Flinch. Everyone’s mouths gaped at my sudden action of tearing up the administrative document.

“Gasp.”

“My lady?”

“That’s what Lord Daniel, who’s weak at math, reviewed all night.”

“And with law books piled high too.”

“Lord Daniel’s eyes are trembling now.”

“Lord Daniel is covering his mouth now. Poor thing.”

“I think my lady went a bit too far this time.”

Then they began to grumble leisurely. Really, is this the time for such behavior?

“Ah, what money? We’ve been openly engaging in human trafficking in our territory all this time, and we should be the ones receiving compensation!”

Think about it, how detrimental must it have been to our people’s morale? It’s frightening enough to hear rumors of slave auctions in the territory, but for it to be true? A legal auction authorized by the lord.

And how much has this tarnished our territory’s image? Inkhart, where the country’s largest slave market opens every harvest festival.

The slave market opens, but transactions are prohibited unless the slaves have clear origins, so you can enjoy safe tourism.

Would you come? I wouldn’t either!

“Even if the neighboring town insults our territory as a place that lives off selling slaves, we can’t even refute it!”

As I shouted loudly, the other knights who had been quiet until now began to chime in one by one.

“Ah, that’s true. I heard that when the Grand Duke and Lord Lucian went to the capital in the past, they were insulted like that.”

“But the funny thing is, those people always sneak into Inkhart during the festival. What other reason would they have for coming to the barren north only during the harvest festival? They don’t even need slaves themselves, but they want to buy and sell without openly auctioning because they’re ashamed, so they dump it all here. It’s ridiculous, really.”

“Where are there slaves in Inkhart? Every single resident is precious.”

By now, Lord Lucian and Darius were left speechless, while the knights and I raised our voices in unison. Even Lord Daniel, who had lost his all-night report, overcame his pain and wiped away his tears.

“Those who say, ‘I’ve been wrongly insulted, but do you know how much I’ve contributed to society? This is a necessary profession somewhere. I’m making a sacrifice.’?”

“They’re definitely hiding something fishy.”

“With a personality that would make even hair run away, yet such a full head of hair? He might be concealing his baldness with a wig.”

“Isn’t that just Lord Ramin feeling jealous as he starts to sense the poverty of his own hair?”

“Kuhup. We-we’ll see about that in 10 years, my lord…”

“Enough. This is all because we don’t have money. But even so, how can our main industry be slave trading? Slave trading, of all things. Come on, if we get rid of slave trading, how else should we make money?”

“That is… We haven’t really made money before, so it’s hard to think… Ah, suddenly I feel like crying.”

“To make several knights cry with just one sentence. My lady, you truly are the finest of ladies.”

“It’s alright. If we don’t have money, we can start extorting from now on. And you there, don’t go around crying when you’re a knight.”

“My lady, your choice of words is a bit cheap, isn’t it?”

In response to Lord Ramin’s piercing remark, I changed the subject. How dare he rebut my words so sharply?

“Who was it that showed the miracle of gold coins multiplying like mountains when given the Inkhart Grand Duke’s gold coins?”

“It was Lord Ramin.”

“Lord Ramin, whose hair flutters with even the slightest breeze.”

“Though my heart may be thus, I’ve never even touched the word ’embezzlement’ in reality!”

Regardless of his own intentions, I was eagerly looking for an opportunity to put that Lord Ramin, whose integrity index was dangerously low, into the mercenary corps.

“The mercenary corps can be a bit less integrity…”

“My lady, I prefer my knightly title.”

“Even if you’d receive a bit more money in the mercenary corps?”

“To be honest, if it’s a considerable amount of money, I might consider it.”

“How much?”

“Well, that…”

Just as Lord Ramin was about to whisper the desired amount in my ear, a voice interrupted.

“Are you done with the meeting and just chatting now?”

Whoosh. Lord Ramin, who had been approaching closely, disappeared behind me. Thick black hair filled my vision.

“Openly poaching talent in front of the lord who received the knight’s oath of loyalty. You’re still too much, Anette.”

Ugh, Lord Ramin made a small groan as if he had bumped into something while retreating.

“Oh my, this is just a department reassignment, isn’t it? The mercenary corps belongs to Inkhart anyway, so what’s the problem?”

“Nicolas Grouse seemed to want to give me some hints about the mercenary corps.”

“Ah, if you can’t trust them, why don’t you dispatch one loyal knight to the mercenary corps? It would be good to look into the inner workings of the mercenary corps thoroughly.”

“Should we?”

‘Ugh, that tax demon. He’s already noticed that I’ve arranged for the mercenary corps’ income to fall only to me.’

Behind us, Lord Ramin was crying, “Why are you doing this to me? I like being a knight. I think it’s my true calling.” But we ignored him.

If I want to divorce with a big settlement in the future, I should really be nice to Nicolas. That way, he might turn a blind eye even if I divide the assets in my favor.

The thought of Nicolas Grouse siding with Darius and interfering with every bit of property I planned to take when divorcing was terrifying. That strict old man would probably attach all sorts of conditions and prevent me from taking even half of what I had planned.

“By the way, you said you’d ‘extort’?”

Darius asked, half disbelieving my choice of words, half amused.

Belatedly regretting my word choice unbecoming of a marquis’s eldest daughter, I whispered to Darius. My breath made his raven-black hair flutter.

“…What if we do it like this?”

Darius smiled.

“You always say what I want to hear. Unbelievably so.”

Thump. My heart fluttered at his smile. Unbelievably so.

It was autumn, just before the harvest festival. Golden sunlight, like harvested wheat grains, flooded the conference room.

* * *

“That wet-behind-the-ears lord brat! What, he thinks he’s the Grand Duke of Inkhart? What’s so great about being a Grand Duke! Until just ten years ago, he was the master of a backwater territory paving roads with money we generously gave!”

Rigolus, who had just stepped out of the carriage, kicked the carriage door with a bang. Until he fled from Inkhart Castle, he had been cowed by the knights’ murderous aura.

‘Let’s see if they’ll allow legal trading again when people start disappearing without knowing why, just like in the old days!’

Ten years ago. When they were trying to legalize slave trading under the previous Inkhart Grand Duke, arguing that it was inevitable anyway.

In reality, Rigolus had been kidnapping residents from remote territories and selling them as slaves even before that. Claiming that this was all happening because slave trade wasn’t legalized.

When the previous Inkhart Grand Duke reluctantly approved slave trade temporarily, Rigolus immediately stopped kidnapping northern territory residents to show the effectiveness of legalization.

It was only natural. The kidnapping of territory residents had occurred in the first place because slave traders were present in the north.

After Rigolus, the biggest slave trader in the north, pushed for legalization and gave a nudge to other traders, the kidnapping incidents that had been happening in the north naturally disappeared.

‘But times have changed now!’

Recently, Inkhart had increased the number of soldiers maintaining public order. It was no longer an atmosphere where you could kidnap just anyone passing by in a secluded place like in the old days. Seeing it firsthand today, the knights’ discipline was sharper than ever.

Above all, that lord.

“Have you ever thought that I’m letting you off easy now because we have a connection?”

“Eek!”

Remembering that face, languidly smiling as if he was truly being lenient while pointing a sword, Rigolus stomped his feet in frustration.

Darius was different from his predecessor! Unlike the previous Inkhart Grand Duke who was weak and eventually allowed slave trading…!

“Welcome back, Master Rigolus.”

“What!”

Rigolus let out a shriek when his personal slave called out to him.

The slave trembled.

“That person is inside.”

“Who!”

“‘That person’.”

The slave’s voice grew increasingly small, almost crawling. Rigolus’s eyes widened at the slave’s fearful attitude.

“‘That person’?”

“Yes.”

Rigolus found himself looking around unconsciously. He entered, clearly conscious of the gazes around him despite it being his own office. His steps betrayed his uneasiness even in his own domain.

Darkness was swallowing him up as the day grew shorter.

When he finally stood before ‘that person’, Rigolus could feel his forehead drenched in sweat.

“You’ve arrived? I have something to report. It seems Inkhart will no longer allow slave trading.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. They won’t listen even if we offer better conditions. I’m not sure what to do now…”

“Is that so?”

The figure in the robe seemed utterly indifferent to Rigolus’s predicament, maintaining a constant aloofness.

The woman was beautifully molded, but Rigolus dared not think of her as beautiful.

“Um, Lady Lilith. We’ve made enough money, so how about moving the slave trading location? The lord doesn’t like it either.”

“Haha. Listen, Rigolus. You lowly pig.”

The woman in the robe, Lilith, sneered at Rigolus as if he were beneath her.

“Who do you think raised you to this level? Who taught you, a mere slave trader, to go north and professionally develop the slave market?”

“It-it was you, Lady Lilith.”

Rigolus prostrated himself before the woman.

Although Rigolus usually treated slaves like livestock, before this robed person, he himself was the lowly slave.

After all, she was the true master of the slave market.