Baron Ganess couldn’t meet the gaze and bit his lip, bowing his head deeply.

‘That bastard.’

‘The report you submitted this time seemed a bit odd.’

It had happened only once.

Desperate for money to buy medicine for his sick wife, he had, just once, dipped into the funds meant for the Duke’s house.

It was something he would never have done under normal circumstances. But as the Duke roamed the battlefields, the Everdeen territory gradually declined.

The mines hadn’t dried up, but without a proper owner to manage the estate, decline was inevitable.

Count Arietta, who discovered that William Ganess had tampered with the Duke’s revenue, used this knowledge as leverage to make him clean up all sorts of dirty work.

It was much later that he realized Count Arietta’s corruption was the largest in scale, and that he was using several other retainers in similar situations in the same way.

But while he was forced to follow Count Arietta’s orders, the crimes he committed snowballed, becoming weapons for the Count.

‘Our sins are beyond forgiveness now. So unless you want us all to die together, it’s best to quietly follow my lead.’

Count Arietta was like a leader among the retainers, and having already betrayed the Duke’s house, he knew he couldn’t be forgiven.

Thus, half-forced, he had been with Count Arietta for several years.

Count Arietta, who had only been involved in tax embezzlement and illegal gambling, eventually even killed the estate’s residents.

‘I didn’t think he’d actually kill them……!’

William thought it was time to consider how to die with less pain, but he couldn’t bring himself to say it out loud.

After all, wasn’t it because he informed Count Arietta that ‘an administrator is digging into the retainers’ corruption’ that the woman ended up dead?

Afraid that his sins might reach the Duke’s ears. Afraid he might lose his life.

In the end, he was no different from the author—just another murderer.

William Ganess closed his eyes tightly and bowed deeply.

“I’m sorry. And there’s a problem……”

“How far do you intend to disappoint me…….”

“The subordinates I sent to retrieve the administrator’s body said they encountered the Everdeen young lady in the forest.”

“……What?”

Count Arietta, who had been frowning the whole time, suddenly froze. He then jumped up and shouted.

“Are you out of your mind! How could you not manage your subordinates well enough to avoid being seen by a mere child and cause such a mess!”

It was originally on Count Arietta’s orders that people were sent to the forest.

Though anger welled up inside, Baron Ganess suppressed his emotions and continued speaking as neutrally as possible.

“……The young lady has lessons tomorrow morning, so I’ll observe the Duke’s house’s movements. It would be best not to send anyone to the forest until then.”

* * *

The next day arrived.

William, though extremely tense, maintained his composure as he entered the room where Teresia was waiting.

“Good morning, My Lady.”

“Hello, teacher!”

Pretending to greet her, he quickly scanned Teresia’s face and felt relieved inside.

‘She doesn’t look like a child who found a corpse.’

If a child her age had discovered a body in the forest, she wouldn’t look so calm and cheerful.

‘……So she didn’t see it?’

Still uncertain, William cautiously began to speak.

“I heard you went to the forest yesterday.”

“Oh, well, I got a little lost……. But thanks to a wolf friend, I made it back safely!”

Teresia smiled innocently, her face pure and bright.

Seeing that, William Ganess felt completely at ease.

It seemed Teresia hadn’t seen anything, so he could finish the lesson and then leisurely deal with the administrator’s body.

With that thought settled, he opened the book with a more relaxed expression.

“Then let’s begin the lesson.”

Of course, Teresia’s attitude in class that day was quite a spectacle.

Throughout the lesson, she carelessly flipped through the pages, and by the end, she had closed the book altogether and was simply watching him.

However, William had grown quite accustomed to Teresia’s unruly behavior and finished the lesson without much fuss.

“……We’ll end here for today. Your assignment is—”

“But, teacher, I have a question.”

Teresia, who had been wearing a sullen expression just moments ago, suddenly looked at him with sparkling eyes.

William responded hesitantly.

“Go ahead.”

“What does ’embezzlement’ mean?”

“……Pardon?”

For a moment, he thought he had misheard her.

But Teresia stood up and quickly ran over to him.

Standing on tiptoe, she whispered in a secretive manner, covering her mouth with one hand as if sharing a big secret.

“This is a secret, but a few days ago, I went to the Duke’s office to have some snacks, you know? And there was a document on the table that said ‘evidence of embezzlement detected’.”

“……!”

“But I couldn’t find that word in any of the books here, and since I peeked at the document secretly, I couldn’t just ask someone else about it…….”

Teresia lowered her heels and fidgeted with her fingers, looking downcast.

Hearing this, William, who was struck by a dizzying shock, managed to regain his composure and lowered his voice.

“I see. It’s not right to snoop through someone else’s documents, even if you’re family.”

“I’m sorry…….”

“I’ll teach you about embezzlement next time. If anyone else finds out about this, you’ll be in big trouble, so you mustn’t say a word until then. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

After confirming Teresia’s resolute nod, William hurriedly left the room, saying he would see her next time.

He wasn’t even sure how he managed to get from the Everdeen mansion to Count Arietta’s residence. In a panic, he burst into the Count’s office.

“Count!”

“……William? What is the meaning of this rudeness!”

Count Arietta, who had been lounging comfortably in his chair, was startled and scolded him, but William didn’t hear it.

“The, the Duke seems to have caught wind of the embezzlement! The young lady saw the related report in the Duke’s office!”

“……!”

At his urgent tone, Count Arietta’s eyes widened in shock.

Being someone who had always manipulated others by exploiting their weaknesses, he quickly started thinking. Ignoring William, who clung to him, he stormed out of the office.

‘I need to destroy the evidence.’

He wasn’t sure how the Duke had accurately grasped the retainers’ actions, but his first priority was to eliminate the evidence he held.

In the past, it might have been different, but the current Duke’s house lacked intelligence capabilities.

Even if they had detected something, they likely hadn’t found concrete evidence yet.

So as long as he got rid of all the evidence before the Duke’s house arrived……!

“……Oh no! What is this!”

“Oh, even if you’re from the Duke’s house, you can’t do this!”

At that moment, he heard shouts from the servants in the distance.

Looking out the window, he saw countless flags emblazoned with the white branch symbol of the Duke of Everdeen fluttering.

Considering Baron Ganess’s report, the Everdeen knights shouldn’t have been able to arrive so quickly.

But the scene before him was real. It was clear that the knights had followed Baron Ganess as soon as he left the Everdeen mansion.

Despair and rage intermingled on Count Arietta’s face.

“No……!”

In a last-ditch effort, he ran towards the room where he had hidden the evidence.

He burst into the room, opened the secret door hidden in the floor, and was about to throw the documents from the safe into the fireplace when—

“Got you, rat.”

With words he couldn’t hear, Count Arietta felt a strong impact on the back of his neck and fainted on the spot.

* * *

‘My Lady! We found the evidence!’

Fortunately, Baron Ganess and Count Arietta acted as expected.

When I let slip that ‘the Duke knows about your embezzlement,’ the Baron, perhaps because he saw me as just a child, didn’t even suspect that my words could be a lie.