Chapter 41
The Rosenthal representative took a leisurely seat at the empty place around the round table.
Until he sat down and leaned back against the chair, no one dared even breathe audibly.
"It's nice to see everyone being so quiet."
The representative said this as he removed his gloves and placed them on the tabletop.
His voice was low, but it was enough to take command of the meeting room.
The authority of the Grand Ducal House ruling the southern Empire rested upon his shoulders.
Irina surveyed the room with cold eyes.
Rosenthal had intervened, but that gave Ethan no grounds to brazen it out.
Contrary to Ethan's bluster, it was not over yet.
"Ethan. So in the end, you've agreed to be used."
Even if Rosenthal repaid the promissory notes, it would not solve everything.
It was no different from voluntarily putting Rosenthal's leash around his own neck.
"Better this than letting you lot take everything from me."
Keeping his title as guildmaster while serving as Rosenthal's lapdog was a hundred times better.
He must already have struck some sort of agreement with Rosenthal to leave him the shell of the guild.
Whether that benefited or harmed the guild, Ethan had no better option.
The executives began clearing their throats or groaning one by one.
The issue of the penalties and promissory-note repayments was far from resolved.
They wanted to hear a definitive solution from him.
"Um, Representative, sir."
Everyone's eyes turned toward the representative's lips.
The representative crossed his arms and raised his chin arrogantly.
"The Rosenthal family will provide special bailout financing to write off all of the guild's debts. In other words, we will pay the full value of the promissory notes Cardenos bought up in cash."
Rosenthal was a Grand Ducal House that monopolized commerce in the South.
Financially, it was a notch above Cardenos.
Repaying the notes was no difficult matter for Rosenthal.
At the representative's words, the elders' faces brightened. But a few quick-witted ones furrowed their brows.
Why would Rosenthal support a guild on the verge of collapse?
"Nothing in this world comes for free. In exchange for repaying the notes, I have concluded a contract with the guildmaster to sell Rosenthal a forty-percent stake in the guild. In addition, Rosenthal will receive exclusive rights to magic-stone distribution within the Imperial Capital for the next year."
The elders' expressions rippled once again.
Handing over forty percent of the guild meant effectively surrendering half its management control to Rosenthal. On top of that came the one-year exclusive rights to magic-stone distribution.
They calculated mentally, gauging how the contract with Rosenthal would affect them.
"Even so, Rosenthal is taking a loss. What would you gain from forty percent of a guild whose reputation has sunk to rock bottom? Magic-stone distribution rights aren't Patrian's core business, either."
It was not an incorrect observation.
Those who had already run the numbers privately questioned Rosenthal's motives.
"Even so, our reason for offering aid is simple. Patrian's image may be ruined, but its logistics and distribution networks and hubs across the Empire remain intact, don't they?"
Rosenthal had stepped in not for the guild's future, but solely to take its infrastructure for free.
Rosenthal had, after all, long since established hegemony over commerce in the South.
With a foothold in another region, it could expand its business on a much larger scale.
"For your information, the bailout financing comes with one condition. This is not a contract with the guild, but with Guildmaster Ethan. You understand the gist by now."
Rosenthal would provide funds only as long as Ethan remained guildmaster.
The expressions around the room turned somber. The penalty crisis was entirely Ethan's responsibility.
Yet they were displeased by the reality that they had to install him as guildmaster anyway.
But they had few alternatives.
"You've become a complete lapdog."
Irina said this with a hollow laugh.
Rosenthal's intent in deliberately making Ethan guildmaster was painfully transparent.
They wanted an incompetent lapdog.
They did not need a capable person to reform the guild. They needed an idiot who would hand over the guild's interests without a thought.
"Ethan. Is this the picture you wanted?"
"How shameless. Who deliberately engineered the bankruptcy? You're the one who ruined the guild, Irina."
Irina surveyed her surroundings without answering.
A guild ran on profit and trust. Most of the gazes were resentful and reproachful.
Irina's credibility, as the one who had caused the bankruptcy, had already been lost in this room.
Even knowing that, Irina lifted her chin.
"So, what are you going to do about the penalties?"
The penalties immediately before them had not gone away.
Even if they paid off the notes and avoided the guild's seizure, it would all be meaningless if they could not pay the noblewomen's penalties.
The representative tilted his head.
"Why are you asking me that? You must bear the penalties owed for failing to make the deliveries yourselves."
The expressions around the room hardened.
"Rosenthal is merely covering the urgent promissory notes. We have no obligation to buy back the goodwill of customers driven away by your incompetence."
Irina swallowed a private laugh.
If that happened, Rosenthal would not be able to defeat Cardenos. The cosmetics were in Astin's hands.
But.
This had now become irrelevant to Irina.
"Irina. You've served your purpose."
Ethan prodded her as if he had noticed her thoughts.
"For our guild and for Cardenos, too. Even that illustrious Young Master Astin will discard you. What are you going to do now? Have you prepared anything?"
Ethan's words were accurate. Once exposed as a spy, Irina had lost her value.
Astin would never quietly hand Patrian over to Rosenthal.
In the first place, they did not know that Astin was the one holding the cosmetics.
But, strictly speaking, they were 'Astin's' cosmetics.
Before, perhaps, but the Irina of today no longer had the right to swagger around under his protection.
Astin was a thoroughgoing pragmatist who moved solely for profit.
Once her identity as a spy was exposed, her value was gone. She could not even be used as a puppet.
Even without Irina, the Empire was full of merchants willing to wag their tails as lapdogs.
In the calculus of profit and loss, Irina had no choice but to be discarded.
Even exposing the existence of the cosmetics as a last-ditch struggle would be pointless.
She would merely spoon-feed them information so they could devise a way to check Astin. It would not even qualify as a last struggle.
"Ha."
Only a laugh escaped her in disbelief.
Cardenos and Rosenthal. In the battle between two whales, she had merely been used by both.
'We were both pieces on the board.'
She had known it from the start, but feeling it firsthand was a different kind of shock.
"Does anyone object to the motion to permanently expel Executive Director Irina?"
Ethan said this as he looked around.
No elder opposed it. They nodded and glared at Irina as if they wanted to kill her.
As Ethan looked at her, deep murderous intent flickered in his eyes.
Silently killing a commoner who had been cut loose from her backers would be easy for him.
Irina forced out a derisive laugh.
"If it's Cardenos, paying the penalties is nothing. If Cardenos is protecting me, what can you do to me?"
A merchant's basic trait was thick skin: even when cornered at the edge of a cliff, they found a way to survive.
In truth, even Irina lacked confidence as she said it.
Thinking that a Grand Ducal House would protect an ordinary individual was beyond arrogance; it was delusion.
No one here was unaware of that fact.
"Seems even you realize how absurd that sounds. You're a commoner, a traitor, and an incompetent fool who doesn't even know your tail's been stepped on. Why would Cardenos bother looking after you?"
"……."
"You've already been abandoned. Throwing a tantrum because you don't want to admit it is just like a commoner."
"The penalties are nothing, you say? You take Cardenos for a benevolent philanthropist. Are you still living in a child's dream?"
Ethan laughed, pounding the tabletop. Even the representative let out an unmistakably derisive laugh.
The elders and executives sided with the two of them as well.
They merely held their tongues, glaring at Irina with derision on their faces.
Not a single ally remained for her in the meeting room.
She had no grounds to feel wronged. This was a gamble Irina herself had made.
The die on which she had wagered her life had simply landed on the worst number.
In the cold reality before her, Irina envisioned what came next.
To survive, she had to seek refuge with Cardenos.
The foremost prerequisite was proving her worth.
'……Should I give up.'
But Irina had already fallen out of Astin's favor.
She had been caught without even knowing she had been recorded. She had also lost the guild's trust.
She had failed to take any action in the face of Rosenthal's unexpected move.
If one of her subordinates had done this, Irina would certainly have cut them loose without asking questions.
Astin, the heir apparent of a Grand Ducal House, would be even harsher.
'If he finds out I even arranged the betrayal…….'
Irina had schemed against Astin behind his back instead of facing Ethan.
In her arrogance, she had ignored the enemy before her and turned her blade toward some unrelated target.
This was the result.
If Astin learned the full story, she might be discarded—or even punished.
For being a presumptuous commoner who had insulted the heir apparent of a Grand Ducal House.
Irina closed her eyes in despair.
Rather than hope for help, she had to fear Cardenos.
'It's over.'
No escape route remained.
All that remained to her was figuring out how to stay alive.
Trying to rebuild would have to come later.
Bang!
It was then that the meeting-room door opened. Everyone's gaze turned toward the doorway at once.
The regular clack of dress shoes rang out. The clear footsteps reached Irina's ears.
Those footsteps... They sounded familiar.
When Irina turned her head, she saw the man's face.
The air in the meeting room froze solid. Everyone's attention fixed on one person.
Astin von Cardenos.
Irina merely stared at him in resignation.
Even if he had come here, her situation would not change.
"Young Master Astin. What brings you here?"
Amid the disorder, Ethan spoke first.
Then Rosenthal's representative drew attention with a cough.
"This is Patrian's elders' meeting room, where the guild's highest secrets are discussed. No matter how esteemed a Young Master you are, barging in here without permission is—"
"Shut your mouths."
A low, chilly voice pressed heavily down upon the meeting room.
"If you've seen the heir apparent of a Grand Ducal House, you should bow your heads first."
In the Empire's status-based society, the position of heir apparent to House Cardenos was absolute.
No matter how much money they had amassed, they could not erase their instinctive fear of nobles.
The elders rose from their seats one by one. They bowed toward Astin.
Even the representative, who had worn a displeased expression, bit his lip and bowed.
Though he carried the massive name of Rosenthal behind him, he was merely a representative.
By contrast, the man before them was the true-blooded heir who would inherit all of Cardenos. The weight he carried was entirely different.
Clack, clack.
Astin's footsteps stopped before Ethan, who held his chin stiffly high.
"What brings such an esteemed person here?"
Ethan straightened his back. The corners of his mouth lifted.
"Anyone watching would think I came here to pay you my respects."
Astin let out a laugh at how laughable it was.
A broad palm pressed down on Ethan's head. Ethan's head bowed.
"I didn't come to pay my respects. I came to drag you down."
Ethan involuntarily shut his mouth.
The Astin he had seen at the Founding Festival and the Astin standing here now felt like entirely different people.
Astin's intervention alone made the atmosphere settle heavily.
Could one person's presence really exert this much pressure?
The composure and bearing he displayed did not stem solely from the Grand Ducal House.
His very mettle was different—a force of spirit no mere money-grubbing merchant could dare face.
Astin walked straight past Ethan. Irina stood at the end of that path.
When his cold golden eyes fell on her, Irina reflexively lowered her head.
Astin's intervention had nothing to do with Irina anymore.
It was obvious he would pass her by as if she were a pebble, disappointed. Irina had not the slightest doubt of this.
Swish—
Astin's palm covered Irina's shoulder.
Her long eyelashes trembled. Irina barely opened her eyes.
"Straighten your shoulders, Irina."
Astin was looking at her with a warm smile.
His hand slowly moved lower. It came to rest atop Irina's trembling hands.
"Didn't we make a promise? That I would make you guildmaster."
"……."
A wolf in sheep's clothing.
Irina abandoned any foolish hope.
His smile was a calculated act for the eyes around them.
Astin pulled out the empty chair and sat down with ease.
He did not ask what was going on. He already seemed to know every detail.
"Guildmaster Ethan. Rosenthal representative."
His indifferent golden eyes swept over them.
"You messed with the wrong person."
It was a somewhat arrogant remark.
The representative gave an audible snort.
"You've been flaunting your status rather excessively, Young Master Astin."
The representative had dared provoke Cardenos's heir apparent without fear.
Everyone present, including the representative, interpreted Astin's words that way.
Astin cocked his head.
"What are you talking about? Who said they messed with me?"
How could they have touched someone who had only just arrived?
Astin muttered as he pointed at someone.
"Not me. Irina."
"……?"
Irina, the one he had pointed to, opened her eyes wide.