Chapter 269

[Side Story] Two-Arm Scale (10)

― ‘It’s already been a long time since the Golden King Elte left this world. It’s time to abandon the name ‘Elte Company’...’

This is what Slog calmly declared in the conference room when this whole story started.

Now is the time to carry out that resolution.

*“The sun is so... dazzling.”

A voice that seems to go off at any moment. Slog spoke with a pale face on the conference table.

“Yeah... Anyway... the sun rises. “The era of Elte Kecheln has been lost, so the old ways must go away.”

Slog closed his eyes and whispered quietly.

The next shareholder is Lortel Kecheln. As if saying that fact is natural.

The appearance even feels unnatural.

A colossus struggling to somehow survive.

It was a whisper-like voice, compared to the desperate slog of trying to get out of a situation by screaming, swearing, and even using one’s tongue.

In that voice... he spoke slowly.

“How much do you know, Ed Rosstaylor?”

“—Even the fact that you had no intention of becoming a leader in the first place.”

“I thought I hid it well enough, but you were so quick-witted... I even fooled that fox-like Lortel...”

Slog is a merchant who has survived in this Old Deck for decades.

He probably knows better than anyone else what kind of outcome he will face if he recklessly attacks a prestigious noble family.

Nevertheless, he went ahead with that ridiculous plan.

By persuading everyone, even deceiving the allies, that there was a ‘back party’ that didn’t even exist.

Even with blood dripping from his waist, Slog kept his eyes wide open. Soon, a trickle of fresh blood flows from the corner of the mouth.

“It looks like there are a lot of things you want to ask me...”

The blood flows along the surface of the conference table and eventually seeps into the floor.

This was the part I didn’t like while handling this matter.

It would take too much time to dig through each and every one of them.

The scattered clues seem so chaotic on the outside that it is not easy to gather them in one place and organize them.

Nevertheless, if I look back on my memories... there were quite a few.

― ‘Hmm... Honestly, this regression magic wasn’t that efficient. There are so many things to prepare and so many conditions... You know those basic things well...’

– ‘That merchant is also strangely kind. It feels like I’m moving within a line that doesn’t endanger my life.’

Lucy’s words analyzing the regression curse placed on Lortel.

Why did they use a lukewarm and ineffective means like the regression curse to subdue Lortel, even though there were many reliable means such as assassination and kidnapping?

– ‘Are you here to provoke me? Why would you go this far and leave after saying something that could have been said in writing...’

– ‘There is no way we would give up Senior Lortel. I probably knew about Slog, but why did I have to go this long way...’

This was the question Tanya had when she saw Slog come all the way to Ross Taylor’s territory.

Why did you go to the middle of the enemy lines and provoke me as if you were declaring that I was the enemy?

It’s not like there was a reasonable return to take such a risky action.

Not only that, it was the same even after arriving at Alldeck.

I attached a separate bell to protect Lortel, but in the end, Slog did not take any action to secure Lortel.

Even though they knew that Lortel had been subdued, they made no move to end the matter by immediately accusing her of embezzlement.

“I can only say that because I don’t know this group called Elte Company.”

Slog chuckled and laughed.

“Do you know what this sentence is that everyone at Elte Company, from the lowest apprentice to the core executives, memorizes like the Bible?”

“...”

“Oh my god...”

Slog spoke slowly, blood pouring out.

― ‘There is no such thing as a perfectly horizontal two-arm scale in the world.’

To them, human relationships are like that.

Lortel, I will fall after gathering the opposing forces to make you the leader.

So please remain incapacitated for a moment so that your opposing forces can come together as one.

If Slog said that, would Lortel really trust Slog and nod his head?

“Merchants are a very tiring people.”

Even after working together for decades, they do not trust each other.

They try to please each other, but they never communicate emotionally.

So... the widened gap forms a parallel line forever.

That’s why Slog moved arbitrarily.

He pretends to support Persica and uses Dune Grex to slander Lortel.

Among the great merchants, they gossiped about Lortel and showed off their hostile relationship with her.

They occasionally expressed their greed for the position of head of the association and continued to spread hints within the association that they would split at some point.

He probably decided on this whole plan after watching Lortel push out Elte Kecheln.

Then, the timing of all movements roughly matches.

The Elte Company, filled with merchants like snakes, is a swamp of traitors who will see through your intentions and take advantage of the situation even if you let your guard down even a little.

If you try to plan something in a place like that, you have to be prepared to fool everyone in the world.

Old fox Slog Keldlux knew this very well.

“It seems like there are a lot of things I want to ask...”

Slog smiled with difficulty, looking haggard.

“When will Lortel’s regression curse be lifted?”

“The effect will wear off soon. “One day, when I wake up naturally, it will be resolved.”

“Why do you have to use such a troublesome curse...”

“Well...”

The sound of a crowd praising the saint can be heard from the vacant lot in front of the store.

Slog listened to the sound and spoke quietly with his eyes closed.

“I was just a little curious about what that little boy who had not lost his days as a merchant would have looked like...”

Fuelan and Kaldenheim run into the underground warehouse that Slog was talking about.

After kicking down the door, the only place you enter is a dark, empty space. I heard that there is a means to subdue Ed Rosstaylor here, but there is nothing visible.

At that moment, the two men hiding in the dark grab the forearms of Fuelan and Kaldenheim, bend them backwards, and press them to the floor.

The men who were holding down the two people who supported the slog... were mercenaries hired from outside the Elte Company.

The two embarrassed giants look back with trembling eyes... and a woman commanding the two mercenaries comes into view.

The person there was Lortel’s chief secretary... Rienna Clemson.

Only then did the two people realize that they had fallen into a trap.