The Strongest Man’s Fake Wife Wants to Live Chapter 24

“But the people who need that potion are only the people in the east, aren’t they? People from other regions don’t need such a potion.”

“…….”

“Obtaining and transporting medicinal herbs is more costly and troublesome than you might think.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“I’m saying that since it’s a potion that’s only useful in the east, we have to consider its profitability as well.”

At those words, Pesha furrowed her brow.

Right. She knew this would happen.

Signing a contract with the Woods Merchant Guild was a double-edged sword.

As a major merchant guild, they would certainly make sales easier, but she would have to deal with the greed of its head, Marquis Clark.

Pesha sighed and asked, figuring she might as well hear him out.

“Then tell me the terms you want.”

“For starters, asking us to handle only the procurement of ingredients and sales ultimately means telling us not to interfere with the potion’s production, doesn’t it? Wouldn’t that be too inefficient? Instead, if you give us the formula, we can take care of everything, including production.”

“You want me to… hand over the potion formula?”

“Of course, we’ll pay House Namoi royalties. However, if we do that, since we’ll be handling everything from production to distribution, the profit split should be different as well. How about six parts for me and four parts for Countess Namoi?”

“What?”

She was so dumbfounded that she couldn’t even manage a hollow laugh.

Not only was he demanding that she hand over the formula, but even the reversed profit split was completely unreasonable.

‘Isn’t this guy just a complete thug?’

When Pesha frowned as if his proposal was utterly absurd, Marquis Clark clicked his tongue.

“You should understand that I’m already being generous with this offer. Our guild is taking care of every procedure for you, yet we’re still giving you four-tenths, aren’t we? And that’s for a limited product that can only be sold in the east.”

His skill at driving down the other party’s worth as though they were worthless was practically an art form.

“I don’t normally make contracts where we take such a loss, but I respect Count Namoi, who brought peace to the Empire, so I’m giving you these exceptionally favorable terms.”

“You call these favorable terms?”

“Honestly, Countess, you aren’t even a proven apothecary, are you? Do you know how rare it is for anyone to accept a proposal from an amateur like you? We’re helping you because it’s us. Because it’s our guild.”

Was this what people called gaslighting?

At first, they had clearly been negotiating as equals, yet in the blink of an eye, the situation had turned into one where Marquis Clark seemed to be doing her a favor.

Just as Pesha was about to snap back, Owen, who had been sitting beside her, rose from his seat.

Then he spoke in a frigid voice.

“There’s no need to hear any more. Let’s go.”

“What?”

Without even sparing Marquis Clark a glance, Owen extended a hand toward Pesha as though to help her up from her seat.

“Are you going to keep listening to this nonsense?”

“Nonsense? You don’t even realize that I’m making this offer entirely for your benefit!”

“Marquis Clark.”

Owen looked down at the marquis with an icy gaze.

“Do you take me for a fool?”

As Owen stared at him expressionlessly, Marquis Clark seemed intimidated and flinched before suddenly shouting in anger.

“Y-you insolent bastard! Where does a lowborn commoner who learned nothing but how to wield a sword get off—!”

Marquis Clark tried to overpower him with his status and bloodline, but if they had met as enemies on the battlefield, Owen was someone who could have cut off his head before exchanging even a single word with him, so the marquis was not intimidating in the slightest.

Perhaps he knew that himself, because although he shouted loudly, he trembled at the thought of Owen coming anywhere near him.

However, Owen seemed to have no interest in him whatsoever. He kept his hand extended toward Pesha, gesturing for her to take it.

Under normal circumstances, Pesha would have used every bit of social tact she had to somehow salvage a negotiation that had completely fallen apart.

But today, strangely enough, her body moved before she could think.

Pesha simply took Owen’s hand.

He clasped her hand tightly and walked straight out of the reception room.

“You don’t need to sit there and listen to someone belittle your efforts.”

“But I think we should at least try to negotiate a little….”

“If he were someone we could negotiate with, he wouldn’t have said such ridiculous things in the first place.”

“…….”

That was true.

The greedy Marquis Clark had looked desperate to drive down the value of the potion somehow so he could pocket an even larger profit.

Pesha had never thought things would go smoothly, but the fact that even a major merchant guild like Woods was acting like this was the problem. It didn’t seem likely that other guilds would react any differently.

‘And more than anything, there’s an even bigger problem.’

Her hope that a successful deal with the Woods Merchant Guild might lead to a meeting between Owen and Io had been rendered meaningless by her falling out with Marquis Clark.

Just because she had a bad relationship with Marquis Clark didn’t mean she couldn’t meet Io, but Io, who was an obedient daughter who listened to her father, would never accept meeting Pesha behind her father’s back.

‘This is troublesome.’

Pesha scratched her forehead before finally making up her mind.

Since things had turned out this way, there was no choice but to bring one of Io’s allies into the picture a little earlier than planned.

In the original story, this person was someone who became close to Io and helped her, but right now, Pesha couldn’t afford to be picky.

‘Since even I, the villainess, have already become one of Io’s allies, there shouldn’t be any problem with me becoming acquainted with the person who was originally her ally ahead of time.’

The moment she reached her conclusion, Pesha stopped walking behind Owen.

She could feel Owen turning around in confusion.

“What’s the matter?”

“There’s somewhere I need to go for a moment.”

“Somewhere?”

“I just thought of someone who can help us.”

As soon as she got into the carriage, Pesha ordered the coachman to take them to the Pontroy Merchant Guild.

The Pontroy Merchant Guild headquarters occupied a building just as large as the Woods Merchant Guild’s.

After checking that the potion bottle was safely inside her handbag, she entered the building, where a staff member who appeared to be in charge approached and asked Owen,

“Hello. What brings you to the Pontroy Merchant Guild headquarters?”

Owen didn’t know why they were there either, so when he looked at Pesha, she confidently said,

“I’m here to see Duke Pontroy.”

“What?”

The employee asked again as though he had misheard, but Pesha’s answer did not change.

“I said I’m here to meet Duke Pontroy.”

“As far as I know, he doesn’t have any appointments scheduled for this morning…. Did you perhaps contact us in advance?”

There was no way she could have had time to contact them.

Besides, most heads of major merchant guilds were either busy or arrogant, making them difficult to meet without connections.

If she awkwardly introduced her status and formally requested a meeting, the reality was that she would either be rejected or pushed so far back in the schedule that she couldn’t even guess when she would get to meet him.

In that case, it was better to go straight there and settle the matter while the thought was still fresh.

“I didn’t contact you, but I have something important I need to discuss with the guild master.”

“If it’s something important….”

“It’s business-related, so I can’t give you the details. Just tell him that Owen Namoi wants to do business with the guild.”