~Chapter 120~
“I’ll soon find out who stole it. I sent someone on the way here. As for the rest…”
Jeremiah’s mind briefly wandered to the situation with the Listerwell family. Harriet had been kicked out of the Listerwell house without receiving a penny, all because she had caused a scandal by impersonating Bella. According to Cedric, it was an “unilateral” decision.
Cedric seemed to be on Harriet’s side, but Jeremiah thought it best to look at the situation from a neutral perspective.
“I’ll need to cast out a few baited hooks to figure out which branch of the Listerwells is causing the problem.”
She was no longer the emotional woman she once was. Now, she was a coldly calculating member of the royal family.
***
Since deciding to invest some of her spare funds, Harriet had been paying closer attention to the newspapers and even looking at the strange items being sold on the street.
She had never noticed before, but there were many people out there trying to make a business out of odd things. You could call them eccentric dreamers, or, more negatively, fraudsters.
One such person was a man named Maurice Declan.
“Listen up. How many trading ships have sailed across the Siland Sea throughout history? Many of them sank in storms! But all those precious goods that were on board are still down there, stored without an owner, beneath the sea.”
Maurice sat at an outdoor café under a canopy, talking loudly to anyone nearby. His cup of tea had long been empty, and his clothes were worn out.
A middle-aged man sitting next to him, who seemed too polite to be rude, smiled awkwardly but wasn’t supporting Maurice’s story.
“Well, that’s true, but there’s not much we can do about it. No one can bring it up.”
“Right? And that’s the problem, isn’t it?”
“Huh?”
“If we could bring it up, it’d be a jackpot, right?”
The middle-aged man’s expression became more uncomfortable.
But Maurice, looking excited, pulled out a piece of paper from his coat and continued talking.
“So, I’m actually planning to start a business like that. I’d call it ‘Treasure Ship Explorer.’ This is my business plan.”
The moment he said “treasure ship,” the middle-aged man gave up on trying to have a normal conversation and just nodded along, smiling.
“My theory is that we need two salvage ships, strong chains, and skilled divers. We’ll place the two ships on each side, and the divers will use hooks to approach the sunken ships.”
“It’ll take quite some time to reach that. Even the best divers can’t hold their breath for more than five minutes.”
“Ah! I’m not some fool! Of course, it’s impossible to go down to the deepest parts of the sea. But if a ship sank near a coast with lots of reefs, there’s definitely a chance.”
Hearing this, Harriet couldn’t help but smile.
If the water was shallow and had reefs, how would the salvage ships even manage to get it up?
But Maurice kept pointing at his plan on the paper and talking excitedly.
“Actually, I’m a former diver from Weska! You know Weska’s famous for seafood, right? All that’s brought up by divers, and my friends are really skilled.”
“I see.”
“We’ve got the divers, now we just need the salvage ships. I’m looking for an investor. Would you be interested in this business?”
“No, I’m broke.”
The middle-aged man, who looked well-off, drew a line right there.
And perhaps worried that he might get involved in more nonsense, he didn’t even finish his coffee before standing up.
“It was a pleasure chatting. Have a good day.”
“I had fun too! If you ever get interested, look for Maurice Declan around here. Ha ha ha!”
Maurice waved cheerfully at the man as he quickly walked away, not even realizing the man was escaping or not caring either.
After the man left, Maurice continued looking at his business plan, nodding and rubbing his chin. He seemed quite serious about it.
Harriet quietly observed him from her seat before standing up and sitting opposite him.
Maurice looked up, clearly surprised, but Harriet smiled and said,
“May I buy you a coffee?”
“Well… That’s very welcome!”
Harriet called the waiter over and ordered coffee for Maurice. She glanced at the papers he was holding.
“I was sitting nearby and overheard your conversation, Teacher”
“‘Teacher’? No, just call me Maurice. You look like you’re from a noble family…”
“I’m just a common noble, so the class difference isn’t that big. I’m Harriet Listerwell. Anyway, I’m interested in your business.”
At the mention of the Listerwell name, Maurice’s eyes sparkled with interest.
“Really?”
Despite his outward calm, he seemed either hurt by the dismissive treatment of others or, possibly, acting like a con artist trying to take advantage of a naïve girl.
“But there are a few concerns. If you can address them and bring me your business plan, I’m open to investing.”
Harriet pointed out the issues she had noticed while listening to him talk.
How would the salvage ships even reach the reefs in shallow waters? What size would the ships need to be? How heavy of a ship could they pull up with two ships? How deep could they work? What methods could they use to extend the divers’ working time? And how long would it take to salvage?
“Maurice, you know that this business requires a significant investment. The investors won’t want to fail. So, please show me a more thorough business plan.”
If Maurice were a fraud or just a dreamer, he would have been caught off guard by her demands.
But instead, he seemed thrilled as though he had been given an exciting task.
“Got it! This is just a draft plan, actually. I was already thinking about improving the parts you mentioned. Give me about a month, and I’ll have a perfect plan for you!”
“I’m looking forward to it. Once your business plan is ready, send a request to meet me at the Pellon family’s estate. I’ll reply with the date and time.”
Maurice’s face suddenly froze.
“Pellon… family estate?”
“Yes. Send it to Harriet Listerwell at the Pellon family estate.”
“Oh, oh! I… I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were from such a distinguished family…”
“I’m not from the Pellon bloodline. Anyway, I’ll be waiting.”
Harriet stood up with a smile.
Anyone who saw her would think she was just a naive girl falling for a con artist. But she wasn’t approaching Maurice as carelessly as she did when she bought the useless land in Chadberry.
‘If I can recover a sunken ship like he says…!’
Back then, there had been a sunken ship she wanted to recover. There was a truth she wanted to uncover.
***
Meanwhile, as Harriet looked for new business opportunities for her future, Bella was busy trying to drag her down again as the “scandal maker” in high society.
Jeremiah’s attempt to frame Harriet was a “let’s see if it works” move, and she couldn’t be sure of the outcome.
To be certain, she needed to find a weakness.
‘No matter how small, if I can find a weakness, I can twist even a saint into a villain.’
There’s no one without a weakness.
The easiest way to find it was to bribe or blackmail people, and the servants in the mansion were always easy prey.
But Bella didn’t want to dirty her own hands.
“Alright, stop crying! It’s not that hard, is it?”
The thug Bella had hired was trying to comfort the woman who was crying across from him. But the woman couldn’t calm down.
“If I do this, I’ll be in big trouble. Do you know how strict Countess Pellon is?”
“I don’t care about that. What’s important now is that I’ve got your sister, the one who borrowed 40,000 dirhams from me and hasn’t paid a single penny back.”
“So, just wait a month! I’ll find the money…!”
“I’ve never seen anyone who promises to pay and actually does it.”
The man leaned in with a pitying expression and whispered as he tried to convince her.
