Chapter 41
Chapter 41. The First Secret Plan (5)
A commotion broke out at the Renoir household.
Serena, who had vanished without a trace, had returned safely with Jurgen.
"My daughter, let me hold you. Come here, are you hurt anywhere?"
"Serena! Where on earth have you been!"
"Are you alright, Miss? You're not injured, are you?"
The workshop team members who had scattered in all directions gathered, and even Serena's father, Viscount Renoir, and her mother came running out barefoot.
Serena's eyes met Jurgen's for just a moment.
Then she apologized sullenly with drooping eyes.
"I-I'm sorry... I guess the pressure was too much. I just wanted to take a day off, so I left like I was running away. I didn't think everyone would worry this much."
"Miss, so you weren't kidnapped?"
"Wh-what? Kidnapped?"
"We thought that bastard Rex had done something terrible to you..."
"N-no, nothing like that happened."
Serena's lie was quite awkward, but she was originally shy and taciturn anyway.
They had been burning with anxiety thinking it was a kidnapping, but it turned out to be a simple runaway.
The Renoir household members who had been desperately searching for Serena let out sighs that were either relief or bewilderment.
"That's understandable. You've been pushing yourself quite hard lately."
"That's right. I even sometimes want to just throw everything away and run off, you know?"
"Hey, what kind of craftsman are you to say that? Still, I'm glad you returned safely."
"Serena, I won't make a big deal of it this time, but make sure this never happens again."
"Come here. Do you know how worried your mother was?"
Thanks to team members humorously defending Serena, the punishment was just a light scolding.
At most, she got a few smacks on the back from her mother.
"..."
This was the agreement.
'I must ask you a favor, Miss Serena.'
Serena wasn't kidnapped, just a simple runaway.
Jurgen didn't defeat a priest in an outlaw den and rescue Serena, but rather happened to discover Serena while she was running away.
It was true that she couldn't refuse the request of her life's savior, but Serena also felt more comfortable this way.
She had already caused worry once—how much would their hearts tremble if they knew she had encountered a dark mage and nearly died?
If she treated it as an involuntary runaway, it wasn't a complete lie either...
—Screeeech
Just then, a sedan drifted to a stop in the distance.
Penelope, who got out of the sedan, came running over bouncing.
She had been meeting with Belheim to discuss the problem, but rushed over as soon as she received the telegram that Serena had returned.
"Serena!"
"P-Penelope?"
Penelope, who walked over with frighteningly large strides, did something Serena never imagined.
She suddenly pulled Serena into her arms.
If Serena had been a teddy bear, it was tight enough that the stuffing would have popped out.
"Hi... Hiiik...!"
Serena was startled.
She wasn't even that close with Penelope.
Weren't they in a relationship where they used each other to begin with?
"You're not hurt, are you?"
"What...? N-no, I'm not particularly hurt..."
But suddenly like this?
Wasn't this the reaction when a worried friend returned safely?
Serena's arms fumbled awkwardly in the air.
She couldn't figure out whether to hug Penelope back or what to do.
When she rolled her eyes around, somehow everyone around them was watching the two embrace with pleased faces.
Like they were watching a beautiful friendship or heartwarming story?
The uncles wiped under their noses with pleased smiles, and even Serena's mother, who had been angry until just now, was making an 'oh my...' expression.
"Ah."
Penelope, who had passionately hugged Serena, seemed surprised by her own actions too.
She belatedly swallowed empty air and released Serena.
Serena also creaked awkwardly like a wind-up doll that had unwound.
"...I-I'm glad you came back, Serena."
"...Th-thank you for worrying. P-Penelope."
The two people belatedly clearing their throats awkwardly and maintaining formality.
Whether it was just their imagination that the audience's smiles deepened as they watched.
"What? It wasn't a kidnapping but a runaway?"
"I-I also have days when I get sentimental..."
"...Good grief, what are you, some adolescent girl?"
There was an ending where Penelope jumped up and down in anger when she learned the agreed-upon truth with Jurgen—that 'Serena actually just ran away.'
***
Perhaps the tension had completely released, because she was hungry.
After hurriedly finishing a meal with her family and taking a hot bath.
Serena let down her hair and threw herself onto the bed with a plop.
"Wow..."
She never knew wool blankets were this soft, or that the mattress with the Renoir family's special springs was this chewy.
She learned it for the first time today.
Lying on a bed she thought she'd never be able to lie on again, her sense of reality floated and became hazy.
It still felt like a dream.
Actually, wasn't the kidnapping, outlaws, dark mage—all of it just a dream?
Even though so much had happened and she was tired enough for her head to throb, sleep wouldn't come.
There were even more things to think about overflowing.
'Miss Serena, I have a favor.'
'Y-yes!'
'Can you keep what you saw in the Demon Realm as a secret between us?'
'Just between... us? What about Miss Penelope?'
'Don't tell Miss Penelope either.'
Jurgen had made this request.
It wasn't an unreasonable request.
After all, he was hiding his identity while disguising himself as a commoner, wasn't he?
It was unexpected that he was hiding his identity even one more time from Penelope, his collaborator.
'Then... I'll become quite the foolish woman, won't I?'
'Won't everyone think of it as a cute mistake and move on?'
'I-I'm already cute enough... I don't want to become any cuter... N-no...! I understand.'
Even though she said that...
Considering the hierarchical difference between the two, it was a difficult request to refuse.
Moreover, she had incurred a heavy debt from this incident.
If not for Jurgen, Serena would have met a terrible end by now.
Of course, she was incredibly, incredibly grateful for that part, but Serena felt pressure proportional to her gratitude.
"Huuuu, what should I do now..."
Because the debt calculation remained.
The debt Serena owed was high-value debt at the level where if Jurgen said he wanted to drink tea, she'd have to run looking for a maid outfit.
She wasn't naive enough to believe the sweet-talking words like 'Since Miss Serena is a comrade, I naturally had to come rescue you, didn't I?'
Where would such a thing exist in high society?
If you approach sincerely, you'll only be used and discarded.
If you expect friendship from fabricated goodwill, you'll only become the easiest prey.
She had already learned through painful experience.
She wouldn't repeat the same mistake.
So surely, Jurgen also rescued Serena with some purpose.
Setting aside his purpose for now, which she couldn't even guess.
"...What kind of person is he really?"
Serena originally thought Jurgen was from a technical family.
That alone made him a formidable existence...
A collaborator slightly below Penelope, who had revealed her true colors and started exerting influence even in the underworld.
But what he did today couldn't be explained at that level.
He came to an outlaw den and purged criminals alone.
She didn't know how strong or how many outlaws under Rex there were, but she could accept it up to this point.
However, Jurgen killed a 'Priest'-grade dark mage single-handedly.
From how he handled an alchemy catalyst when releasing the chains, his method was probably alchemy.
If it was a priest-grade from the End Order, it would take a 6th Rank Knight or Alchemist to subjugate them.
She didn't see the combat scene due to the spider swarm and darkness, but Jurgen didn't even have a single scratch.
This meant Jurgen was an excellent technician and at the same time at least a 6th Rank or higher Alchemist.
Moreover, he was hiding his true identity even from Penelope.
Only his appearance was the same age—perhaps he might even be older than her father.
At around 6th Rank, even the natural order of time deviates.
"My head... feels like it's going to burst..."
Serena, who had been rolling around on the bed, soon became still while lying face down.
A deep sleep that couldn't be stopped even by worries covered her like a blanket.
***
After Serena's runaway incident.
Work for the counterattack accelerated.
If there was a difference...
"Penelope, aren't you going home?"
"No, I'm not going."
"Won't your parents worry...?"
"I'm monitoring you so you don't run away again, aren't I? Hurry up and work."
"Hing..."
It was that Penelope had been staying at the Renoir household as a guest for several weeks.
She didn't know how much her heart had dropped during the last Serena runaway incident.
It ended as a happening last time, but rather than having her heart drop again, it was more comfortable to settle in and become a protective totem.
As long as Penelope was a guest at the Renoir household, Rex would also find it burdensome to easily touch them.
Of course, from Serena's perspective, it was a situation where her employer, who had lost trust, was closely monitoring and urging her from the side.
It was quite unfair from the position of someone who hadn't actually run away...
"By the way Serena, your house's bed is comfortable."
"Hehe, it's filled with our family's know-how."
"Really? That's good. After this is over, want to try supplying them to the Richfield Hotel? I'll pay you properly."
"R-really?"
Still, somehow she felt they had gotten a bit closer.
Meanwhile.
The war between Y&P Trading Company and Keystone Company, which had much talk and many troubles.
The market share war between Cola and Berrymix also seemed to be heading toward its end.
"...That's all. For the past month, Berrymix has been crushing Cola in both sales and distribution volume."
[What about the factory? Is anything going wrong?]
"No, our factory completion is much faster than Y&P Trading Company. The capital invested was different to begin with, wasn't it? We're also far ahead in the number and scale of factories. This advantage won't be overturned."
[Heh heh heh, it's thanks to your generous investment, Rex. Good, let's keep it this way. My repayment will be substantial.]
After the call with Baron Keystone ended, Rex rested his chin on the back of his hand.
He told the Baron that everything was going well, but he couldn't quite smile comfortably.
"Damn it."
After the day he received the mission to 'kidnap Serena,' all contact with the Black Fang Gang had been cut off.
Even though Rex was the 8th Seat of the Gray Council, openly keeping outlaws was suicidal.
He had maintained only loose connections to cut off the tail in emergencies, but the link had been severed.
This meant he had lost control over the Black Fang Gang he had cultivated with effort.
"It's frustrating enough to drive me crazy. I can't even go there directly."
Meanwhile, Serena, who they thought had been kidnapped, was working just fine at the workshop.
Did the Black Fang Gang fail from the kidnapping stage?
Then why did Penelope come causing a fuss saying to return Serena? Was it a smokescreen?
Did something go wrong with the Black Fang Gang itself? Or did only the contact person meet with trouble?
Or did the dark mage they recruited cause an accident?
It was full of incomprehensible things.
"I can't back out now anyway."
Even if Penelope was a more formidable person than he thought, what he had to do remained unchanged.
Anyway, extracting secrets from Serena was a secondary issue.
He had already invested massive funds in factory establishment.
Large investment meant proportionally large returns.
Even if the means to control the Black Fang Gang disappeared, if only Berrymix succeeded, he could restore his forces by borrowing Baron Keystone's power.
The fortunate thing was that it was certain that Berrymix was approaching victory.
...It was certain, right?
"Prepare the car."
To calm his anxious heart, Rex went out to get some air.
Getting air, but it was half reconnaissance.
When Rex arrived at the warehouse site Cola wholesale direct sales store, he doubted his eyes.
Because the front of the store, which was always bustling with people to buy Cola, was surprisingly quiet.
The waiting line to buy Cola, which had made Rex's heart feel stuffy every time he saw it, had completely disappeared.
Only a few wholesalers remained, loading Cola onto cargo wagons.
"Hah hah hah! I knew it would be like this! Right! This is normal! I thought everyone had gone crazy!"
What if standing in line for five or six hours just to try a drink wasn't crazy?
The bubble that had been heavily applied to Cola through Bellaby and social circles had finally burst.
His chest, which had felt stuffy like indigestion from inexplicable unease, opened up with a bang.
The game was over.
Even the minimal variables had disappeared.
"Hey, head to the plaza."
"Where shall I take you, boss?"
"You know the usual place? 'Sovereign Lounge,' I need to raise a toast on a day like this!"
Rex patted the driver's shoulder and named his regular bar.
He was thinking of getting thoroughly drunk and spending the night with a woman in his arms after a long time.
But.
"What's this? Why are there so many people at this hour?"
The tavern street entrance was filled with a festive crowd, as if a celebration was happening.
Rex, who frowned and looked outside, confirmed a strange sight.
"Stop."
"We haven't reached your regular pub yet, boss?"
"I said stop the car, you bastard!"
Rex, who jumped out of the car doubting his eyes, looked around with a dumbfounded expression.
In the hands of the people filling the street, and on the tables visible beyond the tavern windows, everyone was holding glasses filled with dark red liquid.
Not just one or two glasses.
At a glance, everyone he could see was holding Cola.
Wherever he turned his gaze, he only saw Cola.
"Fuck, what the hell happened..."
The surreal scene of Cola, which produced only 20,000 bottles a day at most, overturning the entire street was unfolding before Rex's eyes.