Chapter 1
Chapter 1
Ding!
[SYSTEM | 1 jurang remains until the debt is fully repaid.]
The system kindly notified me of the last remaining 1 jurang of debt.
I repeatedly pressed my fingertips against my eyes, then released them, thinking about this small, cute balance.
Considering the debt I’d been paying off for the past five years, it was only natural.
Six zeros.
I had paid all of that off.
Just 1 jurang more, and I would bid farewell to that enormous debt forever.
I casually extended my hand to my younger brother, who had dark circles under his eyes.
“What?”
“Hand over 1 jurang.”
Silently, Ijin rummaged through his pockets, spread several coins on the table, and managed to scrape together 1 jurang to hand to me.
As I rolled the jingling coins in my hand and called up the system, the ‘Repay Debt’ button lit up.
‘Repay Debt.’
As I pressed the button I’d grown sick of, the money in my hand disappeared with a clinking sound.
Then, fanfare played, and a system message appeared.
[SYSTEM | Congratulations! ‘Irina Seike’ has fully repaid the debt of ‘5,000,000’ jurang as of the 891st Imperial Year, November 10th.]
“Ahhhhh! Finally!”
I screamed, sitting in the Count Seike family’s reception room, which was now empty after selling off all our household goods.
My younger brother, Ijin, who had suffered alongside me to repay the debt, also let out a scream that was close to a cheer.
My teeth gritted when I thought about how hellishly we had struggled to repay the enormous sum of 5 million jurang.
[SYSTEM | Clap, clap, clap! Our entire system staff cheers for ‘Irina Seike’s’ happy new beginning!]
[SYSTEM | Let’s never get into debt again, shall we?]
I shouted “Shut up!” at the annoying system window and sprawled out again.
That’s right. I had possessed a character in a game.
As someone who had played all sorts of games before, the possession itself wasn’t a big problem.
However, the genre of this game was a serious issue.
Just before I died, I had been playing a game with the rather direct title “Miss, Please Pay Off the Debt”.
“Miss, Please Pay Off the Debt”, nicknamed “Miss Debt”, is a game where the player pays off the debt of a fallen noble family.
It’s just that the setting happens to be a romance fantasy.
So if you ask if there’s any romance,
‘This is a scam.’
It’s not that there isn’t any.
It’s just that it’s not the player’s romance.
The overall storyline of this game is the typical tale where the female protagonist meets the male protagonist, war breaks out, they save the empire, and eventually fall in love with each other.
The problem was that the player had to focus on diligently paying off their family’s debt from start to finish.
The romance between the female and male leads was merely an event that occurred as the player tried to pay off the debt.
And I had possessed a character in the debt-repayment romance game.
‘F*ck.’
At first, I didn’t even realize I had possessed someone.
When I opened my eyes after dying, I was about five years old, and the entire Count Seike family was in an uproar because the firstborn daughter, who had been an idiot, had come to her senses.
And back then, we weren’t buried in debt like this.
We weren’t wealthy, but we were a count’s family in the empire, living comfortably enough.
So I thought,
‘Am I born with a silver spoon? I’ll just live an easy life. Haha.’
I planned to enjoy life.
However, I realized something was wrong when I was fifteen, and I understood my life was screwed when I was seventeen.
The family gradually declined, and when I was seventeen and my younger brother was fifteen, we went completely bankrupt.
‘Sis, what do we do now?’
‘…Good question.’
Our parents had passed away early due to an accident and illness.
Our relatives seemed to help at first, but later they treated us like we didn’t exist.
When I came to my senses and properly examined our family’s situation, it was even more serious.
All our businesses were failing, and as a result, the debt had grown even more since I last checked.
That’s when the system window appeared.
[SYSTEM | Please enter your name: |]
Seeing the window asking for my name without any explanation, I thought I had awakened some kind of power.
You know, in novels, when a system window appears, the character awakens and becomes the empire’s hero, right?
I thought that’s what was happening to me.
[SYSTEM | Please enter your name: Irina Seike]
[SYSTEM | Is Irina Seike correct?]
So I hurriedly entered my name.
But what appeared before me after I pressed the ‘Yes’ option wasn’t an ‘Awakening’ window or anything like that.
[SYSTEM | The time is the 888th Imperial Year, January…]
The system displayed text as if explaining the situation and background when first starting a game.
Even in this confusing situation, I was tense, wondering if there might be a way to overcome this situation.
And what followed was…
[SYSTEM | The Count Seike family has gone bankrupt.]
‘…’
[SYSTEM | ‘Irina Seike’, designated as the acting head of the family, must repay the Count Seike family’s debt and achieve bankruptcy recovery.]
‘…’
‘Sis?’
‘…No way.’
The moment I saw that message, I remembered a game.
It was impressive that I could remember it even after nearly 10 years.
[SYSTEM | Now then, player ‘Irina Seike’. From now on, please repay the debt!]
[SYSTEM | ‘5,000,000’ jurang remains until the debt is fully repaid.]
‘This is insane…’
[SYSTEM | We’re starting now!]
[SYSTEM | Miss, Please Pay Off the Debt!]
And that’s how I ended up having to repay the enormous sum of 5 million jurang.
Damn it.
* * *
Roughly speaking, 1 jurang is enough money to buy an apple, so the 5 million jurang that my brother and I had worked like dogs to repay over the past 5 years…
“What a waste.”
It’s about equivalent to the price of an apartment in Seoul’s most expensive neighborhood.
“Sis, I never imagined we could repay that money.”
“Me neither.”
“If you didn’t have that ability, we definitely couldn’t have repaid it.”
I spoke lazily, sinking into the comfortable armchair in the reception room, warmed by the fireplace.
“That’s right, without this thing, we definitely couldn’t have repaid it…”
Although I had been cursing at the system the whole time, calling it names, thanks to it, we were able to repay the enormous debt.
In fact, the debt the Count Seike family had incurred was much more than 5 million jurang.
But the system said it would let it slide since this was just the tutorial, and if we repaid 5 million jurang, the rest of the debt would be automatically forgiven.
Moreover, the process of repaying that 5 million jurang was made easier through quests and such, providing help to repay it bit by bit.
For example, it would suggest opening a flea market to sell family items, or gathering fallen fruit to make and sell jam, accompanying us on our journey to repay the debt in small ways.
[SYSTEM | Ding dong~! Garage sale~! A quest has arrived. Shall we sell some unused items?!]
[SYSTEM | Oh my, it’s raining! Let’s buy fallen fruit cheaply and make jam!]
At first, I followed along half-heartedly with these unrealistically mundane quests, but as I did so, I started to build connections, unexpected events occurred, and these things snowballed like a butterfly effect, eventually allowing us to repay the money.
“It really seems amazing, that system thing.”
“I think so too.”
I could understand it relatively easily because I knew it was a game interface, but Ijin didn’t.
Originally, I wasn’t confident in explaining it to him, so I wasn’t going to talk about it, but I had no choice if I wanted to make him understand the debt repayment process.
The 5 million jurang debt was real money borrowed here.
Some was borrowed from a famous bank, some from other families.
But I didn’t need to go and repay it directly.
As I repaid the debt 1 jurang, 2 jurang at a time in the system, it would automatically resolve the debt.
“Is the system gone now?”
At Ijin’s question, I called up the system.
[SYSTEM | Tutorial complete!]
[SYSTEM | Calculating…]
“Nothing else is showing up.”
The word ‘tutorial’ was very ominous, but for now, I wanted to savor this state of being free from debt.
“Truly, you two, we’re so proud of you. If the late Count and Countess could see this…”
The butler and maid, who had been guarding this mansion since before I was born, were wiping away tears of emotion.
They were people who had cared for us out of loyalty to the previous Count, even though the family couldn’t pay them proper wages.
“Will, Lily. Thank you so much. We absolutely couldn’t have made it this far without you two.”
“Not at all, young miss.”
I shook my head.
At first, we repaid the debt in small amounts, 1 jurang, 5 jurang at a time, but after we started receiving substantial help from the system, we even started a small business.
Thanks to the information I already knew from playing this game in my previous life, we were able to successfully repay the debt and nurture a small business.
So now, under the name of the Count Seike family, we had a steady, albeit small, income that could somehow maintain our lifestyle.
It seemed we wouldn’t go hungry from now on.
“You’re an adult this year, so officially take over the family.”
“…How can I do that when you’re here, sis.”
I shook my head.
I had worked hard enough.
Now that we’ve paid off the debt, I just want to grow some grapes and live while drinking wine.
“Do whatever you want to do.”
I want to live an easy life.
“Just don’t get into debt.”
“Sis…”
If we could have ended the day this emotionally, it would have been really nice.
It really would have been nice.
If only I could have enjoyed even just a week, no, a day, or even an hour free from debt, it would have been really nice.
Unfortunately, the world wasn’t on my side.
Because someone came to visit the dreary Count Seike family mansion that we hadn’t been able to manage properly.
A man knocked on the door, soaking wet from the storm that had hit the Count Seike territory for the first time in years, the dreariest territory among count territories, the dreariest count mansion in the territory.
“…”
I quietly closed my mouth at the sight of the sturdy man with jet-black hair and red eyes.
The man was drenched, but he exuded an air of dignity.
However, unlike his shining appearance, his clothes were not so grand.
He was wearing clothes made of high-quality fabric, but they looked worn, clearly the attire of a fallen noble.
Being soaked in the rain made it even more apparent.
However, his stunning beauty that shone through even when wet, and the gloomy expression covering that beauty, made him look like he had a story to tell.
That’s why it felt even more ominous.
“…Excuse me. I’m Cassis Luwin. The sudden rain forced me to knock on your door urgently.”
He said, wiping the dripping water with his hand.
Cassis Luwin.
The master of the Luwin Duchy, Duke Luwin.
At that name, I unconsciously muttered a curse.
Of course.
Cassis Luwin was the male protagonist of “Miss, Please Pay Off the Debt!”
The male lead who had everything – power, wealth, honor – everything except the female lead!
And now this male lead had appeared before me looking like a beggar.
Ding-!
[SYSTEM | Calculation complete! Please check your rewards and next quest!]
And at the same time, the system notified me of an announcement.
