Chapter – 43
Caless returned late at night. From his listless expression, it was clear he had gained little, and his hair and clothes were thoroughly disheveled from how far he had traveled.
“You really worked hard, Caless.”
“Well, it’s only hard work if something goes well. This is just—”
“…….”
“I looked into it, and it seems all the spots are truly taken. Everyone who runs even a moderately successful business in Mare has rushed to the harbor.”
He scratched his tangled hair with a complicated look on his face. Even for someone who had lived a tough life, the process was far from easy.
“I heard that people secretly paid the market’s administrators to buy spots in advance. So people like us, who didn’t know, were just one step too late.”
“……I guess that’s how it was.”
“Well, that’s how the world usually works, but still.”
The dejected man cracked his neck with a crack. If this was how he felt, he wondered how much more disappointed the young lady must be. Caless glanced at Evangeline’s face and was startled when he suddenly stood up.
“Are you alright!”
“…Yes?”
“This is going to kill someone. You’re completely out of it. What on earth is that face?”
Only then did he realize, since she had been covering her face earlier, that her small, doll-like face had turned deathly pale. Her already colorless complexion looked as if it might shatter.
“Seriously! What does money even matter?”
“…Caless.”
“Was that such a shock? Huu. Well, people can’t expect everything in life to go well, can they?”
Thinking she was this devastated because she couldn’t do business, Caless sighed.
He felt it was hopeless now. Though it was unlike him, he hesitated before speaking.
“I heard it might not be completely impossible, actually.”
“…Yes?”
“Since the spots were sold off, if we slip some money under the table, we might still secure one. But the price they’re asking is absurdly high… Tch.”
Caless chewed back a curse, thinking it over again. Since Evangeline was in front of him, he stopped there.
“For now, let’s go out. If it really doesn’t work, we’ll try negotiating. It’s dirty and shameful, but we have to get a permit and a spot by tomorrow.”
“Caless.”
“I can’t just throw away all those flowers.”
In truth, he was more worried about the person than the flowers, but Caless deliberately spoke more roughly. He had to push her to stand up through pressure.
“Even if we do this, a spot won’t suddenly fall from the sky… Young lady!”
“Let’s go.”
The girl, who had been blinking like a doll, suddenly stood up, making his eyes widen.
It was good that she had come to her senses, but he had no idea what kind of change had occurred in her mind.
“You really plan to pay money? Well, right now that’s the only way.”
“No.”
“Huh?”
Even if she agreed to pay, it was a bitter decision; not doing so didn’t offer any solution either.
With his face deeply twisted, Evangeline quietly shook her head.
“If I start paying money once, I’ll have to keep doing it forever. I don’t have the money or the heart to do that anymore.”
“Then do you have some other good method? And at this late night too?”
“…That is…”
Again recalling someone, she bit her lip painfully.
She tried to raise her hat as if to hide her face out of habit, but then lowered her hand.
Even in this despairing heart, the one thing she was glad about was that she no longer needed to do that.
◇ ◆ ◇
The mayor of Mare was a self-made man of low noble birth who had climbed to his position through determination.
In a commercial city with almost no aristocrats, it was not an exaggeration to say he had considerable influence in the region.
From large and small licensing affairs to public matters, there was almost nothing outside his reach.
And now, for the first time in decades, he was sweating helplessly.
“Y-Your Grace.”
“You were told you could go home.”
“How could I do such a thing… How could I leave when Your Grace is here?”
The mayor hunched his shoulders and bowed his head.
Even though it was close to midnight, the Duke Teze had not left the main office’s study.
‘What kind of thunderbolt is this!’
To see Duke Teze in such a small town—this was something he had never even dreamed of.
Of course, the city hall was formally under the Senate’s jurisdiction, so the head of that institution, Duke Teze, was not somewhere he could not visit.
But that was purely nominal.
It was like a battlefield general facing a small child. The Supreme Chairman of the Senate, second only to the Emperor, was not someone who should come here for a city office audit.
Unless, perhaps, a war had broken out.
The mayor had no idea why he had come.
“I will take care of anything if you tell me the matter, Your Grace.”
“There is no need.”
“B-but still…”
“Do you think I shouldn’t be here?”
The Duke’s voice, who had been standing like a statue by the window, turned sharp.
Just that alone was enough to make the mayor’s legs feel weak. He quickly forced an awkward smile.
“No. Of course not!”
“….”
“It’s just that there was a disturbance during the daytime, and people gathered so much that I was worried Your Grace might have developed a bad impression of Mare.”
A stream of unnecessary excuses poured out like a confession.
He was concerned about being seen in such a scene by the Duke.
“Normally this would absolutely not be allowed, but what a commotion today has been.”
“…I didn’t know people called something like that a commotion.”
“T-that is not what I meant…”
When the Duke, who had been facing the night outside the window, turned his eyes toward him for the first time, the mayor flinched.
He tried to say it was not so, but Michael, who was standing behind the Duke, shot him a strong “keep your mouth shut” look.
Once again, the study fell into silence.
“….”
As if nothing had happened from the beginning, Decarno slowly turned back toward the window.
Below the pitch-black night sky, the long main street stretched quietly.
Watching the people gradually disappear one by one, his eyes hardly even blinked.
“Are you coming here all the way just to laugh at me?”
Was it so?
In truth, he didn’t know.
From the moment he saw Evangeline standing among people he had never mixed with in his life, nothing was clearly remembered.
…Still looking like that, what does she intend to do?
Did she really think wearing such a sloppy hat would keep her from being recognized? Her innocence almost made him laugh.
And the carelessness that thought running away would end everything stirred amusement in him.
In fact, chasing Evangeline had no particular reason.
Whether he was hungry or not, chasing fleeing prey was instinct for a predator.
He didn’t like her back as she turned and ran away first.
One experience of that woman turning her back on him was more than enough.
She had so proudly left Roark, and now was trying to hide.
He wanted to corner her somewhere where she could no longer escape and ask.
What exactly she was doing here.
What she wore, what she ate, and whether this life was truly good for her.
Questions boiled up to his throat, but the moment he saw Evangeline coming out of the cottage, the question he most wanted to ask was different.
Who that bastard was again.
“…Ha.”
With a hollow laugh, his breath turned white against the glass window.
He didn’t care even if those around him flinched.
Because the woman who should truly respond to him was still not here.
“I can say this, but Your Grace will never understand.”
So, what is she trying to say?
He had no particular desire to understand her. After seeing how Evangeline lived today, he wanted even less to understand.
And he couldn’t understand himself for coming all the way here just to see such a woman.
Even laughing at himself was impossible after he had begged the Emperor to leave Roark’s accumulated affairs behind and rush here.
Even so, he had no intention of giving up.
He had never taken a pointless step in all his actions.
If he had come this far, then he must obtain an answer.
