Chapter 43 – Monthly Budget (2)
A week later, I was finished with Kyle’s treatment and his shoulder was restored to its former state. The servants were all amazed that I had been able to get close enough to treat him when he refused help from even Jean and Elvin. Not only that, but his shoulder also looked to be as strong as ever. As a result, they gave me a new nickname.
“I heard Your Highness is the one that healed the Archduke!”
“It’s incredible that Her Highness was able to take care of the master’s wound by herself! As expected from our Archduchess!”
“Your Highness is really Romani’s pride and miracle!”
From then on, I became known as “His Highness’ Miracle”.
Oh my God. I just want to dig a hole and bury my face in it from how embarrassed that title made me feel. When I asked Marina about who had instigated such a ridiculous name, she told me that a certain head butler had been the one to come up with the nickname and spread it among the rest of the servants.
I didn’t know that Jean was also capable of controlling the workers from behind the scenes.
You’re evil, Jean.
However, there was at least one good thing that resulted from my nickname: no one thought anything odd about me visiting his office coinciding with his shoulder’s amazing healing progress.
Maybe it’s also because I purposely slowed the treatment process to make sure things didn’t seem too unnatural.
Everyone had convinced themselves that I was just using conventional first aid methods and doing what any other normal person would do to jumpstart the healing process. In addition to the bandages and the ointments, they believed that Kyle owed most of his speedy recovery to his monstrous physical strength, which was luckily a suitable enough explanation to prevent people from suspecting me.
Glancing at the clock, I saw that it was almost noon and time for the midday meal. I made my way to the dining room where a veritable spread of freshly prepared foods was already waiting for me. There was a hefty, grilled turkey that looked extremely appetizing and a tureen of soup full of seasonal vegetables from the mansion’s gardens. Next to those were a steaming dish of pasta with foraged mushrooms and a plate of crisp and vibrant salad.
I’m sure the dessert after this will also be delicious.
However, despite the delicious assortment of food in front of me, I had no appetite. I couldn’t even muster up the energy to appear to be as excited about the meal as I normally was.
This is all because of Kyle.
“Your Highness, is there something you’re concerned about?” Jean worried over my despondent expression.
“There’s nothing, Jean,” I replied. “Maybe it’s because I ate a lot for breakfast, so I still haven’t digested all of it.”
Jean noticed that I was weaker than usual, but he accepted my explanation with a smile. Then, he quickly opened his mouth as if he had thought of something important.
“Ah! Come to think of it, I haven’t told you yet about this yet, Your Highness. Please let me know if you would like us to purchase anything you may need. The Archduke has already prepared a budget for you.”
Money. I can’t refuse money.
Since I failed my first attempt to break Kyle’s curse by thawing the frozen rose, I had more time to spend in this world now and resolved to visit places outside the mansion more often. Besides, I was sure there was a lot of money I needed to spend, anyway, else it would remain in the Romani coffers and go to waste.
I can use that money to raise a workforce. Maybe I can buy a servant from the slave market or something.
My mind wandered to the various ventures I could look into with my budget. Come to think of it, I wasn’t sure how much money had been allocated to me or how freely I could spend it. I knew that the Romani family had a vast fortune, but I wasn’t sure exactly to what extent their wealth encompassed. Besides, there was also the possibility that Kyle could have elected to give me a small budget in case he did not yet trust me with the finances.
“Jean, how much is in my monthly budget?”
What if he says something like one hundred million?
I surreptitiously laughed silently to myself as I mused on the idea of such a ridiculous amount of money. The value of the currency of this world was modeled similarly to Korean currency since that was the only monetary system I knew of as a child. One hundred million came to mind because that was the amount I always dreamed of receiving, despite knowing I could never attain such riches in my lifetime.
“You have ten billion gold.”
Only
I stopped laughing. For a second, I could hardly believe the amount that Jean had told me. It was way more than one hundred million. Even one hundred million was already an impossible amount for me to fathom spending, but ten billion… per month…!
“… Is ten billion gold too little for one month?”
I smiled awkwardly at Jean’s question and politely shook my head.
“Oh, by the way,” he added, “you don’t have to report every penny you spend because the Archduke indicated that it’s entirely yours. Please feel free to spend as much as you need to obtain whatever it is you desire.”
Wah, that kind of eases my worries about my financial situation.
If I had to think of a problem with being given so much gold, then it would be the temptation to end up spending it on luxurious or extravagant goods just to have something to do with it. I knew I couldn’t do that, though.
However, given this arrangement, I was confused about why the original Riddel Spencer’s story played out the way it did. I was definitely sure that when Kyle died, he had left her a great inheritance. So, why couldn’t she save her life with all that money? No matter how much Doman used and betrayed her, there must have been a lot of resources left that she could have used to hire investigators to clear her name.
It’s all my younger self’s fault for writing a novel with such poorly thought out, inexplicable rationale. I think I’ll have to look at the ledgers again soon.
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