The Trust Fund and the Coming Famine

At those words, I immediately clenched my fist and raised my eyebrows.

My eyes, suddenly aflame with greed for money, burned with a fierce light.

"What do you mean?! You're telling me I can't receive it?! You're trying to swindle an orphan?!"

Spittle flew from my mouth in my excitement, spraying toward him.

Rylz, as if he'd expected this reaction, pushed up his glasses and pointed to a section of the document.

"Hold on, please don't get worked up. Look at this clause the Marquis signed."

It was a safeguard to prevent relatives of orphaned underage heirs from stealing the money.

"...That's absurd."

A thunderclap seemed to strike inside my skull.

I was eleven years old right now, so that meant I had seven more years until I could receive the funds?

"The reason I came to find you today, Miss, is not to explain how to receive the funds."

"..."

"The trust fund left by the Marquis yields a base rate of about three percent. I'd like to explain investment products that could earn you greater returns by the time you're eligible to withdraw."

Rylz began explaining Hugobrint Bank's investment products to the stunned me.

"According to our bank's terms, minors can't receive the funds, but they can make investment decisions. For instance, this product that invests in magic stones has yielded over seven percent in the past three months. It's a high-quality product, though there is some risk of principal loss..."

Just as Adam had described—these people were obsessed with performance metrics. Rylz was working hard to sell investment products to a ten-year-old, but his voice might as well have been playing in another room. I couldn't hear a word of it.

My money... My money...

"There's a young master among my managed clients who inherited a trust from his parents, just like you. He earned double the return he would have gotten by simply leaving it untouched."

"...Sir."

Rylz flinched when I spoke, my eyes cold as I scanned the investment brochure.

He raised his eyebrows and asked, "Yes, Miss? If you have any questions, please ask."

"The first product you mentioned. What's the exact profit structure?"

Seemingly unprepared for such a question from a child, Rylz gave me an awkward smile and answered.

"If the price of magic stones rises, you can earn up to ten percent in profit. The exact structure would be difficult for you to understand, Miss, but many nobles subscribe to this product, so you can trust it..."

"What about losses?"

At my question, Rylz's lips quivered.

He took a sip of tea before answering.

"Losses... up to fifty percent at most."

His voice was much smaller than when he'd explained the profit rate.

"But it has shown excellent returns over the past three months. It's a highly satisfactory product..."

"Then what's the average annual return rate?"

As if he hadn't expected a child to ask that, Rylz stiffened.

"As I mentioned, over three months..."

"I asked for the annual return rate, Mr. Rylz."

"Th... that is..."

Rylz, who had been trying to sell investment products to an innocent noble orphan to boost his performance, finally let out a long sigh.

"It has recorded a thirty-nine percent loss."

I knew it would come to this.

I crossed my short arms and looked at Rylz.

"Sir, don't sell investment products like this. Do you know this is grounds for a complaint to the Financial Supervisory Service?"

"...Excuse me?"

"You only show the best period for profit rates and try to downplay the loss rates. It's practically fraud."

"Ah... but I'm doing this for the benefit of my client's assets..."

"For your own performance metrics and salary increase, you mean."

Rylz flinched at my sharp, cutting words.

He looked at me with an expression that said, How does a child like this think this far ahead?

As a high-risk product seller, I must have looked like an easy target—a noble orphan who had just arrived from the countryside and seemed inexperienced.

But I had survived countless battles in the modern world. There was no way I'd fall for this.

"Adam."

At my call, he immediately opened the door and entered.

He fixed Rylz with a stern look.

"Please see the Hugobrint Bank employee out. And request that the bank change the trust manager. I can't leave my parents' assets in the hands of someone I can't trust."

"Ah... Miss...!"

Rylz's face went pale.

He hadn't expected me to go this far.

But I wasn't going to let a villain who tried to swindle a child get away with it!

"I was wrong. I won't make such dangerous recommendations again, so..."

"Adam, see him out."

Adam looked at me with admiring eyes at my decisiveness, then guided Rylz out.

"Understood. Please don't trouble the Miss any further and follow me right away."

"Miss!!"

It seemed the trust, even with its basic interest rate, gave him a considerable benefit. Judging by how regretful he looked.

I puffed out my cheeks slightly and stood up from my seat.

There was something I needed to check.

Time blurs memories.

When I was four years old and first realized I was a modern person inhabiting the body of Arinell Maila, a village girl, I began recording in this diary in Hangul.

Everything I had seen in I Will Stop Being the Tyrant's Mistress, and every line I could remember.

The timeline of events, the characters, the cause and effect, and the horrific future.

"...Heizen Machen Maila."

My finger, flipping through the diary written in worm-like cursive, stopped.

When I wrote this, I had naturally assumed that "Heizen Maila," the name my mother had told me, was just a coincidence with the same name.

After all—

...I thought the original novel's Heizen was Parmes's ex-girlfriend!

Dad, I'm sorry...

I raised my hand and smacked my forehead.

Anyway, the fact that I misunderstood was largely the author's fault for not clearly explaining who our dad was.

I focused my eyes and continued scanning through the diary.

There was nothing about my mother, and nothing about me.

The original novel was about the tyrant emperor Parmes and his mistress Amelia, so I hadn't even made it as an extra.

But still, the event that would happen in two years would inevitably affect me too.

According to the timeline I had recorded in my diary, two years from now, Parmes would ascend to the throne, and the famine would begin immediately.

Though for some reason, the original novel had changed, and Parmes had already ascended.

And... I found it.

"Aaaah!! No!!"

I reached out and grabbed my messy hair with both hands.

The reason I'd had a bad feeling the moment I heard the name Hugobrint was because of this!

The Hugobrint trust held one hundred million Bring that my father had deposited, and since I was a minor, I couldn't receive the money.

And in two years, when the famine began... my father's inheritance... Hugobrint Bank, where my one hundred million Bring was kept, would go bankrupt.

I couldn't just let this happen!

"You know, is there any way to find out who's in charge of the empire's food supply?"

Adam shrugged as if it were an unexpected question.

"If you mean food supply, that falls under the purview of the Economic Affairs Chancellor, Duke Siegfried."

"Sieg...fried?"

"Yes. His Excellency Duke Clyde Siegfried is a close friend of His Majesty the Emperor and oversees the nation's treasury and financial management. He comes from a prestigious noble family and wields immense power—he could shoot a bird out of the sky with a glance."

I opened my diary and looked up the Siegfried section.

In other words, he was a tyrant on par with Parmes Aslet.

Everyone around Parmes Aslet was cruel and merciless, and at the top of them all stood Clyde Siegfried.

Ugh, this situation is not good!

"...What's that?"

"Nothing. It's just... my study notes."

"It's impressive, Miss, that you're already taking notes and studying to rebuild the Marquisate."

Behind Adam, who was gazing at me with overly bright, moved eyes, I closed my diary. Someone so cruel and violent wouldn't listen to a child's prediction about a great famine coming in two years.

In fact, he might try to kill me. From what I saw in the original novel, he was a complete psychopath.

Meeting that man and persuading him would be difficult for now. I needed to think of another approach.

The famine was coming in two years.

The tragedy of the original novel. The tragedy of the common people. The tragedy of Albreon.

And my tragedy. The tragedy of my money.

Arinell Maila, who had lived in Galnem Village, had only been able to store red sugar beets to prepare for the famine.

But now, as the heir to the Marquisate, I thought I could do more to avoid the tragic future that only I knew about.

I didn't want to lose the inheritance my father left for me.

And... I didn't want to watch people die off one by one either.

But was there perhaps someone else who could help me?

The imperial palace's lofty sky garden.

"Hehehe! Have you heard the news?"

At the half-moon round table where the empire's four highest ministers gathered, three of the four seats were occupied.

The woman in a velvet dress covered her mouth with a fan and smiled.

"That child... has finally come to the capital."

"Ho. The day has finally come."

The massive man in armor placed his hands on the round table in excitement, and the table itself groaned with a creaking sound from the pressure alone.

"...Then"

The glasses of the man with the brown ponytail glinted in the sunlight.

His lips parted, and a dry voice emerged.

"...our war begins again."