Chapter 3-1 : Understanding The Situation

 

Mylia was confused after seeing Robin’s name on the invoices. She was holding her head while sitting on her office chair.

In front of her, there was Chloe, who looked just as confused as she was, and Aria, who looked somewhat worried.

(How…? How did that woman get to the royal capital…?)

Mylia didn’t want to believe the fact that Robin was in the royal capital. She checked the invoices once again one by one.

However, no matter how many times she checked, the purchaser’s name really was Robin de la Atwood, and the recipient’s name was Mylia de la Atwood. They even added Mylia’s grade and department in the Royal Girls’ Academy next to her name, so there was no mistake that those invoices were meant to be sent to her.

Mylia then found a note at the bottom of each invoice that was written with small letters saying, “If Mylia de la Atwood cannot pay, then it will be charged to Chloe de la Atwood.”

(That woman…! Moreover, not only did she buy expensive clothes, but she also bought expensive food, stayed in an expensive inn, and many more…)

The wasteful use of money further proved that it was really Robin.

Imagining Robin shopping extravagantly in the royal capital with her money, Mylia frowned and bit her lip.

「Mylia-san… Is Robin your sister you once told me about…?」(Aria)

Aria asked Mylia with a worried face.

(Aria-san… I might be inconsiderate saying this, but… Ahh~ her worried face looks cute too~…. No, no, no! We’re talking about Robin now. Get a grip, Mylia!)

「Yeah… The sister who always bullied me and Chloe onee-chan back then…」(Mylia)

「I see… But… How did she get here from the Atwood Territory? I heard that it takes two months of travel from the Atwood Territory to the royal capital with a carriage. Moreover, you have to pass through the forest that is full of monsters, right? I don’t think she could have made it here unless she brought an escort.」(Aria)

「Escort, huh…? I don’t think she has enough money to hire an escort… Ughh… I don’t know what is going on…」(Mylia)

Saying that, Mylia put her head on the table.

Meanwhile, Chloe took a deep breath to calm herself, took the invoice in Mylia’s hand, and looked at it.

「…It looks like we need to investigate to find out how she got here.」(Chloe)

Chloe said that with a calm but cold voice.

Chloe’s hate toward the Atwood Family was far deeper than Mylia’s.

Her father was an incompetent lord who couldn’t manage his own territory well, her mother was like a doll who always followed her husband’s order and didn’t even care about her children, her brother in law was a lolicon who always looked at her with lewd eyes and sometimes touched her body, and the worst above all of them was Robin who always bullied her and her precious little sister.

She didn’t want to go back to that mansion no matter what, and she didn’t want to get involved with those people ever again.

「Onee-chan, are you okay?」(Mylia)

Mylia was worried when she saw Chloe’s grim face.

「I’m okay. I was just… recalling when we lived in that mansion…」(Chloe)

「Onee-chan…」(Mylia)

Chloe put the invoice on the table and started thinking while folding her arms.

She never thought that Robin would come to the royal capital. She was relieved and thought that Mylia and her no longer had a connection with the Atwood Family once they left the territory.

She was relieved because all the students in the Adrashelm Royal Girls’ Academy were treated as vassals of Queen Kushana for four years until graduation, and parents couldn’t interfere with the students’ lives.

The reason why there was such a rule was that there were many parents in this kingdom who wasted their daughters’ talents. Most of them thought that daughters were only good as a marriage tool and didn’t realize their talents at all.

Therefore, Queen Kushana built the Adrashelm Royal Girls’ Academy to educate them and give a place for them to demonstrate their talents.

「…I wonder how she came to this city…」(Chloe)

While thinking, Chloe murmured to herself and looked at the invoices again.

「We don’t have much information but… I have a feeling that she did something ridiculous to get here… She’s a cunning fox after all…」(Chloe)

When she said that, the picture of Robin’s laughing face with the lavender field as the background popped into Chloe’s mind.

「Yeah… I have a bad feeling about it too…」(Mylia)

Saying that, Mylia raised her face from the desk and looked at Chloe.

(Onee-chan… She’s probably thinking the same as me…)

They were staring at each other as if they shared the same thoughts, and then they nodded at each other.

Aria felt a tense atmosphere between the two and became nervous.

「Arrghh…! It’ll be a very annoying thing to handle for sure!」(Mylia)

While shouting, Mylia slammed her hand on the pile of invoices.

「Yeah… I can’t believe that person is in the royal capital. We’ll never know what kind of trouble she’s gonna make here…」(Chloe)

Chloe held her forehead and shook her head several times.

「That person was terrible… She always hits me as soon as she finds me. She robbed me and insisted that all my money was hers. She treats the villagers as if they’re her slaves and forces them to do things for her…」(Mylia)

「She won’t be satisfied until she gets what she wants. She acts as if she was the most beautiful and smartest woman in the world…」(Chloe)

「Is she that terrible…?」(Aria)

「She’s a walking hell.」(Mylia)

「I, I see…」(Aria)

For an educated lady like Aria, Robin’s personality was just beyond comprehension.

「We should do something about her before she does something bad, but first, I think we should go to the stores that issued the invoices and pay the bills.」(Chloe)

「Eeeehh… Do we really have to pay…?」(Mylia)

(I’ll spend as much money as I can if it’s for Chloe onee-chan, but even though I have a lot of money, paying for that woman is just… Ewww… No, no, no. There’s no way I will spend a single penny to pay for her stuff!)

Mylia puffed her cheeks, appealing that she really didn’t want to pay.

「Mylia, you just became a baron. Many aristocrats want to get close to you. If you don’t want to pay, they may come to those stores and pay the bills for you.」(Chloe)

「Really? Thenーー」(Mylia)

「ーーHowever! They do that because they want to make you feel indebted to them so that they can ask you to do something for them in the future. I’m sure of it. Aristocrats will never miss the chance to make people owe them a debt after all.」(Chloe)

For some reason, Chloe’s expression looked cold when she said that.

「Is that so…?」(Mylia)

「Yeah. Therefore, I think it’s better if you pay the bills rather than owe a debt to aristocrats you don’t even know.」(Chloe)

「Eeehh… But I really don’t want to pay!」(Mylia)

「Mylia, I understand your feelings. I hate that you have to spend your money to pay for that woman’s stuff too. You risked your life to fight dragons to earn that money after all. But I think it’s a necessary investment to avoid future trouble in aristocratic society. It irritates me too. Trust me. But it’s necessary.」(Chloe)

「…If you say so… Alright, then. But before I pay, we have to confirm if it’s really Robin who bought the items on the invoices.」(Mylia)

Even though she saw Robin’s name on the invoices, Mylia still wanted to believe in the thin possibility that it wasn’t Robin.

「You’re right. Well then, shall we go to those stores now?」(Chloe)

「But we haven’t finished our work here…」(Mylia)

「Well, I guess we can take a break for a while.」(Chloe)

「Really? Yaay!」(Mylia)

Mylia was happy that she finally could take a break from writing invitation letters.

「But we’re not going outside to have fun, okay? We’re going to do an investigation.」(Chloe)

「Hehe, I know.」(Mylia)

「Mylia-san, Chloe onee-sama, can I go with you? My father knows a lot of merchants in this city, so I may be able to help.」(Aria)

Aria asked while gathering the invoices on the table.

「Of course! Let’s go together, Aria-san!」(Mylia)

Mylia seemed so happy that Aria would tag along.

 

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29 Comments

    1. Well since mylia is the queens favorite little magical girl she may very well have that hoe Robin arrested but I think even the queen would need a valid reason to have her executed.

  1. If that’s true then she’s trully done for, Mylia has higher social standing, and also has Queen and Duke family as ally.
    Yep she’s a goner if that’s legit her, getting executed still possible.

  2. So I just started a hard thought experiment and figured I’d share it and my conclusions to it, feel free to skip my devils advocat arguments if you want to go through it yourself..

    How to solve the Robin situation in a clean manner (long term)?

    If there was a board of merchants (i.e. merchant guild) you could tell them to not accept further invoices from previously unapproved third parties to Mylia/Chloe..

    This would make life harder for anyone employed by either of them though. Specifying Robin would just result in her taking on different names.. what maybe could work is them offering up their current family tree and specifically disallow all of those.. Robin then couldn’t get away with using any of her familys names (with little room for “oh did I not make it clear enough that I was sent by them”) and posing as someone else existing is probably a nontrivial crime..

    It would be publicizing a dark mark of their family and an unabilty to take care of it themselves (at least could be spun that way by jealous or otherwisely antagonistic atistocrats) so not quite clean?

    Bringing the issue up with the Queen who with the way she seems to run that school has technically declared herself a protecter of the students, might work, but drawing the ire of the queen almost feels like overkill and could come with the same problem as above, although it would have to be less open with the queen involved..

    Actually finding a man who is okay with Robin still feels kinda off, as at least I wouldn’t wish that kind of partner on even my worst enemy.. (also would likely manage to show up at some formal gatherings and continue being a nuisance there, so problem not really solved)

    Killing her off, even by maneuvering her into situations where bandits or monsters could do so doesn’t feel right, neither does locking her up. Maneuvering her into actually commiting a crime doesn’t feel nice either (even if she seems likely to fall into that way before it’s abou actual survival)

    For this next one I’ll state that Robin is actually talented (even if it is in technically being a nuisance)
    This coould work in a spytype role, until you remember that she completely looses interest into using her talents once she got what she wants..And I can’t think of a situation where she would not blabber about all the states secrets if she sees some kind of advantage in doing so (getting in the good graces of that good looking enemy aristocrat) Now you could only reveal bs that’s to your advantage if the enemy believes in it, but sadly Robin has eyes and isn’t actually dumb, so she’d likely either learn of something anyways or not buy into useful bs enough to try her luck..

    employing her yourself or even accepting her is.. maybe surprisingly workable, but she’d definitely plan a coup and you’d have to be on your guard 24/7 which.. yeh not an option
    (mind altering via magic or torture of any kind is an obvious no to stay clean)

    That’s as far as I’ve gotten I know it’s extreme standards of cleanly, but that’s what makes this kinda fun to me

    1. This system of just billing it to a noble is really exploitable. I know servants need to be able to purchase goods on behalf of their employer, but they should need some sort of proof they are allowed to.

      Basically, this shouldn’t have happened because thieves would have exploited this already and laws to prevent this should already be implemented.

      1. What Robin is doing is basically the same thing as impersonating a noble (Mylia is now a higher court rank than she is), which historically has been a crime that would send you straight to the chopping block. As for paying the fines, that could improve Mylia’s affluence, but honestly I don’t feel getting into that aspect of things really suits this novel at all. They should just forward the bills to her father, have them all hanged, and be done with it.

        1. That’s what I was going to say. It’s fraud after all. And of a noble of higher rank than you too. Those invoices are technically invalid.

    2. How to solve the Robin problem (long term)?

      * Step one — Make an example of her.

      I know many of us are crying “Execution!” (can’t blame us for this). However, I have a different idea: public humiliation. It’s one thing to die; it’s another hell for Robin to be left alive in absolute shame with the entire kingdom laughing at her.

      * Step two — institute a confirmation process for invoices.

      I find it kinda silly that the merchants were simply allowed to give away the goods and throw the bill onto someone else without that someone else’s signature. Obviously, this would mean having some kind of contact network and/or merchants’ guild to regulate this.

      * Step three — For merchants who even show intent to authorize these fraudulent bills, see Step 1…

      …, and also ban them from all merchant activity throughout the kingdom.

  3. I see. I see. Great plan Chloe. Pay the bills and then sue the businesses for fraud to take ownership! Soon you will control the entire financial sector!

    1. The funny thing is that I can actually picture Chloe doing that. She’s a kind girl but is very business minded and absolutely ruthless when it comes to protecting her imoto

    2. The funny thing is that I can actually picture Chloe doing that. She’s a kind girl but is very business minded and absolutely ruthless when it comes to protecting her imouto.

  4. Get to the stores, pay the bills and tell them to never accept anyone without theyr signature to put a invoice on any of them then threaten to denounce them/take legal actions against them if they even dear to let anyone do it again. And to make sure it works show them the two dragon slayer badges, should be enough to scare them.

  5. Well depending on how they solve the problem it’ll decide will I drop this novel or not. I love fluffy, cute novel especially with female protagonists but I hate protagonists that do what they don’t have to do (in this case is paying the bills) much more. I really hope author will not ruin it because it was a good novel so far.

    1. They have to pay to bills, Robin is doing this by claiming her relation to her sisters. They are technically responsible for her as her relatives and the stores are making a quick buck of the situation by going along with her or not realising how poor her relationship with her sisters is

      They should Offer to Pay the bill after explaining the situation, then judge the stores reaction. If they apologise for the misunderstanding and remove the the bill or assist. Use this to build up trustworthy connections. If they take the business approach, do the above but keep it at a business relationship with no special treatment but no malice either. If they demand you pay the bill, publicise they scammed the new baron who kills dragons and solve mysterious magic puzzles for money. Basically, extorting children and siding with an abuser. Both also have backing from different dukes so you publish that info and the idea the dukes are furious over this blatant disrespect. Meaning, using these stores means angering dukes. Place the neutral stores in the crossfire as well, but don’t emphasise it as a lesson

      Basically, Chloe should use her knowledge to play the nobles own game and utterly humiliate the stores who exploited Mylia. A dragon slaying Magician Baron and emphasis their connections to higher nobility and her own businesses as well. Making them untouchable in society

      1. Responsible for who?! They’re still children (probably even by the legal standards of this world) while Robin is the actual adult that “should” have responsibilities in your hypothetical.

        If she was any competent at her fraud she would have had herself appointed as a guardian of some sort in order to legally fleece them of everything.

  6. Goodness, many of you are so bloodthirsty. Capital punishment? Robin is guilty of merely theft and impersonation. These crimes are worthy of maybe a year in prison at most. Where is your sense of mercy?

    1. Not defending them but punishment for larceny is not just jail time back in mediaeval days. Tortured to death was also in thr table depending on thr region and whom you stole from. I’m sure Mylia and Chloe won’t do anything to Robin because it’s that kind of story.

  7. I find Chloe’s reaction kinda stupid to be honest. Although it’s true that reputation is important, but it would have been pretty easy to just call the stores to tell them that Robin used Mylia’s name without permission and to find her to settle accounts. If she can’t pay she can go to jail for all they care. It’s not like it’s gonna hurt Mylia’s face to put the facts straight and even if it really is a plot by the aristocrats she has no duty to keep her face with them if they dare plot against her in such an obvious manner. Or I guess they can just find her to settle the accounts privately, but if I were them I wouldn’t want to have anything to do with that crazy b*tch…

    1. Not really. I don’t think the author though that day ahead. She’s thinking in long term. Mylia just became a noble with no reputation to speak of. If she starts off her “career” by falling to pay chump change for her own blood relative, it will look bad in her character. They don’t know or care about the family dynamics.

      Reputation is key. Even if you are poor,as long as you reputation is good you can still make good connection.

  8. “Hey Queen, can you banish my sister from the kingdom? I’ll kill another dragon for ya, free of charge.”

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