"No way, I was just making things up earlier! How did they actually bring it to me?"
Staring at the golden-threaded wallet handed in front of him, Leon’s mind went blank for a moment, then he suspiciously examined the "something from nothing" waiter.
*Could it be... he thought I was asking for a bribe?*
*But that doesn’t make sense either. To him, I’m a wealthy Duke, why would I need to solicit a bribe from a waiter? What would be my motive?*
Leon, unable to make sense of it, didn’t take the wallet from the waiter. Instead, he waved his hand with a frown, saying,
"You might have made a mistake. This shouldn’t be my wallet."
Hearing Leon’s words, Jacob’s face briefly froze, then he persisted,
"Why don’t you open it and take a look? I found it based on the characteristics you mentioned, so it shouldn’t be wrong."
"I did mention my wallet is a golden-threaded wallet with a lion motif, but that doesn’t mean every wallet with a lion motif is mine."
Taking the wallet from the waiter’s hand, flipping to the side embroidered with the lion motif, Leon pointed to the stitched name above the lion’s head,
"Look, for example, this name clearly says... um?"
*What’s going on? That’s actually my name?*
"Your Grace, it seems you might have made a mistake."
Seeing Leon in a daze, Jacob breathed a sigh of relief and said with a smile,
"The lighting here is relatively dim, so the wallet might look a bit different than it does outside. At first glance, it might not seem quite like yours.
And being a grand aristocrat like yourself, you usually have attendants to carry things for you when you go out, so it’s not unusual for you to be unfamiliar with your own wallet’s appearance."
*No, this isn’t a matter of whether I recognized it wrong. My wallet is still lying in the Mirror World, it wasn’t lost at all!*
"Well... it could be that someone shares my name?"
Feeling a bit flustered by the wallet bearing his name, Leon quickly opened it, flipping to where his identification should be, then argued,
"If this is my wallet, there should be my portrait here... What the hell, there actually is!"
Seeing the photo of himself looking haughtily down at the camera clipped in the document holder, Leon’s mind went slightly numb, and recalling the bureau chief’s instructions before he came, he became instinctively alert.
*Even though it’s a photo and not a portrait like I mentioned, it’s still pretty outrageous. Could it be... this building is actually some kind of Anomalous Object? One that can satisfy one’s wishes? Or create something out of nothing?*
"It seems you indeed remembered incorrectly, this is indeed your wallet."
After glancing at the photo, the waiter Jacob breathed a sigh of relief and returned to his previous genial demeanor, politely asking,
"Congratulations on recovering your lost belongings. So, Your Grace, now that you’ve found your wallet, would you like to go up to the third floor for a drink?"
"No... not necessary..."
Seeing the curious gazes directed at him, Leon opened and closed his lips slightly, then pressed them together again. Considering that dragging this out might draw further attention, he was forced to accept this dubious wallet, with a stiff expression on his face, he said,
"I plan to check out other places, please escort me out."
"Certainly, please this way."
Seeing this troublesome guest finally leave, Jacob breathed a sigh of relief, then respectfully led the way and escorted Leon out.
Not long after they left, a small golden-haired man who had been snoozing at the first-floor bar twitched slightly and fell from his chair with a thud.
When the arriving waiter helped him up and asked about his condition, the bleary-eyed little golden-haired man muttered that he wasn’t drunk and instinctively reached for his waist, then...
"Huh? Where’s my wallet?"
Finding the spot where his wallet should have hung empty, the little golden-haired man’s intoxication subsided a bit. Then, supported by the waiter, he staggeringly approached the main counter near the entrance and hammered it firmly with his fist.
"Someone! My wallet is gone! I need to report it lost!"
"Alright... Steven Laine, correct?"
Looking over the completely intoxicated little golden-haired man before him, the receptionist behind the main counter opened a notebook and asked gently,
"Can you describe your wallet?"
"I’m surnamed Laine, so what kind of design could my wallet have? Of course it’s golden like my hair, with our Ryan family’s lion motif on the bottom!"
Standing steadily with his hand on the counter and dressed in a military training uniform, the bleary-eyed little golden-haired man slurred,
"And underneath the wallet... there’s the name of the Duke I once idolized, with a photo of him inside... Boo hoo... I’m so damn miserable!"
As he spoke, it seemed like some strange switch had been flipped, as the flushed little golden-haired man suddenly hugged the counter and wept bitterly,
"I idolized the Duke so much, but he kidnapped me, forcing me to drive Powered Armor for him! You know! He attacked... uh... I can’t speak of it, but he forced me to drive Powered Armor for him!
Boo hoo... I just said I’d rather die than help him escape, yet I had to drive Powered Armor for him to flee. Now everyone calls me ’Steely Steven,’ I’m famous throughout the Armored Army, everyone laughs at me when they see me!"
The little golden-haired man became more agitated as he spoke, and while he banged his head against the counter and cried with snot running down his face,
"You know, after that day, everyone laughs when they see me. I can’t even face staying in the Armored Army’s barracks. The secret police from the Secret Investigation Bureau know I had contact with... well, anyway, they constantly block the barracks trying to question me.
They blocked me in so I couldn’t leave, and when I finally managed to sneak out over the wall to drink away my sorrow, I lost my wallet... I’m so damn miserable!"
"Sir, please calm down. Your wallet might not be lost yet; I’ll have someone help look for it!"
Glancing sympathetically at his recently cleaned counter, now smeared with slimy streaks, the receptionist hurriedly called a colleague to handle the lost property case...
"What? Someone else claimed my wallet?"
Hearing someone had taken his wallet, the little golden-haired man wiped his nose with his hand and roared angrily with red-rimmed eyes,
"Who! Who dared to take my stuff? Tell me the name! I’m going to beat him up today!"
"Um... the claim log states the name was Leon Laine..."
After repeating Leon’s name, the receptionist accompanied with a cheerful expression said,
"We verified it; the badge they had was genuine, and he is indeed the current Duke of Lionheart. He also reported losing a wallet, and the features matched yours, so we...
Uh... Mr. Steven, perhaps you should think back carefully and see whether you might have mistaken the design and confused His Grace’s wallet with your own?"
"Boo hoo! I’m so damn miserable!"