FSTE 08

Chapter 08

Rian was passing through the mansion’s inner courtyard when he casually looked up.

On the bare branches that had stood skeletal all winter, fresh green buds had begun to sprout.
Before he knew it, spring had arrived.

“So it really is becoming spring.”

Most people welcome spring.
But some of the people in the Cheonggeumseok Trading Company could not.

Strictly speaking, it wasn’t spring itself they feared—it was the changing of the seasons.

Because it meant that soon, it would be decided who would have to leave the company.

“Thanks for your hard work today.”
“Oh, Rian, you’re here?”
“Hey, Rian.”
“Welcome, Rian.”

As always, when he showed his face at the company office in the afternoon, several people greeted him with bright expressions.

“Yo, my friend! Having another great day today?”
“Ugh, don’t even ask, Miguel. Want to hear what kind of trouble old man Diego stirred up again today?”
“Haha! You really do have it rough!”

People gathered around Rian, chatting idly about trivial things.
Their faces were all filled with ease and relaxation.

Just a couple of months ago, they had all looked half-dead.
But the worries that had plagued them back then had long since been passed on to someone else.

“Tch. Bunch of spineless fools. Groveling to a slave and all.”
“Seriously. That bastard taught them some weird tricks, and now only those of us who work honestly are suffering. Ptooey!”

Those people were loudly slandering him, practically making sure he could hear.

Seeing their own performance scraping rock bottom, they must have been pretty anxious.

“So whose fault is it for getting complacent? If you want to improve as a person, you’ve got to make an effort somehow.”

Rian also muttered loudly—half to himself, half for them to hear.

“That damn slave…!”
“Hey, hold it in. What if you mess with Lady Isabel’s property?”
“Tch…!”

But really, what could they even do?

Even in a capitalist society, the boss’s pet dog outranks the company employees.
And if that pet dog costs nine hundred million? That says it all.

“They’ll be kicked out soon anyway. Just ignore them, Rian.”
“Right. They keep insisting it’s some obvious scam. This is all their own doing.”

To be fair, it wasn’t like they had done nothing all winter.
They hated the idea of bowing their heads to a slave, but they still watched what others were doing and learned how to draw graphs—more or less.

Graphs are something even elementary school kids learn.
Drawing a graph itself isn’t difficult.
What matters is how you use it.

From what Rian had heard secondhand, it was downright ridiculous.

They’d cram in all sorts of pointless decorations, making flashy graphs that completely destroyed readability.
They’d turn every single number into a graph, failing to convey the information that actually mattered.
Some were just plain idiots who drew the graphs wrong to begin with.

“Hey! You future dropouts! Isn’t the floor cold down there? Hang in there a bit longer—you’ll be leaving soon anyway!”
“When we were struggling, you didn’t care at all. Serves you right!”
“What? You little—!”
“Don’t get cocky! Your cheap tricks have probably all been exposed by now!”

The former group of would-be dropouts and the current group of would-be dropouts.
The atmosphere between the two groups grew so tense it looked like fists might start flying at any moment.

‘It should be about time.’

Rian clasped his hands behind his back and stepped back as if watching a show.
Then he fixed his gaze on the back door of the office that connected to Isabel’s mansion.

What Diego had been working on all morning—
He still hadn’t shown it, but Rian had a rough idea of what it was.

Bang!

“Why all the ruckus? You all itching to go back to the marketplace?”

Just as expected—perfect timing.
The ill-tempered old man with the goat beard opened the back door and appeared.

At the same time, the office fell deathly silent.

No wonder—
The documents in his hand were…

“This is the quarterly final settlement. Get it organized.”
“Y-yes, sir!”

Soon after, he began rearranging the board where the employees’ nameplates were hung.

Click, clack, clatter—

Gulp!

The sound of wooden pieces colliding.
The sound of people swallowing dryly echoed here and there.

Then, just as everyone expected, the nameplates that had been at the very bottom slid upward all at once.

“Wooo! We did it!”
“Rian! Look at that! We all survived!”
“Congratulations, Miguel. Everyone else too.”

Not just safely above the cutoff, but nearly in the upper-middle ranks.
At this rate, they would likely be able to work on without worrying about being fired.

“Ugh… no! Why am I so low?!”
“No, it can’t be! Please… please!”

On the other hand, those who had been in the middle and slid straight down.
Unfortunately, no miracles awaited them.

Still, even if they were at the bottom, the fact that their nameplates remained on the board meant they had at least survived this quarter.

“Why! Why! Why are you taking my nameplate down?! There has to be a mistake! This makes no sense!”

For the one person whose nameplate had been removed entirely, not even hope remained.

“This is impossible…! Do you know how much money I made for this company?! You can’t just kick me out like this!”

Someone who had gone from a would-be dropout to a confirmed dropout vented his injustice with his whole body.

“You guys, say something too! You know how hard I worked!”
“……”
“Damn it! You’re next, all of you!”

Those who had once been his colleagues turned their heads away.
Right now, tomorrow’s survival mattered more than yesterday’s coworkers.

A few people, conflicted expressions on their faces, glanced furtively toward Rian.

“Tsk. How is it that there’s never anyone who leaves quietly?”

Clicking his tongue, Diego gestured to the guards stationed at the back door.

And at the same time—

“Ugh…!”

Rian frowned and covered one ear.
A disturbing whisper he hadn’t heard in a long time rang by his ear.

“If it weren’t for that slave bastard… this is all because of him….”

Bloodshot eyes glaring at him.
A hand clenched tightly around something.

“This is bad…”

Even without the auditory hallucination warning him, this was clearly dangerous.

“Damn it! If only you weren’t here!”

The crazed dropout charged forward.

The guards?
Too far away.
Farther than the man himself.

“Kyaa!”
“H-hey! Watch out!”

People froze in place, screaming without moving.
As expected, relying on others was a foolish choice.

At that moment, Rian felt some unknown force guiding him.

“Raaah! Die!!”

At the same time, the noise in his ears grew louder.
But instead of a warning, it felt like a voice urging him on, pushing him forward.

He couldn’t understand the muttering words, but trusting his instincts, he moved his body first.

Whoosh!

A flash of something silver narrowly grazed past him.

Thud! Bang!

“Keugh!”

The crazed dropout’s body traced an arc through the air and slammed into the floor.

A clean, perfect throw—one decisive victory.

“Whew… Take a moment to reflect while you stare at the floor.”
“Guh…”

On the ground lay a letter opener, the kind used to break the seal on letters.

Normally, there would be no need to sharpen it so much.
Yet for some reason, its blade tip was embedded in the wooden floor.

“Whoa! Rian, you’ve got some serious moves!”
“I thought you were just a pretty face—guess I was wrong!”
“Guards! Hurry and deal with this lunatic!”

The people who had been frozen in fear moments ago surrounded Rian.

The dropout sprawled on the floor seemed too shocked to move at all, even as the guards dragged him away.

‘What just happened? What did I even do?’

Rian was bewildered by the situation.
He’d never learned judo or self-defense techniques….

He had simply moved as the voices guided him.

“So the rumor about you being from a fallen noble family was true?”
“Well, yeah. What kind of ordinary slave costs three hundred gold coins? Of course there’s a story!”
“No, it’s not really like that—”
“You idiots! It’s rude to ask things like that!”

And so, the misunderstanding about Rian’s origins only deepened once more.

Isabel gently stroked Rian’s face, her expression full of concern.

“I heard something terrible happened. Are you all right?”
“Yes. Thanks to some self-defense I learned before, I managed somehow.”
“I heard that too. They say you slammed a man much bigger than you straight into the ground?”

Isabel stared at Rian’s arm for a moment, then slowly ran her hand over it.

Once, it had been the arm of a young boy who remained slender despite endless digging and hoeing.
Now it had become the sturdy arm of a grown man, muscles clearly defined.

“Rian, could you stand up for a moment?”

She had him stand, then faced him directly.

“When I first saw you, you were much smaller than me. You’ve grown so much already.”
“That’s all thanks to you feeding me well and letting me rest properly, Lady Isabel.”
“Come to think of it, didn’t you say you’re nearly of age?”
“Yes. It’s this spring, so there’s not much time left.”
“I see.”

Isabel smiled softly and stroked his face once more.

Unlike earlier, when her touch was filled with worry over possible injuries,
this time there was something faintly provocative about it.

“Rian.”
“Yes, Lady Isabel.”
“For the time being, don’t go down to the annex.”
“Pardon?”
“It would be troublesome if something like today happened again, wouldn’t it?”

Rian was honestly taken aback.
Just one incident, and she’d already gone into full overprotective mode.

“Your job is to assist Diego anyway, isn’t it?”
“That’s true, but…”
“If he still isn’t properly following my instructions, I’ll give him a sharp reminder.”
“…So you already knew.”

Instead of answering, Isabel simply smiled.

As always, she was a woman whose true thoughts were hard to read.
She leaned in closer, her large eyes peering into Rian as if trying to see straight through him.

“I heard some rather interesting stories, so I’ve been watching quietly. But it’s time you stop helping the company members as a hobby. It’s more fair that way.”
“But if there’s something I can do, I wanted to help you more, Lady Isabel. Is that not allowed?”
“Oh my, how admirable.”

Isabel patted Rian’s head, then kissed his forehead as if rewarding him.

Maybe appealing as a loyal and kind slave had worked.
Just as he sighed in relief at the thought—

“But at the end of every season, someone has to leave. That’s the rule of our company.”

Isabel’s lips were still smiling, but her gaze had grown a little cold.

“You don’t have the authority to choose who stays, Rian.”

She kissed his forehead once more.

Was it just his imagination, or did the second kiss feel less like a reward and more like a brand being placed?

‘Was my intention to form my own faction within the company too obvious…?’

He had no intention whatsoever of taking over the company.
But to Isabel, who had such a past, it probably looked that way.

“Yes. I’ll be more careful from now on, Lady Isabel.”

For now, it was better not to push back.

“Still, thanks to you, our operating profit this winter increased noticeably. Buying you really was the right choice.”

The soft flesh beneath Isabel’s eyes curved upward.

Honestly.
She really knew how to toy with people’s emotions—like a true temptress.

“Good deeds deserve rewards. Is there anything you’d like to receive for your coming-of-age ceremony?”
“Um. Anything at all?”
“As long as it’s something I can give, anything.”
“Anything…”

Would it be out of the question to honestly say, ‘I want to be your kept man’?

Rian sank into deeper thought than ever before.
Somehow, it felt like a workplace superior asking what you want for lunch while already having an answer in mind.

“Then how about this?”

Since she had said anything, he decided to take a small risk and push his luck a little.