I’m Not the One Who Seduced the Grand Duke Chapter 30

“How petty of them to go after the toll.”

Roar’s main business was tea leaves and spices.

These were grown throughout Zaherette’s territories scattered across the Orden Empire.

And to process them, we have to transport the harvested tea leaves to the capital, where our factories are located.

That made overland transportation unavoidable.

The problem was that House Valentine’s territory lay between the marquessate and the capital.

Until now, Zaherette had been paying Valentine a toll to pass through.

But—

“Five times all of a sudden! This is outrageous. They’re retaliating because of what happened to the Marquess!”

Jean shouted indignantly.

“The problem is, we don’t really have any options. We could take a detour, but then what currently takes a week would increase to three or four weeks at most. The surrounding area is mountainous, so there aren’t any other overland routes.”

“……”

“If that happens, the products will obviously lose their marketability. There is a sea on one side, but there’s no port where we could dock, so using a sea route is out of the question…”

“……”

“Whatever we do, more than a month is impossible. It varies greatly depending on the type of spice or herb, but harvested leaves can’t last more than four weeks. They’ll either dry out completely or rot.”

The more he spoke, the angrier he seemed to get, and eventually he exploded.

“Honestly, calling the land Valentine owns a territory is generous. In reality, it’s nothing but a scrap of land! It’s a completely useless, barren wasteland.”

Jean huffed indignantly, as though he couldn’t believe they could be this shameless.

“What’s the point of collecting tolls in the first place? If you’re going to collect them, you should at least invest that money back into the territory! But they haven’t even built proper roads.”

“Exactly.”

“And as if that weren’t enough, they’ve built a few shabby-looking huts near the borders of the territory and are ripping off our workers and merchants who pass through there.”

One of House Valentine’s territories, Valore, was barely surviving on the tolls Zaherette paid and the money collected from people who traveled to and worked there.

“And instead of being grateful, they’re raising the toll! If it weren’t for Zaherette, that land would have been left abandoned until it was eventually returned to the Imperial Family.”

“……”

“Haa… What are you going to do now?”

What else could I do?

Obviously—

“We’ll have to negotiate.”

 

***

 

The very next day.

As soon as I received the notice, I sent a formal letter of protest under my name, and House Valentine immediately sent someone over as though they had been waiting for it.

However, it wasn’t the count himself, the owner of the land, but the administrator in charge of Valore’s toll revenue.

“This is an insult to the Marquess! We specifically told them that the Marquess herself would be handling the negotiations, and yet they sent a representative!”

“Well, there are quite a few old-fashioned nobles. Some people even look down on doing hands-on work themselves.”

Among them, Count Valentine was particularly stubborn.

“Even so, this is ridiculous! If Zaherette sends a representative, Valentine should respond accordingly. This isn’t even a matter of ‘you’re good enough for this’…”

Jean ground his teeth.

Whoa, calm down.

I shot him a warning look, and he eventually stepped back with an unwilling expression.

Soon, the negotiations began.

“I’ll be blunt. We cannot accept the amount proposed by Valentine. No matter how we look at it, our position is that this is unfair.”

“Hmm.”

A middle-aged man with a rather cantankerous personality stroked his neatly groomed mustache.

At the same time, he looked down at me with a gaze that practically amounted to a scoff.

It was obvious.

He was looking down on me, wondering what a young woman could possibly know about business.

As expected of someone from Valentine.

The man let out a long breath, enough to make his mustache flutter, then raised his chin and spoke.

“I’m sorry, but my employer has no intention of negotiating.”

“Excuse me? What exactly do you mean by that? Your notice clearly said there was room for negotiation—!”

“It said there was room for negotiation. It did not say we would negotiate with everyone. There are many trading companies besides Zaherette that pass through that land.”

In other words, they had no intention of negotiating with Zaherette.

They were actually saying it so openly…

How incredibly rude.

“Well, since you’ve come all this way, I’ll hear what you have to offer as an alternative. Go ahead.”

The administrator spoke while keeping his chin held high, maintaining an air of arrogance.

“These are the terms proposed by Zaherette. In exchange for keeping the toll at its current rate, we will develop the roads in Valore.”

It was a barren land where even proper roads had not been maintained.

Zaherette was offering to take responsibility for developing them.

It was a very substantial proposal.

“I’m sorry, but I’m not particularly interested. Surely you didn’t think my employer would be satisfied with something so trivial?”

“……”

“I thought House Zaherette would be able to use its influence a little more. Five times. We won’t accept anything less.”

The administrator sneered sarcastically.

“Ha. Unbelievable. They’re determined to suck every last drop out of us over a mere scrap of land. They’re already charging twice as much as everywhere else.”

Jean deliberately muttered through gritted teeth, loud enough for the other man to hear.

Fortunately, he had heard him.

The administrator’s sparse white eyebrows twitched viciously.

“Did anyone force you to use our land? Then take another route. We won’t stop you.”

“……”

“Ah, of course, in that case, the quality of the goods produced by Roar will fall and their prices will rise accordingly. I imagine that would put the Marquess here in quite a difficult position.”

The administrator glanced at Jean and me, not even bothering to hide the twitching corners of his mouth.

As though he were saying, What exactly are you going to do about it?

Hmm. Something feels strange.

I tapped my fingers against the desk as I thought, staring at him.

His stubbornness made it seem as though there was absolutely no room for negotiation.

And our arguments were going nowhere.

But there was one thing that bothered me.

If they never intended to negotiate with us in the first place, why did they respond to our request? And why is he still standing here, refusing to leave?

It was almost as if…

He was waiting for something else.

“Is there perhaps something the count wants from me?”

At my question, the administrator’s eyes widened to twice their size.

As expected.

There was something.

“Actually, we wouldn’t have minded not negotiating at all… But our count took pity on a young marquess like yourself working so hard and decided to make an exception.”

“How very considerate of him.”

“But if something is given, something must be given in return.”

“……”

“Instead of raising the toll, my employer has asked that you withdraw the lawsuits filed by Zaherette and Bernstein.”

“What?!”

“Furthermore, my employer’s position is that you should pay an appropriate amount in compensation for the damages caused by this incident, under the pretext of consolation money.”

“Good grief! That’s absurd!”

Jean shouted in outrage, demanding how that could possibly make sense.

“No, Marquess. This is obviously a trap. If you give in this once, whenever they’re in need, they’ll keep coming after House Zaherette like this!”

At Jean’s cry that they were nothing short of highway robbers, the administrator slowly raised the corners of his mouth.

“If you don’t like it, you can refuse. We’re not forcing you. We have nothing to lose.”

He raised his chin even higher, as though telling me to make my decision.

Every aspect of his attitude reeked of arrogance.

I let out a long breath.

“I think we’ve more or less reached a conclusion.”

“Then…”

“Unfortunately, we cannot accept Valentine’s demands. So go back and tell the count. The negotiations are over.”

“…Pardon?”

For the first time, the administrator looked genuinely flustered.

As though he had never imagined I would refuse.

“Y-you’re serious? If you don’t reach an agreement now, there will be no further negotiations. And you still intend to refuse the settlement?”

“It can’t be helped.”

I nodded with an expression of regret, as though there was nothing I could do and it was truly unfortunate.

The administrator’s hollow eyes wavered.

“If you’re trying to test our resolve, I suggest you stop. The count has no intention of showing any further leniency.”

“Leniency. I don’t think that’s something Valentine is in a position to talk about. If you commit a crime, you should be punished.”

“……”

“Go and tell the count. Instead of wasting time worrying about us, he should worry about the problems he already has on his hands.”

At that, the administrator seemed unsure what to do for a moment.

Then he glared at me with clear displeasure before abruptly turning around.

His footsteps as he stormed out were heavy with anger.

After the administrator left—

“It feels satisfying, at least, but… you must have a plan, right?”

“I’m not completely without options. So don’t worry.”

Haa.

I let out a deep sigh and fell into thought for a while before opening the drawer of my desk.

Inside were two document envelopes.

I picked them up and opened one.

What appeared inside was the Engagement Pledge and the deed transferring the rights to Valka Port.

“I didn’t intend to use these like this.”