Hoping for My Death

08. Annoying

“Avoid it!”

Randall raised his voice and, at the same time, swung his sword, slashing off the head of one of the monsters.

Kiiik!

The snake-like monster let out a sharp scream and fell to the ground.

Following Randall’s words, the knights who had been ready for battle in advance calmly dealt with the monsters one by one.

Fortunately, or so it could be said, the monsters that were inhabiting the forest were lower-grade demons than the ones called Piravat.

However, because of their high fertility and high numbers, the sun was already setting after the knights roamed the forest and destroyed all the monster eggs.

“Any casualties?”

“There are none except for a few who were grazed.”

“Snake-type monsters usually carry venom. Do not ignore even a small wound and make sure to see the doctor when we return to the castle.”

“Understood.”

The Knight Commander bowed his head deeply.

While the knights collected the remains of the monsters and relayed the news to Auston, Randall examined the damaged barrier stones.

‘The cut is clean.’

The hexagonal pillar-shaped barrier stone was cut exactly in half.

Randall ran his hand over the cut and confirmed the smooth texture, then made a dark face.

These monsters have low intelligence.

As they were low-level creatures that had not yet fully evolved into demons, they were closer to uncontrollable beasts.

If the monsters had destroyed the barrier stone, the cut would not have been so clean.

But if asked if it was the work of these demon races, there was a high possibility that it wasn’t.

There was no way the demon races did not harm humans when they came all the way here.

And the causal relationship itself did not make sense in the first place.

Auston’s barrier reacts to both monsters and demons.

If they had tried to infiltrate this forest in any way and destroy the barrier stones, the news would have reached the castle.

If so……

“……Dark vermin.”

At Randall’s low murmur, the knights immediately halted their actions with stiff expressions.

Even though demon races are certainly enemies of humans, there are always crazy people everywhere.

Believers who were caught in the delusional belief that if they worshipped the strength of the demon races and followed them, they too would be able to become demons themselves.

They were officially known in the kingdom as ‘Dark vermin’.

“Contact the vassals. Tell them to send all related materials including recent lists of people entering and leaving every territory. We must find them before they cause harm to the people in the territory.”

Pale green eyes sank frighteningly as he turned his back.

＊ ＊ ＊

Meanwhile, Sylvia was being guided around the castle by Thelma after parting ways with Randall.

“Originally, this castle was far worse than this. We were so busy fighting the demon races that we could only do the bare minimum of maintenance. However, thanks to the previous king sending a large number of engineers for the former duke, the castle has become somewhat livable.”

Sylvia looked around the castle while listening to Thelma’s kind explanation.

Perhaps because it hadn’t been a long time since a major renovation, the castle was neat and antique overall.

Every time they passed, the servants who were cleaning greeted them with bashful faces.

“This is the main hall for banquets.”

Thelma smiled and beckoned, and the maids who had been following opened the door.

It was dark inside, but when the maids pulled back the curtains that covered the windows, sunlight shone through and it became brighter.

“I need to take a closer look at this place.”

Sylvia said after looking around the banquet hall.

‘If my mother saw this place, she would freak out.’

Although it was relatively clean as it was also newly renovated,

It was also clear that the banquet hall, as an area where guests would spend most of their time, required more attention.

Sylvia knew that, thanks to the fashionable Countess Fleurette, the popular recent trend now was bright and elegant interior design.

When she turned to Thelma, the latter seemed to have been waiting for her and replied.

“I have already called the top merchant. He will be here soon.”

“Let’s go.”

After all, she does not have the experience of managing a castle for several decades.

Thelma was a capable head maid.

Sylvia went down to the parlor with a satisfied smile at the thought of more time to rest.

As she waited for a moment while drinking the tea a maid served, a small middle-aged man walked into the parlor.

As soon as he saw Sylvia, his eyes widened in surprise at her beauty.

“Kuheum.”

Thelma cleared her throat and glared at him, and the man who had come to his senses belatedly greeted her in a hurry.

“Nice to meet you, Duchess Belfort. My name is Chik Hetla, the owner of Cherville.”

The man, Chik, gave a nice smile.

He narrowed his eyes and surveyed Sylvia, who was lazily reclining on the sofa.

At first, he was surprised by Sylvia’s beauty, but he was a merchant to the core.

To Chik, the elegant-looking, noble lady who had just become the duchess was nothing more than a pushover that he could easily deal with.

‘Rumors have it that she’s never left her mansion before and just by looking at her, you can tell she’s a naive noble lady who knows nothing about the world. I’m sure I’ll be able to get a good catch this time too.’

Chik smiled slyly inwardly, spreading out a catalog on the table with a fake smile on the outside.

Since the banquet hall was to be redecorated, various catalogs such as tiles and curtains were placed side by side on the table.

Since there had not been a proper banquet in the Belfort castle for a while, the maids chattered excitedly about the new catalog they hadn’t seen in quite a while.

“Look at this, Madam! Isn’t this tile color beautiful?”

“The quality of the curtains also seems good.”

“Who else would bring such high-end goods all the way up to the northern regions if not for me? There is none but me.”

Chik said, boasting.

Certainly, of all the sane merchants, the Cherville were the only ones who risked their lives to come to the barren northern part.

Sylvia flipped through the catalog with one ear listening to the maids praising Cherville’s goods.

‘The quality isn’t bad.’

Of course, since he was a merchant, he might have said some exaggerations, but the quality of the goods was not very bad.

Sylvia gave Thelma a sign with her eyes to indicate that she liked the goods.

Thelma, understanding her sign, asked Chik.

“So, how much is it?”

As soon as the question was asked, the maids’ faces tensed up.

Chik took out the abacus with a haughty look and flicked the beads.

“Let’s see, since you said you wanted to redo the entire banquet hall…… Assuming you replace everything with these…… it will be 30 gold coins in total.”

“……!”

Thelma and the maids were shocked by those words and did not say anything.

Sylvia felt the strange atmosphere and whispered to Thelma.

“What’s wrong?”

“……I beg your pardon, but that amount is more than half of the monthly net income of the Duke of Belfort.”

Thelma replied in an embarrassing tone.

Most of the income of the Belfort territory was spent on assisting those who were injured in battles with the demon races or people who lost their homes due to monster attacks.

The money earned was not as small as the territory was large, but the problem was that there were many people in the vast territory who urgently needed help.

30 gold was a large amount of money that could allow several dozens of commoner households to live without worrying about food and living expenses for a month.

It was too much of a burden to spend all that money on the renovation of the banquet hall.

However, if they were to save up on the money, Sylvia would miss out on the opportunity to meet the vassals as the Duchess for the first time, and this weighed heavily on her mind.

In the end, Thelma swallowed her pride and face and said carefully.

“30 gold is not a small amount. You must have known about our circumstances, so if you could lower the price a bit……”

“Haa, Ms. Thelma. It has been so difficult for me to come all the way here. You know how dangerous the road to the north is. I also know your circumstances, that’s why I’m giving you almost everything with little profit.”

Chik protested, cutting off Thelma’s words.

The only road leading to the north was frequented by monsters.

Even though there was a barrier made by Auston, it was a difficult path to walk casually unless accompanied by a skilled mercenary.

Therefore, there were not many merchants traveling to the North.

It was because the cost of the escort exceeded the cost of the goods.

Knowing that the Cherville was the only merchant willing to face the dangers of the North, the servants also showed an apologetic expression.

Finally making up her mind, Thelma swallowed a sigh and opened her mouth.

“I apologize. I was short-sighted. Then, in terms of paying in installments……”

“Thelma.”

It was then.

The moment he heard it, the soft voice that sent shivers down his spine echoed in his ears.

When Thelma turned her head, Sylvia smiled and motioned for her to step back.

She quickly lowered her head and retreated, overwhelmed by the unknown sense of pressure.

‘W-What is this?’

Chik also stiffened in tension.

The merchant’s senses were telling him that something was wrong with the atmosphere.

The Duchess of Belfort, who until a moment ago was reclining on the couch as if she had no interest in worldly matters.

But now, her eyes, which were fixed on him, were like those of a beast looking at its prey.

‘Just another common swindler.’

Sylvia raised the corners of her mouth as she watched Chik shrink his neck in fear at her first call.

In fact, Sylvia had intended to just let the servants do whatever they wanted.

She thought that everyone would be used to such things, so it would be fine to leave them to their own devices.

But there were two things she did not expect.

One is that among the merchants who traded with the North, only the Cherville merchants traded on such a large scale.

And the second thing was……

‘……Why is everyone so soft-hearted?’

They were kind-hearted servants, resembling their master, Randall.

In fact, Sylvia’s decision to intervene was not because of being disgusted by Chik, but because of the guilty faces of the servants.

Sylvia had known that Chik was a swindler when he said that the total amount was 30 gold.

No matter how much she was not interested in her surroundings in this life, she had some common sense that she learned throughout her past life.

Even if she renovated the entire banquet hall with these items, 15 gold was enough.

As Chik said, he was left with almost no profit except for travel expenses, but he could have lowered the price to 10 gold.

However, the northern part of the country was almost isolated within the kingdom, so no one seemed to notice anything strange.

Seeing that they quickly gave up bargaining with an attitude of familiarity, he must have overinflated the price in this way every time.

‘It’s annoying……’

Sylvia felt very sorry for the servants who, despite their own difficult circumstances, were genuinely apologetic for Chik’s crying.

Why do people in the North not know how to doubt people?

Thelma, the maids and even Randall were the same.

There was nothing more foolish than believing in human kindness.

Sylvia felt ‘annoyed’ for the first time in a long time. That was what drove her to move.

Crossing her left leg over her right, she leaned against the armrest.

“Chik.”

“Ah, y-yes!”

“This looks like the ones I saw a few months before I got married. Is it possible that they are out of fashion in the capital and you’re just trying to sell them at an exorbitant price?”

“What? Th-that’s……”

Contrary to what he had expected, Chik was flustered as Sylvia accurately assessed the value and trends of the goods.

After stuttering for a moment, he belatedly made an excuse.

“Oh, no! When you placed your order, you said to bring something that is of the latest trend, right? It may have taken a bit longer to get to the Duchy but these are definitely the latest trend in the capital!”

“Is that so? Really?”

“Aiyoh, of course! Who do you think I am! I am Chik Hetla.”

Chik deliberately raised his voice and gave strength to his shoulders to hide his fluster.

But in the next moment, he regretted all the things he had said before.

“Then you must also know that my name is Sylvia Fleurette Belfort.”

“……Y-Yes?”

“Think carefully, Chik.  If there is a lie in what you say here, then you will turn Fleurette and Belfort into enemies at the same time.”

Sylvia recited as if singing a song and laughed softly.

However, the laughter that did not sprout a single thorn made it even more frightening.

‘I-It shouldn’t it be like this?’

A chill ran down his spine as her bright golden eyes drew a curve.

His experience of swindling for years was telling him.

It was telling him that if he gave the wrong answer here, his neck would be cut off.

But Chik hesitated, and couldn’t get rid of his stupidity.

“Even so……”

“Well, if you had scorned me, you would have received a punishment similar to that of desecration of royalty, so I believe you did not scorn me unless you are crazy. Trust is necessary for business.”

Sylvia returned what Chik had said and smiled brightly.

Calling Thelma with a beckoning hand, she was about to sign the invoice at the bottom that said ’30 gold’.

Seeing that, Chik finally cried out in surrender.

“Just a moment! Please wait a moment!”

“What’s wrong?”

Sylvia looked back at Chik curiously.

He could not stand the sharp gazes of the servants who were saying, ‘How dare you raise your voice to our mistress,’ and closed his eyes.

In the end, there was only one choice that Chik could make.

“I’ll give it to you…… for 15 gold coins.”

With a tearful heart, Chik revised the price of the bill to 15 gold, signed it, and handed over the goods.

But his misfortune did not end there.

“W-What is this?”

“This is a return request for that transaction that has been exaggeratedly inflated in the North. The Madam has requested that you handle it as soon as possible.”

On the way out of Belfort Castle.

Chik saw the documents handed to him by Wilcott, the butler, and felt as if the sky was falling.

Wilcott felt relieved and wanted to immediately bow down his head at Sylvia’s feet after driving away Chik.

‘It seemed that the Madam had no intention of forgiving him anyway.’

And that was also the same for him.

The experienced butler hummed a tune as he went into the castle.

‘I have more things to report to the master.’