IMYL 5

Chapter 5

“So you’re saying you have to repay this debt immediately!”

The atmosphere in the reception room was a complete disaster.

“If you won’t hand over land, then hand over your corpse instead!”

The one facing the guildmaster was Alphius’s adjutant, Lancy.

He sternly warned the man to lower his voice.

“Even if you get my corpse, you won’t get a fair price. My eardrums just took some damage, y’know…”

In truth, Lancy’s manner of speech was far too gentle. He wasn’t suited for this kind of shouting match to begin with.

When Alphius led a mercenary corps, Lancy had handled all administrative and financial matters. Naturally, once Alphius became marquis, all paperwork and household management at the estate also fell to Lancy.

The problem was that he had only been in this position for three days.

And there hadn’t even been a steward to hand things over properly.

“The repayment date written in the contract passed a long time ago! If you can’t pay right now, we’ll take the land in the Erenta region listed here as collateral!”

There was no logical way to refute that. The repayment date really had passed.

“Why are you being like this? That’s just the contract, and you usually got paid in winter anyway!”

The head maid stepped forward and shouted.

At the words that’s just the contract, Lancy felt a surge of fury and fired back without thinking.

“Then was the contract written just so you could practice signing your name?”

Only after saying it did he realize the head maid was actually on the same side. For the past three days, he’d lumped her in with “the opposition spouting nonsense.”

She’d said something absurd again, so his instincts had automatically classified her as an enemy.

Fortunately, Lancy’s angry retort—ineffective as always—was instantly drowned out by the head maid’s shrill voice.

“It was the same last year, and the year before that, and the year before that too! We used the same contract every year, so it’s only right to follow precedent!”

Lancy bit back desperately, trying not to point out the flaw in that argument.

But the other side had no such restraint.

“That’s because we kept accommodating you! Things are different now! With the monster wave in the west, we’re barely surviving ourselves!”

Lancy felt a painful certainty settle in. Discovering that his lord had a secret about his birth was not something to be happy about.

If I’d known this would happen, we should’ve kept it secret.

The House of Sears had been a family of imperial merit, but years of decline had brought them to this state.

Three days ago, after the Marquis of Sears’s funeral—

Before the coffin had even been buried, creditors arrived.

“Beron is ours now. Here’s the loan document where the Marquis of Sears put the Beron region up as collateral.”

“W-what?”

“And take a look at this as well. According to this contract, the Marquis pledged the Jejel shopping street as the penalty for contract termination.”

Just like that, lands belonging to the Marquisate of Sears were stripped away one after another.

The contracts contained a clause stating: If one party dies, the contract is terminated due to the deceased party’s liability.

On top of that, the late Marchioness of Sears had owed a massive debt to the Central Bank.

Her extravagance had always been severe, but two years ago she had taken out yet another enormous loan to send Brisa to the capital’s academy.

“This debt isn’t a personal one—it’s inherited by the children. The interest is astronomical, so it’d be best to repay this immediately as well.”

“Isn’t there some way to cover it with my personal funds?”

“There is, but you’d have to pour almost everything you have into it.”

“So I’d return empty-handed in the end. That’s fine. I’m still young.”

Alphius had, after all, accumulated a considerable amount of money during his successful career as a mercenary.

But just as Lancy warned, after paying off those debts, there was barely any cash left.

“So we’ve put out the immediate fires, but the financial crisis remains?”

“This isn’t an ordinary crisis. We need to feed the knights too, and it’s urgent. It’d be best to head to the Imperial Palace and get whatever you can.”

Originally, Alphius had joined the northern civil war as a mercenary.

There, he became comrades-in-arms with the Second Prince, fought together to end the war, and even earned the title of War Hero.

The Second Prince, highly valuing Alphius’s achievements, promised to ask the Emperor to grant him a barony. They were on their way to the capital together when—

It was revealed that Alphius was the hidden son of the Marquis of Sears. He rushed to attend the funeral and inherited the marquisate on the spot.

“What? I have a twelve-year-old younger sister? Then she’s been left completely alone? I need to take the marquisate quickly and protect her warmly, like a mother hen.”

It soon became clear that this, too, was a commoner’s way of thinking.

The existing servants of the estate all regarded him as the commoner’s son who stole Lady Brisa’s marquisate.

Before he could even fully register that disdain, Alphius departed for the capital.

“Since you don’t need the title anymore, ask for a reward instead. His Highness the Second Prince would never be stingy with a comrade who shared life and death on the battlefield.”

“Then hurry and go. The sooner you beg, the better.”

That night, Alphius led the elite unit toward the warp gate.

Even as he left, he worried about his newly discovered younger sister.

“Is there really no other way? Brisa lost her father today—am I right to leave her alone like this?”

“Our knight order could change careers and become bandits, then hit the Central Bank hard. Since you just handed over a fortune, the vault should be nice and full tonight.”

“I’ll be back quickly.”

After sending Alphius off, Lancy remained at the estate and began examining the documents.

Only two plots of land remain.

The previous Marquis of Sears had stubbornly held on to just two areas.

The Olive Plains, where the first Marquis of Sears himself planted olive trees… and the riverside Erenta region, where Marang fish can be caught.

Olives weren’t particularly profitable. The quality of the harvest was mediocre at best.

Only the Marang fish brought in real money.

From the looks of it, they had been purchasing grain on credit from the western grain merchants from spring through winter, then paying it off in early winter with Marang fish.

Then why were the contracts written like this in the first place?

Lancy wanted to cry.

They should’ve written that payment would be made in early winter. Why write immediate payment?

The guildmaster spoke as if granting a great concession.

“Fine. You seem wronged… then let’s do this. Last winter’s grain payment, plus the cost of the next month’s grain… we’ll tally it all up and count it as five years’ worth of fishing rights in Erenta.”

Lancy’s vision went dark.

Now that the war was over, their valiant knight order could no longer earn money. Their stored food supplies weren’t plentiful either. There was a reason Alphius had been sent off in such haste to fetch funds.

But if this goes through, the domain will lose its only meaningful source of income for the next five years…

That was when—

A girl with flowing platinum-blonde hair strode confidently into the reception room.

“From now on, you’ll talk to me.”

It was Brisa, her expression cool and composed—what Lancy considered the spiritual pillar of the nonsense-spouting maids.

As Lancy froze in shock, a maid beside Brisa kicked his leg hard.

“Gah!”

He glared in protest, but the maid jerked her chin—telling him to move aside.

A… a mere maid… kicking the marquis’s adjutant… like this…?

Lancy protested fiercely, saying he absolutely could not tolerate this kind of kicking.

“Are you a sepak takraw player or something?”

The maid glared back and began twisting her ankle, starting a proper warm-up.