Why?

Young Master Astin had come forward to shield a mere commoner.

The representative's cold gaze swept back and forth between Astin and Irina.

Did he really care about Irina?

'That can't be.'

He was merely soothing and reassuring Irina in front of everyone.

It was probably because Irina had some sort of leverage over him.

"Tell us the real reason, Young Master Astin."

Having regained his composure, the representative calmly straightened his suit collar.

"If this is about the promissory-note repayments, you should be speaking with me."

Astin was merely a creditor who had bought up Patrian's promissory notes.

Even if that wasn't his purpose, he still had to go through Rosenthal.

Astin had come here knowing that.

"I have nothing to discuss with you."

So he was going to cling to his pride until the very end.

The representative gave a derisive snort.

"Rosenthal says it will repay the notes on your behalf. What exactly are you dissatisfied with?"

From a creditor's standpoint, there was no reason to dig in his heels when the debtor was offering to repay the money.

At that rate, there would have been no point in demanding repayment in the first place.

"I told you I came to get rid of you lot."

Swish—!

Several documents slid across the round table and spread out. Everyone's eyes were drawn to them.

Astin withdrew his outstretched hand and jerked his chin.

Those who had been gauging the situation picked up the documents one by one.

Dozens of seals were densely stamped across the documents.

Gasps of shock erupted from those who recognized the seals.

"I-Isn't this the seal of House Estella, the marquessate...?"

"It even has the seal of House Cavendish, the countship. Young Master, what is this......?"

"A petition signed by the Imperial Capital's high society to boycott Patrian."

The words left everyone's mouths hanging open.

"The guildmaster cheated and deceived everyone with goods that didn't even exist. It is only natural for high society as a whole to call for a boycott of Patrian."

Astin lightly tapped the tabletop with his finger.

"Even if we pay the penalties, what comes afterward will be the real problem."

The faces around the table turned ashen in an instant. The representative's mind began racing.

Could Young Master Astin really have incited the boycott all by himself?

Impossible. He could not have won over those proud noblewomen in so short a time.

Even Cardenos did not possess the authority to force them.

Then who could unite all of high society in such a short time?

Who could wield that much influence without coercion?

There was one person who had come to possess all that influence through beauty and admiration alone.

'Lady Lucia.'

She was the only person who could lead a boycott movement like this.

If there was a protagonist who enjoyed the protection of the entire world, not merely high society, it had to be Lucia.

'I heard about the incident at the Founding Festival, but for her to help this much......'

The representative's predatory gaze narrowed and settled on the seal stamped at the very top of the petition's first page.

As expected, it was Lady Lucia's seal.

"And."

Astin muttered the word briefly, then pulled a crisp sheet of paper from inside his coat.

Smack!

He placed it on the round table where everyone could see it.

"An exclusive distribution contract for Mermaid's Tears."

"...Pardon?"

"D-Don't tell me you mean that!?"

Astin nodded.

"Yes, the cosmetic Lady Lucia uses. It was developed directly by Cardenos."

The elders' eyes filled with a mixture of shock and greed.

The very cosmetic that had thrown high society into an uproar.

It had been developed by Cardenos of all places?

The representative stared blankly from Astin to the contract and back again.

He was not foolish enough to deny reality after seeing it with his own eyes.

'I feared as much.'

Cardenos was the one holding the rights to that cosmetic.

If so, this was a fight that could never have been won from the outset.

"With this, we won't even have to pay the penalties. Quieting the boycott movement before the end of today will be easy enough."

If the exclusive contract went through, the boycott and the penalties could be swept away cleanly.

However, there was no chance that Young Master Astin, holding such formidable rights, would willingly lend Ethan a hand.

Patrian's fate had come to hinge on a single man named Astin.

Having reached his decision, the representative rose from his seat with a rigid expression.

"W-What......?"

Ethan looked up at him in confusion.

The representative irritably fastened the button on his rumpled suit.

"As of this moment, Rosenthal's bailout financing is completely withdrawn."

Even with the cosmetics in hand, Ethan was bound to be cast aside in the end.

Ethan seemed to have realized his own situation as well, his eyes vacant.

The representative left the dazed Ethan behind and fixed his gaze on Astin. A hollow laugh escaped him before he knew it.

"Young Master Astin. I don't know what you want, but."

They had called him Cardenos's wastrel, but rumors were ultimately just rumors.

"It will be a poor choice. Take this advice from an elder to heart."

"I hope you step in a nice, squishy pile of dog shit on your way out."

Was even that vulgar, street-thug-like banter deliberate? Was he trying to make them let their guard down?

Feeling as if Astin were drawing him into his rhythm, the representative dismissed the thought.

"We'll meet again."

There was no reason for him to remain here any longer.

The representative left the meeting room through the main doors after giving a brief bow.

As his footsteps faded into the distance, Astin turned his gaze away from him and looked at Ethan.

"Anything else to show me besides Rosenthal?"

"You bastard...."

Ethan glared back and forth between Astin and Irina with eyes blazing with fury.

"You intend to make Irina guildmaster until the very end. This whole thing was rigged from the start! You planned to set Irina up as guildmaster so you could swallow Patrian whole!"

Drive out the incumbent guildmaster, install a puppet, and control the guild from behind the scenes.

It was an extremely common tactic among merchants.

Ethan himself had volunteered to be Rosenthal's puppet in the first place.

No matter how loudly Ethan barked, no one was willing to listen to him.

"Nonsense. How could I use Irina? If anything, it would be the other way around."

Question marks appeared over everyone's heads at once.

Ethan, the directors, and the elders all had their thoughts grind to a halt, but Irina's thoughts stopped most of all.

Astin meant that Irina was too capable for him to use.

Even granting that Irina was highly capable, it was an outrageous thing for a Grand Duke's heir to say.

Flinch!

Irina's shoulder twitched when her eyes met Astin's.

"Director Irina. Our negotiations are still unresolved, aren't they? Though I'm the one putting them on hold."

Irina's blue eyes trembled faintly.

Negotiations? They had spoken before, but nothing about it had taken the form of a negotiation.

Especially not one that could be brought up in a public place like this.

Astin picked up the parchment lying across the tabletop. It was the exclusive distribution contract for Mermaid's Tears.

The meaning of his action was unmistakable.

"Don't tell me...."

"Young Master Astin! Did you discuss a contract with Director Irina?"

"Since everyone is gathered here, let me tell you the result of the final approval."

Astin slid the contract across the round table once more.

"I will transfer the exclusive distribution rights specified in this contract to Patrian Merchant Guild."

"What!?"

"Young Master! Is that really true!?"

Instead of answering, Astin made a subtle gesture for them to read the contract first.

"Read from the next page."

The elders brightened and scrambled to examine the contract. Their mouths soon fell open.

"C-Could this possibly be real......?"

"Um, Young Master. Is there perhaps a mistake in these figures...?"

The stated distribution margin was beyond common sense. If this was an unfair contract, then it was certainly unfair.

It was overwhelmingly favorable to Patrian, while Cardenos was giving up part of its profits.

"There is no mistake. That's correct."

"This is, this is correct?"

"It makes no sense. Why offer such extraordinary terms?"

"Young Master! You really mean there isn't a mistake?"

The contract terms were absurdly favorable to Patrian.

Because they could not believe what they were seeing, suspicion came before joy.

"However."

Astin raised his index finger.

"There is one absolute clause required for these terms to remain valid. Look at the very bottom of the contract."

The elders' eyes all turned toward the bottom of the contract.

[This exclusive distribution contract shall be valid only when 'Irina' is the person ultimately responsible for Patrian Merchant Guild; upon any change of representative, it shall be immediately terminated and penalties claimed.]

"As I said, I have been negotiating with the executive director in secret for the past few days. During that process, I realized something."

There was a reason Astin was going this far.

In the original story, Irina was discarded by the merchant guild and built a major guild of her own within two or three years.

But he did not have that much time.

Choosing to put Patrian aside and take only Irina would mean sacrificing time in place of money.

Before the Ashen Forest expedition, he needed to arrange the cosmetic distribution and expedition supplies as quickly as possible.

Only with Irina as the head of an established merchant guild could they meet the deadline.

And if he could solidify her position on top of that, so much the better.

He had given up part of the profits, but it was clearly worth that much.

"If some lowlife were selling it, he'd be busy lining his own pockets. This woman is different. I'm certain the absolute profit would be far greater with Irina than with anyone else, even after conceding some of the margin."

"......Pardon?"

Irina inadvertently let out a foolish sound. Her face remained completely blank with shock.

From a mere spy or puppet,

he was recasting Irina as a genius merchant whom even a Grand Duke's heir could not help but acknowledge.

'Why......?'

Astin's intention was obvious. He was trying to solidify Irina's position within the guild.

That was precisely why she could not understand it at all.

She absolutely had no right to be treated this way.

Everything she had shown of her worth until now had plummeted to rock bottom.

An incompetent business partner whose tail had been caught without even knowing she was being recorded.

A discarded piece who had failed to distinguish friend from foe and had done nothing in response because she had thrust her blade at the wrong target.

She ought to have been discarded, yet he was cutting into his own profits for Irina's sake.

What possible reason could he have to save her?

"What will you do now?"

Even as Irina looked at him with confusion, Astin calmly continued what he had to say.

"Decide here and now. Does everyone agree to Irina becoming guildmaster?"

"That's absurd!"

Bang!

Ethan slammed the tabletop and shot to his feet. His face flushed purple-red.

"This guild was built by my grandfather! Who gives you the right to drive me out whenever you please!?"

Whether he barked or not, no one around the table paid him any attention.

"Young Master Astin is right! Of course Director Irina should become guildmaster!"

"Good heavens—how could we still call her Director Irina? Guildmaster Irina, of course!"

"Hah! Congratulations on your appointment as Guildmaster Irina!"

Clap, clap, clap!

Before long, the meeting room was filled with applause.

The elders rose to their feet and applauded, while Astin clapped indifferently from his seat.

Ethan was the only one out of step with the mood. He stared blankly into space, utterly dumbfounded.

Irina was just as stunned.

"......"

Relief at being saved? No.

Joy at achieving the lifelong wish she had yearned for? That wasn't it either.

Irina could not escape the vague question weighing on her more heavily than any sense of accomplishment.

"......Why?"

Her voice was swallowed by the applause.

Thorough profit-and-loss calculations, weighing every equation.

For Irina, who had lived her entire life that way, Astin's treatment of her was incomprehensible.

He had chosen to favor someone worthless over the option that promised the greatest profit.

"……!"

A faint smile touched Astin's lips as his gaze returned to her.

His eyes held trust without a hint of suspicion.

Irina hurriedly lowered her head.

She could not possibly meet his eyes. No—she did not even have the right to.

She had distrusted Astin until the very end.

She had prepared herself to plunge a knife into his back at any moment.

Using the ugly excuse that she was doing it to survive as her shield.

'If this is how things turn out, I......'

Irina bit down hard on her bloodless lips.

The contingency she had hidden away in anticipation of betraying him had now become guilt tightening around her throat.

She was a thoroughly pathetic and despicable person.

Irina could not raise her head until the very end.