“Since you can’t touch a hair on my body anyway, let’s move on. Listen carefully to what I say now.”

Because otherwise the double ledger would be made public. Baron Vulti bit his lip at Elena’s threat.

“Today’s kidnapping was absolutely not the Grand Duke’s doing.”

First, she clarified that someone else had dragged Baron Vulti to the basement and imprisoned him.

“If you go outside, you’ll see that His Highness actually saved you from other dark forces that wanted to use your death.”

Baron Vulti’s eyes filled with disbelief.

“Whether you believe it or not is up to you, baron. I wasn’t asking you to believe me anyway. My terms are simple. In exchange for destroying the ledger, don’t spread rumors that the Grand Duke did this today. Also, give up everything and step down.”

Despite setting up the atmosphere for a deal, the content wasn’t much. It was the same as what they had discussed earlier.

“F-fine. I understand.”

Unable to move his bound limbs, he shook his head vigorously.

“Deal accepted.”

Elena demonstratively threw the double ledger into a brazier placed in the corner of the basement.

The dying embers grew as they consumed the paper. Only after the double ledger was completely devoured by flames did Baron Vulti relax.

Thinking that the only shackle around his neck had disappeared and he could gain freedom, he felt considerably relieved.

“I’ll untie you now.”

After cutting the rope herself, Elena went to Rudfelix’s side, indicating Baron Vulti could leave.

She grabbed Rudfelix’s arm, showing they wouldn’t attack, and Baron Vulti cautiously stood up.

“Urgh.”

Staggering in pain, Baron Vulti grabbed an armrest to steady himself. Having lost blood and with poor circulation, he couldn’t put strength into his body.

He glared at Rudfelix, whom he considered the cause of all this.

“You got those cuts from your own struggling.”

Elena shook her head at Baron Vulti’s upturned eyes. She pointed out that his recent staggering wasn’t their fault.

“You brought me here and yet you dare……”

“I clearly said it wasn’t us.”

Elena rounded her hand at her mouth and repeated that it wasn’t them.

“Go get treatment quickly.”

Baron Vulti glared at them both and staggered out of the basement.

The heavy footsteps grew distant. Only after they completely disappeared did Elena look up.

Her nose tingled at Rudfelix’s consideration, who had simply watched. He showed her how reassuring it was to have a superior who trusted and waited for her.

“Thank you for entrusting this to me.”

“Is it really alright to let him go like that?”

“It’s much better than killing him.”

Rudfelix wanted to open Elena’s small head to see what she was thinking.

“Your Highness, do you know the saying ‘to kill two birds with one stone’?”

Elena looked at him with a meaningful smile.

* * *

“Talking about deals. It’s outrageous how that impudent girl runs wild with the Grand Duke behind her.”

What deal was she talking about when the double ledger was gone?

Baron Vulti didn’t believe that someone other than Rudfelix had kidnapped him.

He considered everything Elena said to be lies and had no intention of keeping his promise.

“I should go to His Highness right now and tell him about my unfair situation… no.”

Baron Vulti looked down at himself and shook his head.

If it were Crown Prince Suharto, he wouldn’t pity his disheveled state after being tied up and released; he would drive him away for being filthy rather than treating him.

He thought it wouldn’t be too late to visit when his body was completely healed.

So he went to Spark Trading Company first. He planned to call a doctor through the trading company master and rest for the day.

As he dragged his feet that felt like they might break toward the trading company, the trading company master, who had been pacing at the entrance, spotted Baron Vulti and approached with quick steps.

“Call a doctor immediately. I’m hungry, so prepare something simple……”

“Baron, we have big trouble.”

Baron Vulti, prioritizing his own pain, frowned and pressured the trading company master.

“Can’t you see my condition? I said call a doctor first!”

“That’s not the issue.”

The trading company master stamped his feet, looking like he wanted to run away immediately. However, Baron Vulti prioritized his stinging wounds over the man’s puppy-like behavior.

“Listen, I……”

As Baron Vulti was about to slap the anxious trading company master’s cheek and shout for a doctor, he spotted a familiar face coming out of the trading company.

“Oh, Viscount Dokia.”

Baron Vulti was about to ask if he had come looking for him after hearing about his kidnapping, but seeing his fierce eyes, he turned to look at the trading company master.

As Baron Vulti was about to ask what was happening, Viscount Dokia grabbed his shoulder like a hook and shook him mercilessly.

“What were you thinking, doing this to me?”

“What did I do?”

He had only diligently brought gold to Viscount Dokia to build friendship.

“You wrote down the bribes you gave me in such detail, claiming they were given without any intention?”

“Bribes? Absolutely not.”

They were indeed bribes, but he had never outwardly expressed them as such. Baron Vulti rolled his eyes in all directions, without even time to attend to his own pain.

“Don’t deny it! You wrote a double ledger and now you’re trying to back out? You ungrateful dog, I treated you well, and you dare bite my foot?”

“Double ledger? What frightening words! I’m innocent. I never wrote such a thing.”

How did Viscount Dokia know about the double ledger that Elena had burned, and why was he jumping up and down in anger?

Baron Vulti waved both hands, trying to calm him down.

“Let’s see if you can still say that after looking at this.”

Viscount Dokia, breathing heavily, swung his hand fiercely toward Baron Vulti. As his hand opened, the paper he was holding slapped against Baron Vulti’s face before fluttering down.

“What is this……”

Throwing paper at a noble’s face! While Baron Vulti was momentarily speechless with anger boiling inside, a sheet of paper fell into his hand.

Wondering what could make him so excited, Baron Vulti looked down to check the paper’s identity and gasped.

“W-why is this here. It was all burned……”

His bewildered mutterings circled inside his mouth. Viscount Dokia, too busy fuming, didn’t hear his mumbling but shouted loudly.

“What? Count Jellisto really created a double ledger? The Grand Duke framed him? After cheating like that, you should at least have refrained from making a double ledger yourself.”

“This is a misunderstanding. It’s all a lie someone created targeting me.”

“A lie?”

Viscount Dokia struck Baron Vulti’s relatively intact right cheek.

“Who would write a lie so realistically?”

He hit Baron Vulti’s face because the double ledger accurately recorded what he had received, yet Baron Vulti was telling an absurd lie.

“This isn’t right. I definitely burned it.”

Baron Vulti kept muttering that the double ledger Elena had burned was absolutely not fake.

His eyes lost focus as he belatedly realized that Elena had kept part of the double ledger, torn out the inner pages, and sent them to each noble who had received bribes.

“I should have seen through you when you drove out the honest Count Jellisto. My support for you has become a tag that will follow me for life. Grand Duke Rudfelix worked for the oppressed count, and I became a materialist who took money from you.”

People gathered at his desperate cry, almost a scream.

“My mistake in misjudging someone has come back like this, so what can I do? How will you take responsibility!”

He grabbed Baron Vulti’s collar and shook him.

“Your double ledger has spread everywhere.”

Viscount Dokia raised his hand as if about to beat Baron Vulti to death. However, he was restrained by a knight who had appeared unnoticed.

“We’ll discuss the rest in prison.”

The knight who had captured Viscount Dokia spoke in a tone reserved for criminals, not nobles, and signaled to his subordinates.

Both Baron Vulti and the Spark Trading Company master, who had been caught trying to escape, were seized by knights and forced to kneel on the ground.

“You said it was a deal, but you deceived me?”

Baron Vulti, who had been played by Elena’s shallow trick, raised his head in boiling anger. Then he met the eyes of one person mixed among the crowd.

“You… you……”

Elena stuck out her tongue at him.

“Devilish girl, because of you… gack.”

“Shut up.”

Baron Vulti, who had been shouting as if his throat would burst, was punched in the neck by a knight and made a gurgling sound.

Afterward, his already damaged body, tied with rope, lost balance and fell sideways.

Through his hazy consciousness from the impact, Baron Vulti saw a carriage enter his field of vision. That carriage he had glimpsed just before being kidnapped.

“Huh? Th-that carriage.”

It was definitely the carriage he had been in when kidnapped. Baron Vulti forcibly straightened his fingers pressed against the ground to point at the carriage.

While Baron Vulti was staring intently at the carriage amid the commotion, the curtain of the carriage was pulled back, revealing a man’s face, and he lost hope.

[His Highness actually saved you from other dark forces that wanted to use your death.]

Elena was right. The one who had kidnapped and tried to kill him wasn’t the Grand Duke. As he clicked his tongue and shook his head, his light blue hair swayed.

Useless thing.

His muttering approached silently. Baron Vulti closed his eyes, realizing he was merely a hunting dog to be used and discarded by the crown prince.

“Now I’m finished.”