BVSM 05

Chapter 05

Suddenly, I felt lost, but since I’d already made up my mind, there was no backing down.

“Let me at least wash my face first. Get a grip.”

I took off my glasses and splashed cold water on my face.

When I lifted my head, the mirror reflected a face that had grown haggard in just a few hours, along with bloodshot turquoise eyes. Very clearly, at that.

Truth be told, my eyesight wasn’t bad.

“If anything, it’s on the good side.”

Still, I wore glasses. It was a kind of habit.

First, because I’d been working in society since a young age, I needed to avoid being underestimated.

Second, because debt collectors had chased me so often that hiding my face became a habit.

And third…

…

“Your eyes…”

…

Because of something my father had said once.

His voice brushed past my ears, but there was no time for sentimentality.

I patted my cheeks, put my glasses back on, and left the bathroom.

“An annoying employee. An incompetent employee.”

Creak, creak.

The hallway connecting the bathroom and the office had a document storage room. The floor there seemed a bit old, making a sound with every step.

Aden probably doesn’t like loud noises. Should I deliberately stomp along this hallway?

Just as I was thinking that, I heard an irritable voice.

“Hey, why do you keep wandering around?”

“Oh, sorry.”

“Tch.”

The owner of the voice was Jeremy.

Wait a minute.

I was about to return to my seat after being scolded, but something suddenly occurred to me.

Even if it’s not necessarily Aden, wouldn’t getting on the bad side of the other employees work just as well?

In other words, becoming the “that person” that everyone says, “I absolutely can’t work with them!”

After gauging the atmosphere, I headed to Jeremy’s seat to confirm.

“Um, Jeremy?”

“What. What is it. Talk from there.”

As my voice drew closer, Jeremy quickly straightened his back. It looked like he was hiding something on his desk.

“Is there anything I should start with? Like something to hand over…”

“Huh? Handover? You learn that sort of thing by observing!”

“Then is there anything I can help you with?”

“What could a trainee possibly help with? Don’t be a nuisance. If you’re bored, go, uh, over there—dust the top of that cabinet!”

Oh.

A useless senior to learn from was closer than I thought.

Incompetent people always pull that kind of attitude—talking about “observation” while harassing their juniors. Jeremy was exactly that type.

And on top of that, he had a bad personality?

If he were my real senior, I’d sigh just thinking about him, but I’m not that person anymore. I cheered inwardly.

Good. I’ll go with the concept of a newbie who’s utterly clueless and keeps being annoying!

Ahem.

After clearing my throat, I deliberately asked in a dull voice.

“Then after I dust everything, what should I do?”

“Do I have to explain every little thing? Read the documents in the cabinet! Not that you’ll understand them anyway.”

“Okaaay.”

“Don’t talk to me until you’ve read them all!”

“Understooood.”

“Ugh, why did the president stick such a trainee with me…”

He was already grumbling. This might just work.

I suppressed a laugh, grabbed a duster and a rag, and headed toward the cabinet.

Come to think of it, even though he’s supposed to be my mentor, did Jeremy not hear that I have experience working at a trading company?

Different job or not, I’d worked there for seven years—how could he assume I wouldn’t understand anything?

And why did he hide his desk earlier?

Of course, I get that he couldn’t just show a trainee confidential company documents, so I understood the gesture.

Luther said earlier that Jeremy himself has only been working here for about six months.

Aden might have that kind of personality, but oddly enough, most of La Mar’s employees had stayed loyal to him until the end.

Probably not because he was a good leader, but because he threw money around like crazy. Anyway.

For that reason, I remembered the names of the key employees who remained by Aden’s side up to a year later.

But “Jeremy” wasn’t among them—even though he held the important position of internal secretary.

Did Jeremy cause some kind of accident within the year?… Oh dear.

Lost in thought, I snapped back to reality at a squeaking sound.

There wasn’t much dust to begin with, so I could have just pretended to clean, but out of habit, I was scrubbing the cabinet vigorously.

Habits really are scary.

“I’ve dusted all the office cabinets. Should I clean the desks or maybe the cabinets in the document storage room?”

“What?! The storage room? A trainee can’t even go in there! I told you to read the documents! And I also said not to talk to me until you’ve read them!”

“Oh, right. Sorry.”

“Ugh!”

I killed two birds by wiping away Jeremy’s temper as well, then opened the cabinet.

The inside of the cabinet was a complete mess.

Why is the organization so jumbled? Did they stick index labels wherever they felt like it? …Ah, Jeremy must have done this.

Recalling Jeremy’s very free-spirited desk, I shrugged.

Jeremy’s work quality wasn’t surprising, but the fact that Aden had let this slide was a bit surprising.

Maybe since this cabinet, unlike the document storage room, didn’t contain major documents, he left it to Jeremy and didn’t pay attention?

I was curious about how La Mar was running at this point, after all.

La Mar was a trading company Aden had set up deliberately to extend his reach into high society—in other words, for image laundering.

Since it would be troublesome if someone caught him before he took control of the nobility, at this point he was operating on the razor-thin edge of legality.

I’d been wondering what they made money with during this period, and if so, how much.

Should I take a look?

And so, as if by habit, I started sorting through the documents while reading them. A while later…

My hand, turning pages, suddenly stopped.

Wait, this.

Something was strange.

No matter how I looked at it—really, no matter how I looked—this was…

…A paper company.

If La Mar had actually been a paper company scamming others, I would have just thought, Figures.

But it wasn’t.

Surprisingly, it was the opposite.

Someone is scamming La Mar?!

Who in the world would dare make an enemy of Aden…?

For the first time, I was curious about the sheer audacity of some unknown person.

Crazy. Whoever it is, they’re dead set on this.

The evidence that Ronen Shipping Agency, the cargo handling company listed in the documents, was a paper company was not just one or two things.

First.

The cargo handling cycles written in the documents.

Schedules can change depending on port conditions, and sailing schedules can be delayed or moved up due to sudden weather changes—how could the cycles be so perfectly regular? It doesn’t make sense.

Second, the disposal costs.

It’s natural for defects or shortages to occur during cargo transport. But…

Logs, not agricultural products, with a loss rate nearing 7%? Did they have a campfire on the ship? That’s an impossible figure.

Third, labor costs.

Do you really expect me to believe the port was congested every single time, causing delays and requiring extra staff? At least have the decency to change up the excuse!

Shockingly, the amount skimmed this way in the first half of the year alone was 300 million gold.

And recently, the billed amounts had increased. At first, they were testing the waters, but seeing that La Mar didn’t notice, they were clearly planning to fleece it big-time.

When did this start?

I was hurriedly flipping through the documents when I failed to notice someone approaching.

“Hey, trainee.”

“Yes?”

At the sudden call, I nearly yelled out loud but barely managed to hold it back with reason.

I looked up and saw Jeremy looking down at me with a mix of suspicion and annoyance.

“I’m going to eat, so don’t slack off while I’m gone.”

Not “I’m going to eat, you come out too,” but “don’t slack off.”

I hadn’t planned on eating with him anyway, but even during lunch break he had to harass me—it rubbed me the wrong way.

Just then, I had a perfect way to get under Jeremy’s skin.

“Okay. Oh, by the way, is it alright if I ‘walk around’ and look at the office? There are still many areas I haven’t seen.”

You don’t like me wandering around, do you?