Chapter 1

“Bell. Do you have time later?”

Last week it was Alan, the baker’s eldest son, and the day before yesterday, Derick, the richest man in the area, who confessed to her.

Bell snorted at the greasy smile of Cedric, who had joined the mercenary group three days ago.

“Can’t you see I’m busy?”

Bell snapped while organizing transfer registration forms for new mercenaries that needed to be submitted to the city hall.

With her head lowered as she sorted through documents, her face was as beautiful as a delicately carved sculpture, her long eyelashes particularly striking.

“Then how about tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow, the day after, and every day after that, I’ll be busy, so go make your date proposals elsewhere.”

Bell packed the documents into her bag and prepared to leave.

Spring was the busiest time due to preparing new paperwork for revised laws, and unfortunately it coincided with the arrival of new recruits, bringing annoying types like Cedric.

“Roses are more beautiful because they have thorns.”

“First, I’m not a flower. Second, you’re not my type. And third, I have no interest in men, so if you flirt with me one more time—hey!”

Just as she entered the hallway, Bell instinctively cursed at a new recruit smoking in the lobby. The bag she reflexively threw hit the recruit’s face and dropped to the floor.

“Didn’t I explain that smoking is prohibited inside the branch?”

“Who the—! Was that you?”

Allen, who had been smoking, irritably threw the bag aside and approached threateningly.

Bell stomped down the stairs and snatched the cigarette from Allen’s hand, crushing it under her foot. Her eyes blazed like they were on fire.

“If you don’t want to get kicked out after ten days, straighten up.”

“Acting all high and mighty as deputy commander, but you’re just a woman. Get real. If it weren’t for your fancy reading skills, you wouldn’t be in that position.”

“Hey, Allen. Take it easy.”

Cedric warned him, but Bell irritably pushed him aside. Having Cedric intervene would only lead to misunderstandings that she relied on men’s authority, which was just annoying.

Meanwhile, Allen smirked crookedly and pulled out a new cigarette from his pocket. Then, making sure Bell was watching, he lit it.

“Last warning. Put it out.”

Ignoring her, Allen inhaled the cigarette smoke. In an instant, Bell seized Allen’s sword and sliced the cigarette he was holding in his mouth.

“Think I became deputy commander for nothing?”

Bell stole the sword from Allen’s waist and cut the cigarette he was smoking. The sword that cut the cigarette lowered its height and moved to Allen’s neck.

Naturally, the new recruits Cedric and Allen were shocked. They hadn’t expected Bell, with her slender waist that could be grasped in one hand and even thinner arms, to draw a sword without giving them time to react.

“Bell, Bell! Calm down and put it down. I know you’ve been having headaches lately, but this is too much for venting.”

Randolph, Bell’s friend of the same age with considerable experience as a mercenary, grabbed her arm and tried to stop her.

“Let go! Troublemakers need to be dealt with from the start!”

“No matter how angry you are, this isn’t right. We need to resolve this through conversation!”

“These guys can be reasoned with? Don’t be ridiculous!”

As they struggled, Randolph quickly signaled the others to leave and uttered the one phrase that would weaken Bell.

“I’ll buy you lunch. Full course with dessert.”

At that, Bell pretended to give in and handed over the sword, and Randolph quickly pulled her away.

Seated at a nearby restaurant, Bell gulped down her drink to calm her seething anger.

“If I were a man, would he have disrespected me like that? Being a woman is a crime, I swear.”

“Just calm down.”

“Do I look calm? I’ve been dealing with this for five years!”

“After five years, shouldn’t you be used to it by now?”

“Ha. Listen to yourself. Five years of suffering and you think I should be used to it? Hey, as deputy commander, I declare that having brown hair is a crime and you’re banned from using the bathroom. Just endure it for five years and you’ll get used to it, okay?”

“Uh… sorry. You have every right to be angry.”

Bell thought that if her friend wasn’t the type to meekly accept and acknowledge whatever she said, she would have drowned such old-fashioned thinking last night, as she twirled her pasta.

It might be cheap pasta from a local tavern, but free food always tastes good.

“What did the commander say?”

“As if that old man could come up with 18 million berks right away. Business is so slow we only recruited thirteen new members.”

A twenty-one-year-old young woman had taken on a debt large enough to support a family of four for ten years. Bell swallowed her sigh along with her spaghetti.

“What about the bank?”

“As if they’d lend money to an unmarried woman.”

“Didn’t your older sister marry into a wealthy family?”

At the mention of her older sister, Bell twisted her lips and put down her fork. Randolph closed his eyes tightly, realizing he had made another mistake.

“After what happened to our family, she said, ‘I should be grateful that he married me at all, and if I had to bring 18 million berks to my parents’ home, I would be abandoned by my husband,’ said the high and mighty Countess.”

Everything had gone wrong.

Bell recalled the letter that arrived a week ago.

It had been three years since she left home, unable to bear her father who had fallen into alcoholism after his business failed, and Joanna who still insisted on wearing expensive lace gloves despite everything.

She had rushed over after receiving an urgent letter asking her to come quickly, only to find that the urgency was due to an enormous debt.

“I wanted to restore everything to how it was before. But I failed again.”

To accumulate more debt on that credit—that takes talent, if anything. Bell’s upper lip twisted uncontrollably.

“So. If you need money, go work on a whaling ship. You can’t touch my money.”

What did it matter to her if her father and sister were sold off to loan sharks?

That debt wasn’t hers. And legally, she had no obligation to pay it.

Even if the notorious loan sharks extended their reach to her, she was the deputy commander and major investor in a powerful local mercenary group, so she could handle it somehow. But.

“Should I just fake my death and flee abroad?”

Damn Joanna Sevigne. One day she would drown that woman.

That day, when she told her father to take a whaling job, the man said:

“Oh, the debt has been forgiven.”

“Then why did you call me?”

As the red sunset outside tinted Joanna’s old pearl necklace crimson, she felt an instinctive unease.

“The House of Balzac paid off the debt. I think you both know about the House of Balzac. Yes, the wealthiest family in the country. Their lands include a huge gold mine, vast estates, and—”

“I know all that, so just get to the point.”

Bell interrupted her father.

While everyone knew that the Balzac family was wealthier than the royal family, she couldn’t understand why they would help the completely ruined Sevigne family.

“In exchange for clearing the debt, they made one proposal. That proposal is… to send one of you to their family.”

“For what purpose?”

“As a bride?”

Bell and Joanna reacted simultaneously. Bell, hardened by her career, looked suspicious and wary, while Joanna’s face became dreamy. Their father hung his head.

“I’m not sure about that.”

“It must be as a bride! My goodness! Perhaps they heard rumors of my beauty and want me as a wife!”

Meanwhile, Bell kept wiping her sweaty hands on her skirt while punching numbers into a calculator.

If the debt was already forgiven, her assets were safe, and if Joanna went to the ducal family, she could continue living her peaceful life.

“Joanna. You go.”

Such a special request from the highest nobility must have some terrible purpose behind it.

Bell, with her extensive experience in society, was different from the naive Joanna.

Bell pretended to be reluctant as she took Joanna’s hand and whispered:

“It’s a position worthy of your beauty.”

Whatever perverted demands you might face will suit your stupidity perfectly.

Unaware of Bell’s dark thoughts, Joanna smiled innocently.

“Really? No changing your mind later.”

“I promise.”

She thought that was the end of it that day. Until three days later, when Joanna tracked down Bell’s address and knocked on her door.

After sighing, Bell opened the door, and Joanna forced her way in and immediately slapped Bell’s cheek. Bell thought Joanna had discovered something unpleasant about the Balzac family. Joanna gritted her teeth.

“Why did you hit me!”

“You knew, didn’t you?”

“Knew what?”

“About the Balzacs!”

“What about them?”

“I didn’t know! But you did. That’s why you told me to go. Isn’t that right?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Liar! The rumors are all over high society. They say women who enter the House of Balzac can only leave by dying or going insane!”

I knew there was something fishy.

“Really? This is the first I’m hearing of it.”

“I can’t go.”

Bell answered, trying to keep her face from crumpling.

“It’s just a rumor. Don’t let it sway you.”

“No. It’s such a dangerous place that even I barely heard about it because people dare not speak of it. Please… I’ll die. I’ll surely die.”