Chapter 93 – The heart’s door

“….Will he be helpful?”

After he had left, Tanya asked.

“Who knows? If I can just use him properly, I will reach my goals. All I need to do now is make sure tomorrow’s negotiations are successful.”

I smiled recalling him.

“…But, with time, won’t he grow as well?”

“What is your proof…?”

“Just intuition.”

Hearing my answer, Tanya wore a sour expression.

Seeing her reaction, I took in my smile and said,

“He looked a little discontent when we were talking about his younger brother, right? When I had brought up the topic just for fun, his answers were always surprising. When talking about the national treasure and how money goes around too. Even though you will find a lot of people praising Ed-sama and Yuuri-sama if you walk around the city…. Being kept as a pet, huh? Quite the interesting expression.”

“I see….”

“….Well, above all else, I liked how he wouldn’t be won over easily.”

When I said that with a smile, Tanya looked puzzled, as if she didn’t get what I was talking about.

“I am sure, going forward… he will do work befitting of the favor I forced on him. But, that’s all. He has probably made a clear distinction about it being just work and will probably not trust me otherwise.”

Business-like. If he just does his work good enough, that would be the best.

“He would always keep the possibility of being betrayed in his mind. For the time when he really gets betrayed… Exactly because he was betrayed once before. Maybe that part of him overlapped with mine.”

Although saying that made me a bit sad.

But, this is what I truly think.

He too has a very heavy door in his heart. ‘How far can I open it? How far to let them see the real me?’ He is probably always thinking of such things.

Same as me.

And that’s exactly why I didn’t feel any sort of discomfort because of his bare wariness. In fact, I could accept it as being only natural.

I was even able to empathize.

….Well, if he was to work at a firm from now on, I would like him to learn to express himself a bit more without words, though… That was how much he was exposing his feelings.

But who knows… maybe because he came colliding with me with his honest thoughts like that that I was pleased.

Even Moneda who is in the same trade guild wouldn’t do something like that and I can’t even tell what goes on within Sei’s head these days either.

Hearing my words, Tanya cast her eyes down, looking a bit sad.

Feeling a bit awkward in that atmosphere, I stood up to head to the office.

Tanya probably calmed down hearing that sound and came following me.

Returning to the study, I took a sit.

“…..Tanya, prepare something warm for me to drink.”

“Understood.”

While Tanya was making tea, I gazed at the scattered documents.

I do have the negotiation with that head of the company tomorrow so I guess I will refrain from working today.

After all, if I were to collapse after working till late, it would come down to nothing.

Suddenly, my hands stopped turning over the pages.

I had stopped when I saw the document titled ‘The trade guild’s decision’.

A company can open a business when its representative registers it with the trade guild and the trade guild accepts it.

As long as the company has that document, it can continue its business.

Even if the head of the company were to pass away, that permit document also gets passed down to their child as inheritance.

However, if the child is young and doesn’t have any experience at work, a guardian can continue the business until the child can succeed the business.

In that case, the guardian is to manage the company while helping the child gain more experience and hand over all right to them eventually… or at least that is how it’s supposed to be.

But… in the case of the child not submitting an application of inheritance of the company to the trade guild, that would be regarded as if there were no lineal ascendant and the company’s permit would automatically be handed over to the ‘guardian’.

And the only times another person can get the permit is when the representative of the company officially submits a blank form or when they don’t have any successor.

Inversely, if that form isn’t submitted and if there are no successors, in that case, the company will shut down.

…..In short, that was what the document said.

“Even still, to think it wasn’t updated for over 10 years… that is pretty amazing on its own.”

I said to myself.

However, it is necessary for the permit to be updated every year in Duke Almenia’s territory.

There, they lightly ask questions such as who the representative is and if there are any changes in the products they deal with, etc.

It came along with the new tax report and now if the taxes aren’t paid and these questions aren’t answered, they can’t update the permit.

Besides that, a sudden inspection is also done on whether they are actually doing the business they said they would be doing, whether they are doing anything illegal, etc.

On the contrary, at the capital, the permit is only rewritten when the representative has changed.

The permit not being updated for 10-20 years is quite common there.

….Well, one could argue that it can’t be helped as there are way too many firms in the capital.

“Excuse me.”

Tanya was standing in front of me, with the requested warm drink.

“….Ah, that reminds me, Tanya. You did quite a good job this time as well. Thank you very much.”

I was reminded of how amazing Tanya’s intelligence gathering skill was these past 2-3 days.

Really, what is she aiming for… that is one of the biggest questions I have.

“….No, I only did what I was supposed to.”

Tanya answered indifferently to my appreciation.

However, her lips were making a slightly upside arc.

“You worked hard to get us this far. Now I need to do my work properly tomorrow as well.”

“If it’s you, my lady, I am sure you will be able to do it without fail.”

“Fufufu…. thank you.”