Chapter 8
Ritzhaian personally poured a fresh cup of tea for the visitor who had come to see her—none other than Harrison, the merchant responsible for trade dealings with Bern—and apologized repeatedly.
“Are you alright? I’m sorry you had to go through something like this.”
The man responsible for the entire incident, Ruben, stood nearby as if nothing had happened.
But Harrison was fine.
Or rather, he desperately wanted to be.
Standing between a man who had subdued him with ridiculous ease and a lord who kept apologizing despite having done nothing wrong, he had no desire to voice what he was truly feeling.
So he forced a smile.
“I’m really fine. But… who exactly is this man?”
Every time his gaze drifted toward Ruben, however, his hands trembled and cold sweat trickled down his back. No matter how hard he tried to appear calm, he couldn’t hide it. Even his smile never fully formed.
Watching Harrison fail to settle down, Ritzhaian let out a sympathetic sigh.
“I hired a new guard for personal reasons. His name is Ruben. He’s not from around here, so he doesn’t know the people of this town. Still… I never imagined something like this would happen. How exactly did this misunderstanding occur?”
Unable to raise her head from embarrassment, she genuinely could not understand how things had escalated this far.
At her irritated question, Harrison glanced nervously at Ruben before answering slowly.
“He was a stranger, and frankly… he looked nothing like someone who would have any connection to you, Lady Ritzhaian. Then I saw him wandering around the courtyard carrying a saw. Naturally, I became suspicious. I was only keeping an eye on him, just in case.”
“Hm. He doesn’t exactly look like an ordinary person.”
“Besides, as far as I knew, only Tilda lived here with you. That made it even stranger. I thought if he tried anything suspicious at the estate… I’d call the guards.”
“A perfectly reasonable reaction. Unlike someone who immediately resorts to subduing people.”
His explanation was concise and logical enough to make her nod.
From Harrison’s perspective, as someone who frequently visited the estate, Ruben could only have looked suspicious.
And after the fire incident, it was natural for him to be even more cautious.
“…”
Yet the culprit himself merely furrowed his brow throughout the flawless explanation, as though holding back something he wanted to say.
What exactly did he find unfair?
She was about to press him for an answer when Harrison asked another question first.
“But… why does a bodyguard have a saw?”
Apparently the saw had left quite an impression.
Feeling her throat dry, Ritzhaian took a sip of tea and pointed toward the window.
“He was planning to trim the trees in the yard. That branch has been bothering me for a while.”
Following her gesture, Harrison looked outside.
A large tree stood there, its branches blocking more than half the sunlight entering through the window.
Only then did his guard finally lower.
“Ah… so it really was a misunderstanding. I should have realized you’d finally hired someone. I wasn’t very perceptive.”
“You weren’t lacking in perception at all. Anyway, could you forgive him for today? For my sake, if nothing else? It won’t happen again. Ruben, apologize.”
The person who had done nothing wrong kept apologizing, while the one at fault remained stubbornly silent.
No matter how many times she apologized, it felt meaningless when the actual offender stood there saying nothing.
Suppressing her growing irritation, Ritzhaian poked Ruben sharply in the side.
“…”
No matter how many hints she gave him, he stood firm.
His shamelessness eventually forced her to give up on hearing any apology from him.
Instead, she changed the subject.
“Harrison, you came about the additional wheat purchase, didn’t you?”
As if waiting for the opportunity, he immediately handed her a stack of documents.
“Yes. Demand for wheat this year has increased far beyond what was predicted in spring. A newly developed brewing method has made a certain type of beer very popular. The details are all in the report.”
It was an excellent offer.
Especially since they expected a plentiful harvest this year and still had grain left over from last year’s reserves.
The problem was the weather.
For nearly a week, rain had come and gone without stopping, interfering with the harvest and creating uncertainty.
She couldn’t simply accept such an opportunity without caution.
After flipping through several pages, Ritzhaian replied regretfully,
“I understand. But the weather still hasn’t improved… Would it be alright if I inspected the fields once things clear up and sent my answer afterward?”
“Of course. Is there anything else you’d like me to relay to the trading company?”
As the conversation came to a close, Ritzhaian shut the documents and shook her head.
“No. You’ve worked hard enough today.”
She truly had nothing else to say to the merchant company.
To the man standing beside her, however, she had plenty.
Thunk.
The moment Harrison left and closed the door behind him, she turned toward Ruben and unleashed the frustration she had been holding back.
“Why didn’t you apologize to Harrison? You were the one in the wrong.”
Only after they were alone did Ruben finally speak.
“I don’t see why. I acted correctly.”
He genuinely seemed unaware of what he had done wrong.
How was that even possible?
Ritzhaian stared at him in disbelief.
“What part of that was correct? You grabbed an innocent man by the neck and subdued him without warning!”
“I’ll admit there was a misunderstanding. But my actions were still the result of a perfectly rational judgment. And in the end, the man left without a single injury.”
“What?”
What sort of rational judgment led to dragging a man around like a sack of grain?
And there was something else bothering her.
Ritzhaian.
He kept calling her by name.
He already spoke to her informally, but now he was addressing her by name without even using a title.
Where was she supposed to begin correcting him?
Did people from the underworld all behave like this?
Even if he thought she was younger than him, she was still the head of an entire noble house.
Suppressing her frustration, she carefully tried to explain.
“The issue isn’t whether he was injured. Your response was excessive. There’s no need to treat ordinary civilians that harshly.”
“No.”
Ruben refused immediately.
Not a hint of room for compromise existed in his answer.
“…?”
His expression remained completely unmoved as he stared at her.
After a long silence, Ruben finally took a sip of the now-cold tea.
“You said you received contact from the guild connected to Casa Bacada. Yet it’s already been a week, and you still haven’t moved. Do you think they’ll take that well? There’s a limit to how long people are willing to wait.”
“Well, even so…”
“I don’t know the people in this city. Like you said yourself. Naturally, I assumed they were connected to them and acted accordingly. It was unfortunate that the saw caused unnecessary fear, but that’s all.”
“…”
Every word was reasonable.
She had judged him after hearing only one side of the story, assuming he was ignorant and arrogant.
Perhaps he had remained silent in front of Harrison because he knew she would instinctively listen to Harrison’s version first.
And despite failing to remain impartial, she had been secretly offended over something as trivial as him calling her by name.
As if her title actually held any real power.
“I was the one who handled it poorly.”
The truth of his words made her chest ache.
The embarrassment was so overwhelming that she couldn’t lift her head.
“Ritzhaian. Even if he was innocent this time, the next person might not be. Make your position clear.”
Her mouth already tasted bitter from shame, but Ruben’s next words dug even deeper.
His sharp remarks scraped against wounds she desperately tried to hide.
“What do you mean?”
“There’s nothing to gain by wasting time like this.”
Though he phrased it indirectly, she understood exactly what he meant.
He had touched the most sensitive part of her heart.
Her voice trembled with hurt.
“Do you think I’m delaying because I don’t know that? Do I look like someone who has no intention of going to the guild? You don’t know anything…!”
More than anyone, she wanted to run there immediately.
After losing her entire family, what remained in her life was not hope.
It was an ending.
That was all she desired.
But there was one reason she could not pursue it yet.
“If that’s true, then why haven’t you gone? If you’re willing to work with underworld organizations for revenge, there shouldn’t be anything left to postpone.”
“Of course there is. I have this city. I have the people who live here. I’m responsible for them.”
She alone was the one living for an ending.
No one else.
She might die the moment she set out on her revenge.
But she refused to leave burdens behind for the people who would remain.
Because she knew all too well the pain left behind by those who vanished.
“…”
After losing her entire family, she had inherited every responsibility attached to the Werner name.
The struggles she endured over the past year to maintain the family business could never truly be put into words.
She wanted no one to notice the gap she would leave behind.
That was why she had never hired servants.
Did this man understand that?
She hoped he didn’t.
“I find it strange that someone so afraid of disappearing would choose to join hands with an underworld organization just to get revenge on Carta.”
But Ruben pierced straight through even those feelings.
The truth of it hurt so much that Ritzhaian finally raised her head and looked directly at him.
Those cold eyes.
Eyes that seemed devoid of emotion.
Eyes that observed her from above, as if examining a distant landscape.
This man, who maintained his detached demeanor while steadily driving her toward the edge of a cliff, was unbearably cruel.
Did he think she was merely being reckless?
Did he find her pathetic?
Or perhaps pitiful?
Whatever he thought didn’t matter.
But she refused to remain silent about the choice she had made.
“Unfortunately, I never had the kind of courage you seem to think I do.”
Her voice softened.
“It was simply the only thing I could do.”
