II. The Duke of Elmano

Chapter 4. The Young Duke in His Office

Nobles who visited Elmano Castle without invitations and requested to see the duke fell into three categories.

Those hoping for marriage with the still-unmarried young duke, those wanting to do business with the duke who had outstanding business acumen, and the third category was like Count Ramona standing before him now—those who came to borrow money from the wealthiest duke in the Empire.

Kais leaned back deeply in his high-backed chair and gazed steadily at Count Ramona sitting across from him.

Having sold off most of his territory due to successive investment failures and his sons’ gambling debts, the count looked like he had aged ten years in just a few months.

“Three hundred gold……”

Repeating the amount Count Ramona wanted to borrow, Kais surveyed the count’s worn-out coat and frayed shirt sleeves. His pale gray-blue eyes quickly took in the shoes with split toes before fixing again on the count’s face.

It was an absurd amount to lend to a fallen nobleman who barely had a shell left.

The count himself must know this, so where did this audacity come from?

“Y-yes. ……If you could just le-lend me three hundred gold……”

Count Ramona wiped his palm, wet with cold sweat, on the hem of his coat and moved his pale dry lips. But under Kais’s gaze, which contained not even a hint of warmth, he soon hunched his shoulders like someone driven out into a winter field and mumbled the end of his sentence.

“Not ‘just’ three hundred gold, but ‘as much as’ three hundred gold, I’d say. I heard all your mansions and villas within your territory, and even your remaining mansion in the capital, have been mortgaged. Does the Ramona family have anything left?”

“That…… well…… you see……”

With that cutting voice and cold gaze that seemed to pierce to the bone, Count Ramona felt his mind freezing over. But he couldn’t back down now. If he couldn’t get the money, his eldest son’s wrists would be cut off by the gamblers who were holding him.

Thinking of his eldest son’s face, rolling on a cold basement floor in terror, his tightly closed lips moved on their own.

“Jewels…… I have jewels! The most cherished and treasured, very precious jewels that I’ve kept hidden away, untouched by anyone. I-I’ll give them to you, Your Grace!”

The count panted heavily after blurting out his prepared speech.

For the first time, an expression of interest appeared on Kais’s face, which had remained expressionless throughout their meeting.

“A jewel worth three hundred gold. I wonder what it could be. If you’ve brought it, may I see it and decide for myself?”

“Of course, together…… no, I-I brought it. But before that…… I have one request.”

Count Ramona paused briefly, gulped down a thick swallow, and quickly continued.

“I-I’d like you to prepare a promissory note first.”

Now what scheme is this?

Kais quietly stared at Count Ramona while tapping the armrest with the tip of his left index finger, which wore a large topaz ring.

The extremely nervous count rolled his eyes frantically, unable to properly meet Kais’s gaze. Anyone could tell the count had hidden intentions, but Kais, who had been terribly bored and dull, willingly decided to play along.

Kais raised his right hand to call the head butler standing behind him.

“Willis, go to the office and bring paper and a seal to write a promissory note.”

“No…… there’s no need for such trouble. Why don’t we just go to your office together and write it? I’d also like to show the j-jewel only to you, Your Grace……”

Count Ramona tried to stop Kais from giving instructions to the head butler, fidgeting his bottom as if about to stand up. After coldly surveying the restless count, Kais dismissed the head butler and rose from his seat.

“Very well. I’ll guide you.”

Kais left the second-floor reception room with Count Ramona, descended the stairs, and walked down a complex, winding corridor. When they reached the office at the corner of the eastern end, Count Ramona, who had been fine until then, suddenly bent over clutching his stomach.

“Oh my, something I ate for lunch must not have agreed with me. My stomach suddenly…… I-I’m sorry. Please go in first, and I’ll quickly take care of my business and return.”

“Understood.”

Though he frowned briefly, Kais obediently opened the office door and disappeared inside.

After confirming that he had entered the office and closed the door, Count Ramona exhaled a long breath as if expelling air that had risen to his chin. He had been so tense that his coat was soaked with cold sweat.

His role ended here: getting Kais Elmano into the office alone.

The rest was not his responsibility.

He wasn’t sure if what he’d done was right, but it was already done. The manners and etiquette he had learned from childhood as the legitimate heir of the venerable Ramona family pricked his conscience painfully, but with his family completely ruined, money was more urgent than dignity.

Count Ramona stared intently at the firmly closed office door, then turned and quickly disappeared down the opposite corridor.

“Hmm, so this was it after all.”

Kais’s voice was indifferent.

He had hoped for something new and exciting that would instantly dispel his boredom, but what awaited him was a situation so stale it wasn’t even worth a yawn.

Arete, Count Ramona’s eldest daughter, standing demurely in a corner of the office waiting for Kais to enter, merely maintained an elegantly drawn smile despite his cynicism.

“Please forgive my rudeness, Duke Elmano.”

She recited words of apology with her red lips while slowly bending her knees.

Her movements, gently lifting the hem of her dress while greeting, fluttered prettily like a dance. It was a graceful gesture befitting her reputation as the greatest beauty in society. But to Kais, she was merely an annoying thief cat who had sneaked into his office.

He coldly glared at the prettily smiling Arete.

“Leave now, my lady. If you exit this room immediately, I will forgive your rudeness in entering my office without permission.”

Kais pointed firmly toward the office door.

The “most cherished and treasured, very precious jewel” Count Ramona mentioned turned out to be his daughter.

Such nonsense might work on those foolish nobles who fawned over her obsequiously as if they would lick the soles of her shoes while showering her with ardent courtship, but it was completely futile with Kais. To him, Arete wasn’t worth even the value of glass, let alone a jewel.

“Your Grace, please give me a moment.”

In response to Kais’s dismissal, Arete made a pitiful expression and moved close beside him.

Unmarried ladies typically avoided being alone with men for fear of being caught in unsavory rumors.

But Arete, not content with secretly sneaking into his office, had conspired with her father to arrange for her to be alone with Kais, and now she even grabbed his arm and pressed it tightly between her voluptuous br*asts.

It was a crude and blatant seduction.

The reason why a lady from a debt-ridden family would act this way was painfully obvious. But Kais had not the slightest intention of complying with her obvious demands.

“If you have something to tell me, I’ll arrange a place in the reception room. With Count Ramona present, of course.”

Kais mercilessly shook off her slender arm and began walking toward the door.

Arete staggered, nearly falling, but determinedly moved ahead of him and spread her arms to block the door.

“Your Grace! Please, please wait a little.”

“Step aside!”

“Just once, please just once, ……hold me!”

Kais’s expression grew fierce. His gray-blue eyes, cold as a frozen lake, flashed blue. Even most strong men would instinctively step back from such a sharp gaze, but Arete absolutely refused to move. That’s how desperate she was.

“Please, Your Grace. I’m not asking you to marry me. Even as a mistress, or if that’s not possible, even as a lover would be fine, please. If you don’t accept me, I…… I’ll have to marry Marquis Markiz!”

Marquis Markiz was one of the five wealthiest nobles in Bayaroman. But he was by no means a good marriage prospect.

He already had several children from his deceased former wife, was thirty years older than Arete, and above all, rumors of his s*xual perversion were rampant. More than a few servants had seen him n*ked, flogging slaves while his unsightly shriveled c*ck and t*sticles dangled.

Thinking of her miserable situation of having to become such a man’s second wife, Arete’s face contorted as if she might burst into tears at any moment.

Kais thought this expression was at least better to look at than the false smile she had been wearing all along. But that was it. He felt nothing more, nothing less, no emotion whatsoever.

“I’ll make sure to prepare a wedding gift befitting the prestige of the Markiz household.”

Faced with Kais’s coldness, which didn’t show even a hair’s breadth of sympathy, Arete’s slender shoulders trembled violently. Finally unable to endure, tears dropped in a shower, and the resentment she had been suppressing burst forth.

“You bear some responsibility for things turning out this way! After all the times I’ve expressed my feelings for you…… sob, if you had accepted my heart before our family ended up like this…… then I wouldn’t have had to marry that hideous Marquis Markiz! How can you remain so cold until the very end?”

With her outstanding beauty and overflowing elegance, Arete attracted everyone’s attention from her debut ball. Being the eldest daughter of an ancient count family with sufficient means to prepare a dowry, it was natural that numerous nobles flocked to court her.