Chapter 21
Even if he could tolerate everything else, being mistaken as Maddie’s secret lover?
He’d rather die.
Knox clenched his jaw and sprang to his feet.
Sleep vanished entirely.
“Hey, where are you going?”
“I have to clear up this misunderstanding! Right now, they probably think I’m, what? I’m your—what? Your boyfriend! This is the worst! Ugh! I’d rather be mistaken for a business partner! Unreal!”
“When were you ever my business partner? You’re more like an assistant.”
“Then you should’ve said I was your assistant!”
Knox stomped his foot and shouted.
“When someone’s jealous! You don’t fight! You make up! If there’s a misunderstanding, you clear it up! That’s what you do!”
“Why are you so worked up? I told the Archduke I’d clear everything up and left.”
“…What?”
“I said I’d take care of everything and left.”
Knox’s face went cold.
“You really said that? That you’d take care of everything?”
“Yeah.”
“So there is a guy?”
“No. I mean I’m going to track down whoever started the rumors and clean them up. Do I look like I’d be in some secret relationship with you?”
Knox messed up his orangish-brown hair and dropped onto the floor instead of the bed.
“Right now, the Archduke must think you’re out handling your other lovers. Ugh… I seriously hate this.”
Maddie casually waved her hand and shook her head like it was nothing.
“Let him misunderstand. It’s fine.”
“How is this fine?! My honor is on the line here!”
“You don’t even have honor. It’s fine.”
“How can you say it’s fine when it’s my honor on the line, you crazy woman!”
“Where’s the knife I almost shoved into your eye last time?”
“Right here.”
Knox quickly lowered his voice and calmly pulled the knife out from the bedside drawer, handing it to her.
Taking the knife, Maddie tucked it away and said,
“Knox. It’s better if the Archduke doesn’t know.”
“Know what? That your love life isn’t complicated at all?”
“Yeah.”
“…Why?”
“Because it feels more real this way. He’s… kind of awkward about things. I need to clean up around him a bit.”
Maddie stood and picked up a gaudy dress lying around Knox’s room to change into.
“Why do you think that Count Monte…whatever stuck so close to the Archduke? It wasn’t sympathy.”
“Exactly. I looked into it. That family was on the verge of bankruptcy from the Count’s gambling and the Countess’s luxury spending. But then, suddenly? They were fine.”
“How?”
“They say the Countess’s mother passed away and left them an inheritance. Maybe the son-in-law was good to her?”
“…Doubt it. The Count has a mistress at the racetrack, and the Countess is cheating with her guard. No way she got along with her family.”
“What the—! That’s what I was just about to say! How did you know?”
“That dumb knight brags about it at the tavern all the time. Can’t even play cards and always showing off.”
“You know him?”
“No, but I’ve heard him bragging about his affair with a noblewoman. Didn’t know it was that guy, though. So the real question is—who paid off the Count’s debts?”
“Right.”
Knox scratched his head and pulled out his notebook to flip through it.
“But no matter how deep I dig, I can’t find where the money came from.”
Maddie tied up her long hair and pulled a cap over her head.
“If you can’t find it, then it was buried deep. That means someone powerful did it. Only a few people in this country could pay off the Archduke’s uncle’s massive debts. Probably someone with ties to the emperor.”
She rubbed her face vigorously as she spoke.
The elaborate makeup Railie had painstakingly applied just hours ago was quickly wiped away.
Within minutes of entering Knox’s home, Maddie was once again indistinguishable from a scrappy youth from the slums.
“…So where are you going now?”
“I’ve got work to do. We’ll push the Countess for money on her end, and the Count on his. Time to let the emperor know they’re liabilities.”
“What about me?”
Maddie pulled out a gold button from her pocket and handed it to him.
“Dress from head to toe like a noble and head to the racetrack. Keep winning money. Make sure the Count notices you.”
“Ooh, and when he takes the bait?”
“Then buddy up with him and share your ‘secret method’ for picking winners. …Let him win a few times. Then introduce him to a bigger, secret betting ring.”
“You think he’ll bite?”
“Gamblers never quit unless you cut off their hands.”
She tucked her stray hairs under the cap and grinned mischievously.
Excited for the action ahead, Knox couldn’t help smiling too, though he still grumbled.
“You’re unbelievable. One gold button and I’m supposed to manipulate an entire racetrack.”
“If you didn’t have that kind of skill, you’d be dead already. I’m leaving.”
“Dressed like that? Where?”
“To take care of some people. I told the Archduke I’d take care of things, didn’t I?”
Maddie adjusted her clothes and disappeared out the door.
Left alone, Knox picked up the empty whiskey bottles and sighed out of habit.
“No matter how many times I say this is my house, she never listens. It’s not a changing room.”
He picked up the dress Maddie had tossed aside, dusted it off, and walked toward the wall.
When he pushed the cabinet, the wall turned to reveal a massive walk-in wardrobe.
It was filled with clothes, wigs, and accessories used for their past cons.
“Still, it’s been a while since I dressed like a noble.”
Knox hummed as he slipped into a deep navy suit and a sleek black wig.
He pushed his fringe back and secured it, then placed a gold-rimmed monocle over his left eye.
Opening another drawer, he pinned a few stolen medals to his chest.
He now looked like a foreign officer on leave.
Fixing horse races was child’s play to Knox.
He pulled out the entire drawer and retrieved a hidden stack of cash taped to the back.
As he prepared, he suddenly realized something important.
“Wait, how much am I even getting paid for this? What am I supposed to be stealing?”
After finishing his transformation and exiting the secret room, he found three unopened whiskey bottles on the bed, along with a note.
“Going to steal the Archduke’s heart.”
The handwriting was unmistakably Maddie’s.
“Ugh.”
Knox immediately burned the note with a match.
“If she’d just get married, quit the job, and stay out of trouble forever, I’d be thrilled.”
Then I’d just find a new partner—though he knew no one could ever replace Maddie.
Still, if the Archduke would just take her, he’d be the first to applaud.
Maddie was… grateful as he was to her, truly.
She was still his embarrassment of a sister, no matter where she went.
Knox left for the racetrack, hoping Maddie would succeed in stealing the Archduke’s heart.
If screwing over Count Montenejando helped with that, he’d gladly make the poison candy himself.
He just wanted to see Maddie live a normal life.
…He wanted to see her stop drinking away her nights at his place and finally settle down.
Maddie quietly and efficiently trailed behind Crockton.
She disguised herself variously—a newspaper-selling boy near the knights’ training grounds, an old lady selling wildflowers.
At night, she mingled with them at the tavern and drank like one of the gang.
The next morning, she paid the milk delivery boy at Crockton’s house to trade clothes and got a long conversation with the maid.
The conclusion was clear.
Sir Crockton Vinyl was no ordinary knight.
He was protecting the Archduke’s secret—and carrying out missions for someone.
He often missed early training, and on weekends, only two bottles of milk were delivered instead of the usual three.
Which meant there was somewhere he went every weekend.
Maddie threw a shabby shawl over her shoulders and silently tailed him.
Once Crockton got off his carriage and rented a horse in a secluded neighborhood, he set off again.
Partway through, perhaps sensing something, he stopped abruptly.
Maddie quickly flipped her shawl around and tied it around her waist.
The thin fabric underneath showed her figure clearly.
She ripped the shoulders and sleeves, tied her hair up, and started clapping her hands.
Then she began dancing with a group of beggars.
Crockton turned around at the sound.
A crowd of vagabonds danced together in a mess of movement.
“…Just gypsies,” he muttered.
In this part of town, beggars dancing in tattered clothes was nothing unusual.
Crockton resumed his ride.
Maddie kept up the act, glancing down the alley he’d entered.
At the end was a worn red-brick two-story house.
“Miss, they won’t give you anything in that house,” a beggar with yellowed teeth said.
“Yeah? Stingy folk,” Maddie replied casually, still dancing.
“Single mom lives there, raising a kid alone. She’s barely making ends meet. You want food, try the other side of town. The people there are nicer.”
“Got it. Thanks.”
Maddie stopped dancing and untied her shawl.
Some of the other beggars approached.
“Your accent’s strange—must be from overseas. The scarf, too. Not local. You’ll need our help to beg around here.”
She had changed her accent on purpose.
A true wanderer wouldn’t sound like a local.
It was amateur to overlook such details—and Maddie was no amateur.
She grinned at the beggars.
“No need. I’m leaving soon anyway.”
“Too bad.”
“Here, use this as a blanket.”
She handed over her shawl, then quickly slipped into a narrow alley.
The Archduke might have a woman.
Maybe even a child.
“Our dear client’s been keeping secrets.”
A soft smile crept across Maddie’s face.
