Upon a quick scan, it seemed it wasn’t just a problem of the Imperial Crown Princess’s palace.

So far, the imperial finances had completely collapsed, and with the house in ruins, it was only natural that mice would infest. Moreover, pouring water into a leaking vessel, even if the hole got a bit larger, no one would notice.

But then the door creaked open. Without any warning, Secretary-maid and Heidi were standing in front of the wide-opened door.

“Who are you?”
Enes held the ledger to her chest and stood up. Glancing down, she saw the hammer that had broken the drawer.

“I’m Enes Swenden, the new secretary for Casey Hampsheer.”

Upon Heidi’s words, the secretary-maid quickly grasped the situation. The secretary-maid’s eyes widened as she confirmed what Enes was holding.

Enes hesitated as her body trembled.

“Hand that over.”

The face of the secretary-maid, who usually appeared quiet and polite, looked completely different as it contorted into a fierce expression. Enes raised her head, hastily moving towards the window.

“Why would you try to jump from here?”

The secretary-maid scoffed at Enes, a non-professional, mocking laughter that Enes was all too familiar with.

Enes glanced out of the window, but it wasn’t a height she could fall from. Due to the high ceiling of the first floor, the garden seemed distant. Enes opened the window to throw the ledger outside. However, the window made a cracking sound but didn’t open.

At that moment, Heidi whispered something into the secretary-maid’s ear. The maid’s eyes widened.

“So, you’re that girl. Casey survived thanks to you, huh?”

For an instant, it seemed like a spark of understanding passed between the two women. If the crimes they committed were revealed, it wouldn’t be a matter of simply being expelled from the palace.

After locking eyes, Heidi and the secretary-maid stepped inside. With a thud, the door closing and locking echoed chillingly in Enes’s ears.

‘They’re going to kill me.’

The moment Enes realized this, Heidi began to look around nervously. She soon picked up a long rod leaning in one corner. It was a whip used by women when riding.

However, Enes remained unfazed. Threats to the extent of being life-threatening were something she experienced daily in Romfield.

Without hesitation, Enes picked up the hammer from the floor and smashed the window. Crash! The sound of glass breaking resonated loudly in the silent castle.

Without hesitation, Enes threw the ledger outside. Along with it, she also sent the hammer flying. If it got stolen, it would turn into a deadly weapon.

The eyes of the two women widened in surprise and, at the same time, they lost their composure.

Enes, without hesitation, went back to the window to escape the approaching, ghastly women. Although one leg might be injured if she fell, it wasn’t a height to lose her life. Without hesitation, she extended her body. In that wind, her face was scratched by the broken glass, but she didn’t feel much pain.

For a moment, Enes thought she locked eyes with a man standing in the garden.

But soon, she was pulled back inside through the window by Heidi’s strong arms. As a result, she suffered a long gash on one arm.

“Aah!”
Knowing that she was an unusually large woman, I didn’t dare provoke her as I sat on the floor. Heidi pressed Enes’s thigh firmly with her large foot.

In that state, as Heidi raised the whip, Enes tightly closed her eyes. At that moment, a knocking sound from outside interrupted.

“Are you okay? Is anyone inside?”

“Please, save me!”

Enes shouted with all her might. The cautious knocking turned urgent. The door rattled a few times and soon, with a loud noise, it swung open.

The person who opened the door stood ready to kick it again. The two women who were attacking Enes paled, and Enes was surprised for a different reason.

“Lord Marcus?”

The man who came to rescue Enes, standing at the door with a raised foot, was none other than Marcus, the red-haired man who had once been a knight in the castle and aspired to become a lord.

“Enes?”

The surprise in Marcus’s eyes, who saw Enes inside, matched the astonishment of the person who had just broken down the door from the outside. However, being a former knight, he quickly grasped the situation.

Marcus rushed in, suppressing Heidi, who was pressing down on Enes’s body. Meanwhile, the secretary-maid began to flee outside. But Marcus was not alone.

The castle’s knights quickly caught the secretary-maid. The situation was rectified as swiftly as it had unfolded.

Enes was handed over to Marcus and the royal guards. Casey, who was involved in the incident, was summoned immediately.

However, since everything was clear, Enes and Casey were not treated as criminals. Marcus’s status as a noble was certain, and there were knights who witnessed the situation when the two women were threatening Enes.

Most importantly, the dual ledgers were irrefutable evidence of an obvious crime that could not be escaped. The misconduct of the secretary-maid and Heidi was promptly reported to the one in charge of the finances. The two were immediately temporarily imprisoned in the royal dungeon.