Chapter 34
Bang-!
The antique, lavishly decorated office of the Patrian guildmaster.
"Astin! You goddamn bastard……!"
Murderous intent flickered in Guildmaster Ethan's eyes.
He simply couldn't forget the events of the Founding Festival not long ago.
Lucia, his one and only love and the star of high society.
The Crown Prince, the second son of the northern grand ducal house, and even the vice tower master had lined up to win Lucia's favor.
Yet in the midst of all that, a notorious wastrel had barged in and overturned everything.
Lucia's smile, her tender gaze, and even the attention of countless gossips.
Astin had monopolized all of it. How dare that wastrel bastard, who wasn't even the Crown Prince.
"How dare a punk like you lay a hand on my Lucia, my woman……!"
Crash-!
Ethan angrily swept the documents and ink bottle off his desk.
Even when black ink stained the carpet, his fury did not cool.
He was supposed to be the one holding Lucia's hand, matching her steps as they danced, and creating that dreamy atmosphere.
"Astin. That libertine bastard must have threatened Lucia."
It was a firm conviction he had held from the beginning.
Otherwise, there was no way Lucia would have chosen Astin of her own accord.
Astin had left a blemish on Lucia's perfect reputation.
Ethan had not merely taken it lying down.
He had immediately used his authority as guildmaster to cut off the entire distribution network connecting Patrian to Cardenos.
Patrian was the largest merchant guild in the Empire.
No matter how powerful a grand ducal house was, Patrian's retaliation was bound to be devastating.
But even that was only a temporary blow.
Other competing merchant guilds had seized the opportunity and rushed to sign contracts with Cardenos.
In terms of actual losses, Patrian alone had borne the full brunt of them.
It was a personal vendetta he had forced through despite sacrificing a fair portion of the guild's profits.
Not only had the guild suffered enormous losses, but Ethan's position as guildmaster had also been shaken.
He had given up a bone to take flesh. Even so, Ethan did not regret his choice in the slightest.
"Lady Lucia, please wait for me. I'll save you from Astin……"
For Lucia's sake, he could give up a mere merchant guild without hesitation.
By the same token, he could sacrifice everything to bring Astin down.
How could he crush that insolent face?
Ethan gnawed anxiously at his nails, sinking into deep contemplation.
What he truly wanted was not the downfall of House Cardenos.
It was Astin's personal, endless downfall.
***
"—That's what he's thinking, no doubt. Knowing him."
Patrian had recklessly picked a fight with Cardenos.
When I first heard the news, I was less shocked than dumbfounded.
It was obviously retaliation carried out because of the guildmaster's personal grudge.
Ethan was a persistent snake bastard.
As long as I kept associating with Lucia, he was bound to cling to me until the very end.
But he had crossed the line from the outset—and then gone far beyond it.
"This is a splendid opportunity."
As it happened, I needed a great merchant guild to lay the foundation for the Ashen Forest expedition.
A merchant guild with continent-wide credit, along with the financial backing and distribution network to match.
Naturally, Patrian was my first choice.
If I could bring Ethan down and swallow Patrian whole, nothing could be better.
By now, the guild's elders and his close associates must have been fed up with him. There could be no better opportunity.
'Ethan has been an incompetent guildmaster from the start. He isn't qualified.'
A useless leech who had inherited a merchant guild passed down for four generations and was guildmaster in name only.
In the romance-fantasy novel, his role was to highlight Lucia's intellectual beauty as the male lead.
If Ethan was Nobita, then Lucia was Doraemon.
Ethan would face the threat of losing the merchant guild, cry and beg for help, and Lucia, softhearted as she was, would have no choice but to help him.
Of course, she didn't merely help him; she also took a share of the merchant guild.
'In the original story, the villainess lost, and Ethan won.'
I already had someone else in mind as the ideal guildmaster.
She was normally the 'villainess' who would become Lucia's enemy, but……
At this point, we were still complete strangers.
As a merchant, I valued her abilities highly.
If I put her in the guildmaster's seat and partnered with her in business, securing funds for military expenses would be a done deal.
Iron ore, dried rations, magical artifacts, and more. The supplies needed for the expedition would also be supplied without limit.
Most importantly, I needed her power to turn the cosmetics I would make into a sustainable source of funds.
If that happened, Rosenthal's economic retaliation would be reduced to a mere nuisance.
I headed to the workshop directly under House Cardenos.
The plan to seize the merchant guild would begin with a single cosmetic.
Not just a mere cosmetic, but one that would rake in money from across the Empire.
Screeech—
The moment I opened the iron door, the smell of medicinal herbs hit me.
"Young Master! You're here!"
A man with terrible dark circles under his eyes staggered toward me from the corner.
It was Kyle.
"You look awful. I told you to take it easy."
His dark circles were pronounced, yet he looked strangely happy.
Kyle was a workaholic who left everyone speechless.
For him, immersing himself in concocting medicine at the expense of sleep was happiness.
Since he was destined to die from overwork, I obviously couldn't let that happen.
"You have to sleep at least eight hours a day. If you can't, I'll kick you out."
"Uh……"
"Answer me."
"Y-Yes, sir."
"I'll assign a supervisor too. Don't just take little naps—get proper, deep sleep."
"Yes!"
"Good. How is the medicine production coming along?"
"It's going well, thanks to all the support you've given us. It's all thanks to your kindness, Young Master."
The Ashen Forest was lethally dangerous because of its demonic energy and deadly poisons.
So, before the expedition, I had ordered Kyle to mass-produce antidotes.
Besides his apprentices, I had assigned several specialists under him and poured a considerable amount of manpower into the project.
Bang!
"Apothecary! My body still hasn't returned to normal!"
Suddenly, the storeroom door flew open, and Jenkins burst out. I frowned the moment I saw him.
Fluorescent light was pouring from Jenkins's body. The workshop's dim lighting made it even more blinding.
"Young Master! You're here!"
Jenkins saw me and bowed deeply. He was practically a human lamp.
"Is that a side effect?"
"Yes. It shouldn't be life-threatening."
"Are you sure?"
"To be honest, I don't know."
!?
I had heard that things were progressing smoothly because they had Jenkins as a test subject.
If he had been uncooperative, I would have taught him a lesson, but fortunately, he listened well.
'How many rings would you have to weave to shine that brightly?'
He looked brighter than I had when I wove eight rings in my previous life.
"Hey. Get outside. You're blinding me."
"Yes, sir!"
Jenkins went outside before the words had even left my mouth.
Kyle could deal with the side effect. I decided to stop worrying about it.
"The antidote and special mana recovery potion you ordered are both being mass-produced without issue."
Kyle continued speaking as he looked through his notebook.
"We subdivided every step of the compounding process, from processing the ingredients to bottling, and our speed has improved considerably. Our total daily production has risen from 300 to 500 tablets. We can definitely meet the required quantity before the expedition."
"Good. That should be enough."
It wasn't factory-scale production, but the results were more than satisfactory.
He really was a genius from the start.
Progress on the essential supplies was much faster than I had expected.
'At the cost of my fortune being cut in half.'
Money could be earned again soon enough.
The reason I had come here was to make a fortune in the first place.
"Keep producing the antidotes as you are. You and I will make a separate prototype—just one."
"A prototype? Do we need something new for the expedition?"
"No. Cosmetics."
"C-Cosmetics?"
Kyle's eyes widened until they looked ready to pop out.
Tell anyone that an expedition on a massive scale was about to depart, then tell them to make cosmetics, and anyone would be bound to react that way.
But that was a reaction born only from ignorance of this world.
"What's there to be surprised about? Apothecaries handle cosmetics too."
"That's true, but……"
This was a romance-fantasy world.
The amount noble ladies poured into dresses, beauty, and the latest trends in high society was astronomical.
A single unique-grade cosmetic, monopolized and sold, would earn dozens of times more money than selling a few potions.
Rosenthal and Patrian had the distribution networks in their grip? Let them do so to their heart's content.
"Let's look through the raw-materials warehouse. Bring me pearl powder, a lower-grade slime-mucus extract, and Silverleaf Tree sap."
I took my place in front of the workbench and rolled up my sleeves.
Kyle brought the ingredients over, looking half skeptical.
He still didn't seem to trust me, but that only strengthened my resolve.
"Watch carefully and learn. If I keep explaining everything, we'll only waste even more material."
The development of Pearl Cream, Mermaid's Tears.
Originally, this was something Kyle would invent by chance and use to turn the Empire's high society upside down.
When this cosmetic first appeared in the world, even the most imperious empress in the Empire took a keen interest in it.
Later, after Lucia began using it, it spread beyond the Empire and across the continent.
As a joke, people even said it was used in the demon realm.
'Sorry, but I need to make use of it.'
The man who had originally invented it was right beside me, but I could make it up to him by taking good care of him.
For the record, I remembered this cosmetic's recipe because of Selena and Celin.
It was when I was preparing to return several years after leaving the family.
Unable to face my family as I was, I prepared gifts for each of them.
For the two of them, cosmetics I had made myself.
I thought cosmetics sold on the market lacked sincerity, so I made them personally.
Celin was a noble young lady devoted to cultivating her appearance, and she valued sincerity more than price.
Selena, too, had taken an interest in cosmetics, though she never showed it openly.
I had hoped that if I told them I had personally made effective cosmetics for them, I would grow closer to the two of them.
"……Young Master?"
"Ah, right. Let's begin."
I forced my thoughts aside and faced reality.
***
After meeting privately with the head of the family, Selena returned to her room.
It was her first time back in her room in several months.
A bed, a desk, and a wardrobe. It contained only what was necessary, with nothing more.
The interior was excessively modest and bare for the private room of a grand duke's daughter.
To Selena, aesthetics were nothing more than empty, frivolous luxury.
Rustle-
Selena resumed unpacking her luggage.
She had only just returned from the North that day.
She had suffered no serious injuries, but the state of both her hands was ghastly.
Every time she moved her hands, the cracked and split wounds opened, and beads of blood formed.
Though they hurt and stung, she unpacked her belongings and gathered them together without changing her expression.
She could have ordered a servant to do it, but this was due to Selena's pathological compulsion.
She could never bear anyone touching her belongings—especially her weapons.
Unlike a certain someone, who couldn't do anything on his own without his family name, Selena had accomplished much on her own.
―Thank you for coming back alive!
Crunch!
Her teeth clenched at the unpleasant memory.
A single sarcastic remark that grated on her nerves.
Had that bastard wanted me to die there? He surely had.
To him, she must have been a rival who had come hot on his heels.
"……I am the head of the family."
The words slipped out in a mutter before she realized it.
After finishing with her luggage, Selena sat on the edge of the bed to catch her breath.
Her face was reflected in the vanity mirror some distance away.
Selena's face had grown terribly gaunt.
Red, chapped lips and cracked, rough skin.
It was the result of working herself to the bone day and night while facing the biting northern winds head-on.
Swish-
She carefully brushed her cheek with her fingertips.
The roughened texture came through in full. It stung as well.
"……"
She subtly turned her gaze away from the mirror.
Damaged skin did not make her sword any duller.
Grooming one's appearance and dressing up was something only sheltered noble ladies of high society did.
She would hone her martial prowess and earn recognition as the heir.
That was the eldest daughter Selena's sole purpose and value.
"……Hah."
Even so, was she still a woman?
She regarded the rough calluses from wielding a sword as medals, but she couldn't help seeking some form of consolation for her damaged face.
Selena could not take her eyes off the mirror for a long time.