It was then that Sephiel popped her little head out from the kitchen.
“Huh?”
“Miss Baby! Why do you suddenly disappear?”
Noel swept his chest.
“I thought Gyandpa was fighting, so I’m taying to avoid interyupting him.”
“Interrupt?”
‘Most kids would run away because they’re scared or don’t like adults shouting, wouldn’t they?’
‘What kind of kid is this…?’
Noel and Cherno looked at Sephiel, dumbfounded.
“Weren’t you crying just a moment ago?”
“No. That’s…..”
Sephiel rolled her large pomegranate-like eyes without paying attention to their expressions.
Then she quickly changed the subject.
“Gyandpa. Something’s weird over here.”
“The kitchen is weird?”
Sephiel nodded, shaking her chubby cheeks.
“Yes….. The kitchen is cold.”
“What does that mean?”
Cherno’s eyebrows twitched slightly.
“Mm. At our Gyand Duke’s estate, the chefs are always cooking yummy food, so it’s waym. But here, the kitchen’s clean and cold! It’s styange!”
At her words, Cherno’s attendants quickly looked at each other, and then, without needing to be told, rushed to inspect the kitchen.
The faces of the man in the green hat and others, who were being held by Cherno’s men, turned even paler.
“All the kitchenware is new.”
“It pretends to be a long-running inn, but the kitchen in this inn shows little sign of use.”
“What does that mean?”
Sephiel blinked.
“This little raccoon knows everything but pretends not to.”
Cherno clicked his tongue. It seemed that he was beginning to think that Sephiel was not ordinary.
“Can’t you see it? In the kitchen of an old inn like this, no matter how haphazardly the work is done, there is bound to be soot on the walls, the smell of food, and things like rusty pots. But this place is too clean. That means…..”
Cherno casually pulled off the old entrance sign hanging by the doorway.
<Established in the year 289 of the Kingdom Union>
This year was 299 by the Kingdom Union calendar. That meant they were claiming to have been in business for ten years, but—
“This inn being ten years old is a blatant… lie.”
If she could, Sephiel would’ve smirked and giggled, “Hehe!”.
Cherno was quicker than she thought.
‘Grandpa’s easy to talk to. I like him more and more.’
But keeping her poker face, Sephiel asked innocently,
“Then… don’t tell me… these people are all ghosts…? Is this a ghost town?”
“That I’m not sure of,” Cherno said as he looked at the trembling people.
“But It seems to be true that this town is a ‘lie town’. Isn’t that right, Noel?”
“….Eek!”
Cherno unclenched his hand as he watched the trembling people.
“We’ll need to rough them up a little to get real answers.”
“…..”
The faces of the suspicious group surrounded by Cherno’s attendants turned even paler.
“Alright, take the child outside for a moment. What’s about to happen isn’t suitable for minors.”
Cherno spoke. Sephiel nodded obediently.
She had already achieved her goal, so this much was more than enough.
* * *
Cherno didn’t even need to interrogate them.
Just the act of him raising his hand was enough to make them tremble and spill everything.
<T-The truth is, we’re actors. Dispatched by the Thieves’ Guild.>
<Yes. There are lots of people like us in the Volun. We were told to stay here and pretend to be longtime residents…..>
<We were trained in the underground office of the real estate over there.>
‘Hmm. Just as I thought!’
Sephiel, who had quietly returned to Cherno’s side, smiled inwardly.
It was a very satisfying result.
‘Actors from the lower-level thieves’ guild are very open-mouthed, aren’t they?’
Besides, Sephiel had already read about that incident in the future, so she knew exactly how it would play out.
‘They filled this half-abandoned town with fake residents—actors from the Thieves’ Guild—to make it look like a real town. It’s exactly the scheme I read about in the records.’
Cherno quickly ordered his attendants to investigate the village quietly, and they discovered that the houses were practically abandoned.
“Looks like…” Cherno muttered.
“…..we’ll need to launch a surprise attack.”
Sephiel clung to Cherno’s leg.
“I want to go too!”
“you too….?”
“Yeah. I can’t let bad guys huyrt Gyandpa.”
But Sephiel had other intentions.
‘The person we’re about to face is a real tough one. I can’t relax letting Grandpa go alone.’
A new nest.
A place that gave her sweets and three meals a day.
Sephiel was determined to protect that honey pot of peace with all her might.
“Wouldn’t it be best if Miss Baby stayed hidden in the inn with us? She’s quite precious.”
At Noel’s words, Cherno looked at Sephiel with a strange look and shook his head.
“Hmm, no, let’s go with Baby Raccoon. Baby Raccoon was the first to discover the strangeness of this town. We shouldn’t ignore or exclude her just because she’s small.”
“What? But for her emotional well-being—”
“She’ll be fine,” Cherno said simply.
“Whether she is a raccoon we raise, or a child who will become our daughter-in-law, If she’s a child of the Grand Duke’s family, she needs to grow up strong.”
Sephiel looked up at Cherno in surprise.
Cherno was grinning.
“A child like that has the right to see anything. Well, but it would be better if she didn’t see anything too horrible by human standards.”
Noel looked horrified.
“When I see you like this, you are definitely a dragon.”
Sephiel easily guessed the hidden meaning behind those words.
‘Dragons, big or small, are all crazy.’
She recalled a text she once read, and she found herself agreeing with it.
‘But I don’t mind. Grandpa is pretty cool. Really.’
* * *
So Sephiel followed Cherno to the real estate office.
The door leading down to the basement was firmly shut, but after Noel poked the lock a few times, it was quickly opened.
“Oh my, it’s been a while since I’ve done this, so my hands are a bit stiff.”
Sephiel became curious about Noel’s past.
“Shh, baby raccoon, follow me very quietly and barefoot.”
“Yes.”
Sephiel whispered, took off her shoes, and followed Cherno down the stairs.
Cherno’s other subordinates were waiting nearby.
From below the stairs, light poured in and a raucous noise could be heard.
When Cherno and Sephiel reached the bottom, they both instinctively made a “shh” gesture.
And what they quietly peeked at was…
Bustling.
A crowd of people gathered in the underground office, all holding glasses of alcohol.
“To close the deal tomorrow!”
“Now, everyone, let’s shout the slogan!”
“Let’s close at least one deal!”
“Let’s catch the fool!”
The eyes of the people who said that were strange.
‘That guy!’
And Sephiel noticed a man standing in the middle of the crowd, holding a glass of champagne.
A gentle smile. A face that is half-asleep but strangely gives off a criminal vibe.
‘Death Note Rank #9, Count Verice. Although it’s just a fake name. His true identity is…’
Sephiel clenched her little fist.
‘Prince Philux of the Allegro royal family. And my damn uncle.’
* * *
Count Verice, or Philux, had a man standing next to him. On closer look, it was the same man who had been pretending to be a merchant at the market earlier that day.
“Everything’s going smoothly,” said Philux.
“Yes. But it’s a pity we’re almost out of scraps of land to sell. Also, there’s one flaw in the land-selling scheme—it doesn’t yield instant cash. We have to wait until the final payment, so the cash flow is a bit slow.”
“What does it matter? The money will come pouring in eventually. The people will keep begging for even a single piece of land.”
“You are right.”
Philux laughed cheerfully.
“More importantly, have you wired the money to the Thieves’ Guild?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Thanks to that big catch, we even covered the huge payment to the guild. Couldn’t have been easier.”
Sephiel flinched. That “big catch” was clearly referring to Cherno.
‘These bad guys. They paid the thieves’ guild with the deposit they received from Grandpa.’
Sephiel puffed out her cheek.
“Yes, my lord! You’re a true master at scamming the clueless!”
Philux put down his glass and rubbed his hands together.
“Okay, then shall we take a look at the contracts for the lands that were sold recently?”
At that, Sephiel recalled the long line of people waiting in front of the real estate office.
“There are so many fools. They don’t even realize that it’s a wasteland with no value.”
“Oho, what a great catch. Good job, everyone!” Philux said with satisfaction.
—Crekk
Sephiel turned her head. Cherno was gritting his teeth.
‘Yeah, Grandpa, I get it. That bastard makes you mad too, right?’
Sephiel had realized the man’s identity the moment she heard the name “Count Verice.”
‘Philux de Allegro. That’s his real name.’
Count Verice was his con artist persona—his “second character,” so to speak.
It is common for prestigious noble families to have at least one bad uncle or aunt.
‘Even in the messed-up Allegro royal family, which is full of dysfunctional people, they managed to produce a scammer.’
If there was one particular troublemaker among them, it was Philux.
Real estate fraud, stock manipulation, and smuggling.
The crimes that Philux was committing and the crimes that he would commit in the future.
Sephiel knew of many.
‘Why would a prince of a kingdom do all this?’
‘What could it be?’
‘To live lavishly.’
Although Philux received a generous allowance to maintain his status, it was nowhere near enough for someone addicted to gambling and women.
In addition, the scammer is often fooled and ends up repeating the same scam.
In short, he was: ‘A hopeless human being.’
The most serious incident was a few years down the line—a national investment fraud scheme he’d execute with Wittegar.
Wittegar had guaranteed a bad investment product in the name of the country.
Of course, the main culprit was Philux.
‘So many lives were ruined because of that.’
In her past life, Sephiel could only watch as they carried out their crimes.
But this life will be different.
‘You ever heard of someone scarier than a monster? A dragon grandpa. And guess what? You just got caught by him.’
As far as Sephiel knew, members of the Grand Duke’s family never revealed their identities when operating in the human world.
‘So they’d never imagine the man they tried to scam is none other than the first Grand Duke and a dragon.’
And now, it was Cherno’s turn.
‘Grandpa, beat up that scammer.’
Sephiel smiled slyly and tugged on Cherno’s sleeve.
Receiving the signal, Cherno boldly stepped forward.
* * *
