Chapter 28

Chapter 28

“That fool Walter squandered ten million Larks, or was it twenty million, on some business venture or other…… It was fortunate he made his ‘mistake’ early on. Otherwise, the remaining dowry would never have been taken from him by the Countess.”

Leonard realized at once what Count Miles meant by the mistake.

He meant Leonard’s own birth.

“I lent money to that blockhead after seeing all of that because of the dowry the Countess had brought with her. I did not lend such a vast sum without a plan, you know.”

Leonard knew what had happened afterward.

The sum the previous Count Elpiers had borrowed from Count Miles back then was a full twenty-five million Larks. The previous count had thrown away that enormous sum not on business but on gambling. In a mere month.

The previous Count Elpiers had thrown himself at his wife’s feet and begged her to please repay the money.

Naturally, the late Countess Elpiers declared that she would never repay it, and at the same time thrust a divorce petition at him.

And so the previous Count Elpiers, left with not a coin to his name and only a debt to repay…… astonishingly, fled. He abandoned his family and his domain without a backward glance.

The late Countess Elpiers immediately sent out people to find her husband. But a month passed, then two, and the previous count’s whereabouts remained a complete mystery.

At this time, the late Countess Elpiers deliberately did not file a missing person report for her husband.

Count Miles, unaware of that inner circumstance, sent people to press for repayment of the debt. In the course of that, he learned that the previous Count Elpiers had vanished and immediately filed a missing person report with the imperial family.

For him, it was the natural choice. He had lent the enormous sum of twenty-five million Larks, and the person who was to repay it had disappeared.

Thanks to that, only the late Countess Elpiers was left in a bind.

Once a missing person report was filed, after one year that person was automatically declared dead.

Then the countship would be left vacant, yet their only daughter was still young. It would be another five years before she could inherit the countship.

Under imperial law, a spouse could not inherit a title.

Had Jenis Elpiers been the one and only heir, the succession might have been put on hold, but the previous Count Elpiers had a nephew who was fully grown. If the count were declared dead as things stood, the countship would go to him.

So the late Countess Elpiers summoned Leonard. The man who had inherited the previous Count Elpiers’s blood.

‘My husband, with no shame whatsoever, once came to me carrying a birth registration form, asking me to enter you in his family register. I never imagined that the document I kept as evidence of his infidelity would be put to use like this…… I will enter you in the register and make you an Elpiers. Become count and protect the title until my daughter comes of age.’

Five years remained until Jenis came of age. In exchange for this long-term contract of five years, the late Countess Elpiers promised ten million Larks.

The money he could receive as an advance was five million Larks.

It was certainly a large sum, but not large enough for a bastard of mercenary origin to accept becoming a count and taking the mockery of all the other nobles upon himself.

Yet Leonard signed the contract the late Countess Elpiers offered without hesitation.

It was because, as ill luck would have it, the Iron Blood Mercenary Band had been attacked by a rival mercenary band at that very time, and most of its members had died, and even those who survived had been wounded nearly to death.

Leonard handed over all five million Larks for the members’ medical care and became Leonard Elpiers.

And until the previous Count Elpiers was declared dead, he learned noble etiquette and social manners from the Countess. In vulgar terms, he washed the mercenary out of himself and dyed himself noble.

That was all he needed to concern himself with. Naturally, he paid no mind to the debt the previous Count Elpiers had incurred.

It was because the late Countess Elpiers had explained why she was not repaying that debt.

She said it was in case the previous Count Elpiers, hiding somewhere, heard that the debt had been fully repaid and came back.

‘We plan to repay the debt owed to House Miles once our Jeni inherits the title. I will handle it myself, so there is no need for you to worry.’

By then, Count Miles had also understood the late Countess Elpiers’s intentions and collected only the interest without pressing for payment. He had assumed that he would get his money once enough time had passed.

But just before Leonard was to inherit the countship, the late Countess Elpiers died in a carriage accident. It was truly a sudden accident.

The problem was that the late Countess Elpiers’s will, which she surely must have drawn up while alive, could not be found, and her inheritance had likewise vanished without a trace.

There was no gold in the vault or the storehouse of the count’s manor. Even when he visited the bank the Countess had frequented, the bank manager only shook his head.

Amid the confusion, the day came for Leonard to inherit the title.

The debt to be repaid was twenty-five million Larks in principal alone. If the interest that grew every month went unpaid, there was no calculating how far it would swell.

His client was already dead. Ordinarily, in such a case, the commission would be void. By common sense, the right thing would have been to abandon the countship, which had become all show and no substance, and leave.

Jenis, whose swollen eyes from crying every day never had time to subside, also pushed him on the back to go.

But Leonard did not leave. He stayed and became Count Elpiers.

There was the hope that everything would be resolved if the late Countess Elpiers’s inheritance were found, but hope alone was not the reason……

‘Brother, are you really not going to leave?’

Half-blood though it was, she called him brother all the same, as if blood were blood.

His father had abandoned him, and his mother had sold him to mercenaries.

Jenis was the only one in the world of his own blood. How could he abandon her and leave?

‘If you truly feel it’s no use, you may run away as much as you like. I will take care of what comes after.’

Unlike him, a mercenary who had grown up seeing the worst of things, Jenis was a delicate young lady whom the late Countess Elpiers had raised with tender care. Even if there was hardship to be borne, it seemed right to him that he should be the one to bear it.

Leonard’s goal was single. By whatever means, to settle this debt, take in a modest and decent man as count consort, and then return the countship to Jenis.

That was also why he had kept up a year of social activity that brought nothing but mockery.

If there had been any house willing to repay the debt owed to House Miles, whichever house it was, Leonard would have sold himself off to it.

But no one took him, a bastard of mercenary origin, seriously as a prospective husband. The women who approached him wanted only a sweet night.

Having realized that his body was worth no more than a single glass of liquor here, Leonard gave up all social activity and became a mercenary again.

But the money he earned from mercenary work was barely enough to pay the growing interest.

And so today, the debt, which had somehow swollen to thirty million Larks, looked as though there was no way to repay it. Leonard thought so, and Count Miles did as well.

“To be honest, I thought you had harmed the late Countess in order to seize the money.”

“What nonsense is that?”

“Yes, had you done so, you would have run away long ago and would not be sitting here. I still wonder, you know. Was the Countess’s death truly an accident? And whose hands did the vanished inheritance fall into……”

Leonard had no difficulty grasping the implication carried in that voice with its faintly trailing end.

—The previous Count Elpiers killed his wife and made off with the money.

But Leonard shook his head.

“The late Countess’s death was indeed an accident. There were many witnesses, and all of them gave the same account.”

“Is that so? ……Well, it would be laughable to be going on now about something that happened so many years ago.”

Count Miles downed in a single gulp his liquor, which had chilled nicely as the ice melted to just the right degree.

Leonard likewise drained the little liquor that remained, recalling a conversation from some time before.

‘What? Did you think I would lose my reason at the sight of you, fly into a rage, or suffer and even shed tears?’

‘There was a time when your existence was driven into my heart like a wedge. Back then, I still trusted my husband……’

‘But all of that is ancient history now. What does it matter to me what that wretch does with some other woman?’

‘Now…… I even think that leaving you behind was rather the best of the things that wretch ever did.’

A knock came at the door.

“My lord, I have returned.”

“Good, what was the result?”

Count Miles’s aide glanced at Leonard’s expression for a moment, then nodded.

“The check is genuine. Please see for yourself.”

Having confirmed that exactly thirty million Larks had been deposited into his account, Count Miles stole a startled glance at Leonard.

“Remarkable indeed……. So, will you not tell me how you came by this money?”

“You will learn of it before long.”

Because Leonard had ridden without rest, news from the capital had not yet reached this place.

But before long, Count Miles would learn of it too. The news of Marchioness Blair’s marriage, which had set the capital abuzz.

“Now, please write out the certificate of repayment.”

“Yes, I must write it out. I most certainly must.”

Yet Count Miles’s expression was strange in some way.

For a man who had received money he had thought he would never receive, there was too little joy on his face, and if he was still doubting the source of the money, there was too strong a hint of him watching Leonard’s reaction.

“Here you are.”

Because of that, Leonard examined the certificate of repayment Count Miles had written with painstaking care.

Now that he was in a position where, once he returned to the Blair marquis’s manor, he would have no choice but to undergo groom lessons, he checked every last misplaced dot on the document.

Fortunately, there seemed to be no problem at all with the certificate. Leonard tucked the document safely inside his coat and rose from his seat.

“Then I shall take my leave. I suppose we will not be meeting again.”

Leonard bowed his head deeply, sincerely hoping that would be the case.

“The Elpiers will not forget the kindness House Miles has shown. I wish you good health from now on.”

“Hm……. Before you go, a moment, there is something I must tell you.”

Count Miles let out a groan, looking somehow troubled.

Leonard realized that the attitude Count Miles had shown a moment ago was because of what he was about to say now.

“Is there some problem?”

“To be honest, I thought you would not be able to repay the debt. Wouldn’t you agree? Thirty million Larks is hardly pocket change.”

“Please get to the point.”

Count Miles gave a short sigh.

“My son has already set out for the Elpiers domain. He said he would fetch his bride in person.”