Chapter 66
Chapter 66. Summer! Vacation? Business! (1)
Serena thinks people have many similarities to books.
Really.
First, the cover (appearance) is the most important thing.
And who wrote it (family lineage) is important.
However, to know someone in detail, you ultimately have to spend time slowly turning the pages.
In that sense, the first page of Penelope by Rosemore was like a warning written in fierce red ink.
She was a scary person, unlike her social nickname of 'useless flower.'
She wielded considerable influence in the underworld with merciless coldness.
Her personality was as nasty as her vicious eyes, incredibly arrogant, and she would constantly threaten the powerless Serena at every turn.
According to the safety rules written in Serena's tears, she was like a grimoire you should avoid and run from immediately.
But Serena's desperate plea of 'I can't go back to being a commoner' became a reason to ignore the safety rules.
In the end, after going through various ups and downs, she ended up sticking close to Penelope's side.
'......So what kind of person is she?'
Serena was timid, but like a promising engineering student, she was also very curious.
Having come to stay next to the 'real noble' she usually feared, Serena secretly observed Penelope with an observer's gaze.
Then, between the red letters, she noticed small phrases lined up meaninglessly like spacing between lines.
-Penelope has a really nasty personality and is incredibly arrogant, so her relationships are catastrophically narrow, but surprisingly, she lets you off even if you step slightly out of line.
-She pretends they're not her people but secretly takes care of them.
-She sometimes smiles slightly when looking at Jurgen.
-She prefers flashy dresses but favors petite silverwork for accessories, and when sleeping, she wears pajamas that Serena might have worn at age 7 instead of a negligee.
-Unlike Serena who constantly talks about mom, dad, and her younger sibling, Penelope never brings up family at all.
-In front of people she's gotten close to, she sets aside etiquette and gradually becomes more comfortable in her actions.
By the time 'Penelope observation' had become Serena's unseemly hobby.
The two had become something resembling 'friends.'
"Did you come back from the sauna?"
"Shut u......"
As soon as Serena entered the Y&P company building (a single-room closet), she saw Penelope collapsed flat and added one sentence to her observation journal.
-Penelope is very weak to heat.
It's not strange that a Northerner who would swim bare-chested as soon as the weather warmed up even in the middle of winter would languish like someone about to die as soon as summer came.
Among them, Penelope had close to zero heat resistance.
Wasn't she dripping with sweat beyond just glistening, even though she'd only gone out briefly and returned?
"Did I sweat too much......? I'm dizzy......"
"Here, ice."
Serena took out an ice pack from the refrigerator and placed it on the back of Penelope's head as she lay prone in a straight line.
A sizzling sound was heard, and from under the ice that immediately began melting, a mumbled 'thank you' could be heard.
"Replenish your bodily fluids too."
"Urp, urrp......"
When she even gave her Cola on top of that, Penelope drank it gulp gulp while still lying down.
"Haah, Sister Penelope requires quite a bit of care too......"
On that roll, she even brought a fan and turned it on for her.
"It's too hot, what can I do......"
"Is it cool?"
"Yeah...... I think I'll live."
Watching Penelope defenseless as she caught her breath in the fan's breeze, Serena smiled bleakly.
Someone might mock Serena's actions as maidservant work.
But it's different.
Though it's embarrassing to say out loud......
Serena was intoxicated with her own image.
Serena, to whom the incredibly arrogant 'real noble' shows a defenseless side.
Serena, who takes care of that 'real noble' like a younger sibling.
Taking care of someone proves you're either superior to or equal to that person.
When 'taking care of Penelope's disheveled state,' she simultaneously felt the base superiority and the pleasure of having her deficiency filled.
"But what will you do if Sister Penelope is completely sprawled out like this? Y&P is in the middle of a growth phase right now, you know? We don't have time for this."
"That's true, but......"
"It's not 'that's true, but,' we need to row harder at times like this!"
The pleasure was so great that she even forgot her jealousy about 'Y&P's potential net profit of 30,000 Crowns per year' and developed a pseudo-ownership mentality toward Y&P, in which she didn't have a single share.
Because!
Serena had to be a wonderful mentor and friend who gives straightforward advice and whips into shape Penelope, who has become complacent in success's ease and is being lazy about business for the trivial reason of summer heat!
"Why are you so excited again?"
"Ex-excited? I'm just frustrated, frustrated! Whether the seasoned chicken will do well or not depends on our efforts right now!"
"Jurgen is going around buying ingredients."
"Sister Penelope should be doing something during that time too!"
"No......"
Just as Penelope was feeling awkward at Serena's statement, which was too sound an argument to refute.
-Fling
"Good morning!"
Jurgen entered.
"Good morning to you!"
Serena, who was about to bow her greeting to the great senior as usual......
"Y-you didn't see anything, right? If you did, I'll pluck your eyes out......!"
And Penelope, who was hurriedly arranging her flipped-up skirt hem, froze simultaneously like synchronized actors.
Because his fashion, which had always maintained an ordinary but consistently neat outfit, was noticeably unique.
A large straw hat with a wide brim.
Pitch-black sunglasses.
A pure white, breezy linen shirt.
Light beige cotton shorts.
And on top of that, a large travel carrier.
"What's with that screwball fashion?"
It was an outfit deliberately meant for going to the beach.
"Isn't it vacation season now? I was thinking we could go on a summer getaway."
"Suddenly......?"
"Hasn't Penelope's condition been poor lately? It's important to work on releasing tension appropriately."
"What about business?"
"Everyone's going on vacation anyway. We've been running hard for nearly a year, so there should be a reward. Cool ocean, beach bathing. Now, how about it?"
Normally Penelope might have refused, but Penelope, who had been getting sous-vided under the summer sun, was intrigued.
Summer getaway?
Beach bathing splashing around in the cool ocean?
My, my, how wonderful...... To be able to escape this scorching heat.
That's welcome news indeed.
"Hmm, if it's the ocean, you're going to the eastern side? Should I look into train tickets?"
"Stooooop!"
Serena's shrill scream pierced right into Penelope's ear, where refreshing water spray was already rushing.
"A vacation at such a golden time as this!"
That cry belonged not to Viscount Renoir Serena, but to Serena 'the wonderful mentor and friend who gives straightforward advice and whips into shape Penelope, who has become complacent in success's ease and is being lazy about business for the trivial reason of summer heat.'
"I-I can't believe it. We need to monitor whether Keystone Company is running the bottling plant well......"
"Keystone Company is on a two-week vacation too."
"Eek! That's not all! Then we need to talk with Branch Manager Belheim about future market prospects......"
"Belheim went on a trip with his fiancée the day before yesterday too."
"Keystone Company is a large corporation, and Branch Manager Belheim is a banker with a solid position, so they're fine! But we're not! Isn't everyone being too lax?"
Serena's heartfelt 'urging!' brought back Penelope's reality awareness, which had been melting like a sugar cube, at least somewhat.
"Hmm...... Well, that's true too. What's gotten into you to say something so admirable?"
"What do you mean by that? I'm always wishing for the boundless development of our biggest client, Y&P."
At Penelope's seemingly agreeable appearance, Serena's heart was painted fluffy with 'the wonderful me who confidently expresses opinions and gains recognition even among real nobles.'
"Serena has worked hard this year too, wouldn't about a week's vacation be fine?"
Flinch.
Serena's shoulders trembled.
"M-me too?"
"Of course Serena would come along too."
She had naturally assumed only the two of them were going...... but they were planning to go together?
"Why, why would I go when you two are traveling......?"
"There's no problem, is there? I was planning to book a resort with multiple rooms anyway."
That's true.
Even when she was invited to the two's honeymoon house before, Serena had been on high alert, but now she knows the two aren't quite that sticky of a relationship.
Then......
This was an opportunity to become the wonderful Serena who goes on a summer vacation to the beach with 'real noble' 'friends' during vacation season?
And she kicked away that opportunity with her own feet?
Into the troubled Serena's ears came the two's conversation.
"Where were you planning to go?"
"I was planning to go to Costa."
"All the way to Costa? That's far."
Serena interjected.
"C-Costa, you mean Costa Bay in the Soltera Protectorate......?"
"That's right......?"
Serena's eyes became as big as marbles.
Costa Bay.
A world-class resort located on the northeastern coast of Soltera.
A dazzlingly white coral sand beach and an emerald-colored transparently shining ocean.
An earthly paradise where slender palm trees and exotic flowers line the beach in harmony.
In romance novels, they always run away in love to this Costa Bay.
She didn't particularly have a prince to run away with, but Serena had also wanted to go to Costa Bay at least once.
After all, isn't it an 'overseas trip' taken on an airship?
"But Serena's opinion has merit too. Can't be helped."
"Hah, so close. It was fun for a moment."
"Ah...... Aah......!"
Serena despaired.
The saying that you'd get to Costa Bay if you just stayed still was right.
To lose face at this point and say 'L-let's just go on vacation?' was just too......
Just toooo......!
"I'll go to Soltera alone."
"What kind of petty talk is that? If we're going, we should go together."
"It's not that, I can't get peppers in Nortaris. I'm planning to import them directly from Soltera, so I should do an on-site inspection, shouldn't I?"
"Ah, if that's the reason, then sure."
"W-wait a moment!"
Serena approached with a crab walk and interjected in a wheedling voice.
Her fingers were fidgeting, twisting her pink hair round and round.
"Aii, geez...... I thought Brother Jurgen and Sister Penelope were going to play......"
"Urgh, what, why are you suddenly using nasal tones?"
"Th-thinking about it...... Peppers are an important ingredient for seasoned chicken, right? To get such a core ingredient...... it seems like it would be good to visit locally after all...... Brother Jurgen too, geez......! You should have said so from the beginning, hehe."
"Jurgen! I think she's suffering from heat stroke!"
At Serena's appearance, making cloying nasal sounds to the point of being coquettish, Penelope brushed off the goosebumps that rose on her forearm.
It was the moment when one human's desire overcame their sense of shame.
In any case, thus......
"Serena, you have to take off your shoes when boarding the airship."
"Wh-what?! Really?!"
The Y&P trio's summer vacation combined with a local business trip for ingredient procurement was decided.