Chapter 37

There is nothing more important than profit for a businessman.

It was Faus, who refused the opportunity to touch that astronomical amount of money.

“There’s nothing good that will come out about being smart with me.”

The Marquis Treve, went a little pale at my low warning, and elbowed Faus.

“Faus, hey. Haha. Why are you doing something you don’t usually do? You have to judge wisely, wisely.”

But Faus was adamant.

“Marquis Treve has been promised something, so he can agree to it comfortably. Rumors spread on the streets that your daughter was chosen as a candidate for concubine. But a lowly businessman like me will be thrown away.

Isn’t that the way of the world?”

It was a pretty sharp point.

I was really going to blow it up.

But I couldn’t back down here.

There will be no stopping the mad emperor from falling in love with the princess of Esland.

If so, it is already a fact that a war will break out someday.

Then the least I could do is stop the slave uprising and earn some time to go into exile.

I mean, it takes a lot of time to pack up all my fortune.

“Should I put my investment on the line as a gesture of good faith?”

I shed tears of blood inside.

How much money am I spending today?

In addition, this investment was just money that will be disintegrated once the slave market is abolished.

But contrary to my heart, I wrung my mouth carelessly.

“This is a proper sign of sincerity for 10,000 rues, right?”

Faus flinched a bit at the big amount of money.

But he shook his head again soon.

“It’s too much money for a lowly bastard like me to manage. Thank you for your interest in my small business, but I’m happy enough with my perfect little shop.”

“Hey! Are you crazy?”

Eventually, the angry Marquis Treve began to point and speak enthusiastically.

I was lost in thought.

It was Faus, who indirectly refused with all kinds of humble words, but I couldn’t erase the feeling of him being forced.

If Faus’ goal is money, there is no reason to refuse a deal that has nothing to lose.

But what if he has a goal other than money?

I glanced once again at the gold ring that showed off its presence on Faus’ thick fingers.

“If that’s what you really want.”

I stood up without hesitation.

“I’ll come back next time I have a chance to make a deal.”

I held out my hand a little dimly.

Faus shook my hand without hesitation.

I was not used to the sense of shaking hands with my four fingers facing up, not down, but I didn’t lose my polite smile.

After shaking hands, I left the office without looking back, and the Marquis of Treve groveled and looked at my countenance.

“Ha ha. It’s because Faus is a commoner and he doesn’t know anything. I’ll try to coax him.”

“No, you don’t have to.”

I left the shabby theater and boarded the carriage of Marquis Treve parked on the narrow street.

When the door was closed, not only the crows crying outside but also the noise of the streets were completely blocked.

My voice is also completely blocked from leaking out.

“Faus, he is not from the empire.”

Because of his unusual way of shaking hands, I still folded and unfolded my numb hands a few times.

When I held out my hand a moment ago, Faus held my hand in the same way as the Empress Dowager.

“With four fingers facing up. Faus is an Eslendic.”

Marquis Treve’s face hardened with shock.

“R, really?”

The black market run by imperialists was also problematic, but the fact that foreigners were active in the empire was a completely different matter of importance.

In addition, it is not possible to grow the illegal market just because the common people of Esland decide one day, “Shall we do business in the Empire?”

I’m sure there’s someone backing them up.

And the most likely candidate was the royal family of Esland.

“If the Marquis don’t want to be dragged away for treason, you’d better get out of the slave market. You know what I mean, right?”

As the Marquis Treve is a big hand in the slave market, blocking his financial channel could prevent money from flowing through Faus to Esland to some extent.

The Marquis nodded with a brooding look.

But the warning alone did not guarantee that the Marquis of Treve would listen to me.

” Marquis Treve. You’re working on a mine, right?”

The marquis flinched.

This was information obtained from the data left by the Duke of Baloa.

The Duke of Baloa was well versed in the purse strings of the imperial nobles.

The Marquis began to buy slaves because of lack of manpower due to mining development.

“I will send prisoners working in my mine, so that all the slaves you bought will be restored to their status.”

The only people who could force labor in the empire were felonious felons.

But the Duke of Baloa, who had to monopolize anything that is profitable, used them all.

“A, are you sure?”

Marquis Treve’s eyes opened wide and narrowed to suspicion.

Yeah, you wouldn’t believe it either.

The Duke of Baloa has given away everything she has.

“There’s something you can do for me instead.”

When I offered a deal, Marquis Treve nodded with an expression of “I knew it.”

“Keep an eye on Faus.”

“Faus?”

“Yeah. Be as close as you are now and report to me where he’s getting slaves, what the flow of money is, and who he’s contacting. If you have to buy a slave to avoid suspicion, I’ll give you money.”

As the Marquis sat still dazedly, I raised my chin slightly and smiled thinly.

“Isn’t it time for the Marquis to regain his place at the side of the emperor?”

The Marquis bowed immediately.

“I will do as you please, Duke of Baloa.”

☆*: .｡.  .｡.:*☆

I returned to the palace in the evening, but I couldn’t relax.

I had to think about the treatment of the slaves that I had brought in by accident.

Of course I didn’t really mean for them to be a slave. I don’t know about Catherine, but Sir Ethan has even tried to kill me.

I made Sir Ethan stand in front of the desk and glared at him.

I was afraid Catherine would be shocked by her brother’s misdeeds, so I told her to rest in the next bedroom, so it was just the two of us in the room.

I was left alone with the assassin, but I was sure Sir Ethan wouldn’t hurt me as long as Catherine was still in my grasp.

I`ll ask you straightforwardly. Why did you try to kill me?”

Sir Ethan couldn’t bear to look me in the eye and bowed his head.

“It was because of the debt.”

And slowly began to unravel the story.

“My father was a gambling addict. Even the day after losing his finger because he couldn’t pay off his gambling debt, he firmly put a card between his ring finger and pinky finger and he’s serious enough to participate in the game…………. If my father doesn’t pay it back, I’m a debtor.

They threatened me and my sister, so I had to use all my money on paying off the debts.”

Sir Ethan glanced at me.

“I was working for my master because of my debts.”

Apart from the sound of his master, he nodded.

Someone who is in desperate need of money and won’t ask useless questions. A person who will cause no trouble even if I handle him quietly.

Surely Sir Ethan was a man worthy of the Duke of Baloa.

“But no matter how hard I worked, the debt snowballed, and eventually the debtor kidnapped Catherine.”

Lord Ethan’s tightly curled fists trembled.

“He threatened to sell Catherine as a slave. They said that if I don’t like it, I have to pay them back.

Sir Ethan licked his lips.

“Kill the Duke of Baloa.”

A dejected smile flowed through his dry lips.

“Eventually, the assassination failed, and instead of Catherine, I claimed to be sold as a slave, but we were both caught and properly stabbed in the back.”

I narrowed my eyes slightly.

“I definitely gave you a chance then, but why didn’t you tell me this?”

He, who had his head down like a sinner throughout the story, faced my eyes head-on for the first time.

“I have ears, and I hear rumors, but how can I trust you?”

I had nothing to say.

I was just sitting still, frozen, and Sir Ethan came a step closer.

“Of course, I know the rumors weren’t true now, but I didn’t think you’d really help me then. I just thought that if I went back to the capital, my neck would fall.”

If I were really the Duke of Baloa, the capital would have struck Sir Ethan’s head right there.

I rubbed my face with one hand.

My head began to throb after all day’s work.

“Then who wanted me to die?”

I took a careful look at Sir Ethan’s face.

“Was it Empress Dowager?”

It was a certainty, not a question.

There was only the Empress Dowager. When Sir Ethan’s attack failed, she moved the butler of the Count and poisoned the alcohol.

“No, it wasn’t.”

But Sir Ethan shook his head resolutely.

“It was Faus.”

☆*: .｡.  .｡.:*☆

Pieces of the puzzle were put together at frightening speed.

The Empress Dowager from Esland who tried to kill me, a slave trader from Esland who tried to kill me.

The war against Iceland and the slave riots that came out of the original.

There could be one coincidence.

But from the moment it’s repeated, it’s a plan, not a coincidence.

“Ha.”

I burst into laughter.

Obviously, in the original, the relationship between the Esland and the Hisronian Empire fell when Cardan unfairly led the princess of Esland to become a concubine.

I could almost be sure now.

The war with Esland in the original, the slave riots, and even the fall of the empire.

This was all the plan of the Empress Dowager.

“Ugh…….”

A throbbing headache gripped my head.

“Master, are you okay?”

Sir Ethan asked in a worried voice, but I waved my hand.

“It’s all right.”

The worries were brief.

Whatever the plan of the Empress Dowager is, I only need to escape safely.

Whether the empire falls or not, it was none of my business.

Why is it necessary to rush the order after going to school for no reason?

I finished organizing my thoughts by pressing down on my eyes.

I will only involve myself in the slave trade and making sure that the state’s treasury doesn’t run out.

More than that is no longer my business.