~Chapter 8~
I smirked.
Love doesn’t exist in arranged marriages anyway.
If I want to raise the male lead and live well, I need to have influence in the family.
So there’s no need to marry into a powerful noble family.
At my words, Catherine nodded, then glanced over at Jin.
Naturally, I looked at Jin too—and he was staring at me like I was a complete weirdo.
I clicked my tongue and laughed to myself.
Yeah, I guess I do seem a bit odd by their standards.
Fair enough.
—
“I think I get what you’re thinking, my lady,” Jin said as he handed me tea.
We were in his personal office, right in the middle of the capital, filled with
expensive-looking stuff.
“Is the one-year term because of marriage?” he asked.
“Pretty much.
It’s not like noblewomen can do much freely.
So I made a kind of deal with my father.”
Jin glanced at my hand and asked calmly, “By the way, how did you come up with using magic scrolls for money
transactions?
That’s only recently become a trend in our circles.”
He gave me a sharp look.
“Well, obviously, you can’t go around carrying piles of gold.
It’s common sense to switch to lightweight magic scrolls.
Besides, now that the Empire has legally standardized them, their value is fixed.”
Jin gave a reluctant smile.
“Yeah, I guess that makes sense.”
Seriously?
This is the “hot tip” mercenaries are passing around these days…?
Well, considering the times, maybe it really is a clever idea.
I quickly accepted it and sipped the tea.
“Sorry for the late intro.
This is my office—the kind only successful mercenaries can afford, you know?”
Jin looked around sneakily, then dramatically made a money sign with his fingers and whispered,
“Rent’s not cheap.”
Then he clapped twice, and suddenly the door opened.
Two neatly dressed men walked in with papers in hand.
What the heck? Even personal assistants in a mercenary’s office?
That’s new.
Jin must’ve noticed my skeptical look because he casually explained,
“No need to overthink it, my lady.
I’ve got so many private clients who want to work directly with me instead of going through a guild, so I have a few employees to help out.”
I thought to myself, so basically, he opened his own office to avoid guild fees.
I should’ve known when he came running back the moment I offered 500,000 gold.
Can I really trust him…?
“Weren’t you with the Golden Frog Guild?”
“Well, that’s just one part of my glorious resume! Ha ha! Alfred! Did you prepare what I asked?”
He quickly changed the topic—guess he didn’t want to talk about guild fees.
Makes sense.
If the guild finds out he’s poaching clients for private jobs, things won’t end well.
“You’re supposed to take requests through the guild…”
“Anyway, my lady—here’s some info my amazing and capable staff dug up.
Maybe look at this before we talk more seriously?”
Rustle.
Jin spread out some parchment on the desk before I could even say anything.
I frowned.
It was all about Raniel’s death.
Where she was last seen, who found her, how the body was handled—stuff like that.
“Our info says Raniel Estella and the Crown Prince were having an affair.
Right after she got pregnant, she disappeared.”
“Yeah…” I said quietly.
Jin snapped his fingers and continued,
“That tells us she and the prince were really close.
If she were just some random mistress, she would’ve tried to use the baby for leverage.
But no one even knew she was pregnant except her, so she went all out to hide it.”
It was definitely suspicious.
But Jin didn’t know that Raniel actually loved the baby—and that she probably kept it secret because she knew the prince had no power to protect a child born out of wedlock.
It’s obvious.
If the royal family found out about the male lead, Prince Endymion’s side or even the current Crown Princess’s side would’ve tried to kill the child.
Jin handed me a second piece of parchment.
“So, did the Crown Prince really care about her? There’s not much info, but eight years ago, one of his people came to our guild.
Why do you think that is?”
He rested his chin on his hand and looked at me.
“Why come to our guild, of all places?”
“Well… if it was around the time Raniel disappeared, and you’re bringing it up now, I can only assume they were trying to find her in secret.
But how do you know about that? The prince wouldn’t be careless with that kind of thing.”
Jin replied with a straight face,
“Because my teacher was the one who met the prince’s guy.
I just happened to overhear it.
No one else knows.”
“…”
“No need to look so shocked, my lady.
I had no idea what the situation was until just now.”
His expression hardened suddenly—a brief but very clear shift.
I was momentarily speechless.
What was that face about? I’d heard in passing that his teacher had died…
“Wait, don’t tell me your teacher was one of the prince’s closest aides?”
“How would I know that?”
I said.
Jin snapped his fingers and suddenly shouted,
“Charlie! Bring that thing! Hurry!”
“Huh? You mean that thing?”
I frowned at the flustered assistant.
What’s with the sudden change in vibe?
“You know, the stuff I looked into! Bring it already!” Jin whispered frantically.
“Oh! That thing!” Charlie finally understood and rushed off.
“Here, boss!”
“Ahem.
This is all the stuff I gathered over the last two years while tracking my teacher.”
I squinted at the parchment.
“Why only from two years ago?”
“Well, because he died two years ago!”
“…”
“Amazing coincidence, don’t you think, my lady?”
Gone was the jokey tone.
Jin now stared at me dead serious.
“Almost makes you want to ask if this was all planned.”
Then suddenly, clap!—he grinned brightly like nothing happened.
“Of course, that’s ridiculous.
I’m the one who came to Estella territory on my own, remember? If anything, my approach looks more suspicious.”
But looking at everything that happened, it was clearly not intentional—at least not until now.
Watching Jin flip between serious and playful, I finally asked politely,
“Can you maybe just… summarize? What are you actually trying to say?”
“…”
He went silent and just smiled.
“I honestly don’t know what to say right now. I’m still figuring things out myself.”
I looked at the papers on the table, my mind racing.
Jin’s teacher died two years ago.
The prince’s guy came to the guild eight years ago.
It wasn’t hard to connect the dots.
If what Jin said was true, then his teacher was already involved in the search for Raniel—and probably died because of it.
If it had been natural causes, Jin wouldn’t be looking into it like this.
So his teacher was probably the prince’s agent trying to find Raniel.
No wonder Jin was confused.
He never wanted to get involved with the royal family.
But if his teacher was one of the prince’s men, and the royals find out, then Jin’s going to be dragged into royal affairs whether he likes it or not.
