I’ll Save This Damned Family!

young Miss! I managed to invest just in time.”

 

“How did you hear about this? From who?”

 

“Well, you know, Cindy who's in charge of the hall on the second floor.
She's my best friend.
Her older brother manages the male guest rooms.”

 

“And?”

 

“He's popular and has good connections.
About a week ago, when the Miss went to the reception room on the second floor to get me assigned as your dedicated maid, he was in charge of that man, the guest of the Countess.
And this is the really secret part.”

 

Her voice became more and more hushed until she was whispering close enough that I thought her lips might brush against my ear.

 

“Normally, commoners like us could never participate, but he opened an account so that we could make a special investment, saying that he was giving out the information as a reward because Cindy's brother did such a good job.
He said that as soon as the prohibition is lifted, the investment will earn us a 20-fold return.”

 

“Huh…”

 

“I was amazed! I thought you would also be surprised.
To be honest, I've been worried.
You know what I'm like.
But Cindy kept on visiting and trying to convince me.
A few days ago I gave her my six gold and I've been restless ever since.”

 

That was why she'd had such dark circles under her eyes every morning…

 

“Haa…
I'm relieved now.
So hurry up and invest, Miss.
If you want to invest, she will definitely get you an account.
Oh! You probably don't need it because you already have a lot of money.
Hehe.”

 

Ha…
What was I going to do with this pure and innocent soul…

 

“Beth.”

 

“Yes…” Her answer was dreamy.

 

She looked like she was already fantasizing about fame and fortune.*

 

“Beth.
When did you give him the money?”

 

“Two days ago.”

 

“Go and find him before it's too late.”

 

“Wha…
What?”

 

“Go get your three months' salary back.
Come on! Look for Cindy first! That account…
would it have been at the Imperial Palace Central Bank…
No, it wouldn't have been.
Would they have an account?”

 

“Wha- What's wrong, Miss?” Beth asked in a frightened voice, having belatedly noticed my serious tone.

 

“Haa…
Beth.
Everything you told me sounds very suspicious.
Attracting small investors like you is an easy way of getting away with a scam.
Huh, now that I think about it, this guy must be a serious con-man…”

 

“M – My Lady…”

 

“Hurry up, go and find Cindy!”

 

She looked like she was almost on the verge of tears and seemed frozen in place.

 

“Quickly!”

 

After Beth rushed out, I headed straight for the annex.
I needed to get confirmation from my mother.

 

‘Please…
Don't tell me you decided to invest…'

 

However, now that I knew, there was no way I could let them prey on all these people.

 

Argh! Why did everything have to be so hard?

 

***

 

The next day at 9 a.m.

 

I'd eaten too much.
I was so stressed out that I just couldn't sleep.
I’d done it despite the fact Bernard would criticise me for it.

 

Yesterday after taking digestive medicine and waking up from a nap, my stomach had settled.
So I'd eaten steak, tomatoes, garlic, fried rice, and fries for dinner.
I had even managed to down some beer.**

 

Hah.
I'd heard it said that a meal was 0 calories if you enjoyed it, but if that was truly the case why had I gained back 1 kg?

 

I needed to relax.
First things first, I needed to go visit the Countess and find out how to recover the investments.

 

The audacity.
200 gold?

 

I was speechless when my mother told me that she had invested in a small house in the countryside.

 

[Why did you do that? I asked you to wait.]

 

[Compared to the Countess, I only contributed 1/10th of her investment.
All of the other wives did it as well, so I wasn't the only one.
But I'm the least wealthy.
Should I have invested more?]

 

Oh…
Clearly Beth hadn't been the only one.

 

Still, I needed to eat breakfast.
Andrei Pitt's first scheduled visit was today.

 

Because I wanted to head to the dining room, I proceeded down the stairs of the main building.
The atmosphere was very unusual.

 

Usually, numerous vassals came in and out of the mansion, but they didn't typically cluster in groups in the hallways and whisper furtively like they did today.

 

Furthermore, there was a constant stream of vassals rushing in and out of Father’s reception room right next to the main hall.

 

In the main hall itself, fully armed senior knights, who weren’t usually posted there, had surrounded the space.

 

The commotion aside, there was something distinctly heavy about the atmosphere.

 

What was going on?

 

“Beth? What's going on today?”

 

Beth, who had been following me despondently, replied in a dull voice.

 

“I don't know.
Strangely enough, all the high-ranking noblemen have gathered and have been whispering since this morning.
Something must have happened.”

 

“…Alright? Don't worry too much, Beth.
I'm going to speak to Countess Victoria.
Today you just have to try to find that guy, Gehrig Anton.
Well, you could also go around and ask about the Anton family…”

 

“Yes, I understand…
But Miss.
If both the Countess and Lady Isabelle invested as well doesn't that mean it might turn out okay?”

 

“Ha…
How many times have I…
Yes, alright.
Let's just investigate first.
There's no harm in investigating, right? What could be going on…”

 

‘What does it have to do with me?'

 

Thinking nothing of it, I went down another step and then stopped.

 

'What does it have to do with me?' What a comforting platitude.
How could I be so complacent just because I had received a hint of my Father's approval yesterday?

 

I shook my head and clenched my fists hard enough that my joints popped.

 

“Ah! Miss, what's the matter?”

 

—

Editor’s Note –

 

* The direct translation of this sentence was “She looked like she was dreaming of poo after buying a lot of lottery tickets.” 딱 로또 잔뜩 사 놓고 똥 꿈꾼 표 정이었다.
I nearly spit out my tea when I first read it.
Apparently there's a belief in Korea that if you dream of poo after buying a lottery ticket, you are more likely to win.
– https://medium.com/illumination/lets-talk-about-poo-2a25fbb1e49a

 

** I'll admit I was skeptical that French fries existed in the 18th/19th century but apparently they absolutely did.
According to Wikipedia, “Fries [were] first mentioned in 1775 in a Parisian book, and the first recipe for modern French fries [was] in the French cookbook La cuisinière républicaine in 1795.
They became an emblematic Parisian dish in the 19th century.” Of course they were different than modern day fries but they existed.
Today I learned something!