“Really?! I was sure it’d be the other way around...” Indeed, Jeanette’s thoughts weren’t all that far-fetched. Leila had always complained about Clement’s drinking habits. Jeanette was convinced that seeing the baron get himself drunk first thing after finally coming home had been the woman’s last straw. “But why?! You two would’ve been able to live as a happy couple on your own now!”
“The fact we were alone is exactly why, Jeanette,” the baron proclaimed earnestly. “You see... I knew from the start that Leila didn’t like me in the slightest.” This was the first time he’d ever admitted such a thing. “But I didn’t mind. I believed she was so calculating and ill-tempered for the sake of her daughter, which charmed me...” He paused, shaking his head in disappointment. “But since she sacrificed her daughter, it’s all over now.”
His words were incredibly heavy. All this time, he hadn’t cared that Leila didn’t love him, yet now she had crossed a line he just couldn’t forgive. Jeanette hung her head.
“I couldn’t believe it when Claus first told me about it,” her father continued. “Or maybe I just didn’t want to believe it. When I heard that she abducted you and tried to send you off, it made my blood boil. And when I realized she used Ariel as collateral for her debt instead, I didn’t have the strength to be angry anymore. I only felt disappointed.”
“Father...”
When people truly give up on each other, maybe it’s not from anger, but disappointment... Jeanette thought, squeezing her father’s hand.
His face was still flushed with alcohol, and he spoke with a note of loneliness. “You went through a lot of hardship too, Jeanette. I see both you and Ariel as my precious daughters. I didn’t want to take Ariel’s mother away from her and put you through years of difficulties as a result...”
“I’m okay, father. I don’t have even a single memory of hardship from my life at home!” Jeanette asserted resolutely.
One of the nobles had once asked her, “It must’ve been so difficult for you when Ariel slandered you, right?” But Jeanette didn’t think she went through years of hardship because of Leila and Ariel.
“If anything, I’m really glad I got to have so many rewards! It was lots of fun, and I grew a lot because of that!” she said, as though nothing bad had happened at home.
The baron laughed loudly. “I see. Indeed, that’s the kind of girl you are.”
“If I had to pick, I’d say I hate those nobles who made fun of Lord Claus and said he was selling himself! Ugh, just remembering about it makes me mad! I should have followed Lord Claus’s example and overcharged those people during the tulip boom...!”
Claus smoothly joined the conversation at that point. “It’s okay, Jeanette. They were overcharged from the very beginning.”
“Really?!” Jeanette exclaimed. Lord Claus truly doesn’t miss anything!
While she was both surprised and impressed, her father once more roared with laughter, slapping his thigh in a drunken manner. “I missed this! I really feel like I’m home. And Claus, is it just me, or have you become more upfront these days? I’ve been thinking this for a while, but I didn’t want to say anything.”
“I decided to stop hiding things, or else Jeanette would’ve never noticed my feelings,” Claus responded with a smile.
“Ahh.” The baron seemed to have surmised something from those words. “Jeanette’s thickheaded, just like me. Then again, I did manage to figure out Leila’s true feelings toward me, so...?”
“I... I’ve become much more aware of his feelings recently! I think...?” Jeanette said, still sounding uncertain toward the end.
“If you haven’t become aware of them after everything I’ve done, I think I’d burst into tears.”
“Ohh! Just that exchange alone shows me how hard you’ve been trying, Claus!” the baron commented with a shudder.
“Now that you’re back, I was hoping Jeanette and I could get married, but she’s over here thinking herself into a stupor because of Ariel... I want her to only think about me,” Claus complained, sounding disappointed as he cast her a sidelong glance.
Jeanette looked away. “I... I will take the appropriate measures!” she promised.
Having remembered something, the baron suddenly looked up. “Oh! This reminds me, I have a gift for you both.”
“A gift?”
The man began searching inside his breast pocket. After a moment, he pulled out a thoroughly crumpled piece of paper. Jeanette’s eyes glinted at the sight. It’s all crumpled up because of father, but it looks like high-quality paper...
“There it is! Here you go,” her father said, handing it to them.
Opening it up revealed a letter written in the Voltaire Empire’s official language, Norvian. Jeanette and Claus both looked at it together. “Um... ‘The following information is described below...’?” Jeanette murmured in confusion.
“There are a lot of words here I don’t recognize...” Claus added, squinting at the paper.
Nonchalantly, the baron announced, “It’s a title deed to a diamond mine. It’s yours now.”
“What?!” Jeanette and Claus cried out in unison.
“Ah, Basko—that is, Voltaire’s emperor—gave it to me. But gemstones are more your thing, aren’t they, Jeanette? It’s a perfect fit, so I’d be glad if you accepted it.”
“You’d be glad? Father, this is a diamond mine!!! Its value is unparalleled!”
“Besides, this is something the emperor bestowed upon you! Surely you cannot just hand it over to us! And...what is the emperor even thinking, handing over a diamond mine to a foreign merchant?!”
While Jeanette and Claus were in a frenzy, the baron looked unconcerned. “Eh, it’s fine. This may be the title deed, but the mine is within the Voltaire Empire’s territory. If the current emperor passes away, his successor would definitely reclaim it. Think of this as a limited-time offer.”
“Really...?”
“Taking such realistic consideration of the future is very much like you, Sir Roussel...” Claus remarked. Like Jeanette, he must’ve glimpsed the kind of life the baron had led in the empire through his calm demeanor.
“Anyway, since this is a special chance, do what you can to make as much money as possible from the mine,” the man told them.
“Right. We should aim to exhaust the veins, since we don’t know when the empire will repossess the mine,” Claus said. “It’s an unstable situation.”
“So our next line of products should be diamonds?” Jeanette mused. “Between the two of us, Lord Claus, I feel like diamond products would fit Matheson Trading best!” With that, she quickly began putting a plan together in her mind. “This gemstone has a loyal following, so I don’t think selling it would be hard, but...”
Among jewels, the diamond reigned as king. In Ancient Kyrian, it was dubbed “adamas,” meaning “unbreakable.” Its absolute hardness and beauty had made royals and nobility adore it since ancient times.
“But there’s one thing you’re forgetting, Jeanette,” Claus said.
Jeanette tilted her head. “I am?”
“Because of what happened with the tulips, the luxury goods market is a mess right now, right?”
“Oh!” she exclaimed. “That’s true... In that case, trying to sell diamonds now wouldn’t go well. Everyone might be too scared of the same thing happening with a new fad. Also, those who suffered financially might be tightening their purse strings...”
Of course, there were some people who had avoided hardship, but many of the aristocrats had suffered losses. Right now, it might be best to sell goods aimed at the general public, which was least affected by the tulip mania, rather than the upper classes... But diamonds have always been popular among royalty and aristocracy, and because of their high price, the general public isn’t really familiar with them...
Jeanette deliberated, and Claus was doing the same next to her. After a while, he spoke up. “I might have an idea, Jeanette. Will you hear me out?”
“What is it?!” she asked with a glimmer in her eyes. Most of the time, Claus just watched her get on with things, so it’d been a while since he shared his own idea with her.
“Lend me your ear,” Claus said, leaning in to whisper something to her.
Soon enough, Jeanette was nodding along vigorously. Her face lit up, and she exclaimed, “That’s a great idea, Lord Claus! Let’s go for it!”