In the end, they reached the conference room without getting any meaningful answers.

“Her Highness the Grand Duchess is waiting inside.”

A servant on standby quietly spoke and opened the door.

Esteller was sitting before a large mahogany desk in the center, intently reading something.

Her absorbed profile resembled a detailed miniature painting. She wore an elegant, straight-falling hazelnut-colored dress, with a hair net made of small, smooth cream-colored pearls, and very intricately patterned lace gloves on both hands.

‘Hahaha! No wonder Diana was as agitated as a snake with its tail stepped on.’

Tracy inwardly applauded.

She had been playing hooky when the ducal couple arrived at the main castle yesterday. Later, upon returning and hearing that Diana had engaged in a battle of nerves with the Grand Duchess, she had lamented missing such a rare spectacle.

‘I wonder if she should be called brave or simply unable to grasp reality. To still dream of becoming the Grand Duke’s mistress even after seeing that person with her own eyes…’

Diana had a stubborn and arrogant personality. Naturally, Tracy hadn’t cultivated friendship with her because she genuinely considered her a good friend.

However, staying around Diana and carefully flattering her had yielded quite substantial benefits, so she had maintained a close relationship, calling her “sister” all this time.

It wasn’t exactly a secret within the castle that Diana wanted to secure the position of Dante’s mistress. Though Dante had never shown interest, what mattered was that he was a son who adored his mother tremendously and considered her in all things.

She thought that if the Dowager Grand Duchess Cecilia asked nicely enough, it wouldn’t necessarily be impossible. …At least that was true before a Grand Duchess with such seemingly high offensive power arrived.

‘Diana, in some ways, you truly are an impressive person.’

They say beauty doesn’t necessarily mean charm, but this Grand Duchess seemed to know exactly what she possessed and how to use it effectively.

It was like a legendary sword meeting the greatest swordsman, honed to its limits. If someone rashly challenged her, they might find their vital points pierced in the blink of an eye—yet Diana showed no fear.

Tracy thought it would be better to keep some distance from Diana from now on….

Meanwhile, Tucker and Gaston were completely dumbstruck at seeing the Grand Duchess up close. The openly timid Archibald and the somewhat frightened Cynthia had been fidgeting since entering the room, unable to even raise their heads for fear of committing some rudeness.

Tracy found the sight of the two men gaping with their mouths open quite unpleasant. Especially since Gaston had gone on several dates with her.

“Since everyone seems to have arrived, please sit down first.”

The Grand Duchess’s voice was gentle and pleasant to hear, but her tone was utterly dry. She seemed to consider them unworthy of her passion or interest.

Why? Tracy’s instincts were on high alert. She hoped she was just being oversensitive, but if not… Was the Grand Duchess simply putting on airs? Or did she have other intentions?

Once all five were seated, Esteller began to speak.

“There’s no need to beat around the bush, so I’ll get straight to the point. The Grand Duke has already recognized me as the mistress of Leodinas and delegated full authority over castle affairs to me. He said there would be nothing I couldn’t do according to my wishes, from small matters like how to maintain the residence to important decisions like selecting personnel.”

Tucker and Gaston felt their first impressions from yesterday becoming more concrete in their minds.

The Grand Duke’s affection for the Grand Duchess was overflowing to the point of excess, visible at a glance. It was common for men to act magnanimous and promise various rights to women they liked in order to win their favor.

However, the Grand Duchess was young, and less than a full day had passed since her arrival at Halpenrit Castle. It was far too little time to properly understand and make decisions. Gaston thought this might actually be a golden opportunity. They needed to sweet-talk and manipulate her before she fully grasped the situation.

‘If I can just charm her at the beginning, everything else will become easier.’

With this thought, Gaston was about to start flattering Esteller.

Unfortunately, Esteller opened her mouth again before he could.

“During my stay in Sleion, I reviewed most of the records. Let’s start with the paperwork handled by administrators. The signatures at the bottom are clearly divided among five people, but the handwriting that appears in the documents is mostly from just two people. Administrator Cynthia’s handwriting takes up seventy to eighty percent, while Administrator Archibald barely manages to complete his share. What were the rest of you doing during working hours while pushing your work onto others?”

“Kuk.”

Caught off guard by the unexpected question, Gaston choked. Tucker quickly closed his gaping mouth, accidentally biting his tongue in the process.

Esteller surveyed the people before her with a steady gaze.

Gaston, Tracy, Tucker. These three were deeply entangled with the collateral relatives like tree roots and had greatly contributed to the corruption of castle administration.

Archibald had also entered through connections, but he was too timid to engage in major schemes. He wasn’t particularly outstanding in any area, but at least he did his fair share of work.

Only Cynthia was truly competent among them. It would be no exaggeration to say she had flawlessly handled the work of three or four people for years.

Cynthia came from a commoner background but was hired as an administrator due to her excellent academic performance at the academy.

The village where she once lived had been devastated by a demonic beast attack. She had escaped the disaster by staying at the academy at the time, but lost her entire family in the incident.

It was none other than young Dante who had subjugated the demonic beast that appeared in Cynthia’s village and recovered the remains of the villagers. Her dedication to work despite unfair treatment, and her refusal to leave the Leodinas household, seemed partly due to the gratitude stemming from that incident.

“I wondered if perhaps you had delegated paperwork to others while you were busy with practical matters in the field. But this aspect was even more appalling.”

Esteller flipped through the document folder she had been examining earlier. It contained detailed records of the corruption the administrators had committed over the years.

During her stay in the capital, Esteller had thoroughly examined the account books, even cutting back on sleep. The records covered approximately seven years. Some ledgers were so poorly kept that the calculations didn’t add up, while others appeared normal on the surface but cleverly manipulated the prices or quantities of items.

In her previous life, Esteller had been forced to learn how to review account books with brutal thoroughness. As the daughter of Viscount Sodel, she hadn’t enjoyed wrestling with numbers and had only learned the basics.

But when the moment came for her to stand on her own, her personal preferences became irrelevant. It was no longer a matter of likes and dislikes but of life and death.

The administrators and servants sent by Empress Britannia had brazenly deceived her. The numbers in the ledgers always concealed secrets. Sometimes they looked plausible but were distorted; other times they seemed truthful but hid dirty secrets between the lines.

If Esteller couldn’t identify the errors herself and confront them, she would be swindled right under her nose with nowhere to appeal. For survival, she had to master the skill of reading between the lines of account books.

Esteller had finally become proficient through bone-grinding effort. Later, she reached the point where she could bribe administrators in return, keep double books, and support Jacone’s tuition at the Royal University. But how much her head had felt like exploding when she was just starting out… she didn’t want to recall it even now.

Though seven years’ worth of ledgers was a substantial amount, it was heaven compared to dealing with the cunning imperial administrators sent by the Empress.

Esteller had persistently traced the administrators’ footprints. As a result, evidence that they had accepted bribes and permitted all sorts of corruption over a long period was now in her hands.

Even though she had only mentioned a few of their wrongdoings, the faces of the involved administrators turned ashen.

Meeting the gaze of the three administrators, Esteller spoke each word as if carving them with a knife:

“You are incompetent and without conscience. From now on, the Leodinas grand ducal household will donate money to temples rather than waste it on people like you.”

“……”

“The maximum extent of my generosity is not demanding that you return the missing amounts from the ledgers. After all, that money didn’t only go into your pockets.”

Esteller lowered her long eyelashes. Beneath her shadowed eyes, a dark anger seethed like boiling pitch.

‘Such conscienceless people.’

She recalled how Dante had nestled in her arms yesterday, revealing his vulnerable side that he simply couldn’t hold back anymore.

When he spoke about the time just after awakening his divine eyes, he was completely different from when he talked about climbing trees and exploring as a child. He was like a young animal hiding in a cave, licking a fatal wound that wouldn’t easily heal, trying to conceal the fact that he was injured from the outside world.