“Mother. The audit will start next week. It will take time to prepare, so I’ll see you on Friday.”

“Aaaah! You stand there! You twisted witch! I will tear you apart!”

Despite Lucrezia’s command, Ariadne did not hesitate for an instant. She left Lucrezia’s reception room, her head held high, without giving it a second thought.

Isabella sat tightly next to her mother, trembling and glaring at Ariadne, but there was nothing either Lucrezia or Isabella could do at this moment.

Ariadne wore a faint smile. She no longer needed to seek Lucrezia’s permission to leave the room, and she had no need to fear getting a beating from Lucrezia.

Freedom, it was the unparalleled sweet taste that bitter power provided.

Ariadne, who had come up to her room, fell flat on her bed without even changing her clothes. She had changed and washed the hunting dress she had been wearing during the day, but she was still wearing her indoor dress, having had to put up with Cardinal de Mare’s fumbling.

“Miss! You must change and wash before going to bed!”

Sancha rushed over like a squirrel and dragged Ariadne. Ariadne waved her hand, stretched out on the bed, and made Sancha sit next to her.

“Father has asked me to audit Lucrezia’s account book.”

“Oh my, Miss! That’s great! Let them have a taste of your blade!”

Ariadne shook her head.

“I learned a big lesson today.”

“What is it?”

“No matter how lowly they seem, they have a punch. You never know when they’ll do something crazy, so I have to keep my cards hidden, and it’s important not to stand out.”

Ariadne had provoked Janobi, thinking he was completely safe. But Janobi had a brute strength that Ariadne didn’t have.

She had thought that violence could not be used unless one was crazy in a society where laws and norms were strict, but the stupid and impatient ones wielded whatever they had, despite the threat of punishment.

Social pressure was, in the end, secondary. When conflict exploded, the most primitive solution was physical force.

Sancha tilted her head.

“But then, when do you wield power?”

There was some truth in Sancha’s words.

Ariadne’s attitude in her previous life, always kind, always polite, always considering the position of whoever she was dealing with, and the direction she had decided on now seemed to have little difference on the surface.

“Gather it. Until I can kill the opponent in one shot.”

Ariadne didn’t think Lucrezia would stop sending money to the Rosi family. If she was going to stop, she would have done it a long time ago.

Gather, gather, and explode all at once when it is crucial. And there was also Isabella’s ‘Iron Hook’ incident. Someday, Isabella too will step on her tail. She will not let it go.

And with the lessons of the day as her foundation, Ariadne was going to become a stronger, more dangerous person. A person who wouldn’t make mistakes, would withstand the unforeseen dangers with quick wits, and never crumble because of others.

“I’m tired. Let’s sleep.”

Ariadne was a step closer to the safety she yearned for. That day, she had a long, sweet sleep for the first time in a while.

Lucrezia vehemently resisted the inspection of Ariadne’s family finances, but Cardinal de Mare was stubborn.

After Ariadne lamented her mother’s noncooperation twice, Cardinal de Mare threatened Lucrezia with a suggestion that she could only spend money if she signed jointly with Ariadne.

No matter how much Lucrezia cried, pleaded, and got angry, nothing worked, and Lucrezia had no choice but to hand over the account book to Ariadne.

The state of the ledger was disastrous. Money was draining from here and there. There were cases where the same thing was bought multiple times from various expense items, and there were many cases where new things were purchased even though stock remained.

Ariadne, with the ledger in hand, rummaged through the warehouse and selected a few items as random samples to compare the status of the ledger and inventory. Some were falsely accounted for to embezzle money, but some were genuinely cases of wasteful spending.

Lucrezia was utterly incompetent in this area. She bought things she already had, and couldn’t throw away items properly. She found joy in the act of purchasing itself.

Thanks to this, the de Mare family’s warehouse was full of things like expired eggs, rotten potatoes, motheaten silk, and moldy linen.

Ariadne clicked her tongue and picked out a few obvious cases of false accounting that stood out, and reported to Cardinal de Mare that they were exactly worth 20 ducats that month.

“Lady, but actually, isn’t the case of Lady Lucrezia’s perfume purchase on August 16th the same as the false accounting of the largescale hay purchase on August 3rd? Even though it’s written that it was bought, it wasn’t actually bought, so it’s the same case, isn’t it? Why are you sparing that and only telling His Eminence about this one?”

Sancha, with her bright green eyes, asked. Recently, Sancha, who could barely read and write, was learning to read and write ledgers from Ariadne.

“When you chase a rat, you should leave a hole for it to escape, or else you’ll get bitten.”

Ariadne smiled and answered Sancha’s question. Ariadne deliberately didn’t touch Lucrezia’s personal expenses like grooming products or medicinal herbs. It was time to set a rat trap.

In the afternoon, she called the butler, Nicolo, to her study.

“Second Lady, I heard you were looking for me.”

A bewildered butler, Nicolo, who didn’t know why he was called, saluted Ariadne. Ariadne spoke to Nicolo with a smile.

“I’ve called you because I have a favor to ask. You were the only one I could ask because it’s not exactly an upright task.”

Expectation and caution appeared on Nicolo’s face simultaneously. It’s not upright, it smelled delicious, like there might be some back money.

But the position of butler in the de Mare family was a good job. He had no desire to risk his livelihood for dangerous actions.

“I know that you highly esteem me and follow me sincerely, but my loyalty to His Eminence is solid!”

“It’s also for His Eminence. Father won’t blame you.”

She took out a oneducato gold coin and placed it on the desk in front of where Nicolo sat.

“It’s not a big deal. Just hint to Lady Lucrezia’s close maid that the ‘Ragione tailor shop’ gives a good rebate.”

“Eh?”

It wasn’t a particularly risky task for Nicolo.

“Is it really okay with just that?”

“It’s a reward for borrowing your reliable mouth. I don’t think the amount is small.”

Nicolo quickly pocketed the gold coin that Ariadne placed on the desk.

“Just trust me, Lady!”

The one thing Nicolo didn’t know was, just like how clothes get wet in a drizzle, shady acts, even if they start small, once repeated, you find yourself unable to back out.

A piece of the chessboard was set in place.