novelraw Chapter 8
Chapter 8
Chapter 8
Creak.
The moment the administrator opened the warehouse door, gold, silver, and jewels revealed themselves in splendid fashion.
There were so many dazzling gemstones that even the small amount of light slipping through the doorway made it feel as though brilliance was flashing in every direction.
But not a single person there expressed any admiration.
They merely watched one another’s expressions and movements in silence.
“You there. Do not touch that.”
When Gilbert, standing behind Prince Noel, picked up a mineral lying nearby, the administrator hurriedly stopped him.
Did that fool even know how much it was worth before putting his hands on it?
“If even a single scratch appears on anything here, things could become quite troublesome, so just follow along quietly.”
The administrator swallowed back the urge to openly click his tongue and cursed inwardly instead.
Just look at him, acting like that just because he has gloves on.
So rustic.
Getting excited and grabbing things at random.
“Yes, sir.”
But the people standing behind Prince Noel were not merely attendants.
They were all experts in various physical assets, each personally selected by Prince Noel.
As they watched Gilbert set the mineral back down, every one of them thought the same thing.
That thing would not matter even if it broke.
“But how exactly does Your Highness intend to inspect the physical assets?”
The administrator politely addressed the prince and his attendants, who were quietly surveying the surroundings.
He barely restrained the urge to speak bluntly and ask what exactly they thought they were accomplishing by wandering around here and inconveniencing everyone.
“Ah.”
“First, I intend to verify the assets recently recovered from the embezzlement cases.”
“What exactly do you mean by that?”
“What do you mean, what do I mean?”
“We need to see whether the physical assets were properly recovered in accordance with the records.”
Prince Noel’s expression immediately twisted into a sharp frown, and the administrator hurriedly bowed his head.
They said he turned into a tyrant the moment anyone started speaking casually to him.
“Baron Horn’s property is here too, right?”
“He is not a count, but I know his office was high enough that his assets are managed here.”
“Yes, that is correct.”
“If you would hand me the list in your possession, I will show you at once.”
The administrator politely reached out with both hands to take the list Prince Noel was holding.
But Prince Noel firmly whisked the list up over his own head.
“Use your list.”
“Why are you trying to take mine?”
Take it?
This time, even the administrator failed to control his expression.
“What?”
“Why are you the one making a dumbfounded face?”
“Pardon?”
“I am not.”
“What do you mean, you are not?”
“You just made the face of someone thinking, What is wrong with this idiot?”
Now the administrator could no longer hide his disbelief.
The prince had said he wanted to inspect the recently recovered assets, but if he would not hand over the list, what exactly was he expecting?
It was not as though he had come merely to pick a fight.
“Are you not the chief warehouse overseer?”
“What did you do, sell off your own list somewhere?”
But Prince Noel looked just as unwilling to hide his own disbelief.
Why was he acting so confident?
“Ah.”
“My list?”
At Prince Noel’s words, the administrator’s pupils began to shake.
The list?
Where had he put it again?
The underlings should have been updating it on their own, at least.
“I came here in such a hurry that I forgot to bring it.”
“J-just a moment, may I go fetch the list?”
The administrator, who now felt sweat threatening to bead on his skin, even began to stammer.
Prince Noel gave a cold nod.
“Thank you!”
As the administrator hurried off, frantically turning the situation over in his head and searching for the list, Prince Noel immediately let out a sigh.
“The prince himself came to inspect physical assets, and he left the inventory records behind?”
“That is probably because nothing was ever actually handled according to those records in the first place.”
At the prince’s irritable complaint, Gilbert answered readily.
Everyone nearby had been cowed by the hot-tempered Prince Noel, yet Gilbert alone spoke without hesitation.
“Right.”
“Just look at the state of mind it takes to leave them behind even with this many outsiders here.”
If anything, Gilbert’s manner made it easier for Prince Noel to regain control of his emotions.
Rather, an opportunity had presented itself.
“All right.”
“This section here to here is Baron Horn’s returned-assets list.”
“Please verify it.”
“Yes.”
“Understood.”
In truth, the warehouse administrator was not needed to verify physical assets.
Everyone gathered here already knew how to read such lists.
The reason they knew how was obvious.
They were people who had firsthand experience replacing real minerals with suitable counterfeit stones.
“There appears to be no falsehood in Baron Horn’s list.”
“That is how it looks to me as well.”
“Then next.”
“Please verify the page under Count Alessandro here.”
“Yes.”
Prince Noel was not foolish enough to trust everyone’s impressions unconditionally.
They had no professional instruments, and whatever their reasons had once been, these were people who had committed illegal acts before.
There was also the possibility that some of them were simply driven by a desire for revenge against the nobility.
“This sapphire appears to have been recorded under the wrong grade.”
“Its clarity does not match the stated grade.”
“The diamond ring here also has a dark brown diamond.”
Still, it was clear that even a first round of inspection was worthwhile.
Especially because—
“Your Highness, this cannot possibly be a pink diamond!”
“A pink diamond is not supposed to catch light like this!”
“It would not even be an exaggeration to call this a glass ornament!”
“Even this weight makes no sense!”
Gilbert’s expression when examining wretched stones and his expression when looking at real jewels were so completely different that the contrast was unmistakable.
That enormous man handled minerals smaller than his own thumb with astonishing care.
Working with Gilbert was, in effect, the same as working with a walking lie detector.
“I swear I am going to strip that bastard of his comital title somehow.”
As the results grew more and more disastrous, Prince Noel openly showed his anger.
The workers glanced awkwardly at one another when they saw him like that, then let the corners of their mouths rise ever so slightly.
His Highness really is serious about wiping out the Corrupt Officials.
Clunk.
“Y-Your Highness!”
“I have brought the list!”
“Th-the attendant who had those papers had stepped away for a moment!”
Only after quite some time had passed did the warehouse door finally swing open again.
The administrator’s long hair, as he stammered through that lie, was damp with sweat and clung to both sides of his face.
“That attendant has some nerve.”
Prince Noel let out a short, mocking laugh, and the administrator’s ears instantly turned red.
So he hastily pointed at the more manageable attendants nearby and raised his voice for no good reason.
“Your Highness!”
“Did you allow your attendants to keep touching the kingdom’s physical assets?”
“Yeah.”
“Pardon?”
The prince, however, remained perfectly brazen.
“They are wearing gloves.”
“But every scratch—”
“They are assets in the state treasury, which means they are my assets.”
“Do not raise your voice.”
Are all assets in the state treasury Your Highness' personal property?!
The administrator wanted to snap back in disbelief, but abandoned the thought at once.
There was no point in getting into a quarrel with a prince.
If anyone got stripped bare in the end, it would be him.
“Let me see your list too.”
While the administrator was still reeling, Prince Noel casually snatched the papers hanging limply in his hand.
Then he rapidly scanned through them to see whether there were any discrepancies with the records he held.
Fortunately, there were no visible signs that the documents themselves had been tampered with.
“I was curious whether it matched mine.”
The moment Prince Noel finished scanning it, he returned the list to the administrator with a bright smile.
The administrator was dumbfounded, but unlike the earlier chill, all he could do now was stare blankly at Prince Noel, who was smiling cheerfully.
Naturally, Prince Noel was not the sort of man to stop at merely smiling.
“Now show me how you inspect physical assets.”
He really is completely unreasonable.
The administrator carefully wiped away his sweat and looked back over his own list.
“Shall we begin by verifying the assets most recently seized from Count Alessandro?”
“Yeah.”
“First, this section is the list of physical assets confiscated from Count Alessandro.”
“Their current estimated value is approximately—”
“I have the documents too.”
“Just inspect the physical assets.”
With his words being cut off again and again, the administrator pressed his lips shut.
But under the prince’s unmistakably cold gaze, he could not bring himself to protest at all.
“Yes.”
“First, the structure is such that the asset listed at the very top corresponds to the far-left item in each section.”
“Yeah.”
“So the diamond located at the very top is—”
The administrator calmly explained the routine he normally followed, or rather, the routine he ought to have been following all along.
He did so item by item, with painstaking care.
He was determined not to give Prince Noel the slightest opening to find fault.
“Wait.”
But this was a situation in which there was no way Prince Noel would fail to find fault.
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“How do you know whether those assets are genuine or not?”
“What if a thief got in and swapped them out?”
A thief got in and swapped them out?
How ignorant.
The prince really had no idea how strict security was here.
Only high-ranking people who had been bribed could barely manage a swap through me.
“Haha, Your Highness.”
“I may appear to be nothing more than a warehouse administrator, but I hold an International Gem Appraiser Certification.”
“And?”
“It embarrasses me to say it myself, but that means that through the process of directly touching the stones and weighing them in hand, I am able to determine at each stage whether they are genuine or not.”
At the administrator’s proud expression, everyone standing behind Prince Noel stiffened.
An International Gem Appraiser Certification?
That noble’s certificate they handed out for a fee, the one issued over white diamond appraisal?
“I see!”
By contrast, Noel’s face brightened completely.
Seeing that, the administrator felt as though a weight had lifted from him and smiled along with the prince.
“Yes.”
“And while Your Highness may have visited here quite easily, the truth is that security in this place is very strict.”
“It is difficult for anyone but me to enter at all.”
“Oh~ really?”
Even seeing Noel clap his hands, the administrator grinned broadly.
This was why it was good to be an expert in one’s own field.
“So because you manage all the jewels here, I can feel safe?”
“That is correct.”
“And it is difficult for even thieves to get in?”
“Yes.”
“I conduct regular inspections of the physical assets myself, after all.”
The administrator gradually began to regain confidence thanks to the prince’s vivid reactions.
“Thanks to Your Highness beginning the campaign to kill the Corrupt Officials, I can truly feel just how many assets have been returned to the state.”
So he smoothly went on to recite flattering words with that smooth tongue of his.
Good.
Just satisfy this bastard’s craving for approval and let me go home.
“Oh, really?”
But Noel had no intention of dancing to the administrator’s tune.
“You.”
“Administrator.”
“What was your name again?”
“Pierre Maria Bolen……”
“That is enough.”
“Name, Pierre.”
“End of story.”
Ignoring the administrator, who had begun reciting his full name, Prince Noel picked up the pink diamond Gilbert had handled earlier with his bare hand.
Crash!
Then he immediately hurled the stone down beside the administrator’s shoe.
“Y-Your Highness?”
More shaken than he had been at any moment that day, the administrator looked at the prince with trembling eyes.
The prince no longer wore the childish expression he had earlier.
“Among the physical assets returned from Count Alessandro, what is the name of the pink-colored stone that shatters like this?”
“Pardon?”
“This thing that shattered just from being thrown onto marble by hand.”
“What is it called?”
At Prince Noel’s words, the administrator could not answer.
The mineral name written on the list was pink diamond.
“A pink diamond would not break like this.”
The administrator could do nothing but widen his eyes and stare in shock, looking back and forth between the shattered stone and Prince Noel.
“Gilbert, grab this bastard tight.”