Pierce seemed to pay no attention to my bewildered expression.
“Go on, tell us. What are you going to do?”
His sparkling eyes were too much for me, so I turned away. Then I saw the one-eyed man looking at me, followed by Rashak, and then… Aaaah! Why is everyone looking at me?!
“Hiel?”
“W-well…”
I desperately wanted to run away, but the damage had already been done.
I fixed my gaze on a random point in the air and struggled to open my mouth.
“If we… inspect Sterling’s warehouse… I think we might be able to find some evidence…”
I had never felt so terrified in my life.
***
Even after we arrived at Sterling’s warehouse, my trembling wouldn’t stop.
“You sure sounded confident back there. Guess you’re pretty sure of yourself, huh?”
The one-eyed man sneered at me.
“Just you wait if you can’t find anything. I won’t let either you or that insolent little brat get away with it.”
“Would you stop shoving that ugly face of yours in front of us?”
Pierce abruptly stepped between me and the one-eyed man.
“Come on, shoulders back! Stand tall! Be confident!”
He was the last person who should be saying that, considering he was the reason I couldn’t stand tall in the first place. Anyway, I went inside the warehouse.
I took out a box of distilled liquor and set it on the floor. The one-eyed man immediately spoke up.
“You call that evidence? The size and shape are completely different from the box that the bastard brought in.”
“That’s true, but…”
“What are you trying to say? Spit it out.”
“Could you bring me some of the counterfeit liquor?”
Pierce was about to move when Rashak suddenly stepped forward first and fetched the box himself.
He set the box containing the counterfeit liquor right in front of me and whispered,
“If things go south, we can just kill them all. Relax.”
Was that supposed to be encouragement?
As expected, his thought process is nothing like an ordinary person’s.
And I was as ordinary as they came.
Just as I was trying to steady my still-trembling hands—
“Huh? Hiel Cavernon?”
At the sudden sound of my name, I turned around and saw a familiar face.
Rashak frowned.
“Who are you?”
“Pardon? Oh, I’m an employee of Sterling Merchant Company.”
Patrick Rohan.
My former superior back when I worked at Sterling, and…
A man who had passionately taken the side of a perverted sexual harasser right to the bitter end.
“I heard there was a problem with the distilled liquor, so I rushed over, but…”
“It’s not our liquor that’s the problem. It’s their product.”
The one-eyed man grinned.
“There’s no way anything we make would be defective. Isn’t that right?”
“Yeees. That’s true.”
Patrick nodded and smiled along with him. Seeing his seemingly bashful expression, I had a feeling.
That bastard had helped make the counterfeit liquor, too.
“But why is Hiel here? Who would hire such an incompetent—”
“First, let’s look at the wood shavings.”
I cut him off, deliberately ignoring his words.
“As you can feel for yourself, the wood shavings in the counterfeit liquor box feel similar to those in Sterling’s liquor boxes. They’re stiff and rough because they’re made from cheap, low-grade wood.”
Wood shavings are thin, ribbon-like strips shaved off wood and used as cushioning material.
Unlike sawdust, they produce relatively little dust, so they’re much cleaner to use.
“Hah. Wood shavings are wood shavings. What difference does it make?”
“There’s a difference. Bellen Merchant Company uses high-quality wood even for its shavings. They are much softer than these.”
The man with the dagger scoffed.
“Is that all you’ve got? A few scraps of wood?”
“There’s one more thing.”
I took everything out of the counterfeit liquor box.
Then I held up the empty box for him to see and said,
“Look. There’s a mark on the inside corner, right? It was probably left by the jig used to hold the box in place during assembly.”
“A tiny mark like that…”
“If the same mark appears in the exact same shape, that’s a different story. And I’ve never once seen anything like this in Bellen’s boxes.”
“……”
“But every box that came from Sterling had the exact same pressure mark. They’ve had it for years.”
I turned to look at Patrick.
“Distributing counterfeit liquor without even noticing marks like these? I suppose the person in charge really is exceptionally incompetent.”
Actually, I had told Sterling about this before.
I’d pointed out that only the boxes coming from Sterling had these marks.
Judging by the impressions, I suspected that part of the jig used to assemble the boxes might have been damaged. I even recommended that they inspect it, since someone could get hurt if it suddenly broke.
But this was how the people at Sterling had responded back then.
‘What kind of serious injury could a faulty jig cause? Aren’t you being a little too sensitive?’
Right. Sensitive.
There was that word again.
And I had genuinely blamed myself at the time.
I heard the same thing from my parents at home, and now I was hearing it at work, too.
When I was training to become a knight, I had worked hard to develop my powers of observation, but… I kept telling myself that I needed to live differently now.
I couldn’t even count how many times I had tried to reassure myself.
Patrick had especially given me hell over it.
‘Cavernon, I heard you said something weird to Sterling yesterday. Didn’t I tell you to stop sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong and take care of your own business?’
‘Who do you think you are, acting all high and mighty? Do you have nothing better to do?’
These were the marks on the jig that had earned me that endless lecture.
How could I possibly forget them?
“They really are identical. The marks are exactly the same.”
Pierce approached and examined the boxes.
“Let’s check the others, too.”
Soon, more of Sterling’s boxes were lined up in front of me. Rashak’s subordinates opened them one by one and took out their contents.
Every single box had the same marks inside.
The exact same marks as those on the counterfeit liquor box, in precisely the same positions.
“T-this is ridiculous! You’re nitpicking over something so insignificant? Does that make any sense?”
“Bring me a box of genuine Bellen liquor.”
At Rashak’s command, a box of authentic Bellen liquor appeared.
As expected, there wasn’t a single mark inside.
After running his fingers over Bellen’s wood shavings, Rashak curled his lips into a grin.
“They’re definitely different.”
He held the liquor box out toward the one-eyed man, as if inviting him to check for himself, but the man stood frozen in place.
Rashak rose to his feet and looked straight at him.
“As I said, my terms are simple. Leave the capital immediately, and hand Sterling over to me.”
“……”
“I’m letting you live out of consideration for our history together. You know what’ll happen if this gets out.”
There were no victims yet, but the liquor was unmistakably counterfeit.
Judging by how the one-eyed man wouldn’t even touch it, it was bound to be deadly to the human body.
If things had gone badly, there could have been countless victims. The city guards would never let a case like this serious slide. Besides, there was physical evidence.
In other words, now that the evidence had been found, neither the one-eyed man nor Sterling had any way out…
“And if I refuse?”
The one-eyed man glared menacingly at Rashak.
The atmosphere grew even more threatening.
The only people trembling in fear were me and Kevin, the head of Sterling Merchant Company.
I turned to look at him.
His brown eyes were filled with fear. Mine probably looked the same.
Which meant he would understand my message all the better.
I widened my eyes and silently pleaded with him.
Please, just surrender!
I didn’t say it out loud. But I believed that a fellow coward like him would understand.
Even though we’d only just met today!
Even though we hadn’t exchanged a single word yet!
Please!
At that very moment—
“I-I was wrong!”
With an expression far more dramatic and desperate than I could have imagined, Kevin dropped to his knees in front of Rashak.
Guys!! Sob! Our Kevin has something to say!!
“I-I’ll accept whatever punishment you see fit. Just please, spare my life…”
“Shut your damn mouth!”
“Th-this relationship goes back to my grandfather’s generation. I couldn’t refuse him. He threatened to kill my entire family if I did, so I had no choice…”
“You little bastard, how dare you…”
“I’ll hand over all the account books, too, if you want!”
It was then that the one-eyed man suddenly charged at Rashak.
But he didn’t get far before he was sent sprawling across the floor. Rashak had blocked his attack and thrown him aside in one swift motion.
He had literally slammed the man into the ground.
And the next moment—
“Aaaagh!”
Rashak plunged a dagger into the back of the one-eyed man’s hand.
It was the very dagger the man had charged at him with. Somehow, Rashak had already snatched it away.
Rashak spoke in a low voice.
“Get everything settled by tonight. I’ve already sent people to your house, so don’t even think about trying anything stupid. You wouldn’t want the contents of your safe exposed, would you?”
“……”
“I can’t hear you.”
“I-I’ll do it, you crazy bastard!”
At that, Rashak smiled in satisfaction and patted the one-eyed man’s cheek.
“Don’t get the wrong idea. I’m not letting you go because I can’t kill you. I just hate dealing with troublesome things. Don’t make me go out of my way to deal with you. Understand?”
Troublesome.
That word reminded me of what I knew about Rashak from the original story.
Well, letting him live would certainly make things less troublesome.
After all, Rashak was none other than the Duke family’s—
“Let’s go back.”
At his gesture, the members of the Barsen organization turned around as one.
I hurried after them, too, sticking close to Pierce as if I were afraid someone might grab me and drag me back.
“Thanks to you, Hiel, we wrapped things up in no time! Ha! How did you even notice something like that?”
“I… remembered seeing it when I worked at Sterling.”
Pierce was so excited that he kept chattering in a cheerful voice even after we got into the carriage.
Rashak, who occasionally responded to him with a light remark, wore a smile on his face, too.
But his gaze remained fixed on me the entire time.
“Good job, Hiel.”
“Ah, yes… Thank you.”
“And since you did such a good job, I should reward you, shouldn’t I?”
I finally turned my gaze toward him, which I had been desperately avoiding.
“A r-reward…?”
And the next day—
“This is Ms. Hiel Cavernon, who will be working with us at Sterling from now on.”
At the introduction from Kevin, my fellow coward, the employees of Sterling Merchant Company began murmuring among themselves.
The person who looked the most flustered was, without a doubt, that man.
“From now on, please make sure to report all important matters to Ms. Cavernon in advance.”
“You want me to… report to her? To Cavernon?”
He muttered as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
I smiled sweetly at him.
“I would appreciate it if you asked very politely, Mr. Patrick.”
Patrick’s face twisted in an instant.
It was the first time I had ever experienced such a delicious thrill of satisfaction.
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