Previously
Cordelia fights off Maurice by striking him with her teddy bear Jeje and knocking him unconscious with a heavy statue, experiencing an exhilarating sense of liberation.
The moment that velvety, dangerously mellow voice echoed through the room, everyone flinched. Snapping the ledger shut, Noah slowly swept back his hair with long fingers as refined and pale as ivory, his gaze dissecting the faces desperately trying to avoid his eyes. His reddish eyes narrowed in a foxy, playful smile.
Every man whose eyes met his shared the exact same thought.
‘We’re fucked.’
“How strange. Why is my money missing? Where could it have gone?”
Right? Where on earth could it have gone?
“Did anyone see anything? It’s not like gold coins have legs.”
Cupping his chin in his hands, Noah wore a dazzlingly bright smile, yet the men watching felt years being shaved off their lives with every passing second. And with good reason—sitting plainly on his office desk was a standard-issue military handgun.
A former naval commander, Lord Noah Tudor was a master marksman who had never caused an ‘accidental casualty’ in his life. Unless, of course, he made a mistake on purpose. An awkward, bizarre tableau unfolded as the staff and subordinates traded forced grins with their boss, but the air in the room only grew colder.
When that beaming smile froze out of nowhere like a phantom, everyone sucked in a breath. Baring pearly white teeth, Lord Noah Tudor muttered, barely moving his lips like a ventriloquist’s dummy.
“It breaks my heart. To think my dear subordinates would betray my trust over such petty pocket change.”
“It wasn’t me!”
“Me neither! I saw Frank loitering around the safe!”
“You’re out of your mind! It wasn’t me! I want to live!”
“I’d rather steal from the devil! You might as well tell me to jump into the sea!”
“Alphonse lost half his net worth in cards yesterday! He’s suspicious, beat him down first!”
“Hey, you treacherous bastard!”
Amid the chaotic scramble where they sold out their proud comrades just to save their own skins, Noah Tudor crossed his legs over the desk, resting his boots on the edge. He twitched his toes to a silent rhythm, clipped the end off a cigar, and hummed.
“My men truly share such deep camaraderie. It’s moving. So naturally, you won’t mind sharing the collective punishment, will you?”
“What are you talking about?! Take away my loyalty to my lord, and I’m nothing but a corpse! These bastards are just decorative props taking up space in the same room!”
“Comrades? Who here is a comrade?!”
“I don’t even know this asshole’s name!”
These were men who had served in the same unit together for over a decade.
Watching this heartwarming display of battlefield brotherhood where everyone feigned total ignorance, Noah’s eyes curved into a breezy grin.
“Is that so?”
‘You see…’
“I hate nothing more than bastards who skim from my pockets. Followed closely by motherfuckers who stab me in the back.”
‘Is that right, sir?’
“And yet this happens to fall under both categories, doesn’t it? Whatever should I do?”
‘…Haha. Whatever should you do, indeed.’
Tapping the barrel of the gun against the edge of the desk, Noah Tudor recited solemnly.
“They say a household is doomed if even a single rat enters the pantry, whether it takes a fistful of grain or a single silver coin. And I was taught to exterminate every single rat the moment it is seen.”
Every soul in the empire knew the Tudor family possessed an astronomical fortune. Where on earth had a man who wouldn't look out of place owning half the world's gold picked up such a depraved philosophy? By all accounts, neither his parents nor the family traditions bore any resemblance to such a penny-pinching mindset. Noah Tudor was a living embodiment of the fact that the rich were always the greediest.
Reading the mood of his commander, who possessed the face of an angel and the eyes of a venomous beast, one of the men cautiously asked a question.
“Could it be… that it was omitted during the bookkeeping process?”
“What kind of bullshit is that? Are you saying my math is wrong?”
Noah snapped his head toward him, glaring with wild eyes, and the man hurriedly corrected himself.
“Of course that could never be the case! Hahaha! It’s just that, during the process of settling the ledgers, the clerks… well, they’re only human, so they might make a mistake…”
“Really? Those guys told me they never make mistakes and said I should ask you lot instead.”
As Noah muttered idly, a cigar resting between his lips while he cleaned the barrel of the gun, everyone’s eyes darted frantically left and right. How terrifying human nature could be. To throw one’s own colleagues under the bus just to save one’s own skin….
The men, who had been cursing under their breath, shrieked and hit the floor the second a gunshot rang out. Bang! ‘He actually fired! It just grazed my hair!’
The man who had put a bullet hole into the wall chuckled lightly and murmured.
“Now then… who’s the culprit?”
‘I do hope you come forward quickly. I’ve only got four bullets left.’
Nothing could be more terrifying than this striking man, exquisite down to his fingertips, reloading his revolver with a languid smile. Unable to watch any longer, his adjutant, Jason, sighed from his side.
“Your Excellency, if you kill someone over two gold coins, the head of the house will be furious.”
“You don’t understand, Jason. My brother is always angry.”
‘That’s because you make him angry.’
While everyone shared the exact same thought, Noah stroked his chin for a moment and smirked.
“Come to think of it, something similar happened when we were kids. I was playing, building a tower out of gold coins, when my brother accidentally knocked it down. Exactly two coins went missing because of that. We fought over it, you know. He cried so much when I cracked him across the head.”
“I take it you reconciled afterward, then?”
“No. I broke his toy sword. It was worth exactly two gold coins. He cried even harder. You see, I’ve been a man of precise accounting ever since I was young.”
“…”
‘Is this man even human?’
Jason stared blankly at him.
“I only charged him the principal because I love my brother. If it were anyone else, I would’ve collected interest.”
“I’m sure you would have.”
After replying dryly, Jason suddenly remembered something.
“By the way, the head of the family sent a telegram. He requested that you stop by Katysha as soon as your business is concluded.”
“Why? Is he getting married? He’s always so busy running away, even with the imperial princess chasing him all over.”
When Noah snapped his fingers, the men rolling on the floor in disciplinary drills scrambled to their feet and bolted down the hall. Calling after them, Noah kindly warned that if they did not replace the missing amount by the hour, he would carve a hole the size of a gold coin into each of their skins. He then glanced back toward Jason. The adjutant shook his head at his commander’s unspoken ‘Finally?’.
“No. Wouldn’t it be the opposite?”
“What do you mean?”
“It likely means it’s time for Your Excellency to start looking for a bride. You have reached marriageable age.”
“Look who’s talking.”
“That is disrespectful, sir.”
Jason retorted flatly to Noah’s sneer. When those reddish eyes lost interest and began flipping idly through the paperwork, Jason, having received instructions and feeling an obligation as a subordinate, offered advice without an ounce of soul.
“At present, the only direct heirs of the House of Tudor are the head of the house and Your Excellency. You must marry and produce offspring as soon as possible.”
“That’s my brother’s job. Why should I concern myself with it? Tell him to stop getting dumped by women and just obediently marry the imperial princess. He has no eye for women anyway. Seeing things like this, he takes right after Uncle Oliver. I heard Uncle Oliver fell for a con woman once, too. My aunt basically salvaged a pathetic old bachelor.”
Wiggling his toes as he badmouthed his family, Noah wore a perpetual smirk, but this matter had actually been raised for several years now.
In the prime of his youth, Noah Tudor was a man who lacked nothing—in fact, he had far too much. Yet rather than women, he was obsessed with money, collecting fine art, investments, sailing, and warfare. On top of that, he had never been embroiled in a common scandal—to be precise, there were plenty, but the man himself personally obliterated them, whether willingly or under duress. This was precisely why concerns circulated within the family that, while devotion to work was well and good, he lacked far too much interest in the opposite sex.
Jason stared impassively at him.
‘At least the head of the house dates. You don’t even do that.’
In fact, his subordinates had often whispered among themselves about whether their pretty demon of a commander was impotent or harbored unusual tastes. However, according to testimonies from those who had served alongside him in the military, that didn't appear to be the case either; he simply lacked any interest whatsoever in romance. He seemed to date a few times during his youth, only to toss it aside, claiming it was too bothersome and annoying.
If this man were ever to meet a woman, she would have to be far more interesting than money.
Or perhaps, an extraordinarily expensive woman.
“Ah, that reminds me, word arrived from Vincent’s side as well. About that family from before… They’re past the due date and have no ability to repay…”
When Jason spoke up as if just remembering, Noah replied while carelessly leafing through the papers.
“Why ask me that here? Block off the estate and all their funding, then put everything up for auction. Squeeze out every last thing that can be squeezed.”
“We did, of course, but there isn’t a damn thing left to take.”
“Make something come out even if there isn’t.”
“Understood. That’s what we should do. However, the debtor claims his daughter fled in the middle of the night with the family’s entire fortune. He’s taking a ‘do your worst’ attitude.”