Chapter – 45
She unfolded the map in her hand, and her eyes suddenly drifted toward somewhere beyond the sea. As a large sail gradually approached, Evangelin quickly turned her ship’s sail in that direction.
“Calres, hurry!”
“Just a moment!”
Still confused about what was happening, he hurried forward and pulled on the rope. As Calres raised the imperial flag high on the mast, Evangelin hung a red sun emblem beneath it. It was a symbol widely recognized across the continent as belonging to a trading vessel. Seeing it, the other ship slowly began to approach.
“What is this? They’re really coming? Should I ask them to buy something from us?”
“No. They’ll be the ones asking for a favor.”
“…….”
From that moment on, Evangelin, who had been watching through her telescope, became as aloof as a completely different person. Regardless of Calres’ bewilderment, she took a coat and gloves from the bag she had brought with her. Those were the most respectable items among her belongings when she left the Duke Teze’s estate.
“What do you plan to gain by impressing those people?”
“To merchants, appearance is everything. What other explanation is needed? I am soon to become the very goods I am carrying.”
Those were words her father always said. No matter how seasick she was or how close she was to collapsing, she would always force herself to stand upright when the ship first entered a port. She would make herself as splendid, beautiful, and attention-grabbing as possible, ensuring every strand of her hair was in place.
“Evangelin, the higher you lift your head, the more they will look up to us.”
Though she could not possess everything in such a perfect state now, she could not meet them looking half-dead like this. She had to prevent herself from being undervalued before even presenting what she had to offer.
The moment she finished fixing her slightly disheveled hair and raised her head, a loud voice rang out from the other ship.
“Hey there! Are you from Mare?”
“Yes. You must be from Irneo. I’ve been waiting for you.”
“……For us?”
The men who had been blankly staring at Evangelin’s dazzling beauty soon burst into laughter.
It wasn’t as if they disliked the idea of such a beautiful woman waiting for them, but no matter how they looked at it, this was not a proper trading vessel.
Considering the effort of waiting in the middle of the sea like this, they refrained from laughing openly.
“I thought we were supposed to head to the port of Mare. I don’t understand why you came all the way out here, but please come over. We still need to reach the port at the scheduled time.”
“Is there any particular reason you must be in such a hurry?”
“Well, of course—”
“If it’s because you’re afraid the flowers might wither, you’d be better off viewing them from here in many ways.”
“…….”
At Evangelin’s meaningful smile, the men who had been laughing stopped all at once.
It was an obvious argument about flowers, yet they had already answered with expressions as if their souls had left their bodies.
Not stopping there, Evangelin nodded toward Calres, who had been standing blankly nearby.
“Those, you mean?”
Pointing at himself, Calres hurriedly dragged over the boxes stacked in a corner. Perhaps he was quick-witted, because even if the boxes were light, he opened them in a way that made them look as heavy as possible.
“Here they are!”
“Ah……”
As soon as the men saw the boxes filled with Karnak flowers, their faces changed.
Someone swallowed nervously, and another elbowed his companion as if telling him to stay composed before regaining his senses.
It wasn’t just the flowers. They also realized that the woman standing before them was not merely a beautiful lady.
“As you can see, these are top-grade flowers with not a single withered petal. I’ve already done some trimming, so you can take them and use them for decoration as they are.”
“…Ah, no, who said we were looking for this?”
Finally, the captain of Irneo spoke as if nothing were wrong.
It was a bit late for that, but as the representative of the island, he could not easily be swayed by a single woman during trade.
“Though I don’t know where you heard the information, even if we were looking for Karnak flowers, it would only be as an extra while visiting Mare. It’s not something we truly need.”
“How curious that those who say such things have prepared their ships so thoroughly to carry flowers.”
“That is…”
Evangelin pointed toward the water tanks loaded onto the vessel.
The amount of water carried for a single day’s trade was extremely limited in purpose.
Judging by the height and size of the tanks, it was hard to deny that they had intended to transport flowers. The captain cleared his throat awkwardly.
“Hmm, even so, it doesn’t mean we must trade with you. We can just go to the port of Mare right now and obtain flowers like this at any time.”
“That might be difficult. I’ve already bought them all.”
“…….”
“Of course, I have no intention of asking an outrageous price for the flowers offered to the shrine. I have set a very reasonable price, so the choice is yours.”
“How much are you planning to charge?”
“Twenty gold per box would be appropriate, I believe.”
“Huff.”
Calres, standing beside her, barely suppressed an involuntary gasp with a cough.
He thought, “This young lady has quite the nerve.”
He pressed his lips together, trying to remain as unmoved as possible.
“Seriously, what did you say?”
But the captain and his crew were not easy opponents either.
They had never planned to pay for flowers in the first place.
Their plan had been to sail to Mare, buy some random goods at a reasonable price, and secretly gather flowers along the coastline.
Now that plan had completely fallen apart, and their mood was far from pleasant.
“Twenty gold? Are you joking? Karnak flowers are just flowers scattered carelessly along the beach!”
“The flowers that were once scattered carelessly no longer exist in Irneo, though.”
“Ugh!”
“Likely, the same will continue in the future. The coastline that was submerged will probably never be restored.”
“Forget it! Who would fall for such tricks!”
The captain snorted loudly, having held back his frustration.
He ordered the helmsman to change the ship’s direction immediately and glared at Evangelin.
“A young lady barely out of youth shouldn’t look down on people like that. Trying to play such a shallow trick on us to make a profit—you chose the wrong people. Even if it’s not Mare, we can just go to another island and find them!”
“Of course, you might find Karnak flowers elsewhere, but I wonder if they’ll all survive during your return voyage. I tested them myself, and five days is about the limit. Perhaps you chose Mare as the trading location last voyage after calculating even that?”
“……Uh.”
“By the way, I am also keeping the roots of Karnak flowers in Mare, so you should think carefully. Especially if you are considering future trade.”
Calres, finally realizing why she had spent days at home studying flowers, covered his face with one hand.
He expected the other side would have no choice but to surrender, but they were equally experienced in such matters.
“Hah… Do whatever you want. Do you really think we’ll believe everything you say just because you say so?”
“Believe it or not is your choice.”
“Then we’ll just go to Mare and see for ourselves.”
“Let’s go!”
The captain shouted thunderously.
The large ship creaked as it turned its bow sharply, causing their small boat to sway violently.
Calres, startled, urged Evangelin, who was standing calmly in place.
“Miss!”
His gestures seemed to ask why she was still standing there doing nothing.
The captain of Irneo rejoiced at their internal conflict.
“I knew it!”
He believed she had likely devised some scheme using information picked up from somewhere.
They probably thought of them as islanders and planned to extort some money.
The more so, the more they needed to show their strength.
“…….”
Before the ship moved further away, he turned around one last time, as if enjoying the final moment of amusement.
Standing alone at the stern, watching the boxes, Evangelin looked so lonely that the captain felt even more delighted.
“Right now she must be wanting to cry.”
She had even rented a ship with great ambition, only to face the problem of what to do with all those flowers.
Since her head did not seem completely empty, she would probably call him before it was too late to turn back.
As long as the quality of the flowers was confirmed as merchandise, he could buy them at a low price as if reluctantly doing her a favor…
Splash!
A loud sound suddenly echoed across the sea, and the captain and his crew turned their heads in unison.
At first, they thought a woman driven to despair had jumped into the sea, but fortunately, that was not the case.
Instead, one of the large boxes in front of her had disappeared.
“W-what are you doing?!”
“…Oh my, are you still here?”
Amidst the violet flowers spreading across the sea, Evangelin blinked calmly.
As a box suddenly fell into the sea, the floating flowers formed a magnificent scene, but the onlookers were shocked regardless of which side they were on.
