“Ah, Lady Mariposa?”
“Giselle, you’ve turned the wine cellar into a mess.”
Giselle grinned broadly and waved the ledger in her hand.
“Oh my, Count~♡”
“What have you done?”
“Giselle drank until her nose went all crooked! And then we played a fun treasure hunt game~♡”
Kima tightly shut his eyes, then opened them.
Such an outrageous tone—no lady would ever speak like that!
he was sure this would end badly.
But Count Florette smiled in satisfaction and asked,
“I see. Did you find the treasure?”
…Huh?
“Yes~! I found an adorably cute wine~!”
“Enjoy it. Clean up when you’re done.”
It wasn’t just that noble ladies wouldn’t behave like this—wasn’t she supposed to be reprimanded?
Kima couldn’t make sense of anything.
‘What in the world am I witnessing right now?’
Then it happened.
Mariposa, who seemed to be the more rational one, turned red and blue in the face.
“No, brother! This isn’t right! Giselle did something bad. Think about how hard it is for the one guarding the cellar!”
…Well, it wasn’t really hard, but still…
Then Giselle quickly jumped in.
“Huh? This isn’t the time for that, though? Giselle found something super interesting!”
In Giselle’s hand was a ledger written in double-entry bookkeeping format.
Mariposa flipped through it with a frown, then looked at Giselle.
“What are you talking about?”
“I found this ledger, and the person who kept these records? A genius! They wrote down all past expenses and income!”
Kima’s eyes widened.
Giselle promptly handed the ledger to Count Florette with a bright smile.
“Oh! Lady Mariposa, you know… It looks like you did a lot of embezzling through your businesses under borrowed names?”
* * *
“This ledger—did you say it’s double-entry bookkeeping?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Seeing the income and expenses transparently laid out… there’s no doubt. There are tons of money-draining businesses. And from this record, it looks like embezzlement was definitely happening.”
Inside the office, everyone was gathered—Mariposa, Giselle, Kima, and even the maid.
Count Florette looked at his anxious younger sister, whose eyes were darting all over.
“Whether the embezzlement was intentional or a mistake, I don’t know. But one thing is clear.”
“T-that is…”
“That my sister is incompetent. And likely, the elders are too.”
“B-brother! I-I didn’t know! That… that’s…”
He declared coldly.
“This ledger is revolutionary. But why would you leave someone like that in charge of the wine cellar?”
“T-that’s…”
“You’re on probation, Mariposa.”
“Probation?! B-but brother, please calm down and listen to me. We need to investigate how Giselle found the ledger, and whether the records were manipulated!”
Now that this had been exposed, it would be hard for her to touch any of the businesses under borrowed names. Plus, the influence she’d spread throughout the family might be diminished.
Mariposa was desperate, but the Count replied coldly,
“I’m the one who verified the validity of this ledger. Do you think I’m an idiot?”
“N-no! That’s not it!”
“Or are you blaming the one who discovered the ledger?”
He shot her a chilling glare as she quickly bowed her head.
“Mariposa. Don’t interfere in family affairs for the time being. Don’t go to any social gatherings either. Only communicate with the head maid.”
“Brother!”
“If you keep talking, the punishment will be harsher.”
Having said everything he wanted, the Count suddenly thought of Giselle.
He looked at her, sitting on the sofa, watching Mariposa.
Noticing his gaze, Giselle made eye contact with a bright smile.
“Giselle, how did you find this ledger?”
“While drinking, by accident?”
“I’m very pleased. Well done. This will be a great help.”
It would cut in half the time needed to assess the scale of past business.
With this, he might even get three hours of sleep a day.
Giselle waved her hand cheerfully with a beaming smile.
“Then give me a reward!”
“Hm? What kind of reward? Just say it.”
Giselle glanced at the maid, May, whose cheeks were puffed out.
“She called me by my name without permission! Punish her!”
Calling Giselle by name had become common among Mariposa’s maids.
The slow-witted May shouted out defensively,
“I have something to say too! Miss Giselle slapped me first!”
“Yeah, I did. But it didn’t make a nice sound. I didn’t like that about you.”
“Did you, Giselle?”
“Yep! Please kick her out right away!”
Count Florette nodded like he was delivering a verdict.
“If you slapped her, you must have had a reason. Just like Count Sehera did.”
“Right?!”
“Just as you said, I’ll dismiss that maid.”
Giselle cheerfully waved.
“Please do it without a letter of recommendation or severance pay!”
Maid May’s eyes widened.
“P-please, my lady! Save me! Leaving without a letter of recommendation is like a death sentence for a maid!”
Giselle replied brightly,
“Then die!”
“You are very decisive.”
Count Florette nodded in solemn amusement, thinking how much she resembled Count Sehera in her boldness.
Mariposa, watching the two of them, trembled with confusion.
‘What kind of person was Count Sehera? No—more importantly, they’re just kicking someone out without even asking for a reason?’
She frowned as she watched May being dragged away by the knights.
There was something she just couldn’t understand.
‘How did things end up like this so suddenly?’
Giselle had broken open the wine barrel and turned the cellar into a sea of wine.
Yet just before her own embezzlement was exposed, she was the one being punished.
‘It’s as if all the happiness I had until now was just a dream.’
It felt like a nightmare had begun.
Mariposa’s legs gave out, and she collapsed to the floor.
* * *
And so, morning came.
[<Special Report> A Certain Lady Put on Family Probation—What Happened?]
[<Breaking News> Rumors of Internal Conflict in a Certain Household? The Longstanding Feud Between Lady and Mistress—The Truth?!]
‘These papers will print anything if you just pay. Still, they’re really ripping into Mariposa in the news. It’s satisfying to live long enough to see this.’
With just the right touch of seasoning in the headline, even the morning paper sold pretty well.
‘Maybe it’s because of the contract marriage or how I went wild lately. The world’s really changing for the better.’
Thanks to the proper execution of the original story-wrecking technique, no doubt.
I smiled contentedly and packed my chest full of money boxes.
“Now that I have an artifact to store money, all that’s left is to earn properly!”
Looking at my slightly emptier “money box” from all the bribes I’d handed out, I clicked my tongue.
Current funds: around 700 million.
It seems like a lot, but it’s far from enough to become an Archmage.
I looked further down the page.
[Let’s Take a Look at That Allegedly Alcoholic Lady, ‘Giselle’.]
It was this month’s special extra edition.
I smiled as I flipped through the paper.
‘Sometimes even forced plot developments about me are helpful.’
I’d planted a small, slanderous article with little money, and it had blown up massively.
‘At the very least, my future mother-in-law must’ve read the whole paper. That alone makes it a worthy investment.’
With a horrible social reputation, family discord, and rumors of alcoholism—what kind of in-laws would want me as a daughter-in-law?
Every step to become unlikable was complete.
At last, it was time to meet the mother-in-law.
