Chapter 95
The story continues off the page
The Last Dance Before Midnight
A masked dragon asks the lanternwright for one slow dance
Tilda Pascal was a villainess.
According to the testimony of Stephan and Murchit, who had lived under the same roof as her, she had no mercy.
They said she was the sort of woman who broke anything that displeased her.
Such a personality inevitably accumulated resentment.
Ferda knew that better than anyone, having earned more resentment than most.
That was why he assumed there must be an obvious mastermind behind this incident as well.
The most likely candidate was Rico Dandolo, who had been poisoned.
After him came Stephan, Murchit, or one of their wives.
He had even considered the possibility that it was her father, Herman.
Yet there was exactly one person Ferda had failed to suspect.
That person was the seemingly dull middle-aged man standing over there.
Henri.
“Were you the one who commissioned the investigation into Tilda?”
Unable to believe it, Ferda asked him directly.
“That is correct.”
“You commissioned it hoping to see her downfall?”
“That is correct.”
“You did this even knowing it might end like this?”
“Of course. I had taken this outcome into consideration as well.”
Henri smiled faintly.
At first glance, it was an exceedingly good-natured smile.
He looked like the sort of person who was so good-natured that he could not hide his dullness or his thoughts.
“Why?”
“Because I truly love Tilda. I can do anything for her.”
“Is this what you mean by anything?”
Ruri, who had been listening, cut in and asked.
Her face was filled with disgust.
“Of course.”
He answered with a smile, as though her reaction did not matter at all.
Hearing that answer, everyone around them reacted much as Ruri had.
“You may condemn me if you wish. Countless women have whispered words of love while looking only at my money and reputation. Is it so wrong for me to love someone based only on the shell of a person?”
“I have no intention of condemning your actions. But there is something I am curious about.”
“Please, ask.”
“Is this woman truly worth handing your company over to me?”
Tilda was certainly pretty, but she was not an unparalleled beauty.
She was not on Olivia’s level, with a man who had sold everything in his territory and offered a million roses at her feet.
Henri answered the question as though it were nothing important.
“My father treasured the company, but it holds no great value for me. In fact, I wanted to cast it off. So I used the woman I love.”
“Tilda?”
“She is truly beautiful, but sinister. Who else in the world would poison her father-in-law and plot to kill her own family?”
Henri had merely been waiting for Rico to die.
He had watched everything and controlled everything.
In a sense, Henri was the one who had been playing Tilda in the palm of his hand.
Only then did Ferda understand one question he had set aside.
“I was told that when the medium was destroyed, the head of the household, Rico Dandolo, suddenly died.”
“That is correct. My father passed away.”
“Then that was not Tilda’s doing.”
Ferda’s eyes seemed ready to pierce straight through Henri.
“It was certainly something that could have appeared to be her doing.”
Henri gave a vague answer.
“My father always wanted me to become a schemer. I became the son who fulfilled his wishes.”
“……”
Ferda found himself unable to say anything.
When silence fell, Henri brought the conversation to an end.
“As promised, I will hand Dandolo Trading Company over to you. If you grant ownership to Regent Ferda and delegate the authority to manage it to my brother-in-law, everything will be resolved swiftly.”
“I understand.”
“My entire company will come into the Regent’s hands. So may I ask you to grant this humble man one favor?”
“What is it?”
“I would like you to return the belongings you took from my wife.”
Ferda’s gaze turned toward Ruri.
His expression twisted as though he found the request subtly unpleasant.
“I did not touch anything.”
That meant someone else had secretly taken them away.
Ferda could immediately identify the next person to question.
“Why are you looking at me?”
Penelope.
“Because you are the only one left.”
“It is embarrassing when you say such brazen things, ughyak!”
“Stop talking nonsense and tell me where you put it! Out with it!”
“Ugh! Gek! O-on my tail! I hung it on my tail!”
“Are you so much of a devil that your insides twist if you go even one day without causing trouble? Honestly!”
“Sniff, my diamond……”
“What do you mean, your diamond, you crazy woman?”
Jed searched her body from head to toe, and just as she had said, a ring was hanging from her tail.
It was a ring made of blood diamond, something no amount of money could buy.
Jed handed the ring to Ferda.
“A blood diamond. Is it an engagement ring?”
“It is. It is the only thing my wife loves.”
As soon as Henri took the ring, he went straight over to Tilda.
“Uuuh……”
She was making a mournful sound like a wandering spirit from the other world.
“Tilda, my love. Look here. It is the diamond ring you like.”
Tilda’s vacant eyes, her mouth slack with drool and her soul seemingly gone, turned toward the ring.
Her eyes, which had been wandering aimlessly, stared clearly at the diamond.
“Hehe……”
Henri smiled as well at the smile on her face, as though she possessed the entire world.
* * *
Henri had agreed to disappear with Tilda just as they were.
He had not lied when he said he had anticipated this outcome.
He had already purchased a house in the west and prepared enough money for them to live modestly.
They would leave Dandolo Mansion with only enough to spend the rest of their lives in peace.
“He truly is a vicious man.”
Ruri said that.
Her tightly clenched fist was filled with the desire to snap Henri’s neck.
“Are you really going to let someone like that go?”
Ferda nodded as though it were only natural.
“He kept his promise, so should I not keep mine?”
“Couldn’t that disgusting thing ruin our work? Judging by what happened when that witch was left in the top position, it is entirely possible.”
Ferda looked down at Ruri and said,
“Wanting to kill him is merely your personal desire.”
“It is disgusting. How could he kill his family, ruin the person he loved like that, and still go on?”
Ruri, who did not interfere in human affairs, said this.
He had used his wife to kill his father and then made his wife his own.
For dragonspawn, whose familial love was stronger than anyone else’s, that was an unforgivable act.
“Tilda Pascal did the same thing. Though she failed to carry it through, that woman drove a wedge between siblings, tried to poison her sister-in-law, and turned her father-in-law into a vegetable. If the end befitting that villainess is to live under that man’s control, is that not appropriate?”
“When you put it that way…… I suppose it does seem that way……”
Even Ruri, who had been furious, gradually lowered her voice.
His actions were repulsive, but at the same time, she found herself thinking that he had received a fitting punishment.
In the end, Ruri decided to stop thinking about them.
They would not have to see each other again anyway.
Ferda quietly looked down at the place Henri had passed through.
‘What a shame.’
He was truly a clever man.
Even Ferda had been unable to discern what lay within him. If Henri had possessed any ambition for commerce, he would certainly have surpassed even Pascal Trading Company and ushered in a golden age for Dandolo Trading Company.
Yet Henri acted as though he had no need for such abilities.
The last time Ferda had seen Henri, the man looked happier than anyone, despite having abandoned a fortune.
That face remained in Ferda’s mind like an afterimage.
Whether because it left him unsettled or because he was envious,
there was no way to know for now.
* * *
Pascal Trading Company headquarters.
“Is that so? So you have finished dealing with my sister.”
Stephan sounded surprised that the matter had been handled in secret, but he did not seem particularly concerned.
In any case, the matter that had troubled him had been settled, and he was satisfied with that.
“I understand. I will tell my brother and explain everything to Father so we can bring this to a close.”
After ending the telepathic communication, Stephan felt the lingering aftertaste of the conversation.
There was awe in his heart for Ferda.
‘I never imagined we would end up with Dandolo Trading Company.’
It was an unexpected windfall.
Stephan had planned to destroy the company in the end if the situation escalated further.
He had never imagined that they would be able to acquire it whole.
‘The Regent truly is an extraordinary man.’
He felt ashamed of how foolish his judgment had been when he had been ready to abandon everything only a few days earlier.
‘Now I have to clean up the aftermath.’
A sigh escaped Stephan’s lips.
He had conspired with Murchit, so in theory the matter should end when he said it had ended, but Herman was different.
Herman did not know the whole story and had genuinely tried to keep Stephan in check, so Stephan had needed to respond in kind.
“Director. The chairman……”
The secretary could not bring himself to finish the sentence.
That alone made it clear how angry Herman was.
I want to run away.
His instincts screamed it, but his head calmly nodded.
A moment later, four bodyguards large enough to fill the doorway and one diminutive old man entered the room.
The large men who came in with him were threatening enough, but the sharp eyes gleaming between the old man’s deep wrinkles struck something deep inside Stephan.
“Why are you still here?”
He was asking why Stephan had not resigned and remained here.
“Everything is over.”
“What do you mean, everything is over?”
Stephan explained everything.
Tilda had used her husband’s company to drive Stephan and Murchit apart.
And during that process, she had even plotted to kill Herman.
He deliberately toned down certain details that might have seemed exaggerated, lending his account greater credibility.
Even so, he could not discern what Herman was thinking.
Herman’s expression did not crack, like a sword reforged in a dwarf forge deep beneath the mountains.
“So that is what happened.”
“Yes.”
“But you have not answered my question.”
“What question……”
“I asked why you are still here.”
It was not a conversation one would expect from someone who had just heard that story.
Stephan answered,
“Because I am the director of Pascal Trading Company’s headquarters.”
“I am the chairman. Stripping you of your position would be no trouble at all. I wanted you to step down of your own accord, but you refuse to do so.”
“Are you still claiming that my judgment was a mistake?”
“Of course. If a man is certain, what fool would back down from his position?”
The Grand Duchy of Waldrova would fall.
Stephan said it to him out of defiance.
“The Grand Duchy of Waldrova will prosper.”
“It cannot prosper.”
Herman said it flatly.
“You seem curious about why. Very well, I shall answer you myself.”
Herman spoke with his eyes wide open like a tiger’s.
“I have heard people say that fellow Ferda is using black magic.”
“I have ears as well, so I know. But he saved many people in Halim.”
“Being treated as a hero lasts only a moment. Saving people is not the issue. The mere fact that he uses black magic is a weakness. What will you do if people say Pascal Trading Company is aiding someone obsessed with black magic?”
“That……”
“If you continue helping Regent Ferda and then try to withdraw, it will already be too late. Do you intend to drive the members of countless trading companies out onto the streets?”
Stephan could not answer.
“And you are investing in that technology called magitech, are you not? What will you do if that fellow Burnell dies?”
Herman continued to press him.
“Then this investment will come to nothing, and we will gain nothing from it. And is there any guarantee that this man named Burnell has no designs of his own? What about Ferda, his master?”
“There is no way they would abandon me.”
Although Ferda had initially spoken as though he did not need Stephan, he had supported him in every way when times were difficult.
That was why Stephan could make such a strong claim.
But to Herman, those words were not reassuring either.
“Do you know why no cities are built in the Far East?”
“Because the territory is constantly shrinking.”
“Exactly. Because there is no hope. Humanity could not stop it, nor could the power of the immortals. Do you have to be corrupted by magic in a nearby place before you finally come to your senses?”
“……”
“Very well. Let us be optimistic and assume it prospers. How do you think that prosperity will come back to us? Money? Honor? Connections? No. The Empire will scour every speck of dust to keep us in check. Why? We are a trading company in the Imperial capital. It will look as though the power of the capital is flowing elsewhere.”
“……”
“Even if that young regent has public trust and ambition, all politics is made by old men. Do you know what old men are like?”
Herman’s neck tensed.
“They tremble despite having no strength left to stand, while retaining just enough strength to clutch their own rice bowls. It is easy to go from frugality to enjoying luxury, but difficult to go from luxury back to frugality. Power is the same. To secure what belongs to them, old men push young people onto battlefields to fight and exploit them. Do you think ephemeral beings like us can resist and endure that?”
Stephan could not think of anything to say.
Herman’s words contained wisdom accumulated over the years, and that wisdom was logical.
From a broad perspective, there was nothing wrong with what Herman had said.
There were simply too many risks for Stephan to bear.
“Give up on the Far East. Otherwise, give up on this company. That is my will.”
Herman rose from his seat.
Just as he was about to leave, Stephan opened his mouth.
“Father is exactly the same as those old men.”
“What…… did you say?”
Herman’s eyes went round as he asked again.
It sounded like something Stephan had said in the heat of the moment.
Yet what shone in Stephan’s eyes was venom.
“Are you not also incapable of accepting anything new and insisting only on your own will?”
“Are you saying I am being stubborn?”
“Yes.”
Stephan answered briefly and clearly.
Herman flew into a rage.
“You ungrateful wretch. What right do you have to say such things?”
“I have the right.”
His words poured out as if he had cleared the blood clot stuck in his throat.
They were emotions and convictions that had accumulated for a long time.
“I have operated and led Father’s company for the past three years. Its steady growth and stabilization were achieved by me. If Father planted the seed of this company, then I was the one who cultivated it. Just as a farmer cannot claim credit for merely planting a seed, this is not something Father can claim as his achievement. Therefore, I have the right to speak.”
“You have the right? You?”
“Yes!”
As his emotions intensified, his voice grew louder and louder.
“While Father sat with his hands behind his back like an old man shut away in solitary, clicking his tongue and handing swords to his children to watch us fight, I devoted everything I had to this company without ever looking away!”
Herman looked up at Stephan without saying a word.
Riding the momentum, Stephan continued to pour out the words he had kept bottled up.
“Did I not tell you before? When you asked me what kind of person Regent Ferda was, I answered you this way: he is a man who can give everything.”
“……”
“That was not a mistake. I meant it sincerely. Do you know why? Because I believed that even if I handed the company over to that man, I could gain far more than what Father had built.”
“No matter what you appeal to, from where I stand, it only sounds as though you have been consumed by your emotions.”
“I do not care. When I was struggling, he ordered me to sabotage the Grand Duchy and responded when I did so. He said the Grand Duchy, not Pascal Trading Company. He accepted me as part of the Grand Duchy and helped me.”
Although he had once cruelly tried to cast Stephan out, he had been equally merciful.
Stephan made a vow then.
Everything depended on how he chose to set his heart.
“So let me make this perfectly clear.”
He threw down the final choice from which there could be no turning back.
“I will not step down from this position. I am the one running this company, and I will take responsibility for my choices. So if you intend to interfere with my decision!”
Bang!
“You will have to fight me prepared to sever all ties with me!”