Chapter 24
24
‘Miona, what should I do? Please, tell me.’
As soon as she returned home, Alice frantically searched for Miona.
However, Miona was not at the manor. She had left to visit her grandmother in a nursing home.
“My Lady, do you have any good ideas?”
Eric, the manager in charge of the Moonlight Flower business, asked with a hollow face. There was a glimmer of expectation in his eyes.
“There must be a breakthrough. Please, give us your wise counsel.”
“Yes, y-yes…”
“You can do it, My Lady. Because you are a wise person.”
As Eric spoke, his eyes were filled with doubt.
Until just a few days ago, he had looked at her with respect.
‘What is this? She has no ability to handle the situation at all.’
That was what his gaze seemed to say!
‘No. That’s not it.’
I built this with my own strength.
So how could it collapse so instantly?
‘F-First, let’s stay calm and gather information.’
Miona had said that ‘information gathering and field research’ were the most important things in business.
‘I need to go see the black market.’
The place where the first black-market trade reportedly took place.
It was said to be a large tavern called the ‘Red Boot’ in the back alleys of the Holy City.
Since she was too scared to go alone, Alice slunk over to Karl’s room.
She intended to ask her father to go with her—
“How could you do this!”
A piercing scream echoed from behind the door.
It was her mother’s voice!
“How could you expel Juan from the Winzer family! How!”
“Do you have any idea what that fellow Juan did?”
Her father, who usually only ever soothed her mother, retorted sharply for once, refusing to back down.
“Juan is the one responsible for the crash of the Moonlight Flower prices, Sandra.”
“D-Don’t be ridiculous. Do you have proof? I asked if you have proof!”
“You’d better hope I don’t find it. If proof comes out, not only Juan but we will suffer the consequences as well.”
Alice was shocked.
Her mother and father were fighting like this?
Moreover, Uncle Juan was the culprit who crashed the price of the Moonlight Flowers?
Confused by the sudden situation, Alice pulled herself together and turned away.
‘L-Let’s just pretend I didn’t hear what I just heard for now.’
She considered taking the guards, but changed her mind.
If she worked this hard and achieved nothing—
“Because you are a wise person.”
The doubt Eric showed earlier would solidify into certainty.
Everyone would be disappointed, thinking she had only made it this far by luck.
If that happened, it would be a huge embarrassment—.
‘N-No. It’s not that I’m afraid of being embarrassed. I just… I just want to avoid people losing hope.’
Alice pulled the hood of her robe deep over her head with a grim determination.
Yes, she had to show courage for the sake of protecting their hope.
‘It’s scary, but I’ll go to the tavern alone. I can do it.’
She could help her parents reconcile later.
As for Uncle Juan… she decided to keep that in mind for now.
A few hours later.
Alice regretted coming out alone so boldly.
“What are you doing! Spin the roulette properly!”
The ‘Red Boot’ was no ordinary tavern.
It was a pub, an illegal exchange, and a gambling den all at once.
“Wahahaha! I’m going to sweep this round!”
“Damn bastard. Cut off his wrists!”
And every single one of them was roaring drunk.
‘I-I’m scared.’
Alice gripped her robe tightly, her eyes darting around frantically.
She had heard that the first trade that started the Moonlight Flower crash happened here. If she wanted to gather information, she had to do it here…
‘Maybe the person who crashed the Moonlight Flower prices is here right now.’
It was while she was looking around, checking faces one by one.
“Alice?”
Someone suddenly grabbed her hand. Just as she was about to pull away in surprise—
“…Uncle Juan?”
It was her uncle, Juan, who had been missing for days.
“Uncle? What are you doing here…”
Alice’s voice trailed off.
Juan was a mess. His face was swollen like someone who had been stung by bees, and two upper teeth and two lower teeth were broken.
Alice was stunned by his wretched appearance.
No, she had heard that her father only hit him three times.
Did he become such a wreck from just three blows!
“Your father made me like this and kicked me out of the Winzer family.”
Juan spat and muttered in a voice thick with the smell of alcohol.
“He told me he’d kill me if I ever approached Danae again. How could my brother-in-law do this to me? Huh?”
“U-Uncle.”
She knew he had been kicked out, but she didn’t know he had been beaten to a pulp like this.
‘That can’t be. My father isn’t a violent person.’
But…
‘Father hit me too.’
With a switch.
Because of Dana.
‘Right, Dana.’
Only then did she realize the answer.
Father became violent because of Dana.
Wasn’t it because of Dana that he hit Uncle, and because of Dana that he switched me?
‘Could it be that Dana did this on purpose?’
Jealous of how much her father cherished her, Dana might have been wickedly manipulating him from behind the scenes.
‘Why would Dana do such a thing?’
Suddenly, the image of her sister’s composed face came to mind.
At the engagement ceremony, and at the party celebrating the success of the Moonlight Flower business.
Dana’s face had always, always been leisurely.
‘Is she… trying to destroy reality because she can’t accept it?’
She must have decided to break the reality she couldn’t stand—the reality where Alice Winzer had become the protagonist.
“Your business will fail within a month.”
That must be why she poured out such a curse so confidently.
Alice’s lips trembled as tears welled in her eyes.
“It’s because of Dana…”
“What?”
“Dana… because she’s jealous of me…”
“Huh? What kind of nonsense is that?”
Juan looked at Alice with an expression as if he had heard something bizarre.
However, he soon smirked. He nodded his head as if he had realized something.
“I think so too, Alice.”
“R-Right?”
“Yeah. And is that all? It’s clear that your father has completely lost his mind over Danae’s fortune. Danae is ruining your father.”
Juan whispered suggestively.
“So, wouldn’t it be better to send Danae away from the Winzer family?”
“Pardon?”
“Don’t worry. I’ll take good care of Danae. You just bring Danae to me.”
“B-But, how could I…”
“It’s for the sake of the family! Danae is ruining everything!”
Alice let out a hiccup.
“Your father only did this to me for now, but later he might do it to you too! He’s completely gone mad!”
“No! L-Let go of me!”
At that, Juan’s eyes began to glint with rage.
“Take responsibility and do something, Alice! If you hadn’t meddled in the Moonlight Flower business in the first place, this wouldn’t have happened!”
He’s crazy!
Alice shook him off with all her strength and ran.
Startled, Juan chased after her and grabbed her firmly.
“I’m sorry. Don’t go, Alice! My words just slipped out for a moment!”
“Let me go!”
“Forget what I just said. Okay? That’s not how I really feel. Alice.”
Juan slumped his shoulders, acting weak and pathetic.
“If I disappear like this, Sister Sandra will be heartbroken. You know how much your mother cares for me.”
“B-But!”
“At least let me say a final goodbye to her. Alice, please? I’m begging you.”
“…”
“Or at least let me apologize to your father. They are the only family I have left, and I don’t want to be cut off like this.”
Alice bit her lip. Anxiety and confusion surged through her.
‘What should I do?’
Then, Juan grabbed Alice’s hand with teary eyes. And then—
“You’re a good girl, Alice.”
“…”
“I know. You aren’t a wicked enough child to force a life-long separation between my sister and me.”
Her uncle was right.
She wasn’t a bad person.
That was always the problem.
That she was far too kind.
