Chapter 174

You Won’t Fool Anyone So Easily (2)
When Gilbert entered Alicetia’s room, he found her playing with building blocks on the floor.

What she had built resembled a beautiful cathedral. He couldn’t fathom how such a thing could be constructed with blocks, but the detailed craftsmanship, using even the smallest pieces, was remarkable.

Gilbert tried to get the story out of Alicetia. However, she evaded his questions with a disinterested look and vague, slippery answers.

The circumstantial evidence was damning. But there was no physical proof.

(She *was* playing with blocks, that much is true—but she never said whether it was before or after she entered the treasure vault. So technically, she’s not lying… or rather, this evasiveness is kind of cute. I wonder if I’m allowed to take her back to my room.)

Gilbert was completely smitten with Alicetia. Still, he had to get the information out of her. Yet Alicetia continued dodging his questions, and when she realized the situation was turning against her, she dove under her bed.

The knights behind him gasped and quietly backed away. Alicetia, always exhausted from overwork and lack of sleep, drifted off to dreamland within seconds. Right now, this room was full of danger. Sleeping Alicetia was a tyrant. If forcibly awakened, she would cause a disaster. Afraid of getting caught in the crossfire, the knights silently fled the room. After all, Gilbert was the one interrogating her—so he should be the one to suffer. “Where has your loyalty gone, you cowards?” He thought.

Meanwhile, Gilbert, unable to resist the rare sight of Alicetia’s sleeping face, lost all sense of restraint. He climbed into the bed and tried to offer her his arm as a pillow. As a result, he was thrown through the wall and sent flying outside. This was the third floor. The interrogation of Alicetia ended here due to its extreme danger.

“Ugh… I let her cuteness overwhelm me. I still have much to learn.”

Gilbert stood up, casually brushing the dirt from his clothes. He cracked his neck and walked back. Apparently, he wasn’t injured. He was unexpectedly tough—though that also meant he wasn’t particularly repentant.

“What should we do? We can’t exactly use something of dubious origin… And the budget for next year has already been finalized.”

A knight asked Gilbert. There was a chance the items were stolen. Of course, no one believed Alicetia would steal anything (aside from her occasional sneaky snacking on sweets).

Still, it felt wrong to touch treasure of unknown provenance. Just then, Gilbert’s instincts kicked in.

(Even if Alicetia doesn’t know, Coote or Helios might.)

Even if Alicetia had tried to keep it secret, her familiars may have been present. The reason no one had realized this treasure was Helios’s was simply because no one had ever mentioned it. So they assumed he didn’t hoard treasure. In truth, there were dragons that didn’t hoard at all.

By the way, adventurers hate those kinds of dragons—no hoard means no loot. Everyone assumed Helios was that kind of dragon. Gilbert figured that even if Alicetia had some of it, it would belong to Helios personally—so there’d be no need to make him hand it over. But in reality, Helios did hoard treasure—he just had no interest in it and casually gave it up.

Gilbert caught sight of Coote walking nearby and called out to him.

“Alice brought in some treasure, didn’t she? Any idea where she got it?”

Coote snorted, kicked dirt backward with a hind leg in a dismissive gesture, and walked off. He was always cold and indifferent toward anyone other than Alicetia. This is precisely why Alicia called him a “bad dog.”

(Ugh… why do I suddenly feel like killing something?)

Coote had sworn loyalty to Alicetia, so there was no way he’d say anything unnecessary. All Gilbert gained from the exchange was a spike in his hatred for Coote .

Next up: Helios. Though he looked like a young butler-in-training, Helios was currently napping on a tree branch in the courtyard.

“Your Highness, putting that creature in a butler’s uniform is an insult to our nation. If someone from another country saw him like that, I’d be so embarrassed I’d want to die.”

The butler beneath the tree was fuming. He had mistaken Helios for an actual butler-in-training and had come to wake him up.

At a glance, Helios looked like nothing more than a young boy in a butler’s uniform—except he was napping in a tree. Foreigners would certainly question what kind of education was being provided here.

Gilbert sighed and made a mental note to change Helios’s clothes. Then he kicked the tree, knocking Helios down.

“Oof, I have fallen from the tree!”

Helios, who had landed on his head, got up scratching it. He didn’t seem hurt.

“Hey, good morning.”

“!!”

A bead of sweat trickled down Helios’s forehead. He’d grown somewhat accustomed to Arland lately, and thus was aware of Gilbert’s reputation. The man in front of him looked harmless—but used cruel tactics. His smile was terrifying.

“I-I haven’t stolen any snacks today! I swear!”

“Today, huh? Well, fine. Anyway, Alice put some treasure in the treasure vault, but do you know where she got it? She fell asleep from exhaustion before I could ask.”

Gilbert spoke as if he’d simply missed the chance to ask Alicetia. Which implied that she wasn’t trying to hide anything. In truth, she was.

“Oh, that was—!

… Nothing! I have nothing to do with this! I suddenly have something to do—farewell!”

Being a fool, Helios immediately fell for the trap and almost spilled the truth. But then he spotted Coote through the window of a small room facing the courtyard.

No one else noticed because Coote had completely erased his presence.

But his eyes were speaking clearly: “If you say anything that harms our lord, I’ll kill you.”

Coote had realized that the idiot dragon might let something slip, so he had used fear to bind him.

As a result, the terrified Helios ignored the knights and Gilbert calling out to him and fled. He wouldn’t be caught for a while, and even if caught, he’d never talk. His terrified face made one wonder where his dragon pride had gone.

Before Gilbert could turn back, Coote had disappeared with a snort. His mission complete, he returned to Alicetia’s side. No one knew that he was already planning to discipline the loose-lipped dragon. A clear hierarchy had already been established between Coote and Helios.

“Doesn’t look like he’s going to talk.”

Gilbert sighed as he returned to his office.

“If he planned to, he wouldn’t have gone to such lengths to avoid it. Let’s just be glad our budget has increased. We can sell off some of the treasure to merchants and collectors right away.”

“Good idea. Also, summon the ministers. All of Father’s hard work has gone down the drain.”

All that effort to negotiate temporary budget cuts with various parties—wasted. Draconia might weep… though the man himself would probably laugh his head off.

Soon, the ministers gathered in the office. Their faces were grim—thinking they’d been summoned for another impossible task, or to be used to torment the Noble Council again. Gilbert welcomed them with a smile and wide open arms.

At that very moment, some of the ministers averted their gaze, while others fell to their knees in tears.

“Your Highness! Please, no more! Have mercy!”

The kneeling ministers pleaded desperately, groveling on the floor. Gilbert’s smile brought back nothing but bad memories. They didn’t know what he would ask for, but negotiations now began with begging for their lives.

The ones who looked away muttered to themselves in vacant tones: “This has nothing to do with me. I’ve done nothing wrong.”

“What’s with the attitude? You make it sound like I only ever do bad things.”

“Then please stop smiling!”

Sulking, Gilbert nonetheless informed the ministers that the budget would be increased.

“P-please wait. Next year’s budget has already been finalized.”

“Yeah, let’s redo it.”

“Noooo…”

The ministers were devastated at the prospect of redoing the laborious budget.

“The only reason we reduced it in the first place was due to lack of funds! A little warning would have been appreciated.”

“For some reason, the treasure vault is overflowing with treasure now. Weird, right?”

“… There’s only one person in this country who could do such a thing…”

“Now, now, let’s not go accusing Alice without evidence.”

In their minds, all the ministers could see was Alicetia giving a smug thumbs-up.

“Let’s just say it’s a mysterious phenomenon that increased our budget. Alice isn’t talking. Double the budget.”

“… Well, better than another round of cuts.”

“Yes, indeed… And redoing it now only means a few adjustments. Let’s consider ourselves lucky.”

Unreasonable as it was, they were still happy to see the budget increase.

That day, the kingdom’s finances were completely stabilized. Officially, the story was that they had discovered treasure left behind by their ancestors—but both the nobles and the people knew there was no such thing. They all suspected Alicetia’s involvement—but chose to turn a blind eye.

What do you think about this chapter?