Sharun Charleville clucked her tongue, which made a sort of sucking sound due to her multiple missing teeth. “Neither the Bof family nor the Noza family will welcome us in. Can’t you see that? Or do you think you’ll convince Yuri Ho to send you to Aisa Island?”
Since Yuri’s Ho Company had full control over all voyages to Aisa Island, no one could go there without his family’s cooperation. His ships used celestial navigation, so their voyages were far less likely to end in disaster than those using traditional seafaring methods. It had only taken half a year before all the other ships had given up on the voyage entirely. Ho Company’s competitors had to charge passengers a premium to offset the risk of losing ships at sea, but no one was willing to pay extra for an alternative that put their life at risk.
“B-But...Y-Yuri Ho is...”
“He’s what? Oh, just look at you. Rouge’s departed soul must be weeping right now. How I pity her.”
“Sorry...” Jula Lacramanus hung her head.
She was no match for the sharp and cunning witches that surrounded her. What’s more, her grandmother, Rouge, had died and made Jula the new head of family while the memory of her humiliation at the Academy Togi Tournament had still been fresh. At every sabbath, she made herself small as the others ridiculed her.
“You had so much spirit when you brought us that letter. What happened to you?”
“Yes, I liked your spirit back then. You relished the opportunity to exact revenge on Yuri Ho, but now you’re cowering in fear.”
As the old women of the Charleville and Marmoset families both taunted her, Jula hung her head even lower. It was getting to be more than she could take.
Kiki Enfillet spoke next. “You visited Yuri Ho’s parents in the morgue to stab them in their stomachs, even though you knew the boy was at large, didn’t you? I know you’ve got a grudge against him, and for good reason, but what do you think he’ll do when he sees those bodies?”
Kiki Enfillet valued friendship more than the others here. She didn’t like to see the veterans bully the newcomers, so she’d always been the one to offer Jula some support during each sabbath. This time, however, she felt the need to confront Jula directly.
“Haaah,” Ghulah Temper sighed. “So that was your work...?”
The Enfillet family had gained the information because they had such a strong presence in the royal castle. It was still unknown to everyone else, besides a few Marmosets and Charlevilles, who’d spoken with Kiki before this meeting.
“When you heard Yuri Ho had escaped, you should’ve realized that we might end up in this situation,” Ghulah Temper said. “If you’d do a thing like that after you’d already heard the news, then you really are hopeless, are you not?”
“Ugh...” Jula put her hands to her head like it was aching. It was as though her existing fear of Yuri Ho and the pressure being placed on her by the other witches was enough to split her skull in two.
Just then, there was a creaking sound as the door to the house opened. The other five women looked toward the door and saw an old woman standing there, supporting herself with a cane. It was Luida Gudinveil.
“You...” Vivila Marmoset said.
“You’ve been having an awful lot of fun without me. Excuse me while I take a seat.”
Luida appeared in good health as she took the only empty seat that remained. It was the lowest-ranking seat, positioned closest to the door, which meant she barely had to step into the room to reach it. That particular spot hadn’t been left empty just because the Gudinveil family’s representative had been missing. It was the place where Luida always sat. Her family ranked below the others represented here because it was the least powerful.
“What did you come here for?” Vivila asked. The two women had long-standing disagreements and had never gotten along.
“I wanted a front-row seat to watch you make fools of yourselves. It’s like they say: a drowning man will clutch at straws. Heh heh heh. Yes, I often hear the phrase when a merchant loses his livelihood, but I never thought it would apply to a grand witch.” Luida cackled happily, finally having found an outlet for the resentment she felt toward the others.
The Gudinveil family was looked down upon in recent times, but it hadn’t always been that way. The family had once been in the real estate business. When their ancestors had arrived on the peninsula nine hundred years ago, they’d claimed land on the undeveloped outskirts of a town that would later become the royal capital, correctly predicting that the settlement would grow into a thriving city.
Fears about the future had been rampant back then, which had left people wanting to invest in assets with higher liquidity than real estate. The Gudinveils had poured all of their wealth into real estate regardless, and once Sibiak had expanded into their territory a generation later, the family had gained a stable source of revenue. The Gudinveil family’s success had begun from there. They’d continued to buy properties in the royal capital, sell off others, and let some out, taking their prosperity to new heights.
It had been Luida’s predecessor who’d ruined it all. She’d gotten it into her head that trading goods was where the real money was. The properties that had been a limitless source of wealth were sold to other witches, one after another. The money from the sales had then been poured into shipbuilding, but those ships had never turned a profit. She’d charged into the trading business blindly without considering what goods to buy or where to sell them. Then, rather than cutting her losses and closing shop, she’d persisted in her doomed trading efforts until their fortune had dwindled to almost nothing.