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Chapter 19

[Quality Checker – Kawaii]

Chapter 19: The Debt Collector (1)

During his days as a rascal, Damien brought many problems upon his family.

The incident at the tavern, where he was driven out and was made a laughingstock of the whole city.

Or the incident with the Marquis’ son Erwin, where her sister Loiuse had to sacrifice herself in order to save their family from Marquis Ryan Bloom’s wrath.

Nevertheless no matter what he did, his family never abandoned Damien. They continued to shield him under the guise of being a family.

However there was an incident when his family’s patience with him finally broke.

It was when Damien used the family’s land as collateral to borrow money from the Duke’s conglomerate.

“Damien, you fool!”

Paul Haksen erupted in rage, his face blazing as if engulfed in flames.

“If only you had changed! I was foolish to hold even a shred of hope that you might have changed! Today, I’ll kill you and then end my own life! Let’s go together to the afterlife and confess our wrongdoings to our ancestors!”

Paul grabbed a decorative axe hanging on the wall and charged at Damien.

“Darling, please calm down!”

“Do you truly intend to kill Damien?”

“Father, please put the axe down and let’s talk!”

His mother, sister, and even his younger brother, Abel, tried to restrain their father.

Perhaps Agnes thought it wasn’t her place to intervene. So she quietly left the room.

“Release me! Today, things will truly come to an end!”

Even with everyone intervening, they couldn’t pacify Paul Haksen’s rage.

Damien looked at his furious father with a mix of embarrassment and apprehension.

“Damien! Can’t you just give yourself up right now!”

Before resolving the situation, it seemed necessary to first calm his father.

Damien knelt down on the floor causing Paul Haksen and the family’s gaze to widen with surprise.

“Father, I apologize for disappointing you once again.”

Damien spoke in a remorseful tone.

“Even apologizing through death wouldn’t suffice for this incident. But for now, shouldn’t our priority be to rectify this situation?”

Upon his return, Damien made a vow.

He wouldn’t live this life as he did in his past life.

He vowed to make his family happy at all costs.

“Please, just trust me one more time. I will take responsibility and resolve this.”

Damien spoke earnestly.

At this, hesitation flickered across Paul’s face.

“Can you really resolve this?”

“Yes, Father.”

Paul Haksen hesitated for a moment before lowering the axe.

“Considering what you’ve shown so far, I’ll trust you one more time.”

Damien nodded, expressing gratitude.

Afterwards, he immediately headed to the room where the guests were sitting.

As he entered the room, the first person he saw was a man dressed in a suit.

The man wasn’t alone. He was accompanied by three bodyguards.

“Oh, hello Mr. Damien.”

The man stood up, his neatly combed hair, glistening in the light from the pomade he’d applied.

“I’m Allan Demiche, manager of the western branch of the Dash and Cash bank.”

He spoke with a polite tone but didn’t bow despite his courteous manner.

Allan Demiche.

Damien couldn’t remember him at all.

In reality, it might have been a few months ago, but from Damien’s perspective, it was decades ago.

Memories of this man had long been buried in the depths of his mind.

“It’s been a long time since we last met.”

Upon hearing those words, forgotten memories began to resurface slowly.

“Are you the one I was told about? The son of Viscount Haksen. No wonder you carry yourself differently.”

“I handle the western division of Dash and Cash. Unlike Mr. Damien, I’m not important enough for you to remember my name.”

“It might take a bit to get the documents ready. Would you care for a drink? We have some alcohol.”

“Why not use your family’s land as collateral? That way, we could offer you more money.”

“The interest is too high? It’s just a formality as we can’t lend money without it.”

“No need to worry about your family’s land. How could a commoner like me take away a noble’s land as collateral?”

This man was the one who had convinced Damien into using the family’s land as collateral.

“The agreed repayment date is today, so I’ve come to collect the money. You borrowed twenty gold from us, and if we add up the interest,you now have to pay us thirty gold.”

thirty gold, it was a big amount, enough to buy an estate in the countryside.

However the money he received after killing Akitora was a hundred gold. It was an amount that would easily cover the debt.

But it had been a long time since that hundred gold had turned into platinum by the Church.

“I can’t just give away the platinum”

He thought. It was a gift given by Agnes as the representative of the Holy Church; it is not something that he could have given to others.

“As you know, if you can’t repay the money today, the land you put up as collateral will become the property of our Dash and Cash bank.”

“Wasn’t that just a formality?”

He inquired, following the memory from the past.

At that question, Allan Demiche smirked slightly.

“Of course. How could a commoner like me take away a noble’s land as collateral? But what can I do? I have received orders from the Goldpixie duchy that the debt must be collected, without distinction between nobles and commoners.”

Allan particularly emphasized the mention of the Goldpixie duchy.

The bank where Damien borrowed money from, Dash and Cash, was a business run by Goldpixie the Duke.

The Goldpixie family had amassed wealth and fame through business for generations.

Apart from Dash and Cash, they owned numerous other businesses.

“If you understand, please bring the money soon. Or perhaps… Is it that you don’t have the money to repay?”

Allan Demiche chuckled like a lackey. Damien crossed his arms, lost in thought.

“In my past life… our land was eventually taken, and the entire family was on the verge of being on the streets.”

Luckily, Louise, his sister, managed to secure the land and estates by borrowing money from Erwin Ryan Bloom.

However, in return for that favor, Louise ended up being tied to Erwin Ryan Bloom for her entire life.

“I can’t let her go through that again.”

But, there was no way for him to come up with 30 gold immediately.

He needed to find a way to delay repayment or discover another way to clear the debt.

‘…I vaguely remember a duel that took place between Duke Goldpixie and Marquis Ryan Bloom soon after.’

The recollection came suddenly.

A knightly duel over ownership of a gold mine between two families.

Duke Goldpixie not only lost the ownership of the mine but also lost honor in that duel.

‘Thanks to winning the duel, Marquis Ryan Bloom gained immense strength.’

Presently, Haksen viscountry had incurred the wrath of Marquis Ryan Bloom.

Hence if the Marquis’s influence grew stronger, it would pose a threat to his family.

“I wasn’t able to arrange the money.”

At that remark, Allan’s mocking laughter grew stronger, as if he had anticipated it.

“If that was the case, you shouldn’t have borrowed the money.”

Allan slumped into his chair, crossing his legs and looked down at Damien as if scrutinizing him.

“How can a noble like you lack common sense? Or perhaps, living as a rascal has made you forget that?”

As soon as Allan realized Damien couldn’t repay the debt, his attitude suddenly changed.

However, Damien wasn’t particularly surprised, as it was something he had experienced in his previous life.

“I’ll repay the debt in a different way.”

“Oh, that’s fortunate. But how do you plan to repay the sum of 30 gold?”

“Aren’t you about to engage in a duel with the Marquisette of Ryan Bloom?”

“Has the rumor spread this far already?”

“So, the Duke is recruiting skilled knights from his estate.”

Allan gave a look as if questioning the relevance.

“Recommend me to the Duke. Instead of repaying the debt, let me secure victory for the Duke.”

“Hahaha!”

Laughter burst out.

For the first time in a long while, Allan Demiche forgot his dignity and laughed vulgarly.

“What did you just say? You’ll secure victory for the Duke?”

It was so funny that his belly began to ache. It was painful, yet the laughter didn’t stop.

“Pfft!”

“Pfft.”

Even the bodyguards standing behind him couldn’t hold back; laughter escaped their lips.

“Hehehe! What incredible confidence. Defeating the second son of Marquis Ryan Bloom and driving out the violent gangs from Landwalk City, quite a knightly accomplishment.”

Allan Demiche was already aware of the rumors surrounding Damien Haksen.

It was unavoidable. Whenever people gathered these days, that story was always on their tongues.

“But did you think such lies would work on me? That makes me a bit angry.”

However, Allan Demiche wasn’t fooled by such baseless rumors.

He knew very well what kind of person Damien Haksen was. He had seen it with his own eyes.

A fool with nothing except the title of being a noble.

An insignificant braggart whose pride came before logical understanding.

A clueless troublemaker running wild and making trouble for his family.

That was Damien Haksen.

‘He must have won by feeding something venomous to Ryan Bloom’s heir, and it was obvious that the Church had already dismantled the gangs in Landwork.’

Allan Demiche wiped away tears as he continued speaking.

“Hey, don’t try to deceive me like that. If you don’t have money, come clean and ask for it. Oh, just speaking won’t be enough.”

Allan licked his lips with the tip of his tongue.

“Come to think of it, your sister was quite a beauty. No, she has surpassed the level of mere beauty. My eyes were wide open after seeing her.”

Allan clapped his hands together, smirking at Damien.

“How about this? Let me borrow her for a week, and I’ll extend the repayment deadline by about two months.”

Allan pointed to the bodyguards behind him.

“Right, I’m not the only one involved here. See back there? They’ll be part of it too. Make a careful decision; things might get messy if you make the wrong decision…”

The sound of metal interrupted Allan’s words.

Before he knew it, Damien Haksen had drawn his sword.

Allan Demiche liked his profession.

Dash and Cash Bank.

Just running a business owned by a Duke was enough to carry oneself with a proud posture and broad shoulders and needless to say, his salary was high.

But the real reason Allan loved his job was different.

-Sorry! P-please wait just a month! I’ll p-pay the money!

Witnessing the pitiful pleas of well-off nobles was his joy.

-I’ll b-borrow like this! Please, at least the estate…!

Born a commoner, he had always looked up to the nobles.

He had to bow his head whenever the nobles would pass by.

He couldn’t even step on the shadows of the nobles.

He found it quite amusing how these once proud individuals begged him as if they would lick his shoes.

-My daughter? I-isn’t there any other way? N-no! It’s not that I don’t want to!

-My body? W-wait a moment! I-I’m married!

Occasionally, Allan also satisfied his secret desires.

The nobles couldn’t resist. He was the upper class, they were the lower.

If it were an ordinary banking business, he wouldn’t have enjoyed such authority. Not getting fleeced by the nobles would have been a stroke of luck.

But Dash and Cash belonged to the Duke’s business.

The minor nobles in the countryside had no choice but to bow before the Duke’s authority.

Therefore, Allan Demiche enjoyed his profession.

“You should reconsider.”

Allan Demiche had to suppress a rising tide of laughter.

Seeing nobles cornered was the best scenario Allan Demiche could hope for.

“The friends behind me aren’t your average strong guys.”

Allan Demiche always had bodyguards with him.

They weren’t people supported by the Duke but individuals specifically chosen by Allan Demiche.

Their skills were all above average knights, reliable and trustworthy.

“Let’s see…”

Damien Haksen pointed at Allan Demiche and the bodyguards with his finger.

“I’ll just kill those three, and cut off your right arm. Afterall I would need a guide to the Duke’s estate.”

Allan Demiche and the bodyguards exchanged glances, smiling at each other.

What’s this fool jabbering about now?

“Consider it fortunate that you’re of use to me.”

Damien’s pupils gleamed fiercely.

It was like looking into the eyes of a beast lurking in the darkness.

“I don’t usually spare bastards who disgrace my family.”

[Quality Checker – Kawaii]