Chapter 64
Is this what they call sitting on pins and needles?
It hadn’t even been five minutes since I started eating the porridge Rina brought me, but I was already sick of it.
“Stop staring at me. I can’t eat like this.”
I pleaded with the people surrounding my bed.
“Here, Sienna. Say ‘ah—.’”
“Brother, please….”
Noah had taken the spoon from my hand and was personally feeding me.
And not just that—he blew on each spoonful because it was hot!
I haven’t done this since I was six years old!
My face burned red with embarrassment.
And Herace wasn’t any better.
“Sienna, tell me if you’re uncomfortable.”
Since Noah had stolen the first chance at the spoon, Herace had settled for wiping my lips with a napkin, attending to me as though he were my servant.
“Sienna, Sienna! Drink some water too!”
“Ban, drinking water in the middle of a meal isn’t good for your health.”
And then Ban even had to comment outright.
“Brother, what’s going on between you and Ban…?”
“You collapsed, and all sorts of things happened in the meantime.”
Herace shrugged.
So in the end, I got found out!
Is this really okay? How much did they find out? Judging by how well Ban and I got along, it didn’t seem like they had realized he was a demon.
“When your doll suddenly started talking, I nearly jumped out of my skin. You said your teacher made it as a guardian doll.”
“Mmhm! That’s right!”
Thank goodness. Thanks to Herace’s smooth explanation, Noah had misunderstood Ban as a guardian doll and even took a liking to him.
By the time I had finished my meal, Oel came to visit.
“Your condition looks good. All that deep sleep paid off. Let’s observe for another two days. If you recover completely, you won’t need to take medicine anymore.”
“Thank you.”
I swallowed the medicine Oel gave me and asked:
“But why did I collapse? I was taking the medicine properly.”
“Because that medicine was the problem.”
“Huh?”
Noah calmly explained the whole story.
So that’s why the medicine tasted strange. I thought it was just my tongue being weird from being sick.
Really, what unbelievable people. As if stealing jewels weren’t enough, they even went after my medicine.
“And those people are supposed to be family….”
“They’ve been locked in a room. We’ll deal with them however you want.”
“I….”
Herace cut in.
“Sienna, honestly, I’d rather just kill them. It’d be awkward for you and the young duke since you share blood ties. So let me take care of it.”
“No.”
I firmly rejected Herace’s proposal.
“Why not? You almost died because of those bastards. And you still want to spare them?”
He clearly couldn’t understand.
“I never said I’d spare them.”
“Then?”
“I’ll punish them in another way. Like you said, Herace—killing them would be far too merciful. I won’t allow that. They need to suffer more.”
I’ll show them a living hell, where being alive feels worse than death.
Muttering darkly, I asked Oel:
“What about the thing I asked you for earlier?”
“Oh, that? I had it all prepared while you were sound asleep. He said you could come anytime—want to go now?”
“No, tell him to come here. What kind of loan shark thinks he can order a noble lady to come to him?”
The loan shark, Charles, swallowed nervously as he faced Sienna across the table.
I should never have lent money to that bastard Frank.
He should have refused, even when Frank brought the Winter family’s seal. The problem was, he had been careless.
He had always been willing to lend, even if a debtor used someone else’s seal.
As long as they repaid, what did it matter who borrowed?
That was how he expanded his business without scruples, becoming a big player in the industry.
So even if he met Lady Sienna, he had planned to brazen it out.
But seeing the infamous lady in person left him breathless.
In what way is she supposed to be sickly and foolish?
She might look pale, as Frank had said, but that was it.
Her eyes, when they met his, were anything but weak.
Pinned under her sharp, searching gaze, he couldn’t move.
And the men at her side radiated enough menace to make him sweat buckets.
Only then did Charles realize what a grave mistake he had made.
“I heard you told me to come….”
Sienna began softly, but Charles frantically waved his hands.
“No, of course not! Naturally I should be the one to come! How could the likes of me dare summon you, my lady?”
He laughed awkwardly, rubbing his hands together.
“How much exactly do I owe?”
“…P-pardon? Please, wait just a moment!”
He thought she was going to have him executed on the spot. Instead, she wanted to repay the debt? Jackpot!
Charles quickly worked his abacus.
“The principal of 120 million gold, plus accrued interest of 100 million gold, comes to a total of 220 million gold, my lady.”
“Typical loan shark—your interest calculations are… innovative.”
“Thank you.”
Of course he understood the sarcasm, but he shamelessly smiled through it.
Perfect. The more debt I can cancel, the better.
“Will you be repaying it in a lump sum?” Charles asked cheerfully.
“Yes. But before that, I want to borrow some money too.”
“…You, my lady?”
“What, do you think borrowing once means I can’t do it again?”
“No, no! Then, how much…?”
“220 million gold.”
The smile cracked on Charles’s face.
As his expression stiffened, Sienna’s smile only deepened.
“I’ll borrow 220 million gold under Frank Kurz’s name.”
She tossed a seal toward him.
Clink, clatter—
The seal that rolled to a stop in front of him was unmistakably Frank’s.
Charles’s face hardened as he understood her meaning.
Frank had stolen her name to borrow money. Now, she was turning it back on him—borrowing money in his name to pay off the debt.
Huh. No one’s ever tried repaying like this before.
It was a trick, but not an impossible one.
The problem is, I’ll never be able to recover the money I already lent to Frank.
Charles’s mind spun rapidly.
Watching him closely, Sienna spoke.
“What, is there a problem?”
“Th-this puts me in a difficult spot. It goes against business ethics, you see.”
“Business ethics?”
Sienna burst into laughter.
A loan shark talking about business ethics—it was laughable.
“When Frank borrowed money in my name, you happily stamped the contract. But when I do it, suddenly it’s a problem? Is this how you run your business?”
“But this way, I don’t profit….”
“Profit? Profit, you say. Do you really think now’s the time to talk about profit, standing before me?”
One fool after another. In the end, blinded by money, none of them could see what was important.
“Listen well. The only profit you’ll get from now on is whatever scraps you can shake off Frank Kurz. If you don’t like that….”
Sienna mimed cutting her throat with a bright smile.
“Shall I burn your whole business to the ground? Make sure you never set foot in this industry again?”
“…!”
“What, you think I can’t?”
“N-no, my lady.”
Charles’s face turned deathly pale.
I picked the wrong person to mess with….
Seeing his bloodless face, Sienna flicked her fingers.
“Bring the contract. Since Frank borrowed money under my name, it’s only right you collect it from him.”
“…Yes, of course.”
Sienna pressed Frank’s seal onto the promissory note with a firm stamp.
And just like that, Sienna Winter’s debt of 220 million gold vanished cleanly.
And Frank was saddled with 220 million in debt.
Handing a check to Charles, who was sighing heavily over the papers, she said:
“Here.”
“What is this for…?”
“The debtor you’re looking for is being kept at my house. Take him. And make sure he never sets foot in the Winter estate again.”
This was her personal request to Charles.
He slipped the check into his breast pocket faster than anyone could blink.
There was no need to calculate—this was pure profit.
“My lady, shall I set today as the repayment date?”
“You’re quite clever, aren’t you?”
“Haha, I get that a lot.”
Charles rubbed his hands and puffed his chest, telling her to leave everything to him.
It had been five days since the three members of the Kurz family were locked in the bedroom.
Like condemned criminals awaiting execution, they wasted away day by day.
It wasn’t a dungeon, but the hollow eyes, untrimmed beards, and unkempt hair made them look no different from prisoners.
Naturally so—if anything happened to Sienna, they were as good as dead.
Would it be Noah who killed them? Or Herace, Sienna’s magic teacher?
Either way, the end was the same: death.
Slumped on the sofa, Jeneca muttered gloomily:
“Sienna… she really won’t die, will she?”
“Hey! Don’t say such unlucky things. If she dies, we’re all finished!”
Alfred scolded, pressing his fingers hard against his eyes.
Behind the two, who were drowning in regret for stealing Sienna’s medicine, Frank sat curled up, glaring at the firmly locked door.
Damn it. If I’d known Sienna would actually survive, I’d have skipped the inheritance papers and just grabbed some valuables before running far, far away!
