As police officers collapsed and were carried out of the basement where April had spent seven years, she was overwhelmed by an indescribable pressure.
The one hopeful aspect was that Fejin Deus, who was directing these officers, considered "leaving the investigation to the church" to be utterly foolish.
She never thought she'd find herself relying on that young man for help.
In any case, she couldn't simply trust Fejin's principles. To avoid being dragged to the church later, or to have some means of bribing her way out if she was taken, she needed to reclaim at least a portion of her assets.
April went about her usual routine: bringing eggs, tending to the chickens, and after finishing her meal, she put on a dress.
She felt urgent.
Her first priority was to assess her assets, so she planned to visit the bank. It would be her first voluntary outing in seven years.
However, upon arriving at the bank, she was refused entry at the door.
"You cannot enter."
April couldn't hide her shock at being blocked by the police from even entering the bank.
She had expected it wouldn't be easy, but she had never doubted her fundamental right. She needed to know how much of her assets, frozen by the Grand Duke, remained.
"Why can't I enter? Do you know how long the Lunos family has been doing business with this bank?"
"It's a security issue."
"I've served my sentence. Why are you stopping me from claiming what's mine at the bank?"
The police officer, who had no response other than "security," simply closed his mouth at April's questioning.
She also needed to investigate the whereabouts of the merchant ships owned by the Lunos family.
April, who had been fifteen when her house arrest began, knew nothing about her family's affairs.
While she didn't know where to start or how to reclaim everything, one thing was clear: she needed to assess all the assets she currently possessed.
Yet, her very first plan was thwarted right at the bank's entrance.
April looked at the police approaching to restrain her. Remembering how Fejin's subordinates had fled in fear, she managed to calm her anxiety.
Having decided to try something unusual, her actions became unhesitating.
April put on her bonnet and opened the parasol she had brought. Thanks to the cloudy weather, there was no need to shield from the sun, and the parasol was so tattered that she hadn't really wanted to open it.
As expected, some of the police officers who believed her to be a witch stepped back in fear just from her opening the parasol. And strangely enough, the sky momentarily sided with her.
As they stood in a brief standoff, raindrops began to fall one by one from the cloudy sky.
"I'm... changing the weather..."
The Witch of the Mist.
So, rain falling wasn't surprising. It was just frightening.
The police officers could no longer approach her and retreated hesitantly. April entered the bank building, holding her parasol.
Even as she entered the building, her appearance with a dripping parasol made her look more like a madwoman than a witch, but to those gripped by fear, the distinction between the two was meaningless.
Having safely entered the bank, April moved forward with trepidation, worried that someone might block her path.
The bank clerk who had exclusively handled the Lunos family's banking affairs had the surname "Virta."
"Take me to Mr. Virta," April said to the receptionist, but she didn't move an inch from her seat.
April soon recognized her face. It was a familiar one.
As expected, the receptionist spoke up.
"I... I am Virta."
"You were a bank clerk, not a receptionist."
"My... my father was the bank clerk."
Virta said with an embarrassed expression.
Children of judges become judges, children of bank clerks become bank clerks. Although not nobles, bank clerks held honor comparable to lower nobility due to their valuable intellectual assets.
The daughter of bank clerk Virta, now receptionist Virta, stood at the door guiding visiting nobles to their assigned bank clerks.
It was a decent job, but certainly not that of a bank clerk.
"...Your first name?" April asked, narrowing her eyes.
Virta hastily replied, "Mille. Mille Virta."
April tried to recall her memories of visiting the bank with her father.
The bank clerk had been tall enough to nearly touch the ceiling and so thin his cheeks were sunken. And she could easily remember the woman about April's current age who had been learning the job beside him.
"Ah."
Finally, she remembered. It was clearly the daughter of bank clerk Virta, who had been learning the job and was set to take over handling the Lunos family's affairs.
Mille Virta said, "I'll introduce you to another bank clerk. However, it might take some time until then..."
"No. The Lunos family has always entrusted their banking to the Virta people. Besides, you learned from your father. I remember clearly."
At April's words, Mille Virta nervously swallowed.
April's words reflected the typical thinking of elders in noble families.
A family always entrusts money-related matters to a single family of bank clerks.
While April was confined to her home, there had been significant changes in banking affairs. However, April was unaware of these changes, and even if she knew, she would likely stick to the methods she knew, just like the elders of other noble families, rather than accepting the changes.
The Lunos family had been one that made and lost and made again great fortunes through trade, so it wasn't incomprehensible that they would be so conservative.
The problem was that there was no bank clerk from the Virta family, yet she was looking for one.
Mille Virta, looking troubled, briefly left her seat to ask something of an elderly-looking bank clerk.
She soon returned and said, "Banking is not my job."
Before April could ask if that meant she couldn't help, Virta quickly continued.
"Because I have my own duties right now, I can't assist you during working hours. Would it be alright if you waited until 4 o'clock when my shift ends?"
Although she had no choice but to walk here, she could withdraw at least some money from the bank to take a private carriage on the way back.
While somewhat worried about returning home, April took comfort in this thought and replied,
"I'll wait."
After that, April stood in a corner of the bank, waiting for the bank to close.
As Virta had said, business hours ended at 4 o'clock, but after cleaning up and listening to some more nagging, it was almost 5 o'clock.
Mille hurriedly returned to April.
Since Virta didn't have a separate office, they ended up sitting on a sofa in a corner of the bank to talk.
Mille placed a bundle of documents and a cup of coffee in front of April and said,
"You came to check the remaining assets of the Lunos family, right? This is what's left of the Lunos family's assets now."
April pulled the documents closer to herself and began to flip through them one by one.
While the young April had been unable to act without a guardian, everyone even remotely connected to the Lunos family had diverted all the merchant ships. It was under the pretext of inheritance.
It seemed that the Lunos family's downfall wasn't solely due to a love affair.
From the Grand Duke's perspective, the Lunos family was a dangerous entity that needed to be bound through marriage.
If they couldn't be bound in such a way, they might become political opponents, so the Grand Duke had assisted in thoroughly stripping away the Lunos family's assets.
While April was carefully examining the documents where her name had been crossed out with a red line, signifying her supposed non-existence, and the names of those who had taken assets were written below, Virta apologized politely.
"I'm sorry. All I could protect was... just the last page."
April checked each name below the red line one by one, then moved on to the last page Virta had mentioned.
The last page contained promissory notes issued through the bank. These were money owed to the Lunos family, but inheritance of which had been renounced due to the troublesome nature of the debtors.
"This money seems difficult to collect."
"Yes. And... this is all that remains here."
Virta pointed to a single receipt tucked between those promissory notes.
It was for a ship that had been partially paid for and begun construction, but couldn't be collected due to unpaid remaining balance.
