Became the Owner of a Poor Estate
Chapter 34
After chasing away that gigolo-looking bastard, Donghee’s fury still hadn’t subsided.
What angered her most was the sheer foolishness of Chloe Grace, who had been so blinded by love that she practically gave everything away even when the deception was glaringly obvious. If the original Chloe were standing in front of her, Donghee wanted to give her a good smack on the head.
“So stupid.”
Her voice was sharp, edged with the emotions surging within her.
“I-I’m sorry, My Lord!”
Anna, who had been standing by Chloe’s side, bowed her head in a hurry, her voice thick with tension as she apologized.
Donghee, who had momentarily forgotten someone else was there while lost in her own thoughts, snapped back to reality at the sudden voice.
Seeing Anna’s flustered expression, the boiling heat of her anger cooled rapidly. No matter how angry she was, she had no intention of taking it out on an innocent person.
“Anna, I wasn’t angry at you. You don’t need to apologize. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
In Anna’s behavior, Donghee saw a reflection of her past self—the girl who used to walk on eggshells around her boss, terrified of being fired from her part-time job. She softened her voice as much as possible, wanting to reassure the maid.
Anna was confused by her liege’s emotional volatility, which swung between extremes in such a short time.
Not knowing what to say, Anna’s lips simply twitched pointlessly.
She was afraid that saying something might lead to a mistake, but she worried that staying silent might seem impudent.
“I was just… angry at how stupid I used to be.”
“……I am sorry.”
Even though it wasn’t her fault, Anna bowed her head out of habit.
Despite the change in Chloe’s demeanor, Anna still occasionally froze up in her presence, looking excessively tense.
It was easy to imagine how the original Chloe must have treated her.
Donghee resolved to be even kinder to Anna.
“Anna. Did Ray always bring Erma with him when he visited before?”
Donghee asked, trying to scrub the sharpness from her tone. Though her voice was much calmer, her feet continued to pace the room in a restless circle. If she didn’t release this energy somehow, she felt like she might strangle herself with the curtains out of pure self-loathing.
Anna, watching Chloe pace the same spot for a long time with an anxious gaze, replied in a much more relaxed voice.
“Yes. Lady Erma always came with Lord Ray. When you and Lord Ray had tea or meals, she would either wait in the next room or join you.”
“Crazy.”
“Pardon?”
Anna’s eyes went wide at the unfiltered, harsh word that escaped Chloe’s lips.
Donghee quickly waved her hands, realizing she had startled the girl again.
With so many things to worry about, a wave of exhaustion suddenly washed over her.
Still, she couldn’t mistreat someone who had already been hurt by her predecessor. It didn’t matter if the Chloe of then and the Chloe of now were different people.
To Anna, she was simply a difficult master whose whims shifted like boiling water.
“No. I mean me.”
Donghee replied, thumping her chest with her fist as if she were suffocating from frustration. Just then, a knock sounded at the door.
“Come in.”
The knock was quite heavy. Donghee was certain just from the sound that it would be Thelma.
As she expected, the person who opened the door and entered was Thelma.
Thinking that Thelma must have known all these facts inside and out made Donghee feel a slight sense of resentment.
Couldn’t someone like Thelma have persuaded Chloe?
“Why didn’t you stop me all this time? You said I even promised to give that bastard more money?”
The moment she entered, Thelma was hit with a barrage of nagging. Looking aggrieved, she pouted and a vertical wrinkle formed between her brows.
“I did stop you. Many times, in fact. I even begged you, My Lord, but back then you only got angry with me.”
Resentment colored Thelma’s voice. Donghee was even more flabbergasted.
“Many times? Don’t tell me I’ve already given that guy money?”
“Don’t you remember? You gave it to him several times, saying Lord Ray needed business capital.”
“Sev-several times?! Wow, this is driving me crazy. I was a total pushover. Do you happen to know how much I gave him?”
“The Financial Officer will know. He was deeply upset every single time. After Lord Ray took the money, he would be bedridden with heartache for two days.”
Thelma’s neck flushed red, as if just recalling the past events was spiking her stress levels.
“Ugh!”
Even though she hadn’t done it herself, a wave of embarrassment crashed over Donghee, and she scratched her head aggressively.
Anna looked distressed at the hair that had become a mess in an instant, but Donghee couldn’t help it.
At the moment, she was the only target she could vent her anger on.
If she kept tearing at her hair until her anger subsided, she would surely be bald before the night was over.
Donghee carefully examined Scrooge’s office-cum-bedroom.
The room was larger than she had expected, but all the furniture and fixtures looked miserably worn out.
The curtains, which had spent years blocking the sun’s assault, were so faded it was hard to tell what their original color had been. The bookshelf covering one entire wall was packed tight with what appeared to be ledgers or records.
The documents in the bookshelf were encased in brown leather covers; the older they were, the lighter the color. Even assuming thirty volumes per shelf, there seemed to be at least a thousand books.
“Wow… is all of this financial records?”
Donghee tilted her head back, her mouth hanging open.
“Yes, these have been recorded since the Grace family was first established.”
“How many volumes have you recorded yourself?”
Donghee asked, her eyes still fixed on the bookshelf. Dust motes drifting in the sunlight sparkled like gold dust.
“Two volumes a year. This year marks exactly the thirtieth.”
“So you’ve been the Financial Officer for fifteen years.”
“Yes. I took over the work from my father when you were four years old, My Lord.”
His father?
Entering this place filled with the history of the Grace family and looking around gave Donghee a strange feeling.
She slept here, ate here, met people, and completed quests, but she had never once thought of it as a truly existing place. She had vaguely assumed it would vanish just as suddenly as it had appeared, like everything was a dream.
But seeing the records of the Grace family spanning decades—no, centuries—brought her back to reality.
It seemed the Scrooge family had served the Grace family for generations.
The feeling of solemnity caused Donghee’s mood to settle a bit.
On the other hand, Scrooge hadn’t been able to sit down for a single second, frantically moving about the room to tidy up because of the Lord’s sudden intrusion.
“If you were coming, you should have given me some prior notice. Always catching a person off guard like this….”
Grumbling all the while, he tapped the papers scattered messily on his desk into a neat alignment and hurriedly picked up the trash strewn on the floor.
After a few trips back and forth, the room was quickly made presentable.
“I wanted to check how much money I gave to Ray.”
Scrooge’s bustling movements came to a dead halt.
As Donghee flopped down into the chair in front of the tidied desk, his eyes grew wide enough to pop out. The sight of the Lord sitting at a desk was very unfamiliar.
“Suddenly?”
“Yeah. I need to see exactly how much of a fool I’ve been.”
“Oh, heavens! Thank you so much!”
At Scrooge’s sudden religious exclamation, Donghee frowned and blinked.
“What’s with you all of a sudden?”
“You have no idea how long I’ve prayed for this day to come. My prayers have finally been answered.”
Looking at his expression, Scrooge was dead serious.
“Congratulations on the answered prayer. Now, would you show me the ledger that records my foolishness?”
“Of course! I have recorded it in exquisite detail.”
Hearing Scrooge’s excited response made her feel a bit unpleasant for some reason.
I mean, did he have to record it in exquisite detail?
Scrooge spread a ledger—one that looked recent—in front of Chloe, who sat there with a lukewarm expression.
“Wow.”
Setting aside the foolishness Chloe had committed, Donghee couldn’t help but let out a gasp of admiration at the perfectly organized ledger.
Scrooge clearly had a natural talent for bookkeeping.
To have such clean, concise record-keeping in an era without Excel.
Looking at the ledger he proudly presented, the reason why the territory had no choice but to be dirt-poor was revealed at a single glance.
It was Chloe Grace.
Despite having absolutely nothing, Chloe Grace had been so crazed by love that she sold off the few remaining heirlooms of her parents to hand the money over to Ray.
While her people were starving to death, Chloe Grace had summoned merchants to the castle to buy gifts for Ray.
This crazy woman poured oil on a fire and then fanned it, was Donghee’s conclusion.
“How long has it been since I met Ray?”
Donghee asked, her eyes unable to leave the neatly arranged ledger. The anger that had barely subsided began to bubble up again.
Scrooge was surprised that the Lord had suddenly come to see the financial documents, but he was even more astonished by the sight of Chloe appearing to actually read and understand them.
Then again, she had recently calculated the prices of the jewels presented by Gold Rich in the blink of an eye.
Anticipation colored his gaze as he watched his liege carefully examine the financial documents, turning the pages one by one.
Seeing how she had transformed Morta Village, perhaps the Lord possessed some remarkable talent he hadn’t known about.
“The engagement was a year ago, and you have been pursuing Lord Ray for a little over two years.”
“I even pursued him.”
“You were very devoted. When Lord Ray granted the engagement, as a gift of gratitude….”
“I gave him the one remaining villa.”
Donghee said, glaring at the ledger as if she might set it on fire.
“Yes. I certainly opposed it. I don’t know if you remember.”
Around the time of the engagement ceremony with Ray, Chloe had acted like someone who had lost her senses.
She had gone around publicly saying that the reason for Chloe Grace’s existence was Ray.
Thinking back to that time, Scrooge couldn’t help but let out a deep sigh.
“I was an even bigger lunatic than I thought.”
“Pardon?”
Scrooge asked in surprise at Donghee’s muttered words.
“No, it’s nothing. Anyway, I need to get back the money and the villa I gave to Ray.”
“Does that mean….”
