Angelina had decided that money was far more satisfying when it was spent as actual cash, so she had exchanged several of her checks for gold coins.
"...!"
"Is that enough?"
The thugs froze at the sight of such an untouchable amount of money.
Their leader, however, unable to overcome his greed, stammered,
"T-That's... still not enough."
Hearing his trembling voice, Angelina calmly reached into her magic pouch again, grabbed another handful of gold coins, and tossed them onto the ground.
Another pile worth dozens of shillings clattered down.
"How about this?"
The thugs merely swallowed nervously without answering.
"Hm."
Angelina let out a thoughtful hum.
"Still not enough?"
Then, without another word, she turned the magic pouch upside down.
Clink! Clink! Clink!
Dozens...
Hundreds...
Gold coins poured out like a waterfall, quickly forming a glittering mountain across the alley floor.
As the pile grew higher and higher, the thugs' mouths slowly fell open.
Eventually, their faces turned completely pale.
Only after the pouch was finally empty did Angelina glance at the mountain of coins, now reaching nearly to her waist, and sigh softly.
"Still no answer. I suppose it's still not enough?"
She spoke indifferently before extending her hand toward Holly once more.
Holly immediately handed over another magic pouch.
The moment its opening was loosened, more gleaming gold became visible inside.
Seeing that, the thugs finally panicked.
"S-Stop!"
Their original plan had simply been to exaggerate the amount stolen, squeeze out a nice payout, and call it a lucky day.
But they had never seen this much money in their lives.
More terrifying still was the woman casually dumping mountains of gold as if it meant absolutely nothing.
Instinct screamed at them.
They had picked a fight with someone they absolutely should never have touched.
"Please! Stop! We beg you!"
The leader shouted desperately.
"Oh?"
Angelina blinked.
"So this is the right amount."
She sounded almost delighted, as though she had finally discovered the proper compensation.
"That's quite an impressive sum to lose from a single pickpocket."
She wore a gentle smile.
Yet her words made it perfectly clear she knew they had been lying from the very beginning.
Now she folded her arms and calmly watched them.
The leader swallowed hard.
"W-Who..."
Who exactly had they provoked?
Just then, one of the men pointed frantically at Laura's apron.
"H-Hey! T-That emblem...!"
The alley had been dark before, but the mountain of gold reflected enough light for the embroidered crest to become clearly visible.
The three men inhaled sharply at the same time.
"T-The Floberts...!"
It was the silver dragon crest—the symbol of House Flobert.
Only then did they realize who she was.
Marquis Ante Flobert frequently visited the capital, but Angelina rarely left the estate, so it wasn't particularly strange that they hadn't recognized her.
However...
Failing to recognize her didn't excuse their rudeness.
"P-Please forgive us!"
All three immediately threw themselves to the ground.
Through members of their own organization, they already knew exactly what happened to anyone who offended Marquis Ante Flobert.
Surely his sister wouldn't be any different.
"Forgive you? Why would I need to forgive anyone just for getting back the money that was stolen from me?"
Angelina's response only terrified them further.
They had already been exposed as liars.
But admitting it now wasn't exactly an option either.
Unable to move or speak, they simply stood there trembling.
Angelina sighed deeply and waved her hand dismissively.
"Just go."
The three men looked up with wide eyes.
Based on the punishments their comrades had received from the marquis, they had expected to lose at least their tongues.
But...
She was simply letting them leave?
Was this some kind of trap?
What if they ran away now only to have their legs cut off later?
Their minds spun in confusion.
But Angelina truly meant it.
Cruel punishments had never even crossed her mind.
More importantly, carefully sorting through every lie and deciding on an appropriate sentence simply sounded exhausting.
She couldn't be bothered.
Reporting the incident to the city guards later and telling them to keep an eye on these men would be enough.
"However..."
She smiled faintly.
"If I catch you again, you can expect a punishment equal to the weight of all the gold I just dropped."
The color drained from their faces.
A punishment equal to that weight...
They felt as though even having all four limbs severed wouldn't be enough.
"W-We're sorry!!"
The thugs fled with all the speed they could muster.
Watching them disappear, Holly huffed indignantly.
"Hmph! You should've at least punched them once before letting them go! How dare they stare directly at you like that, Miss!"
"Is that why you tied them up with such... spicy air?"
"Ah! You noticed? Hehe."
Unable to tolerate the disrespectful way they looked at Angelina, Holly had quietly wrapped their faces in a faint poisonous magic.
It wasn't enough to endanger their lives, but it certainly carried a malicious sting.
"Don't overdo it. It'll only make things troublesome."
At Angelina's gentle reprimand, Laura quietly slipped the shuriken she had already drawn halfway out of her sleeve back into hiding.
Naturally...
Angelina noticed none of it.
"Anyway."
She looked around at the gold coins scattered across the alley.
"I only ended up making more work for everyone. Sorry."
She handed the magic pouch back to Holly.
"It's no trouble at all!"
Drawing a small circle in the air with her finger, Holly activated her magic.
The scattered gold coins instantly floated off the ground and streamed back into the pouch one after another.
"This is nothing!"
Watching Holly effortlessly perform such advanced magic while cheerfully insisting that Angelina should simply do whatever she pleased, Angelina couldn't help but admire her.
She had heard that if Holly hadn't constantly caused accidents during her apprenticeship, she would have become the fastest-promoted prodigy in the Magic Tower's history.
But this was the first time Angelina had actually seen her use magic properly.
No wonder my brother was so proud of her.
She recalled how delighted Ante had been when assigning Holly as her personal guard, saying he had finally found someone worthy of the position.
His beaming smile had been rather adorable.
Thinking back on that memory, Angelina chuckled softly before turning her gaze toward the hooded man.
He had silently observed everything from beginning to end.
"No matter how frustrated you get, drawing your sword first is a bad habit."
She was referring to how he had immediately tried to unsheathe his weapon.
"One day you might run into someone stronger than you and end up paying dearly for it. You should be more careful."
He had reached for his sword without the slightest hesitation.
That suggested he had considerable confidence in his own abilities.
Angelina assumed he was probably a knight or a mercenary.
Perhaps he had simply wanted to play the hero by beating up a few thugs.
But this world was filled with stronger people.
Unless you're the male lead—the Empire's greatest swordsman.
Even someone like him might not be guaranteed victory against the Master of the Magic Tower.
There was no harm in being cautious.
Though none of that really matters to someone who's terminally ill like me.
Remembering that she'd probably die long before ever meeting such powerful people left her feeling strangely irritated.
She lightly tapped the blank check still tucked inside her clothes to comfort herself.
"Well then, try not to run into people like them again."
She turned to leave.
"Wait."
Had the hooded man not called out to her, she would have walked away.
The moment he spoke, a glowing magic circle quietly formed at Holly's fingertips.
At the same time, another shuriken slid from Laura's sleeve.
Of course...
Angelina noticed neither.
She stopped and turned back toward him.
Yet after staring at him for quite some time, he remained silent.
"If you have something to say, then say it. Whatever it is, I'm willing to hear you out."
Assuming he was simply nervous about speaking to her, Angelina encouraged him to relax.
"I have a favor to ask."
"Go ahead."
"I know it's shameless to ask something like this when we've only just met... but since fate brought us together today, I'd like to be bold enough to ask anyway."
As his long-winded introduction dragged on, Angelina frowned slightly.
Just what kind of favor requires such an elaborate preface?
"What is it?"
Urged to get to the point, the man slowly removed his hood.
The moment his face was revealed, Angelina's eyebrows lifted slightly.
He's handsome.
Messy black hair, dark as the deepest night, framed a face with striking blue eyes as deep as the sea itself.
Even a sapphire jewel might not have been as beautiful.
Still... not as handsome as my brother.
His appearance was more than enough to captivate most people.
But Angelina had spent her entire life looking at Ante.
Although this was the first time she had ever thought another man besides her brother was handsome, the admiration faded almost immediately.
No matter how breathtaking the man before her might be, in Angelina's eyes, the only truly unfairly handsome man in the world was still her beloved older brother.
