ITMLWKM 8

Chapter 8.

The quality of the Gruan Trading Company’s herbs had always been excellent. The problem was that the excellent quality came with a high price. The moment Father became the head of the family, he proposed an absurdly low supply price—cutting the original amount in half.

The Gladellis marquis family looked so thoroughly aristocratic on the outside that many people respected them. Rumors even spread that any trading company cut off by our family must have something wrong with it. In the end the Gruan Trading Company had no choice but to accept the ridiculous price.

Receiving less money naturally meant the employees’ wages dropped. Father seized that opening, bribed people inside the Gruan Trading Company, and stole both their saplings and their cultivation methods. That’s why the greenhouse behind the marquis estate is full of herbs grown with the methods stolen from Gruan.

Because the two families had traded for generations, it only seemed natural that we would know Gruan’s secret techniques.

‘They were close, so they must have shared things.’

‘The Gladellis family is such a fine house—surely they wouldn’t have any bad intentions?’

‘They’re the very model of noblesse oblige. You can trust them!’

That was the public opinion that formed.

On top of that, our family mass-produced the herbs and sold them far cheaper than Gruan. The quality was lower, but we competed on quantity.

As a result the Gruan Trading Company gradually lost its footing and eventually ended up being treated like peddlers.

Looking back, our family really was rotten…

They took the good image Grandfather had built up and used it to do every nasty thing under the sun.

While I was thinking that, Susan spoke with a pitying look.

“The trading company owner’s younger sister is in a really sad situation too.”

“Ah, yeah. I heard it’s a disease that gets better if she just takes the medicine regularly.”

Thankfully the medicine itself wasn’t that expensive. But because of our family’s bullying, the trading company had gone completely bankrupt. They didn’t even have enough money left for that cheap medicine.

Her illness couldn’t be treated with raw herbs alone. So the daughter of an herb trading company was dying because she had no medicine.

Hmm… Honestly I wanted to help, but I couldn’t keep supporting her until the sister fully recovered either…

Besides, I didn’t have any personal fortune that would let me provide ongoing support.

“It would be nice if they could become the top herb trading company again. Their products were really excellent.”

“Right. Even when grown the same way, people say they’re incomparable to ours.”

I wanted to help him with all my heart, but right now I had my own problems. Being a bastard already limited my position, and on top of that I was going to die in the future.

I had to survive first.

Thinking that, I was about to turn away—but my feet stopped on their own.

Wait a second… I know a way for the Gruan Trading Company to rise again!

And when I thought about it carefully, my ultimate goal wasn’t just hearing Carsian say, “She wasn’t a bad person.” Around the time Carsian’s father returns, I’ll only be ten years old.

How is a ten-year-old young lady from a destroyed family supposed to guarantee her own safety?

I needed to find a place to rely on until I became an adult. And it just so happened that I knew a way to rebuild the Gruan Trading Company. My brain spun rapidly and then lit up.

“Susan, follow me!”

I hurried toward the main entrance where the argument was still going on.

The knights who spotted me quickly hid their weapons. I walked past them and stopped in front of the trading company owner.

“Hello?”

The owner of Gruan looked down at me with a puzzled face. Then, realizing I was the marquis’s daughter, he quickly gave a polite greeting.

“Hello, Young Lady Gladellis.”

His expression was complicated, but his manners were proper and his eyes were sincere.

I smiled brightly and said,

“I need some herbs with especially good effects. Could you show me the catalog?”

“The catalog? O-of course!”

“Young lady, if it’s herbs, don’t we already have them in the greenhouse behind the mansion? There’s no need to let a peddler like this in.”

A knight cut the owner off. At the word “peddler” the owner’s face grew gloomy again.

I stepped closer to the owner and spoke to the knight.

“Didn’t you hear me say I need ‘herbs with excellent effects’? And I don’t recall giving you permission to speak.”

The cold-faced knight hesitated for a moment. His expression seemed to say, ‘What’s this bastard child suddenly up to?’

What am I up to? This bastard child is trying to clean up one of our family’s wrongs. And while I’m at it, survive a little myself.

I didn’t answer the knight and turned back to the owner.

“Shall we go inside and talk more slowly?”

About the way the Gruan Trading Company can rise again, and the way I can find a place to rely on.

I smiled as harmlessly as possible.

* * *

Susan brought out warm tea.

“Ah, thank you.”

The young owner of Gruan, Celtron, sat across from me in my room with a dazed expression. Susan gave him a gentle smile and stood behind me. Celtron seemed unused to this kind of kindness; he took a sip of tea looking completely bewildered.

I got straight to the point.

“Please hire me at the Gruan Trading Company.”

“Pffft!”

Celtron sprayed the tea he’d just sipped.

“H-hack! I-I’m so sorry!”

He flailed around in a panic, but luckily the distance was far enough that none of it reached me.

I put on the gentlest expression I could manage and said,

“I’ll be helpful to the Gruan Trading Company.”

Celtron wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and stared at me in confusion. His face clearly said, ‘What is this little young lady talking about?’ But soon his expression shifted to something like ‘Well, of course,’ and he lowered his head. Being brought in under the pretense of looking at a catalog only to be asked for a job would take the wind out of anyone’s sails.

He spoke in a disappointed voice.

“I’m sorry, but our trading company can’t take on any more employees right now. Because…”

“Because the company is in serious trouble, right? The trading company our Gladellis family owns is selling the same herbs Gruan handles, in large quantities and at low prices.”

At my words Celtron’s body stiffened slightly, as if he hadn’t expected me to speak so maturely. Maybe that was why a flicker of resentment—not quite resentment—crossed his face, as if to say, ‘You already know everything.’

I leaned toward him and said,

“That’s exactly why you need to hire me even more.”

“Young lady…”

“My father, Marquis Gladellis, bribed people from the Gruan Trading Company and stole their information.”

Celtron’s eyes went round in an instant.

His face said, ‘How do you even know that?’ At the same time, anger toward the Gladellis family flared up. Thanks to that anger, the fact that I was only seven years old suddenly stopped mattering.

It was a good thing our family had such a thoroughly gentlemanly image on the outside. There was even a saying that because of our long tradition of academic excellence, all the children acted like adults.

So Celtron, who already knew the Gladellis family well, didn’t wonder things like ‘What on earth is this young lady?’ After the regression, the family that had only ever mocked me was actually proving useful.

I spoke in a soft, coaxing voice.

“You can’t just keep taking the hits, can you? Please hire me.”

“Young lady… so what you’re saying is that you want to betray the Gladellis marquis family…”

Celtron watched my expression carefully. I lifted my teacup and said,

“I think it’s still too early for deep conversations. But.”

I glanced at Susan standing behind me.

In both my previous life and this one, Susan was the only friend I had while being despised. So she, at least, I could trust.

I took a sip of tea and spoke quietly.

“The truth is, I’m an illegitimate child.”

“……!”

Celtron’s eyes widened at the same time I felt Susan’s gaze on me. I kept my eyes only on Celtron.

“I think that’s enough for you to understand.”

His eyes were shaking hard. He clearly found it hard to believe.

And of course he would. To the world I was known as “the eldest daughter of the Gladellis marquis family.” There wasn’t even a whisper of a rumor that I was a bastard. Father kept the servants’ mouths tightly shut. So this would be the first time Celtron had ever heard such a thing.

I spoke to the thoughtful Celtron.

“Please hire me at the Gruan Trading Company. I can help you both directly and indirectly.”

“……”

“Because soon I’ll start helping Father with the trading company he runs.”

For a moment Celtron’s eyes lit up.

I pretended not to notice the calculating light in his gaze and continued.

“So I’ll be able to know immediately which trading companies Father is dealing with and what kind of deals he’s making.”

The soft sound of me setting down my teacup spread through the quiet room.

In my previous life I had started working on Father’s business around this time—the illegal fighting ring that became the decisive reason for our death sentence.

I was especially good at math and had an overall talent for running a trading company. Later he even took me along on deals, and quite a few big contracts were closed thanks to me.

But no matter what I did, my parents never loved me.

The bitter memory left a sour taste on my tongue, but I quickly opened my mouth again so I wouldn’t wallow in it.

“And I know a way for the Gruan Trading Company to rise again.”

“I-is that true?”

“Yes.”

I nodded firmly, thinking of the original story.

In the original, the Gruan Trading Company later flourishes into a major supplier of herbs all the way to the imperial capital. More precisely, the male lead Carsian makes that happen.

A few years after taking revenge on our family, Carsian returns from the trading voyage with his father after rescuing a princess from a fallen kingdom. And that princess is the female lead of this book—Iris.