Chapter 65
Einar’s question was thrown out casually.
Someone causing such a disturbance must desperately need this part.
A part with no artistic value, that couldn’t be bought low and sold high, and had poor liquidity – they could probably spare that.
And since she had asked for the part to be brought, didn’t that show her intention?
But Riina denied it without hesitation.
“No.”
At this unexpected answer, even the manager who had been pretending not to hear their conversation widened his eyes before quickly bowing his head with an ‘oops’ expression.
Einar chuckled as he pulled the list from her grasp.
“Then why?”
“To take the part with me.”
At her answer that suggested ‘why ask something so obvious,’ Einar suppressed a laugh.
“A foolish question got a wise answer.”
Soon after, the part came into Riina’s hand.
“I apologize, it’s not properly packaged…”
“It’s fine. I’ll take it as is.”
Riina handled the part, small enough to fit in one hand, glanced toward the large man, and immediately started walking.
Behind her as she walked alongside Einar, the man’s shouts could still be heard.
* * *
After the commotion at the auction house ended, Hans faced Jane.
At the Bolshevik residence, of all places.
Naturally enough, Jane as a shadow couldn’t leave the Bolshevik residence until certain training was completed.
Of course, Jane had no intention of leaving even after the training ended.
Why would she leave after getting in here?
She never wanted to return to her previous home.
Before such a Jane, Hans hung his head like a criminal, while Jane simply looked at him.
“You’re badly hurt.”
“Ah, this is nothing.”
Hans waved his hands dismissively – he was a mess, having been beaten up in a fight that broke out when he caused trouble at the auction house, but Jane didn’t even want to offer polite words about treating his injuries.
After all, he had failed to get what she wanted.
Moreover, Hans didn’t want treatment from her either.
If she were her kind self, she would have insisted on treating him even if he said he was fine, but he felt too ashamed.
Hans quickly added, just in case.
“Really, I’m fine. This won’t kill me, um… yes, won’t kill me.”
Jane gave no particular response, and when Hans fell silent, a tomb-like stillness descended.
-Clink.
Jane, setting down the teacup placed only before her, parted her lips.
“So… you lost it?”
“Y-yes.”
At Hans’s thoroughly uncertain answer, Jane closed her eyes tightly then opened them.
“The thing I told you about.”
“Yes. The part needed to make the tool for injecting poi- mmph? Mmph?”
Hans, who seemed to have eaten his sense of discretion in soup, had his mouth covered by Jane’s hand as he fearlessly spoke words like “poison.”
“Call it ‘that thing.’ Understood?”
Though her face wore a faint smile, why did it send chills down his spine?
Hans nodded obediently at Jane’s warning and only then was freed from her grasp.
“Haah.”
Jane sighed deeply while Hans, who wouldn’t have anything to say even with ten mouths, fell into suffocating silence once again.
Eventually, Jane spoke again.
“Couldn’t we at least try asking whoever bought it to sell it?”
“I asked about that too, but they said they absolutely couldn’t tell…”
Before Hans could finish, Jane cut in with a smile.
“Where in this world is there such thing as ‘absolutely’?”
“Y-yes… that’s true. Sorry.”
They didn’t know that Riina had taken the part, and that it was right nearby.
“You said that part is hard to get?”
“Yes.”
“Is it absolutely necessary?”
“Yes…”
One mountain after another indeed.
Jane covered her eyes with one hand and looked away from him.
Otherwise, she might not be able to resist the urge to tear at that stupid face.
Hans rolled his eyes around, trying to gauge Jane’s mood.
How long had this suffocating silence lasted for Hans?
Just as he could no longer bear the silence and opened his mouth.
“Hans.”
“Y-yes! Yes!”
Hans blinked at the sudden call, answering awkwardly.
“Without that part, we can’t make it? Perhaps we could modify the design or…”
Hans waved his thick arms vigorously.
“No, no. We can get the part.”
At his answer, a clear crease appeared between Jane’s brows.
“You can get it…?”
She barely swallowed the following words asking why he hadn’t said so earlier.
“Yes. We can get it. It’s not the only one in the world.”
Jane’s insides burned as she watched Hans nodding.
Why does this fool always say important things last?
There’s a world of difference between something being completely impossible and something being difficult but possible.
Jane barely swallowed her curse and asked precisely.
“So even though there’s been a slight setback, you can still make the tool?”
Hans nodded at Jane’s reconfirmation.
“Of course. It’ll be a bit delayed, but I can definitely make it.”
“De…layed? You said we could get the part.”
“We can get it, but it’ll take a long time…”
“How long?”
“Well… who knows?”
At that terrible answer, Jane truly lost her strength.
Seeing Jane’s shoulders slump powerlessly, Hans didn’t know what to do with his distress.
“I’m sorry. I’ll do my be- no, I’ll do everything I can.”
“Trying your best won’t make the results come faster.”
Though it was an infinitely cold remark that seemed to completely trample his efforts, Hans only felt sorry for Jane.
He gently patted her shoulder with his thick hand and added,
“No, I’ll somehow try to make it faster.”
“How?”
When sad eyes looked up at Hans, he answered readily.
“I’ll think about it from now on.”
This stupid, thoughtless fool.
Jane barely suppressed the genuine feelings that welled up with her tongue.
Think about it from now? Then he shouldn’t have brought it up in the first place.
Does just throwing out words and thinking afterward make things go properly?
What made it more irritating was that his answer wasn’t even an obvious ploy to avoid the moment, but genuine.
Really, if it weren’t for his craftsmanship that might appear once in a hundred, no, a thousand years, she would cut off such a stupid fool immediately.
If she stayed here any longer with him, she might strangle that thick neck.
“I want to be alone.”
It was a dismissal like that of a noble lady, waving her hand languidly without even looking at him.
Hans rose awkwardly, just blinked his eyes before opening his mouth.
“Ah, alright.”
“Don’t come near the mansion until I call for you. Understood? If there’s any new information about that thing, let me know immediately by letter.”
Though she had warned him several times, since that stupid man was highly likely to make mistakes, Jane emphasized again.
“Um. Hey Jane, staying here is a bit…”
Jane cut off Hans’s barely uttered words without properly listening.
“I said I want to be alone.”
Watching Hans’s retreating back as he dragged his badly injured body away powerlessly, Jane muttered.
“Why are there only stupid men around me?”
The useful humans she had for returning to her original position as the Bolshevik heir.
Just Hans and the Third Prince, that’s all.
And in her current position as merely a shadow, she couldn’t openly gather her own people.
A shadow is just a ‘shadow’ after all.
Naturally, she would be eliminated if she commanded her own people or held power.
In the end, all Jane could do was manipulate a few servants.
-Crunch.
Jane ground her teeth, recalling the servants of the annex.
‘Thank you.’
‘If you need anything else, please let me know.’
As the servant who had cleanly finished their task was about to leave, they turned at Jane’s words.
‘In that case.’
‘Yes.’
Jane asked with her kindly smile that had won everyone’s favor throughout her life.
‘Would you like to have tea with me? I won’t keep you long. I’m just feeling a bit lonely.’
It was a smile that had worked a hundred times out of a hundred.
In the right situation, with the right intimacy, with such a small suggestion.
Just a cup of tea, not for long, even with a slightly pitiful expression of loneliness.
Jane expected the usual answer as she turned over in her mind how to manipulate this seemingly young servant.
But in less than a few seconds, Jane’s plan was pathetically shattered.
‘I’m sorry. I’m on duty.’
The young servant with still-chubby cheeks flatly rejected Jane’s suggestion, politely bowed, and disappeared.
Recalling the bewilderment and shame beyond humiliation of being left alone like that, that servant’s face also went up on Jane’s mental list.
On the list of those to eliminate when she makes her glorious return as the real Bolshevik.
In truth, the servant’s response had been appropriate beyond reproach.
Theoretically, the only person Jane as a “shadow” could be close with was Riina, the shadow’s owner.
Becoming a shadow of a family heir meant having a hand in almost all family matters.
It was natural that such a shadow was forbidden from creating their own power base.
But theory was just theory.
Jane, chewing the inside of her mouth, anxiously crumpled her skirt.
“I need people.”
