7. Acquaintance

After meeting the young master and returning, I kept thinking about him.

I was concerned about him from that day.

Due to his illness, I had thought he was peacefully recuperating away from everyone’s attention, unlike typical children of high nobles.

Does he face constant life threats because of his position as heir, even though he’s sick?

‘It happens quite often.’

Those words, spoken with a casual smile, were sad.

Has he become accustomed to having his life threatened?

Just hearing that someone dislikes me makes me uncomfortable and uneasy all day. But how would it feel to know someone is trying to kill you? And what emotions arise each time you discover traces of someone attempting to kill you?

Even as a third party, I remembered shuddering at the terrible k*lling intent when I discovered the piano wire targeting him. How much must he have feared until such things became completely normal to him?

I wanted to protect him from such threats.

I sincerely wanted to repay his kindness that had comforted me instead.

For this purpose, I went out today.

Fortunately, I had an acquaintance who would likely have experienced the most assassination risks and become adept at overcoming them.

I returned a friendly smile to the contemptuous eyes looking down at me indifferently.

“What’s the matter? Get to the point. I’m busy.”

He adjusted his tie as if feeling suffocated and spoke in an irritated tone.

When I offered him a seat, he anxiously tapped his wristwatch and sat down opposite me with a displeased expression.

“I ordered your favorite.”

I nodded toward the teacup placed in front of him.

Levery looked at it as if checking for poison.

“You…… what’s gotten into you? You miser.”

I looked at him with even more expectant eyes, feeling I had found the right person. Seeing my eyes, Levery’s expression soured further. He pushed the teacup aside completely.

“Levery, are you still facing poisoning threats these days?”

Levery startled violently and swayed in his seat. Fortunately, just before falling, he managed to maintain balance by extending one hand toward the table.

“Hey……!”

He turned pale and quickly looked around.

“How can you carelessly say such things, in a place like this……”

Though there was a screen and no one could see us, his exaggerated behavior was unsightly. No, I had called him precisely because of this excessively cautious personality.

I needed his meticulous advice.

“I have a favor, Levery. You’re the most hated, stingy banker in this city.”

“Either be polite or rude. Choose one.”

At his words, I instantly erased the respectful light in my eyes and placed my neatly folded hands on the table.

If I had to give up either politeness or rudeness in front of Levery Federway, it would obviously be politeness.

“How can you preserve your life amid such brutal assassination threats?”

“Why, are you perhaps being threatened too?”

“Well……”

Actually, someone else was being threatened, but I felt I should spare words about him. Learning he was in danger, I didn’t welcome the already excessive public interest in him.

“Let’s just say I am. If someone puts poison in the food you eat, what do you do?”

“Well, I don’t eat it.”

“Huh? No, don’t joke around.”

“I never eat food given by someone else.”

“What……?”

“You said you’re receiving death threats. Then, that’s basic.”

My mind suddenly recalled my second meeting with the young master.

I remember sharing cookies with plum jam.

He seemed to have eaten them with great enjoyment.

He even put them in his mouth first, before I ate any.

‘It’s been so long since I’ve tasted this.’

He ate what I, someone he had met only twice, brought him.

What if I were an assassin? What if I were someone who received double payment from somewhere other than the ducal family and harbored intentions to kill him?

Thinking about it, the young master was too soft. With such an attitude, he could never be safe.

I felt I must reform his soft character next time.

“What about weap*ns? How do you handle ones flying from somewhere? Or hidden in your house? What if venomous snakes are released in your home? Oh, wait, I have more questions written on paper. You have to answer them all, okay?”

“Rosaline, what exactly…… have you been doing lately?”

Surprisingly, he gave detailed answers about several methods to escape assassination threats. However, he gradually became appalled by my questions, and eventually gave up answering altogether.

I see.

I thought he would have experienced all the threats I imagined. So even Levery Federway, who so nastily collects debts, doesn’t face that level of threat.

Then, these answers probably aren’t necessary for the completely harmless young master who doesn’t harm anyone either?

He looked at his watch again and sighed deeply.

“This has been the most useless time I’ve ever spent with you, Rosaline. This is all the time I can give you. I need to go now.”

“I’m glad I could at least get answers to a quarter of the questions I prepared.”

When I smiled brightly, he pulled forward the tea he had said he wouldn’t drink and gulped it down with an indignant expression, as if extremely thirsty.

He soon placed the teacup down on the floor.

Even with gloved hands, he placed it down quietly without slipping.

“By the way, Rosaline.”

His eyes visible through his silver-rimmed glasses looked quite serious this time, unlike before. That heavy atmosphere, so unsuited to him, was so awkward that I asked in a playful tone.

“What?”

“You’re not really going through with that marriage, are you?”

Levery’s grayish-green eyes, resembling the color of a melon, cast a dark shadow as he looked at me with a serious gaze.

“It would be better not to stay too long by that person’s side. In the end, nothing will remain for you.”

“What are you saying!”

I stood up from my seat, pushing against the table with both hands. The impact caused the two cups facing each other to shake.

Though both cups were completely empty, they vibrated on the table as if an earthquake had occurred, making a fine rattling sound before settling with a thud.

“You weren’t the type to judge people based on rumors, Levery.”

I was angry.

It was nonsense.

I generally had a good opinion of his character. Though he was somewhat persistent when collecting debts, Levery was just diligently doing his job. But I didn’t expect even Levery to be trapped by such obvious prejudice. He had never even met Young Master Riverton.

“Don’t speak carelessly when you know nothing.”

Levery maintained a nonchalant face as he straightened his clothes, wrinkled from sitting for too long.

“I was just trying to help, but if you don’t believe me, forget it.”

His face showed no sign of having misspoken. I felt a surge of anger.

Levery asked while wiping his mouth.

“Do you know who bought all your family’s mining rights?”

“What……?”

He’s suddenly asking something strange.

Levery looked around with an anxious face.

“Find that out first. I can’t tell you more than this.”

Had he been drinking? His rambling today was quite strange.

Levery, who normally insisted on splitting the bill exactly in half, today adamantly insisted on paying himself. I tried hard to argue that my financial situation had improved, but he didn’t even pretend to listen to me.

After parting with Levery, I kept mulling over his words on the way back in a public carriage.

Mining rights.

I had never deeply considered such things. I only vaguely knew that Father had disposed of them due to the family’s difficult circumstances.

Why had Levery said such things to me?

Who cares who bought all the mining rights? What does that have to do with Young Master Riverton?

If I found out who that person was, would my thoughts change?

I recalled Young Master Riverton’s face, smiling as if nothing was wrong beneath the piano wire filled with glass fragments.

‘I’m fine.’

Had there been even more dangerous moments than what I saw? How accustomed to death threats must one become to comfort me with such an attitude?

I was certain.

Whatever the mining rights Levery mentioned were, my faith in Young Master Riverton would not change. Whatever hidden truth there might be, that would remain unchanged.

Perhaps I could easily prove this in front of Levery. I should rush to the mining office right now and investigate the mining rights he mentioned.

When I saw the familiar fork in the road, I opened the window.

“Excuse me, I’d like to change my destination.”

Just before the coachman’s face crumpled with annoyance, I quickly shouted.

“Double fare!”

❀❀❀

I arrived at the mining office I used to visit occasionally.

As I had always done, I found the spare key hidden in the flowerpot. Then I climbed the single-story landing and inserted the key into the door.

Though the shape fit perfectly, it was stiff and wouldn’t turn. It remained the same no matter how much I moved it. Even when I tried to pull the key back out, it wouldn’t budge at all, as if it had become one with the hole.

It should have been oiled long ago; this was the result of leaving it unattended without maintenance.

I recalled my father’s words.

‘Once you insert it and get the feel just right, it opens well. Here, try turning it. Like this. No, more, turn it smoothly with a snap like this.’

You’re just saying that because you don’t want to pay for a locksmith.

I sighed deeply.

Get the feel right? The key won’t move at all.

By the way, are we still short on money? So much that we can’t even oil a door? That couldn’t be right.

Recently, I knew quite a lot of money had been sent home after succeeding in the deal with the Duke (stopping the young master’s minor bleeding with my meager healing power).

I could confirm the Duke hadn’t lied from Elaine’s excited letter about welcoming a music teacher again. So why was this office still in this state?

It must be that years of poverty had ingrained a spirit of frugality in Father.

After turning the key this way and that, I finally felt the key and handle achieve a strangely different unity than before. Sensing success, I used the “snap” Father had mentioned and barely opened the door.

I should tell him to replace the entire door rather than fix the keyhole.

I seemed to have spent nearly five minutes wrestling with the key at the door. I wondered how Father managed to enter and exit this office every day.