Chapter 28
“Like Romero and Eskia in the north—especially Romero, since that area has a lot of gemstone trade. I’ve heard that unless someone specifically requests a gem from Mu, they won’t even place an order there.”
“I see…”
“Still, what can we do? There are plenty of people who want Mu’s jewelry, and many clients will immediately cut off business if they can’t get what they want. And when it comes to money, those Romero folks can be pretty relentless.”
Jewelers weren’t fools.
Whether the gems were real or not, the nobles were ultimately the ones deciding to buy them.
No one could tell a noble, who specifically demanded Mu’s gems, “Don’t buy it; it might be fake.”
And in the middle of all that, the jewelers still had to make their profit.
I skimmed through the letters with my eyes and asked again,
“Some items were sold to the Sephardi dukes?”
“Yes. There’s a bracelet. We’ve requested it several times, but there’s still been no response. We’re wondering if the buyer perhaps gave it as a gift. We’re looking into it further.”
A buyer, huh… who in that family?
Feeling uneasy, I bit my lip and spoke,
“And the other items?”
“Out of the twenty pieces, I’ve already received the ones nearby. Three are in the basement.”
“And the remaining seventeen?”
“They’re gradually coming in from different places.”
“When will everything be received?”
“We’ll make sure everything is resolved before the Concha Rosio event.”
Concha Rosio.
It was the highlight of the Rosio festival held every five years during Holy Week.
Pilgrims would walk tirelessly for three nights and four days to reach the sacred cathedral in each province.
It had started as a religious observance.
But by the time Gabi’s original story takes place, the event had long since degenerated.
Before the event, there were social parties for the nobles, and the horse-drawn carriages along the route became perfect secret meeting places for young noble couples.
Once they reached the holy site, a festival would even be held.
I thought briefly about that headache of an event and sighed.
“So, once that event starts, you won’t be in the palace for at least a week?”
“That’s right. But Maribel, since it’s a sacred period, isn’t it fine to be a week late?”
“Manu, promises to clients are important. Especially when it comes to precious items like jewelry.”
Muttering the principle I had always followed in the real world, my eyes caught a passage in one of the letters.
“Wait, Manu. This one, and this one here… what are these?”
“Ah, I was just about to tell you.”
“Does this mean the buyer has already sold them elsewhere? The ring made from Umdeca’s sapphire… they must’ve bought it for a hefty price.”
I rummaged through other documents.
It wasn’t difficult to track down the source by organizing the ledgers.
My fingers, scanning the names, stopped at one.
“The first one purchased… was from the Eskia dukes?”
“Yes, from two years ago.”
“A ring bought less than two years ago—did they have it appraised or notice anything?”
“That doesn’t seem to be the case. I asked the intermediary out of curiosity, and if anything had happened, the jewelers would’ve been in an uproar. They wouldn’t have wanted to continue the transaction either. Nothing like that happened.”
Even though they said that, I couldn’t completely believe it.
In the original story, Pedro knew that Maribel was scamming people.
He knew that Mu was actually Maribel Sephardi, and that Mu had amassed a huge fortune through fake jewels.
And now, that ring had been sold somewhere else. I felt unsettled.
I swallowed a sigh and looked at Manu again.
“Do you know who it was sold to?”
“Yes, I finally found out. It was the Viscount of Colonia.”
“What kind of family is that?”
Could a mere viscount even afford something from a duke?
The rank difference was too big, and I doubted whether a viscount could pay for something bought from a ducal family.
“He’s from Eskia territory. About ten years ago, he bought the title and became a viscount. He’s a former merchant who made money trading weapons.”
“That must’ve cost a fortune.”
The most successful jewelry designer in the region—there’s no way a duke would sell their work just to amuse a wealthy viscount.
Most likely, the duke extracted a large sum under the pretext of selling.
The viscount would only have ownership, and the duke could ‘borrow’ back the jewelry as they wished.
Still, it was probably not a bad deal for the Viscount of Colonia.
“Did Eskia’s territory fall on hard times?”
“Has the north ever been prosperous? It’s not a region with much money circulating, so times could always get tough.”
I groaned softly at that.
Pedro had led the rebellion for a long time, and of course, military operations required money.
Since income from the territory had to be officially recorded, some jewels could have been secretly sold to pocket money, possibly tracking Mu’s activities in the process.
Any of these could have been clues to discovering my identity.
Nothing was certain, but the possibilities were endless.
“Alright. You’ve contacted the viscount’s family already, right?”
“Yes. We’re waiting.”
“Good. Keep monitoring them. And this…”
I picked up another letter Manu had marked and slowly read aloud:
“Without the owner of the ducal family present, no matter how small the matter, there’s no right to decide freely.”
“Unfortunately, there was one family who expressed that.”
“Romero?”
Pedro and Arius… always causing trouble.
“Yes, and that’s because jewelry isn’t cheap, and it’s a significant asset of the dukes. Other families have the duke or decision-makers present at the palace… but the Romero dukes are absent, leaving the position entirely vacant.”
“Ugh.”
The Rosio festival was long, and even if one didn’t need to walk during Concha Rosio, it was still grueling.
Several days of traveling slowly in giant ox-drawn carriages to reach the sacred cathedral.
While the young enjoyed the pilgrimage as an excuse for secret meetings, the elderly dukes or emperor mostly drove carriages themselves to the cathedral.
That was why heirs and imperial children stayed in the area for an extended period.
Of course, for Arius—or the Duke of Romero, who had no remaining family—it wasn’t much of a choice.
“The steward seems thorough. Not very good news for us. What jewelry did Romero buy?”
“A ruby necklace called the Heart’s Fruit. Do you remember? The rubies looked like little fruits on the necklace.”
The memory of Maribel isn’t mine.
Yun Gabi never described Maribel’s jewelry designs in detail.
I tried to shake my head at the unfamiliar memory, but Manu’s vague description of ‘fruit’ triggered a design in my mind.
“You mean the necklace with three rubies, the largest in the center, with gold and small diamonds forming the stem and flowers?”
It’s probably synthetic spinel, not real rubies.
I dipped a nearby pen in ink and roughly drew the shape.
“Yes, that’s exactly it. It’s an old necklace, but you still remember it.”
I wondered—how do I know this?
I paused briefly at the subtlety. Manu, seemingly unaware, continued speaking:
“It was odd when they said the family bought it. The family… well, you’ve never heard rumors of the duke having a woman, right?”
“A woman?”
“This type of design is usually worn over a woman’s dress.”
That was true.
While anyone who likes shiny things could buy jewelry, the Heart’s Fruit necklace was designed to flow along a woman’s chest line.
I shrugged quietly.
“Well, Mu’s jewelry is a good investment anyway. Otherwise, it could be a gift or a reward.”
“Many do that in Sephardina and Puerto, but in Romero, even a short distance away, rewards are usually money. Even gifts are given in cash—strange people.”
“Really?”
I was curious why someone so focused only on revenge, with no women around, would do this.
But the question passed quickly.
If Arius wasn’t there, we wouldn’t be able to immediately handle the aftermath of exchanging the jewelry, which would be troublesome.
If things dragged on, we wouldn’t know when we might be caught.
