TNMN 08

Chapter : 8

Alosha raised the middle finger wearing Phoenix’s ring toward that handsome and irritating man who shrugged with a relaxed expression.

“Can you understand what I mean now?”

“What the…?”

Laos, who had been snorting dismissively, widened his eyes as if he had recognized the ring on her middle finger.

Got him.

Alosha folded her raised finger carefully and looked down at the ring on her hand with satisfaction.

“Ahem. Since you said you’re tired, I’ll keep this brief and get straight to the point. From now on, I’m going to visit the most renowned merchant guilds in the Empire, starting with the O’Clair Merchant Guild, which you hate, and look for someone willing to buy this ring.”

“…Do you really think someone would buy such an old antique?”

“I know that you’ve been looking for this ring for a long time, so don’t pretend you have no idea what I’m talking about.”

“Me? Who told you that?”

Alosha bit her lips tightly. She couldn’t exactly say that she knew because of the original novel her friend had written.

“Isn’t that the case?”

“Who knows? Do I really look like someone who wants the ring you’re talking about, Young Lady?”

The man in front of her shrugged with an irritatingly relaxed expression.

Although he looked like that on the outside, he was undoubtedly racking his brain to figure out what Alosha was planning and what information she possessed.

At times like this, she had to remain calm and avoid getting swept up in the other person’s pace.

“I don’t really like beating around the bush. I know that this ring belonged to your parents and that it is a token that allows one to cross the desert.”

“…I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Alosha frowned at Laos’s stubborn insistence on pretending not to know, even after she had practically told him everything.

“So, Laos Merchant Guild Master, you’re saying you wouldn’t mind if this ring ended up in the hands of another merchant guild?”

At Alosha’s words, the Laos Merchant Guild Master smiled faintly and said nothing.

“You’d better think about it again. I’m not someone who makes empty threats. If I say I’m going to do something, I really do it, you know? I’m seriously going to hand it over to another merchant guild. I really will, you know?”

Alosha had decided to respond calmly, but since she still wasn’t getting the reaction she wanted from him, she was the one becoming increasingly anxious.

This is also a keepsake from your parents. Wouldn’t it be a problem if it ended up with someone else? Please, just ask me what I want. Please.

However, unlike Alosha’s desperate inner cries, the Laos Merchant Guild Master merely raised one corner of his mouth and let out a quiet laugh.

“Did you come here to threaten the Laos Merchant Guild, Young Lady?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“If you intended to threaten me, you should have used something I actually cared about. I’m a little taken aback that you’re making such a fuss over nothing more than a ring.”

At the words nothing more than a ring, Alosha clenched her fists in frustration.

If the Guild Master was going to be this stubborn, then Alosha was just as stubborn herself.

After all, she was an author who believed that if a character refused to move according to her intentions and prevented her from writing the story she had prepared, then that character should be the one to suffer the consequences and hardships that followed.

“If that’s what you say, then I have nothing more to say. I’m truly sorry for causing a disturbance.”

After politely apologizing to the Guild Master, she turned around and saw the employee looking at her with an extremely pitiful expression.

She had even spent money on the employee to act all cool and impressive while coming upstairs, only to be openly thrown out without even getting a chance.

This is so embarrassing! No—when the heroine in a novel boldly pushes forward like this, the male lead always becomes interested and says, ‘I’ve never met a woman like you before.’ Why doesn’t it work when I do it? Is it because this is a different genre? If that’s the case, I’m in serious trouble.

“Piz, help the Young Lady get home safely.”

Alosha’s pride was wounded by the Laos Merchant Guild Master’s words from behind her, but she forced the corners of her lips upward and smiled.

“No, thank you. I appreciate the thought.”

Alosha thought that even if she had to walk all the way home, she would never ride that carriage.

“It might be difficult for you to find a carriage here, Young Lady.”

“I have many merchant guilds I need to visit anyway. Besides, it would be a little awkward to ride another guild’s carriage, wouldn’t it? When I return home, I’ll be riding a carriage provided by one of those merchant guilds, so you don’t have to worry about it.”

“…I understand. Then, goodbye.”

He’s really letting me go.

Even while being escorted out of the merchant guild by the employee, Alosha thought that Laos would at least say, “Wait a moment.”

But when she heard the door slam shut with a loud bang, Alosha was left speechless.

Maybe he’s watching to see what I’ll do. Right? Surely he wouldn’t really send me away like this?

That door had obviously been slammed shut by the wind.

Thinking that, Alosha turned around with a composed expression and looked toward the second-floor window.

The curtains were tightly closed.

“What the hell!”

Alosha looked up at the second floor and silently hurled every curse and insult she could think of at him before proudly raising her middle finger.

You’ll always have second-male-lead energy if you can’t even get your timing right!

She stomped down the street in a huff.

Then, the curtains that had been closed on the second floor opened slightly, and Emil could be seen watching her from outside.

Looking down at Alosha’s retreating back, which was like a sudden gust of wind on a spring day, Emil struggled to suppress the laughter that kept escaping him.

“They said she was a quiet and well-behaved young lady. I suppose that information was wrong.”

Ever since becoming a merchant guild master, Emil had regularly received reports on the various noble families.

At the time, the evaluation of Alosha of Count Nocturne’s family had been nothing special.

She was quiet, well-behaved, and an exemplary noble young lady.

Scoffing at that one-line description, Emil decided that he needed to investigate Alosha once again.

“I’m back.”

Emil, who had been watching Alosha’s back from the window, turned toward Piz, who had returned to him.

“Piz. How do you think that young lady knew that I was looking for the Phoenix’s Ring?”

“Who knows?”

Piz smiled, but Emil didn’t look particularly pleased. So Piz cautiously opened his mouth.

“Where could it have leaked from…?”

Among the living, no one knew that Emil was the sole heir of the Phoenix Merchant Guild except for his closest aide, Piz.

When Emil turned his head and stared intently at Piz, Piz immediately realized what he was thinking and hurriedly waved his hands.

“It wasn’t me!”

“…”

“I’m seriously being wronged here!”

“I didn’t say anything.”

Piz felt terribly wronged when Emil questioned him about everything and then pretended otherwise.

I can’t believe I work for someone like this!

Piz grumbled that if Emil didn’t pay him so well, he would have moved to another merchant guild long ago.

“By the way, is the ring the young lady has really the Phoenix’s Ring?”

“…It’s real.”

“What? Then why did you send her away?”

At Piz’s question, Emil sat down in front of the desk piled high with documents and picked up a pen.

“I don’t like making trades where I’m the one at a disadvantage. And I especially dislike being manipulated by the other party. She left angrily, but the young lady will probably come back tomorrow or the day after to make a deal with me. It won’t be too late to negotiate then.”

“What? Didn’t you hear her say that she was going to another merchant guild while she was angry?”

“You idiot. Don’t you remember that she said she knew the Phoenix’s Ring belonged to my parents? If she knows even a story that isn’t widely known, then that young lady must have a reason why she absolutely has to make a deal with me. If that weren’t the case, she would have deliberately leaked information and made me come to her.”

Emil snorted, and Piz finally seemed to understand. He let out an “Ah” and nodded.

“Find out what that young lady wants to trade for the ring.”

“Yes…”

Having gained nothing from her visit to the Laos Merchant Guild, Alosha immediately headed toward the O’Clair Merchant Guild, which was known as the Laos Merchant Guild’s rival, while fuming.

“Welcome to the O’Clair Merchant Guild! What brings you here?”

“I’d like to meet the Guild Master.”

“Do you have an appointment?”

“No. But could you tell him that I know a way to deal a devastating blow to the Laos Merchant Guild Master?”

Just as she had done at the Laos Merchant Guild, Alosha handed a banknote to the employee who had hesitated.

Compared to the loyal employee of the Laos Merchant Guild, the O’Clair Merchant Guild employee was much more flexible and readily understood Alosha’s situation for 1,000 krona.

Not long after the employee went upstairs, a loud pounding sound echoed through the building, and a short, balding middle-aged man came rushing down the stairs.

“Huff, huff… You said you had something to say about the Laos Merchant Guild Master?”

A Guild Master was rushing downstairs like that after being influenced by the words of someone he had never even met before…

Alosha thought of Emil, who had investigated her so carefully, and shook her head.

How is someone like this supposed to defeat that Guild Master?

Although she had somehow made it this far, Alosha had no intention of actually handing the ring over to another Guild Master.

She merely had a vague plan that if information about her visit to the O’Clair Merchant Guild reached the Laos Merchant Guild, they would take action on their own.

“W-Well, there’s no point standing here. I’ll escort you to the VIP room on the second floor.”

Alosha followed the O’Clair Merchant Guild Master, who bowed so deeply he looked as though he might fold in half, and arrived at the VIP room on the second floor.

An expensive carpet covered the floor. A magnificent chandelier hung from the ceiling. Oil paintings were displayed on various parts of the walls, and porcelain ornaments sat on the table.

There was absolutely no sense of the beauty of empty space or harmony anywhere in the room’s interior.

The room made Alosha feel as uncomfortable as a document with no spaces between its words that had been center-aligned.

It’s not easy to spend that much money and still manage to look this tacky…

Alosha sat on the sofa and observed the Guild Master as he poured tea.

She couldn’t tell whether his eyes, nose, and mouth were naturally small or simply buried beneath his abundant flesh, but even though he was grinning from ear to ear, he couldn’t hide the greedy impression he gave off.

People like this always stab you in the back at the most important moment…

Alosha, who believed in the saying, “Physiognomy is science,” gathered her uneasy feelings and smiled.