What kind of embezzlement would be so severe that the treasurer would devote himself to investigating it.

Ekaterina looked down at the documents handed to Kimberly.

The entries were simplethe date, the name of the fund, and the amount.

I see It started around the time Grandfather passed away. Thats right, immediately after that!

And the amount! Whats with these digits? If we convert it into Japanese yen it should be over a hundred million.

Well, only the first time, huh? The next time it was still tens of millions.

But then again, it was in millions! And then another!

Have they lost their restraint already Almost every month!

The total amount for the first year was already a big problem.

Wellwhere is Kimberly-samas successor, the treasurer, now?

missing.

At Alexeis answer, Ekaterinas eyes widened slightly, and she shifted her gaze to Kimberly. Kimberlys silver eyes, bald, bushy-nosed, and imposing to look at, said nothing.

I have a hunch that both of them know the whereabouts of the successor treasurer, but my instincts were screaming at me that it would be better not to know, so I decided not to ask any further questions.

Looking at the following years in the record.

As expected, the amount per case became smaller. However, the items became more diverse, and the total annual amount did not change much.

No, the reason why there were so many large amounts in the first year may have been because the names themselves were fabricated payments, fake ones.

Perhaps they changed their method of accounting because they had gone too far and could no longer handle it. They may have changed their methods to a different one, where they would select payments that were not likely to be discovered from the actual payments, and skim them off.

Ah. I see now.

One of the items caught Ekaterinas eye, and she gasped.

Annexation expenses.

Mothers and my living expenses. It had been embezzled and disappeared somewhere.

The amount of money was a modest sum for the Duchess of Yurinovas living expenses. Still, if they had properly given this money to us, we would not have had to live like that, lacking in food and clothes.

Ekaterina!

Feeling strange about his sisters condition, Alexei realized what she was looking at.

Sorrysorry.

No, big brother.

Big brother knew where mother and I were, but he didnt try to take us out of there. It must have been a lonely and painful time for him, isolated in the Yurinova family after the death of his grandfather. He wanted to see us, but he held back, limiting himself to just passing in front of the mansion.

It must have been because it was supposed to be safer for him to stay at the villa than to be within reach of grandmothers influence.

Ever since that time when he was still a child, big brother had been doing his best to protect mother and me by setting himself behind the scenes. I would never have dreamed at that time that the duchesss living expenses were being embezzled.

I wonder how big brother must have felt when he found out that we were forced to live in those bad conditions.

He must have found that out during mothers last days when our dying mother called him in replacement to father, who could be said to be an accomplice in our mistreatment. At that time, when he pretended to be father and gently answered her, I wondered if he was inwardly enduring the pain of having his heart ripped out of his chest.

Big brother is not bad. You have been trying to protect mother and me for a long time.

Ekaterina

Dont look so bitter. You were still such a child. And yet, you were not allowed to behave like a child.

The paperwork examination still continued, as there were even more to go on.