Chapter 86
“Hey, even if it won’t break from being kicked, be careful…”
Before the thin man trying to stop him could finish his words, the man who had kicked the box shouted.
“So what’s the point of being careful!”
The thin man put his hand on the shoulder of the man whose face had turned bright red and sighed.
“Let’s rest for a bit.”
At the fatigue felt in that voice, the man who had kicked the box kept spewing curses while roughly scratching the back of his head.
“This damn empire.”
At the anger-filled words, the thin man smiled bitterly, but one of those around them agreed and spoke quite loudly.
“Right! This damn empire! What do they expect us to do with fees this high!”
He continued with his neck veins bulging.
“Sixty out of a hundred! What’s the point of good sales! After deducting raw material costs, travel expenses, and everything else, what’s left in my hands is less than what I’d make in the empire! These damn fees!”
No sooner had he closed his mouth than indignant voices rang out from here and there.
“Right! Does that even make sense!”
“They take all the profitable goods with fees like that!”
“Ah, that’s exactly what I’m saying! What’s the point of giving advance payments saying they’ll buy in bulk and sell it all!”
“Even for items that don’t get advance payments, they take the same fees as other countries…”
Riina watched the merchant group people cursing the empire while spitting, then tilted her head sideways.
She knew the empire was collecting fees from foreign merchants.
It’s just that the fees she knew were much lower than those.
‘Had they raised them? Even so, they’re excessively high.’
It wasn’t even wartime, yet weren’t such high fees something anyone would complain about?
“This damn empire, bah!”
She could guess what followed the words from the man who had kicked the box without having to hear it.
Come to think of it, hadn’t disputes near the borders increased frequently after this trade negotiation period?
Previously, there hadn’t even been clashes worth calling “disputes.”
Tracing back to before regression, Riina pulled up only a few fragmentary memories.
‘…there? Isn’t that a place far from military provocation?’
‘Not only the starting point but also the families from various countries that sided with it were against the empire…’
Having recalled up to that point, she irritably furrowed her brow.
Against the empire for what?
What were they doing there?
Something more concrete should be remembered, but she couldn’t recall anything other than such fragmented pieces.
Well, it would be her own fault.
Around the time border disputes broke out, she had been pouring all her attention into Smith and Jane, the two of them.
Even attending the grand council hosted by His Majesty as Bolshevik’s heir, what she heard and saw was…
“Tsk.”
Riina clicked her tongue at her past self—no, her future self that would no longer come—and shook her head.
Even without scraping up non-existent memories, inference was possible from seeing the situation before her eyes.
They would have been families that traded with the empire.
Ironically, precisely because they were families that dealt with the ’empire,’ they would have had the power to move their ‘countries’ to cause trouble at the empire’s borders.
“Lione.”
“Yes.”
“You heard?”
“Yes.”
“What do you think would happen if merchants with such complaints scattered across the continent badmouthing the empire?”
Though Lione still had a calm face, he answered with puzzlement.
“Aren’t other countries already cursing the empire like that?”
“Of course they are. They say even the king gets cursed in places where he’s absent. But if it goes beyond cursing or tearing apart as drinking snacks?”
“What? What do you mean…”
Lione couldn’t finish his words and instinctively stepped in front of Riina.
-Clang!
With a sharp sound that struck the ears, Riina’s eyes widened slightly.
“Are you alright?”
Because it was Lione, not a guard, who had blocked the rather large shield that flew toward her.
The guard, a step slower than Lione, pushed the shield rolling on the ground aside while glancing at Lione.
Riina gazed steadily at Lione’s arm that had blocked the shield, then tilted her head.
A shield or two flying at her was nothing new.
But the fact that Lione, who claimed to have no talent for swordsmanship, had struck down the shield in that split second was quite new.
“I’m sor…”
The owner of the flying shield came running frantically and bowed deeply, but Riina immediately waved her hand.
“It’s fine, so take your things and go.”
“What? No, but…”
“No one was hurt and nothing was damaged, so I’m telling you to go.”
The merchant blinked his eyes, then quietly bowed his head, grabbed his shield, and backed away.
A small-framed woman in a robe with a hood, her face invisible.
However, from just the intimidating presence in her calm, dry voice and the heavy atmosphere that weighed down her surroundings, the merchant could tell.
Someone with blue blood flowing through them. The fact that she was a noble existing in a different world from them.
After the merchant withdrew and the attention that had focused due to the sudden noise somewhat dissipated, Riina spoke.
“Your arm?”
“It’s fine.”
“You struck down a shield like that and it doesn’t hurt?”
“Actually, I didn’t strike it down with my arm.”
“Not with your arm?”
Lione smiled awkwardly while fingering his small cufflink.
“With the end of the cufflink…”
Even after saying it himself, he seemed unable to believe what he had done.
However, there would be no reason for him to lie.
“Lione.”
“Yes.”
“Have you ever held a sword?”
“I have held one at least.”
“Have you ever swung one?”
“I can count on one hand.”
That would be natural, since in the life radius Lione had moved in during his time as Young Lord Bartorio, there were absolutely no situations where he would hold a sword.
Though his surroundings were noisy with romantic incidents, there was never any occasion for him to swing a sword at anyone.
Under her hood, the corners of Riina’s mouth rose.
“As expected, I’ll need to check.”
Around the time Riina was gazing at Lione steadily.
“Out?”
At Einar’s question as he arrived at the Bolshevik estate with unhesitating steps, Sebastian bowed his head.
“She went to observe merchant groups. The destination is…”
“No.”
Einar quite naturally raised his hand to stop Sebastian, who was informing him of Riina’s movements.
“It might actually be for the better.”
He had already been reluctant to put this suspicious fellow in front of Riina.
Of course, this was Einar’s unfounded worry, as he didn’t yet know that Max had met with Riina alone.
“Let’s confirm first. Sebastian.”
“Yes.”
“Do you know this person?”
He gestured with his chin toward Max behind him, and Max waved playfully at Sebastian with the same grinning face.
Sebastian swallowed a light sigh and answered.
“Yes.”
Though it was a brief answer, some of the coolness left Einar’s eyes as he looked at Max.
But at Sebastian’s following words, Einar’s eyebrows shot up to the sky.
“I’m seeing him for the first time.”
“What?”
Sebastian continued while looking at Max.
“He’s someone who lived in the same era as the previous Sebastian.”
If it hadn’t been words from Sebastian’s mouth, Einar would have taken it as the two of them putting on an absurd act to deceive him together.
But the other party was Sebastian.
That butler of Bolshevik.
Someone who had protected the Bolshevik family for generations without fail, and who received Bolshevik’s complete trust.
That’s why Einar asked back.
“Previous?”
“Yes. He was a merchant then too.”
Even running at full speed, Max didn’t look like someone who had lived in the same era as the middle-aged Sebastian’s ‘predecessor.’
That’s why Einar’s expression became indescribably strange, but Sebastian closed his mouth after leaving his final words.
“The predecessor who lived in the same era as that person was several hundred years ago.”
At the same time, Einar asked Max.
“Are you a mage?”
“According to Miss Bolshevik, I’m a mage who also does merchant work as a hobby.”
The next moment.
Einar’s gray eyes became a wilderness where storms raged with dark clouds.
Not only had he mentioned Bolshevik, but Riina as well.
And her words…
“Since we seem to have roughly confirmed our identity, will you listen to my story now?”
At Max’s words, Einar smiled and grabbed his shoulder.
“Let’s do that.”
At Einar’s permission, Max opened his mouth but couldn’t get past a single sentence.
“As payment for my goods…”
Because Einar, who had grabbed his shoulder, applied so much force that blue veins bulged on the back of his hand.
“Before that, you’ll need to spill what you discussed with Riina.”
At that voice crawling through terribly low places, Max had no choice but to swallow his words about payment.
“Shall I prepare tea?”
At Sebastian’s extremely calm voice heard from behind, Einar smiled.
Chillingly enough to freeze bones.
“No, I’m going back.”
That night.
In the office where no lights were on, with only the dim moonlight shining through half-drawn curtains casting a blue glow.
The eyelids of Riina, who sat half-reclined in her chair with eyes closed, slowly lifted.
“Jane, Hans, the hunting competition, the machine device. And the Third Prince.”
Deep furrows appeared between Riina’s brows as she recited several words.
Weren’t the suspicious connections too vivid to just pass over?
She organized the stories that had come out so far piece by piece.
First, it was certain that Jane and Hans knew each other.
Hans had provided Jane with a Bolshevik servant’s badge, and Jane had collected some plants at the hunting competition.
And she still didn’t know what that plant was.
“I was going to just leave it alone, but…”
