I Ran Away And The Reverse Harem Started Chapter 134

“I’m sorry for dragging Daniel into my family’s problems. Strictly speaking, he didn’t need to get involved with either the Bullosen or the Louis side. He knows how exhausting trials are, and honestly, spending this time working on his business would probably be more profitable.”

“……”

“……That’s why I’m all the more grateful. Even though I must be unpleasant to you, you’re still helping me.”

“……”

“You could have kept hiding this evidence, but in the end you gave it to me. The truth is, Mr. Roan, you’re rooting for me, aren’t you? You want to see me take down Kazan Louis, don’t you?”

I glanced at Roan, then tugged at the corner of my lips.

His words might be blunt, but I could feel I wasn’t so hateful to him after all. Otherwise, why would this man—this businessman who prided himself on having neither blood nor tears—hand me such a decisive piece of evidence for my trial?

Unable to hold it in, I started to giggle. Roan’s expression gradually softened, though annoyance soon flickered in his gray-blue eyes as he squinted at me.

“Don’t fool yourself, Miss Jensen. I didn’t give it to you because I like you.”

“Wow, then is it because I’m cute?”

“It’s because your cheekiness annoys me.”

“You have the strangest taste……. And besides, I’m not Jensen anymore. I’m Bullosen!”

Roan turned away, pushing up his glasses as if my nonstop chatter wearied him. This time he wore spectacles with a chain, not his usual monocle.

“Where on earth did something like this even come from?”

As he pushed them up with his middle finger, the lenses caught the crimson candlelight.

Flash—my eyes stung for an instant, and a strange sense of déjà vu hit me.

‘Wait, come to think of it, that lawyer Yvette mentioned earlier, the one who gave her advice…….’

I lifted my head abruptly, staring at Roan in a daze, then quickly rifled through the stacked papers.

“That lawyer who’s close to Yvette, the one from Weising Town! Do you know her too?”

“I’ve seen her a few times in the capital. She’s famous. Why?”

“Do you know what she looks like? Anything distinctive?”

Roan looked startled by my sudden barrage of questions, but he answered them smoothly.

“Well, nothing much different from other lawyers.”

“Her hair color?”

“Black. And she wore glasses.”

“Does she have a daughter?”

“She has several children. I heard she has two daughters.”

“Then…… didn’t she and her husband co-sign the wrong guarantee? And now they’re drowning in debt, with even their children working hard to repay it?”

At my precise words, Roan’s brows shot upward.

“How did you know that? A few months ago, her husband, Günter Ons, signed a bad guarantee. Since then, the couple has been paying off huge debts. The eldest daughter is a lawyer, the younger works as a maid.”

“The surname is Ons……! And the younger daughter works as a maid?”

“Yes. The lawyer you mentioned is Matilda Ons of Weising Town.”

I almost shouted for joy. Memories came rushing back of something Mari had told me when I worked at the count’s estate.

“My mom is a genius in business disputes. Every firm in the capital is desperate to scout her.”

“Really? She must be very smart.”

“It’s not that—she’s a genius in another way.”

“In what way? Memory? Rhetoric?”

“She’s a genius at grinding her opponents down.”

Mari had said it while munching on a baguette stuffed with cheese.

Though she had to work far from the capital to earn money because of her parents’ situation, Mari had enormous respect for them—especially for her mother.

“She drags out civil trials for months, even years, wearing the other side thin. Few people have the patience to endure such long cases. In the end, the opponents always end up crying, begging for a settlement just to end the trial.”

“W-wow…… what an incredible person.”

“And she’s great at finding weaknesses or twisting things unfairly. Usually the other side just collapses.”

“Maybe someday if I ever need to sue someone, I’ll go straight to your mother. She sounds reassuring.”

“I’ll tell her right away.”

Finding weaknesses, twisting things unfairly, dragging trials out endlessly until the opponent breaks and begs for an end.

That was how Mari had described her mother.

And maybe—just maybe—Mrs. Matilda Ons could be the key to solving this problem. I started thinking as if I were Matilda herself.

‘What’s Rumiz’s weakness? For a dying woman, what’s the one thing she has left? If I can figure that out, maybe I can find a solution.’

How could I make Rumiz suffer as much as possible? How could I give her a torment deeper and harsher than death?

Then I remembered the family I had seen in Danten just days ago—Lynne’s family.

The words Uncle Hans had spoken as he hugged me tight:

“To a parent, a child is a treasure beyond anything else. Rosieta, you are our jewel.”

And that meeting with my father in broad daylight.

Even after twenty years apart, I could still feel the embrace he had given me. Warm, soft, overwhelming with emotions that welled up until I nearly cried.

Before long, the corners of my lips curved into a slow smile.

Still looking puzzled, Roan blinked as I suddenly burst out,

“I want to contact Mari—no, I want to meet this Matilda woman! Arrange it for tomorrow!”

 

 

****

 

 

 

The next day, I slipped out the back door to avoid the reporters camped in front of my house. I secretly took a small carriage to a quiet village café. I had asked Roan to pick a place where there wouldn’t be many people.

“Hello!”

I waved brightly in greeting. At that, two women sitting in the most secluded corner of the café stood up.

Both were strangers to me, but one of them felt strangely familiar.

Especially her features.

“You must be Mrs. Matilda!”

No wonder—it was because Matilda looked so much like Mari, as though they had been stamped from the same mold.

Round, rabbit-like eyes hidden behind glasses. Her features were small and neat, but she was much taller than me and gave off the presence of an adult brimming with composure.

She curved one side of her lips into a charming smile.

“You’re the one who sent me the letter, right? Said you were my daughter’s friend.”

“Yes, we worked together as maids at the Count’s estate. Did Mari ever talk about me?”

“Of course she did. Every time she wrote me a letter, she mentioned a kind older sister. How could I forget that? I was thinking I needed to thank you somehow one day. Never thought I’d be repaying you like this.”

So Mari had introduced me as her kind older sister. Had she even said that to her parents?

Hearing Matilda’s words made me miss the three people back at the Count’s domain. The next time I saw Mari, I’d smother her cheeks with kisses.

Just then, the woman standing opposite Matilda reached out for a handshake.

She was the prosecutor handling our case—and also Matilda Ons’s junior from the academy. What an incredible coincidence.

‘The fact that Ms. Wilhelmina is Matilda’s school junior is unexpected, but it works out well for me.’

I smiled broadly and shook her hand.

“Nice to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you. I’m Wilhelmina.”

“Hello. I’m sorry for calling you out when you must be so busy. I’m Rosieta… Bullosen. I’m still not used to the name Irene.”

At my words, Wilhelmina nodded lightly, showing she understood. Since she was the prosecutor in charge of my case, she already knew the background.

“Shall we sit?”

The three of us took seats and faced each other.

“I heard a little while investigating the case. That maid, Rumiz—she only has about three months left to live, correct?”

“Yes.”

“That’s unfortunate.”

I had only given the prosecutor a hint about Rumiz’s condition, thinking it wasn’t directly related to the trial.

In fact, the knowledge that she was terminally ill and soon to die could even work in her favor. A judge might pity her, and public sympathy might swing to her side. That was why we decided to keep it between us.

But none of us pitied that woman in the slightest. Instead, we were burning for the chance to condemn her.

“So, we all know why the three of us are here today.”

Matilda, speaking with lively energy, rummaged through her briefcase and pulled out a thick stack of papers.

“Senior, this is…”

Wilhelmina narrowed her eyes knowingly. She flipped through the documents a few times with clear reluctance before letting out a heavy sigh.

“This isn’t really my style, but….”

“There’s no other way, is there?”

“…Right.”

As the two women exchanged their cryptic remarks, I too leaned over to look at the documents. The densely written pages detailed the lives of two people: their hobbies, skills, workplaces, what they valued most, their reputations, where they lived, and even information about their spouses.

There were also sketches of their faces, drawn in rough strokes.

I traced the pictures with my fingertips. Faces that looked a little different from Rumiz, yet carried her likeness.

These two people were the dying woman’s only treasures.

And her only weakness.

I wanted to give Rumiz, who had inflicted an unhealable wound on my family, the ultimate revenge.
The kind that would draw no blood, that could be executed through the trial itself.

When Deborah and Daniel had caught her through the guild, Rumiz must have thought she had found her way out—thinking she could unburden her conscience and leave this world in peace.

But we would make her regret that deceptive decision.

“For now, let’s go through these files before it’s too late, and pick out any useful information. What we need to do is exaggerate the facts and twist them around. If the other side is going to play dirty, then we won’t fight with facts either! Understood?”

Matilda spoke with her shoulders bouncing, clearly excited.

Mari had once told me that her mother looked the most delighted when she was tormenting an opponent or digging up their weaknesses. That didn’t seem far from the truth.

Wilhelmina shook her head at her words, but in the end she too began poring through the documents.

And so, in that quiet café, the three of us bent our heads together over the files and found a way to strike Rumiz.

Through her two children.