Chapter 43
Christina opened the door and immediately greeted politely.
"I am Christina Modina, the only survivor of the Modina family."
She's wearing old clothes that have become rags to hide her identity, and it seems she hasn't been able to wash properly while hiding in the slums...
'They say beauty makes even rags look like designer clothes, and it's true.'
Her beauty, with white hair and blue eyes, gives a feeling like she could come out of a fantasy world.
Her chest is a bit smaller than Chloe's, but her figure clearly reveals a body that seems like a bundle of male desires.
"Thank you for coming."
Hearing those words, she clenched her mouth tightly and said.
"Of course I should come when there's a chance to take revenge on the Pereira Trading Company that plunged my father, mother, and relatives into ruin, shouldn't I? And thank you for saving me from their clutches."
Christina is currently being pursued by the Pereira Trading Company.
In short, if she's caught, she might be killed at any time or become someone's slave like Chloe did.
So normally, a person would first thank them for saving their life, but…
The fact that the words of gratitude came later means she's so obsessed with revenge that she can't feel relief about preserving her life.
"There's no need to thank me. I needed Lady Modina to fight against the Pereira Trading Company too."
Christina sighed hearing my words.
"Modina. My family has long been exterminated, yet you still call me a lady?"
Just as a president needs to have a company to act as a president, for a lady of a certain family to be respected as a 'lady', that family must still exist.
If you don't belong to a family, you're just 'someone who used to be successful' at best.
So I could treat her roughly like a subordinate, but…
"Among the families in our empire now, not a few have completely fallen and then seized an opportunity to complete their revenge and succeed in making a comeback. So isn't it enough if you complete this revenge and revive your family?"
It's easy to say, but the reality is honestly like a gutter.
If revenge was that easy, I guarantee that in the Tuscan Empire, there would be incidents of entire noble families being wiped out once a week.
"We are cooperating partners, so we should respect each other."
Even if I'm overwhelmingly in the superior position, I need Christina's cooperation.
I need to get the information she provides to fulfill the Emperor's order to sternly warn the Pereira Trading Company.
What's so difficult about calling her a lady and treating her generously to gain her goodwill?
Christina smiled slightly, seeming relieved at my words.
"Thank you, young master."
"Now, I'd like you to tell me in detail what happened."
"Yes, I'll tell you everything without hiding anything."
It might be my imagination, but for a moment I felt like I was looking into the deep sea in her blue eyes.
Just looking at her eyes, I can feel the tremendous hatred towards the Pereira Trading Company.
As if she could really kill someone just with her gaze.
"My father had been a director of the Pereira Trading Company for two generations since my grandfather's time. He did everything without hesitation for the trading company and the Pereira family, whether it was clean work or dirty work. When necessary, he even directly opposed the words of the head of the trading company. He took pride in that for his whole life."
In the Albania continent, commerce is like a kind of war.
Although large amounts of bullets don't fly back and forth in front of others, sometimes guns or knives are used to kill opponents.
They attack the opponent's business using bandits, or bribe politicians and then find ridiculous pretexts to ruin them.
Literally, I, a merchant called a great merchant, am standing on the corpses of countless people.
'I've already killed two people.'
Christina's father probably didn't live cleanly while being a merchant either.
He would have put everything down for the Pereira Trading Company, which was like the lord he served.
"I respected such a father, and even acquired all the knowledge to manage commerce as a woman. To be of help to the Pereira Trading Company."
Saying that, she gritted her teeth.
Her fists were clenched so tightly her hands turned white.
"However, my father lost in a factional fight while competing with that Alphad bastard for the branch manager position. And that Alphad bastard pinned the biggest scandal of the Pereira Trading Company on my father. He had committed an unbelievable scale of military supply corruption within the trading company."
Smuggling or kidnapping and selling serfs who can't repay debts are crimes that can be forgiven in the Tuscan Empire if you pay bribes well.
'As long as you don't touch nobles or wealthy citizens, and don't directly catch the eye of high-ranking people.'
However, military supply corruption is really difficult to be forgiven in most cases.
Because even though high-ranking people have no sense of human rights, they all know that if equipment and such aren't properly supplied to soldiers, it leads to weakened combat power.
In the worst case, rebellions can occur if food isn't provided.
If the army holds spears backwards, there's really no answer.
Even if the suppression succeeds, there will be tremendous bloodshed in the process and economic losses will erupt, and honor, which is more precious than life to nobles, will fly away.
Of course, it's not that there's no military supply corruption, and 'tolerated corruption' does occur when the commander of that unit colludes with merchants, but...
It's basically a worst crime punishable by immediate execution and equivalent to treason.
"To save money on buying pickled herring to supply to soldiers, they bought rotten ones at 1/4 the price of buying good ones, and embezzled the rest. Or they supplied armor with extremely reduced iron content. They touched a wide variety of things including weapons, equipment, and even war horses."
"No matter how crazy those Pereira guys were, they wouldn't have touched the nobles."
"Yes, I hear they only didn't touch the nobles."
So this corruption could have continued secretly.
Why? Even though there's no sense of human rights here, nobles have 'status privileges and freedoms'.
In our continent, anyone who doesn't agree with this is considered a heretic, or a crazy person who would mate with their sister in the entrance hall.
'Conversely, it means commoners can be exploited and tormented.'
Of course, even this isn't done much because if discovered, honor flies away.
"The supply commander of the Tuscan 1st Division, and Count Coelho, who was the commander at that time. I hear they colluded with these two. And when their terms ended, that Pereira bastard pinned the crime on my father."
Hearing the story, it seems that Pereira guy is really a bastard who deserves to be torn apart right now... but it's useless without evidence.
"Evidence?"
"The documents submitted when the Pereira family reported my father to the imperial military court, our family's financial records. Also, there are some documents of testimonies from soldiers at that time."
This should be enough to deal a fatal blow to the Pereira Trading Company.
However, it would be difficult to put a knife to the Pereira Trading Company and that family.
The limit would be cutting off the head of that guy named Alphad who became the target of cutting the tail.
"If we just know the financial records and the amount of embezzlement reviewed by the imperial military court, we can sufficiently prove its false testimony. If we do well, your family might be able to restore its honor."
I said if we do well, but if this fact is properly reported, the Emperor will restore the honor of the Modina family.
Because the Emperor wants to give a stern warning to the Pereira Trading Company now.
Family honor restoration would be a good means as one of those messages.
"However, it would be difficult to exterminate the Pereira family."
Christina gritted her teeth.
"Yes."
"Still, this much should be enough to restore your family's honor. I'll also arrange a knight's title as a reward. Plus, I'll give you enough money to live comfortably for life."
A knight's title is clearly a noble status.
It's funny that I, a mere 'knight nobody', am talking about it.
Unless it's a knight with territory, the value of a knight's title without territory is surprisingly not that high.
It can be bought with a similar sense to buying an honorary official title in the late Joseon period.
'I need to at least do this much so that when a similar situation occurs in the future, people will try to jump to my side, so it's an investment for the future too.'
She shook her head.
"I'm really grateful for your words, but I can't forgive the Pereira family who brutally murdered my family. So rather than that, I'd like you to take revenge."
"That seems like an unreasonable request?"
At those words, Christina knelt and pleaded with me.
"I'll give you my everything. My body, heart, even my soul if necessary."
I felt a solemn atmosphere that made me, watching, get slight goosebumps.
So my heart leaned a bit in that direction, but it's nonsense right now.
'I fight with the Pereira Trading Company without the Emperor watching my back? Perfect way to die.'
Also, I have no intention of taking revenge even on the Bio village residents who tried to sell Chloe, who is like my family, as a slave.
So why should I take revenge for others?
It's an absurd thing to say.
"Your value is not heavier than the lives and safety of those on my shoulders."
Saying that, I stood up from my chair.
"So I have no intention of recklessly seeking revenge to exterminate the Pereira family."
Christina bowed her head, seemingly frustrated.
"However, if you want to take revenge as you asked me, following me would be the surest way."
Other great merchants compete with each other, and when bored, they sometimes attack each other's businesses by hiring bandits.
However, they never move to directly exterminate the other.
'Because if they make a mistake, they could die too.'
It's a kind of implicit agreement to just save each other's lives.
Just before going out the door, I looked back.
"And your life doesn't end when your revenge is over, Christina. You should be happy for the sake of those who died, and be happy by regaining your honor. That's the best revenge."
School violence victims often say that becoming happier than the other person is the best revenge.
But that's half right and half wrong.
It's true that if I become better than the bullies, it will make them jealous to some extent, which is a kind of revenge.
But the other party will have gotten away without paying for their crimes, and they'll still laugh and use tormenting the victims as nostalgic drinking stories.
"A noble's revenge is not late even if it takes 10 years. So change your clothes first and eat properly. It will be a long fight."
Saying that, I told Chloe, who was waiting outside the door, to give her clothes and a room.
There's kindness I bestow according to my mood, but.
Since we're fighting together, she's my comrade now, so I should treat her well for now.