Obviously, It’s My Child - Chapter 104

Chapter 104

Translator: Effe

Editor: Yonnee

—

Claire thought that the Levi Times reporter couldn’t have been at the opera for purely investigative purposes.

Pine caterpillars eat pine needles and sparrows cannot pass by a mill. It was clear the Levi Times would pursue the scandals about the flower of society over drug dealers, who had noblemen backing them.

Erich let out a low sigh.

“Tough times will come for the Count.”

There was a thought swirling around, but it wasn’t clearly concrete. Claire stood up and approached Erich’s desk.

“Show me the ledger.”

Erich opened the desk drawer. Because it was important, he kept it directly in his desk.

Claire opened the ledger. It was a supply ledger of lotus leaf cigarettes. Most of them had names of places written on them. This meant that Borjans’ organization had moved to become an intermediary supplier.

Claire recognized those places—they were all from the Arren region. And further beyond the places’ names, the name of a theater company that’s named in the Arren style. Most of these troupes are probably active in the Arren region.

That was the sense of discomfort that Claire felt.

“Is this all there is in the ledger?”

“That’s something I have to ask you.”

“I looked through all the ledgers in the drawer and wondered why there were only half of them. But I don’t think Borjans are smart enough to keep the ledgers in different rooms.”

Claire said, shaking her head. Then she quickly turned over the ledger and found the second part that struck her as odd.

“Most of the documents contain only affiliations with Arren, but the reason I chose this one was because it was summarized by region. Erich, do you think drug dealers only supply drugs to certain areas? Then adjusting the supply by region?”

“There is a head at the top, then the middle supplier is divided into two and manages it. It’s a reasonable way to operate.”

“But this also includes some of the Rommel region. These are all places where nobles of the Arren lineage acquired territory in the land of Rommel through marriage or inheritance.”

When it got to this point, Erich couldn’t deny the conclusion that came naturally to him.

If the region is divided into two places, it is natural to base it on geography.

However, it seemed clear that this division was between Arren and Rommel.

“I don’t think this was written by Borjans. There must have been an order from the top to do this.”

Then, this was undoubtedly a political issue.

“You know what I’m thinking, right?”

When Claire asked, Erich nodded silently.

“If that’s true, it explains why it’s the Schneider County.”

“Because the Schneider County is a completely non-political family.”

“And then there’s the image of Miss Iris. The flower of society, the soloist of Sanctus Populi, and the prima donna of the opera house. Miss Iris is very famous, so no one would associate her with a faction or conflict.”

In an age where everything is done through referrals and connections, knowing everyone’s name meant having tremendous credibility.

Combining it with Iris’ image, most people would not be hostile.

Even if one was an Arren who hates the Rommel nobles, Iris’s fame came not from being Count Schneider’s daughter, but from being a great singer.

Thinking about it, it’s surprising that the rumors attached to her birth were cleanly separated from herself.

She was the count’s child, who was born out of wedlock with an opera singer and herself became a singer. It was a situation where it was easy for people to talk about it in any number of obscene ways.

But nothing like that was being actively said about Iris.

This certainly had the Empress’s hand on it. This is not something Countess Schneider, who had no ties to the social world, could accomplish alone.

“Countess Schneider will be dealing with drugs with Miss Iris in front of her.”

This would also explain why Thomas Borjans said that there would even be a spark coming for Iris.

In this day and age, where there was less aversion to drugs, there would be people who would take it just because it was given to them by someone around Iris.

In the end, it was not wrong to think that Countess Schneider would use Iris.

“Based on this alone, we cannot be sure that the Empress is trying to destroy Arren.”

“Of course we need to do more research. But the logic feels right to me now. I kept wondering why the Empress used Countess Schneider.”

One reason was that Iris was actually talented, which allowed her to become the prima donna. But another reason was that the Countess was someone who had many weaknesses.

If she would like to use and throw things away, this type of partner was convenient.

“There’s just one thing I don’t understand—if Stefan Heinz is also the Empress’ lackey, why does she want to get rid of Thomas Borjans? It doesn’t make sense to hand over such threatening information to me because of internal competition.”

“Probably because you were not supposed to get out of there alive,” Erich said. “If you had died there, Borjans wouldn’t be left alone. The opera house could have ended without any information being revealed.”

“That would put Stefan Heinz himself at risk.”

“There are very few people in this world who would first properly think about the consequences of their actions before moving forward.”

Erich’s words were dripping with sarcasm.

Claire didn’t think that made sense. Stefan Heinz was in the same industry as Johann Krozik. There was no way someone handling information would be so thoughtless.

When she said that, Erich clicked his tongue.

“Who says he’s an information agent? Drugs make money.”

“Do you really mean that the Empress is taking drug dealers under her wing simply for money?”

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