Chapter 189. The Calm Before the Storm (6)
"You…… why are you here?"
The first thing Clarisse felt was bewilderment. She knew who the man standing before her was.
Jurgen. Penelope's partner. The impudent commoner who had flatly refused the offer to betray Penelope and come under her fold.
And most likely…… Going by a woman's intuition, he was a man who shared a bond with Penelope that went considerably deeper than a mere business partnership.
Clarisse did not commit ordinary people to memory in such detail. Setting aside personal feelings, the very fact that such a detailed recollection surfaced was proof enough that Clarisse held the man called Jurgen in rather high regard.
That was only natural.
The success of Y&P Trading Company was not the kind of thing a rigid, inexperienced girl like Penelope could have built on her own. The series of events by which she had seized control of the Northern commercial district in a short span of time and secured the Royal Certified Supply Right—
No doubt this man's hand had been in all of it. His business acumen and resourcefulness were so remarkable that 'enigmatic' was the only fitting description.
But.
"……."
That was only true insofar as he was a 'businessman'.
The competence to walk into this Annex—no better than a lair, its security systems and defences packed tight—as casually as one might enter one's own bedroom was an altogether different matter.
And then there was what had just happened. However much Clarisse had stepped back from active practice to focus on management— Scattering a high-rank flame-type Alchemy—the secret art that could be called the family's Flowing Flame—in a single instant was……
"Who…… are you?"
Clarisse asked, her eyes trembling.
"You've got it wrong. The questions here are mine to ask."
The reply that came was as cold as could be.
***
"Hm?"
Penelope lifted her heavy eyelids. Her head throbbed. It was hazy and unreal, as though she had gone without sleep for several nights in a row.
She looked around to find herself in an unfamiliar space.
It was neither the new home they had moved into, nor the Townhouse she had lived in before.
"Where…… am I?"
Penelope raised herself from the bed. She put on her slippers, sat up, and looked about.
And before long, something felt wrong.
An elegant Chandelier, wallpaper finished in velvet, plush bedding. It was a bedroom furnished in the finest style—the kind one might only see in the Rosemore main house.
But there was not a single window anywhere. Completely sealed off from the outside, it was lit up bright as midday by nothing but artificial lighting.
"I was certainly……."
Penelope pressed her fingers firmly against her temples.
Why was she suddenly in a place like this? She could not quite remember the circumstances that had brought her to this suspicious room.
She thought she might have gone out for a walk…… She seemed to recall having some kind of conversation with Jurgen……
The fragments of her last memories were blurred and murky, as though submerged in fog.
―Click.
At that moment, the sound of a heavy door opening smoothly reached her ears.
"You're awake?"
A warm and cheerful voice. Penelope reflexively turned her head.
Neatly dressed in a suit. The eldest son of the Rosemore family. Rupert Rosemore stood there, holding a bouquet of flowers.
"Rupert…… Elder Brother?"
"Yes, how are you feeling? I was so startled when you suddenly collapsed."
Rupert approached and casually placed the bouquet of roses he had brought into a water vase. A bouquet symbolic of the Rosemore family.
Such a perfectly natural manner. His gaze was warm, like a family member who had come to visit a patient.
But Penelope instinctively reached inside her coat.
The Palette. The Palette she always kept on her person was gone.
"Where is this? I was definitely in Nortaris……."
"Calm down, Penelope. The doctor told you. You need to rest a little."
"A doctor?"
"You've been pushing yourself too hard. It seems the overwork from Y&P Trading Company was quite severe. So I brought you here. To rest and recuperate properly."
"Recuperate, you say…… I never asked for that. I'll be going back."
"Going back? This is your home."
Rupert tilted his head, his smile unfaltering.
"Shouldn't you stop your wandering now and work for the family?"
Penelope was blank for a moment.
"Your talent, your achievements. All of it is excellent. It befits the family name. Clarisse's test is over. Our family acknowledges you. You will now work formally under the Rosemore family."
What struck Penelope's chest in that instant was a surge of emotion.
At last. Finally. The joy of having been acknowledged by the family.
It had been her lifelong wish. To be recognised as a member of the Rosemore family—not as a useless flower. And through that, to make peace with Clarisse.
Her eyes grew hot and her eyelids stung.
"Is it…… really true?"
"Of course. You've truly worked so hard all this time, Penelope."
Penelope, who had been gazing at Rupert as he smiled warmly, furrowed her brow.
What is this? This situation, this conversation. It feels oddly familiar somehow.
Her memory is hazy, but she seemed to recall having heard a similar offer before. No—she was certain of it.
Back then she had…… surely refused, hadn't she?
That was right. After being appointed as the Royal Trading Company.
She had refused Rupert's offer to return to the family, and had chosen Y&P and the Culinary Revolution.
"Why are you bringing this up again? I'm sure I refused back then."
"……."
Rupert smiled at Penelope's answer.
"And what is this place, besides?"
With that memory returning, everything began to feel wrong.
Why was only Rupert here? Where was Jurgen? Where had her other companions gone? Why had she been accepting this situation as though it were perfectly normal, with all her memories gone?
A situation like this. She had experienced something similar before. Bell—Clarisse's retainer, who had so casually infiltrated Y&P Trading Company.
Surely not.
An alarm bell rang in her head. The very moment Penelope turned urgently to look at Rupert—
"Not yet."
Rupert was smiling.
"Let's try again."
"Ah……."
Penelope, who had been about to kick Rupert hard between the legs and make a dash for the open door— Abruptly crumpled to the floor, overcome by a sudden wave of dizziness.
'Jurgen…….'
Turning that name over and over in her mind as it surfaced with piercing clarity.
***
"I'll ask you directly. Where is Penelope?"
"……."
"I have no desire to resort to violence."
That cold interrogation. Clarisse stared blankly up at Jurgen.
He had demonstrated the gap in their power well enough. No matter how bold someone might be, the natural response would be to cower in fear.
And yet Clarisse's reaction was unexpectedly dry.
"……Ha."
What burst forth after a brief silence was a hollow laugh. A hollow, drained laugh, as though all strength had left her.
"So it was the Royal Household."
Clarisse murmured, letting her head drop listlessly.
"Yes, the Royal Household was involved from the very beginning. In order to obstruct the Rosemore succession."
In Clarisse's mind, there was no other explanation.
Rosemore—the Overlord of the North, who had acquired enormous independent rights through the Demon Realm Development project. The North was a place that the power of the capital had never been able to reach easily, by virtue of sheer physical distance alone.
And so the Royal Household had intervened. Inserting the most easily manipulated Penelope as a second contestant in the Rosemore Succession Race, in order to divide the family. And thereby seize the upper hand in the title Succession Negotiations.
"It's all because of you people…… all of it is your fault……."
Clarisse muttered, rubbing her face with dry hands. A deep resignation underlay every word.
"What do you mean by that?"
Jurgen's brow furrowed.
"Don't play dumb. A man of your calibre—a mere commoner-born businessman? That's absurd."
Clarisse shook her head with a hollow laugh.
"Penelope securing the Royal Certified Supply Right, Y&P Trading Company growing at an impossible speed…… it was all the Queen's scenario. To keep a Rosemore that had grown too large in check."
She glared at Jurgen. Those eyes were shadowed with deep resentment and a sense of defeat.
"You people ruined everything. What I…… barely managed to protect."
"Protect?"
Jurgen's eyebrow twitched. It was an outrageous thing to say.
How many ways had Clarisse made Penelope's life miserable over the years?
Ignoring her, mocking her, sabotaging her business, isolating her from the Social Circles. And she called that protecting her.
"I have nothing to say to you. Kill me if you're going to."
Clarisse closed her eyes and sealed her lips. A silent declaration that she would not speak another word.
Jurgen sensed something deeply wrong in Clarisse's reaction.
From the very start, the guard deployment at this manor and Clarisse's condition were both deeply telling.
A formation not for repelling outside intruders, but for keeping watch over those within. And then the sight of Clarisse—the real power who had had the Rosemore family in the palm of her hand—reduced to a wreck, drowning herself in drink.
In that case.
Was Clarisse not the one behind Penelope's disappearance? Or was even this a performance designed to deceive Jurgen?
He sorted through his thoughts for a moment, then spoke.
"Clarisse Rosemore."
"……."
"Penelope has been abducted."
Clarisse's shoulders gave an involuntary flinch. Her eyelashes too, trembling in a flicker that could not conceal her emotional distress.
"I don't know the circumstances or the details."
Jurgen continued, measured and steady.
"But if it is true that you were trying to protect Penelope—then help me. I intend to bring her back without fail."
"What a farce. You approached her for the purpose of using her, and now you've developed feelings?"
Clarisse shot Jurgen a look dripping with thin-lipped contempt.
Whether his words were true or not, it didn't matter.
From Clarisse's perspective, the attitude Jurgen was showing was nothing but narcissistic meddling. Just an idiot drunk on cheap melodrama from a spy novel.
"This has already gone beyond what the likes of you can resolve. What exactly do you think you can do?"
Jurgen considered for a moment.
He had conducted many interrogations himself. Clarisse was not the sort to open up easily.
It was far from certain that she truly cared for Penelope. All of this could be a deception designed to mislead him. But one thing was certain—Clarisse knew something.
"……."
He had an instinct that this abduction was no ordinary incident.
Jurgen walked slowly toward Clarisse.
One step. One step.
"Do you truly wish to save your sister?"
"……."
"Then trust me. For I too wish to save Penelope more than anyone else in this world."
"……."
Clarisse swallowed hard and squeezed her eyes firmly shut.
"I did not approach Penelope on the orders of the Royal Household. But think of me however you like."
"……."
"If you truly want to save Penelope—there is no one in this world better placed to do so than me."
"Someone like you……."
Clarisse, who had opened her eyes in irritation and was about to retort, froze in place and simply stared.
Clarisse's pupils shook, as though struck by an earthquake.
Like a mask being removed, Jurgen's appearance shifted.
That uncommon black hair and black eyes. That cool, weighted gaze and sharp features.
There was no way she would not know that name. The greatest Minister of Internal Affairs in the history of the Britannia Kingdom.
"Hanbin…… Ainsworth……."
"I'll ask again."
And before that—the Kingdom's Blade, who had once made every corrupt noble tremble with fear.
"Where is Penelope right now?"