Creditor comes to your house (repair)

In the Viscount's mansion, Elena rejected Eli's self-righteous concession.

"No, uncle, I still want to try it myself." Elena refused coldly.

Don't know what's good for you!

Eli's expression changed again, and he glared at Elena: "Elena, do you know what you are doing? Do you know what the consequences will be if you refuse my help?"

Elena looked at him directly without any fear: "I know."

Elena and Eli glared at each other, neither of them backing down, and the atmosphere was temporarily deadlocked.

The relatives who were watching were at a loss. They wanted to help Eli, but they didn't want to offend Elena. One of them was the second heir and the other was the first heir. Neither of them could be offended by them, the side branches without inheritance rights. In fact, the reason they dared to speak for Eli was because Elena was a girl. She didn't have any outstanding qualities and looked easy to bully. But unexpectedly, she had a very tough temper.

The collateral relatives were all bullies who only cared about the weak and feared the strong. When they saw Elena was about to fight with Eli, they looked at each other. Not wanting to step into the trap, they simply hid aside and pretended to be cowards.

Just when the atmosphere was at a stalemate, a male servant came in and said something to the butler. The butler frowned, thought for two seconds, and then walked towards Elena, the owner of the Viscount's Mansion.

"Miss, there is someone outside the castle who wants to see you. He says he is Master Joyce's friend." The butler said in a low voice.

"My brother's friend?" Elena's mind raced.

"According to the visitor, Master Joyce owes him some money." The butler's voice was very low.

Elena's mood became even worse.

Eli is trying to seize power here, and another debt collector comes outside?

The timing is so coincidental, could it be that both sides are in cahoots?

Elena glared at Eli with an unpleasant look.

"Let him in." Elena still wanted to know the real purpose of the visitor.

"yes."

"Wait," Elena ordered, "invite him to the tea room."

Soon, Elena saw the visitor in the tea room. He was a tall man with a thick beard.

"This is the young lady of our Viscount's Mansion, the younger sister of Master Joyce. You can tell her the purpose of your visit." The old butler introduced to the man.

After hearing this, the man handed an IOU directly to Elena.

"Joyce hired me to protect him for a while while he was serving in Padres Prairie. Apart from the deposit he had already paid, he still owed me 80 gold coins."

80 gold coins!

Elena was screaming in her heart. As far as she knew, there were only 35 gold coins in the Viscount's account.

The butler then brought out Joyce's private seal and a verification stamp. The imprint of Joyce's private seal matched the imprint on the IOU exactly. The verification stamp was a magical item that could verify whether the handwriting on the IOU was written by Joyce himself. After comparison, the handwriting matched.

The IOU was indeed written by Joyce himself.

Joyce did owe 80 guineas.

Damn, Elena wants to curse.

This guy must be in cahoots with Eli, coming up with such a killer move at this time.

"I wonder who the guest is?" A voice suddenly sounded, and an uninvited guest walked into the tea room. It was Eli.

Elena turned to look at Eli and narrowed her eyes slightly.

Eli looked at the bearded man with a smile: "I heard that you are a friend of my nephew Joyce? I am Joyce's uncle, welcome." He stated his identity as soon as he opened his mouth and put himself in the position of an elder.

The bearded man looked at Elena.

Elena nodded reluctantly.

The bearded man then turned to Eli: "Hello, good day."

"I wonder what you're talking about, Joyce?" He asked, but Eli's eyes had already glanced at the IOU on the table. Although he was far away and couldn't see the contents clearly, Eli believed based on his intuition that it was an important item.

The bearded man said frankly, "I'm here to collect a debt. Joyce hired me to protect him when he was serving in Padres Meadows. The commission hasn't been paid yet, and I still owe him 80 gold coins."

"80 gold coins!" Eli was also shocked. 80 gold coins was a huge sum of money.

However, Eli's reaction was very different. After being surprised, his eyes rolled and he quickly turned to Elena: "Elena, in order to guard against me, you actually colluded with outsiders to pretend to owe a debt?"

Elena:???

"...I didn't, I just found out about it." Elena denied.

Eli didn't believe it and questioned loudly: "If it wasn't you, this person, this debt, this IOU, how could it be such a coincidence that it appeared here?"

Elena: Haha, I think it’s a coincidence too. I thought it was you who did it.

Bearded man: ...

The bearded man looked at him coldly without saying anything in defense.

Elena: "If you don't believe it, you can check it again."

Elena waved to the old butler, and under Eli's nose, the old butler used Joyce's private seal and the verification seal of the Viscount's Mansion again to re-verify that the IOU was indeed written by Joyce himself.

Eli refused to admit it.

"Impossible, absolutely impossible, there must be some mistake." Eli said angrily.

The collateral relatives who rushed over after hearing about this also refused to believe it and gathered around, buzzing with doubts.

"This IOU must have been forged by you!" Eli was convinced that it was Elena's trick.

Are you kidding? The Viscount's money should belong to him. How could it be taken away by an unknown outsider? This must be Elena's trick!

Of course, Elena was unwilling to believe that the debt was real. 80 gold coins, she simply couldn't afford it, okay?

But, although she didn't want to believe it, Elena still had her dignity. Her skin was not as thick as Eli's. The creditor was here, and Elena couldn't refuse to pay back the debt and never admit it.

She has never been in debt in her life!

She was in debt. This was the first time she had experienced such a thing in her eighteen years of life. It was really painful. Being stared at by the creditor, she felt uncomfortable all over. She was so uncomfortable that she just wanted to resolve the matter quickly and send the creditor away.

Elena forced herself to say, "Since this IOU was indeed written by my brother, even though he is no longer with us..."

"Gone? Where did he go?" The bearded man interrupted Elena.

Elena expressed her grief at the right moment: "My father and brother met with an accident a few days ago and both passed away."

The man was silent for a while before he said, "I'm deeply sorry. Please accept my condolences."

Elena sniffed lightly, pinched the snow-white handkerchief and pressed the corners of her eyes. In this sad minute, she quickly calculated in her mind.

I can’t afford 80 gold coins, but I have to pay them. What should I do?

Is installment payment possible?

Elena considered carefully and said, "We at the Viscount's Mansion will recognize this debt. It won't change just because my brother is gone. However, 80 gold coins is a large sum for the Viscount's Mansion right now. After all, we have to prioritize the funeral rites for our father and brother, as well as distributing compensation to the injured and dead knights."

Elena carefully observed the man's expression, and then asked carefully: "So, I want to discuss with you, can I, can I pay in installments?"

A girl who had just suffered the pain of losing a loved one, an underage girl who had not yet grown up, a noble girl who had been raised in a greenhouse and had never experienced any wind and rain, at this moment, she was pleading in a low voice with red eyes, who could refuse such a request?

No, no one with a bit of compassion could refuse, not even a bearded man who was short of money.

"Okay, you can return some of it first," the bearded man agreed. "Forty first, uh, or 30 first."

The bearded man took another step back.

30 coins! The Viscount’s Mansion only has 35 gold coins. Elena’s expression almost couldn’t be restrained.

Elena held her expression firmly. The more she needed money, the more she couldn't let others see that she was short of money.

Elena not only kept her expression tense, she even smiled gratefully: "Thank you, you are such a good person."

Elena glanced at the old butler, who understood what she meant and was about to leave the tea room to get the money.

"Wait!" Eli shouted and raised his hand to stop the butler.

Eli's originally chaotic eyes now flashed with a sharp edge. He first glanced at the bearded man, then turned to Elena: "Elena, my niece, I didn't expect that you would deliberately arrange this scene just to exclude me. Ha, I underestimated you."

Eli was certain that the debt was fabricated by Elena: "You arranged this scene just to transfer the property and the cash in the Viscount's account."

Eli is convinced he has uncovered the truth.

Being questioned in such a face-to-face manner, Elena did not show a guilty and panic expression as Eli had expected. Instead, she rolled her eyes without any ladylike manners.

"Oh, you suspect that I forged this debt, and I also suspect that you arranged it! I just rejected you yesterday, and today someone came to collect the debt. What's more, the timing is such a coincidence, just when you brought those so-called elder relatives to force me." Elena's eyes swept over those collateral relatives, and those collateral relatives quickly lowered their heads, not daring to look her in the eye.

Elena sneered: "The timing is so good, I have to guess that this is a collaboration between inside and outside, you and him are putting on a show for me to cheat the Viscount's money."

Elena straightened her back and raised her chin: "But I'm different from you. Even if I have doubts, as long as the seal and verification stamp are verified, I will admit it! Regardless of whether you have any hand in it or whether the money will fall into your hands, I will return the money! My character is so noble!"

Elena's words were powerful.

The bearded man, suspected by both sides of being a shill: ...