Chapter 38
The greenhouse garden at House Estella, hailed as the finest in high society.
It was, so to speak, the heart of high society, where daughters and ladies of distinguished families gathered to exchange the latest trends and gossip.
Under normal circumstances, a fierce battle of wills would have unfolded over whose dress was more splendid or whose jewels were more dazzling.
But today, that was meaningless.
The moment the greenhouse doors opened and someone appeared, everyone's attention was drawn to the newcomer.
"Oh my."
"Who is that……?"
Lucia, known as the star of high society. A young lady whom even the ladies of the marquis's household looked up to.
Everyone knew she was beautiful—even a passing dog would have known it.
But today, Lucia's beauty was on an entirely different level.
The sunlight resting on her cheeks was more than simply white or smooth.
A subtle pearlescent glow seemed to rise from within her skin.
Flawless porcelain skin, with even the tiniest blemish or hint of redness perfectly concealed.
The eyes of the young ladies and noblewomen glittered with shock.
Could visual impact alone really rob people of their senses to this extent?
"L-Lady Lucia. You've arrived."
"How can your skin be so translucent? Are you using a new cosmetic?"
"Did you use magic or something……?"
The noblewomen rushed over and surrounded Lucia.
Forgetting decorum, they questioned her desperately, as though they would lose sleep if they failed to find out.
Even amid the barrage of questions, Lucia gave a faint smile.
She paused for a beat to keep them in suspense, then began speaking in a gentle voice.
"That's right. It's a new cosmetic."
"What's it called? I feel like I've never seen it before."
"I only learned about it recently. I received it as a special gift from someone very special."
Lucia proceeded to promote the cosmetic while pretending not to.
Naturally, it caused no skin trouble. Her makeup neither smudged nor clumped, no matter how much she sweated.
As time passed, it adjusted to her skin temperature and settled even more naturally.
Even its fragrance was an understated floral scent, free of any artificial quality.
Despite embellishing it by calling it practically a miracle of rejuvenation, the noblewomen could only let out entranced exclamations.
Finally, Lucia placed a hand on her cheek and smiled sweetly.
"Now that I've used this, I can't use any other cosmetics. I'm going to use only this from now on."
"W-Where can I get it?!"
"I want to know too!"
The noblewomen's voices trembled with impatience.
Lucia stifled a laugh to herself.
Things were unfolding exactly as that man had said they would, with the synergy between this cosmetic and the young lady.
"You can't get it from any merchant guild or workshop on the market."
"You mean it's not available on the market?"
"Then where on earth can we get it?"
Lucia hummed and deliberately drew out her words.
"I'm sorry. I can't tell you yet."
For a moment, the noblewomen's faces were colored with disappointment.
Then, as realization dawned, everyone's gaze changed.
A cosmetic shrouded in mystery. Not available on the market.
Even Lucia had said she couldn't use any other cosmetics and intended to use this one from now on.
All of it became a set of keywords that stimulated the nobles' possessiveness and vanity.
'If only I had that cosmetic, I could be like Lady Lucia.'
In an instant, everyone's thoughts converged on a single idea.
They had to get their hands on the cosmetic Lady Lucia used, no matter what.
No matter the cost. If only they could possess that miracle!
***
The Imperial Capital branch of Patrian, the merchant guild that dominated the Empire's commercial sphere. Its highest-grade VIP salon.
Normally, it should have been a place filled with classical music and quiet conversation.
"You don't know the cosmetic Lady Lucia used? Bring it out at once!"
Yet it had now become a chaotic scene resembling a marketplace.
"I'll pay whatever you ask! How much?"
"I never imagined Patrian's intelligence network was this useless!"
"You claim to be the Empire's number-one distributor of luxury goods! How can you not identify even one item Lady Lucia uses?!"
"M-Madam! Please calm down! We've been making inquiries as well, but we still haven't found any information……!"
"Honestly! I should go to the Astel Merchant Guild right now. They might have it."
The noblewomen of the marquis's household and the daughters of prominent families pressed the employees as though they were about to seize them by the collars.
The employees in charge of serving them sweated bullets, their faces pale.
They had suddenly poured in like a wave and demanded that the cosmetic Lady Lucia used be brought out?
"Ladies, this commotion is excessive."
On the marble staircase leading to the second floor of the salon, a cold voice drifted down into the room below.
A blue-haired woman came down, adjusting her gold-rimmed monocle.
She wore an immaculate suit and had an intelligent bearing. In her arms, she carried documents.
She was Irina, the executive director overseeing Patrian's Imperial Capital branch—in effect, its second-in-command.
The noblewomen who had been raging all backed down slightly at her appearance.
Irina, the cold-blooded merchant said to have neither blood nor tears. Her infamous reputation was well known throughout the Imperial Capital.
Irina approached with the click of her heels and bowed with perfect formality.
"We apologize for causing inconvenience to the customers who have visited Patrian. We are also currently doing everything in our power to determine the source of the product you mentioned."
She straightened and adjusted her gold-rimmed monocle.
"I assure you, there is no item anywhere in the Empire—not even at the Astel Merchant Guild—that Patrian cannot procure. Give us two days, and we will deliver good news."
The noblewomen snorted, but began to withdraw for the time being.
Once the salon had been brought somewhat under control, Irina shot the employees a cold glare.
The employees shrank beneath her reproachful gaze.
Click-
Irina ignored them and headed for her office.
The moment she closed the office door, the impassive face she had maintained creased into a frown.
"……Where is it?"
Irina slowly leafed through the neatly organized guild ledgers and distribution-network reports.
Though the matter was urgent, her obsessive neatness and mechanical way of handling work remained as consistent as ever. The only difference was that she was moving faster than usual.
"It's not here."
Her hands, which had been moving without pause, stopped.
There was no trace of such a cosmetic in any alchemical workshop or magic tower in the Empire, not even in the black-market ledgers of the back alleys.
According to the rumors she had heard, Lucia had received it as a gift from someone special.
Sharp intelligence flashed behind her monocle.
Ultimately, to learn its source, she would have to seek out Lucia rather than dig through the distribution network.
But approaching Lucia would not be enough.
Lucia, the star of high society, was not someone who could be easily manipulated.
Even if someone offered her billions, it would be futile unless Lucia herself was willing.
The secret of the cosmetic had remained hidden until now solely because Lucia had kept silent.
"It's no ordinary cosmetic."
Irina's merchant instincts, honed to the bone, caught the scent of money.
At this level of demand, it could drain every purse in the Imperial Capital.
Whoever seized the distribution rights to the mysterious cosmetic would monopolize the beauty market for the next year.
Yet at such a critical time, what was the master of Patrian doing?
"What a pathetic fool."
That incompetent guildmaster was hopelessly infatuated with Lady Lucia and obsessed with winning her favor by any means possible.
He had long since pushed the guild's affairs aside.
To make matters worse, he had pathetically ordered retaliation against House Cardenos.
―Block every item entering Cardenos completely. I need to crush that bastard's spirit!
To place such a petty personal conflict on the same scale as the guild's actual profits.
When Irina received that order, she had nearly grabbed the guildmaster by the collar.
To Patrian, House Cardenos was a colossal VVIP customer.
Eating into profits because of such trivial romantic entanglements and jealousy was the greatest possible disqualification for a merchant.
"If the guildmaster is an idiot, I have to act myself."
Irina gripped her pen so tightly it seemed she might snap it.
She had no desire to ask that pathetic man for help.
She decided to mobilize the guild's entire intelligence network and uncover the source herself.
And that night, in the branch director's office.
In the darkened room, Irina reviewed documents by the light of a single candle.
Tap-
A shadow slipped silently through the window and knelt before the desk.
It was a subordinate from an intelligence guild that Irina funded herself.
"Did you find out?"
"Yes, Director. It wasn't easy, but I bribed Lady Lucia's personal maid and barely managed to obtain a clue."
"Tell me."
The informant took a photograph from inside their coat and held it out. Irina accepted it.
"The day before Lady Lucia attended a salon gathering at House Estella, she met secretly with a man. When she returned home that day, she was reportedly holding a glass bottle that looked like a cosmetic."
The timing was perfect.
The glass bottle in the photograph had clearly been designed with care. It was short and squat, exactly like a cosmetic container.
"Lady Lucia met secretly with a man……"
Irina dispelled her fleeting thoughts and asked,
"So who was the man?"
At the informant's answer, Irina's emotionless pupils wavered.
For the first time, shock surfaced in her normally cold expression.
"……Young Master Astin?"
***
Grand Etoile, the finest restaurant in the Imperial Capital.
Irina pulled a wide-brimmed hat low over her head.
Instead of her usual flawless suit, she wore a plain brown coat as she entered.
Her disguise thoroughly concealed her identity as Patrian's executive director.
Her blue eyes swiftly and sharply surveyed the interior of the restaurant.
A table in the corner by the window.
A blond man sat there alone, holding a knife and fork as he sliced into a chicken.
It was rough fare unbecoming of someone of his noble status.
Irina took a deep breath to compose herself.
She slowly approached the seat across from him, quietly drew out the chair, and sat down.
"……."
Without lifting his head, the man continued sawing through the chicken breast.
"No one's joining me."
His voice was indifferent and dry. Irina somehow kept her agitation hidden.
That relaxed attitude. The table setting that had already been prepared.
Irina noticed an empty wineglass waiting on the table.
There was no reason for a glass to be set across from someone dining alone.
This man knew I would come.
Irina's thoughts deepened further.
Thinking back, the informant had obtained the information far too easily.
Bribing Lucia's maid might have been a trap deliberately set by them.
"You knew I would come."
Irina lightly removed her hat and set it down at one side of the table. Her intelligent eyes fixed directly on Astin.
Astin glanced at her. Instead of answering, he took a sip of wine.
An utterly relaxed attitude. The man capable of giving Lucia a special gift.
This was him. Astin himself was the owner of 'it.'
Irina maintained her poker face.
"You know exactly who I am, too."
Clack-
Astin lightly set down his wineglass.
For the first time, he looked Irina straight in the eye.
"I know you well. A commoner who rose to become the executive director of Patrian, and the right hand of that idiotic guildmaster."
The corner of his lips curled into a sardonic smile.
"Though you'll be cut loose soon enough."
"……."
Irina's gaze settled into stillness.
A right hand who would soon be cut loose.
Was it a bluff meant to gain the upper hand in their battle of wills?
If not, had he seen through her plans for independence?
It felt as though her heart were freezing.
She wanted to demand what he meant right away, but showing agitation would let him catch her out.
Irina clenched her fist beneath the table and hardened her expression.
Stab!
Astin drove his knife into the plump right leg. With a single thrust, the chicken leg came off.
"……."
Irina silently watched his actions.
He placed the severed chicken leg on his side plate, then speared the bulky body section with his fork.
Flop-
He threw the body piece into the trash can beneath the table.
The sound of it being shoved into the trash can rang out unusually loudly.
Irina's thoughts spun rapidly.
The leg left on the side plate. The discarded body.
That blatant metaphor, superimposed on her being his right hand.
Irina immediately erased the distracting thoughts.
She couldn't let herself be drawn into that man's rhythm. She had come here for another purpose.
Irina glanced down at her wristwatch before speaking.
"Time is short. I'll get straight to the point."
"Go ahead."
"The cosmetic in your possession, Young Master. Let Patrian distribute it."
Irina leaned forward and poured out her words with determination.
"I promise you the highest profit margin. Through Patrian's intelligence and distribution networks, we can dominate not only the Imperial Capital but the entire Empire in a single month."
"Patrian? With Cardenos?"
"I am aware that the guildmaster gave a careless order. However, I am the one handling operations. I will ensure you suffer absolutely no loss……"
"I'll get to the point, too."
Astin wiped the corner of his mouth with a table napkin. Then he pointed the knife he had been holding at Irina.
Though it wasn't even the tip of a sharpened sword, Irina's shoulder flinched.
"Patrian's guildmaster. You take his place."
"……Pardon?"
Irina's eyes, which had been concealing her agitation, widened.
This time, you couldn't hide your expression. Astin gave a short laugh and placed the knife on the table.
The greasy chicken leg was still sitting on the plate.
"You want it too, don't you? You want to get rid of that woman-obsessed guildmaster and take the helm."
Irina, the self-made villainess.
Astin firmly believed there was no business partner more capable than her.
"So use me. I'll make you guildmaster."
