do, too.”

“Ah. So the artwork mentioned here was actually pieces painted by you, Miki?”

“Yes. But…”

For an instant, moisture filled Miki’s voice.

“At some point, all the artwork had been switched out for counterfeits, and the home for orphans had never existed in the first place. All the funds I had believed, without a shred of doubt, would be used for the children all this time…”

Miki could not finish his sentence and let out a sigh.

“They went to Elia. Money comes and goes, so I don’t care about that. But…”

He seemed to be trying to speak calmly and casually, but his hollow eyes stirred pity in anyone who saw them.

“It hurts so much that I was deceived by the closest friend I trusted without question.”

In the end, tears began to fall, one after another, from Miki’s eyes.

Once they broke free, they streamed down endlessly, as if they would soon form a river.

It was such a quiet weeping.

How could he weep so sorrowfully and yet not make a single sound?

That alone was enough to show just how much grief he had been forced to hide.

“It’s all right to cry out loud.”

I slowly patted Miki’s silently trembling back.

To be honest, my intention had been to incite Miki and make trouble for Baron Erinique’s house.

So there was no need for me to go so far as to comfort him.

I could have simply let him cry to his heart’s content, then pointed out what troubled me and torn into House Erinique.

Surely, that should have been enough.

And yet.

Why was I looking at him, his heart rotting away, and feeling pity for him?

Last time, I had thought it was simply because his state of mind resembled mine.

It seemed my heart had grown rather soft these days, too.

“There’s no one else here.”

At my words, Miki, who had been crying soundlessly until now, broke down and sobbed aloud.

I patted his back for a long while.

How much time had passed like that?

At some point, Miki stopped crying and looked at me with an awkward expression.

“I-I’m sorry!”

Suddenly, he shot up from his seat and moved far away.

“I will gladly accept punishment for behaving so disgracefully!”

Not only that, he bent at the waist in a ninety-degree bow to show his apology.

Why would he be punished for something like this?

“As long as you’re done crying, that’s enough.”

I passed over the situation calmly so he would not feel embarrassed.

“Come back here and sit down. There’s still a lot we have to do if we’re going to resolve this problem.”

At the same time, I tapped the auxiliary chair he had been sitting in a moment ago.

“Yes, yes!”

At that, Miki rushed over and sat neatly in the chair, his hands and legs arranged primly.

“I’m seated!”

This was not some army where discipline was being drilled into him, and yet he was so tense.

“You don’t have to be nervous.”

When I laughed softly, Miki’s face turned bright red.

“Yes, yes! I-I’m sorry!”

It seemed he was embarrassed by his own excessive behavior, too.