DSDD 06

Chapter 6

“……Marquess. Are you sure this is the right place?”

“I suppose it is.”

At Laura’s deeply dissatisfied voice, I nodded weakly. Then, with a complicated feeling in my heart, I stared at the old building in front of me.

The sign hanging above the building bore the faded words, ‘Pawnshop.’

It must have been incredibly old and worn, because even part of the first character had already fallen off.

This was on an entirely different level from the high-class pawnshops primarily used by wealthy nobles. It was, in other words, a seedy place frequented mostly by people from the back alleys.

The reason I had come here today was very simple.

“Haa, seriously, I can’t believe I have to…….”

Suppressing a sigh, I unfolded the letter.

At first, I had been too shocked and flustered to examine it properly, but there was a back page.

When I checked the back, I saw that it, too, was densely covered in writing.

[I urgently needed money, but I had run out of everything I had on hand, so I had no choice.

First, I pawned the ring you were wearing, okay?

I’ll attach the map, too. The name of the shop is……]

That was it.

If the front page had simply described her circumstances and what she had been doing, then the back page contained an incredibly detailed account of all the trouble she had caused.

You said you didn’t remember! You said the only thing you felt sorry about was the incident with Leon Obsidian!

I gritted my teeth at the infuriating contents, even though I was seeing them again.

No wonder.

Ever since I regained consciousness, I had felt like there was something missing from my finger.

The ring I had always worn on my index finger was gone.

“What the hell was this crazy woman thinking? How could she exchange that ring for money?!”

It was customary to wear a ring symbolizing the head of the family on the right index finger.

And that ring was a treasure passed down through generations of the family, as well as a symbol of the house itself.

And yet—

She had pawned something that important.

“How could anyone in their right mind think of pawning it? If you needed money, you could have put it on the Marquess’s account! Or you could have used a check. There were so many other ways!”

I felt like crying at the sheer recklessness of this woman.

Why on earth did I have to go through all this because of a woman whose face I had never even seen?

After lamenting my miserable situation for a while, I entered the shop.

“Oh, you mean the ring that was displayed outside? If that’s the one, it’s already been sold.”

“What?”

“What on earth were you thinking!”

“…….”

“When you suddenly went to a pawnshop, I wondered what was going on, and now you’re telling me what? You pawned a ring? That ring you always wore? Do you even know what kind of ring that was?!”

Exactly.

Laura was so worked up that the veins in her neck stood out as she shouted.

But—

‘I’m a victim too!’

From the problem with Leon Obsidian to the family ring.

I wasn’t the cause of any of this.

But explaining all of that at length would only make my mouth hurt. And besides, there was no way the other person would believe me.

So I had no choice but to simply bear it, but the injustice of it was driving me crazy.

‘What on earth have I done in my life to deserve all this……!’

Ah.

Now I was starting to resent even God.

“We need to get the ring back somehow. The pawnshop owner said he’d look into the buyer’s information, so let’s wait and see.”

“What about the estate, then? You said you were going down to the estate tomorrow, so I’ve already finished preparing everything.”

As she said, “You even finished all the work you had piled up, Marquess,” Laura repeatedly slapped her knee.

She was right.

I had already finished preparing everything for my escape.

And yet, because of the sudden appearance of another variable, my plans had once again fallen apart.

And it didn’t end there.

[Oh, and there was another thing. I got into a bit of an argument with a drunk person while I was on my way somewhere. He kept bothering me, so…… I ended up beating him up without thinking.

Your body is stronger than I expected, you know?

Anyway, I think he might have been someone who knew you, so be careful, just in case!]

She had even beaten someone up.

She had stayed here for barely a week, yet somehow she had managed to cause every possible kind of trouble.

Thanks to her, I felt as though I had aged ten years just from cleaning up after her.

‘Still, the pawnshop owner said he would look for the ring. As for the assault…… well, if the victim comes to the Marquess’s household demanding compensation, I can probably settle it appropriately.’

There was only one thing that bothered me.

― Appearance of the Saintess ‘Irene’

*― Leon Obsidian (the mastermind) rebellion incident

― Execution of Leon Obsidian

― Fall of Bernstein

What exactly did this mean?

It was written on the back of the letter, where she had listed in detail the major crimes she had committed.

Among them, the part she had scribbled at the end almost like a historical timeline was strangely unsettling.

“If you’re going to write something, at least make it clear. This isn’t some kind of riddle. What am I supposed to do with something this vague?”

The name mentioned most often was, unsurprisingly, Leon Obsidian.

The problem was that the words attached to his name were practically curses.

And then there was ‘execution.’

‘If I simply take the words at face value, does that mean the Grand Duke dies? But why? And rebellion? As far as I know, the relationship between the Grand Duke and the Emperor is quite good.’

Those were hardly crimes that suited the man who wore white priestly robes.

“Ah, I don’t know!”

After agonizing over it, I raised both fists into the air and shouted.

Perhaps because I had been thinking too much these past few days, I felt as though my head was about to explode.

In the meantime, the carriage arrived at the Marquess’s residence.

“Marquess! You’ve finally arrived. I’ve been waiting for you!”

“Nothing else happened, did it?”

The moment I stepped out of the carriage, the butler, who had been pacing anxiously near the entrance to the mansion, hurried toward me.

The feeling was strangely familiar, so I asked him with a sinking feeling.

The butler looked as though he were about to cry.

Even then, his bony legs continued to fidget nervously.

Yep.

Something else had happened.

“We have guests waiting for you.”

“Guests? Who?”

It couldn’t be the Grand Duke, could it? He had definitely said he would give me time to think.

The butler immediately answered my question.

“Countess Oscar and Young Master Valentine have arrived.”

“What? Why are those people here?”

Just hearing their names filled me with an instinctive sense of rejection, and I frowned.

Countess Oscar.

Her maiden name was Sylvia Valentine.

She had been my classmate and roommate during our time at the academy.

But although we had been classmates, she was the complete opposite of me—the kind of woman commonly known as the ‘flower’ of high society.

I had heard that after her marriage, she had become a role model for all noblewomen and now held considerable influence over high society.

‘Then why has she suddenly come to see me?’

Could it be because of that incident again……?

Puzzled, I headed toward the drawing room.

As soon as I entered, I saw exactly what I expected.

A beautiful noblewoman was sitting there in another one of her extravagant dresses.

Her dress sparkled as though it had been inlaid with jewels, presumably chosen to match the magnificent diamond necklace around her neck. It looked incredibly expensive.

From her elaborate hair ornament to her dazzling jewelry—

She wasn’t wearing a crown, but in terms of bearing alone, she looked like a princess from an extraordinarily wealthy kingdom.

I, on the other hand, had come straight from work and was dressed relatively casually.

My clothes were made from expensive fabric, but they were nothing compared to that dazzling dress.

Perhaps that was why—

The moment I entered the drawing room, Sylvia quickly looked me up and down and gave a small smile.

It was a look that seemed almost designed to establish dominance.

‘What on earth is going on? Why did she come here dressed to the nines like that?’

I was turning my head away when—

‘Hmm?’

My gaze fixed on the man sitting beside the noblewoman.

His face was in terrible condition.

Anyone would believe it if they were told he had been rolled around on a field of rocks. The corners of his mouth were split and covered in dried blood, while dark blue bruises covered various parts of his face.

As a result, his face—which already resembled a potato—looked even more pathetic, like a moldy potato.

“Sorry to keep you waiting. I had somewhere to stop by……. But, Young Master, what happened to your face?”

“Hah! Are you seriously asking because you don’t know?”

The man sitting beside Sylvia scowled deeply at my cautious question.

“Who else could have done this?!”

“What? Who could have…… Ah.”

Just then, something flashed through my mind.

The words written in the letter.

[I got into a bit of an argument with a drunk person while I was on my way somewhere. He kept bothering me, so…… I ended up beating him up without thinking.

I think he might have been someone who knew you, so be careful, just in case!]

Oh no.

Apparently, this was the man she had been talking about.