Chapter 60 (1/2)

Raphael, who went home first as promised, practiced his sword in the training camp. However, compared to the drops of sweat dripping down his face, the efficiency of his training was not very good. Now his head was full of worries about Annette. He knew she was a very cautious person, so she would never do anything dangerous. Still, he couldn’t help but worry about her.

Raphael sighed and let go of the sword he was holding. It was dangerous to wield a sword in such a state. With one wrong step, he could fall on his own sword. ‘I need to become a Sword Master as soon as possible, but why is it so slow?’ It was so frustrating.

‘I’m in pretty good shape these days.’

His condition was far much better from what it had been before when he suffered from chronic sleep deprivation. It was perfectly peaceful to fall asleep by Annette’s side every night. He didn’t know why, but whenever he fell asleep in her bedroom, he did not suffer from sleepwalking.

Raphael did not know that Annette would sing and put him to sleep whenever he was suffering from his sleep disorders. He simply believed that he had recovered from his illness and that Annette was his mysterious cure. Perhaps it was because he had found a peace of mind in this relationship with her. Otherwise, he couldn’t explain this strange situation where he would sleep well if he was on good terms with her and would have insomnia if they were on bad terms.

‘By the way, Annette is too late…’

Raphael realized that he was circling around the same spot. Although Thomas, the mine manager, was far from the type to try anything, he was still a man. What if he raised his hand on Annette on being discovered! It was really foolish to send Annette alone. Raphael was so anxious that he was about to leave the place to get her.

“Raphael!”

The voice coming from behind his back was as cheerful and happy as a lark. As he turned his head, he could see Annette coming towards him from a distance. She, who had always walked gracefully, was now running towards him with all her might. The well-braided blonde hair became disheveled, and the long dress fluttered in the air like a flower. But the flushed cheeks and eyes of Annette seemed to have no concern for this.

Raphael looked at Annette’s face as if he was bewitched and opened his arms unknowingly. Then Annette, who had sprinted from a distance, jumped into his arms and gasped for air. A pleasant shock hit his body, and he felt her soft arms curl around him like vines. Annette raised her head and shouted gleefully.

“I succeeded, Raphael!”

Excited, Annette took out a bunch of papers from under the hem of her large dress. Raphael, who received it, felt Annette’s lingering warmth on the document and his face slightly reddened. Annette, who knew nothing about this, explained her success in a high-pitched voice.

“This is a double ledger that Thomas Bradley hid. He has been giving fake business reports to you all this time. Here’s the amount of embezzled money he’s been steadily siphoning over the past several months.”

“That’s a lot of data. How didn’t I manage to catch it?”

Raphael pressed his tongue to the inside of his cheek and checked the thickness of the paper. ‘How did this come from underneath her dress? Is it magic?’ Annette smiled awkwardly when she saw Raphael’s surprised expression. She had actually thought of this method after seeing Railin’s maid outfit.

Since the hem of a woman’s dress was so big, it was easy to hide something under it. Even if it was noticeable, who would dare to go ahead and examine under the skirt of a Lady? Annette purposely wore a rustling dress with a big hem. It was to hide the sounds of documents that might be heard. Thanks to that, Thomas couldn’t even guess what was hidden under her dress.

“Raphael, I went over this paper on the way here…. This is a pretty long-term and detailed plan. Thomas Bradley was going to steadily deteriorate your mining business over the years. So that it would fall into enormous debts and you would be forced to auction it off to someone else.”

After speaking, Annette smiled sadly. If that had happened, it was obvious who the new owner of the mine would be. If she hadn’t intervened, an iron ore mine would have also been added to the Duke of Bavaria’s property list in the future. And her father would have laughed at them coldly, just like a snake that had swallowed its prey.

Annette sighed deeply. Allamand’s method was to work hard for several years to bring the mine down and then swallow it all at once. So Annette began her investigation with the mine manager. If Thomas wasn’t the spy, she had planned to next investigate the mine site supervisor. Afterwards, she was going to investigate the deputy director and everyone involved with the mining business one by one. Fortunately, she didn’t have to do it as she caught the big fish in her first try.

Annette suddenly wondered whether after her death in her previous life, Raphael could keep the mine till the end. Since her father’s plan was quite long, Annette in her previous life died without seeing the results. However, there was no way to check it now. At least in this life, Annette’s only consolation was that she got to know about this early and was able to prevent it in time.

“It’s a good thing that we got to know this earl, Raphael. Your iron ore business is now safe.”

Annette blushed with shame and whispered in a small voice. As the joy of success subsided, she could see the reality before her eyes and her blood turned cold. It was her father who was behind all this, so she had no face to look at Raphael. When her pink eyes distorted as if she was about to cry, Raphael saw it and held her up. Then, in a curt tone, he tried to soothe her.

“Shh, why are you crying? You did a good job.”

“But, Raphael, my father almost ruined your business.”

Even though she did well this time, will Allamand give up the mine just because she got rid of Thomas? Annette was very worried about that. Tears welled up in her eyes as she felt a mixture of fear and guilt. Raphael started panicking when he saw that her tears were about to fall. Naturally, his tone of soothing Annette became a little faster.