The Viridescent Crown - Chapter 4

‘I’m going to die.’

When she asked the butler to bring all of the accounting documents, Ran was eager to work.

‘But the situation is bad.’

The situation was worse than she thought.

‘They got a mortgage from a loan shark?’

Of course, the Duchy of Lazia is large, and there is a lot of useless land.

But useless land cannot be mortgaged.

‘The only farmable land was mortgaged. Without this land, we’ll all starve. I am hungry.’

Of course, the repayment period still remains for about half a year, but the interest is paid monthly.

Moreover, the finances are in the negative.

Negative.

Negative means that there is currently no amount of money to be flexible, it is a fact that even a non-expert can easily know that a large sum of money is needed for mining development.

‘Should I sell a part of the mining rights?’

Before that, they have to find the mine first.

Baron Lindbergh had not gone back, and was still staying in the mansion. As soon as Yustaf left, he wanted to meet Ran immediately.

‘I have a lot of work to do.’

Ran tapped her head with a quill pen.

The duke’s mansion is large and of course there are many people who work here. There are four people in charge of the departments in the duke’s estate.

The servants such as the butlers and maids manage the household.

An administrator in charge of the affairs of the duchy’s properties.

An accountant in charge of the finances.

A head knight in charge of the soldiers and knights who make up the duchy’s armed forces.

Among them, the accountant is trash. A man who embezzles public funds into his own pocket.

‘Why did I set up the accountant as trash. Ah, really.’

That’s the most important part.

Well, that’s why it was so easy for the duke’s house to fall. The only fortunate thing was that the rest of the people were deeply loyal to the duke.

‘Especially the head knight.’

Ran looked at Ross. The knights commander is his elder brother.

“Sir Ross.”

“Yes.”

“Would you call in the administrator and the knights commander?”

At Ran’s command, Ross asked the attendant to call the two people and then asked,

“What are you going to do?”

“The accounting is a mess.”

“The duchess was extravagant.”

“She was.”

Ran nodded softly at the sarcastic remark that her mother was at fault. Because it’s true.

“That problem is that selling such jewellery won’t be cheap. It’s expensive—“

Pausing for a moment, Ran continued.

“How much do you know about the financial situation?”

“I know it’s a little tight.”

“It’s more than tight.”

Ran knocked on a bundle of documents.

“It seems our accountant has certainly deceived the duke. Well, he wasn’t the one looking into the accounting books.”

You might have thought that it wasn’t aristocratic. If the accountant said they could borrow money or finance it, you would have thought so.

Using a private loan, they didn’t think it was such a big deal.

‘It’s scary, there was no sense of crisis.’

Ross’ expression hardened a little at her words.

“How dare they, you say the accountant cheated the duke?”

“Yes.”

Nodding, Ran swallowed a bitter smile.

She thought that was a closed way of aristocratic thinking, but she held back her words.

This is the north, and they value honour.

Cheating your boss in the face of the temptation of money is not understandable.

Like an attractive rare animal, people will disappear without a shield of a good superiority.

Ran smiled.

Yustaf is an excellent protective shield.

Ross frowned at her smile and then heard a knock on the door.

Knock-knock.

“Come in.”

Ran said clearly, pushing the chair back slightly. The administrator who opened the door is a woman in her mid-forty’s.

The head of the knights was wearing his armour and is in his early thirties.

“I see the head.”

Elizabeth, the administrator, greeted first, Blaine, the commander of the knights, followed suit.

Ran’s heart was lightened, as they seemed to be following her words to not say formal greeting to her as the head, so she was relieved.

“Both of you please sit down.”

Elizabeth and Blaine glanced at each other.

They met at the door, but neither of them knew why she called them.

‘Of course, I’m not saying that I don’t have any idea.’

Elizabeth looked at the young lady in front of her.

When Ran wore the blue flame, Elizabeth was also there. She didn’t know what happened, but the blue flame was definitely on her finger.

She did not even get burned by the flame.

Ran said several times that she was only going to be a temporary head, but what if she’s lowering herself before she shows her claws?

As soon as she got the position of the head of the household, she looked into the accounting books, and called for the administrator and the head of the knights.

‘That’s not what a normal 19-year-old girl would do.’

Elizabeth thought so and gently lowered her eyes when she made eye contact with Ran.

“You must have wondered why I suddenly called two people to see what’s going on. So I’m going to put it bluntly.”

She tapped the documents with her finger.

“The duke’s debts are enormous.”

“What do you mean by enormous?”

Elizabeth asked. Ran said with a wry smile.

“If I say we would have to liquidate the estates and assets, can you guess how much it is?”

At Ran’s words, all three people in the study swallowed their breaths. But Elizabeth soon protested.

“That can’t be right? I also looked at the accounting figures. Of course, it’s tight, but the gains come from—“

“It was fraudulent accounting.”

“Fraudulent accounting?”

Blaine asked, as it was the first time he had heard the word. Ran said, putting her fingertips together and standing like a tower.

“In short, it’s a scam. For example—“

Ran thought for a moment and gave the simplest explanation.

“You don’t buy anything, but you write down that you bought it.”

Ran opened a document and passed it to Blaine.

“Last year, you paid 3,000 verats to buy the knights new equipment.”

Hearing this, Blaine hurriedly scanned the paperwork.

It really says the payout is 3,000 verats.

He protested without realising it.

“That doesn’t make sense!”

That is money he never received a penny of.

Rather, he raised numerous requests to change the tattered equipment, but no money came in.

“I thought so. And if you look here, you’ve spent a lot of money buying horses, but we don’t have that many horses, do we?”

Elizabeth’s face turned pale.

“There must be something similar going on in the administration.”

“I know. Elizabeth has kept a separate copy of the funding requests. Thanks to you, it was easy to compare. But.”

Ran smiled coolly.

“Fraudulent accounting always goes hand in hand with embezzlement and deception.”

There is no supplies, but it says we bought it.

The entry and exit books are a mess.

If that’s the case.

—I’m not even sure I can amend this?

Of course, that kind of thinking follows.

“But my lady, why do you believe us?”

At Elizabeth’s words, Ran pointed her finger to her eyes.

“I didn’t leave my eyes closed whilst I’ve been here.”

Elizabeth kept her mouth shut.

If the head has observed and made her own decisions, it would be strange to doubt her.

Moreover, she didn’t hate that Ran believed in her.

“So, I’m going to get rid of the accountant.”

She swung her palm side to side near her neck.

“But that doesn’t mean the debt will go away. What’s more, was it 6 months before the repayment is due? And it wasn’t decided whether it was payments in instalments or a onetime payment.”

Blaine frowned.

“So what are you going to do?”

At his question, Ran laughed for a moment and said.

“The first thing to do is remove the accountant, then investigate and confiscate their properties, but there is I need to do before that.”

“Please order it.”

“I want you to investigate the northern mountains.”

“The ice wall?”

In this situation?

It was such a face, but Ran said with a smile.

“Yes. So…”

Ran needed to find the location of the mine. After the heroine fell there, it was found while wondering the mountain range, so it should not be far from the ‘door’.

“I want you to focus on finding a cave near the door.”

“Near the door?”

His face hardened.

“Yes, I wish I could come with you.”

Ran said so and shrugged.

‘The door.’

It is both the root of the story and the beginning of the Lazia family.

There are three things that the high sage Ivrea made whilst sealing back the darkness.

The mountain range called the ice wall.

The ‘door’ at the heart of the mountain range.

The heavenly mansion built for the Lazia family, the gatekeepers.

So the door was a symbol of fear and awe in the north.

Of course, although the knights of the blue flame,the knights of the Duke of Lazia, were close to the door, they would still be reluctant to investigate near it.

‘But!’

“Please investigate carefully. There is a secret that will save the Lazia family in that cave.”

“Is that so.”

Blaine nodded without much hesitation.

“I understand. I will form a team.”

“I’ll leave it to you. But only ask those who are trustworthy, who can keep quiet about what they find in that cave.”

At Ran’s words, Blaine looked at her and lowered his head.

“I will keep that in mind.”

“Thank you.”

Having said that, Ran gestured for Blaine to leave the room. He stood up, said farewell politely, and then left the study.

Ran looked at Elizabeth who remained and said.

“There is actually no evidence to collect. Just looking at it, it’s full of loopholes. They’ve been doing it for years and they haven’t had any problems, in recent years, manipulating the ledger must have become bothersome.”

“But you still want the documents verified.”

At Elizabeth’s words, Ran nodded. Elizabeth looked at the documents on the desk and spoke with a strong voice.

“Please send everything to my room.”

“I’m relying on you.”

Ran said so and allowed Elizabeth to leave.

Then she called the attendant to move the documents to Elizabeth’s office, Ran then stretched.

‘So tired’

Ran glanced at Ross, but he had a face that looked like he wouldn’t lift a finger for her.

“A cup of tea.”

When Ran spoke quietly with stretched out a finger, Ross called a maid.

Ran pressed her forehead with both hands and waited for the the tea to boil.

‘I feel tired.’

Thinking again, she looked over the numbers that filled her head one by one.

The maid quietly poured the tea and handed over the teacup. As soon as the maid left, Ross asked.

“Did you send him away on purpose?”

“What?”

Ran asked as she raised her head. Ross looked at her and replied.

“I mean, the captain of the knights.”

“Where?”

“Near the door.”

“Didn’t you just hear me?”

With that said, Ran picked up the teacup and blew it. It’s not an example of a young noble lady, but it’s better than burning your tongue from a cup of tea.

Drinking tea hot tea little by little, Ross asked again.

“Didn’t you send the captain near the door to deal with him?”

It’s near the door where the most dangerous monsters are.

“Why am I?”

Only then did Ran remove her attention from her tea and focused on Ross.

“To get rid of master Yustaf’s forces.”

Ran laughed at him unconsciously at him speaking in a gloomy tone. Ross frowned at her laughter.

“What is it?”

“Isn’t it strange to ask that so directly? Saying ‘You’re trying to kill my brother!’ to me yourself.”

Smiling cheerfully, Ran rested her chin on her hands. Her jade-greed eyes were overly transparent.

“It is not so. I just trusted him.”

“I believe you.”

“Yus believes me, so should you. Can’t you do that?”

Ross’ face became suspicious. He went on to say.

“And how can you do that?”

“What else?”

“You have not been educated as a head. Of course, it seems like you have been taking lessons from a tutor recently…”

Even so, a 19-year-old girl takes on the position as the head and does it so skilfully?

“It seems like you prepared for it. Like you were waiting for this to happen.”

“It’s not like that.”

Ran said so and looked at the red tea water. In fact, she wanted to avoid this situation the most.

She hoped to prevent the death of her family.

But her family died, and Ran theorised about one thing.

No matter how much fuss you make, doesn’t that mean that the main part of the story doesn’t change?

The part that could be said to be the turning point of destiny will be maintained anyway.

“I’m just doing my best where I can. Even if I look like this, I feel like my head is going to explode.”

Saying so, Ran added.

“Please don’t make Yustaf worry too much when you report to him.”

“If he’s worried about you.”

At Ross’ words, Ran laughed.

“That’s the right answer.”