Chapter 85
‘First, your standing posture is wrong. If you’re a servant…’
Sebastian’s movingly objective and sharp-as-a-blade critique that began like that left Lione stunned, while Riina laughed calmly.
‘Right. There’ll be a lot to teach.’
Since that day, though Lione had encountered several servants besides Sebastian, their reactions weren’t much different from Sebastian’s.
Of course, they weren’t as quiet or calm as a deep lake like Sebastian.
Rather, they smiled kindly toward him or showed favor.
But that was merely toward a colleague they would work with in the same workplace—nothing more, nothing less.
Because it was none other than Lione, he noticed that there wasn’t a single piece of self-interest toward him in the smiles they offered.
However, there are always exceptions to everything.
Lione swallowed a sigh and answered.
“I can’t guarantee that Becky didn’t fall for me at first sight.”
Riina looked at him with a peculiar expression.
That expression that had lingered on Becky’s face for just a moment earlier wasn’t excitement or love, but…
Shaking her head, she soon issued an order to leave.
“Withdraw.”
“Yes, Miss.”
Lione, who had performed his first task as a servant well enough to deserve endless praise, soon collided head-on with a much smaller figure in the middle of the corridor.
“What’s the matter?”
He didn’t bother to put on a friendly smile as he had when he was Young Lord Bartorio.
He simply maintained a poker face calmly like Sebastian.
The person before his eyes was, after all, a colleague who served the Miss.
Not someone he needed to gain something from, nor someone he needed to avoid losing something to.
Becky, who had been staring up at such a Lione, opened her mouth.
“Look at me for a moment.”
“I have no business with you.”
Leaving an answer so firm that not even a needle could enter, Lione started walking again, but Becky blocked his path once more.
“I have business with you! It’s not some terrible talk about falling for you, or clinging to you because I like you, or having feelings for you, so please spare me some time.”
Naturally enough, Becky knew who Lione was.
And she had vaguely realized.
The reason why the young lord of the traditional Bartorio count family had entered as the Miss’s personal servant.
He gave off a similar kind of scent to hers, though of a different quality.
A runaway.
She didn’t know what this second son of a noble family with blue blood and the nickname of everyone’s lover was running from.
But that wasn’t what was important to Becky right now.
“Please spare me some time. I absolutely won’t cling to you.”
Her resolute words didn’t reach Lione’s ears.
How many people had said such things only to end up clinging to him in the end?
“I don’t have time. Farewell.”
Speaking calmly as he moved to walk away, Lione could no longer refuse Becky’s proposal at her following words.
Because Becky smiled and stepped closer to him, whispering.
“How did you seduce our Miss, you sly bastard?”
Around the time Becky, who had instantly turned Lione into a sly bastard, was confronting him, at the Second Prince’s palace, an aide and Max were confronting each other.
The aide asked dryly toward the grinning Max.
“You say you have a prior appointment?”
“Yes. That’s right. Please check at any time.”
At Max’s brazen answer, the aide’s face, dry as a desert, wrinkled slightly.
Check, indeed—wasn’t he the very person who ultimately coordinated His Highness the Second Prince’s schedule?
Yet he had no knowledge whatsoever that this utterly suspicious man before him would have an audience with His Highness the Second Prince.
Naturally, this man’s words must be lies.
That’s why there was only one thing the aide needed to ask him.
“Just how did you get in here?”
Where were the aide and Max confronting each other?
If not the innermost depths of the Second Prince’s palace, it was at least the inner part.
The reception room closest to the office.
An uninvited guest he knew nothing about was sitting there brazenly.
What were the knights guarding the Second Prince’s palace doing?
Had those who had been doing their job well until now lost their minds overnight?
Already, the eyes watching His Highness the Second Prince’s surroundings had increased considerably since the engagement with Miss Bolshevik, yet His Highness had said to leave it be, making only his mouth go dry.
-Slam.
But the door that opened wide without even a knock prevented the aide’s thoughts from continuing.
“There’s one more thing to check—the route this merchant group takes…”
Einar, who had entered and jumped straight to the point, also couldn’t continue his words.
Because he made eye contact with the brightly smiling Max.
“You.”
Before Einar could say anything more, Max rushed toward him.
“Your Highness!”
He shouted almost breathlessly, then immediately whispered in a voice small enough for only Einar to hear.
“You remember saying my prices were excessive, right? And that you’d pay proper prices if we met again?”
With his words pouring out without pause, Einar narrowed his eyes and tilted his head.
“Didn’t I say it wasn’t necessary?”
“It’s become necessary.”
At that shameless answer, Einar chuckled.
“Your Highness, did you have a prior appointment?”
At the aide’s dry question as he approached, Einar shrugged.
“It seems to have just been made.”
So there really was no prior appointment.
That meant there was a hole in the Second Prince’s palace security.
Since it was a very important matter, the aide repeatedly confirmed for accurate situation assessment.
“Your Highness.”
“Mm?”
“Did you give advance notice to someone in the palace, not me, that this person might visit?”
The aide didn’t even glance at Max, but the ‘this person’ he indicated was all too clear.
And the moment he heard those words, Einar’s gray eyes also sank coolly.
“Who would I tell something I didn’t even inform my aide?”
At Einar’s definitive answer, the aide was certain.
There was a very large hole in the Second Prince’s palace security.
“Then there are places that need attention.”
At the voice like dry dust rising, Max, who had been quietly listening until now, raised his hand.
When Einar gave permission with a look, Max scratched his cheek awkwardly and spoke.
“It’s not that those guarding the palace were negligent in their duties, or that someone else helped me.”
As the aide’s eyebrows twitched at those words, Max quickly added.
“I was able to enter simply because I wanted to enter the palace.”
Since it sounded like nonsense no matter how you heard it, the aide’s eyebrows twitched even more severely, but Max continued regardless.
“Don’t trouble innocent people and ask Sebastian at the Bolshevik estate.”
The moment he mentioned Bolshevik.
Einar’s gray eyes sank pitch black.
He had been just a somewhat unusual merchant.
One who seemed to make deals at such a loss that it was hard to call him a merchant, as Riina had said.
But this man had entered his palace without permission and mentioned Bolshevik?
“What did you just…”
The aide, who had been drier than dried squid, was about to open his mouth with a menacing expression, but when Einar raised his hand, he shut his mouth tight.
“You said Max, didn’t you?”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Was my story interesting?”
“Very much so.”
The somewhat suspicious grin on Max’s lips was completely erased and replaced by a bright smile.
At this, Einar also smiled coolly.
“You remember well.”
“Of course.”
Heaven-sent luck. Einar’s fortune.
Because of that terrible fortune, Einar could speak boldly without even properly knowing who Max was.
“Good. Goods should be paid their proper price. I was just about to go to where those goods are.”
Of course, there had been no such plan.
But since Max had mentioned Riina—no, Bolshevik—Einar had to go to Riina.
“Aide.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“I’ll go see Sebastian myself.”
The aide simply bowed his head silently even after seeing the Second Prince he served go out alone with someone whose suspiciousness pierced the sky.
Then Max dramatically placed his fist on his chest and bowed deeply.
“It’s an honor to serve Your Highness.”
Around the time Max was following behind Einar toward the Bolshevik estate.
Riina was observing people at a place where foreign merchant groups gathered, not at the Bolshevik estate.
Since the trade agreement period was almost over, most merchants were preparing to return.
That meant now was the time to find a proper merchant group.
Thanks to Einar’s unintended help, the seed money had gathered much faster than expected, so she just needed to find investment opportunities to multiply the money.
Initially, she had planned to sit quietly at the estate and request investment advice from families particularly knowledgeable about overall money flow.
And for that purpose, she had carefully observed the Bartorio count family, but the result…
“Do you need anything?”
Riina, who had been looking with hazy eyes at Lione making gestures that were a perfect copy of Sebastian, spoke.
“Lione.”
“Yes.”
“Can you pick out merchant groups worth investing in from this place?”
Though he was now her personal servant, until recently Lione had been the second son of that Bartorio family.
She had heard his sister was the heir, so while he might not know the details, he must have stuck his nose into family affairs anyway.
“No.”
But the answer that came back was a cheerful negative.
At Riina’s look demanding an explanation, Lione calmly added.
“I had absolutely no interest in matters dealing with merchant groups or money flow.”
“Absolutely none?”
“Yes. My younger sister handled everything in that area.”
Just as Riina was about to speak while looking down at him as he bent to arrange the hem of her dress.
-Bang!
A man who had kicked a box clearly full of heavy cargo from the sound alone cursed.
“Damn it, what’s the point of working this hard!”
