Tomorrow morning, seizure seals would be affixed to the Riorden estate.
If they could not pay, the estate's doors, the warehouse locks, and even the boundary stones of the vineyard would belong to someone else.
The moment the seals were affixed, the people would change as well.
The servants would become servants of another household, the family would become mere appendages to a debtor, and the barony's name would no longer be a nameplate, but the first line of a seizure list.
And the first thing the creditors wanted to take was not gold.
A bundle of old supply contracts.
Documents that, once the family had fallen, would not even be worth scrap paper.
Yet red letters floated above that wastepaper before Kael's eyes.
Claimable.
Unpaid supply payment.
Target: Grayden Military Supply Depot.
The document was a manifest of the food and medicine the Riorden Barony had supplied to the imperial army during the Eastern War. Riorden had provided them in advance, the imperial army had taken them, and the payment had yet to be made.
The letters were not ink. They did not smudge when he pressed the document with his fingertips, and they did not vanish when he drew his hand away.
Only he could see them.
Kael stared at the document for a long time.
The final ledger of his previous life.
Settlement error.
Retrial granted.
And now.
He slowly steadied his breath.
Confusion could wait.
The ledger came first.
In his previous life, Kael had been an imperial Treasurer.
He had handled the Empire's treasury and war budget, signed imperial orders, and known the secret accounts of countless nobles.
Even so, he had died.
He had stood at the center of power, yet in the end, he had not been able to free even one chain.
Now he was far weaker than he had been then. He was a nineteen-year-old heir to a barony on the verge of collapse, standing among his sick father, exhausted mother, frightened siblings, and servants who had not received their wages.
Even without looking in a mirror, his changed body felt unfamiliar. He had a young face, pale skin from the fever that had wracked him through the night, and unkempt dark brown hair. He was not short, but his build was closer to that of a nobleman who had spent long hours at a desk than a warrior.
Only his grayish eyes did not belong to a nineteen-year-old.
Pretending to be strong would get him killed.
If he lacked the strength to stop a blade, he had to make drawing one a losing move.
Kael moved another document aside.
Keep it to yourself, and it is a weakness.
Put it on the record, and it becomes a debt.
Kael sorted the documents on the desk one by one. Notes for borrowed money, contracts that put the land up as collateral, documents for guarantee payments they had not received, and records of money borrowed from merchant companies.
In his previous life, he had looked at this ledger and reached a conclusion.
Recovery was impossible.
The Riorden Barony was finished.
That judgment had not been wrong when based on an ordinary ledger. Cash had run dry, and the estate and some of the land were about to be taken in place of their debts. The creditors were already preparing the seizure.
But this time, the ledger looked different.
Only faint figures rose over most of the debts. The amount, the interest, and the repayment deadline. Nothing more.
Yet a few documents bore red lines.
Especially the supply document he had just examined.
Kael set it aside.
Seventh Eastern War Supply Manifest.
Advance payment by the Riorden Barony.
Three thousand sacks of food.
Twenty-seven wagons.
One hundred and twelve medicine crates.
Eighty bundles of iron repair tools.
Imperial Army Eastern Quartermaster Office: inspection complete.
Payment withheld.
It meant the payment had yet to be made.
Beneath it was a seal that Kael had also seen in his previous life.
Administrative expiration pending.
It meant the deadline had passed and that the matter would be treated as though it had never existed.
In his previous life, Kael had seen that one line and closed the document. Old unpaid military funds were, in effect, dead claims, and nineteen-year-old Kael, who had been preparing for the Central Treasury Office examination, had no time to revive such an old document.
Now he knew the result.
The family fell apart.
His father died in his sickbed.
His mother went from creditor to creditor until the very end.
Ria was sent away like collateral.
Ian was placed on a soldier's roster, then returned as a supply shortage casualty.
Kael closed his eyes, then opened them.
This time, he would not process them as numbers.
"Young Master."
An old voice sounded from outside the door.
Kael turned the document over and covered it.
"Come in."
The door opened, and Edric Valen entered. He was the butler of the Riorden Barony and an old accounting officer who had once overseen the family's ledgers.
In his previous life, Kael had remembered him as a stubborn old man.
Now, he saw him differently.
Edric was not old. He was a man who had endured for a long time.
"You should still be resting. Your fever was high last night as well."
"I'm fine now."
"You do not look fine."
Edric's gaze fell upon the desk.
"You have examined the family ledgers."
"Yes."
"I will organize them."
His tone was respectful, but the meaning was clear.
Do not touch them, Young Master.
Kael looked at Edric.
In his previous life, he would have been offended. He would have thought that the butler was disregarding the heir.
But now, he understood.
Edric did not trust Kael.
And he had every reason not to.
"Where is the original of the Seventh Eastern War Supply Manifest?"
The wrinkles around Edric's eyes tightened slightly.
"What do you mean, Young Master?"
"Not a copy. The original with the imperial order attached. This ledger only confirms that the imperial army received the supplies. It does not say why they were never paid for."
Edric did not answer.
Kael continued.
"There will be a locked ledger chest that Father sealed himself. Not in the library, but in the storage compartment behind the southern fireplace. The library of the Riorden estate leaks when it rains."
Edric's expression changed completely.
"How did you know that?"
Because he had seen it far too late in his previous life.
After the family had already been dismantled, he had once seen part of Riorden's supply manifest in a pile of discarded documents at the Central Treasury Office.
He had passed it by then, too.
This time, he would not.
"The ledger told me."
"Ledgers do not speak."
"Just because they do not speak does not mean they reveal nothing."
Silence stretched between them.
Edric looked at the ledger on the desk. Then he looked at Kael.
"I am glad to hear that you are looking at the ledgers, Young Master."
His voice remained stiff.
"But ledgers choose the people who read them as well."
"So that is why you do not trust me."
"I have not yet found a reason to trust you."
Kael liked that answer.
"Then I will let you find one today."
The corridor grew noisy.
A woman's voice.
It was calm, but weary.
"Not now. The Baron is not in any condition to receive visitors."
Selena Riorden.
Kael's mother.
The last letter she had sent in his previous life contained a sentence like this.
Dignity does not put food on the table, Kael.
At the time, he had thought it a shabby kind of realism.
Now, he knew that his mother had been the first person in the Riorden family to see reality.
"Is Mother meeting with creditors?"
Edric's expression darkened.
"Someone has come from the Beltran Guild. They call it a final negotiation before the formal seizure."
"Marco Beltran?"
"Only a representative came today. Marco Beltran notified us that he will come tomorrow. The Eastern Administrative Office will attend as well."
Eastern Administrative Office.
Kael immediately recalled one name.
Orban Gray.
The regional Treasurer who had processed the supply payment owed to the Riorden family as though it had never existed in his previous life.
Red lines rippled across the ledger on the desk. A faint trace ran between the debt contract bearing Marco Beltran's name and the office confirmation signed by Orban Gray.
Behind them was the emblem of a noble house, still indistinct.
Kael would not have known in his previous life.
Now, he could see it.
"Tomorrow."
Kael spoke quietly.
"Good. They will save us time."
Edric narrowed his eyes.
"Young Master, this is a seizure enforcement. There is nothing good about it."
"Seizure is only possible when the other party has a legitimate right."
"They have a contract."
"A paper that looks like a debt is not always legitimate. Sometimes, a paper that looks like a debt is actually an invoice that should be paid to us."
Then light footsteps sounded.
A child's face appeared through the gap in the door.
"Brother?"
Ian Riorden.
Twelve years old.
In a report from his previous life, he had been number 418 on the Eastern conscription death list.
For a moment, Kael could not breathe.
Without knowing any of that, Ian looked at the ledger on the desk.
"Are you looking at ledgers too now, Brother?"
Kael could not answer.
Ian hesitated a little before asking.
"Can things that are not in a ledger be debts too?"
A child's questions were always crueler than a ledger.
"They can."
"Then do you have a debt to us too?"
There were debts from his previous life that he had not repaid.
There were too many.
"I do."
"How much?"
"Enough to take a lifetime to repay."
Ian's eyes widened, then he gave a faint smile.
"Then you have to live a long time."
Edric cleared his throat.
"Young Master Ian, saying that one should live a long time in front of a ledger is a fine thing, but you must not come close to the ink bottle."
Ian immediately hid his hands behind his back.
"I did not spill it on purpose last time."
"The tablecloth would like to believe that as well."
Kael did not answer. Instead, his breath eased very slightly.
Yes.
This time, they had to live a long time.
Ian too.
From below in the corridor, Selena's voice sounded again.
"I cannot accept those terms. Taking the Riorden estate and the western warehouse together as collateral is not a negotiation, but plunder."
An unfamiliar man's voice followed.
"Madam, plunder is a harsh word. We are merely informing you of the legitimate rights afforded to us by the contract."
Kael closed the ledger.
Ian looked up at him and asked cautiously.
"Brother, where are you going?"
"To meet the creditors."
Edric spoke urgently.
"Young Master, it would be better not to step forward yet. When Marco Beltran comes in person tomorrow, you can act as the Baron's representative then..."
"No."
Kael lifted the supply document.
"Tomorrow will be too late. They came today to see whether we were frightened."
"What are you going to say?"
Kael looked once more at the red letters on the document.
Claimable.
This claim was still alive.
"Edric."
"Yes."
"Bring me the original imperial order from the storage compartment behind the southern fireplace. The seal must be unbroken."
Edric looked at Kael for a moment.
"Do you truly believe it is there?"
"I do not believe."
Kael opened the door.
"I am confirming it."
Below the stairs, the creditors' representative was smiling. It was the smile of a man who believed that his opponent was already finished.
Faint red letters surfaced above that smile.
Illegal fees.
Forged guarantee.
And behind them, one name followed.
Marco Beltran.
Kael held the banister and slowly descended the stairs.
Today was only the preview.
The real seizure would come tomorrow.
That meant he could send the real invoice tomorrow as well.
If the writ of seizure arrived first, the house would be taken.
If the invoice went first, the game would change.
The creditors' representative raised his head.
"Ah, Young Master Kael. Are you feeling a little better?"
Kael looked down at him.
"Thanks to you."
"Tomorrow, the guildmaster himself will come. The Eastern Administrative Office will attend as well. Today, we only wish to help Madam make a realistic decision..."
"A realistic decision."
Kael lightly shook the supply document in his hand.
"A good phrase. I will make one tomorrow as well."
The representative's smile wavered a little.
"What do you mean?"
Kael did not answer.
His gaze rested on the list of prospective seized assets the representative had brought.
The estate.
The western warehouse.
The southern vineyard.
A bundle of old supply contracts.
Red letters floated above the last entry.
Attempted seizure of rights.
Target: connection pending.
Kael smiled quietly.
Now it began.
A beginning far too late.
Those who came to seize the family believed that they had come to collect a debt.
But tomorrow, they would learn.
The greatest debtor in this estate was not Riorden.