CH 70

Originally, the episode involving the slave traders was the first incident in which the novel’s heroine encountered Dimitri, the head of the Blois. The female protagonist, a princess who had been living without a presence, discovered Count Bilbao’s fraudulent scheme and asked the Emperor to present her with Cadis as a reward.

The incident was the beginning of a romance in which the heroine, who happened to accidentally meet Cadis, freed him from his painful training and gained his trust.

The Emperor not only punished Count Bilbao for his actions but also demanded huge damages from Blois, who was responsible for the management and oversight of the Count’s slave trade and allowed it to operate.

It was a blow to Dimitri, who had just succeeded the dukedom and hadn’t had time to pay attention to such trivialities. As he recognized the existence of a female protagonist and the male slave, Cadis, Dimitri’s position was naturally matched to the villain, who stood opposite the protagonists.

‘I’ve really changed the flow of the original story…’

Nonetheless, I wasn’t in a position to worry about the flow of the original story now. Because I, who should’ve become the mistress of the Emperor and abused the male protagonist, twisted the flow and came to Blois.

‘The heroine will try to save Cadis no matter what, so she will find another way.’

Since she was smart, she would be able to uncover another corruption.

Even though I felt sorry for her for stealing the hard-earned information and using it to help Dimitri, what could I do?

‘I have to take care of my own people first, regardless of means and methods.’

Once I entered the novel and started my new life, the heroine I didn’t even know was just a stranger.

‘I have two cats, no, four cats, Dimitri and Blue, that I want to protect.’

Dimitri seemed to be quite curious to know how I had learned of the Count of Bilbao’s corruption.

“When did you investigate something like that, and so quickly?”

I blurted it out, hoping to throw a bait to divert his attention in a different direction.

“Well… coincidence and luck and all that. Still, let’s start with the evidence because we’re not going to catch the Count of Bilbao with just this alone.”

“Is there any way to do that?”

I smiled confidently.

“There’s a ledger. It’s a secret ledger, where slave traders record the expenses spent on manipulating the pedigree..”

Dimitri let out a blank scoff in disbelief.

“How do you know that?”

“It’s not that important. I know that the original is being kept by Count Bilbao in an unknown place, but there’s one copy that even the Count doesn’t know about… That’s what I’m aiming for.”

“A copy that even the Count didn’t know about…”

He gave me a look that asked, “How the hell do you know that?” but didn’t probe further, probably sensing that I didn’t want to tell him the source of information.

Instead, he switched courses and asked me a question.

“Do you even know where that copy is?”

He seemed to think that it was better to cover up the source and let more information come out than to make me keep my mouth shut while trying to figure it out. It was a smart choice.

“The accountant, who had secretly made a copy of it, must have taken it with him when he left the slave trader.”

“Why did he make a copy?”

In the original, the heroine met the accountant while investigating the people who had left the slave trader.

The accountant revealed that he had a copy, and when the heroine asked him why he made it, he confessed that he was tormented by a guilty conscience after seeing the atrocities committed by the slave traders.

As he thought that the day might come when he needed a secret ledger, he secretly copied it and wrote everything down.

Recalling the contents, I shrugged my shoulders and said calmly.

“I don’t know. Maybe he was feeling remorse and thought about blowing the whistle*.”

[ T/N: (Idiom) If you blow the whistle on someone, you report them to the authorities about illegal or immoral things that they may have done. ]

Dimitri smirked as if he didn’t find that very credible.

“You’re naive, Madam. I’ll bet you fifty million pennies that the accountant was thinking of blackmailing Count Bilbao with that.”

“….!”

He just told me he owed me fifty million pennies… I wanted to write this down. My mouth itched and I felt like going crazy, but I managed to hold it in and smiled sadly.

“In the future, don’t ever joke around with such a large amount of money on the line.”

Fifty million pennies. In Korean money, that was twenty-five million won…

I felt like the twenty-five million won that I could have gotten for free flew away with wings. Meanwhile, unaware of my feelings, Dimitri was laughing, enjoying the situation. He already seemed to relish the thought of beating Count Bilbao.

“All right. If what Rowaine is saying is true, we need to find that accountant quickly.”

Just then, Coco raised his hand.

“I’ll do it!”

Coco glanced at the two of us alternately and pestered.

“If it’s someone who worked in the slave trade, it must be someone I’ve seen. I’ve been there for a while, so I can find them.”

Swallowing a grunt, I shut my mouth.

‘…What if it’s dangerous? What if my baby gets in danger? What if he goes outside and gets hurt? What if he gets caught by slave traders trying to find an accountant?’

Dimitri glanced at me, perhaps reading my expression before shrewdly withdrawing his foot.

“If Rowaine allows it.”

I glared at Dimitri resentfully and pursed my lips to dissuade him, but Coco was faster.

“You said you needed my help, Rowaine. Let’s destroy the slave traders together. Let me be a part of it… I don’t want to sit on the sidelines and just watch.”

I bit my lip hard at the conflict in my heart. All I wanted to do was keep Coco safe, snuggled up in my shadow, protected, but…

After seeing Coco’s determination firsthand, who was I to dissuade him?

I nodded reluctantly.

“You have to be careful, Coco.”

Coco said he would personally pick the knights who would find the accountant in question with him.

It was his specialty to pick people who were trustworthy and good at their jobs.

I was anxiously gazing at Coco’s back, who went out to select knights with Dimitri’s permission, as I heard Dimitri chuckle softly behind me.

“I thought you would never allow it, but I’m surprised.”

I quietly turned my head and looked at him.

“….!”

Only then did his eyes widen when he saw my expression.

“…What if it’s dangerous? Hnng.”

Dimitri, who stared at me for a long time as I was making a crying sound, called his demon Shedim in a low voice. Black smoke soon wandered around me, picking up the cushions on the couch one by one and bringing them to me.

One on my lap, one on each side, and one at my feet…

As I hugged one of them and buried my face in it, I could feel more cushions being piled on top of my body.

Dimitri, who had built a mountain of cushions over my body, sat next to me without making a sound and waited until my anxiety subsided.

˚ ･: * ✧ * :･ ˚

With a small, elite pursuit party, Coco set out that very day to find the accountant hiding somewhere.

“It’ll be fine. Those chosen by Coco are loyal and skilled among the knights of Blois.”

Perhaps it was awkward to comfort me, Dimitri just stood by my side while clearing his throat. All the while, he kept yawning or occasionally walking past me and gently brushing my shoulder or collar.

If anyone else had seen it, they might have thought that instead of comforting my anxiety, he was openly yawning, expressing boredom and annoying me. Nevertheless, I took great comfort in knowing that it was the behavioral language of cats to say, ‘It’s okay, you’re safe. There’s nothing to worry about.’

‘It’s sweet.’

Dimitri’s reputation in the novel was truly villainous. An arrogant, selfish, capricious and unpredictable person who was sensitive and sharp… that was his description.

However, that was just from the perspective of people who didn’t know cats well.

‘Dimitri must have looked incredibly nervous and sharp, especially in the eyes of the heroine, who was more dog-friendly.’

The behavioral language of cats was less well understood than that of dogs, and there were many things that were difficult to understand by human standards, which was why people often misunderstand cats. Since they didn’t know and didn’t understand them, they had no choice but to misinterpret them.

For a cat that was usually wary and cautious, laid-back and lazy behavior was a sign of trust and affection, as if saying, ‘I’m not nervous around you because I trust you.’ Nonetheless, people misunderstand it as indifference or go further and judge it as disrespectful.

‘Cats don’t ignore people, they just don’t show that they’re paying attention.’

So, the fact that Dimitri didn’t even look at me like he was doing now was just pretending.

I laughed a little inside.

‘He’s comforting me, saying it’s okay with his whole body.’

Seeing him working hard for me made me feel like I shouldn’t be more sluggish. I brushed off my anxiety about Coco and spoke cheerfully on purpose.

“Okay, I’ll leave it to Coco to find the secret ledger, and we’ll discuss other things. First of all, the punishment of the slave traders.”

At my words, Dimitri looked up from fiddling with the hem of his shirt with his fingertips.

“I see you have something in mind.”

I clenched my fists, my eyes flashing with glee.

“I’m going to beat up those slave traders, enough to cripple them in a place or two.”