IGBDS 11

Chapter 11

But… hadn’t this actually worked out well?

If any problems arose from this, he could resolve them all through the lady he was about to meet.

“Good, you’re quick to decide.”

The necklace and the one-hundred-fifty-million-Sern promissory note changed hands simultaneously.

Somehow the woman’s voice seemed to have changed slightly, but Molden didn’t think deeply about it.

He simply held the box containing the necklace and took a small deep breath.

Because it suddenly hit him that he’d spent an absurdly large sum of money…

‘It’s fine. Once Cressida comes… Cressida will take care of everything.’

He just needed Cressida to come.

He was repeating only that thought when two knocks came from outside.

“Lady Cressida requests a meeting.”

“Tell her to come in.”

Molden’s head shot up.

At the same time the door opened, and his eyes met Cressida’s as she stood with the general manager. Her eyes widened in surprise.

“Darren…?”

“Oh, Cressida.”

His body moved out of habit.

The past two years of living solely with the determination to become the son-in-law of the Cressida family had made him, by sheer habit, into a man madly in love.

“Did you find my necklace?”

His gaze fixed only on her, as if nothing else in the world was visible…

“I told you—if it’s yours, I can find anything.”

“Thank you.”

Cressida, receiving the necklace, smiled lovingly.

“It must not have been easy. You didn’t overexert yourself, did you? If there’s anything I can help with, tell me anything.”

She has a responsible nature. She’s also someone who must repay any debt she incurs.

Whatever he said, she’d look into the situation separately and sort it out.

So there was no need to dirty his own mouth and diminish the value of this good deed.

Molden shook his head and brought Cressida’s hand to his lips.

“Nothing. If you receive it and are pleased, that’s enough for me.”

Cressida gave no answer.

In the strange silence, Molden suddenly studied her sleeve closely. The color was somehow familiar.

When he raised his head, he saw she was wearing a long robe, unlike her usual style. Just as he thought that shape looked oddly familiar—

“So?”

The hand he’d been holding slipped away. Her cold voice jolted him like ice water down his back.

“Cres… sida?”

“The Molden family will find it no small sum to cover. Saying you’ll handle it yourself—what boldness.”

“What do you mean? Cressida, if I’ve done something wrong, tell me. I don’t understand…”

“What do I mean.”

Cressida was still smiling.

“I’m saying, as you wish, I won’t do anything.”

But it was no longer lovely the way it had been. Molden’s face went pale.

‘Something… something is going wrong.’

Why did uneasy thoughts keep coming?

Because her smile wasn’t like usual? Or because there was a strange chill in her tone?

Because she was wearing a robe completely different from her usual style? Because that robe happened to be the same as the woman’s from earlier?

‘As if! Robes all look the same anyway.’

Cressida, unlike that insane woman who’d inflated the winning bid tenfold, is a woman who knows honor.

She must have simply worn it as a daughter of a ducal house, thinking it best not to show her face in a place like this.

“Of course… that’s right. You don’t need to do anything.”

Even as he said that, one hundred fifty million Sern was flickering in Molden’s mind.

Was it still right to keep up appearances? What if things really went this way… what if she just wiped her mouth clean and didn’t pay the winning bid? What would he do then?

‘I have no way to repay that money.’

Even knowing full well she wasn’t the type to do that, a single assumption wormed its way into a crack and fed his anxiety.

The amount borrowed alone was enough to shake his family severely—hadn’t he taken a high interest rate because he thought he could repay it right away?

‘How did things end up like this?’

Tracing his thoughts back, the answer came quickly.

‘…It’s all because of that woman.’

The one who’d appeared out of nowhere and bid an absurd price, the one who’d demanded ten times the winning bid—it was all her.

If that woman hadn’t interfered, he never would have had to pay one hundred fifty million Sern!

The more he thought, the more wronged he felt. Molden chewed his lip, then suddenly raised his head.

“But Cressida. I’m sorry to bring this up while you’re happy, but I think I should mention this before we move on.”

He gestured over his shoulder and continued.

“That woman—the one who contacted me saying she’d sell the necklace—she seems to have worked with the auction house to orchestrate this whole thing.”

“Why do you think so?”

“The appraised value of the <Fragment of Lost Memory> is 7.5 million. But that woman tried to take one hundred fifty million. If she didn’t know it was the duke’s wife’s keepsake, if she didn’t know you were searching for it, she could never have named such a price…”

“You knew it was a keepsake.”

“Yeah. I knew—wait, huh…?”

Cressida’s face was expressionless.

With a face utterly unreadable, she murmured.

“You knew, and yet… you did that.”

Something was wrong.

“Cressida? Uh, um, yes. I knew. Because it’s something you cherish—I, I found out while investigating. As you know, I kept trying to find it, so I needed to know what it was, and… also…”

“Stop it, Darren.”

“No, Cressida! I know what you’re thinking. You’re suspicious of me, right? It’s understandable to feel that way when we meet somewhere unexpected, but I, I… I can clear up all the misunderstandings. How I came to be here is…!”

Cressida let out a sigh.

“I can’t listen to any more. Bring him in.”

“Bring… who?”

“Yes, my lady.”

The general manager moved like Cressida’s lackey.

A moment later, the moment Molden recognized the person he brought from the next room, his blood ran cold.

That person was none other than the agent he’d put forward to dispose of the necklace.

He’d planned to recover the money once today’s transaction ended safely, then deal with him so there’d be no loose ends…

Molden instinctively put his hand on his scabbard but couldn’t bring himself to draw the sword.

‘If I kill him… it’ll only deepen Cressida’s suspicions, won’t it?’

If that mouth had already spilled the whole truth, then this too was a meaningless struggle.

And even if by some chance he hadn’t spoken yet, silencing him here would turn suspicion into certainty.

‘It was a trap from the very beginning.’

From the moment she bid one hundred fifty million—no, from the moment that woman inserted herself into the auction…

“Hands off. If you swing that, there’s no going back.”

Molden, chewing his lips, whipped his head around. The woman, who’d risen from the sofa at some point, had come close.

As he glared at her with fierce eyes, the woman grinned and threw back her robe.

Familiar red hair cascaded down past her shoulders.

“You’re so carefree, Molden. You’ve even got time to get distracted by another woman.”

“Ma, ze…”

Molden’s eyes flew wide, as if he couldn’t believe the sight before him.

‘Oh, that’s quite the expression.’

Eyes bloodshot with burst capillaries, lips pressed firmly together, a face on the verge of twisting.

Just from his expression, I could see exactly what was going through his mind.

The mere fact that he’d been completely played by a commoner he’d treated like dirt at the academy would be enough to make his stomach turn.

‘And on top of that, everything was laid bare down to the very bottom in front of Cressida, whom he’d spent so long courting…’

But the next moment, far from admitting his fault, Molden began pouring out excuses, seized by malice.

“How dare you, a mere… Cr-Cressida! I don’t know what that woman told you, but it’s all a trap!”