Translator: Nox

Chapter 48

“With that settled, come on out one by one and explain the investment proposals you’ve each brought.”

Clatter-bang, the group who had been bickering loudly with raised voices somehow decided on an order and began stepping forward one after another to pitch their desired business ventures.

“This is such an incredible business that if it succeeds, we’ll have hundreds of snacks and…”

‘Liar.’

“This venture is about very, very thick and fluffy clothes coming across the sea from a foreign land, with an adorable bunny pattern like this…”

‘Liar.’

Bunny tilted her head.

Bunny could detect malice in others. Malice meant bad intentions, and that included dishonest words.

So, Bunny could tell when someone was lying.

And everyone here was only telling lies.

Bunny’s eyes quickly turned listless.

Having listened to their long-winded, embellished tales and stories, Bunny melted limply into Rudbride’s arms.

’Not Grandpa, but Bunny who’s all melty…’

Letting out a big sigh, Bunny pointed with her finger at the stack of documents piled on one side of Rudbride’s seat.

“Gwampa, what’s this?”

“Hm? These are documents from people saying they’d like you to send them money. You haven’t learned all the letters yet, have you?”

“Yeah. But I memorized some by heart already.”

Bunny spread out her fingers, then grabbed a document and began reading the letters, wriggling around.

As she roughly flipped through the pages, her lips started to pout more and more.

They were all full of difficult, twisty letters, but amid them, she spotted a familiar one.

‘Huh? I know this!’

Her eyes sparkling, Bunny suddenly froze in place.

Baby, the words I’ve written here are about things that will definitely make you rich if you buy them now—er, make you a big fortune, that is. Tell people it’s like your divine insight told you, and make yourself the greatest divine fortune-teller ever! I’ll tell you later about the king-of-kings super hit investment for you to back.

Below the content Luriel had written were various twisty human words, and one of them matched exactly.

Bunny could imitate anything she saw once. Of course, that was different from studying to understand and learn it.

In any case, she could tell the letters were the same.

“This one!”

Bunny held up a single sheet of paper high.

It was a thin paper, just two or three pages long.

A sheet tucked away unobtrusively in one corner of the thick stack filled with lengthy sob stories.

“This one’s the jackpot.”

“Jackpot?”

“Yeah. Super rich-maker. Bunny’s fox told me.”

Perched on her shoulder preening its feathers, Bunny pointed straight at the red waxwing with her finger.

“A jackpot, you say…?”

“What kind of business is that supposed to be?”

Those watching with narrowed eyes as Bunny held up the document rummaged through their own stacks of papers on their desks, checked the contents, and frowned.

“Magic engineering? Magic stone cooling fan?”

“No way, if it’s magic stones, isn’t that the thing from those Magic Republic guys? From the Magic Tower folks.”

“No matter how naive you might be, surely the young lady isn’t suggesting we help those wizards, right?”

Rudbride took the document Bunny had thrust up and examined its contents.

With Bunny in one arm and the document in one hand, Rudbride naturally flipped through the pages with a single hand.

“Doesn’t seem to be from a Magic Tower wizard.”

“A wizard not affiliated with the Magic Tower…?”

“Anyway, doesn’t this seem like the work of someone clueless about the world? How dare a magic-tainted scum ask the Yudia Ducal Family for investment!”

“This makes no sense. Is there nothing else, Miss Bunny?”

One of the people seated around the long table hurriedly asked Bunny.

Bunny shook her head side to side, crossed her arms with a serious expression, and opened her mouth.

“Nope.”

To be precise, there wasn’t a single word Bunny recognized.

“Miss Bunny, instead of that, why not reconsider ours one more time? Look, here’s a clothing line with an incredibly cute design.”

“Ugly.”

Bunny stared at the clothing design with the cat illustration in the proposal and said.

“Bunny cute. Cat not cute.”

“But…”

“No way, no change, promise.”

Bunny shook her head side to side. She had no more words for liars anyway.

Bunny rummaged through the remaining documents in her hand and suddenly stopped at something.

There was one more familiar set of letters.

“Gwampa, this one too!!”

“Hm? Clothing business? Related to a boutique, I see.”

Rudbride pulled out the document Bunny was pointing to and checked its contents.

‘A clothing business, huh.’

It seemed they were raising funds to support a boutique.

“As expected, it wasn’t something for Miss Bunny to decide. Not just anyone can pick something this big…”

While Rudbride was lost in thought, one of the branch family members who thought it unfavorable to them quickly changed his tune.

“No, let’s go with these two for this year’s funding.”

Having read through the three-page neatly summarized magic engineering proposal and the clothing business one with its multiple attached portfolios, Rudbride handed the documents to Pel.

Both seemed plenty promising, the documents were clear and well-organized, and at least it meant not favoring the branch family proposals.

“Understood. I’ll process them according to procedure right away.”

Pel swiftly took them and replied.

“This is absurd! Your Grace, the Duke! The clothing one, fine, but wizards? You know how insidious and vile those bastards are! They’d do inhuman things without batting an eye for the advancement of magic…”

“Yeah, I know.”

Rudbride shot a glare at the retainer raising his voice noisily and cut him off curtly.

“From the looks of it, not a Magic Tower wizard, and they really need research and investment funds. Obviously better than the ones reeking of you lot—my granddaughter’s picks are far superior.”

“But… even so, they’re wizards!”

“So what? I’ve known for a while that research using magic stones is progressing in various fields lately. The intent behind this research seems solid enough.”

At Rudbride’s words, the retainers opened and closed their mouths repeatedly.

A man drew in a deep breath, started to speak, but clamped his mouth shut again under Rudbride’s chilling gaze.

“This was started to help those with talent but lacking means. When did I ever say I wanted to shove money up your asses to fatten your bellies?”

“But putting faith in a mere child’s words…”

“Those were your words. Once spoken, stand by them. Or else…”

Boom!

The air around Rudbride grew heavy. The retainers’ faces turned deathly pale.

Hiiing—!

A horse’s neigh echoed from somewhere, followed by the sound of flapping wings.

The concentration of holy power around Rudbride was rising.

Holy power was a purifying force, but in excess concentration, it could suffocate like a lack of oxygen.

“My granddaughter’s word is far more trustworthy than you smooth-talking lot.”

My… granddaughter?

It was an odd term of address.

Had Rudbride ever called the branch family children in the House of Trials his grandsons or granddaughters?

The retainers’ pupils trembled faintly.

Rudbride was a man who had never even called Calvad Yudia—Klein’s only son and the direct-line heir—his grandson.

“We’ll investigate thoroughly before funding, so if there’s no disqualifying issue, we’ll proceed with these for this quarter.”

“Yes, understood.”

Pel smiled faintly and slowly bowed.

In the future, the magic stone cooling fan that Rudbrid Yudia invested in thanks to Bunny’s choice would sweep not just the Empire but the entire continent, even giving rise to the historic phrase “one cooling fan per household.”