Bartaad was a skilled merchant in his youth, so much so that he earned the nickname Golden Tiger. But his company had grown so powerful that he could obtain any product he wanted and have full control over market prices. It was unthinkable that another company would ignore a demand from him. That was exactly why he failed to see how scared smaller companies would be of being blacklisted from purchasing Yamano County goods, and how they’d be willing to incur a little displeasure from Enoba Company to ensure that didn’t happen.
Even the fiercest of tigers grew old and fat, and eventually lost his fangs. With each passing year, he became accustomed to an easy life and his strength declined to the point where he couldn’t beat a mutt in a fight. Today, a pack of vicious she-wolves were circling the aging tiger with a thirst for blood.
“Please speak to Larusia Trading,” said Mitsuha. “I have one merchant in each country who distributes my goods. Having to make multiple deals in each country is cumbersome, which I’m sure you understand. I agreed to meet with you today because you took the trouble of coming all the way here from abroad, but please direct all future business inquiries to the distributor in your country, which is Larusia Trading.
“And as I just mentioned, I only do business with one merchant per country. If their store goes out of business or their management changes, I’ll start the selection process all over from scratch. It’s not the store’s name that I care about, but the personality and trustworthiness of the owner. Our agreement will not be carried over to a new parent company. That’s clearly stated in the contract with each of my business partners.”
A man from Enoba Company─he seemed to be a head clerk─traveled all the way to Vanel to meet with Mitsuha at her commodity shop. He’d asked several long-time Vanelian tradesmen to mediate, but they all turned him down. None of them wanted to risk associating with his company and getting cut off by Lephilia Trading.
The next name the clerk sought was Lephilia Trading. It was well known that Mitsuha prohibited her distributors from selling Yamano County goods across borders, but that wasn’t Lephilia Trading’s only selection. She handled an array of other products, and she used Yamano County goods to bolster their sales. Because of that, it wasn’t unusual for foreign merchants to approach her with business proposals.
The members of the Entrepreneur Girl International Network were making quite a profit by trading their local specialties between each other. They traded with companies outside of their network too, of course, but they all looked out for one another. If you were going to pay for a caravan, you might as well load it with as much cargo as you could to efficiently make a profit.
When the clerk from Enoba asked Lephilia to arrange a meeting with Mitsuha, she refused him, naturally. “I don’t have the authority to do that. You’ll have to go through the Yamano County distributor in your own country, which is Larusia Trading,” she said, exactly as Mitsuha instructed. Not that any of girls in the network would’ve arranged a meeting with a man from such a foul company anyway. Mitsuha wouldn’t have chosen anyone that stupid to join her network.
The head clerk’s last resort was to reach out to a local noble who had connections in Vanel. The nobles in Vanel hadn’t heard of the incident in Voftress, and Mitsuha and Larusia hadn’t sent any letters to them, so they likely didn’t know anything. A noble would have nothing to lose by introducing him to Viscountess Yamano, especially if the clerk paid him for it.
Mitsuha didn’t feel any animosity toward the noble for introducing the clerk to her, nor was she going to have Lephilia blacklist them. She decided to agree to the meeting out of courtesy toward the noble. Which was exactly what the head clerk was counting on.
Mitsuha and the clerk had just exchanged introductions, and she was in the middle of turning down his proposition.
As I should. I am the mastermind behind why he’s here, after all.
The head clerk opened his mouth to protest.
“Never mind that,” she cut him off to deliver the finishing blow. “The nerve your company’s owner has to send a clerk to meet with a viscountess of a foreign land instead of making the trip himself… Does he think of himself above me despite his humble status? That’s outrageous! The Yamano family will never─ever─do business with Enoba Company. Off with you!”
The head clerk was the second highest in authority behind only the company owner. He had much more command than an ordinary clerk, but from a noble’s perspective, it wasn’t wrong to interpret the act as the owner sending a regular employee to meet with a noble instead of going himself.
“Wh…?” the clerk choked.
Huh? He looks sick. I understand if he’s panicking because his mission is about to end in failure. But his face says that’s not all…
Oh! Did he not know that I’m the one with the peerage? Does the company owner think I’m nothing more than an illegitimate daughter of a viscount? And that’s why he figured sending his head clerk to negotiate was sufficient?
The nobles and merchants of Vanel think I’m the daughter of a king or a powerful noble from another country, and that I received one of my parents’ peerages. Enoba Company’s owner might’ve heard about me as a “high-born girl” and assumed the peerage belongs to my father, and not me. That’d be a reasonable misunderstanding.
The nobles and merchants of this country want to keep me here, so they wouldn’t volunteer details about me to a foreigner. If anything, the noble who set us up was probably hoping the head clerk would slip up and say something rude out of ignorance. Acting on misinformation and wrong assumptions is lethal, especially in business and when dealing with nobility.
To be fair, a noblewoman leasing a small shop in a foreign country and living there by herself isn’t exactly a predictable situation…
“I have nothing more to say. Please leave,” Mitsuha urged.
The head clerk and his two attendants─he didn’t introduce them, but they were probably store clerks─didn’t budge. She glanced at the three men standing behind them, who responded by grabbing the three clerks’ arms and leading them out of the shop.
The three men standing were sent by the Vanelian noble who arranged the meeting. One looked like a butler and the other two looked like guards. It was well known that Mitsuha lived alone in her commodity shop, so the noble couldn’t risk sending three foreign men unattended. He’d ordered his own staff to accompany them and report back on any scoop. If the visitors got violent, it would’ve ended up being his responsibility.