Chapter 82

“What do you mean come in? Start with greetings first.”

Despite the blacksmith’s words to the man who had already lightly greeted them, Hans only frowned.

“Hans!”

“Who is this guy?”

At his sudden outburst, the blacksmith, who had been about to raise the hammer he was gripping tightly, put it down and bowed his head toward the man instead.

“That mouth of his, really! I apologize.”

“Not at all. He’s quite spirited.”

As Hans stared intently at the man who was casually waving his hand, his insides twisted even more.

Even while running at full speed to get here, he could tell this was a merchant.

Since he had never once seen anything good come from getting involved with merchants, his prickly reaction was only natural.

But that was, after all, Hans’s personal problem, wasn’t it?

Unless he went into great detail about his past, his current attitude toward someone he was meeting for the first time was undoubtedly very wrong.

It was even an act of flinging dirt at the blacksmith who had genuinely cared for his rough edges all this time.

But the man showed no anger or displeasure at Hans’s reaction.

He simply waved the blueprint that Hans had handed to the blacksmith.

“You made this?”

“How did you! Give that back!”

Before the man could finish speaking, Hans charged at him like a wild boar, but the blacksmith stepped in front of him.

“You bastard! Just stay still for a moment!”

Hans stopped, though still seething, and the merchant peeked his head out from behind the blacksmith.

“I’ll take that as confirmation that you made it.”

The merchant then extended his hand toward Hans.

“I’m Max. I’m a merchant who buys and sells various things.”

Despite witnessing Hans’s extremely hostile reaction all this time, he calmly requested a handshake as if nothing had happened.

The other party extended his hand so naturally that Hans reflexively grasped and shook it, then frowned.

Just being a merchant was enough to make him not want to deal with the man, but the introduction that followed his name was far too suspicious.

“If you’re a merchant, you’re a merchant. What do you mean ‘various things’?”

When Hans muttered, Max smiled broadly and shrugged his shoulders.

“I sell tangible goods, but I also sell intangible things.”

“Intangible what?”

“Well, simply put, things like stories.”

Hans stepped back from Max, who had become even more suspicious than before his explanation.

Merchants were people he didn’t want to face, but suspicious merchants were people he absolutely shouldn’t face.

“Hmm, it seems you don’t like me very much.”

At Max’s brazen words, Hans avoided his gaze and answered.

“I hate merchants.”

Hans spoke quite openly, then pointed at Max and added.

“Especially suspicious merchants like you.”

At words and gestures that were not just rude but close to picking a fight, the blacksmith pressed his forehead.

‘That bastard would kick away even good fortune that came to him.’

And at such words from Hans, Max tilted his head and asked curiously.

“I heard you’re looking for a part?”

At Max’s single sentence, Hans, who had been saying he hated him and found him suspicious, immediately approached right up to his nose.

“You, by any chance!”

Just as Max was about to speak while burdened by Hans’s uncomfortably close breathing, the blacksmith grabbed Hans’s face and pulled him away from Max.

“You bastard, keep your distance. That’s why I kept telling you to exchange greetings!”

Max tilted his head a bit more and asked again.

“Oh my, are you going to buy something from a suspicious merchant like me?”

“Ah, that’s… cough. Ahem. Anyway, do you have the part or not?”

At Hans’s attitude of still disliking him but willing to take what he needed, the blacksmith’s hand gripping the hammer tensed with force.

But Max actually smiled and asked for the third time.

“If you need it that badly, why didn’t you buy it at the auction house?”

Of course, Max knew who had swept away the only part that had entered the empire’s auction.

He was the very person who had supplied that part to the auction.

“At that time, some unknown bastard swept away all the auction house items! So do you have the part or not… Agh!”

Hans, who finally got hit by the blacksmith, sat down clutching his throbbing head and groaned, while Max crouched down in front of him and spoke.

“Of course I have it. And if you pay the proper price, I’ll sell it.”

“You have it? Great! I’m first! The Third Prin… gulp.”

Hans, in his joy at finding the part, was babbling carelessly when he covered his mouth with his pot-lid-sized hand.

Of course, no one failed to hear his words, but the blacksmith, being an ordinary imperial citizen, didn’t connect ‘Third Prin’ to the Third Prince, and Max only smiled mysteriously.

“The price for the part is.”

“Ah, right, how much!”

“I’ll take an answer to my question as payment.”

“What?”

Despite Hans’s incredulous reaction, Max casually shrugged his shoulders.

“Didn’t I tell you? I also sell stories. It’s not difficult. You just need to nod or shake your head.”

Though he felt very uneasy about it, Hans ultimately nodded.

If not now, he wouldn’t be able to get the part before the Third Prince did.

A strange smile spread across Max’s lips as he noticed that the direction Hans glanced toward was the imperial palace.

“Now then, shall you pay the price?”

-Knock knock.

“Come in.”

After the permission was given, a familiar yet unexpected voice rang out.

“Excuse me, Miss.”

“Sebastian?”

At Riina’s puzzled call, a faint smile appeared on Sebastian’s calm face.

“Did father call for you?”

She had set aside the documents she was looking at, but hesitated at Sebastian’s following answer.

“No. There is a guest who wishes to meet with you, Miss.”

“A guest?”

“Yes.”

As Sebastian bowed his head neatly, Riina narrowed her eyes.

Unless it was Einar, there was no one who could meet her without a prior appointment.

And everyone in the estate knew this fact, and Sebastian, being the head butler, would know it even better.

Yet he was calling her because a guest without an appointment had come?

“Is it someone necessary?”

Meaning, was this guest an absolutely necessary person for her?

But Sebastian’s answer was ambiguous.

“Someone you will definitely meet even if not necessary.”

At his answer, which seemed to even contain a sigh, Riina didn’t ask anything more and stood up.

“If the butler says so, I should meet them.”

It was Sebastian’s word, after all.

It would be more trustworthy than anyone else’s.

Sebastian, who bowed deeply at this, added.

“It’s someone I’ve known since the previous Sebastian’s time.”

At Sebastian’s cryptic words, Riina tilted her head but didn’t stop walking.

Eventually, she reached not the reception room where riff-raff gathered, but the reception room where guests with appointments came and went.

-Click.

As the door opened and the air that had been pooled inside the reception room flowed low around her ankles.

“You’ve come.”

Before she knew it, a strange figure was standing right in front of her.

At the distance of barely half a step from this stranger, a clear crack appeared between Riina’s brows.

To put it somewhat dramatically, wasn’t it close enough to be mistaken for an assault or ambush?

“Step back.”

At her bone-chillingly cold command, the strange man stepped back considerably.

He then bowed his waist exaggeratedly and offered a greeting.

“I’m pleased to meet you like this, Bolshevik. No, Miss Bolshevik. I’m called Max.”

“Max?”

At a name she had heard somewhere, a faint furrow appeared between Riina’s brows.

Since no surname followed the name, he was clearly a commoner, but where had she heard such a person’s name…

“Everything I paid as the price for stories has all come here.”

“Were you a merchant?”

“Yes. I am a merchant now.”

Wasn’t that a highly suspicious answer?

But Riina didn’t drive him out or storm off.

If Sebastian had told her to meet him, there must be a reason.

Of course, she had no intention of just leaving a dubious fellow alone, so she asked directly.

“What’s your relationship with Sebastian?”

“Ah, I have no relationship with him at all. Previous? No, previous previous? Well, anyway, there was a small connection a very long time ago. Back then he was a butler for another family. Was it Greux? Or was it Borghen?”

This answer was even more suspicious.

When had Sebastian become the butler of the Bolshevik family?

She might not know exactly, but it was certain that it had been so long ago she couldn’t even remember.

Yet, a connection made when he was a butler for another family?

And Max stirred up even more suspicion.

“I’ve lived for quite a long time.”

“If you’ve lived since Sebastian was a butler for a family other than Bolshevik, it wouldn’t be just ‘quite a long time.'”

“Then let’s say I’ve lived for a very long time.”

Though he didn’t seem to be lying, his answers were like a guessing game, dropping hints that weren’t quite hints.

That’s why Riina threw out another question based on Sebastian’s words rather than his.

“I was told that I would definitely meet you even if I didn’t want to?”

At Riina’s question, Max’s eyes widened.

“Oh my, he said that much?”

Max scratched his chin and grinned.

“Yes. Well, if I want it, we’ll definitely meet.”

At his somehow familiar answer, Riina had to ask.

“Are you also blessed with heaven-sent fortune?”