I Start with a Bad Hand!

And so, Godwin left, leaving behind a bundle of blank checks that suddenly made me materially wealthy.

‘Who would have thought this day would come for me?’

Each page of the checkbook was subtly infused with Godwin’s usual perfume. It was inevitable since every page bore her handwritten signature. 

I often covered my face with the blank checks, inhaling the scent of wealth whenever I had the chance. It was my way of savoring it.

‘This money isn’t mine to use.’

The money Godwin gave was meant for her nephew, not for me. It wasn’t just Dietrich’s life that I couldn’t be greedy about. Thus, while basking in the aura of capital, I continued my frugal lifestyle.

“Hey, aren’t you cold?”

To participate in the autumn hunting festival, I had spent all my money on winter clothes, so I went around in just a jacket without a coat even on normal days. Every time Agnes saw me like that, she’d ask with a look of disdain.

“Haylem’s heir doesn’t succumb to this kind of cold.”

“What nonsense. Your lips are blue.”

Agnes would wrap her scarf around me and scold me, while Irene silently handed me her gloves. I spent my days acquiring winter clothes like a beggar.

‘…What is this?’

Something bumped against my foot, just below the doorknob. It was a fairly large white box. I cautiously picked up the paper box. The pristine box had no recipient or sender written on it and was left hanging on my dormitory door handle.

‘Who would send me something like this?’

There wasn’t anyone who would leave something like this at my dormitory door. I stared at the paper box for a moment before moving my feet.

‘After receiving that suspicious hair once, I don’t even want to touch such dubious items…’

If it disappeared from in front of my door, someone might make a fuss again. It’s better to treat it as lost property. With that thought, I climbed the stairs and reached the student council room. I looked down at the unsettling gift.

‘It’s creepy, so let’s just get rid of it.’

I knocked on the student council room door and waited for a moment until I heard someone approaching from inside. Soon, the door opened.

“I found something and… dropped it off in front of my room…”

The person who opened the door was unexpected.

“Dietrich…”

Evan? His eyes widened in surprise, as if he found my visit to the student council room unexpected. But it was mutual. While it wasn’t strange for Evan to be there as a member of the student council, it still felt unfamiliar.

“What brings you here…?”

As he gestured for me to come in, I shook my head and handed him the paper bag. Evan looked at the paper bag I gave him with a puzzled expression before checking its contents. His expression subtly changed.

“I came because of this. Someone left it at my dorm.”

Evan stared intently at the contents of the bag, then asked with a subtle smile.

“Are you sure it’s lost property and not a gift for you, Dietrich?”

“A gift for me?”

I thought for a moment. Someone who would send me a gift without a name or sender… But I soon shook my head.

“There’s no one who’d do that. They would have given it to me directly.”

I nodded slightly and turned to leave. From behind, I heard a small voice saying goodbye.

***

“I’m back!”

For once, Agnes had arrived before me and went straight to my bed, digging through her bag to hand me a bundle of papers.

“What’s this?”

“The Prince asked me to give it to you.”

“This?”

A thick envelope of documents was handed to me. Bewildered, I took the papers, and Agnes answered nonchalantly.

“Yeah. The documents you requested. They’re royal records related to the Ducal House. He said to read them and then burn them since they’re confidential.”

She mentioned being urgently called to the palace and asked to deliver them to me. Agnes pulled out a rectangular box from her bag and opened it, revealing a box full of cookies.

“He said he probably wouldn’t be back until the next term, so he sent these for us to share.”

Crunching on a cookie, Agnes spoke. I watched the table being set up with cookies before getting up to put some water on. There was no other reason.

“…Really? He must be very busy.”

“Yeah, he left without even finishing the term. He didn’t seem to have slept well either, and his beard was untrimmed. I almost didn’t recognize him at first.”

I was surprised. Listening to Agnes’s casual recount, I reflected on our last meeting. It had been quite some time since he came to my dorm, so it wasn’t surprising that I didn’t know Icarus had gone on another expedition. Not that it was something I needed to concern myself with.

However, I lost my appetite and put the cookie Agnes offered back into the box.

“Let’s wait until Senior and Yuri come. We can share them then.”

“Yeah, they said they’d be a bit late, right?”

Unlike the disastrous debate last time, this time was different. Yuri had returned to the capital after organizing the winter villa, and Irene was joining us as well. Icarus… wasn’t here, but it didn’t matter. The documents he left behind were enough.

Soon, the door was knocked, and two more people joined, filling my room.

‘Four people in this small room, it feels like it’s about to burst.’

I pulled a low shelf to use as an extra chair since there weren’t enough seats. Anything smaller than a table could serve as a chair in a pinch.

“What’s with the snacks?”

Irene asked as she took off her jacket and pulled out a tea from her bag.

“The Prince gave them to us. For sharing.”

“Really? That’s unexpected. He gave me some tea too.”

At her words, my hands, which were organizing the table, froze for a moment before moving again. It didn’t matter who Icarus gave gifts to. It was his business, and I didn’t need to be concerned. I had no reason to comment on it.

Irene, with a slightly sour expression, mentioned it while setting up the table now crowded with people, documents, cookies, and tea. My appetite still hadn’t returned, so I pushed the treats toward my friends.

In the cramped space, we each found a spot and started discussing. The topic of the day was quite clear. Who had done this to Dietrich, and why?

With a new person joining, the discussion took on a different tone.

“I’m curious about something. That letter. If the former Duchess sent a letter about you to her sister… wouldn’t she have also sent one to the Ducal House?”

Yuri, carefully taking a bite of a cookie, raised her hand to ask. For some reason, participants in these discussions always raised their hands, even though it wasn’t necessary.

“To the Ducal House?”

“Yes. Although she was estranged from her sister for a long time, if she wrote thinking of her, it’s likely she would have also informed the Elexion Ducal House about the new child.”

I considered her point. If the former Duchess wrote to her estranged sister about the birth of a new child, it was indeed plausible that she would have informed the Ducal House as well.

It made sense. No matter how much she resembled her, if she had the energy to write a letter to her sister she hadn’t seen in years, surely she would have written to her own family as well.

“But the Ducal House seemed completely unaware of such a letter. So then,”

“Did someone intercept the letter?”

The silence that briefly hung over the table was broken by Agnes’s words, accompanied by the crunch of a cookie.

“If someone really did steal the letter, that person would have already known you were the Ducal House’s child. It would clearly state black hair and blue-gray eyes. Honestly, when a child is born, what do people want to know? Whether the mother and baby are healthy, and who the baby looks like.”

That would explain why someone is targeting you. Not because of who you are, but because you are a ‘Ducal House’ member.

Agnes spoke seriously, despite her mouth full of cookies.

“But… why me?”

“Because you’re the legitimate child.”

“No, even if we consider Roxanne, there are other legitimate children of the Ducal House, like Evan or Cedric,”

“That’s…”

The answer Agnes couldn’t provide was given by Yuri.

“Because you’re an easier target…?”

All three pairs of eyes turned to Yuri. Blushing, Yuri waved her hands in a flustered attempt to explain.

“Uh, by easier target, I mean, um, that is, my point is…”

“It’s okay. Relax and speak comfortably.”

It’s true that I’m an easy target. Taking a sip of the tea they had offered me, Yuri, still red-faced, spoke in a trembling voice.

“If I were the culprit, knowing that you were the legitimate child of the Elexion Ducal House, but for some reason, you were driven out, and if I knew that, rather than targeting Evan or Cedric, who are protected by Elexion,”

“You mean it would be easier to target Dietrich, who is not under the protection of the Ducal House, to get revenge on Elexion?”

Irene summarized Yuri’s cautious explanation, and Yuri nodded vigorously.

“It would be a very good opportunity. Even I would pick on someone as easy as you. There’s also a certain thrill in knowing the truth that the Ducal House doesn’t.”

“A thrill?”

“Yeah. Imagine how foolish the Ducal House would look. Meanwhile, you’re tormenting someone directly related to Elexion. It’s a double benefit.”

As expected of an actress, Agnes seemed to easily empathize with the criminal’s perspective.

‘But it makes sense.’

If that’s the case, then the focus needed to be broadened. I started flipping through the documents Icarus had sent via Agnes and asked,

“Who would have a grudge against Elexion?”

“There are quite a few,” Yuri replied, accepting the documents from me. We then began the task of sorting through them.

“If we assume that the arson at the former Duchess’s family estate and the series of events I’ve experienced are related… we should exclude anything that happened after I was born.”

“Let’s also exclude anything too old. How about excluding everything that happened a few years before you were born?”

“About three years. If it was older than that, they would have acted by now.”

After sifting through the documents, only three families remained. I examined the top document.

The Penelon Trading Company.

“Penelon Trading Company… Ah, I know them. Up until about 20 years ago, they were a trading company that supplied goods to the royal family and dealt in quite luxurious items. There was an issue with their slush fund.”

“The owner of the Penelon Trading Company was from the Kingdom of Dorche, and they were providing military funds to them. Elexion, under royal orders, investigated and confirmed the truth. As it was proven true, all those involved were executed…”

So Elexion also handles security issues? I was impressed by the Ducal House’s extensive involvement in state affairs and moved on to the next set of documents.

The Lord Ferris Viscountcy Incident.

“What’s this? Why did the Lord Ferris Viscountcy suffer at the hands of Elexion?”

“…Lord Ferris? That Lord Ferris.”

Irene looked at me with a tone that suggested she was surprised to hear about this particular family.

“Uh… yes. Do you know them?”

As I rummaged through the documents, Irene responded with a slightly peculiar tone.

“They were one of the archivist families. As far as I know, they’re extinct now, with no descendants left.”

“How did that happen?”

Irene glanced out the window briefly before lowering her voice.

“I don’t know the details since it happened when I was very young, but the family systematically falsified records.”

“What? How could archivists do such a thing?”

Agnes, flipping through the documents, pointed to a section.

“Here it is. ‘The Lord Ferris Viscountcy manipulated or concealed records in exchange for money. It was revealed that financial hardship led them to…’ It was for money.”

At Agnes’s words, Irene continued, looking down as if ashamed of the criminal and disgraceful actions of another family in the same profession.

“The position of archivist was honorary back then, leading to such abuses. Things have changed since then.”

There were opinions that the crimes were due to insufficient stipends. The voices calling for measures to prevent corruption due to financial hardship grew louder. Irene added.

So, the idea that poverty could drive people to abandon their professional ethics applies in this world too. I nodded and pulled out the next set of documents.

Finally, the Count of Cotillion.

“What’s this? Why is this file so sparse?”

“Let’s see, there’s nothing special. It just says that Elexion monopolized the mining rights for magic stones, which cut off the funds for the Cotillion family, who were refining magic stones. The Count, who already had health issues, deteriorated and died, and the family couldn’t find a successor, leading to its dissolution.”

Compared to the previous two files, which were so extensive they were divided into multiple folders, the file on the Cotillion family was scant. I flipped through the few sheets. Then Yuri cautiously spoke up.

“That… on the surface, it looks that way, but actually…”

What Yuri said next was unexpected.

“There were rumors that the head of the Cotillion family was in love with the former Duchess.”