I Was Told to Drink Poison, So I Drank It - 5 - The Seven Million Pound Ring
The office of the royal castle of Victoire.
Henry was working on documents.
However, most of the documents he was reviewing were related to Chalize. Even after reading the materials, he couldn’t grasp the full picture.
As he sighed and skimmed through the papers, the door suddenly opened without a knock.
“Henry!! I heard it! The temple is asking for money again…!!”
Stella, who had grabbed the hem of her dress and hurried in, made Henry look up. Then, he let out a tired sigh.
“That matter… Can’t it wait? I have a lot of work piled up.”
As he tried to cut off Stella’s words, she became angry.
Bang!! She slammed the desk.
Several documents flew due to the impact.
Shocked by her rough behavior, Henry looked at her in surprise.
Stella, looking distressed, spoke rapidly.
“What should we do…? I’ll write a letter to my father. I’ll ask him to prepare some money.”
“Huh? What are you saying? Giving money to the temple isn’t that big of an issue. Why are you so flustered?”
“That’s…!!”
Stella suddenly fell silent, unable to continue.
At that moment, there was a knock at the office door.
The sound made Stella jump in surprise.
Ignoring her reaction, Henry granted permission to enter.
A man, one of the king’s close aides, entered the room.
He glanced briefly at Stella before bowing deeply.
“Your Majesty, I apologize for interrupting your conversation.”
“What is it?”
“This is an invoice that arrived yesterday.”
A single document was handed to Henry.
When he looked at it, his eyes widened.
“…Seven million pounds!?”
It was a record of the purchase of a seven-million-pound ring, written in the handwriting of Queen Stella of Victoire.
Stella turned pale and shouted.
“N-No!! That’s not right! I was told it was seven hundred thousand pounds! But when I signed it, it said seven million…!!”
The aide gave Stella a reproachful look before calmly asking Henry a question.
“What will you do?”
“Do…? There’s no way we can pay! The number of magical beasts has suddenly increased, and we’ve already given a large sum to the temple. Cancel the transaction immediately…”
“That is impossible. The transaction has already been completed. The queen’s signature is here as well.”
“No! This is a lie! It’s fraud!! This should be invalid!!”
Stella made a fuss, but neither Henry nor the aide responded.
As they remained silent with grim expressions, Stella clung to them desperately.
“H-Hey. Isn’t there something we can do? This was a mistake… Henry, you’re the king, right? You should be able to erase this…”
“If it were a shop in Victoire, that might have been possible… Unfortunately, the seller is a traveling merchant from the neighboring Arcana Empire. Applying pressure on them without permission would be… And there is also the signature.”
“W-What does a signature matter!? We can just say someone else wrote it. Yes, let’s find a scapegoat. If we do that…”
“There will be a handwriting analysis. If it is confirmed to be the queen’s handwriting, she will be severely accused of lying.”
The aide answered indifferently, and Stella’s face went pale as if the bl00d had drained from her body.
She never thought things would turn out like this. She had signed it as if it were just another purchase.
If it had really been seven hundred thousand pounds, it wouldn’t have been such a big problem.
The treasury of Victoire was running low, but tax revenue from the citizens came in regularly.
She thought it would be fine to use some of that money. Henry had also turned a blind eye to her shopping.
And yet…
“N-No… No…!”
Stella’s voice trembled.
Her face had gone beyond pale and was now ashen.
Shivering, she held her head and crouched down.
“No!! I’m leaving this country!!”
“Stella!?”
“No, never!! I won’t be executed like my sister…!! I’m a commoner! I have no responsibility!!”
“What are you saying!? You are the queen of this country!!”
“I don’t know! I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know!!”
Stella kept repeating the same words as she ran out of the room.
The royal guards hurriedly chased after her.
As Henry stood in shock, the aide spoke to him.
“…What will you do?”
Regaining his senses, Henry answered in a low voice.
“…For now, let’s ask the temple for help. We’ve supported them plenty in the past. They should lend a hand when we’re in trouble.”
Henry spoke calmly and sat back down in his chair.
The aide said nothing, but his eyes were filled with doubt as he looked at the king.
Would the temple really help them?
The temple was also in a difficult situation.
Due to a shortage of holy maidens, they couldn’t even purify magical energy properly, let alone defeat magical beasts.
The selfish temple would never help the royal family.
But if the king commanded it, the aide had no choice but to obey.
He bowed respectfully and left the office.
And then—his prediction came true.
Henry had been naive. Far too naive.
The temple, which had enjoyed so much wealth, had no intention of helping the royal family in its time of need.
Instead, they quickly made Stella’s seven-million-pound ring purchase public and declared that the temple had nothing to do with it.