TVRTH [Book 1]

Chapter 14

A New Meeting, Part VI

Translator: Khan

Editor: SootyOwl

Newspapers viewed by the nobility were simple lists of information, whereas the ones read by the commoners contained all kinds of rumors. More than half of the newspaper was filled with false rumors, but there were the occasional rumors that ended up true, so there would be no loss if she saw got her hands on one. In any case, since she knew the future, she would not be swayed by rumors.

"Jessie, get me a newspaper. Tell him to sell it to you because I'll pay for the full month's returns. And every time the newspaper comes out, make sure that you go and buy it."

"Yes? Oh, yes, Miss."

After hearing that Aria would buy that piece of trash-like paper, all the attendants that followed her began to think negatively of her, 'She would buy such a dirty, smelly newspaper.' They began to think that her humble birth could not be changed.

Whether they thought like that or not, Aria didn't care. She began to slowly read the purchased newspaper. Since the general store was not too far from the boutique, she couldn't read all of it in detail, but she was able to confirm roughly one big incident.

[Where Are All the Missing People?]

As soon as she saw the title in large cursive letters, she instantly realized what was happening.

There were rumors of human trafficking happening in the empire, where slavery was outlawed. Terrible things had occurred in the deep, covert places of fancy casinos. Becoming a slaver within the empire was such a foolish thing to do.

In the basement of an underground casino in the city, kidnapped people were locked behind bars, unable to escape from being drugged. Women were sold as sex slaves, while the men were sold to foreign countries to work to their deaths.

The reason why she could remember this so vividly was that the Crown Prince had uncovered the criminals, and so, they had made massive public announcements about it for a while.

'The case that the Crown Prince uncovered...'

She looked through the newspaper and tried to find a connection, but nothing came to her mind. In the first place, she had been young, so she hadn't had any interest. At the time, she had thought that the people were just being noisy.

Things were like that. No matter how much she knew about the future, it would be impossible for her to befriend the Crown Prince. In the past, even when she had charmed many men in the empire with her fascinating beauty, she hadn't even been able to see the Crown Prince's shadow. To begin with, he lived in a different world from hers, so she had no chance of encountering him.

It was sufficient to have befriended Sarah, who would become the marquise, to ensure a safe future. Not to mention Oscar, whom she was about to meet. Though an opportunity might present itself in the future, now wasn't the time.

With that small, young body, there was nothing she could do. If she were to loiter around the casino, security might come out to question her, so Aria erased the casino slavery case from her head.

"Miss, we have arrived."

After relishing the memories of her past after looking at the newspaper, she noticed that the carriage had already arrived at the general store and stopped moving. Other than the slave case, there wasn't much to the information that helped her, so she laid the newspaper down and headed into the general store.

In the old, narrow store, two men appeared to be customers and an elderly man, the owner. The air quickly became stuffy once she and her party entered the space. There was little room to move in the first place, but she didn't frown.