Living as a Butler to the Northern Duke chapter 40

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What kind of fountain is the Herins Fountain?

Is it not the fountain adored by the people of the south, a place rich in love and romance, known for its dynamic sculpture of four bulls pulling a golden dragon chariot, created by the empire’s greatest sculptor to commemorate the founding of the empire?

Street musicians sing of love, wandering bards recite verses about life, and children, brimming with hope for tomorrow, toss coins into the fountain as they make their wishes!

And yet, some pervert appeared in such a place?

Such a person cannot be allowed to stay!

He must be caught immediately and taught a lesson, so that no other scoundrel would dare to disgrace the fountain of love and romance by behaving so outrageously!

He must be punished severely so that no one like him would ever set foot there again!

The head of the southern security squad stormed out of the station, snorting in anger at the thought of dragging the pervert by the collar. He pointed at his men as they followed him to the fountain.

When they arrived at the Herins Fountain, a crowd had already gathered, from the milkman delivering goods to children on their way to the library, all forming a circle, laughing at something on the ground.

‘There it is!’

The squad leader hurried over, waving his arms to push the crowd back.

“Move along! There’s a report we need to investigate.”

And there he saw it.

Naisen, the eldest son of the Herins Count family, lying sprawled out in front of the fountain, barely covered by a handkerchief over his most private parts.

“Ahem, hmm.”

‘We rushed here after receiving a report that a naked scoundrel was lying in front of the Herins Fountain, and it turns out to be the eldest son of the Herins Count family.’

Recognizing Naisen, the squad leader, Yulma, clicked his tongue in dismay and dismissed the crowd. He covered Naisen with a blanket and gently shook him awake.

But Naisen, likely from drinking and partying all night, didn’t wake up despite the commotion around him. He was in a deep, almost unconscious sleep.

Though the Yulma wanted to smack him awake and throw him in jail for a few days, he restrained himself.

Clicking his tongue again, he shook Naisen more firmly.

“Wake up, young master.”

When Naisen finally stirred, the squad leader heard something that made him want to scream.

“Huh? Where am I?”

With his eyes darting around, completely unaware of where he was lying, Naisen looked every bit the drunkard.

But that wasn’t all—he suddenly made matters worse, causing the squad leader to sigh deeply and shake his head.

“What? Wha—where’s my money? Where did all my money go?!”

Naisen, now wrapped in the blanket, frantically patted his body and jumped up, his eyes wild as he looked around and patted himself again.

He even began stomping his feet.

‘Did he eat poison? What kind of madness is this?’

Yulma grimaced as he witnessed Naisen’s small, disgraceful body part flopping out from beneath the blanket. He signaled to his men with his eyes.

‘Take him away.’

His men swiftly covered Naisen with the blanket and cuffed him.

“Wait, wait! My money’s gone! All the money I won last night!”

Naisen kept shouting at the top of his lungs as they led him away, but no one listened.

As the squad leader climbed onto his horse, cleaning out his ears, the men debated what to have for lunch while escorting Naisen.

“You! You guys stole it, didn’t you?! You took all my money! Give it back, you bastards! Let me go and give me my money back!”

Naisen, screaming all the way to the station, even began coughing from the strain, but still kept yelling about his money.

The squad leader threw Naisen into a solitary cell under the pretense of causing a disturbance at the station. Although it wasn’t a real prison, Naisen knew he was being detained. He kicked at the bars, shouting.

“Wa—wait a minute! Let me out! If I can just find my money, I’ll turn myself in! Let me out! My bag of gold coins is definitely lying somewhere near the fountain! I didn’t even have time to check because I was dragged away while half asleep! Please, please, let me out! My money! My mooooney!”

A bag? What bag?

He barely even had clothes on!

Having stayed up all night gambling, Naisen had dark circles under his eyes and was incoherent in his rambling.

The squad leader calmly observed Naisen’s outburst.

It seemed that he’d lost all his money while gambling, even his clothes, and was now too embarrassed to admit it, so he kept babbling on.

‘Naisen, who is notorious for bad luck, probably didn’t fare any better last night…’

Naisen’s strength seemed to be fading as he continued to kick the bars and demand to be released. Eventually, he slumped to the floor, gripping the bars and pulling at his hair.

The squad leader waited until Naisen, now teary-eyed, rubbed his face and then unlocked the cell, tapping Naisen on the shoulder.

“Tell me what happened. Let’s go to my office, Young Master Naisen.”

With that, the squad leader brought Naisen to his office, where they sat on a couch drinking tea.

As Naisen sat across from him, pulling at his hair, the tea in front of him went cold.

His light brown hair was being tugged out by the handfuls, but he seemed oblivious to the pain.

Yulma pushed the tea toward him.

Naisen shook his head.

All he could think about was the fortune that had slipped through his fingers like a mirage.

‘I’m sure I had a mountain of money last night! So much money!’

Naisen had rung the golden bell at the ‘The House of Fortune Blossoms with Happiness’ and continued playing even after the winning couple hadn’t left.

He rang the bell two more times after that.

People cheered, and Naisen basked in the attention, even giving Zen a generous bonus.

He left around 3 a.m., clutching a heavy bag filled with gold coins, waiting for the shop’s staff to call him a carriage.

Normally, he would have gone out with Sener, but Sener and his men had left a few days earlier, leaving a hole in the Count’s knighthood.

They had been the Herins family’s knights, but after taking the Northern Knight’s entrance exam, they left for the north without even saying goodbye.

‘You really can’t trust anyone.’

When Naisen heard the news, he pouted, but the Duke reassured him with a smile, offering to send Northern Knights to guard the Herins family.

But since bringing the Northern Knights to a gambling trip would have been awkward, Naisen went out alone.

The carriage provided by the gambling den came with reliable and skilled guards, making it trustworthy.

It was also more convenient for Naisen to go gambling alone.

And so, Naisen climbed into the carriage that had arrived in front of the gambling den, receiving a farewell from the staff, wishing him well and inviting him to return.

As the carriage sped away and the gambling den faded into the distance, Naisen looked out the window, then pulled the curtains shut.

He carefully covered even the smallest windows with blackout curtains.

Opening his bag, his fingers tingled with excitement, and his heart pounded wildly.

The bag was brimming with gold coins, shining so brightly they seemed to burst out of the bag.

“This isn’t a dream!”

Naisen murmured, pinching his cheek, and grabbed a gold coin. He put it in his mouth and bit down. The cold, metallic sensation was indescribably exhilarating.

“With this much money, it’s probably more than the annual budget of the Herins Count’s estate!”

Grinning widely, Naisen clutched a handful of coins. But as the carriage began to slow down, he zipped the bag tightly.

“We’ve arrived, Young Master.”

As expected, the carriage came to a stop.

Naisen stood up and brushed off his clothes.

After checking to make sure no coins had fallen, he opened the door and stepped out of the carriage.

He used the portable footstool attached to the carriage to step onto the ground.

But then, he froze. He tilted his head in confusion.

“This isn’t the Herins estate.”

Just as he felt a sense of unease about the empty field where the carriage stood, a powerful blow struck the back of his neck. It felt like being hit with a large stone.

“Ugh.”

With a short groan, Naisen collapsed forward, blinking his eyes.

His forehead hurt from being pressed into the rough, sandy ground, but the impact had been so strong that he couldn’t move his body.

Through his blurred vision, he could see a pair of shiny shoes.

He tried to lift his head to look up, but it was impossible. His vision darkened, and his consciousness faded.

When he opened his eyes again, he was in front of the Herins Fountain.

The bag he had been holding and the clothes he had been wearing were all gone.

“Even the money I had hidden inside my coat as checks, that’s all gone too!”

Naisen was devastated, as if he had just awoken from a summer night’s dream.

If it had been money he’d never had, he might have been able to move on, but the fact that the gold coins he had touched and bitten into had completely vanished left him utterly empty and at a loss for what to do.

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