The Heavenly Demon Can’t Live A Normal Life [EN]: Chapter 143

Count Douglas, known as the powerhouse of the North, was in a foul mood recently.

Boom!

Count Douglas slammed his fist on the heavy oak table, the sound echoing like thunder in the room. “Have you still not found those little rats?!” he roared.

“I am sorry, my Lord,” a voice answered nervously. “We have wiped out all the bandit gangs in the area around here, but we still haven’t found the location of the secret money, the slush fund.”

The problem began with the Barco family.

Douglas and Barco.

The powerhouses of the North and Northeast, respectively, had become friends after meeting at a fancy party for important people.

It was a relationship that benefited them both.

Count Douglas had no connections in the central government but had a lot of influence in the North. Baron Barco, on the other hand, had connections that the Douglas family didn’t.

They helped each other when needed.

They didn’t know that this relationship would cause problems.

“Count Douglas, could you lend me some money?” Barco asked.

Baron Barco was preparing for war and needed money. He borrowed from Count Douglas and others.

He needed to be ready for anything and even brought in Homerus with the borrowed money.

Count Douglas was sure Barco would win.

He never thought Barco would lose and lent a large sum of money, thinking it would make their friendship stronger.

He thought he would get the money back soon.

If Lawrence lost, Douglas would make a lot of money. There was no way Barco wouldn’t repay the loan.

But Barco was defeated.

He died while running away, and the person who was supposed to return the money was gone.

The Douglas family was in trouble.

They needed to get the money back at all costs.

The Golden Bank was a problem.

They had already taken everything from the Barco family that could be turned into money, and Douglas didn’t want to argue with the Golden Bank about who got paid first.

He stayed quiet.

But he hadn’t given up on the money.

Count Douglas knew a way to get his money back.

‘The Barco family has a secret stash of gold, money hidden away that no one else knew about. The Golden Bank doesn’t know about it, but I heard about it at a party with Baron Barco. If I can get that secret money, I can earn back the money I lent and even more.’

He hired an information guild.

He looked into the clues Baron Barco had mentioned and finally found the secret money.

It was a lot of gold bars.

He loaded the gold bars hidden in the Northeast area onto a wagon and tried to move them to the North without anyone knowing.

It was a perfect plan.

But a band of robbers attacked the wagon, and all the gold bars disappeared.

Count Douglas said, “There is no way a band of robbers could have gotten rid of that much gold without a trace. Search the Northeast area, no, the entire Cairo Kingdom, and find the location of the gold bars. It’s not Barco’s. It is the money we deserve to get back, and we cannot allow it to be taken away by anyone else.”

His eyes were bloodshot, sleepless nights and simmering rage turning them a furious red. This wasn’t just about the money; it was about pride, about being made a fool of.

Now he had solved the financial problem.

But when he thought about the difficulties he had at that time, he still felt angry.

He wiped out the bandits in the area.

Many people died, but Count Douglas didn’t stop until he had personally seen the gold bars.

Then, he received a call from the information guild Black Moon.

“My Lord! We have finally found the location of the gold bars!”

Donovan, the head of the Black Moon, visited Count Douglas.

“At first, I thought the secret money had fallen into the hands of a band of robbers. The soldiers moving the money were dead, and there were bodies of bandit gangs who were known in the area. But no matter how much I looked at the black market, there was no sign of the gold bars being sold. Converting gold bars into gold coins requires special skills, so I figured they would have to use the black market to get money they could actually use. So, after watching carefully, I found a clue to the gold bars.”

“Yes, what bastards stole my gold bars?”

“The thieves weren’t bandits. It was the Northeast Association. They are the people who stole the gold bars.”

“What?!”

Thud.

He leapt to his feet, chair scraping loudly against the stone floor.

The Northeast Association.

What was Donovan talking about?

“At first, a band of robbers attacked the soldiers moving the secret money. But the Northeast Association’s forces happened to see what was happening, and after defeating all the bandits, they found the wagon with the gold bars. They must have had a difficult choice. Even though they knew it was Count Douglas’s wagon, they decided to hide the truth and take the gold bars. As proof, gold bars were put up for sale on the black market a month ago. It was the same amount and shape as Barco’s secret money, and the person who put it on the black market was someone working for Baron Conrad, who is part of the Northeast Association.”

“These damn bastards.”

Anger exploded.

During that time, how much trouble had he had because of the lost gold bars?

Emotions built up, and now that he had solved the financial problem, only anger remained.

Watching Count Douglas’s anger, Donovan bowed his head, suppressing a smile.

‘There is not a single lie in the information I have given. The Northeast Association did discover the wagon loaded with gold bars, and even though they knew it belonged to Count Douglas, they chose to steal the gold bars. If I hadn’t told them this, the Northeast Association could have gotten away with it, but by making my Lord an enemy, they have created a crisis.’

Black Moon was an information guild with a good reputation in the Northeast area.

People don’t know what changes they have faced.

Black Moon was taken over by Hao Mun, led by Lucas, and pretended to be an independent group.

Therefore, information was leaked according to Roman’s orders.

Douglas was angry, and he didn’t even know someone else was controlling him. His face turned red with fury.

“Call those people in the Northeastern Union now! We will destroy those thieves for taking what belongs to us!”

This was no surprise.

Earl Douglas, known for his anger, acted fast.

Just one phone call.

The Northeastern Union was in a panic.

Things were already bad because of Roman’s problem, but this was much worse.

“What can we do?” someone asked, worried.

“Earl Douglas is very powerful in the North,” another said. “If he gets angry with us, we could be in big trouble.”

Earl Douglas gave them three hours.

In that time, the whole Northeastern Union had to meet and explain everything.

After hearing the full story, the members of the Northeastern Union looked pale and scared.

The members of the Northeastern Union looked pale and scared after hearing everything.

“…We should never have taken Earl Douglas’s things,” one said. “Gold bars are not like coins; they are hard to hide. We should have talked to Earl Douglas and made a deal.”

“Exactly,” another agreed. “We know how Earl Douglas gets. He won’t let this go.”

Earl Douglas.

People called him the Beast of the North.

When he got angry, he was known to attack without thinking about himself.

Even though he was powerful, most people tried to avoid making Douglas angry.

Then, Viscount Conrad spoke up.

“What are you saying? The Varco family’s secret money wasn’t Earl Douglas’s. We also lent money to Varco, so we have a right to some of that money. And didn’t Earl Douglas try to take the secret money first? If he was honest, would he have tried to steal it like a rat? We can’t say sorry first. If we do, we are finished.”

As Conrad said, the Northeastern Union had lent money to the Varco family.

Varco had borrowed money from Earl Douglas and many other families in the North. People who supported Varco had lost a lot of money when Varco failed.

Maybe that’s why they hated Dimitri so much. Because of him, Varco was ruined, and they lost a lot of money.

Taking the secret money…

They thought they had a good reason for it.

They didn’t think they were stealing; they thought they deserved the money back.

“…Do you think Earl Douglas will believe that?” someone asked.

“It doesn’t matter if he believes it,” Conrad replied. “Can you give back the money you got from the gold bars? We’ve already spent it. If we say we are wrong to Earl Douglas, he might make us pay even more than the gold bars were worth. Earl Douglas can do that. So, we must all agree on one story. We need to keep saying that Earl Douglas started it first, and make things confusing.”

“That sounds right.”

“Let’s do what Viscount Conrad says. We can’t go back now, can we?”

They all agreed.

Alone, they were weak, but together as the Northeastern Union, they felt brave.

Just then, a knight came into the meeting room.

“The Douglas family wants to talk using magic,” the knight said.

Right away, Viscount Conrad and the other nobles of the Northeastern Union swallowed hard. They were scared.

It was just as they expected.

As soon as the magic link started, Earl Douglas showed his anger.

[What is going on! How dare you steal my money? Explain now!]

He was full of rage.

Viscount Conrad saw Earl Douglas’s angry face and heard his loud, lion-like voice. He tried to speak calmly.

“Please, calm down, Earl Douglas. And ‘your money’? I understand you are angry, but the Varco family’s secret money belonged to no one person. We also lent money to Varco, just like you. If you had told us about the secret money and said you had a bigger claim to it, we might have taken a smaller share and been okay with that. But didn’t you try to take the money secretly first?”

Conrad was blaming Douglas.

He pointed out Douglas’s mistake to change the subject.

It sounded like a reasonable argument, based on normal thinking. But the problem was all the anger that had been building up.

[You thieves steal my money, and then what? It is all my money! From the moment I found Varco’s secret money, it belonged to the Douglas family!]

“Earl, please calm…”

[Shut up!]

He stopped Conrad from speaking.

Was it three months ago?

Earl Douglas had invited the nobles from the North to a party.

At that party, he didn’t mention the secret money, but he said he was upset about losing a lot of money while moving it.

Viscount Conrad and the others from the Northeastern Union were there.

They knew what he meant, but they pretended to be nice and comforted him.

It was ridiculous.

He had been happy to be comforted then, but now it made him even angrier.

[At the party three months ago, you gave me fake smiles and said, ‘Earl Douglas, I don’t know what’s wrong, but I’m sure it will be okay.’ Do you think I am stupid? Just because we laugh together, do you think I am just like any other noble?]

He couldn’t stop talking.

Viscount Conrad tried to say something, but Douglas blocked his ears and let out his anger.

The Beast of the North.

He was set off.

He had to let out his boiling anger, or he felt like he couldn’t breathe.

[Listen to me now. As soon as I can, I will ask the government to let us fight a war over land with you. We will see if you Northeastern trash can stop me. I will show you how weak the Northeastern Union is without Varco to protect you.]

*Thwack!*

The magic link was cut off.

Viscount Conrad turned the link back on.

But no one answered. He looked at the other nobles of the Northeastern Union. His face was pale.

“…I think we are in very big trouble,” he said.

When they heard this, the nobles felt like they might faint.