SWTI 10

Chapter 10

10. The Unspoken Line

Like a flower slowly blooming, his violet-colored eyes gradually opened.

For some reason, I couldn’t take my eyes off him. I stared at him blankly for a moment before finally realizing what he had said and raising my brows.

“Who said I was running away?”

After throwing out those words with a hint of bravado, I immediately hid my trembling left hand.

I must have landed on it awkwardly during the accident, because whenever it rained, my left wrist would throb with pain.

He chuckled softly again.

“It just seemed as though you were leaving without a word, Madam.”

His laughter seemed to vibrate through the air.

I bit my lip, then finally closed the door and stepped into the room.

“You’re mistaken.”

Click, click.

I headed straight for the window.

As I did, I could feel his lingering gaze following me from behind.

I closed the open window.

The room fell silent in an instant.

I knew I was being stubborn, but my pride wouldn’t allow me to do otherwise. On days like this, I didn’t want anyone else to see how vulnerable I became.

“Why did you leave the window open? Are you trying to catch a cold?”

“Ah…”

Once again, I tried to hide my uneasiness behind a show of bravado, but he drew out his response.

“I thought someone might be crying again.”

“What? What did you say?”

“Nothing.”

He smiled faintly.

I clicked my tongue, muttering that he was being ridiculous, then hesitated before heading toward the bed.

“Don’t cross over.”

I pointed to the invisible line running down the center of the bed and warned him firmly.

Unlike the Grand Duke’s castle, which I had completely renovated, Schubel’s bed remained exactly as it had been.

That was because my stubborn insistence that no mass-produced furniture could be placed in the Grand Duke’s castle had clashed with the craftsman’s determination to create the finest bed possible, one painstakingly made by hand.

Even though the bed was quite large, the unfamiliar presence of my “husband” beside me made it feel cramped enough that even the slightest movement bothered me.

I should tell them to make it even larger than I originally ordered. Large enough that I couldn’t possibly fall off no matter what I did.

Amid a slight sense of tension and discomfort,

I firmly resolved to keep my distance and turned over, lying on the opposite side of the bed from Schubel.

Rumble.

Thunder echoed heavily through the room. Over it came the faint sound of someone’s breathing.

When a sudden flash of lightning illuminated the room, I flinched.

Then someone’s hand reached over and pulled the blanket up to my shoulders.

Strangely enough, that small gesture made me feel safe, and my tense mind gradually began to settle.

“If…”

And so his low, whisper-like voice…

“If I wanted to cross this line, what would you do?”

His words felt distant, almost like something heard in a dream.

His voice carried a strange mixture of curiosity and amusement.

“Madam.”

My consciousness slowly faded.

4. Memories of a Stalk of Wheat

The morning after the rain that had poured throughout the night.

“Kai, Kai, Kai.”

[What is it, again?!]

The sky was brilliantly clear.

I tapped the Ring of Oath with my finger.

Because of the troublesome baby dragon who pretended not to hear whenever I called him “Brat,” we had compromised and settled on calling him “Kai.”

“Come on, remember it quickly. This is today’s homework.”

[Ugh… What exactly do you think this body is?]

“A magnificent Demon Dragon who can freely copy any object?”

[Hmph. This body is pretty magnificent.]

I had realized it the moment he transformed into a ring, but Kaiseus was an incredible copycat item who could transform into practically anything with a single forward roll…

No, not a copycat item—a Demon Dragon.

‘But can you transform into something other than a ring?’

[Of course. This body is Kaiseus II, after all.]

‘Then what about this?’

[Hmph! Something this trivial? That’s child’s play for me!]

‘What about this?’

[Of course…]

‘This one? This too? Can you turn into this one as well?’

After that, I excitedly kept shoving various things in front of him until he finally threw a fit and sulked, so we agreed that he would transform into only one thing per day.

[Why are you making me do this?]

“Who knows? Let’s just say everything has its uses.”

I smiled at Kaiseus, who grumbled about whether I was planning to go hunting or something.

“I’d rather not use them either, but I’m an ordinary person. I have to protect myself.”

As I said that, I wiped one of the items in my collection—a hand-sized magic bullet gun—with a cloth.

Knock, knock.

There was a knock at the door.

“Young Madam, the head of the Elbanon Trading Company has arrived.”

“I’ll be out shortly.”

I had already gotten on casual speaking terms with all the servants, including the butler.

“What about Mother?”

“She said she would leave him in your hands, Young Madam.”

I left the room and headed toward the drawing room with Vikal.

The person I had an appointment with today was the head of the Elbanon Trading Company.

Since the North was an environment where growing grain was difficult, it inevitably had to import food from other regions.

The Elbanon Trading Company had been responsible for supplying food to the Grand Duchy since the previous generation.

I recalled the “Northern Revitalization Project” I had devised after reviewing the territory report not long ago.

‘The first thing is obviously food.’

Food was important in any territory. Naturally, the more we could secure, the better.

However, relying solely on imports could eventually cause us to lose our food sovereignty.

To prevent that, we needed to develop and improve grain varieties suited to this region…

‘But developing new crops isn’t something that can be done in just a year or two.’

Until then, we had no choice but to continue relying on the Elbanon Trading Company as we had before.

“Ha-ha! What a lovely young lady! It’s a pleasure to meet you! I am the head of the Elbanon Trading Company.”

‘…Young lady?’

I looked at the middle-aged man before me, who had the greasy appearance of a pig and had already looked down on me from our very first meeting.

The corners of my lips curled upward.

“Give me the ledgers.”

“Pardon?”

“Vikal, the transaction ledgers.”

“Yes, Young Madam.”

“W-Wait, hold on…!”

Vikal forcibly opened the merchant’s belongings and pulled out the ledgers.

The merchant tried to stop him, but our slender butler was, despite his appearance, a former Northern knight renowned as one of the strongest in the Empire.

He could subdue a pig like this with one hand.

Vikal politely handed the ledgers to me.

I crossed my legs and casually flipped through them.

And then—

‘…Ha. Look at this. He’s been skimming money.’

I had discovered signs of fraud.

Although Bella was also serving as the financial administrator, she had originally been a noblewoman.

She was accustomed to spending money, not making it. If a professional deliberately tampered with the accounting, it would not be easy for her to notice.

‘Besides, how busy could the position of Grand Duchess be? She has to oversee this enormous Grand Duchy while also dealing with all the retainers constantly chirping about how they need their own interests taken care of.’

With my father-in-law, the Grand Duke of Runein, currently stationed at a fortress along the border, the Grand Duchess was even acting as the territory’s regent.

She must have been so busy that even having two bodies wouldn’t have been enough.

That was why a lord needed experts in every field by their side to handle matters on their behalf when they were too busy.

The Grand Ducal family was on the verge of ruin, which was why they didn’t have such people.

In other words, my mother-in-law had been completely taken advantage of by this pig until now.

‘How should I crush him?’

I tapped the ledger with my finger.

I examined the Seton ledgers every day, and they were far more complicated, with entirely different units. So the trick this man had pulled was obvious to me.

One of the grains commonly exported from the South was B-grade Hessen wheat. Most of the wheat from the South that reached the market was Hessen wheat.

However, with any crop, there were bound to be batches with lower marketability.

That was C-grade Hekail wheat.

The problem with Hekail wheat was that it had a shorter shelf life than Hessen wheat.

Because of this disadvantage, Hekail wheat was traded at only one-third the price of Hessen wheat.

‘But this is the North. The average temperature is much lower than in the South. Thanks to that, even Hekail wheat can be stored in the North for as long as Hessen wheat. That means he can pass Hekail wheat off as Hessen wheat.’

How did I know this?

When I had investigated the food problem in the North, I had first examined the grain produced in the South, where production was particularly high.

Besides, I already had reports from Seton’s experts containing detailed information about the wheat trade from various perspectives.

[70% of the wheat imported into the North has been confirmed to be ‘Hekail wheat.’]

‘But this ledger says it’s 100% Hessen wheat?’

No matter how complicatedly someone twisted the numbers, numbers did not lie.

The discrepancies in the prices here and there were clearly visible.

To someone who knew how to unravel that tangled golden thread, the whole situation was laughably obvious.

I leisurely opened my mouth, ready to properly deal with the fraudster sitting before me.