#7. Cracking the Safe (2)
2023.08.07.
“So it is indeed ours. Are you planning to withdraw all of it?”
“Every single coin, down to the last one, all of it. Ah, give it to me in early Imperial gold coins.”
A suppressed fervor could be felt in Amy’s answering voice. The Guild Leader looked at Amy with a suspicious gaze, then silently gestured to his subordinate. The subordinate turned and disappeared downstairs.
“…….”
“…….”
Perhaps because it was awkward with just the two of them remaining, the Guild Leader cleared his throat with ahem. Then he fiddled with the wooden plaque and struck up a conversation subtly. It was something in the nature of customer service.
“Seeing that the numbers on your wooden plaque are gilded, you’ve entrusted quite a large sum…… Are you perhaps planning to leave the country?”
“Mind your own business.”
Amy dispelled the Guild Leader with a single word. The Guild Leader nodded with an embarrassed expression. Amy looked around the room with dry eyes. She had done so to pass the time until the money arrived…… but the next moment, her eyes went wide. No, was that—?
“……Good heavens.”
A sound that was either admiration or a groan flowed from Amy’s lips. The Guild Leader was curious what she was looking at to act like that, but he seemed to quickly lose interest and had already turned his head. Her face was expressionless once more, but her heart alone pounded like mad.
‘That symbol, right? The symbol of the rebellion faction that started in the south…….’
Amy gulped dryly and secretly cast her gaze to the banner hanging on the wall behind the Guild Leader. There, a hawk swooping down like a lightning bolt was embroidered. Good God, it really was that emblem.
‘To think this guild had a connection with the rebellion faction…….’
Amy stared blankly and glanced at the Guild Leader.
This was a place that stored hidden slush funds and took a fee for it. Known only to those in the know, this guild was popular for thoroughly keeping its clients’ secrets. And Amy had come to secretly siphon off the slush fund that the Crown Prince had hidden.
‘I was the one who made the slush fund, so he has no right to complain even if I take it.’
Even if the Crown Prince later found out that Amy had cleaned it out completely, there wasn’t much he could do. From its very creation, it was an illegal slush fund. Where would he lodge a complaint? Surely not to the Emperor? If he were even suspected of trying to build his own power base using the slush fund, he would be stripped of his position as Crown Prince and then some.
Before her regression, as she lay dying in a cold prison, how she had gritted her teeth at the thought of the wealth she had diligently accumulated over the years being handed over entirely to Esmaein Yeongae.
But,
‘Now it will become settlement funds for His Highness the Second Prince in the north.’
Wasn’t it better than it being used for the luxury of the ungrateful Crown Prince and Esmaein Yeongae?
Amy, who had been smiling with satisfaction, came back to her senses and glanced sideways at the banner.
‘This isn’t what’s important right now.’
She urgently rummaged through her memories. This was a tremendous opportunity bestowed by heaven. And Amy had never been one to miss an opportunity right before her eyes.
‘Come to think of it, around this time…….’
After organizing her thoughts to some degree, she cautiously broached the subject.
“There’s something I’d like to ask.”
At that, the Guild Leader, who had been twitching his fingers with a bored face, raised his head.
“What is it?”
“How is the south these days?”
“…….”
Perhaps because it was too broad a question, the Guild Leader’s mouth didn’t open easily. Amy bit her lips anxiously. Since this guild was connected to the ringleaders of the rebellion that started in the south, she couldn’t ask in detail.
‘What if they get suspicious about how I know and capture and imprison me, or torture me?’
The ankle she had suffered at Esmaein Yeongae’s hands throbbed for no reason. Amy resolved firmly inwardly. Never again would she experience such things.
The motto of her second life was to live safe and comfortable—to eat well and live well.
The Guild Leader said with a nonchalant expression.
“The south, well…… isn’t it the same as always? Farming hard, being looked down on by the capital folks…….”
After long deliberation, the words that came out were nothing but bare bones, devoid of flesh. Amy grumbled inwardly that she could say the same thing, but just then, the subordinate returned with a small pouch.
The Guild Leader first checked the contents of the pouch. Then he placed it on the table and pushed it toward Amy.
“Check if the amount is correct.”
“…….”
She quickly scanned the inside of the pouch. It seemed roughly correct. Since they were gold coins circulated in the early Empire, even a few held tremendous value. Amy was putting away the pouch with satisfaction when a sudden thought came to mind.
“What is it?”
Seeing Amy suddenly stop moving, the Guild Leader and the guild member tilted their heads. Amy raised her head and spoke.
“I suppose I’ll need to open an account. I’ll be depositing the gold coins.”
“Very well.”
“It’s not under my name, but that’s fine, right?”
“No problem.”
“The person who meets the conditions I state will be the owner of that account.”
“……Then does that mean there’s no need to verify with you whether that person is correct or not?”
The Guild Leader’s eyebrows rose sharply. It was common for nobles to create nominee accounts when inheriting estates to avoid paying taxes to the state. But in those cases, the beneficiary was always clearly specified, because it mustn’t be taken by someone else by any chance.
But the suspicious woman before him was now opening a transaction entirely for a stranger, and under conditions where someone other than the intended person might benefit. This was his first time seeing such a thing, so it was fascinating.
“What are the conditions?”
Amy answered nonchalantly to the Guild Leader’s question.
“Currently twenty-three years of age, male, and the bluest of blue blood.”
!
The Guild Leader’s expression changed. The bluest of blue blood was an expression referring to the Imperial Family. Amy added as if she didn’t know.
“And…… someone related to the number of these gold coins.”
Amy took out one early Imperial gold coin from the pouch and tossed it. The Guild Leader reflexively caught it. That gold coin was worth one thousand currently circulating gold coins.
‘Someone related to the number one thousand?’
He couldn’t grasp it at all.
Then, exclaiming as if she had suddenly remembered, Amy took something out from the inner pocket sewn into her skirt and tossed it again. When he caught it and looked, this time it was one ordinary gold coin.
“It’s one thousand and one total. Burn it into your head.”
Amy said boastfully. The Guild Leader was bewildered but nodded without showing it. But Amy sensitively noticed his demeanor.
‘He has a connection to the rebellion, but he doesn’t properly know about him.’
Rather, that was fortunate. When he came later and saw the funds prepared for him, he would be more curious about her than about the Guild Leader.
“And…… could I borrow a quill?”
She wrote a brief note, requested that it be placed in the safe together with the money, and rose from her seat. Then she left the place, satisfied with having achieved an unexpected gain. The Guild Leader and the guild member could only look at each other’s faces, feeling as though a storm had swept through.
Amy, having exited the guild’s pub, twisted and turned through the market’s complex alleys to avoid any possible tail. How much time had passed like that?
‘No tail.’
Only after she was certain did she finally turn toward the place she had promised to meet the Second Prince.
People flocked to the capital’s market from all over the Empire. That also meant all sorts of rumors circulated. Amy listened to countless stories as she walked. As always, most were trashy baseless rumors. Then, someone’s words dug into her ears.
“There’s been a rebellion in some southern region, they say.”
!
Her footsteps slowed. The people continued to whisper.
“I heard too. They say they’ve already crossed the Rengang?”
“Then they’re not far from the capital, are they? I thought they’d be suppressed quickly, but they’re holding out better than expected.”
Amy burned the words about the rebellion crossing the Rengang into her mind and picked up her pace again.
‘His Highness the First Prince is quite capable too.’
She clicked her tongue inwardly. The First Prince that Amy was thinking of now was not that sworn-enemy-like Crown Prince. He was the hidden son of the Emperor’s first empress, born earlier than the current Crown Prince, and the owner of the funds she had entrusted to the guild.
She had learned of him when, in her previous life, she was kidnapped by Esmaein Yeongae and starving to death in prison.
The chatty jailer had told all sorts of stories to Amy, whose tongue had been cut out so she could not speak. That day, the news had caused an uproar in the capital, and indeed, it was about the true Crown Prince having appeared.
It was an astonishing story, but Amy didn’t even have the strength to react and merely blinked her eyes while lying sprawled out. As always, the jailer chattered incessantly without rest. Thanks to that, the facts she learned were these:
The disturbances in the south were all his doing, and to pacify the rebellion that had grown to tremendous size, the Emperor had decided to depose the current Crown Prince and install him as the new Crown Prince. They say the Empire was in danger of being torn apart if they continued to oppose him, so the Emperor had no choice but to do so. Isn’t it said that the hearts of the people in the south and even the central regions all follow him entirely?
Upon hearing that, Amy twisted her parched, cracked lips into a smile for the first time in years. Because the thought of Esmaein Yeongae being reduced to a dog that had been chasing chickens was unbearably delightful.
Trudging through the market streets, Amy fell deep into thought.
‘Last time, it took almost three years after he first revealed his existence to become Crown Prince…….’
Her eyes sparkled.
‘What problem is there if it happens a little sooner? The seat of Crown Prince is his anyway.’
Amy intended to quietly lend him a hand and complete her revenge against the current Crown Prince. Moreover, she could solidify the Second Prince’s standing in the process.
She broke into a sly grin. How could it not be pleasurable to catch two birds with one stone?