He collected information. He listened to the strategic plans. He passed on what he knew to that officer from the Aristocratic Party for a sum of money every six months.
But he could not help himself when he saw how much the Merveilles were earning from just the Northern fief alone. Surely, they would not notice it if he tweaked the accounts a little? Anyway, he was the person in charge of distributing the salaries and organising the budget. He had every little detail grasped in his hands. No one would suspect a thing, as long as he dealt with things properly.
He thought of a genius way to earn from the Merveilles, who probably had too much money to spend. He would falsify the profit margin in the books and take for himself any excess profits. No one would check the books as long as the fief was still profiting.
For the people he hired to tend to the farms, he would hike up their salaries in the books but take away part of it for himself. No one would know as long as the actual salary was not conveyed to the workers.
As the money came rolling in, Din Mallory thought that he was a genius.
But he did not know that everything would come crashing down faster than he could ever imagine.
…
"Din Mallory. Please introduce yourself as part of the interview."
The pretty lady with a silver mask said dully. Din Mallory thought that the famous Libitina Merveille was nothing much but a little girl who wanted to play manager, and the Marquis had generously allowed her to play around. She even had a few jewels on the table, as if to show off.
If Din Mallory had a choice, he would sell those jewels for a pretty penny. Still, he humbled himself on the outside and gave the lady an ingratiating smile.
"Hello, my name is Din Mallory. I am the acting manager in charge of the Northern fief of the Merveille's territory. Pleased to meet you."
Still, his eyes could not help but turn to the jewels which sparkled sensually under the light.
"Now, Din Mallory, I am going to ask you some questions on the conditions of the fields and the production."
"Yes, please go ahead." Din Mallory sat up straighter and smiled with confidence. Inside, he looked down on the little girl, but this also fuelled his belief that he could answer anything the ignorant young lady asked.
The little lady didn't know enough.
Even if she asked questions, he could throw in some jargon and she would be thrown off. What could she know at age nineteen? Don't look down at his experience and age!
The young lady flipped through a folder on the table that was filled with charts. She probably did not understand anything written on it, because it was full of information on fields, graphs on the soil acidity and so on, Mallory laughed to himself on the inside.
"Firstly, sales seems to be quite steady, so good job."
"Yes, we have all been working very hard."
"I really appreciate it. Ah, it seems that the salaries of employees are taking up a huge portion of the budget. Is this normal?"
"Yes, we need to take care of the welfare of the employees, and recent times have been hard. There was a small increase."
"I see. Oh, I heard that there was a batch of contract workers. Can I see the book documenting their wages?"
"…Yes, of course! I will call someone to get them for you." He called an employee from outside the office room to fetch the documents. When Libitina pretended to play with her jewels, he winked at the employee a few times.
A few minutes later, the employee reported that the records were missing. Din Mallory put on a shocked face. "How could that be? Lady Merveille, I will definitely find out who has been careless. However, the records are missing, perhaps you would like to ask other questions first?"
Libitina nodded, but the strange expression in her eyes made Din Mallory uneasy.
"Yes, let us look at this then."
She took out a thick folder from beside her and laid it on the table, frowning doubtfully at him, but Mallory thought he saw a mischievous glint danced across her dark eyes.
"It seems you have lost your records. Lucky for you I have some backup. Let's read them together, shall we?