I Don’t Trust My Twin Sister

“I’m sorry. These are the documents you shouldn’t look at, right?”

“No. It doesn’t matter.”

He picked up the papers, scanned them from top to bottom, and opened his mouth.

“This is a list of requests for funds from each region to aid the people’s livelihood. Would you like to read it?”

Without saying a word, he reached out his hand and handed the papers. He skimmed through the dense letters written on the straight, unwrinkled paper and put it back on the table.

“How is it? Anything?”

“Are these all documents that are reported and reviewed by the imperial castle?”

It was quite a lot. As a rough estimate, 400 units? Didn’t you come up short? As I looked at him questioningly, Ian tapped the paper with his finger.

“That’s right. These are all documents to be reviewed. These are the materials that have reached this point after filtering and filtering from the bottom five times. But look, is there anything wrong?”

“That’s right… that’s right.”

Nothing really happened. No, it was to the point where I wondered if this could be an important issue. As his brow narrowed, Ian smiled softly and continued.

“But that’s what politics is. The contents of the documents are not important. Who wrote them is what matters. Who wrote them and under whose direction they pushed the documents up here, we just need to check that and get rid of these documents.

“Is it simply a power struggle?”

“Yes, it is safe to assume that the fact that a document containing non-trivial content has been uploaded here means that the person who sent the document is still in an important position and showing off his power.”

It was a useless act in my opinion. It was inefficient and ineffective.

“Then what about the important documents? What about the things you need to know about in the country?”

“Not here.”

“Then…”

“Such documents can’t even come this far in the first place. Because that’s not important in front of the great pen masters, they only want to look good to someone who can fill their pocket. So  the papers we need to see aren’t coming up.”

Unfortunately. I stared at Ian, who was blurring his last words. Even though he hadn’t done anything wrong, he turned his head away and put on a bitter expression. There was a deep sadness on his face.

“This person…”

My first impression of Ian was not very good. I thought it was pretty bad, like making a pun in a dangerous situation or asking for money in return. People seemed light, however, Ian sincerely cared about the country and cared for the people. He did that even for just 100,000 gold coins. It didn’t matter if I paid off all the debt and saved the rest for unexpected things. But Ian invested all of the gold coins in welfare, soldiers’ cold protection items, and food, which he had not been able to do so far. He gave it all to people without any greed. He was playful and at times seemed childish, but I felt he was actually in deep thought. He knew how to be ashamed and put on an apologetic expression at the fact that such documents were being uploaded even though he hadn’t done anything wrong. He couldn’t figure out what the hell he was seeing. But if it was Ian right in front of me… I bit my lip. The red eyes turned to me again. He was slightly startled and lifted the dog. My heart felt like it was beating a little. He seemed to be groaning, and he seemed to be thumping, not knowing what to do.

Thinking that Ian’s gaze was still touching me, I forcibly averted my gaze and was contemplating how to face that face when the door opened and Duke Safeldrick returned.

‘Phew, good luck.’ This thought came to me first. I forcibly approached Duke Safeldrick.

“I’m sorry. I caused a commotion.”

Duke Safeldrick stared at me blindly at my apology. Bale rolled his eyes slightly to look at Ian and shook his head.

“You don’t need to apologize, young lady. It’s all my fault for being a bad father.”

Huh? Unexpectedly, I felt that Duke Safeldrick was a proper man. ‘One could tell their parents by looking at their children’, they said. However, he thought that it might be difficult to guess the Duke of Sapeldric by looking at Nerdica as an exception.

“After all the fuss, my throat is burning.”

He undid the button on his neck, instructed the waiter to bring him water, and then approached and sat down on the chair. Could I sit down too? Ian called out to me, who was standing there, and tapped the chair. Uhm, I thought it’s too close, next to Ian. But there were no seats. It was either sitting next to Ian or next to Duke Safeldrick. I moved around and sat down next to Ian, and he smiled. Don’t laugh like that, now…!

“By the way, did the young lady and Ian already have children?”

“Pardon?!”

Oh boy?! What was he talking about? It was the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard when I came home. Ian opened his eyes wide and looked at Bale, but he too quickly shook his head, as if embarrassed. Those innocent eyes claiming to be a misunderstanding… I’m sorry, I doubted it for a moment. I did a lot of suspicious things.

“Is not it?”

“…”

I shook my head resolutely at the staring eyes.

“Oh, no! I’m not even engaged, what the hell…!”

“Ha.”

The Duke let out a deep sigh and covered his face. I think he said, “I thought it was a lie,” but he shook his head slightly, took a sip from the glass the maid handed him, took a sip, and blinked his eyes a few times.

“I’m a little tired because I was distracted.”

“Then shall we postpone the conversation until later?”

When Ian asked, the Duke held out his hand as if he was okay. Then he took another sip of water and coughed several times. Then he straightened up and looked at me.

“I’m embarrassed by the sudden change of situation… Well, will the young lady participate in the conversation as well?”

My eyes brightened. In fact, I was slightly worried that Nerdica had said something strange to Duke Sapelldrick and that the deal was in vain, but she was fortunately not. I didn’t know if the Duke knew the difference between public and private affairs, or if Nerdika kept his mouth shut, but it’s probably the former, right? I moistened my lips with my tongue and opened my mouth.

“Do you prefer to bring it up to the main topic? Would you like to talk a little bit?”

At my bold question, the Duke looked at me blankly as if he was a little taken aback, then laughed out loud. After giggling and laughing for a long time, the duke pushed his water into his mouth again and opened his mouth in a calm tone.

“Hoho… It’s really fun. The battle against the enemy… No, it looks like Viscount Ajstain, so what should I blur with this? Well, anyway, it’s really fun, Lawrence.”

“Is that so?”

Was it funny? I tapped Ian with my elbow. He opened his eyes wide as if he didn’t know, and shook his shoulders slightly. As he tilted his head, Duke Sapelldrick grinned and continued.

“Do you know what Viscount Ajstain said when we first met and talked?”

Huh? Why was he talking about grandpa?

“He said this to me when I was still young.”

Duke Sapelldrick looked at me with a stern face and slightly raised his eyes.

“I only say it once so you get it right, damn kid.”

I didn’t say anything, but I felt the blood draining from my face. To say such a thing to the eldest son of the Safeldrick family. No, more than that, are you my grandfather? He said he spoke and looked like that?

“He was such a great teacher.”

“Teacher?”

“Oh, didn’t he tell you?”

He smiled softly and pointed at me.

“Your grandfather is my teacher. Economics teacher.”

Felddun Ajstain, the current head of the Ajstain family, and a man who was forced to take the title again after the son of the former head of the family died, he was a kind grandfather to me.

“Didn’t you know? That’s strange again. Didn’t that smug nobleman tell his granddaughter that?”

He liked to brag? It’s nonsense. My grandfather always taught me to keep my stance low in humility. He always showed respect and courtesy not only in his words but also in his actions, regardless of his opponent’s rank. He thought it was cool and had a lot to imitate. He said he was bragging about it? He stared at Duke Sapelldrick with his eyes filled with suspicion.

“…Are you sure you’re not mistaken?”

“Huh? Misunderstanding, what do you mean?”

“My grandfather… My grandfather is far from boastful.”

“That’s right. Now.”

Now? Weren’t the following words suspicious? So, in the past, did he openly talk about himself? I imagined for a moment. Seeing my grandfather wearing his favorite bowler hat and talking eagerly about his achievements to people. Ugh, the gap between the eyebrows narrowed. No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t imagine it well, but when I turned my head at the sound of the wind, Duke Safeldrick shrugged.

“He was so good at getting angry. Every time I took an economics class, I had to prepare my mind. There were more.”

Even if it was just a joke, the fact that my grandfather had cursed at me was surprising. I’m far from swearing… He always addressed me with a benevolent and gentle face. ‘Roa’. When I was hugged by my grandfather, the only one who called me by his nickname, the warm scent of apple pie made me fall asleep. No matter how angry Grandpa was, he calmed down gently. Knoll said that people should control their emotions. Does such a person get angry and curse?

“…Really? Maybe it’s not my grandfather, but my great-grandfather…”

“How would I know such a person?”

“Oh, or you may have confused me with someone else.”

“How many times do you have to be insulted by a tutor while living as the heir to a Duke’s family for the rest of your life? Still, he was a wonderful person. He was proficient not only in economics, but also in management, arithmetic, history, and geography. When I asked a question about something I didn’t understand after learning from other tutors, he always cursed at me, but he taught me kindly.”

I waited for Viscount Ajstein to finish. Well, it’s a story about 40 years ago.. I opened my mouth slightly. I was confused as to whether the words coming out of Duke Safeldrick’s mouth were really referring to my grandfather. The Duke smiled leisurely, shrugged his shoulders, and put the papers in the pen. Finally, he knocked and opened his mouth again.

“That’s all for Felddun, Lawrence, young lady. What, ah… Hmm. You’re one I’ve seen, and you’re my master’s granddaughter, so can I call you by first name?”

“Yes? Oh, you can call me whatever you like.”

I blankly remembered my grandfather and nodded hurriedly. I didn’t mind being called by my first name.  It was much better than being called by my first name without permission or saying “Hey” out of courtesy, saying that she came from a prestigious family. It was quite a gentlemanly case for him to ask first and ask for consent.

Duke Safeldrick smiled softly and continued.

“Then, I’ll ask you first, have you been granted the title of representative of the Ajstain family today?”

“Yes. From now on, what I am saying is the opinion of the entire Ajtain family, and the conversation we had here today represents the will of the entire Ajtain family.”

Duke Safeldrick opened his eyes slightly as if he was quite surprised by my answer. I felt good inside. In fact, what I just said was a very important declaration in the transaction. We talked and wrote all the contracts, but it turned out that it was surprisingly common for the person who signed the contract to have no authority. There are many ways to cheat using this. For this reason, after exchanging these conversations, I prepared a document stating that I was granted the qualification of an agent and kept it separately. However, young entrepreneurs, commonly referred to as family agents, were not aware of these facts and often stumbled and cut their noses. It was natural that if you couldn’t answer the most basic thing, you would be penalized for contracts or transactions.

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