CH 16

Chapter 16 – The Crushed Engagement

It was two days after His Royal Highness the King of Norden, King Fritz III, denied the engagement of the second prince, His Royal Highness Alfred, and the Duke’ daughter. The story was circulated in the academy.

To be precise, the speech was given at a small dinner party held at the royal palace, in which he denied the very existence of the engagement story, saying, “At this stage, there is no word of an engagement for the second prince,” but I doubt anyone would have taken it at face value. As I had predicted, the engagement story was swept away.

With this, the engagement story between His Royal Highness Prince Alfred Victor Albio Norden and Duke’s daughter Christina Seira Melusine Nord-Claudis officially disappeared, and the premise of the game “Eleanoré! s worldview, the premise has been overturned from the ground up. I can’t imagine what kind of scenario awaits us all now that we’ve lost our pivotal story.

However, this engagement breakup. Maybe it was a good thing for the villainess Christina. Because there is a good chance that she will be freed from the constraints of her engagement and will not have to act as a villain. Come to think of it, this “Eleanore!” . has a double cast of villainesses, just as it has two heroines.

In addition to Christina, the main villainess, the villainess Katerina appears as a sub-character. Katerina is a love interest who appears when the protagonist of your choice choose the capture target other than His Highness, and she is a character who makes a lot of attempts to get involved with the protagonist. Since she doesn’t have a specific fiancé, it’s no wonder she’s less shadowed than Christina, who is engaged to His Highness.

But, however, I have to admit that right now, I don’t have the time to be bothered with the story of “Eleonore!”. I have my hands full with two other matters: the duel with Dobberwin that is coming up the day after tomorrow and the problem of the moneylenders. To be precise, I have only one problem, but the urgency of this and that makes me uncomfortable.

Yesterday, I cancelled my piano and library plans and spent half the day in my room pondering the moneylender problem. It has been four days since I heard from Oldman Eppel. Compared to the beginning, my mind has calmed down somewhat. Last night, I was back to my usual amount of wine, and I was able to calmly face the problem and the countermeasures with a relatively clear mind, and my thoughts began to come together.

Although I feel a sense of urgency about the danger to my life, the other party has not yet identified me, so there is still time. If I can find out who they are, at the worst, I can hire assassins to attack them. After all, a change of mindset is necessary, and today I had the mental strength to go to the piano and the library.

So at noon, as usual, I was having lunch with Arthur at the school cafeteria “Rotasti”. The topic of conversation was, of course, the story of engagement cancellation. Arthur was praising my intuition and eating a lot of meat. Also, Winds suggested that he would like to be my second in the Dobberwin match, and I immediately agreed.

Arthur said, “Wind is a party to this fight, so I have to make sure he sees it through to the end”. As expected of Arthur, he must have inherited this kind of attentiveness from his parents. While I was thinking this, someone came up to my side.

“Glenn, I need to talk to you.”

I looked up in the direction of the voice and saw a female student looking down at me with folded arms and emerald eyes. There was Letty. Her face looked like she was angry. I had no idea what was going on, but I thought it would be best to play dumb.

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“Yo, Letty. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

Letty seems a little annoyed, considering that her voice has dropped a semitone. However, her angry face is quite beautiful. She is giving off an aura of a beautiful girl more than usual. When I looked at Arthur with a sideways glance, he was smitten with a poker face. The people around were all staring at me. Letty is also a heroine of this world afterall.

“Do you have time after school today?”

“Yeah, I got time.”

“If so, you have to come because I’ve saved you a private room at the Rotasti. Airi is worried about you.”

I thought to myself, “Oh, so that’s what this is all about,” but then Letty said, “See ya,” and walked away. Letty’s dashing walk behind is another beauty. Ummm, she has an aura about her, doesn’t she? Amazing.

“Hey, hey, hey, who is she? Did she just asking you out on date?”

It was none other than Arthur who leaned forward with a snobby b*****d’s voice, a complete change from before.

“You’re amazing, aren’t you? You seem to avoid socializing, but you’re getting along with such a beautiful woman.”

“No, no, no, you’ve got it all wrong, Arthur. I just met Letty by chance.”

“But she asked you out, didn’t she?” I explained about Letty to Arthur, who was cheering me up like a kid.

“That’s Leticia Ritschel. She’s the daughter of the Viscount Ritschel family. She just want to talk to me about her friend.”

“Friend?”　

I explained to Arthur, who was biting his tongue, that we were discussing Letty’s friend, and that she was going to be there as well. Of course, I didn’t mention Airi at all. She’s too precious to me.

“I’m jealous of you, man. I envy you, being so close to such a beautiful woman.”

Arthur’s attention seemed to be focused on Letty, not on her friend. He looks like a hard man, but he’s a mess. I’m glad if he doesn’t focus on Airi, though.

I left with Arthur, who still has no tolerance for women, behind my back.

After third period, I went into the instrumental music room to play the piano for the first time in a day and plan my after-school strategy. The reason why Airi invited me was probably to ask about my absence from the library. She probably talked to Letty about whether it was about the duel or whether there’s something wrong with me, and she was concerned.

So there is only one thing to think about. Is whether it is more advantageous for me to enter the room before or after the two of them. Since I have been invited, one of the way is to make them wait, but it is uncivilized to make a woman wait. It would be better to go in first, plain and simple. Above all, I can meet Airi. Today, my fingers are moving lightly. I decided to end my piano practice early and head to the school cafeteria, Rotasti.

“Hi.”

I was the first to enter the room Letty had taken for me, and greeted the two who came in later with a smile. Airi thanked me for the dungeon and bowed, Letty apologized for calling me out of the blue, and we each took a seat. Lettie was plain-faced, but Airi looked a little stiff, and I felt sorry for worrying her.

“I know it’s too sudden, but what happened?”

Perhaps it had been pre-arranged. When the tea set arrived, Letty immediately threw a direct line.

“Glenn didn’t come to the library, I am worried…“

Airi followed. It was as I had expected. I chanted the words I had prepared in advance.

“The day after I went to the dungeon, I suddenly had some business to attend to, and I was busy dealing with it. I had it all sorted out, but I couldn’t decide who to talk to.”

When the other side calls you to the table, try to change the atmosphere of the meeting by talking to you, so that the initiative will shift to you. By replying to their questions with questions, I eliminate the inconvenient parts of the conversation. That way, your statement won’t be perceived as a lie.

“Specifically, who should I talk to at the major merchant associations in the royal guilds?”

“You mean the Four Great Trading Companies?”

Letty returned. He seems to know a little about it even though he is an aristocrat.

“Yeah. Which of those four should I talk to?”

“Is there one that’s not working?”

The Turid Trading Company. They’re in the same business as us.

I answered Letty’s question immediately. Turid is the head of the guild of Regidorna, the second largest city in Norden. That overlaps with ours. If we teamed up with such a place, we would create the structure of a battle between the royal capital and the provinces, and we might get kicked out of the country. It’s impossible.

If Turid, who controls Regidorna, doesn’t make it, that leaves three.

“Why not start with the smallest?”

Airi said, interrupting Letty’s musings.

“If you get turned down by a big place and go to a small place, you will probably feel slighted, but if you get turned down by a small place and go to a big place, you won’t feel bad about it.”

“I see. I was impressed with Airi’s explanation. Who would I talk to? I had been thinking only about being listened to, but I don’t know how this person I’m talking to will react. In a way, it is more reliable to think about going to the next place so that there will be no problem even if they refuse. It makes sense.”

“Go start with the smallest place. So you’re thinking about a grand total.”

Airi nodded in agreement with Letty’s words. I was convinced by what she said and made a quick decision.

“Can you give me a minute?”

With their approval, I took out my magical equipment. Letty was surprised at the sudden appearance of the magical equipment, but when I explained that it was powered by my merchant special ability [storage], she looked at me and was envious. The guild closed earlier, but now there’s still time. I quickly made contact with Oldman Eppel with the magical equipment I had brought out.

“Hello!

Eppel and I called each other with a merchant’s greeting. The Kansai dialect is probably just a specification. It is a mysterious greeting that we also used in Monselle.

“I thought you had already left!”

“We ain’t got a single beat to sell if that so!”

Airi and Letty, whose eyes are glazed over at our hateful banter between the merchants, proceed with my story.

“I’m sorry, but I need to talk to the Furnas Chamber of Commerce. Please arrange it.”

“Oh, okay.”

Eppel readily agreed. The Furnas Trading Company is a long-established company, but it is ranked fourth in the royal guild hierarchy. Following Iris’s advice, he chose them as his first negotiating partner.

“Furnas also wanted to meet you. I think we can make it work.”

“That Furnas Trading Company? I was a little surprised. Maybe I can have a little hope.”

“By the way, Glenn. You, a moneylender is looking for a hit man.”

Wht you says that now damnit!

Eppel’s voice has the two people in front of me stiffening.

“Please carefull! Those guys are tough.”

All right, all right, I’ll be careful, old man. Bye!

I hurriedly cut off my conversation with Eppel. But the four cold stares that pierced my face hurt.

“Glenn. What is the meaning of that?”

Airi’ voice dropped an octave. Oh no, this is a bad. I held my head in my heart.