Chapter 4. Caught the Mouse, Part 2

The scarred man cried out in desperation.

“There’s m-more. A month ago, drunk, he was talking about how he’d stolen the late mistress’s keepsakes and hidden them in the underground storehouse of his own home.”

“You traitor! Gack!”

Samuel had been shouting at the scarred man when he suddenly doubled over. Jonathan had snorted and driven a hard kick into his gut.

How dare he touch the late mistress’s keepsakes.

If not for the late mistress, he and his mother would have starved to death long ago.

Ophelia held Jonathan back and spoke.

“Jonathan. Go call Bisha and Tina.”

“Yes, Miss.”

Once Jonathan left, Ophelia handed the antidote to Bella and had her administer it to Samuel and his men.

Having barely clung to their lives with the antidote, the men wept like children.

“Samuel. This ledger is the one Father entrusted to you after Mother passed away.”

Samuel knelt on the floor and stared up at the ledger in Ophelia’s hands.

“Our family’s monthly living expenses come to two hundred Ars. Yet over five years, you siphoned off two thousand Ars. I intend to recover every last bit of it. But looking at you, you clearly don’t have the means to pay two thousand Ars all at once…… Shall I sell you to a slave trader?”

The butler said nothing. Ophelia smiled with thinly veiled contempt and continued.

“I’ve heard the witches in the east have been making offerings with human organs. So I did a little research on the prices.”

Ophelia rose from her chair, walked up to the bound Samuel, and brought herself level with his eyes.

Then she pressed one finger slowly against his chest.

“The heart, symbol of vital life force, goes for six hundred Ars. My, that’s quite a sum for a parasite’s life. How about it, care to sell your heart? Just this one piece and you can wipe out a quarter of your debt.”

Ophelia smiled, pale and bright.

This time she slowly raised her finger and tapped the forehead of Samuel, whose facial muscles were twitching wildly with fear.

“And the soft white brain is…… a bit cheaper. Three hundred Ars, was it?”

The finger moved down from his forehead and gently stroked the eyelids framing Samuel’s brown eyes.

“Eyes that see all things, four hundred fifty Ars a pair. More expensive than that useless brain of yours. Remarkable!”

Now she placed her finger against the butler’s carotid artery. Life pulsed frantically in Samuel’s neck as he trembled like an aspen.

“The red, hot blood flowing through these vessels goes for ten Ars per hundred milliliters…… Drain every last drop from the body, fill that barrel over there, and you’d get around four hundred eighty Ars.”

Samuel let out a choked gasp the moment Ophelia’s hand, which had been tracing his neck as though appraising it, finally pulled away.

But Ophelia still watched him with the eyes of a predator locked onto prey. He dropped his gaze and could not bring himself to look at her.

“And adding in your other organs…… that would exceed seven hundred Ars, wouldn’t it? So roughly two thousand Ars all together.”

Ophelia grabbed Samuel’s faded gray hair and wrenched his face up to meet her eyes.

“Hiiik!”

Samuel let out a strangled cry. Ophelia’s eyes still curved prettily, but behind them lay a madness that was nearly impossible to look at directly.

“How about it? Giving your body willingly to repay the debt you owe my family? Oh, and don’t worry, I won’t charge interest, out of consideration for the years we’ve spent together.”

Samuel trembled like an animal caught by the scruff of the neck, forcing his locked jaw open to squeeze out words.

“Miss…… I was wrong. Please forgive me. I won’t ask for forgiveness, just please, spare my life…… I will r-return everything.”

“You? How? Stop stalling and press your fingerprint on this document.”

Ophelia handed the pre-prepared document to Bella. Bella walked over to Samuel and loosened his bindings so he could press his fingerprint.

That was when Samuel lurched to his feet and threw himself at Bella. He had made the mistake of taking the Crown Prince’s closest guard knight for an ordinary woman.

Thud!

Samuel went flying into the wall in an instant.

Ophelia clicked her tongue as though she almost felt sorry for him.

Samuel groaned and rolled on the floor, while the thieves quickly dropped their heads and did their best to disappear into the background.

Bella walked up to Samuel without expression and seized one of his hands. She smeared the blood from the corner of his mouth onto his fingers and pressed them to the document.

Ophelia took the document and clapped her hands together like a delighted child, beaming.

“Dame Bella made everything so much easier. Thank you. Now please have these men sent to the guards.”

“Yes, Miss.”

Ophelia called in Jonathan, Tina, and Bisha, who had been waiting outside.

“Tina, go through everything in this storehouse and draw up a new ledger.”

“Yes, Miss. I’ll have it organized and reported to you right away.”

“And Jonathan, go with Bisha to Samuel’s house and bring back Mother’s keepsakes and the two thousand Ars.”

Ophelia handed one of the ledgers to Bisha and added,

“Track down everything on this list, and for anything that’s missing, make sure you get the equivalent in money.”

Watching Ophelia give orders with such clear composure, Bisha smiled with quiet pride and answered briskly.

“Yes, Miss. I will make sure to bring back every one of the late mistress’s keepsakes.”

❀❀❀

Back upstairs in her bedroom, Ophelia dropped onto the bed.

The tension that had gripped her until moments ago released all at once, and the strength drained from her body entirely.

I actually pulled it off that easily.

Ophelia pressed down on her hands, which had begun to tremble finely with the fear and tension that had finally caught up with her.

“Well done, Ophelia. You really did well.”

She murmured softly and wrapped her arms around herself.

She did not feel sad, yet tears were already sliding down her cheeks.

Her past life had been one failure after another.

Love with the man she wanted, happiness, freedom. Not a single one had come to her.

She had worried she might bungle things again the way she had in her past life. But this life was clearly different somehow. Everything had gone far better than expected.

It was all things she had watched and learned at Albus’s side in her past life.

Albus……

Ophelia’s heart ached again.

“Phew……”

She breathed deeply, again and again, slowly erasing the traces of Albus from her heart. Then she wiped the remaining tears from the corners of her eyes.

Knock, knock.

“Miss, it’s Tina.”

“Yes, come in.”

Tina entered carrying the new ledger.

“Here is the new ledger. After cataloguing everything and converting the storehouse’s assets into currency, the total came to roughly eighteen thousand five hundred Ars.”

“Good work, Tina.”

“Jonathan and Bisha are back as well. They recovered the two thousand Ars Samuel had stolen and Mother’s keepsakes. However, one ring, two necklaces, and two pairs of earrings from the list you gave were missing. They converted those to money and collected five hundred Ars in their place.”

Tina handed Ophelia a small wooden box with a blue sapphire set into the lid.

“Miss. These are the late mistress’s keepsakes.”

Ophelia ran her fingers over the box gently, as though it were her mother herself.

“Thank you. Would you call Dame Bella for me?”

Ophelia wanted to give Bella a small gift for helping bring the night’s work to a successful close. She had already chosen one of her own accessories to set aside for her.

“Miss, you called for me?”

“Dame Bella! Thank you for everything you did tonight. The plan succeeded because of you.”

Ophelia smiled warmly and took Bella’s hand.

“This is a small token of my gratitude.”

What was clasped around Bella’s wrist was a cross bracelet set with a red ruby.

“I only followed my master’s orders. A gift like this is far more than I deserve.”

Bella seemed not to have expected a gift at all and looked flustered.

“Please don’t refuse it. It’s a protection bracelet I received after completing a hundred days of prayer at the temple for safety. It will serve you far better than it would me. How is it, does it suit you?”

Looking at Ophelia, who smiled with the guileless warmth of a sheltered noble lady who knew nothing of the world, Bella felt a chill run down her spine.

The very same woman who had been acting like a ruthless predator just moments ago had turned completely around.

Her grandfather’s words came back to her. The deeper the madness runs, the more ordinary a person appears on the surface. He had been right.

Bella looked down at the bracelet Ophelia had slipped onto her wrist. It was neither cumbersome nor gaudy. Most of all, she liked the blood-red ruby.

“Thank you.”

The moment Bella accepted the bracelet, a satisfied smile spread across Ophelia’s lips.

“Please pass along my gratitude to Viscount Deys and Nea for their help.”

“Yes, I will.”

❀❀❀

Back at the Deys household, Bella went straight to the Crown Prince and gave him a detailed account of everything that had taken place at Baron Jont’s household.

Myr listened with keen interest to what Ophelia had done, so unlike anything a typical noble lady would.

“Hm, so she truly is a daughter of the Lares family.”

Just then, an unfamiliar accessory caught Myr’s eye. Bella was someone who always said jewelry was a nuisance and never wore any, yet there she was with a gleaming red ruby bracelet on her wrist.

Sensing her master’s gaze, Bella spoke first.

“Ah, this was a gift from Miss Ophelia.”

“It suits you. Now, about that herb.”

“The prickly water lily?”

“Yes. Look into it a bit more for me.”

“Understood.”

❀❀❀

The following morning, Ophelia gathered Jonathan, Bisha, and Tina downstairs.

“Jonathan, meet with a property agent today and sell this house.”

“Pardon?”

With the Baron away, selling the house was an unexpected decision, and all three of them looked genuinely startled.

“Listen carefully, everyone. We are leaving this place. Given the current state of things, there will certainly be riots. Isn’t it better to sell now than to be left holding a ruined, abandoned manor after the chaos?”

This year, the Kingdom of Astra, the Apollos Empire, the Kingdom of Batus, and all three nations of the western continent would suffer a poor harvest.

In her past life, grain prices had soared beyond all reason and many people had died of starvation. On top of that, when war broke out between the Kingdom of Batus and the Apollos Empire, riots had erupted across the Kingdom of Astra.

Ophelia’s expression was grave as she spoke of the riots. The three of them were bewildered, unable to understand what she had seen to make her so certain.

“We won’t be able to come back here for quite some time…… Jonathan. Tell the agent we’ll accept a little below market value, but the paperwork needs to be finished today.”

“Yes, Miss.”

Jonathan answered respectfully.

“Tina and Bisha, convert everything of value in the house into grain. Oh, and Jonathan, once you’re done with the agent, hire a cart and driver to haul the grain.”

Ophelia paused here and looked at the three of them, all eyes fixed on her. She met each of their gazes and spoke with conviction.

“You may not believe me, but…… this year will be a year of famine. A food shortage is coming.”

Still an inexplicable thing to say, but these were three people who would believe her even if she told them the world would end tomorrow. Ophelia continued.

“No one must know that we’ve bought grain and loaded it onto a cart. Move as quietly and quickly as possible. Understood, Bisha? Tina?”

Ophelia looked each of her people in the eye.

“Of course, Miss. Please don’t worry.”

“You all know this already, but Father is an illegitimate son of the Lares family. There is no reason to expect a warm welcome when we arrive at the main household. And if we arrive without money, we’ll be treated worse than servants. We need to hold onto what money we have to survive.”

The candid truth from their mistress left all three of them quietly solemn.

Jonathan was the first to break the silence.

“We will follow your word, Miss.”

Bisha and Tina nodded with equal resolve.

Ophelia kept only a few of her mother’s keepsakes as mementos and put everything else in the house toward buying grain.

By mid-afternoon, Jonathan returned with a buyer and an agent, and all the property sale paperwork was completed at the baronial residence.

The house, valued at twenty-three thousand Ars, was sold for twenty thousand, with an agreement to finish moving out by the following day.

With all the paperwork done, Ophelia walked through the house alone, taking in every corner with her eyes.

“Mother, I’m frightened. Do you think I can really do this? Please watch over our family.”

The faint trembling in Ophelia’s violet eyes gradually stilled, and she whispered softly into the empty air.

“There is nowhere left to retreat. This is only the beginning.”