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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 22
Chapter Title: An Unexpected Deal
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“……”
Suspicious, Rico slowly reached out and slightly parted the opening of the bundle.
He immediately saw the blue powder inside.
It had a strange appearance, glowing on its own…
Salvasion.
The universal antidote, also known as a fairy’s tear.
“What is this?”
Rico, having recognized it at once, spoke with a sharp edge to his voice.
“You need this!”
In the original story, it was my dad who gave this to Rico years later, after learning of his plight…
It was the only way to cure Rico’s poor younger sister.
“……”
Tension filled the air.
Rico let out a sharp laugh.
“I’ve tailed plenty of people, but this is the first time I’ve been tailed myself.”
“……”
“What’s your intention? How did the Duke find out about me? Answer me.”
“B-but I told you, Dad doesn’t know anything…”
Rico’s 180-degree shift in attitude sent a shiver of fear down my spine.
After a moment of silence, he pulled something out from his clothes.
It was a dagger.
“Eek!”
I quickly scrambled to a corner of the sofa and curled up.
“L-let’s talk! Let’s talk! I-I’ll handle Chessier myself, so y-you don’t have to grant my request…”
“……”
But contrary to my thoughts, Rico took off the glove he was wearing and made a long cut across his palm with the dagger.
Then, he scooped up a handful of Salvasion.
“Gasp.”
The moment the blue powder touched the thick blood dripping from his hand…
Amazingly, the wound healed in an instant.
Rico froze stiff.
‘Ah. He was testing to see if I brought a fake.’
So suspicious.
I spoke cautiously.
“T-take it. It’s all yours, Rico…”
“……”
“Ahem. Well, I’ll be going now.”
“Did you steal this knowing what it was?”
“Huh?”
“It’s monopolized by those damn royals. You can’t get it even with a fortune. Your family may be granted it as a special favor, but you won’t escape reprimand if you carelessly leak it to outsiders.”
Well, I knew all that.
I feigned surprise and said,
“Gasp. Really? Then you just have to use it carefully so you don’t get caught, Rico.”
“……”
“W-well, I’ll really be going now.”
“Wait.”
Just then, Rico suddenly raised a hand and took off his mask.
‘……?’
Gray hair and ashen eyes.
A small, vertical scar on the left side of his lips.
I was startled when the young boy, with his mysterious, almost colorless appearance, revealed his face.
“W-wait a minute!”
I hurriedly covered my eyes with my tiny palms, flustered.
“Y-you don’t have to show me your face!”
Rico, who went around digging up the dirty secrets of nobles, had to keep his identity a complete secret.
With so many enemies, if his face became known, it would only be a matter of time before he was stabbed.
In the original story, Rico only showed his face to my dad after knowing him for over five years… when he had come to trust him completely.
But to show his face at our first meeting, and to a suspicious little kid, no less?
“Look at me.”
“N-no. Hey? Y-you’re not planning on killing me without a trace, are you?”
Given how easily he’d revealed his face, that was a possibility.
My teeth chattering, I carefully lowered the hands that had been covering my eyes.
Fortunately, he looked gentle.
‘Hmm, as expected of a major character, he’s quite handsome.’
For a moment, I had such a leisurely thought before shaking my head vigorously.
“I never break my principles when making a deal. I must give you something of equal value for what I’ve received.”
Rico placed the mask he had taken off onto the table.
“This is what you have purchased from me today.”
…Showing me his face.
It was his ‘weakness’.
* * *
After giving his sister the antidote, Rico brushed the hair from her forehead. For the first time in years, she was sleeping with a peaceful expression.
“One dose of the antidote won’t be enough, right? You’ll need more… Ahem, just trust me! We’re friends, after all!”
The child who had confidently said that, thumping her small hand against her chest…
Rico let out a small smile.
“This isn’t like you, Rico. What are you thinking? Showing her your face?”
Rico turned at the voice coming from behind him.
It was Marina, the red-haired waitress at and an informant for the guild .
“Who were our people inside Duke Rubinstein’s residence?”
“…The J sisters.”
“Have them deliver the information about Marquis Onyx and his illegitimate child to Enoch Rubinstein.”
“Rico! Are you serious?”
“Yeah.”
Rico stood up, walked past Marina, and pushed aside the curtain of the semi-basement window.
“You know how desperately I needed that Salvasion.”
“I know. But you should be cautious. That person knows who you are and what condition your sister, Annie, is in. Not to mention the meticulousness of sending their daughter. The Duke must have some ulterior motive!”
“I wonder. We all know the Duke treasures his daughter like his own life. But he sent her here alone?”
“……”
“That’s unlikely. What that child said is probably true. She really came on her own. The Duke knows nothing about it.”
“How on earth did a seven-year-old manage that?”
“I don’t know either. She wouldn’t say. But whatever secret that child has, whatever ulterior motive she may have, it doesn’t matter to me.”
Rico turned to look at Marina and added,
“Even if that little lady were a devil, I would have gladly sold my soul. My face was a small price to pay.”
“I know you were desperate, Rico. What I mean is, why did you give her your weakness when she didn’t even ask for it?”
“Think about her request. It was simply to convey Marquis Onyx’s secret to her father. That could have been resolved through someone other than me. The reason she came to me specifically.”
“……”
“There’s only one. She wanted… to give me the medicine.”
He was right. At a loss for words, Marina bit her lip.
Rico looked out the window again and murmured,
“I’m going to try trusting her, for once.”
Rico was waiting.
The reason he ran an information guild and collected the weaknesses of nobles…
Was because if someone appeared who could cast a light on this rotten sewer…
He wanted to lend them his strength.
“Perhaps… one has already appeared.”
The hero he had been desperately waiting for.
* * *
‘Finding Rico was a really good idea.’
I thought to myself as I drew a crooked picture on a piece of drawing paper, like any other seven-year-old.
“I have planted my guild’s spies in every noble household in the capital. I will contact the guild member in the Onyx household, and you can communicate with them to proceed with the plan.”
Rico even provided perfect after-service following our deal.
He had even suggested a way for me to rescue Chessier smoothly.
The guild member he had planted in the Onyx household would help me.
“But, Rico, I think I can get into Marquis Onyx’s house somehow… but once I’m there, how do I know who your guild member is?”
“Hmm, how to recognize them… Well, if you return home, I’ll have our guild member planted in the Rubinstein residence contact you, my lady.”
“W-what did you say? You have a spy in our house, too?”
“…? Isn’t that obvious? How else would I have known all about a young lady who’s only been in the capital for four days?”
“Whoa.”
I shivered as I recalled my conversation with Rico.
What a scary person…
In any case, now that I was in the same boat as Rico, I had to meet the guild member hiding in our household as soon as possible.
‘They’re probably one of the servants. It would be easier if I made them my personal maid so I can stay in contact with Rico.’
I sighed, scribbling aimlessly on the paper with a crayon.
‘Sigh, I’ve already gotten so close to Jeti and Jun…’
It was a shame, but once I found Rico’s guild member, I’d have to ask for a new personal maid.
“Oh my, our young lady is soo good at drawing.”
Just then, Jeti came and sat down next to me as I lay on my stomach on the bed.
“Is this a jellyfish? Has our young lady seen a jellyfish before?”
“That’s my dad…”
“Gasp? I-is that so? Ah! Looking again, it’s the spitting image of the Duke! It really is!”
The flustered Jeti laughed awkwardly.
Just then, Jun came to the other side and picked up a crayon.
“Heehee, my lady. May I draw something too?”
“Yep.”
Jun began to draw something with an excited expression.
‘It’s a person.’
With brown hair that came down to her waist, dressed in a maid’s uniform…
‘A maid?’
It was a rather well-drawn picture that captured her features, from the sharp corners of her eyes to the mole by her mouth.
“Wow, you’re really good at drawing. Who is it?”
“She’s my friend. Her name is Richel.”
“She’s my friend, too. Richel also works as a maid.”
Jeti picked up where she left off, stroking my hair as she added,
“At the Marquis Onyx’s residence.”
“……!”
I froze in surprise.
‘…W-what did you say? A friend, out of the blue? And one who works at the Onyx residence?’
I carefully examined Jun’s drawing again.
A maid with brown hair and a mole by her mouth who works at the Marquis Onyx’s residence.
At this point in time, the meaning was clear.
She was Rico’s guild member in the Onyx household.
‘Wow…’
My mouth fell open as I looked back and forth between Jeti and Jun.
They were smiling with innocent faces.
‘I-it was you guys?’
