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Chapter 9
The road stretching north from the royal castle into the forest was quiet and serene.
The Renier Hotel, built around a small plaza, was famous not only for being the oldest hotel in Lidos but also for the excellent coffee served at its first-floor café.
Yet aside from a single sip, Ethan had left his coffee untouched. The steaming drink had long gone cold. It had already been forty minutes since he’d waved away the waiter who offered to bring him a fresh cup.
“Haah.”
Unfortunately, his meeting with the tailor Worth a few days ago had ended badly. He had been no more than three minutes late, yet the man had already vanished from the meeting place.
And today, after mobilizing every source of information he had, he’d tracked down the hotel where the tailor was staying and come all the way here. But judging by the fact that Jin still hadn’t come back down from the guest rooms, things didn’t seem promising.
Ethan absentmindedly fiddled with the glossy pamphlet in his hands.
You told me to just trust you.
Staring at the staircase leading upstairs, Ethan twitched his lips as though taking his frustration out on poor Jin instead. This whole affair had been irritating him for days, leaving him perpetually sour-faced.
At the same time, however, whenever he made eye contact with ladies who looked like the very clientele of his department store, his expression changed instantly into a polished smile, as though he had never been irritated at all. His skill rivaled that of seasoned middle-aged businessmen.
The women enjoying tea at the café giggled softly and turned their heads toward him.
Roughly half recognized him, and half did not. But every single one of them knew of Lephite Department Store.
Ethan perked his ears at that and found himself satisfied.
Just then, while flipping through the worn pamphlet again after finally tearing his gaze away from the staircase, Jin appeared.
He came alone, wearing an exhausted expression. Ethan clicked his tongue.
“Guess today isn’t my day either?”
“Yeah… seems so.”
“Well, good work anyway.”
Ethan rose from his seat. As he casually flicked away the pamphlet he’d been holding the entire time, Jin darted forward and snatched it out of the air.
“Ahhh, boss!”
It was a pamphlet for Worth’s atelier, something they’d gone through considerable trouble to obtain. Jin shot a resentful glare at his boss’s back for tossing away such a precious item just because he was in a bad mood.
The carriage carrying the two men passed through the royal district and headed toward Second Street. After listening to several reports from Jin regarding the department store, Ethan closed his eyes.
Things would work out somehow. They always did. In the end, they would.
“Damn it.”
“…Pardon?”
“Nothing.”
Crossing his arms, Ethan leaned deeply against the seatback. His thoughts were tangled.
He hadn’t been back from the Empire for very long. The Reto Empire and Lidos were clearly different. Now that he had returned to his homeland, he needed to make the best possible debut both as a businessman and for Lephite itself.
To achieve that, he had prepared two cards.
The matter with Erin Cornue was more or less settled, but the issue of bringing Charles Frederick Worth and the House of Worth into his department store was dragging on unpleasantly.
Still, it’ll work out in the end.
As always, Ethan placed blind trust in his own luck and organized his thoughts.
By then, the carriage had arrived at Second Street. It was far removed from the bustling district where Lephite stood.
“We’re here, boss.”
Rows of three-story residential buildings lined both sides of the street. Shops occupied the first floors, a typical middle-class neighborhood.
The moment Ethan stepped out of the carriage, the scent of bread filled his nose.
“Ooh. The smell of bread here is killer today too.”
Passing by the bakery, Ethan and Jin climbed the iron staircase on the right.
The instant they opened the second-floor door, the smell of ink poured out at them.
“One at a time! One at a time!”
A noisy clamor followed.
Several children around ten years old crowded near the entrance.
The man handing out coins while giving instructions was Mars, one of the people in charge of the printing house. He gave them a wink.
“Go on in. Just a moment.”
The newspaper boys, having received their pay, streamed out through the entrance one by one.
Dodging around the crowd, Ethan headed into the small meeting room at the end of the hallway.
As Ethan and Jin took their seats, Mars entered shortly afterward.
“You’re here?”
“Yeah. How’s it going?”
“Not bad. Nothing to worry about.”
Mars, a lean man in his mid-twenties, sat across from them with an easy grin.
“We’ve been spreading things around just like you asked. There shouldn’t be any problems. Princess Kayla got herself a new lover recently, so everyone else is too busy chasing that story anyway.”
Mars was no ordinary young man.
Together with his older brother, he had built the Lidos Siren from nothing and was considered a fairly influential figure in the media world.
“To be honest, this one’s easy. How many people do you think saw what happened there?”
“…Saw, huh.”
Ethan remembered it too—the royal ballet performance a few days ago. He had been there himself.
Their concern, their mockery, or the fierce curiosity gleaming in the reporter’s eyes before him…
The moment Ethan saw Erin Cornue’s unexpected injury that day, inspiration had struck him. He’d seen the possibility for the incident to develop into something more emotionally charged.
For a business aimed at women, nothing sold better than a languid romance.
“Still, pretty much everyone knows by now that the man who suddenly appeared and paid off the Cornue family’s debts was some department store owner.”
“Suddenly appeared?”
“Huh?”
“Seems like there’s some strange misunderstanding going around…”
His tone sounded genuinely offended.
“The relationship between me and the young lady is absolutely not some transactional marriage or contract marriage like people are saying. We go way back. It’s special. We’ve known each other since we were kids.”
Ethan’s expression turned serious, as though he’d heard something truly unpleasant.
“…?”
Mars tilted his head slightly.
Ethan looked so sincere that it was hard to tell if he was joking. Just the other day he’d been telling them to spread stories about the enormous debt of House Cornue, and now suddenly he was acting like the most devoted man in the world…
“Wait… don’t tell me that’s actually true?”
“What?”
“What you just said…”
As Mars trailed off uncertainly, Ethan frowned in disbelief.
What was this idiot talking about?
“If I’d been some penniless nobody without connections, why would I have met that woman? That’s the kind of story you should write from now on. Use those talents of yours. Make it sound real. Make everyone believe it.”
“Ohhh, that’s what you meant. For a second there, I thought—”
Jin let out a sigh of relief, having completely fallen for it.
Ethan couldn’t even bring himself to respond. They’d known each other for ten years. And yet this fool still—
“Anyway, get your head straight. The reason Lady Cornue quit the ballet company wasn’t anything else. It was because of her injury. That ankle injury from that day.”
“Yeees, yes. Of course. Naturally.”
Mars’s lively eyes had already returned to normal as if nothing had happened.
“I’ll leave the rest to you. If there’s a problem, come straight to Second Street.”
With business concluded, Ethan stood.
“Yes sir, just leave it to me. I’ll make sure everything’s handled smoothly without a hitch.”
Pulling his hat low over his eyes, Ethan left the room.
The hallway, thick with the smell of ink, was piled with newspapers freshly printed since dawn.
Ethan grabbed one, folded it in half, and tucked it into his coat.
When he stepped back out onto the street, Jin—who had gone downstairs ahead of him—was nowhere to be seen.
“…?”
Not in the carriage either.
Ethan sighed and turned his head. Through the bakery window, he spotted Jin happily picking out bread with a big grin on his face.
Their next destination was the innermost residence on Le Mans Street—the Cornue family’s townhouse.
He’d wanted desperately to come yesterday and the day before as well, but he’d been too busy handling other matters. From the window of the hotel where he was staying, he’d spent day and night simply thinking about it.
Not that he had any particular business there.
Though it wasn’t exactly true that he had none, either.
“Um… is it really okay to go without sending word first?”
Jin opened a paper bag and bit into a fried doughnut.
The rich scent quickly filled the carriage. Ethan openly frowned and immediately opened the window.
“We’re already on our way, aren’t we?”
“No, I just mean… I’m wondering if this is proper etiquette.”
Watching Jin’s greasy lips, Ethan arched one eyebrow.
“I told you already, didn’t I? Before I left, I said I’d come again tomorrow. That’s basically the same as making plans. So what’s the problem?”
“Mmm… right, but the ‘tomorrow’ you mentioned that day has already passed.”
“…What?”
Technically speaking, there wasn’t actually an appointment at all. If anything, he’d broken a promise. Jin wasn’t wrong.
But there was no way Ethan could stop the carriage racing toward the Cornue estate over something so trivial.
“Well, Miss Cornue will probably understand.”
And this idiot had to pick now of all times to ruin the mood.
Ethan looked Jin up and down while absently touching the bread bag meant for himself. He’d bought it separately so they could eat it together at the estate.
“And that too.”
“What now?”
“Mm… no. Never mind.”
Jin still looked like he had more to say, but after one shrug, he simply took another bite of bread.
If Ethan said it was fine, then whatever. In the end, the one getting scolded wouldn’t be Jin anyway.
