CSTB Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Rosé thought that nothing was worse than manipulating people’s hearts.

If the foundation of someone’s trust is shaken that way, they would never be able to believe in people again.

―“Borrow money? Why all of a sudden? You’re not doing this because of Yunho, are you?”

She didn’t want to recall it, but Rosé had gone through a similar experience during her entire college life. Fortunately, earlier victims had exposed the deceit, allowing her to escape unharmed, yet the sense of betrayal she felt back then was still vivid.

It took a long time before she could stop seeing kindness with suspicion.

Even worse was the self-loathing that inevitably arose.

“Do you really think someone decent could ever love someone like you? How could you be fooled by that?”

―“Why me! The real villain is the one who deliberately deceived me!”

It took her quite a while to recognize and accept such normal thoughts.

So, no matter what missteps she herself had, Rosé couldn’t just leave Lady Green, who had been manipulated into believing that Andrew’s feelings of love were genuine.

Andrew, who had gone beyond embezzlement and intentionally manipulated people’s hearts, deserved a punishment far greater than Lady Green’s.

“Yaaah!”

“Rosé!”

Thus, Rosé wriggled free from Noah’s arms and dashed out the door. She believed that if she could bring proof that Andrew was the one who first seduced them, Noah would surely recognize it correctly.

―“Your Majesty! Please let go of her hand for a moment… you should at least hear her out first…”

Jonathan had tried to stop her earlier, and she had been a little scared at how aggressively Lady Green had acted…

‘That’s just me worrying!’

And although she had already acted too humanly—risking suspicion by taking this step—

‘Noah won’t turn his back on me because of that.’

Noah, despite possessing an appearance incomparable even to the other two, was a truly good person who even cared for cats.

Noah soon ordered Jonathan to summon the knights.

While the knights tied up the two and searched the office, Noah stood in place, inspecting two ledgers.

What started two years ago as a discrepancy roughly equal to a sack of wheat per month had recently grown to a difference equivalent to a week’s worth of flour each month.

―“Yaaah!”

Rosé hadn’t followed immediately, and Noah assumed she had a reason. He hadn’t realized that it might be because of this very matter.

The maids had likely babbled in front of the cat, and perhaps Rosé had moved upon learning of it. Noah had even considered that.

Moreover, now that Lady Green had admitted to sending Rosé away in a cart, there was no need to worry. Rosé would return to him on her own once her task was complete.

“Not a small sum, I see.”

Jonathan, observing from nearby and following the ledger Noah held, remarked. Considering the amount involved, someone would surely have complained about wanting more food—but astonishingly, he had never heard of it until now.

Watching the knights uncover hidden pouches of jewels and gold, Noah silently sighed.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t heard—it was that no one had bothered to report it.

Come to think of it, when he had ordered gloves for the gardeners working until their hands were chapped in the cold, someone had briefly mentioned meals. He had dismissed it at the time… yet everyone had been working hungry.

“Ha ha…”

And here he was, thinking about saving someone. He couldn’t even take care of his own servants in the palace, yet he was worrying about feeding people from distant estates—he could only laugh bitterly.

Although the culprit was right in front of him, Noah felt partially responsible. He had failed to properly hear the servants’ words or see their faces when he became emperor.

Therefore, he intended to punish the person involved severely. Anyone who tampered with the royal finances could not escape lightly.

“Did you really think you could get away with this?”

Noah closed the ledger and fixed Andrew with a cold gaze. Trembling, Andrew prostrated himself on the floor and repeated his earlier claim.

“I’m truly innocent! Yes, I’m weak to women’s temptations and got involved, but I did not initiate this!”

Andrew insisted he had been deceived. Lady Green seemed to have nothing to say against him, remaining silent…

Noah, however, would not take those words at face value.

How could a single man be tricked by multiple women into repeating the same wrongdoing for over two years?

It was far more reasonable to believe that Andrew had manipulated the women himself. Though the estate was insignificant and he was a plain, aging baron, it was astonishing that he had swayed the women’s hearts to such an extent.

“Sir Fisher, surely you know that lying will only worsen your crime.”

Jonathan’s remark prompted Andrew to present a separated ledger.

“It’s not a lie! Look at this! Isn’t this my handwriting? And the rest written by the ladies in charge of household affairs?”

In truth, Andrew was scared and voluntarily confessed, but technically, he could have claimed ignorance about why the documents were in his room. After all, all ledgers and expenditure records had been written in the women’s handwriting.

“Lady Green, tell us. Did you really do all of this?”

Perhaps for that reason, Lady Green remained silent. As a result, even though it was clear who started the scheme and who was the main culprit, the matter dragged on.

“Rosé… where have you been running off to now?”

While the two pondered how to resolve the situation, Rosé returned to the office carrying several bundles of letters in her mouth.

‘If people saw how efficiently Noah works, they wouldn’t dare talk nonsense.’

While Andrew tried to shift the blame to Lady Green and the other women, Rosé recalled the love letters she had seen earlier.

The flirting in the letters was too over-the-top for Andrew to have been completely deceived by Lady Green. Particularly, the early letters were filled with Andrew’s passionate advances toward her, despite Lady Green not reciprocating his attention.

Clearly, their relationship had begun with Andrew.

Rosé had brought the letters as proof, and Noah noticed every subtle nuance inside them.

From pretending to whisper love while gaslighting Andrew with lines like “I’m the only one who loves you, so you’d better be good to me,” to coercing Lady Green into assisting with her work under the guise of “need” and “help,” Noah identified it all.

No one could reasonably claim Andrew had been tricked by Lady Green after seeing these letters.

“Find the household staff who previously quit.”

Noah quickly understood how Andrew had lured the women into his scheme and gave this order. From then on, Andrew fell silent, unable to argue further.

Even if Lady Green remained silent, the other women, forced out under threat, would undoubtedly testify truthfully to save themselves.

‘I set out to catch a thief of food and ended up clearing out a bigger scoundrel.’

The matter had grown unexpectedly, but at least one major villain was dealt with.

Rosé, back in Noah’s arms leaving the building, shook her head at Lady Green, who was being dragged away with her hands tied.

‘How could she fall for such trash…’

Initially, she felt a somewhat smug “it’s her own fault,” but later, she felt uneasy. She learned the reason through Lady Green, who finally spoke after Andrew shut his mouth.

―“I was foolish.”

Lady Green had lost her husband shortly after giving birth to her son. She had opened sewing classes and taught the empire’s language to raise her son well on the meager estate income. Though noble in name, she had worked as diligently as any maid.

Then, by chance, she met a man who comforted her efforts and treated her kindly, and her heart had opened without thought. She blamed herself.

‘She wouldn’t actually kill him, right…?’

Though she had been deceived and used, Rosé was more concerned about something else: Lady Green had sent her off in a cart, and she doubted Noah would judge that rationally.

“Nyaa!”

Show him your anger!

As she meowed in a deliberately cute voice, rubbing her head against Noah’s chest, a noble approached them.

“Your Majesty, you’re here. What… what’s all this commotion?”

It was the same noble who had previously urged Noah to marry in the garden.

‘See properly, and make sure the rumor spreads among the nobles that Noah handled the servants’ food!’ Rosé thought. Then she gasped, her eyes widening.

‘Huh? Uh…?’