chapter 46
“Did you come here just to spout nonsense?”
“Hey, don’t play innocent. I came after doing my homework. That mine I painstakingly bought with a loan—do you think I wouldn’t know its location?”
She checked to make sure it wasn’t some other mine, not the Norfel mine she had purchased. Her evidence was solid.
Polius tossed a few documents he had brought onto the table and scoffed.
“Do you know how many documents I had to prepare just to get that loan? You don’t know that the mine I bought is a magic stone mine?”
Polius stared hard into Melanie’s face.
She had always tried to make a good impression, yet here she was, calm and composed in front of him. That attitude irritated him.
“Well, maybe if I told you I’m a better man than Damian, the mage tower master, you might reconsider.”
“……”
“Cry if you regret letting a man like me slip away! If you do, I might even agree to be engaged to you again. I can’t promise I’ll treat you exactly like before, though!”
Polius’s voice rose higher and higher. He shouted, inflamed with his own words, veins bulging with excitement.
“And if you don’t want to hear me demand compensation for all the magic stones I’ve spent—then obediently…”
“Too loud. I can’t listen anymore.”
“What?”
“I don’t even know where to start correcting your foolish misconceptions.”
Yet Melanie remained utterly unshaken, showing not a flicker of agitation.
Polius wondered if her composed expression was from shock or an act of defiance—but it wasn’t. Melanie’s eyes were as calm and undisturbed as a still lake.
“The Norfel mine is mine, Yeongsik.”
“But I bought it! I found it, I went there myself—”
Melanie crossed her arms, her face indifferent.
Polius froze. This was not the reaction he expected.
He had been planning to show her how inferior Damian was to him, how much of a superior man he was—but why?
Why wasn’t Melanie even slightly shaken?
“So, did Yeongsik pay off the loan?”
“Huh? Well, technically you paid it, since the loan wasn’t in my name…”
“Whose name is on the mine right now?”
Indeed, Melanie had gone along with the loan, but she had done so almost as if she were letting Polius pay her. Both of them knew the gold mine was practically useless.
“I bought it myself! I took out the loan and—”
On top of that, Polius had signed the contract himself, so he thought he was the rightful owner.
But.
“Yes. Only as an agent, that is.”
Polius had indeed acted as Melanie’s agent. He went to a usurious moneylender, using the Clotilde trading guild as collateral to borrow the money.
“I haven’t seen you in a while. I came to show you that the loan paperwork is finalized. Since it’s under your name, you should see it too.”
The loan was set up so that it couldn’t have been taken out unless the owner signed.
But the contract was so thick…
Perhaps because he wasn’t using his own money, Polius had carelessly signed without properly checking the boxes.
“Yeongsik signed as an agent,” Melanie said, smiling at the dazed Polius.
“If anyone saw this, they’d think you paid a single penny. But it’s all my money.”
Ever since Melanie’s death in the original story, Polius had been acting as if he were the owner.
He truly believed he owned the mine. The real owner, Melanie, had passed, leaving the debts settled through the trading guild.
Only the prime magic stone mine remained intact.
The rightful heir, Duke Clotilde, was practically a wreck and knew nothing about the mine.
“Then… if not all, at least a share…!”
“How much of the loan did you actually pay? Your share would determine how much of the mine you deserve.”
“That’s—”
Polius could only move his lips, speechless. His mind went blank.
“But… I bought the mine, so I should get at least some credit, right?”
He tried to appeal to reason, hoping Melanie might relent a little.
“Why did you want to buy the mine again? Ah, because you felt sorry for a certain lady, right? Yeongsik already saved her, isn’t that enough?”
“……”
“Seems my good behavior brought me luck.”
“You weren’t the one helping her—it was me! So why are you—”
“You could’ve gone to her and made a show of it with your money, but apparently, that wasn’t enough? I spoke, you took responsibility—still not enough?”
Polius froze on the spot. He had thought the mine—and the magic stones mined from it—were his.
‘Then how am I supposed to get magic stones for the expanded magic stone business?’
He didn’t even notice Melanie ordering her guards to escort him out. Watching him leave, Melanie smiled quietly.
‘The magic stone business plan is working. I knew if I mentioned the mine, he’d think it was his. Everything’s going as planned.’
From the start, she had confirmed ownership with an expert when buying the mine. Everything had gone according to her plan.
Shocked, Polius went straight to Josephine.
He was embarrassed to show his face, having been so overconfident, but he had no choice.
“It seems supplying magic stones will be difficult.”
Josephine’s face trembled at the shocking news.
“What do you mean all of a sudden, Polius?”
Avoiding her gaze, Polius insisted that he was not at fault, that the other party was to blame.
“I think Melanie tricked me.”
“Don’t just say that. Tell me properly. What kind of trick? Can’t I help? If we could reverse it—”
If Polius had properly checked things in the first place, none of this would have happened. He knew this better than anyone, so he turned his frustration on Josephine instead.
“Damn it! I’ve already been fooled by that cunning woman. There’s nothing we can do! Be quiet!”
“…I see.”
Josephine fell silent in shock, even leaning against the wall, dizzy.
Despite Polius only giving fragments of the story, she quickly grasped the heart of the matter.
“So you bought the mine and then handed it straight to Melanie Clotilde?”
“What? You’ve finished talking?”
“Then why didn’t you check first? What about the fees paid to the wizard!”
Josephine’s face flushed in anger.
She realized how ridiculous it was that Polius had been mocked by society for buying an abandoned mine.
‘Why didn’t Melanie Clotilde just reveal it was a magic stone mine from the start!’
She unleashed all the frustrations she had been holding back.
“So how do you feel now? The rumors say you begged Melanie pitifully and got rejected. Even the nobility knows!”
“What? That’s—”
“Thanks to you, not only have the magic stones slipped away, your image is ruined too. From bad to worse, impressive!”
Josephine had decided she wouldn’t hold back anymore. Polius made no sense to her.
‘I was right there telling him to be more careful.’
But Polius had always followed Clara’s advice more than his own because she was the guild master’s daughter.
‘No, is it just because she’s the guild master’s daughter?’
Maybe Polius simply preferred hearing sweet words over bitter truths.
The magic stone business had already been invested with money from selling the building and Josephine’s future dowry.
Even though the family was poor, the Marquis of Ingda hadn’t touched that investment.
Yet…
Polius, in spite of being at fault, still turned his anger toward Josephine.
“Does your family have a mine? Maybe magic stones could come from there! Melanie got lucky, maybe you could too…”
“That’s impossible.”
“Why? You never know! Check if you have magic stones!”
Josephine gritted her teeth. If magic stones were that common, why had they suffered so much?
If there were any, why would the Ingda family be in debt in the first place?
