TMSTGH 10

Chapter 10

Yesterday, this was the reward Rashak had given me.

“From now on, Hiel will be in charge of managing Sterling Trading Company.”

The corners of my mouth had twitched upward at that. After all, it meant that Patrick Rohan would also fall under my jurisdiction.

If I could make that bastard suffer the way he had made me suffer, it would be more than enough of a reward.

However, once I actually started receiving reports from the employees…

“Mr. Patrick? What is this?”

“Can’t you tell by looking? It’s a ledger. A ledger.”

“There are far too many gaps for this to be called a ledger. And these amounts have been divided into unnecessarily small figures.”

Patrick flashed me a grin.

“You may not know this, but this is how we do things at Sterling. You could say it’s our established practice.”

“…It’s far too inefficient to be dismissed as an established practice. Do it again.”

“Excuse me? But hasn’t everyone else been submitting their reports this way?”

I was at a loss for words.

Because he was telling the truth.

I had spent the entire morning receiving reports from middle managers other than Patrick, but not a single one of their ledgers was in proper order.

There were far too many blank spaces, and the formatting was such a mess that just looking at the documents made my head spin.

Even when I ordered them to redo their work, they stubbornly insisted that it was simply their established practice.

Just like Patrick was doing now.

“Don’t you think you’re being a little too picky with me? Is this because you have something personal against me?”

“……”

“Tsk. Well, I can put up with that, but the others must be really disappointed. How can anyone trust a manager who lets personal feelings interfere with work?”

At his words, I heard snickers coming from several directions.

Even when I turned my icy gaze toward them, the employees continued to laugh under their breath.

Oh, I see. So you’re all in this together.

“Well, I’ll be off, then. I’m terribly busy, you see.”

With that, Patrick left without even waiting for my response. Several employees followed him out.

It hadn’t even been long since the lunch break ended, yet they were taking time off whenever they pleased.

Without so much as asking their manager for permission.

This place is an absolute disaster.

I let out a long sigh and stood up.

Then I headed for the office of Kevin Sterling, the head of Sterling Trading Company. I wanted to find out whether this so-called established practice was actually legitimate.

I knocked and opened the office door.

“Mr. Sterling, there’s something I’d like to ask you—Where are you?”

“H-here! I’m over here, Miss Hiel!”

I froze in bewilderment. A moment later, Kevin emerged from behind a mountain of documents, pushing his way through the piles of paper.

His complexion was utterly haggard.

“What… are you doing?”

“Ah, well… I’m working on an assignment…”

“An assignment?”

Kevin hesitated before answering.

“Mr. Patrick said that… if I wanted to learn how to do the job properly, I needed to learn Sterling’s history first…”

Puzzled, I picked up a document from the floor.

What was written on it was… quite literally, history.

It contained a detailed list of the goods Sterling Trading Company had begun selling when it was founded forty years ago.

“I’ve memorized all the items on the list, but… I keep getting the names of the trading companies we did business with mixed up. Was it Scavin or Scuvin…?”

I hurriedly searched through the other documents.

There it was. Scavin.

It was a trading company that had distributed textiles and had gone bankrupt a full ten years ago.

It was nothing more than a small company with absolutely nothing remarkable about it.

“You’re saying… he told you he wouldn’t teach you how to do the job until you memorized all this?”

“Yes…”

“Um, if you don’t mind me asking… how old are you, Mr. Kevin?”

“I turned eighteen recently…”

Suddenly, I remembered the information Pierce had told me about Sterling Trading Company.

It had been about the young man standing right in front of me: the company’s new head.

Apparently, he had been a sheltered young master who had grown up getting everything he wanted.

Then his father had suddenly passed away, leaving him without a proper opportunity to learn how to run the business.

…So Patrick has been manipulating Kevin however he pleases.

That explained why Patrick had been so brazen in front of me.

He was the real power behind the company, after all.

No wonder the other employees had rushed out after him the moment he left.

“Um… Miss Hiel?”

“What kind of reward is this supposed to be…? I’m going to wring that bastard’s—!”

“What about me?”

At the voice from behind me, my shoulders stiffened in a startled jerk.

Rashak had entered the office without me noticing. Looking at me, he raised the corners of his mouth into a mischievous grin.

“Sounds like you were talking about me?”

“N-no, I wasn’t…”

It was an obvious lie, but Rashak merely chuckled softly, as though he found the whole thing amusing. Then he dropped onto the sofa beside me.

He motioned toward me with his chin.

“Report.”

I glanced briefly at Kevin before continuing.

“There are… far too many problems to count. The ledgers are a mess, and the employees’ work habits are terrible. The biggest problem is that nobody listens to a word I say.”

Kevin didn’t look surprised. He simply hung his head as though he were a guilty man.

It seemed he was already aware of the problems.

But no one had been willing to listen to him.

After all, following Patrick, the man who actually held power in the company, was much easier than taking the side of a young company head who knew nothing about running a business.

“What do you propose we do about it?”

“Patrick Rohan. We need to kick that man out of the company.”

My heart pounded violently for a moment.

This was the first time I’d ever made such a declaration.

But I was certain of one thing: as long as Patrick remained at Sterling, it would be nearly impossible to improve the company.

“Judging by the state of the ledgers, I suspect he’s been embezzling money, too. If we gather the evidence properly and confront him with it, Patrick won’t be able to say a word. I think we can use that as grounds to fire him…”

I finished speaking cautiously, watching Rashak’s reaction with a serious expression.

How much time passed like that?

“Good. Do whatever you want.”

“Y-you really mean it?”

“I’ll provide as much support as you need. Use my men if necessary.”

Rashak stood up.

I thought he would leave the office immediately, but then he stopped.

“Hiel.”

“Yes? Yes!”

“We’re not running a public service. Remember that.”

“……”

“I’m saying that sometimes, you don’t need to be so concerned about following every procedure.”

That was all he said.

He walked away without a trace of hesitation, as though he trusted my judgment completely.

That trust drew me into deeper thought.

We’re not running a public service…

There’s no need to worry so much about procedures…

“Miss Hiel…?”

At that moment, a realization struck me.

I didn’t hesitate any longer. I hurried after Rashak and called out.

“Boss! Please lend me some men!”

He stopped and turned around, letting out a short, amused laugh.

“How many?”

Patrick Rohan considered himself a lucky man.

After all, he had never experienced any real hardship in his life.

Two years ago, when he was fired from the trading company where he’d worked for a long time, he had been taken aback. But he had soon found another comfortable job at a company called Sterling.

So what if it was a little smaller than his previous employer?

There was incomparably more money he could pocket on the side.

Even if that unlucky little bitch, Hiel, has shown up, nothing’s going to change.

And so, the next day, Patrick arrived at work with the same lighthearted steps as always.

But when he entered the office—

“Oh, you’re finally here.”

Seeing Hiel standing in the middle of the room, Patrick furrowed his brow.

However, he couldn’t immediately say anything. Several men dressed entirely in black were standing beside her.

Their menacing appearances made Patrick swallow nervously.

Just then, Hiel’s dry voice reached his ears.

“Coming to work at two thirty in the afternoon? That’s quite some nerve, Mr. Patrick.”

Patrick let out a hollow laugh.

Look at her, acting all high and mighty just because she’s brought a few people with her.

All I have to do is frown at her a little, and she’ll back down immediately.

Anyone who had worked with Hiel knew what she was like.

They knew how timid she was, and how much she worried about what other people thought of her.

So even when Hiel looked at him with an utterly frigid gaze, Patrick wasn’t intimidated in the slightest.

Instead, he merely shrugged.

“That’s Sterling’s established practice, too. Do you have a problem with it?”

But this time, Hiel didn’t back down.

Rather than avoiding his gaze, she even took a step closer.

“Yes. I do have a problem with it.”

Regardless of how deeply Patrick furrowed his brow, she continued.

“I abolished that established practice as of today.”

“Hah! Who gave you the authority to—”

“I did.”

Hiel’s voice dropped even lower.

“I’m the manager appointed by Boss Barsen. I can do whatever I please.”

At the mention of Boss Barsen, Patrick’s expression finally hardened.

He remembered what had happened a few days ago.

Hiel had pointed out the marks inside the boxes, and the intimidating man standing beside her had been there, too.

Patrick already knew that Hiel was one of his subordinates. He simply hadn’t expected her to invoke his name so openly.

As I’d said, Hiel was a very timid woman.

He had assumed that even if something went wrong at Sterling, she would be too afraid of being scolded by Boss Barsen to report it properly. Instead, she would worry about it alone, unable to do anything.

So she’s going to invoke the Boss’s authority directly. Perhaps she’s closer to him than I thought.

In that case, continuing to confront her would only put Patrick at a disadvantage.

He gave a casual nod.

“Fine. Understood. Let’s do that.”

He started to return to his seat.

“Did I tell you that you could sit down?”

At Hiel’s voice, Patrick stopped in his tracks.

She spoke in the same dry tone as before.

“I’ve reviewed the ledgers you’ve been keeping, Mr. Patrick. They show signs of embezzlement.”

“E-Embezzlement?”

Patrick continued speaking brazenly.

“As I told you yesterday… I simply followed Sterling’s established practices. Yes, well, I understand that the blank spaces might look suspicious. If you give me some time, I can fill them in—”

“There’s no need.”

Hiel’s response was decisive.