Having made sure of that much, Astrid turned her back on Clare and began a thorough search of the workshop for any listening devices.
Clare is too smitten with Kett, she thought. If she hadn’t heard about Clare blowing up at Nina the previous day, she might have said that something seemed fishy. And that something was related directly to Kett.
If she said something, Clare would probably get angry and refuse to listen, then throw Astrid out.
I could just take the money for the job and leave. But then there’s what Nina said...
Even at a time like this, the little maid popped up in Astrid’s mind.
“I did hope to ask them about their meat preservation methods...”
Astrid wanted to make sure Nina didn’t leave here disappointed.
I always just do what I want, huh? she thought.
Astrid wasn’t doing this for Clare, and she certainly wasn’t doing it for herself. She was keeping up this charade purely so that Nina would be satisfied.
“Did you find a bug?” Clare asked.
“It’s not here.” Astrid had already known she wouldn’t find anything.
“Are you sure...? But then how did the other merchant guilds steal our inventions?!”
“Magic items aren’t all-powerful, you know. Like I said, even if they’d managed to plant a bug, they’d have to change out the mana crystal. To get into the workshop—”
Astrid looked at the entrance. Unlike the hatch in the ceiling, it required a key to lock. It was also extremely solid and sturdy.
“—they’d have to come through that hatch,” she said. “The windows are fitted with iron bars, so no person could get through them. There’s no other way in, right?”
Clare was silent. She didn’t look convinced, but she nodded.
“And you and Kett are the only ones with the key, right?”
“Well, yes...”
“Then we have to conclude that the other merchant houses found some other way to sell your products ahead of you.”
“Another way...?” Clare sounded unsure of herself. She’d gone from angry to suspicious to disheartened. Her emotions were all over the place—she must feel totally cornered.
“I don’t know what it is,” Astrid said, “but I’d like to investigate a little more, if you don’t mind.”
“I...”
“In the meantime, I need you to tell the inventors’ society that I failed to complete your request. Can you do that? You mustn’t tell a soul about it. That includes Kett, your friends, and your family.”
“B-But why?”
“We want to make our enemy complacent,” Astrid said, letting the word “enemy” slip out without thinking.
“No! That’s not what I meant! I want to know why you’d do all that for me. Failing to complete a job will hurt your reputation as an inventor. Even if I tell them later that I lied, that won’t fully undo the damage.”
“Ah, I see,” Astrid said.
Something else became clear to her. Clare was a merchant to the bone. She understood the value of trust, and she believed that no one did anything unless they had something to gain from it. Astrid didn’t know how to talk to such a person.
So, she said, “I just feel like it. Do I need a reason?”
If Clare wouldn’t take her word for it, then they had nothing more to say to each other. She’d have to find some other way to help Nina reach Clare.
But if she did trust her...
Then this could get interesting, Astrid thought to herself.
Clare’s eyes darted around nervously. All her exuberance from when Astrid first arrived was gone.
“I-I don’t understand you...” she stammered.
“Inventing isn’t a matter of business,” Astrid said. “At least, not to me.”
“Well, it is to me.”
“So I see. That’s too bad.” With that, Astrid exited the workshop, leaving Clare where she stood. It was a pity, she thought, that the gap between how she and Clare thought about things was too great to be bridged.
“But I guess it makes sense,” she said to herself. “We come from different countries and different backgrounds. And besides, no successful merchant would wholeheartedly trust someone they’ve only just met.”
Astrid began to walk away from the Golding Merchant House, when—
“Wait!”
Clare came running out of the workshop.
“I do want your help,” she said.
It was Astrid’s turn to be confused. “Why the change of heart?” she said. “Here I thought you’d never understand someone like me.”
“I don’t know how to explain it... But I realized that you’re the kind of person who can’t be bought. It occurred to me that maybe...maybe asking you to do this will turn things around for me.”
“I see,” Astrid said slowly.
No successful merchant would trust someone they’d only just met. That, Astrid was sure of.
But she was also sure of something else.
“I accept. I’ll do everything I can to help you.”
In order to succeed as a person, you had to be able to trust your instincts.
Astrid returned to the inn, thinking she’d take a nap before the others got back. She opened the door to their room—and froze.
“Welcome back, Astrid!”
“That was fast!”
“Chi knew that with your abilities, a mere repair job would take no time at all.”
Nina, apparently still eager to clean, had her sleeves rolled up and was holding a rag. Emily sat by the window reading a book, and Tien trailed after Nina at a loose end. They were all there.
“Um...? Why are you all here?”
“Duh, we were waiting for you to get back,” Emily said. They must have wanted to know if her meeting with Clare had gone well.
“Tien seems to think you finished the job, but not me. The truth is, you made the client angry and she chased you off!”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
It seemed her nap would have to wait. Nina—who at some point had neatened up her maid uniform again—appeared with steaming cups of tea that smelled of honey. A cup in hand, Astrid sat down and began to tell them everything.
Once she was finished, the other three sat there deep in thought. Emily was the first one to break the silence.
“Okay, so let’s see if I have this straight. The Golding Merchant House tried to pivot into the magic item trade but messed it up. Then she took her frustration about that out on Nina?”
“Chi will never forgive her.”
“Good, Tien. Give in to your rage!”
“E-Emily?! Tien?!” Nina stammered, growing flustered. Astrid looked like she was at the end of her rope.
“Cut it out, you two. Did you even listen to what I said?” She managed to get Tien to sit back down.
“I guess I feel a bit bad for this Clare woman,” Emily said grudgingly.
“Well, right now what I want to do is solve her problem for her.”
“You mean find the bug?”
“No, not that.” Astrid shook her head. “There was never any bug.”
“Say what...? But this other merchant house is selling copies of the magic items she designed, aren’t they? They’re obviously stealing the information, unless— Aha! I’ve got it!” Emily folded her arms and laughed under her breath. “The culprit is none other...than the locksmith!”
Nina and Tien gasped.
“Anyone with a master key could sneak into the workshop to steal the designs. Kett and Clare are the only ones with that key...or so it seemed! In fact, the locksmith also kept a copy!”
“Wrong,” Astrid said promptly.
“Aw, c’mon! What else could it be?!”
“Clare said Kett made the keys.” Astrid explained that when Kett came to work for the Goldings, the workshop keys had been the first thing he’d made.
“Okay, then what about a worker doing repairs on the workshop? Someone like you?”
“What?! Astrid is the culprit?!”
“Nina, we just arrived in this city together, remember?”
“O-Oh, yes...”
“And Emily, stop throwing out wild theories.”
“Oops.” Emily laughed sheepishly, then poked her tongue out. What that was supposed to mean, no one had a clue.
“I think the truth is much simpler.” Astrid drained her tea then set down the cup. “Someone is leaking information to another merchant.”
There were more gasps.
“I don’t think it can be Clare. Maybe if she were trying to self-destruct, but she doesn’t strike me as the type. Then there’s the shop assistant. She’d have the opportunity to get the information, but Clare told me she isn’t allowed near the workshop. It’d be suspicious if she were lurking around there. Which only leaves one possibility.”
Astrid hadn’t been able to say this to Clare. Earlier, she’d still hoped it wasn’t true.
“Kett is double-crossing her.”