“Spare me! I should never have messed with that cursed girl!”
Screaming like that while running away, Philux dashed into a nearby warehouse.
“You’re making it hard for me.”
Cherno followed him into the warehouse building at a leisurely pace.
And…..
—Crash! Boom! Slam!
And then the inside of the building started to shake.
“Please! Aaaah, I was wrong! I didn’t know you were a real dragon! Aaargh!”
A loud scream from Philux rang out from inside.
Then, with a bang, the door opened and Philux crawled out.
His once smooth face was distorted and ugly, covered in tears and snot.
At that moment, something huge came out of the warehouse. Looking closely, it was a dragon’s hand, like a hook with scales.
‘Oh, it’s a real dragon.…!’
Even just the glimpse of the hand was as big as Philux’s entire body.
“It’s a monster! Just kill me instead.”
Philux caught like an ingredient in a crab’s claw, was dragged back inside the building.
Sephiel watched the scene from in front of the building.
‘Oh my, he has even transformed a part of his body into a dragon. It’s been ten years since he’s done that. He must be really mad!”
Seeing Noel speaking so calmly, Sephiel thought to herself that everyone in the Grand Duke’s family must have nerves of steel.
“Don’t worry. This counts as self-defense. It’s not a violation of the Peace Treaty.”
Noel spoke kindly, as if trying to reassure Sephiel.
The Peace Treaty.
Sephiel knew about that too — the pact made during the Allied Kingdoms’ liberation war against the demons.
It was a vow that countries in the alliance, including Remdragon, would not unjustly invade each other or kill royal bloodlines.
“So as long as he’s not killed, it’s fine?”
Yes. Of course. He doesn’t kill easily, so it should be okay,” Noel muttered.
“Well, maybe half-dead….”
Sephiel flinched at Noel’s words.
“No, wait!”
Sephiel suddenly ran toward the warehouse.
“Gyanpa! You have to leave him alive!”
‘Oh, since he’s her uncle, I guess she wants to spare his life.’
As he reflexively ran after Sephiel, Noel thought for a moment.
“Miss Baby, be careful!”
Noel stopped in his tracks when Sephiel shouted in her childish but loud voice,
“Stop!”
Maybe her words reached inside — the building suddenly went quiet.
“Gyanpa. That scammeyr… we… we have to get our money back!”
Yep. Losing money was absolutely unacceptable.
It was the truth Sephiel had learned from her previous life.
‘A sincere apology and compensation start with money.’
‘Verbal regret? No thanks.’
Sephiel made a firm decision.
* * *
“Huh, huk. Please spare me. I was wrong. I was really wrong.”
And Sephiel was looking down at Philux, who was literally reduced to rags.
“Hmm. He still deserves a few more beatings.”
‘No, we’ll end up starting a war at this rate.’
Sephiel thought — though honestly, she just really wanted the money.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes.” Sephiel said, but her knees felt a little sore.
“Baby raccoon, come here.”
Sephiel tried to approach quickly, but she limped a little without realizing it.
“That guy pushed you earlier, didn’t he? Hurting a child’s body… If it leaves a scar, I swear…. I’ll kill him.…”
Cherno clicked his tongue and gently wiped Sephiel’s bloody knee with his sleeve.
‘Come to think of it…’
Sephiel recalled the past as she watched Philux tremble before her eyes.
‘I used to think Philux was a good person because he was the only one who treated me kindly.’
But one day, one of her older brothers slapped her.
She was feeling sick that day, and her nose wouldn’t stop bleeding.
<Sephiel, I have a favor to ask. Can you show me this ledger?>
Philux came by that day. When Sephiel handed him the ledger, she accidentally dripped blood onto his sleeve.
<Tsk! Gross. Do you know how expensive this outfit is?>
A look of disgust flashed across his face.
It wasn’t until much later that she realized:
Kindness in words means nothing.
True kindness is shown in how people treat you when you’re a burden.
Looking at Cherno’s blood-stained sleeves, Sephiel’s eyes filled with tears.
“Baby Raccoon, why are you crying? Are you still not happy that I let that guy live? Hmph. Alright, I’ll go beat him some more.”
“No.”
Sephiel shook her head.
“I’m okay cause ywou were woyyied for me.”
Cherno nodded.
As Cherno’s rage seemed to settle, Philux cautiously crawled closer.
“I–I’ll do anything you ask. I don’t have money right now, but please don’t tell the Allegro royal family I disrespected the Remdragon Grand Duke’s family!”
As expected, Philux was quick to grasp the situation.
Cherno looked at Philux, who was pleading, with a blank expression.
“Gyandpa.”
“Yes?”
“Someone once told me….”
Sephiel now sounded cheerful again.
“Even a dyied squid gives water when ywou squeeze it hayd enough!”
That very someone was Philux.
Philox, in a previous life, had even dabbled in loan sharking – his methods were extremely vicious.
He had them borrow money from that and then buy the stocks he had manipulated.
<Haha. Don’t worry. Even if you squeeze any dried squid, the water will come out. I’m always your money launderer!>
Sephiel remembered hearing that once, back when Philux was drunk.
“……”
“Look at this. I picked it up at the office eayrlier.”
Sephiel held out a carefully folded piece of paper.
[82-82 Romderm Street. A number that’s the same forwards and backward.
Come visit when you need a loan!
Wow, daily interest is lower than socks! Nobles can get funds within a day!]
“Oh, a loan shark.”
Cherno said as if he found it amusing.
“If we call these guys, they’ll give us money.”
Sephiel nodded her head.
‘Well, of course, a scammer’s office would have a flyer for loan sharks.’
They probably gave it to people who didn’t have enough money for land and told them where to go.
“Oh, this place….”
Noel, looking at the flyer, spoke.
“Apparently this loan company with a mirrored address can get anywhere with a gate in just half a day. They’re especially famous for brutal debt collection.”
“Really? Sounds perfect.”
Cherno looked Philux up and down.
“Hmm. Now that I think about it, I’m learning a lot from this raccoon this time.”
“Yes?”
“Sometimes, you have to fight scum with scummy tactics.”
Sephiel thought, ‘I think I get along with this grandpa’, and nodded in agreement.
Cherno gestured.
“Your limbs are all intact. That should be plenty of collateral, right?”
Philux was terrified when he heard that.
“P-please, anything but that. I’ll give you all the land!”
“No need,” Cherno said coldly.
‘Do you really not need it?’
Sephiel smiled slyly and tugged at Cherno’s collar.
“Gyandpa.”
“Hmm?”
Cherno’s voice softened as he looked at Sephiel.
“Can I see the contyact?”
“Okay then.”
Though puzzled, Cherno let her.
Sephiel read the contract carefully and then said,
“Gyandpa, this part is supeyr hard to undewrstand. What’s a penalty fee?”
“Penalty fee?”
Cherno shook his head.
“Hmm. This is the amount of compensation that must be paid in case there is a defect in the traded item.”
“Ryeal estate law, Artiwcle 24, Section 7. According to the Volun Ordeyr.”
Sephiel spoke clearly with all her might.
“If the deal falls through due to the selleyr’s fault, a penalty fee must be paid. Twice the depwosit, and that’s called dwouble compevnsation.”
Sephiel said with a bright smile.
“I read that in a book!”
Cherno and even Philux looked at Sephiel with wide eyes.
“So? If ywou don’t have the mowney for the penalty, give us the land. I’ll play tag here with Gyandpa.”
There’s an old saying:
Land never betrays you.
Sephiel waved the contract around.
Cherno burst out laughing as he looked at Sephiel like that, finding it ridiculous.
“Yeah. That’s how it should be. This kid’s really clever and funny.”
Then, wiping away his grin, he ordered,
“What are you waiting for, Noel? Call the loan sharks.”
“……..”
“Ah, right. First, get that body waiver and land transfer contract from him.”
As Sephiel expected, the dragon grandpa was terrifying when angry.
In this way, Cherno’s Golden Dragon Trading Company acquired a large piece of land not far from Volun, the commercial center of the Kingdom Alliance, and also acquired a lot of money.
And how did they recover the down payment Philux didn’t even have in the first place?
“Hello. I am from the loan company with the same number front and back—always committed to customer satisfaction.”
“Can you lend the amount of money under this man’s name?”
Cherno briefly explained the situation.
It was simple: ‘That guy tried to steal my money.’
“I see. In that case, since you have a legitimate claim, this can be processed as a ‘debt assumption.’ All the necessary documents are in order.”
Those documents included the penalty claim, the double compensation paperwork, and the body waiver signed by Philux.
TL: Body waiver is an informal memorandum commonly used by loan sharks and organized crime groups to literally give up ownership of one’s own body. It is an inhumane document that semi-forces the debtor to use his body when he no longer has anything of monetary value, including money.
“So, you can get a loan right away without any review.”
“No! Anything but that! Please, not the loan documents! Please don’t interfere with the blood-written documents!”
Philux screamed as the documents were being completed, but it was too late.
And so, Cherno got the full down payment back in one lump sum.
“If that guy falls behind on payments, contact the Allegro royal family,” Cherno said with satisfaction.
The loan shark added politely,
“Since he holds a noble title, we’ll strip him clean to the bone if we must. We won’t lose money. Well then, this concludes the contract.”
“No! Please, have mercy! Niece, please—save me!”
‘Like that’s gonna happen.’
“Uncle, grow up and act ywour age.”
Sephiel said while looking at such a Philux.
And the scene where Philux was dragged away by loan sharks was a kind of bonus for Sephiel.
* * *
“It’s already too late.”
Noel scratched his head, looking at the devastated surroundings.
“Well, we should find a place to stay for the night.”
“…The gate still works,” Cherno said while looking at Sephiel.
“Let’s head to Volun and get a hotel. It turned out we’d have to stay out overnight.”
And so, at the end of a long day, Sephiel stayed the night in a hotel in Volun.
Somehow, it had turned into her first-ever trip.
* * *
The next day.
Sephiel has been in a very good mood since morning.
‘Ahhh, so excited!’
She chuckled mischievously.
‘When I get home, I’m erasing number 9 from the Death Note.’
She wanted to sing a song.
‘Besides, Philux won’t be able to do bad things anymore.’
When Sephiel had just become an adult, Philux, growing increasingly bold, had conspired with Wittegar to commit a massive bond fraud.
At that time, one of the maids, who had been relatively kind to Sephiel, suddenly disappeared one day.
Of course, “relatively” kind just meant she didn’t mock or curse at Sephiel outright.
Turned out, the maid came from a modest but stable household. Her family had invested their entire fortune into those bonds and lost everything.
The maid fell into depression and eventually passed away.
‘The bath after punishing evil tastes like honey.’
With a gentle wave of her hand, the water in the tub rippled and tickled her fingers. Soon, someone entered the room.
It was none other than Noel’s wife.
“Okay, Miss Baby. Let me clean you up. You’re such a good baby.”
It turned out Noel was a father of several children.
His family didn’t live on the Grand Duke’s estate but near Volun, so his wife had rushed over to care for Sephiel.
<You could do it all alone, but babies still need a grown-up’s touch.>
That was Noel’s reasoning.
So Sephiel spent the day resting her tired body at the hotel.
Sephiel heard Noel has two daughters.
Perhaps because of that, his wife was extremely kind. After the bath, she played finger puppet games and read fairy tales to Sephiel.
But what was truly surprising wasn’t just the kindness.
The hotel Sephiel was staying in was known as the most luxurious in Volun.
‘Hmm, the expensive hotel is really nice.’
Of course, to a child’s eyes, everything just looked sparkly, big, and fancy.
“Miss Baby, are you feeling okay?”
“Yes!”
Sephiel was sitting in the hotel room munching on snacks when Noel walked in and asked gently.
“I sent a telegram to the Grand Duke’s estate saying you’ll return in a few days. But Berry replied furiously, asking who’s taking care of you.”
“But I’m here, what’s the worry?” Noel’s wife said warmly.
“Haha. You too. Berry would be upset to hear that.”
While they were talking like that, Cherno came in.
Her hands were full of gifts for Sephiel.
“What is all this?”
“I just thought of you, little raccoon, while passing by and bought them.”
The box was filled with famous Volun desserts, cute baby shoes, hats, and clothes.
Sephiel looked inside the box with admiration.
“So petty!”
“Hmph, it’s nothing. I could buy you a hundred of these.”
Even though he was grumbling like that, the corners of Cherno’s mouth kept twitching.
“Yeah, but Gyandpa gave them to me.”
At Sepiel’s words, Cherno muttered,
“Noel, you kept bragging about your daughters, and I thought it was nothing special. But look at this. Isn’t my future granddaughter right here?”
“Strictly speaking, she’d be your granddaughter-in-law… but since she came here so young, she’s basically your granddaughter.”
“You kept saying your daughters were small, soft, cuddly, and cute. She’s just as you described. Stop exaggerating so much.”
Even as he said that, Cherno kept patting Sephiel’s head.
Sephiel giggled shyly and hugged the clothes Cherno had bought.
Cherno looked at Sephiel, asking if that was really so good.
The two of them looked nothing alike, but at that moment, they truly looked like family.
Noel and his wife’s smiles deepened.
“By the way…”
Cherno suddenly changed his expression.
“I haven’t been able to take care of you properly for two days because I’ve been busy dealing with this and other urgent matters at the company.”
“But I was fine!”
‘It wasn’t like Grandpa did much anyway.’
Noel and his wife were the ones who mostly looked after and played with Sephiel.
“Oh my. This little raccoon is pretending to be all innocent.”
“……”
“Even if you pretend it’s a coincidence, I know it all. How on earth do you know it’s a scam?”
Sephiel rolled her eyes.
“Oh, that…..”
“That?”
“That’s…..”
“Tell me.”
‘Yeah, there was no point making things up now.’
“Actually, I……”
“Yes?”
“Actually, I think I’m a genius,” Sephiel said shyly.
‘Right? Let’s go with that. Too late to pretend to be dumb now.’
‘I’ll just play the “I was always a smart kid” card.’
‘Sounds good, right?’
Or so she thought…
“…….”
“…….”
The room became quiet.
Sephiel glanced around nervously.
‘What… was that the wrong move?’
* * *
