Chapter 41

“That's good. No matter what I tried, it didn’t go well, so I was having a hard time.”

Leroy replied brazenly.

You gave up on winning because you didn't want your lover to lose money. That was like something a hopeless romantic would do.

It was a situation that was intended in advance, but Iona was also a little embarrassed about it. She didn't like losing but she also didn't expected him to do that.

“The game should be fair, so shall we switch places?”

Iona, who lightly scolded Leroy, suggested a change of order.

As Leroy switched seats with Joseph, who was sitting next to him, Iona and Leroy naturally faced each other.

Since he was in a position where he could no longer sacrifice for Iona, the next game proceeded quite normally.

After several rounds, Iona won and lost money repeatedly.

She had an advantage in bluffing because she had very few facial expression changes, but she intentionally lost even when her opponent's number was read, so her win rate was less than 10%. She didn't come here to make money in the first place.

Yes, it was for the purpose of making money, but at least not through gambling.

“I am lucky again.”

Frieda smiled and took Iona's share of gold coins.

Iona brought a considerable number of gold coins, but now the ones left in front of her were so few that she could count them in her hand.

When Iona sighed as if in trouble, Joseph looked at her and said,

“We played without any rest. Shall we take a break for a while?”

Saying that, he took out a leather cigar case from his bosom.

Frieda, who was smiling all the time as if he was happy to win the money, also rummaged in his pocket.

Joseph lit the end of the wick with a match, and when he noticed that Iona and Leroy's hands were empty, he put on a sad expression.

“Oh, would you both like to try too?”

“No. Thank You.”

When Leroy declined, Joseph turned her attention to Iona this time.

“Yes, give me.”

Iona naturally accepted the cigar that the other party held out.

Frieda, who was next to her, lit a cigar for Iona with a match that was still burning.

Iona took a cigar and inhaled the smoke.

She didn't expect the quality, but the taste wasn't worse than she thought.

With a relaxed face, Iona closed and opened her eyes several times before speaking with a sigh.

"It's easy to lose your fortune after playing a few dice games."

“Haha, when there are winning days, there are losing days, and when there are losing days, there are winning days.”

“I guess I am unlucky. They say that siblings have many things in common, but I didn't expect to find something in common with Nils in a place like this.”

“Dame Iona. Do you know how much I lost to Nils? Everything I was able to pick from Dame Iona today is because of that kind of bad luck.”

“Hmm, then where did the land documents that Nils stole from father go?”

Joseph and Frieda's smiling faces froze at Iona's strange question.

The corners of their mouths slowly lowered, as if sensing that something was wrong.

It was common for children of noble families to play money games among themselves.

Even though speculative games played outside of gambling houses were illegal, nobles, unlike commoners, were not punished severely.

Even Nils's father, Count Modrov, was not an exception with his friends, so he was not qualified to criticize his son either.

However, if the money he had was not enough, and he secretly brought up his father's household, this becomes a bit of a problem.

Iona said, looking slowly at the faces of Joseph and Frieda.

“If you won and lost similarly, you should have stayed to some extent, but I don’t think that’s the case.”

“This, Dame Iona. There seems to be some misunderstanding.”

"Hmm? It's a misunderstanding, the family's wealth has disappeared, so how can there be no words at all? A while ago, let's see... …Yeah, it looks like he stole the land in Siam.”

Only then did they realize that abstinence was useless, and their faces turned blue.

"That… … It's just passed the land of nothing to see. don't you know The mine there has been abandoned for a long time, and there is no particular tax... …The one who took it also said that it had nothing to give, so it was handed over. … .”

“It must have been. Of course, it was, but wasn't there a change in the property without the count's knowledge anyway?”

Iona tapped on the table with her fingertips to pinpoint the heart of the problem.

The friends who tried to protect Nils somehow ended up shutting up.

Perhaps, deep down, they regretted bringing her to this place.

Rather than making new ties with Iona, even the existing ties with Nils were sorted out.

Iona, who was examining their dismayed faces, said just in time.

“Well, it’s not something that I brought up as a problem. It's me who has trouble finding fault with Nils being the new face of Modrov.”

Iona could feel Joseph and Frieda visibly relieved.

Iona looked back at them in turn and continued.

“But if you guys really care about Nils, you might as well discuss how to resolve this. Everything will have to be back to normal until Nils is announced as the successor. Before even the Count finds out about this.”

This was a good excuse.

Hayden was only interested in where the money comes from, so he probably forgot about the existence of Siam in the first place.

As Joseph said, silver was no longer being mined there, and taxes could not be collected from the slash-and-burn farmers living nearby.

'In the first place, it was a worthless land except for the existence of a silver mine.'

The Siam region was a land that was directly granted by the emperor of the time 90 years ago.

Even at that time, there was a strong perception that Siam was a useless land due to its steep mountain slopes, so it was almost abandoned, only nominally belonging to the Imperial Territory.

The situation changed drastically when silver mines were discovered in a land that was thought to be barren.

The imperial family directly recruited manpower and dispatched them to the Siam region, and mining began in earnest soon.

Even in the early days, the output was at a fairly compliant level, and it became a reliable source of funds for the imperial family.

However, the situation changed a little after the excavation of bad-quality ores.

It was difficult to meet the required amount of production with the existing method of crushing ore and then melting it to extract silver.

In the meantime, even unknown deaths occurred steadily, and the operation of the mine gradually ended.

Conscious of public opinion, the emperor eventually handed over the ownership of the land to the Modrov family in an indirect attempt to make money.

At a time when there was still hope for burial resources, the sale cost was paid in the form of an annual payment of part of the silver production.

However, even after the name transfer, the number of deaths did not decrease. No, it had increased significantly.

There was no one willing to work cheaply in those mines, which were reputed to be dangerous, and it was not profitable to pay high wages.

The mine managed to survive for several years before finally undergoing a temporary closure process.

Both the imperial family and the count family soon forgot about the troublesome land, and naturally, the land price also became cheap.

'It's useless land anyway, so whether or not Nils sold it as a bet, the imperial family wouldn't really care.'

It was also 80 years after silver production stopped.

It was not a habitable environment and no one except the indigenous people sat foot there.

Even if Nils's fault was known, the imperial family would turn a blind eye to this.

Yes, unless they could mine silver again.

“It looks like I disturbed you with useless talk. Don't worry too much everyone. It's a problem, can't it be solved?"

Iona soothed Frida and Joseph in a soft voice.

Only then did they nod their heads in agreement, as if their tension had eased.

Nils had only hurled a useless lump of land, and getting it back in place wasn't too difficult, as Iona had said.

"Haha… … . Thank you for your suggestion. Dame Iona.”

“Well, then we have to go to the bathroom for a while. we must have been sitting too long. Haha."

Joseph got up from his seat and patted Frieda on the back as if to urge him to come with him.

Iona watched silently as they left the table and called a friend who was enjoying Nine Pins and went outside.

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