WYDM 12

A long corridor stretched inward, and the door that seemed to be the destination was right in the middle.

With her haughty gait, the secretary walked straight toward the door Sehera had been looking at. There was no polite guidance or waiting.

Did working people need to be this unfriendly?

Leaving that question behind, Sehera entered through the still-open door.

Once inside, the office turned out to be more spacious than expected. She took one step, then another onto the warm-colored carpet that muffled footsteps. Directly ahead, in front of a wide desk, sat a large chair with its back turned to her.

Sehera cleanly ignored the chair that wasn’t facing her and began carefully looking around the surroundings first.

The bookshelves filling the walls—which could be called a library of papers—were packed tightly with documents without a single gap.

There were also various unidentifiable objects scattered about: stuffed rare animals, wooden models making strange movements and constantly in motion. Besides the papers, there were so many items whose purpose she couldn’t fathom that Sehera felt bewildered.

“Ah, welcome, noble young lady. Young lady? Not a married woman but a young lady—what brings you to a lawyer’s office?”

Just then, the person who’d been sitting with the chair turned completely away, seemingly uninterested, spun around and spoke in an extremely cheerful voice. The voice immediately drew back her stolen attention, and she looked at him.

The person sitting with his chin propped up at the desk, eyes sparkling, was much younger than expected. Seeing his blond hair and sparkling blue eyes brought to mind a glamorous noble heir rather than a lawyer.

“Are you… Lawyer Fredil?”

His unbelievable age made her question him like that.

She knew not to judge people by their appearance, but when she thought of the lawyer who’d frequented her family home since childhood—someone with snow-white hair who wore glasses—the match didn’t compute immediately.

If only Grandpa Paul were still alive… How could they have been so inseparable, working together constantly, that even when the Count and Countess had their accident, he was with them and passed away together?

Having missed the chance to solve everything at once—from reclaiming the Count title to restarting Dirk’s operations—felt like such a waste.

Sitting before this man suddenly made her think of Paul, dredging up various memories.

“That’s correct, Miss. Would you like to take a seat first?”

Unlike the young lady who’d just opened the door and was standing there blankly, he offered her a seat.

A large single-person sofa was positioned in front of the desk so the lawyer wouldn’t have to move even a step from his desk. Beyond being consideration for clients, having such a splendid sofa for them provided a clue about the status of the clients he typically dealt with.

“You seem like a perceptive young lady. Nea? Go bring some tea.”

“Understood, Mr. Fredil.”

The lawyer’s secretary left a respectful greeting and exited the room. There seemed to be a separate room for preparing tea.

“I’ve heard some rumors… might you be Lady Sehera, daughter of Count Planer?”

Sehera froze in shock while moving to settle into the sofa. What… did she just hear?

She was so startled she couldn’t even think to hide her surprise. Her stopped feet, flinching shoulders, and trembling pupils—within three seconds, Sehera cleared her throat and managed to sit down.

Even then, for a moment, she couldn’t raise her head to look straight ahead and stared at the window beyond that chair.

“You don’t need to be so surprised. Being a lawyer isn’t a profession where you just sit cooped up in an office listening to whoever comes by.”

She could tell his smoothly smiling words came from genuine confidence, not bravado or anything like that.

Though she hadn’t yet figured out exactly what kind of person he was, Sehera thought this alone was enough to consider entrusting him with work.

A lawyer needed to be bold. Since they had to resolve conflicts between nobles, they needed a certain amount of guts, and if he had enough information-gathering ability to recognize her immediately, shouldn’t she be able to trust him?

“That’s right. As you’ve figured out, I’m Sehera Planer.”

When Sehera spoke, she saw his eyes sparkle. Like a cat discovering an interesting toy, he seemed very pleased about how to approach her.

This person wouldn’t be easy. She thought that standing against the world might actually mean standing against people.

She needed to skillfully win over this lawyer sitting before her—if not to the point of loyalty, at least to make him someone who wouldn’t betray her and would see the job through to the end.

She needed that assurance.

For them, assurance would be money, but since Sehera couldn’t produce an amount that would prevent any betrayal…

“No need to be so guarded. I’m known in the industry as someone with integrity. If you entrust me with work, I give it my all.”

He seemed far removed from things like sincerity, responsibility, and integrity, so believing his words at face value seemed problematic, but Sehera nodded.

She hadn’t heard of any lawyer better than this man. Though everyone seemed to share the information secretly through word of mouth, ultimately everyone mentioned this person.

“Alright. I’ll start by trusting you.”

When Sehera answered calmly, Fredil curled up the corners of his mouth, pleased with her response. His smiling face was also attractive. If she’d met him on the street, she wouldn’t have thought he had an intellectual profession like lawyer based on his appearance.

Fredil kept looking at Sehera with a smiling face, and while Sehera’s lips curved up slightly, the light of suspicion hadn’t yet cleared from her eyes.

But the two sat facing each other, about to begin their conversation in earnest.

“Well then. What would you like to request of me?”

He threw out a straightforward, concise question. His smiling lips remained the same, as did his eyes looking directly at her.

Sehera couldn’t answer immediately and rolled her tongue in her mind for a moment. The direct question temporarily stopped her still-unprepared mind.

Knock knock.

“Come in.”

Just then, a precise knock sounded. When Fredil answered like he’d been waiting, the door opened and the secretary from before brought tea on a tray.

Teacups were concisely placed before the two people, each cup filled with tea, and then the secretary quietly exited the room again.

After that brief commotion passed, Sehera saw that Fredil was still staring intently at her. He seemed to be saying he wouldn’t even blink until she told him.

“I am the sole heir to Count Planer left in his will. The previous Count passed away in an accident and left everything to me, so it’s right that I become the Countess. My goal is to reclaim all the authority and assets I entrusted to Content Planer, who’s currently acting as Count.”

Sehera stated her goal confidently, and Fredil curved his lips even more deeply at her words.

But looking closely, he was only smiling with his lips. With eyes that didn’t curve much, he looked at Sehera subtly yet piercingly.

“Good. I see.”

He nodded before asking for details, seemingly having roughly grasped the situation from her concise answer. Not yet a word of acceptance, though.

She frowned slightly, thinking it odd to come requesting services and then wait for the lawyer’s permission, but since he apparently sometimes refused clients’ requests, that part naturally concerned her.

“Before that, if you don’t mind, could you tell me what’s happened so far? I need to understand the situation well to give you an answer.”

He needed to know the situation…

Sehera stared at him blankly for a moment, thinking about what to say and how much. Some indefinable tension circled between the two.

* * *

“Miss! You’re already up?”

In the largest room of the Count’s estate where birds chirped noisily enough in the morning, the sound of rustling papers echoed from early morning. Sitting between the chirping birds and rustling papers was Sehera.

She’d braided her sparkling golden hair down her back and was sitting at the desk examining papers when she suddenly looked up as a lively voice resembling birdsong interrupted.

The one who’d opened the door and appeared was Sana. Her brown hair tied high swayed with very light movements. The movements perfectly resembled her own nature.

“Mm, there’s a lot to check. If I finish and submit it by today, there shouldn’t be any disruption in getting the goods.”

She stared intently at the documents with a focused expression.

Sana came in excitedly and opened the curtains so the blue sky outside could look down inside, then opened the windows one by one at the farthest point opposite the desk.

She was practicing what she’d learned from her mother—a method of circulating the interior air without direct outside air touching it.

Sana moved around trying not to disturb the concentrating Sehera. She had good concentration. Once focused, she sometimes finished a day’s work in just a few hours.

She’d heard through her father that Sehera wasn’t particularly good at business acumen, but business acumen could be seen as cunning, so that was fine enough.

Being cunning and calculating profits—Lawyer Fredil handled those things at crucial moments, so if she was a diligent lord who knew how to value people, that was enough.

“I don’t think I’ve seen you this busy in the middle of the month before… Are you bringing in something new?”

Having seen and heard things from the sidelines, Sana had become a maid who could make such observations. Feeling proud that she could now make such comments, the corners of her mouth twitched.

“Ah, it’s already been about a year since I officially started this work. What I’m doing now is gifts for the people who started this with me…”

Time had already flown by like this.

Things that had started with nothing had already reached their one-year mark.

‘Dirk’ had successfully restarted operations. They’d begun by sending agricultural products from within Count Planer’s territory to the capital for sale.