Chapter 112
“Tell me!”
“Hehe, do you really want to know?”
Benen’s ominous smile deepened as he suddenly grabbed my cheek.
What’s he doing?
“This reminds me of that time.”
“That time?”
“The day of the Ploegel Spring Festival — you bought trinkets from those street vendors, remember? When I asked why you’d show such pointless kindness, you gave me what you thought was a perfectly reasonable answer.”
“……Ah.”
I remembered.
Six years ago, the festival outing with Benen and Elber. I’d bought cheap floral accessories from some girls selling them. When Benen had tried to stop me, I’d said, ‘It’s my own kind of investment.’
“What, are you trying to get revenge now that I’m the one asking questions?”
“Not quite. I’ll call it even only after you hear my answer, understand it, and even admire it a little.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake… just tell me what you did.”
“You can’t hit me until you’ve heard everything, promise?”
That sounds… ominous.
Benen soon explained what kind of conversation he’d had with the Tillon couple — and even their past, which he’d never told me about before.
* * *
They were reaching their limits.
Not just banks — even the loan sharks who claimed to lend to anyone closed their doors the instant they saw the Tillons’ faces.
Any normal person would’ve realized it was time to find a stable way to make money. Even the greedy ones would’ve looked for a “get-rich-quick” business.
But the Tillons’ mindset was… special.
“We’ll sign a final loan agreement, borrow as much as we can, and then disappear from the capital.”
To those who refused to trust them, they planned to use their daughter, Seraphina, as bait.
“Our only daughter attends the temple academy. Do you think her parents would do anything reckless? Please, for the sake of our poor girl, give our family one last chance!”
Then they’d flee.
Even if the debt fell to their daughter, no one would dare press a child that young. Sure, she’d lose the house — but the great temple would surely give her a small room to live in.
They weren’t completely without guilt.
“If she’d just gone to the Central Academy like we told her, she’d have caught a good husband by now. She’s our daughter, but she really is hopeless!”
If their pious daughter was right about her god, then surely that god would protect her.
And so, the Tillons made plans to escape Albion.
But just as they were preparing their final large loan, they learned something:
their daughter had become close with Sol Schleiger.
The daughter of that cold-blooded Duke.
“Our girl may be an angel, but we never thought she’d befriend the devil’s child.”
It had to be divine providence.
The Tillons started digging into Sol.
Adopted six years ago, personally cared for by the Duke, who had even brought her holy relics when she enrolled in Gruner Bant.
But unlike Benen or Elber, the Duke’s biological children, Sol was kept out of public view. After being sent to boarding school, she was left alone.
“Is she being raised delicately for a political marriage? Or maybe the Duke, who only had sons, treats his daughter like a doll.”
Either way…
“She’s bound to be a naive little lady.”
But after actually meeting the child, their entire plan began to change.
Still, they thought she’d be easy to control — that flattering her a little would give them business opportunities.
They were wrong.
That arrogance blinded them. Refusing to admit it, they nodded to every one of the little girl’s suggestions.
And when they returned from dreaming about treasure hunting in the temple’s filthy underground storage, the devil with glasses appeared before them.
“Good day. I’m Benen Schleiger. Sol has already explained the basics, yes? You’ll be discussing things with me from now on.”
Benen Schleiger.
Two years ago, he’d come to Albion under the pretense of managing a townhouse — and swiftly took control of the entire local intelligence network.
From that moment, they should’ve realized they’d stepped into the snake’s jaws.
“You’ve agreed to find the Mana Pearl Detector, yes? But you don’t actually know what it looks like.”
“That’s right. We only heard it emits silver energy. Judging by that, we figured it’d look something like glasses or a magnifier.”
“Good guess. But how will you confirm that what you find is the real Mana Pearl Detector?”
“Well, the Duke’s family could—”
“You plan to haul each one to the Duke’s estate for verification?”
“……Then maybe have someone near the temple confirm it.”
“You’d still have to bring it out of storage — and the odds of finding the right person are slim.”
“……What exactly are you implying?”
“That I can make your business much easier.”
Benen smiled.
Through his lenses, his beautiful eyes narrowed.
By then, the Count must have realized they’d been bitten.
“I’ll lend you a Mana Pearl. That way, you can immediately check whether the artifact you found is genuine.”
“Lend it? Surely not for free.”
“I’m glad you understand quickly. I’ll require a deposit — not a large one.”
He wrote a number on a document and turned it around.
The Countess shook her head; the Count ground his teeth.
“That’s the deposit? Isn’t that the full price of the pearl?”
“Oh, so you’ve never traded Mana Pearls before.”
“…….”
Of course they hadn’t. They’d never even seen one.
Benen dangled a necklace from his pocket — a softly glowing gem unmistakably made of Mana Pearl.
“If you like, I can give you time to check the market price. Then you’ll see how cheap my offer is.”
“Oh, if you’d allow that…”
“But every sixty minutes, the deposit accrues 0.1% interest. I can’t waste my time indefinitely.”
“Damn it, you’re just like your sister! She used to torment me over every second too—”
“……Did she? Ahaha!”
Benen laughed like a carefree boy — just for a moment. The smile soon vanished.
“Well? Do you want time to check?”
“No, damn it! We’ll sign it! We’ll sign!”
“Excellent. If you don’t have a bank, I’ll introduce one.”
Count Tillon’s signature landed on the second contract.
And just like that, a few hours later, the Tillons became debtors trapped in Benen Schleiger’s web.
* * *
When I finished listening, my jaw dropped.
“You made them go into debt for the deposit? How much?”
“The deposit itself wasn’t much. But I connected them to my main bank with low interest rates — they were so happy they borrowed up to their maximum limit.”
“…They dug their own grave.”
“They were already planning to borrow anyway. I just handed them the shovel. Besides, as you said, they were already preparing to take loans elsewhere.”
“……”
“I merely limited the damage in case they tried to run. With the limit in place, they can’t borrow anywhere else now.”
“And yet you won’t lose a thing.”
“Of course not.”
Benen said it as casually as if he were commenting on the weather.
“After processing the deposit as an unsecured loan, I gave them the Mana Pearl. Then I told them to use that as collateral for a secured loan — so they could get more money.”
“That’s insane! It wasn’t even theirs!”
“They thought it was fine since I didn’t object. As long as they pay interest regularly to prove repayment intent, there’s no issue.”
“…And if they fail to prove that?”
“Immediate arrest and prosecution — theft and fraud charges. Temporary asset seizure.”
“Wow…”
“They’re laughing now, thinking they’ve struck gold. But once they start missing payments because they’re too busy treasure-hunting, they’ll soon realize they’ll be working underground forever.”
Benen smiled sweetly — the kind of smile that belonged on a villain, not a saint.
But something still bothered me.
“What if they run away with the Mana Pearl? You said you only got a small deposit. You could post a bounty, but…”
“I told them exactly what would happen. If they hid or sold the pearl, the Schleigers would track them down and extract the Mana Pearl from their bodies.”
Ah… Mana Pearl human experiments.
The Duke’s family doesn’t do that — but renting another lab for it? Hardly a problem.
I shuddered, recalling the gruesome descriptions from the novel.
“But Mana Pearls only manifest inside a very small number of people. What if those two don’t have any?”
“Who knows? But I said we’d keep trying until one appeared.”
“……”
“They understood the meaning when their faces turned blue.”
Benen’s smile turned cold. He could be terrifying sometimes.
But whenever our eyes met, I could see he was trying — trying to look harmless, to restrain himself.
So even if he scared me sometimes, it was hard to truly hate him.
He reached out and placed a hand on my shoulder.
“Sol, remember how I said this was my ‘small revenge’?”
“Yes. I still don’t know what I did wrong.”
“Back at the festival six years ago — you gave money to those poor girls. That shocked me deeply.”
“What?”
Wait, he’s still holding a grudge over that?
But my assumption was wrong — in the best way.
“You invested in their future, Sol. You gave them not just money but courage to survive. It hit me hard — because those were things I couldn’t do.”
“……”
“I’d always been proud of my abilities. But when I looked at you, I realized there are kinds of people I can never become.”
“Well, obviously. We’re two different people.”
For a moment, Benen’s lips pressed into a thin line — as if the blunt truth had stung him.
But I wasn’t finished.
“What I meant is — that’s exactly why we can complement each other, like puzzle pieces.”
“……”
“Thanks for listening to my half-baked plan seriously — and for patching up the holes. Honestly, you’re terrifying! But if it weren’t for you, I…”
“Hahahaha!”
“Eh?”
Why was he laughing? I was being serious!
Benen burst into full laughter, clutching his stomach. Then suddenly, he reached out and squeezed both my cheeks. His face was right in front of mine.
“That’s exactly what I wanted to say. That day, you became someone irreplaceable in my life. I still can’t believe a person like you exists by my side.”
“……”
“But I didn’t want it to be one-sided — so this time, I wanted to become someone irreplaceable in your life.”
“Benen…”
“Even if I’m just your shadow, could you spare a little space for me?”
“That’s your idea of revenge?”
“Yeah. …Sorry I can only express myself through harsh words.”
“…Fine. Then I’ll allow you the space behind me.”
“Haha, perfect. I’ll be your loyal shadow— huh?”
I suddenly pulled him into a hug. He froze completely.
“S-Sol?”
“What shadow? I said stand back to back with me.”
“……”
“You’re a scary villain, sure… but I know how hard you’re trying to be part of our family.”
At eighteen, he managed the townhouse.
At twenty, he handled the Ploegel territory’s administration in the Duke’s stead.
And even then, he made time to rush here and help me.
Not even a genius could do all that easily.
Maybe I was meddling — but I wanted to say it anyway.
“When I struggle, I’ll lean on you. So you can lean on me too — boldly, shamelessly. I won’t let you walk as a shadow alone.”
