The butler Oren delivered a letter to me.

The envelope bore a familiar mark. It was the symbol of the information guild we were dealing with.

The letter contained what I had expected.

[As you assured, Edward Lopez has indeed given up his count title.]

Of course.

I raised one corner of my mouth. There was still hope for Edward.

The inflated dream of one last windfall.

In that dream, Edward would once again, no, even more splendidly than before, be a rich man wielding money and power.

There’s no way Edward, full of vanity, could give up such a sweet delusion.

‘Foolish elder brother.’

Not realizing that the vision he sees is a false mirage in a distant desert.

The envelope included a copy of the title certificate for the Lopez Count title as evidence.

‘…It’s been long.’

I closed my eyes and let out a long sigh.

At last, I had made Edward give up the Lopez Count title with his own hands.

I planned to use the inheritance my maternal grandfather left me to buy the title.

The very thing that Edward had insisted I hand over before he died, to use as funds to build ‘heaven’, the thing he had coveted even as he was dying, even going so far as to press his thumbprint with my blood.

Since unmarried women cannot own property in the Empire, my grandfather had used a loophole.

He rented a safe in the Imperial Bank under his name, with a special clause that only I could open it when I came of age.

Thinking I wanted to use it for something truly meaningful, I had never touched it until now.

Until today.

After preparing to go to the bank, I stepped into the hallway and heard whispering voices.

“Should I buy it now…?”

“You mean those trading company stocks? Aren’t they already too expensive?”

I quietly stopped walking and turned towards the source of the sound.

Linda was muttering with a worried face.

“If I break into my savings, I could buy a few shares.”

“Hey, wasn’t that money you were saving for your youngest sister’s dowry?”

“Yeah, that’s true. But if this investment succeeds, I might be able to marry her into an even better family.”

“Well, if it were me.”

They were startled when I suddenly interjected.

I continued with an awkward smile.

“I’d think about it for three more days.”

“What?!”

“The price has already risen as much as it will. Waiting three more days won’t change anything, so just hold on for now.”

Linda looked very flustered, but soon nodded her head quickly.

“Yes! If it’s your advice, my lady!”

* * *

Two days later.

Linda, who had picked up today’s as usual to deliver to Ariana, glanced at the front page and was startled.

“W-What is this?!”

, which had been bringing up sensational topics almost every day lately, ran another special report today.

Eastern Maritime Trading Company’s ship sinks!

[Moreover, all the trade goods that should have been loaded inside have vanished without a trace, raising suspicions that it might have been a planned fraud from the beginning….]

Oh my goodness.

Linda covered her mouth.

The company was exposing was the very trading company she had almost broken into her savings to invest in two days ago.

‘They say it might have been a group of swindlers…?’

No, whether it was fraud or a truly tragic accident, the important point was that the trading ship had sunk.

The ship that should have been carrying treasures more valuable than gold from the Eastern countries had become nothing but an empty shell.

This incident would turn the capital upside down.

A dizzying feeling seized Linda.

‘If I hadn’t listened to the lady that day and had poured all my savings into it….’

Just imagining it sent chills down her spine.

Linda almost collapsed right there, her legs nearly giving out.

* * *

“Hehe, hehehehe.”

In the dark Lopez manor.

Edward, who had been letting out an eerie laugh, suddenly shouted.

“Bring more alcohol!”

But there were no servants to hear his order.

The moment they realized Edward was unable to pay their wages, not a single servant chose to remain in the mansion.

“What’s this, why is no one answering! Are you ignoring me? Bring me alcohol right n-”

“What are you going to do now!”

Elena, who had entered stomping her feet, glared at Edward as if she could kill him.

Her once reliable elder brother had never looked so pathetic.

How could he make things so utterly worse?

He ruined the founding ceremony, and the investment he swore would succeed, into which he poured their entire fortune, had failed miserably!

After the founding ceremony, which they thought would lead to a glorious comeback, turned out like that

The fall they experienced at the moment of highest hope was all the more painful.

‘But, but…’

Even so, they couldn’t just give up everything and drown in alcohol like that foolish elder brother.

Elena barely managed to calm her anger and said.

“…Let’s go down to the estate for now.”

The Lopez County was small in scale and far from the capital, but at least there, the siblings were the masters.

If they fired the current estate manager and sharply raised the tax rate, they could live a relatively comfortable life in that countryside.

It was best to wait there quietly until the rumors about the Lopez siblings died down in the capital. That was the best option for now.

But then, shocking words came out of Edward’s mouth.

“There is no estate.”

Edward grabbed a bottle of alcohol and giggled.

“I sold the title.”

“W-What did you say?”

Elena’s expression went blank.

A moment later, when she came to her senses, she shouted with a distorted face.

“You’re joking, right? How could you sell the title of all things. Tell me it’s a joke right now!”

“Shut up. Shut up!”

Crash!

Edward yelled and threw the bottle at the wall.

With a loud noise, the bottle shattered into pieces, and Elena instinctively shrank back.

Edward, drunk out of his mind, mumbled while hiccuping.

“As expected… As expected, Ariana, that bitch was a seed of disaster.”

He spoke in a voice hissing like a snake.

“Father should have made the decision back then. When he was anxious that we should deal with that girl too to avoid future trouble, I should have encouraged him more…”

“What… are you talking about?”

“Damn it, shut up. Stop bothering me and get out of here!”

It was the moment Edward raised the bottle towards Elena.

Bang bang, bang bang bang!

“Miss Elena, Miss Elena! It’s me, Adolf!”

Adolf’s urgent voice was heard, pounding on the door.

An expression of contempt flashed across Elena’s face.

In fact, the one who suffered the greatest loss from the sinking of the trade ship was not Edward, but Adolf.

He had lost all the money he invested and was kicked out of the Schmitt Baron family for squandering the family fortune.

“What are you waiting for? Your man is here.”

Edward sneered vilely.

“You’ve been so openly intimate with that guy in front of people, so there’s no way to marry you off elsewhere now. What can you do? If you don’t want to die an old maid, you’ll have to marry that guy.”

Elena gritted her teeth in humiliation.

The previous Adolf was one thing, but to marry that pathetic and worthless man who had lost everything, both family and money?

“Who are you to say such things? It’s all because of you that I’ve ended up like this. I… I was doing well.”

Just a few months ago, she was a promising soprano.

Even the man engaged to her sister drooled over her and brought her jewels.

She thought it was only a matter of time before she would become the best soprano in the capital and the most brilliant flower of high society.

Yes. That’s how it was supposed to be, but…

‘When did everything become so miserably ruined?’

“No. I… I’ll become the best soprano and live a glamorous life.”

Elena muttered blankly, shaking her head.

Edward mocked his sister.

“You still haven’t come to your senses. I guess I’ll have to sell you off to that guy before you completely lose your mind.”

Saying that, Edward flung open the door.

“Oh, Elena!”

Adolf, reeking of alcohol just like Edward, with bloodshot eyes and a messy beard, staggered in.

“My love, Elena…”

Adolf approached Elena with a theatrical smile.

Having lost all his money and been abandoned by his family, his only remaining hope was to become the son-in-law of a count’s family.

Although it was a family embroiled in scandal, it was still a noble family. With an estate and a title.

“It must be hard for you these days? Because of the rumors spread by those nasty people… But, on my way here, I heard a strange rumor.”

Adolf looked at Elena with servile eyes.

“A rumor that the Duchess Heigenberg has acquired the Lopez Count title… Of course, it must be a false rumor, right? Since women can’t receive titles.”

“What?”

Elena’s face turned pale.

Edward, who had been blathering, snapped his head around.

Elena fumbled with her lips blankly.

“The Lopez Count title… went to elder sister?”

“That bitch got it?!”

The two shouted simultaneously.