CH 30

The day after a long discussion with my father in his office, I am sitting on the sofa in the guest room of the mansion, facing Chris across the table from her .

On the desk, the tea that the servants prepared for us before we left the room is steaming.

Incidentally, we are the only two people in the room.

If it were true, I would have wanted to talk to Chris on the day she returned from the imperial capital, but on the day she returned, Chris collapsed from fatigue and slept in bed.

Chris, who had collapsed, was resting in the guest room of the Bardia family's mansion as it was, with consideration from my father.

As it was, she never woke up that day.

The next day, she apparently woke up looking confused.

Danae, the maid, laughed a little and said, "You were in a great fluster".

I thought it was hard for a woman to dress herself, so I had asked a few maids to help Chris, but I wondered if they were all right.

эPlease let me know when I am in a position to talk to Chris through those in the mansion.э

I told her that I wanted to hear her report on the Imperial Palace in the reception room.

A short time later, I received a call that Chris was in a condition to talk, and here we are now.

Incidentally, I asked the maids to leave the room because I wanted to hear how things were going in the imperial capital and there were some stories I couldn't let them hear.

When I did so, I think I got a few nasty looks from everyone.

I hope it was just my imagination.

".... I'm sorry. I can't believe I collapsed and fell asleep when I got here. ......"

No, don't worry about it. I think you were exhausted. I'm sorry for making you suffer this time in the Imperial Capital.

Chris was a bit sullen.

When I looked at Chris' face a little, his eyes were a little moist.

I should probably encourage her, but her moist eyes and slightly dejected appearance gave her a different charm that was hard to imagine from her usual self.

I also had a flashback of here face that I had seen day ago during"Sleeping Face Surprise" and felt my face getting a little hot.

Then Chris seemed to notice that my face was starting to turn a little red and asked, "Are you okay?"

, "Ummm, yes. I'm fine," Chris replied. "Excuse me," she said, putting her left hand on my forehead while she put her right hand on her own forehead.

She then put her left hand on my forehead while she put her right hand on her own forehead. " I don't think you have a fever. Don't take it too hard, okay?"

She lowered her hands, brought her face close to the tip of my nose, and smiled cutely.

I think my face turned red in an instant, so much so!

At that moment, however, the events of yesterday came to mind.

The faces of Mel and her mother, who were exuding something extraordinary behind their smiles, flashed in my mind.

The blood instantly drains from my veins.

“Rid, you are turning pale .　Are you all right?　If you are not feeling well, we should have meeting on ...... another day.»

" I absolutely fine "

I shake my head to the side, then get up hurriedly from the couch, moving my arms and doing bending exercises to show that I look healthy.

Chris gave me a dubious look and said, "I hope you're okay. ......" She is worried to no end.

'Well, more importantly, how was your trip to the Empress?　I heard from father of your rights regarding the rinse and lotion, and that also about restrained the nobles from interfering."

I sat back down on the sofa, forcing the topic to be about the imperial capital.

I listened to Chris for a while.

(1) Cooperation with the Saffron Trading Company

(2) Causes with Count Laurent, Chris's counterattack　

(3) Agreement of priority for delivery of lotion and rinse to the Empress

(4) Development of direct sales route between the Empress and the Christie Trading Company *Chris is the favorite of the Empress.

(5) For the priority right for delivery, a month's supply for use by the Empress will be given top priority.

Market sales will be conducted after the delivery for the Empress is secured.

Additional orders from the Empress will be supplemented from the market.

In the case of additional orders, the first priority right will not be applied.

Payment for the delivery priority right is made in full in advance.

This is roughly how Chris summed it up.

Next, we decided to go over the details one by one to make sure we were on the same page.

I drank a cup of tea to moisten my mouth and thirst.

"Chris, thank you so much for your help in the capital this time."

"I was only following your instructions. "

She said this with a hint of embarrassment, then the light in her eyes disappeared for a moment and she quietly spat out the words, "...well, I won't be going next time,"

I replied with a dry laugh, "Ahahaha......," and let her pass.

I then changed the subject and asked about the Saffron Trading Company.

“But Chris is amazing, no need to be flattered. I don't think I would have been able to do this much , but you are right that we have approval for the cooperation with Safron Trading Company, right?”

“Yes, that's correct. The Saffron company has asked us to be their distributor for after-sales service for both products. I have also spoken to both the Emperor and Empress. Since this is a part of deal , we have asked them not to sell the products if they do not have the knowledge. So, for the time being, the market can be monopolized by Safron and Christie Trading Company.”

Chris smiled and drank his tea.

"I understand. I would like to visit the Saffron Trading Company in the near future."

“I'll introduce them to you then," Chris said happily.

“But Chris was an noble's daughter of the Kingdom of Astoria. I didn't know about that either, and I was surprised when my father told me.”

When he told me about the Christie Trading Company, Gran had not mentioned anything about a baroness or anything about that. If it was Garn, he would have surely told me that information if he had known it. And yet, the fact that he didn't know means that Chris didn't tell anyone?

“Well , i dunno "

"Huh......?"

Her answer was unexpected.

When I asked her about the details, she said that a messenger from the Saffron Trading Company came to her on the way from the Bardia territory to the imperial capital.

At that time, it was decided that Chris' father, Martin Safron, who is in his home country, would be knighted in recognition of his contributions to the kingdom and his achievements as a member of the trading compay .

So, to be precise, it seems that she was still "not a baroness" when she was in the imperial capital.

Just to be safe, they have already asked Chris's father and his homeland through the Saffron Trading Company to keep their lips shut in the case of an inquiry from Magnolia, and there is no problem, it seems.

"Astoria and Magnolia have a cooperative relationship, but there is no way Astoria would miss an opportunity for a trading company involved with Astoria to create a direct sales route to Magnolia's royal family. Your request for a back talk is absolutely no problem, so please don't worry."

She spoke while staring at the surface of the tea in her hand.

When she finished, Chris took a sip of her tea and put her teacup on the desk.

I was internally horrified by Chris's strength.

Even though she was convinced that there was no problem, she had taken on the imperial aristocrats with a brazen bluff.

Her gallantry was astonishing.

I whispered my thoughts to myself, "You're a woman of great talent, ......."

Although she didn't seem to hear me clearly, Chris seemed to have heard the murmur a little and hurriedly changed the subject.

"No, no. No, no, it's nothing. Father was happy that Chris attacked back at Count Laurent, but did you have to go that far?"

Oh, that's the thing. ......

The Countis certainly arrogant and disliked.

He did not show his tail to other nobles, including the emperor.

In a sense, he was also a member of the excellent imperial aristocracy.

And it was the merchant associations from other countries that had been shut out of the imperial capital due to his manipulations.

The Saffron Trading Company was one of them.

In order to do business with the royal family and nobles in the capital, Count Laurent had to be dealt with at some point.

Such a background existed in the commercial sphere of the imperial capital.

On the first day of the meeting, they planned to inform the head of the Saffron trading company in the capital about what had happened in the audience hall, so that they could give Count Roland a blow.

"Count Laurent has gone a little too far, In other words, he was protecting his own country's of tradings companies , which makes it less competitive with other countries;s trating companies "

Chris also traveled around to various countries when She was a member of the Safron trading company .

I think it is natural for a country to give preferential treatment to its own Companies , but if it it too much, it will lose its competitiveness with other countries and will not be able to respond to new trends.

And she knew that she could be swallowed up in an instant by a new wave.

Once swallowed by a wave, it takes a considerable amount of time to reverse.

In this case, it was a good thing that the "Christie Trading Company" was a located in Bardia territory,but if it had been a trading company in another country, the Magnolia trading area would have been in serious trouble.

Chris laughed as whe recalled the appearance of the other nobles, the emperor, and the empress that she had seen when she had cornered Count Laurent, "Huh...."

"From the looks of it, he was quite disliked even within the nobility, so he won't be out in the open for a while because of this. I'm sure that soon the merchant associations of other countries will wipe out the corrupt merchant associations that were under his patronage."

She said it calmly and nonchalantly.

I'm really glad that ...... Chris is on my side. I should be thankful for the coincidence of Chris and your trading company coming to Bardia territory."

'I am honored to hear you say that . But I am also thankful for my good fortune to have met you ."

She muttered with a faraway look in her eyes as she said this.

,"No matter how good you are or how talented you are or how hard you work, there are many times when you are not recognized or not able to achieve your goals. In my case, I was lucky to have met you."

She looked a little sad and self-deprecating.

Perhaps she was referring to the situation in which she was forced to become independent from the Safron Trading Company.

Certainly, no matter how good she was, it must have been very difficult to start a trading company from zero in the Bardia territory.

And then I came in picture .

That's why she says she is lucky.

That may be true.

But I didn't like the fact that Chris was belittling ...... herself .

"..... Indeed, no matter how much ability or talent you have and how hard you try, you will not be recognized. There may be times when it is not possible to be recognized. But even so, I think good luck will only come to those who have worked hard, who have struggled ...... to scratch their feet, scrape ...... their seaweed, wade through the muddy waters, and work hard, until the very end, until they are recognized. I think Chris has done just that. Otherwise, the butler of Bardia wouldn't have told me about the Christie Trading Company, and I wouldn't be doing what I am doing with Chris."

Chris, who had been silently listening to my words, turned here head and muttered with a trembling voice, 'Thanks "

"Oh, um, yes, we're running a little low on tea, so let's take a break."

Chris nodded quietly with his head down at my flustered reaction to his unexpected words