Chapter Two
"Your Grace? It's Kaelen."
A cool voice answered my question. It had the kind of calm resonance that belonged to someone who had seen a thousand battlefields and survived them all without a single drop of sweat ruining his hair.
Who's Kaelen, now? Ugh! I don't seem to recall the memories of this body. Tch. Who cares.
"Come in," I barked, trying to smoothen out my terrifying expression.
Creak.
The door opened.
A man stepped inside.
He was—to put it in professional terms—infuriatingly handsome. He was tall and lean, possessing the kind of proportions that made it look like he'd been sketched by a divine artist who had a fetish for perfection. His hair was a shimmering black that caught what little light filtered through the grimy window, and his eyes were like two chips of polished red rubies, sharp enough to cut glass.
Even in a territory this broke, his armor was polished to a mirror finish, reflecting the absolute disaster of my bedroom in its gleaming surface. He looked like the protagonist of a high-fantasy epic, the kind of hero who slays dragons in the morning and makes a princess faint by lunch.
Well, he's not as beautiful as my past self. I was the most handsome and the richest in my world.
As soon as I was about to roll my eyes and look away the blue screen flickered beside him.
[DING! CHARACTER INFORMATION EXTRACTION SUCCESSFUL!]
---
[Character: Kaelen von Astrea]
[Position: Head Knight of the Halcrest Duchy]
[Potential: SSS-Class]
[Mana Heart: 5th Circle (Ice Property)]
[Charm Points: 9,999 (The 'Face of a Hero' that makes debt collectors hesitate)]
[Loyalty Points: 5]
[Likability Points: -20]
[Description: A potential swordmaster who is currently wasting his life guarding a human trash. He is remarkably handsome and tired of your nonsense.]
[SYSTEM Warning: Kaelen's loyalty is currently tied to a knightly oath. If you try to pawn his sword one more time, his loyalty will drop into the negatives.]
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Wow... Just wow. What kind of fucker tries to pawn their Knight's blade!?
[PING!]
[The kind that is 1.2 Million Gold in debt.]
This system...
"Butler Vizen said you've asked for water." Kaelen was holding a wooden tray with a single bowl of water. His gaze swept over the room taking in the peeling wallpaper, the sagging bed, and finally, my face, which was currently twisted into a mask of financial agony.
Kaelen didn't flinch. He just stared at me with a look of silent pity and disgust.
Well, at least it looks like only I can see the screen.
"Is there a problem, Your Grace?" he asked, his voice dripping with dry sarcasm. "You look as though you've just watched the last copper coin in the world fall down a sewer grate."
I stared at him. Then at the tray. Then back at him.
...Was this guy mocking me?
"You're speaking very casually, Kaelen," I said. "I am the one who pays you. Have you forgotten?"
"What pay are you talking about, Your Grace? I haven't been paid a single coin since I started working in this mansion. Words without any actual weight are nothing but arrogance of the foolish, Your Grace."
What the hell!? What is going on in this castle?
"I see," I said calmly. "Sit down. I have something important to tell you."
Kaelen's eyebrow arched. He didn't sit. Instead, he placed the tray on the rickety bedside table with the precision of a man handling a bomb.
"I prefer to stand, Your Grace," he replied, his voice as cold as his ice-property mana. "The last time you told me you had something 'important' to say, I ended up fighting off a debt collection agency with a wooden practice sword because you had already sent my primary blade to the pawnshop."
[Alert!]
[Kaelen's Loyalty: 4 (Warning: Dropping fast)]
[Kaelen's Likability: -30]
What the- I didn't even do anything!
I leaned forward, my face casting a shadow that made the room feel ten degrees colder. My eyes locked onto his ruby-red ones.
"That's okay. You can stand. It seems I've forgotten a lot of things ever since I woke up. Bring me the ledgers and a list of people who I owe money and people who owe me money. It shouldn't be too much work for a knight like you, right?"
Kaelen didn't move. For a long, agonizing minute, he just stood there, his ruby eyes blinking slowly as if he were trying to process whether I had finally succumbed to a brain-rotting fever or if this was just a sophisticated new way to annoy him.
[Alert!]
[Kaelen's Loyalty: 3 (Warning: Still Dropping!)]
[Kaelen's Likability: -40]
"Ledgers?" Kaelen repeated the word as if it were a foreign curse. "Your Grace, the 'ledger' is currently a pile of wine-stained napkins in the basement. And as for the list of people you owe money to... It would be faster to list the people you don't owe."
I felt a vein throb in my temple. "Then bring me the names of everyone who owes this house money," I said slowly. "Amounts included."
A financial black hole! This man was a financial blackhole! A man who had managed to achieve the impossible! Being the son of a Duke and yet having the credit score of a wet piece of cardboard!? What a loser!
"Did I stutter, Kaelen? Why are you not moving yet!?" I barked, my voice taking on that manic edge I used back in my old world whenever a contractor tried to bill me for premium steel and delivered rusted scrap. "Napkins, scrolls, or carvings on a bathroom wall—bring them all. Now."
Kaelen's expression didn't change, but the air in the room suddenly turned crisp. A faint frost began to bloom on the edges of the water cup.
[Alert!]
[Kaelen's Loyalty: 1 (Warning: Do Something!)]
[Kaelen's Likability: -50]
"Fine," Kaelen bit out, the word sounding like a shard of ice snapping. "I'll bring you your 'records', Your Grace. But, how will you ask them back for your money back? Don't you have your ducal dignity to maintain?"
"I'll do what I can, Kaelen. It's not your place to question me. Go."
"Yes, Master Veryon."
He turned on his heel with military precision that made his polished greaves clank rhythmically against the floor. But, before he exited, the heavy wooden door he said something that made the floor slip from beneath me. "Ah! I should remind you. Since, you've forgotten everything so conveniently, Your Grace. You wrecked a poor merchant's vehicle ten days ago on your way back before falling and passing out. I request you to at least apologise to them."
Wow... What a trash.Wait... Maybe, this could serve as an opportunity.
"I got it. We can go to meet him tomorrow after I check the ledgers. On that note, leave me alone today. Bring the ledgers at dawn."
"Wait. Are you serious, Your Grace!?"
[PING!]
[Kaelen is shocked.]
"Yes. You can make the arrangements."
"Understood, Your Grace. What about dinner?"
"Nothing is required. Just make sure no one comes near my bedroom or even steps on the floor."
"Got it."
The door slammed shut behind Kaelen as he finally left me alone as flakes of ceiling debris met the floor.
[Ping!]
[Kaelen is beginning to question your sanity.]
"Tch. Hardheaded bastard," I muttered, wiping a flake of ceiling debris off my nose.
I flopped back onto the bed, but the moment my weight hit the mattress, a spring stabbed directly into my lower back.
Urgh! I hate poverty!