Chapter 39
In the original, the "villainess" title attached to Irina was a misnomer.
The guildmaster was a man so obsessed with women that he was on the verge of running the guild into the ground.
In other words, she had led the board's move to remove the chairman in order to save a company on the brink of bankruptcy.
A perfectly reasonable course of action.
She hadn't even used her subordinates as human shields in the process.
She took full responsibility, and when the coup failed, she bore the full brunt of the aftermath.
Irina wasn't a villainess, but an eminently sensible woman.
More than that, she was a career woman who knew how to love her work and an intellectual willing to stand up against injustice.
"I rate your worth very highly. Ethan, by comparison, is an idiot who doesn't even come up to your toes."
That stupid bastard Ethan was the real villain.
In the original, Irina ultimately failed in her coup.
She was ruthlessly discarded, became penniless, and ended up wandering the back alleys.
It was at the bottom that her true worth shone.
With nothing but her business acumen and perseverance, Irina built a merchant guild as massive as Patrian's in just two or three years.
Knowing full well that future, did I really look like I would let Irina slip away?
Irina would become an even greater aide than Kyle—my finest assistant.
"Cardenos's eldest son made the offer first. Are you still going to sit there and stare blankly?"
At this point.
I reached out toward Irina.
"You becoming guildmaster on your own would be difficult. But if I stand behind you, that's a different story."
The Ashen Forest expedition absolutely required an ally who could continually provide funds and control the supply lines.
Irina was a masterpiece indispensable to the expedition.
"……So, then."
Irina finally managed to speak.
"What do you gain from this, Young Master?"
Irina handled everything according to cold calculation.
Even now, her eyes were gauging what motive had brought me to her.
"The credibility of a capable guildmaster. No—let's call it trust."
"……."
She looked thoroughly unconvinced.
Then again, no matter how highly Irina rated herself, she would still fall short by my standards.
In Young Master Astin's eyes, she was to be a puppet, or a figurehead.
She was probably thinking something like this:
"You intend to use me."
See?
It was simply unfortunate that she wouldn't believe me no matter what I said.
I deliberately shrugged.
"Perhaps. But you're not the sort to let yourself be used meekly, either."
I waved my outstretched hand up and down.
If this was the Irina I knew, she'd take the bait even while knowing it was a trap.
"Make a choice you won't regret, Irina."
She wasn't going to let herself be used without a fight.
That was surely what Irina was thinking.
***
Patrian's Imperial Capital branch.
The executive director's office, into which no one was permitted to enter.
Click-
After locking the door, Irina collapsed onto the sofa.
Her back, always ramrod straight, was hunched now.
"Haa……."
Even the monocle that was never out of alignment had tilted to one side.
Irina irritably flung it onto the desk.
Covering her face with her cold hands, she rubbed it dryly.
―You want it too, don't you? You want to oust that woman-crazy guildmaster and take the helm yourself.
The man's voice clinging to her ears refused to fade.
The golden eyes glaring at her were vivid before her.
Irina slowly lowered her hands from her face.
Both hands were trembling uncontrollably.
Was it a tremor from the release of tension? Or the joy of finally reaching the goal she had craved all her life?
Even she couldn't clearly define it.
―Make a choice you won't regret, Irina.
To Irina, betrayal was the result of a cost-benefit calculation.
Removing the woman-crazy guildmaster was, in her view, the right thing to do.
But just because something was right did not mean the world would proceed correctly.
She could not simply let things follow their natural course.
One had to "make" them right.
That was the privilege of the powerful, and the aspiration of those who sought great power.
"……Young Master Astin."
The heir to the Grand Ducal House of the West—Cardenos's firstborn son.
With him as her backer, her plan might succeed. She could make a wrong thing right.
But precisely because he was Cardenos's heir, he was dangerous.
He was no philanthropist.
Astin would use Irina, and Irina would use Astin. They would each secure their own interests.
On the surface, it might look like a symbiotic relationship in which they used each other, but reality was different.
He was Young Master Astin. She could never regard him as her equal.
"Was this the right thing to do?"
Irina had become one of Astin's cards. A disposable card he could play and discard at any time.
If things succeeded, he would see things through with Irina to the end; if they went awry, Irina would be discarded.
Gulp-
She felt the weight of a dry swallow going down.
―You're not going to let yourself be used meekly, either.
As Astin had said, she had no intention of meekly letting herself be used.
Rather, she had joined hands with Astin intending to use his position.
Whether that would really be possible……
Suddenly, she found her own anguish unfamiliar.
They said that if you stabbed Irina, the executive director of Patrian, mercury rather than blood would flow.
Everyone who knew Irina said so in unison.
A merchant magnate who pursued only practical gain and profit, keeping her wits in the face of any variable.
To rise to this position bearing the stigma of common birth, she had shed only ink from her pen.
Blood and tears were worthless to her.
She had never wavered through dozens, hundreds of negotiations with nobles. The rivals she had trampled to climb higher alone would make a mountain.
Precisely because she had always been that way, it was difficult to acknowledge her wavering feelings.
"Haa……."
Her thoughts were tangled together like a spiderweb.
Oust the guildmaster and take his place. Become Patrian's true owner, rather than merely the power behind it.
It was a choice fraught with that much danger.
Even if mercury flowed through her veins, her emotions had not frozen solid.
Irina was vaguely afraid.
If she failed, dismissal from the guild was a foregone conclusion.
Even if she succeeded, she was highly likely to be used by that Young Master.
"……No."
Irina slowly clenched both hands into fists.
The die had already been cast.
It was too late to calculate the gains and losses of her choice.
-I look forward to working with you, Guildmaster Irina.
A bad move that might cost her life.
She didn't care if she died. She had already steeled herself for that.
A merchant was meant to stake their life and reap enormous profits in return.
***
Patrian's Imperial Capital branch, VIP salon.
"Guildmaster! When on earth is that item coming in?"
"My daughter hasn't eaten or drunk anything for days. She's making a scene, saying she absolutely won't attend high society without that cosmetic!"
"I'll pay any premium you ask! Please deliver it to our family first!"
The ladies and young ladies of the Empire's most powerful noble families.
They would normally have acted haughty, but now they had forgotten their dignity and were clinging to one man.
At the center stood Ethan, the guildmaster of Patrian.
He barely managed to conceal his grin as he listened to the uproar around him.
'I never imagined it would have this much impact already.'
The cosmetic known only to Lucia. Its impact had far exceeded even Ethan's expectations.
A money fiend like him would never miss such an enormous opportunity.
Ethan dramatically raised both arms.
"Please, everyone, remain calm. Didn't the guildmaster of Patrian make you a promise?"
At his voice, the salon fell deathly silent.
Eager faces turned toward Ethan.
"Which merchant guild possesses the Empire's number-one distribution and intelligence networks? Patrian, of course. There is nothing in this world that money cannot buy, and no item that can escape Patrian's intelligence network."
"Then you can get that cosmetic?"
"It's not merely a matter of getting it. We're aiming for an exclusive monopoly."
At Ethan's words, the salon grew noisy again. But this time, it was different.
It was not the frantic uproar of before, but the admiring exclamations the guildmaster had intended to provoke.
"Soon, we will supply it without limit under the Patrian name."
It was a blatant lie.
They hadn't even identified where the cosmetic came from, let alone what ingredients it contained.
But it didn't matter. Figuring that out was only a matter of time.
"Have you all heard the rumor?"
At that moment, a noblewoman was standing at the front of the salon.
An informant Irina had planted covered her mouth with a fan and let the words slip.
"I hear Lady Lucia is looking for a business partner to distribute the cosmetic before the dinner next week. They say she's already reached out to the Astel Merchant Guild, too……."
Ethan's brow twitched at those words.
Lucia was looking for a partner? Could it be the Astel Merchant Guild?
It was the moment Ethan's vanity and impatience caught fire.
'I alone should be the one at Lady Lucia's side. How dare Astel even think it can reach for her?'
Ethan cleared his throat theatrically, drawing everyone's attention.
"I make you all this promise: in Patrian's name, I will deliver it to every one of you before the dinner next week."
His boast spiraled out of control, and he even nailed down the delivery deadline.
Even if she turned up her nose and tried to join hands with another guild, it didn't matter.
'All I have to do is use these enormous advance payments to buy up every workshop and distribution network in the Imperial Capital. Once I choke off the supply of ingredients, even Lady Lucia will have no choice but to reveal the secret formula.'
To Ethan, a blank check was a means of extortion backed by capital.
He believed there was nothing money couldn't buy, and that even a person's heart could be bent with money.
If we monopolize it, it'll benefit Lucia too.
If we monopolize the production line, the incentives Lucia receives will be enormous.
He knew Lucia wasn't someone who could be moved by money alone.
But with financial pressure and their special relationship added together, even Lucia wouldn't be able to refuse.
As luck would have it, he had also heard she was looking for a business partner.
"No matter how unlimited the supply, the initial quantity will inevitably be limited. So, might I offer the premium product first to those willing to put down an advance?"
"Ten platinum coins here! I'll reserve two sets, including one for my daughter!"
"I'll pay ten million shillings! Put my name at the very top of the ledger!"
"Out of the way! We're a marquess's family! We'll pay whatever you ask, so bring ours first!"
The noblewomen thrust checks and gold coins forward in a frantic competition.
As he watched the money pile up before him, Ethan's mouth stretched from ear to ear.
"In order, in order! Hey, what are you waiting for? Bring the ledger and record them immediately!"
The employees watching the scene hesitated.
They approached Ethan and whispered.
"Guildmaster, we haven't even determined what the product is yet, have we? Is it really all right to accept such enormous advance payments so readily……?"
"You need to call this off, even now. If we can't obtain it by the promised deadline, the penalties……."
Ethan scoffed.
"Do you think I don't know that? The Patrian name itself is credit, and everyone in the Imperial Capital knows about Lucia and me. Besides, we need to secure cash by taking the advance payments, so we can use that money to uncover the cosmetic's secret formula or buy an entire workshop!"
"……."
"Stop your needless chatter and record the advances in the ledger. These advance deposits alone exceed a year's revenue for the guild."
Ethan pushed them aside and turned around.
His hand never wavered as he stamped the documents while accepting the enormous advance payments.
'With this money, I can bring the Cardenos bastards—especially that Astin bastard—to their knees.'
Ethan began plotting inwardly.
How could he use this money to deal Cardenos a devastating blow?
If he distributed it as political funds to Cardenos's enemies in the Imperial Court, or used money to choke off the supply routes into the western territories……
The corners of Ethan's mouth rose on their own as he pictured Astin's despair.
Ethan's delusion did not end there.
There was nothing money couldn't buy. Even people's hearts could be purchased.
If something couldn't be bought, he only needed to consider whether he hadn't offered enough money.
Starting as Lucia's business partner and ending as her lover, Ethan painted a rosy future in his mind.
In the end, Ethan was a merchant, and he blindly believed in the power of money.
***
At that moment.
A gaze surveyed the VIP salon from the second-floor balcony.
"Hah-"
Irina raised her gold-rimmed monocle and sighed.
The scene below was both a comedy and a tragedy.
The guildmaster was frantically raking in advance payments without realizing he was digging his own grave.
That boast about unlimited supply would soon become a noose tightening around his neck.
'It's humiliating to have that man as my superior.'
She withdrew her gaze and slipped a hand inside her clothes.
Her fingertips touched a small magic stone with a blue sheen.
It was a communication stone used discreetly by a handful of informants.
She fed it a faint trickle of mana, and the communication stone began to vibrate softly.
[How are things.]
A dry, low male voice came from it. It was Young Master Astin.
"As expected. He took the bait."
Irina reported in a low voice, keeping her emotions out of it.
"He's collecting advance payments from the Imperial Capital's nobles. He's even set the delivery deadline for next week's dinner."
A quiet chuckle came through the communication stone.
[Starting today, I'll buy up every Patrian promissory note in circulation.]
Merchant guilds inevitably issue promissory notes to move enormous sums of money.
What if someone monopolized those notes and demanded immediate repayment on every one of them at the same time?
And what if that were compounded by a wave of advance-payment refunds and penalties owed to the noblewomen?
Patrian's finances would be wiped out in a single day, leading to a chain of defaults.
It was the most legal and most inhumane method available to merchants.
Of course, Patrian was the largest merchant guild in the Empire.
The value of its promissory notes in circulation must be astronomical—too vast even to estimate.
"Young Master, I understand that the principal can be recovered through the note purchases, but—"
Irina continued in a whisper.
"The Patrian promissory notes in circulation are so enormous that they can't even be estimated. Even for the Grand Ducal House, mobilizing that much cash in a lump sum would be difficult."
[Don't worry about the funds. We can put Cardenos's credit and the great mines in the West up as collateral. And……]
We also have the military funds provided by the Imperial Family.
Astin stopped there.
[In any case, our money supply won't run dry. Trust me.]
If Young Master Astin was so categorical, he must have had something up his sleeve.
"Understood. I'll begin my part of the operation as well."
[All right. Good work.]
Click-
The communication ended abruptly.
Irina slipped the communication stone, now drained of its blue glow, back inside her clothes.
She slowly lowered her gaze and watched the situation below.
Ethan was still grinning happily in the salon.
"Laugh while you can, Guildmaster."
Exactly one week remained until the Imperial Capital's greatest merchant magnate lost his head.
But dealing with Ethan would not be the end.
Irina looked beyond that.
'I have to deal with Young Master Astin.'
From the very beginning, he had intended to use her to seize control of the guild.
Once this was over, Astin would become an adversary far more formidable than Ethan.
Irina treated that projected future as the reality that awaited her.
She did not need a shield to stop Astin. If she tried to block him clumsily, he would only turn the tables on her.
Another blade—or a self-destruct switch.
Irina decided to make her move before he betrayed her.