Chapter 32
32
Really?
You're giving me this as a gift?
A deed?
And it's for the biggest toy store in the shopping district?
Calm down. I need to calm down.
Swallowing something this huge might tear my throat.
As a fake Child of Destiny, I know very well how painful it is to have something beyond my capabilities.
I can't even take it with me when I flee.
Since I'm too young to run such a big store, the estate management will take over. Then it's money I can't touch anyway.
The moment I try to sell it and turn it into cash, the Duke will find out, and my escape plan will be exposed in an instant.
With a heart shedding tears of blood, I carefully put the document away and held it out to the Duke.
"You can't read, can you?"
As the Duke spoke arrogantly, Leah smiled kindly, saying, "I'll read it for you."
"Oh my, this is a toy store deed, Little Miss!"
I said in a gloomy voice.
"Leubu, don't want this."
"It's not just paper, Little Miss. If you have this, you can have all the toys in the store, you know?"
I shook my head with a sad expression.
"Don't like this... Just like toys more."
Then, a small chuckle was heard from around.
Henri and Isaac wrapped their arms around my shoulders with sly faces, looking at the Duke.
"A shopping district deed isn't something that appeals to a child."
"Hmm, that's right. A bow or a dress would be more pleasing."
The Duke looked like he'd been struck by lightning. But the young masters smiled brightly as they embraced me.
"Let's go to your room, LeBlaine."
"Yeah, we'll put you to bed."
Behind me, as I listlessly followed the young masters, the Duke's low voice was heard.
"Bring me the list of the guys who handled this."
It seemed there was something else going on in the estate that I didn't know about.
I woke up before sunrise and secretly slipped out of bed.
'Okay, I've got the bow Isaac gave me.'
Just in case, I carefully put the tracking Magic tool Leah gave me in my pocket.
Since there are people targeting me enough to let human traffickers infiltrate the estate, I need to be careful.
I tiptoed into the underground prison.
Soldiers were patrolling, but I succeeded in sneaking in by reviving my experience as a 'rat' during my beggar days.
Of course, picking locks was also a skill I learned from my beggar gang companions.
"Seria."
When I called out softly, she, who had been crouching, raised her head.
"Little Miss...!"
"Shh!"
When I put my finger to my lips, Seria flinched and lowered her voice.
"What brings you here?"
"Seria and I are going somewhere."
I took Seria's hand, who was blinking in disbelief, and left the prison.
The place I took her was the most secluded prison in the underground.
From between the bars, a terrible groan, like scraping metal, leaked out.
Seria gasped when she saw the person inside the bars.
"Jacob...!"
She looked at me with an expression asking why I had brought her here.
I shrugged, saying in an indifferent voice, "I told you, I'd help."
"But it'll be locked."
"I don't think so."
Then I opened the door.
"How...!"
Jacob had said to the end that he didn't know who the 'customer' was. He had wailed that he really didn't know.
So the Duke must have left the door open.
'To let Jacob escape.'
The only place Jacob, who was being chased in Dubled, could go was to the 'customer' who ordered him to kidnap me.
'So that's why the prison was left empty like this.'
Thanks to that, it was easy for me to move.
He probably fed Jacob a tracking Magic tool or attached it to him early on.
The Duke Dubled I heard about was that scary of a person.
"Let's go in."
When I opened the door, Seria slowly entered Jacob's prison.
Jacob, who was lying on the floor, barely moved his eyes to look at us.
"Save... save me..."
"That's not what I want to hear!"
Seria shouted, possessed.
She rushed at Jacob and grabbed him by the collar.
Jacob, who had already been subjected to terrible torture for hours, had no strength to shake Seria off.
"Where are my siblings from the House of Hope? Where did you sell them...!"
When Jacob didn't answer, she began to strangle his neck tightly.
Jacob, his face turning blue, gasped, "Kkeueueueuk!" and flopped like a fish on the ground.
"The, the customer."
"What?"
"The customer took them."
"Are you talking about the customer who told you to kidnap Little Miss? You said you didn't know who they were."
When Seria released her grip, Jacob gasped for breath, holding his reddened neck.
"I don't know who they are. Really. A subordinate came every time and bought the kids. That guy bought all the kids raised in the House of Hope."
"What are they trying to do, taking my siblings?"
"..."
"Tell me!"
Jacob swallowed hard and looked up at Seria.
"A slaughterhouse provides meat, it's not a place to investigate the customer's identity."
Thwack!
I kicked him in the face.
"You think you can get away with just words! (You think you can get away with just words!)"
Seria, who was clenching her fists tightly and trembling, stared blankly at me as I mercilessly stomped on Jacob's face.
"Oh yeah, why don't you try being slaughtered once!"
"Kyak!"
When I climbed on his face and jumped up and down, I heard a dying sound.
"Little, Little Miss."
Seria, rather surprised, hugged me.
I glared at the unconscious Jacob and said.
"If he's so scared that he can't even run away, and he says he doesn't know, then he really doesn't know."
As I gasped for breath, the hand holding me tightened.
I jumped off the floor and looked up at her.
"I have something to ask."
"Please ask."
I stared intently at her face before opening my mouth.
"How desperate are you to find your siblings?"
"......Yes?"
Seria's eyes trembled slightly.
"Are you willing to tear out people's bones and take their blood to find them? How many more demons who cruelly violated your life and your siblings' lives can you kill?"
When I asked that, Seria's eyes twisted strangely.
"You... you're not an ordinary child."
I smiled brightly.
"If you're prepared for that, I'll help you."
I slowly reached out my hand.
Seria, who had been staring silently at my small, maple leaf-like hand, bit her lip tightly.
"I've already made up my mind to kill that person."
She took my hand.
"What do I need to do?"
To her, who asked with a slightly nervous face, I said cheerfully.
"First, why don't you go get your bounty?"
--and
Seria looked at me with a dumbfounded expression, at me smiling innocently like a child.
"You want me to go to the police station on my own? With my acquaintance, too?"
"Yeah. That's how you get the bounty. You can't get it if you turn yourself in."
"Then I'll be sentenced to death!"
"Won't die."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Before a prisoner dies, the Priests come and pray to God, right? Say this then."
I stretched out my index finger and lowered my voice.
"I know where the Original Bible is."
Seria's eyes widened.
"That's absurd. There's no way I'd know something like that...!"
"I know."
And that would make the Temple go crazy.
They would definitely be desperate to get their hands on it and save Seria.
"The Original Bible is something priceless. Why would you use something like that for someone like me?"
"Because Seria is a person who is worth it."
She couldn't say anything and stared at me silently for a while.
I could tell how deeply moved she was by her trembling pupils and moving lips.
'It's true. Seria is a person who is worth it.'
She's someone who gave up her life for her siblings, who share no blood with her, just because they grew up together in an orphanage.
That means she's someone who will never betray you if you can earn her loyalty.
Above all, Seria was smart.
'Unlike Jacob, who barely got into administration with the help of the 'customer', or Charlie, who passed the exam after receiving customized education as a wealthy aristocrat.'
She passed the Dubled administrator exam with only what she learned from the orphanage and what she gleaned from the nobles' residences.
'Also, the fact that she didn't ask about the circumstances even after knowing that I'm not an ordinary child.'
It didn't matter who I was or what kind of person I was.
As long as she could hold my hand.
She was a person with decisiveness and tact.
'An talent comparable to Noth.'
There was no one more wonderful to have by my side.
"Then where should I say the Original Bible is?"
"The Empress Dowager's secret archive."
Besides, it's a win-win situation since I can screw over the Empress Dowager.
The deeply devout Empress Dowager was keeping the Original Bible a secret.
The Temple would be furious with betrayal if they knew that the Empress Dowager, with whom they had such a good relationship, was secretly keeping the Original Bible that the Temple should have been keeping.
I laughed, "Ihihit," and tried to make a dignified expression when I felt Seria's gaze.
"Leave before dawn."
"I will never forget Little Miss's grace."
Seria, who knelt down, bowed her head.
"Absolutely, absolutely, but, I'm really ashamed, but, may I ask you for one favor?"
"A favor?"
"Please leave this place first."
She looked at Jacob with cold eyes and continued.
"And no matter what sounds you hear, please don't come back."
I stared intently at her darkly flickering eyes.
"......Okay."
As she asked, I left the prison first.
Jacob's desperate screams followed from behind.
That day, Jacob left the prison as a corpse, and Seria leisurely left the estate.
A few days later, a bundle labeled 'Children's Day gift' was delivered to me.
There were 30,000 francs in the bundle.
It was Seria's bounty amount.
--
