Chapter 70
He picked up one of the gold bars inside and examined it closely. It was the same type as the one Hermia had presented to him when she proposed, with the same size and shape.
Moreover, the wine boxes weren’t just one. The boxes, buried without even being opened, were connected seamlessly in all directions.
He slowly straightened up as he looked at the shape that seemed to fill the entire floor. Now was the time to ask what he hadn’t been able to ask before because he had been dragged along without a clue.
Hermia read the question in his expression as he turned around and opened her mouth first.
“Mel’s father… I think it was Jack Vansen who buried it. He made this wine cellar too.”
A name that has been appearing frequently lately, Jack Vansen.
Walter silently looked down at what he was holding in his hand.
Gold, the origin of which is unknown, fills the basement floor. The wine boxes are a trick to supply the gold without suspicion, which means that it is private property that was not legally acquired.
The Western Empire, constantly sending spies, framing the Eastern Empire for their crimes…
In that case, could Jack Vansen be…?
“Mel ran away with my necklace and my, my money that was supposed to be mine, so I’m going to take it all.”
Hermia, sitting on the wine box, spoke in a determined voice as if she had made a big decision.
“Please convert it into cash. I’ll give you 20%.”
“……”
“Or 30%…?”
“Hermia.”
“35%! I can’t give up any more than that! Not even if a knife is held to my throat!”
She frowned, her throat hurting after speaking. Even though a fit of coughing was about to burst out, this was an issue that had to be addressed.
“I’m going to use this to prepare for the wedding, so just give it all to me. I think I’ll feel relieved if I have at least this much.”
“That… I don’t think that will be possible.”
At Walter’s words, Hermia came down to the floor. He held her swaying body, which still had a fever, but unlike before when she had nestled quietly, Hermia groaned and pushed Walter away.
“You’re not thinking of taking it all, are you…”
It seemed that her legs had lost strength due to the mental shock. Seeing the distraught Hermia, he put her back on the box and shook his head.
“I don’t mean that I’m going to take it, but that it’s evidence that needs to be investigated by the military authorities.”
Hermia’s face turned even paler than before. If Walter wasn’t going to have it… then those things would become someone else’s altogether. An enormous despair washed over her at the sound that she would never be able to have it.
“T, then what about my money. My 300 million…”
“Let’s go back to the room first… Hermia!”
Walter supported her as she collapsed in his arms. Hermia couldn’t overcome the shock and fainted.
* * *
When she opened her eyes again, it was morning with birds chirping outside the terrace. A peaceful scene unfolded under the sunlight, as if the night before had been a dream.
“Good morning, Miss.”
Emily approached, placed her hand on her forehead, and smiled warmly like sunlight.
“The medicine that the doctor prescribed must have worked well. It seems like the fever has almost completely gone down.”
Drip, a stream of water flowed down her tear duct and wet the pillowcase. Emily, thinking it was a physiological tear, casually wiped it away and walked away.
My money… my gold…
The sound of her muttering didn’t reach the ears of the busy maids and scattered into the air.
Hermia was vacantly shaken like a person who had lost all will while they wiped her body with a washbasin filled with steaming water, combed her hair, and even dressed her.
My gold bars…
When she entered the dining room with Emily’s support, a wonderful meal had been prepared. The chef from the Duke’s castle, who had been dispatched early in the morning, greeted her with a welcoming face.
“Oh my! You’ve gotten so thin again since I last saw you, so I knew this would happen and prepared a lot of healthy food.”
“…Thank you.”
Hermia replied in a small voice, making eye contact with Walter, who was sitting there first.
At Walter’s gesture, all the servants, including the chef, left their seats and were alone again. Behind him, there was a window wide open. Hermia picked up a warm cup of herbal tea and hesitantly asked.
“When the investigation is over… what happens to the gold?”
It was a bleak topic for a morning greeting, but he answered smoothly.
“If Jack Vansen acquired it legally, the ownership will be transferred to Count Arnold Vansen, but for now, I don’t think that’s likely.”
Still, it was fortunate that the worst-case scenario, where both Walter and the gold had disappeared when she woke up, hadn’t happened. She had trusted him and shown him, but she was amazed that Walter was rational even after seeing that much gold.
“Even if I had run away with a letter, you would have come to catch me.”
Walter, not hearing her mutter quietly at the cup, continued from earlier.
“Since it is difficult to identify accurately with the naked eye, we will have an expert check it first and then investigate…”
“If it’s illegal, does the royal family take the gold?”
“Strictly speaking, not the royal family, but as national property…”
“Haa. What a waste.”
She put down her cup and lowered her head onto the table. She desperately wanted to grab him by the collar and persuade him to just let them have it, but it would be impossible to get through to this stubborn man.
Gathering her complicated feelings, she slowly raised her head and looked at Walter. The gold was gone, but where else could she get that man? It was fortunate, if anything, that it was a face that could soothe her depressed heart.
“It would be good to finish the investigation within three months.”
“Three months?”
“If my father sees that when he comes back…”
He would definitely make a fuss that it was his. She didn’t spit out the rest of the words, but he understood enough and nodded.
‘What could I do? I don’t have anyone else to show it to besides Walter.’
She was painfully regretful, but she had no choice but to give up.
“…By the way, about our wedding.”
She asked slyly while eating the soup made with plenty of all sorts of rare ingredients and simmered thoroughly.
“Can’t we just have the wedding before Father comes back?”
Walter stopped the hand holding the spoon and looked at her.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t want… my father and stepmother at my wedding. I don’t want to walk in holding their hands.”
“Let’s do that.”
“People will point fingers because it’s rude, but still…”
“As soon as I confirm the Archbishop’s schedule, I’ll set a date right away.”
“……”
He was indeed a man worth giving up gold for.
Hermia impulsively wanted to close the window, but she clenched her toes to keep from getting up. Instead, she hesitantly reached her hand out over the table, and he likewise paused before taking it. This was also satisfying.
“Your hand is cool.”
“Miss Hermia still has a fever.”
“Oh, right.”
It was fortunate that she still had a fever. Otherwise, it would have been obvious that her ears were burning up, and she would have been embarrassed.
Using the fever as an excuse, Hermia held Walter’s hand tightly and smiled shyly.
“But why did you go back to using the old honorifics?”
“……”
“Are you going to keep calling me that even after we get married?”
Walter didn’t answer this time either. When he was cursed, he said embarrassing things like ‘my dear’ and ‘my love’ just fine.
“If there are any people you want to invite to the wedding, please give me a list, it doesn’t matter if they’re not nobles…”
Hermia giggled again because he was blatantly changing the subject, which was cute.
“Even if I invite the friends I knew when I was young, they’ll be anxious to get something out of me, so there’s no need… Hmm. Uncle Phillip, Uncle Sam, and the chef?”
“If it’s Phillip, you mean the butler of the Vansen family. Who are the other two?”
“Uncle Sam is a coachman, and he secretly told me when my parents would be back when they went out. Then, when the two weren’t there, the chef secretly packed me food.”
Walter nodded calmly with his eyes lowered.
Three people among the dozens of servants in the mansion who were kind to her. Just three people. The only three people.
The small acts of kindness shown to the Count’s illegitimate child were about to change the remaining lives of those three people completely.
Hermia, who was slowly picturing the wedding, suddenly startled and withdrew her hand.
“That’s right! Don’t we do some kind of vow, oath or something, at the wedding?”
Walter raised his head at the sudden words. Hermia jumped up from her chair, but quickly sat back down, frowning deeply as if she was dizzy.
“Like words of oath! I’ve seen couples getting married in church, and there’s something you answer when the priest asks.”
“Ah.”
Only then did he understand the meaning and became serious as well.
If the officiant says the wedding vows and asks if the bride and groom intend to fulfill them, the bride and groom must answer in unison. Promising to be faithful to each other for life…
“Hermia.”
He hesitated, touching his lips, and said, erasing his troubled expression.
“We can omit as many formal procedures as we want.”
It was painfully sad that she didn’t love him, but he couldn’t call off the wedding now. He has no intention of doing so either.
Since it had come to this, he was about to say that even in front of the royal family or the Archbishop, they should boldly just exchange rings and proceed with the paperwork, when Hermia suddenly muttered.
“What should I do? I wonder if I can answer if I write something down and read it?”
Read it? Not say it?
Walter immediately got up and strode away. The voice he spoke to the servant waiting outside the door was uncharacteristically urgent.
“Bring paper and a pen. Quickly.”
Soon, he returned with stationery and a fountain pen in his hand.
Walter put it on the table and said seriously. Write down anything that’s a lie.
After a moment’s thought, Hermia scribbled down something.
“I’ve finished writing.”
He checked the contents and sent a look that it was suitable, so Hermia cleared her throat. Holding the letter in both hands and fixing her eyes firmly on the letters, her lips finally parted.
“I’m so-so… averagely pretty. Huh?”
I can’t believe it. A lie really came out.
