Chapter 18

Thud!

“Get the hell out of here! How dare you say such a thing!?”

“….Ugh, whatever, I was about to leave anyway!”

The loud shout of Count Monad, who very rarely raised his voice, reached the living room on the first floor.

“I will go up and see what is there,” Juliet said hurriedly to stop her mother, who, with a surprised expression on her face, was about to get up and go upstairs.

But before Juliet could climb the steps, she ran into a middle-aged man who had left the Count’s office.

“Why shout like that? It’s just a stupid antique…”

The man grumbled in annoyance with annoyed eyes, however, when he saw Juliet in front of him, his eyes widened in surprise.

“No, wait, Juliet, is that you? I can’t believe my eyes. When I last saw you, you were much smaller…”

The look he gave her from top to bottom was unpleasant to her, but Juliet still forced herself to smile at him.

“Hello Uncle Gaspar.”

Her father, Count Monad, was a gentle and good-natured man.

And although he lacked the talent to make a fortune, thanks to him the family somehow made money to live.

In addition, the Count valued his family above all else, so even when his useless half-brother got into some kind of trouble, he sorted out all the problems without a single word.

The Count’s half-brother, Gaspar, was always jealous of Juliet’s father. Although he was originally granted the title of Baron, which belonged to the Count Monad, he couldn’t be satisfied with this title alone.

Juliet distinctly remembered that in her first life, it was Gaspar who had provoked the deaths of her parents. Everyone thought the cause of death was an accident, but this accident was deliberately orchestrated by her uncle.

Therefore, the first thing Juliet did, as soon as she realized that she had returned to the past, was to discredit Baron Gaspar.

When three years ago Juliet returned to the past, after her death, she was only fifteen years old.

And despite the fact that she had memories of her former life, the possibilities of what a fifteen-year-old aristocrat could do were not so great.

So she began to work on what she could do with the information and authority she had.

The first thing she did was create a fake identity. Then she hired the information guild to carefully study and collect evidence of Baron Gaspar’s cruelty.

Of course, she couldn’t let him kill her family again and ruin her life.

And so, when after some time the necessary information was collected on him, Juliet ‘purely by chance’ brought her father, Count Monad, to one of the illegal transactions of her uncle, Baron Gaspar.

Having stumbled upon this illegal transaction, Count Monad began to carefully check all his affairs and eventually discovered many more of the same transactions. During this investigation, he also found quite a few people who told him about all the dirty deeds committed by Gaspar over the past few years.

From swindling Count Monad’s name to secretly selling their family property.

When Gaspar squandered his fortune, he was only able to continue his lavish lifestyle thanks to being the half-brother of respected Count Monad.

The aristocrats lent money because they believed their borrower was Count Monad.

But at the beginning of last year, Count Monad completely cut off all relations with his brother and kicked him out of the family.

“I will never let you come back to our family!”

After the rumor spread that Count Monad had cut off his unfortunate brother, no one lent money to Baron Gaspar anymore.

Juliet looked at his clothes and said.

“Uncle, you are so luxuriously dressed.”

“A? Oh yes, you are right.”

‘By now, all money avenues should have been cut off for him. It’s strange.’

Gaspar’s camisole was adorned with gold buttons and an ornate boutonniere.

How could he afford to keep up with the newfangled trends when he should have been hounded by creditors for non-payment? Despite this, he looked like he was still wealthy.

‘Well, okay, then you can move on on your own.’

The next step she planned was the expulsion of Baron Gaspar from the country.

Although it took some time, Juliet’s plan had been moving along smoothly all this time. Gasper most likely didn’t even think about the fact that someone could be behind all his failures.

And he certainly would never have thought that this someone was his niece, who over the past few years has consistently destroyed all of his financial resources.

While Juliet was briefly lost in her thoughts, Gaspar suddenly turned his attention to the tea tray she was holding, and his eyes glowed greedily.

“Thanks for the compliment. Hmm, isn’t that Quinn tea you’re carrying?”

“Yes. My father likes it very much.”

‘Quinn’ tea wasn’t easy to get.

The price of this tea was so high that you could think that you can buy gold for that amount of money. Also, it was very rare, and even if you had the money, you couldn’t easily buy it without being on the early booking list.

This was the only luxury enjoyed by Count Monad, who kept away from drinking and entertainment. Also, his friends, who knew how much he liked the bizarre taste of this tea, sometimes presented it to him as a gift.

“Ah, got it. I’m sure you won’t mind if I have a cup of tea…”

Having said this, Baron Gaspar extended his hand forward as if he wanted to steal the tray of this rare tea.

However, Juliet deftly dodged and quickly said.

“No. I don’t mind at all, but it looks that you were very busy and had to go, because people from the bank were waiting for you outside. Or am I wrong?”

“What?! Oh, is someone waiting for me? Hmm, could you…”

“Then have a good day!”

Juliet smiled sweetly and walked past her uncle as if nothing had happened.

Knock, knock.

Knocking on the door of her father’s office, Juliet followed her head through the slightly ajar door.

“Father, it’s me.”

“Oh, Juliet!”

The angry appearance of Count Monad instantly warmed up when he saw his daughter.

“Can I come in?”

“Sure, honey, come on in.”

Juliet set the tea tray on the table.

Count Monad poured sweet tea into cups with his own hand and handed one to Juliet.

“Well, did you have fun with Glenfield’s daughter?”

“Yes, we had a good time.”

It was indeed a very rewarding pastime.

While Fatima was choosing a dress, Juliet took a break and looked through the letters from the information guild.

It was impossible to do at home, since she could get caught by her parents.

“What happened between you two?”

“Don’t worry about it. It is too early for children to worry about such things.”

Firmly said her father.

Although her age was no longer childish, since she was 18 years old, the Count was overprotective of his only daughter.

Juliet knew about this, so she didn’t insist. She was pleased with the way things were going now.

Because now all she has to do is follow her plan.

Uncle may not have realized it yet, but in fact he was already almost bankrupt. Juliet naturally helped to spread gossip about this throughout the country.

She lied to him earlier, saying that people from the bank were waiting for him, but soon it would really happen to him and creditors would start chasing him.

“The tea is very tasty.”

Juliet covered her mouth with a cup to hide a satisfied smile.

For the past three years, Juliet has worked tirelessly to change the anticipated tragic ending.

And now she could already say with confidence that she had achieved not so small successes. However, so far it was only half of the way.

Initially, Juliet lost her parents at the age of fifteen, but now both her father and mother were alive and well.

‘I have only to expel Baron Gaspar from the country, and my next step will be the comfortable life of my parents. I’ll make sure we get rich.’

She had several ideas that she had already begun to slowly put into life, and if they were successful, her father would be able to enjoy this expensive tea not once or twice a month, but every day.

Count Monad, who at that time was drinking tea with a calm face and completely unaware of his daughter’s thoughts, suddenly called her, as if he had suddenly remembered something.

“Honey, could you come to me?”

Juliet put her cup on the table and went up to the Count.

The Count handed her the handmade mahogany box that used to always lie on his desk.

When she opened the box, she saw a shiny silver key. It was small in size, and its shape had an old-fashioned design, but it didn’t look very expensive.

‘Looks like this is the antique he was talking about.’

Juliet understood immediately. This key must have been the family heirloom that her uncle spoke of.

“Juliet, do you know what was the role of our family in history?”

“Yes, I know.”

Guardian Monad.

It has been 300 years since their family was so named.

Ernst, the first emperor who founded the Empire, along with their name granted them the mansion in which they have lived until now.

But it seemed a little strange to Juliet that he gave them such a name.

Because when she looked through her family tree, she found out that none of her ancestors had ever used a sword or anything like that.

Guardian? Isn’t that the name he should have given to a family that had the best swordsmen?

Moreover, our family heirloom was only a key.

In other families, items such as rings, armor, swords and so on. were relics.

But why the key?

Juliet, of course, found this a little unusual.

It’s impractical, right?

Count Monad said, looking at the key.

“I give it to you.”

Juliet’s eyes widened.

“Really?”

“Yes, I originally wanted to give it to you on your 14th birthday. But…”

Count Monad frowned and didn’t finish his words. He still looked depressed that his half-brother dared to talk to him about selling the family heirloom.

“I hope you will take it.”

The Count placed the key in Juliet’s hand.

The key with some mysterious blue gem was very beautiful.

But it probably wasn’t made of silver, as it was oddly light for its size. However, it won’t be very convenient to use as a pendant, even despite the long leather strap that was on it.

Juliet smiled tenderly at her father and answered.

“Thank you, father. I’ll take good care of it.”

So, is this what Gaspar called antiques? Why did he need it?

‘Did he want to sell the key to some collector?’