CHAPTER 10………..
A Pyramid, Part One – If You’re Crazy About Scones (2)
Morris had completely fallen for scones.
He thought of them right until he closed his eyes, and the moment he opened them, he wanted to eat one. He even felt that if there wasn’t a scone within arm’s reach, he might actually die.
It was an unfamiliar experience for Morris, who had never been greedy about food.
And it was shocking.
“Is this what they call love?”
He thought he might finally understand the love he’d only ever heard about.
Just thinking about it made his heart flutter and brought a smile to his face. Even while looking at one, he would miss it. If there wasn’t a scone nearby, he couldn’t stand the anxiety.
If this wasn’t love, then there was no other name for it.
“Yes, this is love.”
Morris Herzog’s first love was a scone.
It seemed like such a serious addiction that he even tried to go two days without eating one.
However, on the morning of the third day, when he hallucinated and saw his deputy Fitz’s face turn into a scone, he humbly accepted the truth about his condition—
that he had already become a man who could not live without scones.
He delayed his business trips for over a month, visiting the shop every day.
It wasn’t just the scones; he also enjoyed the playful banter with the curt Ellie.
“It’s fun to tease her.”
If he kept teasing her, she might actually hit him one day, but that was part of the fun.
At first, her blue eyes had been full of wariness, but he could feel them gradually becoming more relaxed.
Morris also realized that just as Ellie was lowering her guard toward him, he had begun to find her cute.
Whenever Ellie glared fiercely, sneered, or cursed at him, he found himself smiling. He had no idea why he found that cute.
Ellie would look at him like he was crazy, but in the end, she always did whatever he asked.
She was the perfect target to take advantage of.
“What’s so funny?”
“Was I smiling?”
“You were smiling lecherously. It was unpleasant.”
Edmund shot Morris an irritated look.
“I bet you were thinking about some woman.”
“Oh? Do I have that image?”
“You’re a playboy, aren’t you? I’ve seen you with a different woman every day.”
“They asked me to escort them, that’s all. It wasn’t dating.”
“Ah, so you never spent private time with them?”
Morris just smiled instead of answering.
When Edmund glared at him like he was looking at something filthy, Morris added in a small voice,
“It’s a woman, but… she’s a kid.”
“…I’m leaving. I don’t want to breathe the same air as a pervert.”
“She’s like a little sister to me. She’s cute.”
“That’s exactly what criminals say.”
“Even if she’s young, she’s nineteen. I really have no ulterior motives.”
“You don’t even have a younger sister.”
Edmund stared at him with suspicion for a moment, then sighed and shook his head.
Morris felt wronged, but knowing Edmund’s fastidiousness, he didn’t bother trying to explain further.
Edmund had a deep aversion to physical contact with others, something that made sense if you considered his past.
‘It was thanks to that past that we became close.’
Edmund and Morris shared the same past.
Both had once been sold as slaves.
Morris had long since burned off his slave brand, but Edmund still kept his, as if it were some sort of medal.
“Oh. I did have a younger sister.”
“…”
“She starved to death, though.”
Morris had been born into a poor farming family.
Right after his younger sister starved to death, his parents sold him to a slave trader.
If they hadn’t, the whole family might have starved, so in a way, it was a wise choice.
You never knew what might happen to a slave, but at least it was better than dying outright.
The money from selling their son would have kept them alive for at least two more seasons.
Now, Morris could understand his parents.
Fortunately, Morris had been born with a keen eye for telling the genuine from the fake.
Using that skill, he greedily amassed wealth, without caring about the means.
He didn’t even remember what his younger sister looked like—she had been too young—but maybe she had resembled Ellie.
Was it because he’d seen Ellie’s face every day for over a month? Or because she was the one who made the scones?
He had found the reason why she looked cuter the more he saw her.
As Morris smiled faintly to himself, Edmund spoke.
“I’m leaving.”
“Ah, wait. Have a meal before you go.”
“I don’t want to eat.”
“You’ll starve to death like that.”
“I’m eating just enough to stay alive, so don’t worry about it.”
Leaving only that cold remark, Edmund disappeared from sight.
Rumors about the shop spread smoothly.
It wasn’t a huge success, but it had done better than Morris had initially expected.
The problem was that the net sales were small.
‘I can’t make use of this like it is.’
That didn’t fit with Morris’s plans.
Even though Ellie complained it was hard to work alone, and he had even assigned Marlina to help her, Ellie still refused to increase production.
If production didn’t increase, neither could sales.
Even if she sold out every day, her pricing wasn’t very high to begin with. Considering the ingredient costs, the net profit wasn’t large.
When they first met, she had said she wanted to open branches all across the continent.
He had thought it was just empty boasting, but it wasn’t impossible.
‘She said it like she truly believed she would succeed.’
Ellie had never doubted her own success from the beginning.
She spoke without even considering the possibility of failure—an attitude that came from her confidence in her products.
Morris liked that.
If you didn’t believe in your own success, you could never achieve it.
However, despite that confidence, Ellie didn’t actively engage in promotion or business expansion.
The reason was easy to guess—Ellie was still a McClure.
‘If you’re hiding from someone, of course you’d be cautious.’
Morris wanted to make Ellie succeed.
Not just enough to recover his investment.
He saw potential—he smelled success.
His pride, which wouldn’t normally be broken by anything, had already been shattered by a single scone.
He had experienced firsthand the addictive nature of Ellie’s bread, so the only thing left was bold investment.
His goal was to open branches across the entire continent.
Partly to help Ellie, but mostly so he could eat scones more conveniently.
If Ellie’s dream came true, and there were branches everywhere, his beloved scones would be available to him anytime, anywhere.
‘Scones shouldn’t exist only in a tiny shop in this tiny kingdom.’
Then he wouldn’t have to coax and bribe Edmund into freezing them in bulk anymore.
But for that ambition, the McClure ducal house was a problem.
It had been almost two months since the duke’s daughter had run away, and the McClures had done nothing.
He didn’t even know if they realized she was gone.
It seemed more likely that if they happened to see Ellie, they would pretend not to know her rather than try to bring her back.
The Duke of McClure was obsessed with his illegitimate son, not his legitimate daughter.
Morris tapped his lips with his index finger.
“Maybe it’d be better to just buy a respectable family registry and change her identity.”
Cutting all ties so she couldn’t be found wasn’t a bad idea.
But that would have to wait until Ellie became an adult.
Ellie had to inherit her maternal family’s property and pay off her debts.
Her cuteness and her debts were separate matters.
Besides, even if she changed her name and bought a new identity, if the Duke of McClure decided to reclaim her, it would all be pointless.
In this small kingdom of Rosso, the McClures’ power was considerable.
‘She’ll need backing.’
Ellie needed to become famous, and sooner or later, she would have to face her father.
Rather than hiding forever, she needed a breakwater that could protect her from petty trouble.
That wasn’t something a moderately successful merchant guild could provide.
She would need bigger power.
And more people.
While Ellie remained unaware of it, Morris quietly began to fuel his ambitions and carefully lay out his plans.
