Chapter 89
Chapter 89. Fair and Square, That Is Dignity
When a partner places their trust in you, you must deliver results worthy of it.
Having sent the ailing Jurgen back to the lodgings first, Penelope was putting herself through her own training regimen to produce a flawless dish at the competition.
Fortunately, her cooking proficiency itself was adequate.
She had picked up one dish and another from Jurgen, and as he had said, Alchemy (or more precisely, catalyst production) and cooking shared certain similarities — so Penelope had taken to it reasonably well.
When it came to frying chicken, she'd been doing it relentlessly since the early days of CCC's opening, so all that remained was familiarizing herself with the preparation of the new items — Mashed Potato and Gravy Sauce.
In the middle of that……
"Oh?"
The milk — an ingredient for the Gravy Sauce — had run out.
"Of all things."
She was already running hot from hovering around the flames.
The thought of going out into the blazing sun just to buy milk drained all her energy.
So she set off down the alley on her way back to the kitchen, having purchased two bottles of milk from the nearby grocery store.
"It's right there in Special Clause 17, plain as day — can't you read? If the creditor deems, for any reason whatsoever, that trust in the debtor has been lost, immediate repayment of the full debt may be demanded at any time! The contract is telling you that you have to pay back the money!"
"That's a lie! There was no such thing! And what trust have I supposedly lost!"
She came upon Brigitte being harassed by a ruffian.
From what she overheard of the exchange, the ruffian appeared to be the Loan Shark who had lent Brigitte her entry fee.
"Tch. Saw this coming."
In this world there are three things that lead a person to ruin the instant they touch them.
Debt guarantorship, gambling, and Loan Sharks.
Granted, Brigitte had a bright and sunny personality, and granted she had remarkable cooking skill, but……
None of that was of much use against an unscrupulous Loan Shark's illegal debt collection.
Penelope stopped behind the wall and observed the situation for the moment.
"That's what I'm saying, isn't it? Withdraw quietly and I'll write off the debt and the interest altogether."
The picture was more or less clear.
Had Penelope not also received an offer just last night — multiple times the entry fee in exchange for withdrawing?
It seemed one of the finalists was staking everything on this competition.
In Brigitte's case, being a commoner with no standing, they were simply coming at her a little more aggressively.
"How fortunate."
Penelope finished her calculation without delay.
An unexpected windfall, a true windfall.
An anonymous competitor was doing the work of eliminating Brigitte — who boasted overwhelming skill — for her.
"She doesn't know the first thing about how the world works."
Villains dying miserably while good people live happily ever after and pass away peacefully surrounded by grandchildren — that was the stuff of fairy tales.
This world is not fair.
In reality, the strong mercilessly drain the marrow from the weak's backs, and the middling sorts drain whatever marrow the strong left behind.
Good and evil don't particularly factor into this chain.
If Penelope had been in Brigitte's position, she would have hidden from the predator and done nothing but wait for competition day.
Brigitte was too weak to be cunning, and so she was meeting a predictable end.
Penelope turned her back.
Thwack!
"Hey, I was being nice about it. Think this is a joke?"
"……"
"How does a commoner wench like you think she's going to win a royal competition? Think the world is easy? Think this is a game?"
"……"
The Loan Shark struck her hard across the face.
As if that weren't enough, he sneered cruelly at the dumbstruck Brigitte standing before him.
"……"
There was no obligation to step in.
If anything, the more cornered Brigitte became, the higher the chances of recruiting her.
Letting emotions take over and playing some vague champion of justice was something you did when you were still an Immature Person.
Her elder sister would have thought the same, and so would Baron Keystone, Branch Manager Belheim…… even Serena would have made the same call.
"……I'll do it. Withdraw……"
But……
What would Jurgen have done?
"Don't. Withdraw."
Right.
He would have done exactly this, without a doubt.
***
"Excuse me, who might you be……?"
The Loan Shark shrank the moment he laid eyes on Penelope.
Those who trample others by relying on petty power instinctively recognize a predator.
That unmistakably out-of-the-ordinary appearance.
At minimum, wealthy class — or nobility.
"Ah, miss. I believe there may be a misunderstanding here……. This was a lawful debt collection, you see? Of course, she was being so uncooperative that my hand may have gone up just a little……."
Without a single word from her, the Loan Shark began sweating and stammering out excuses.
"Get lost."
The Loan Shark's body went rigid.
Just two words, yet an atmosphere that brooked no defiance.
It was because he sensed the aura of a noble — the aura that can only exist in someone who looks down on the lowborn as naturally as breathing.
And so he watched in silence, unable to utter a word, as the young lady in red Coordination brushed the dirt off the debtor who had fallen to the ground and helped her to her feet.
"Penelope……"
"Let's go."
The Loan Shark, who had been keenly straining his senses to read the situation, caught one word.
Penelope?
Where had he heard that?
The Loan Shark swiftly moved to block Penelope's path.
He couldn't simply retreat.
He had been promised a tremendous reward in exchange for getting that stupid girl to withdraw from the competition.
He couldn't just let an opportunity this sweet slip by.
"W-, wait! Did you say your name is Penelope?"
"And?"
"Of Y&P Trading Company, the finalist in this competition?"
"That's right."
The Loan Shark's eyes gleamed quickly, having found an opening.
The kind of noble he knew was the sort who could look after their own interests with uncanny precision.
All it took was aligned interests.
"You may or may not know this, but that woman there is also a finalist in the main round. Just look the other way. I'll take care of eliminating your competitor for you."
"……"
"I can see you're a person of standing……. But I, too, am operating at the request of someone well above me. If you were to just take that woman and go, it would put me in a rather difficult position. On top of that — do you see this contract? I'm not throwing some baseless tantrum. These are my lawful rights."
As expected, the Loan Shark gained confidence seeing Penelope remain quiet.
"Today's total with interest comes to 73 Crowns……. If you were to pay 70 Crowns on her behalf — dropping the loose change — I'll be on my way. Of course, if that woman withdraws, I'd only ask for the 50 Crown principal."
How about it?
Crying out for justice at no cost is easy.
But a noble cheerfully parting with 50 Crowns for a commoner?
The Loan Shark had no memory of ever witnessing that in his life.
Yet.
"How odd."
A sound came that seemed to hum at the tip of one's nose with contempt.
"Pardon?"
The Loan Shark stared at Penelope with a dull expression.
"Do I look like a generous person to you?"
Only then did the Loan Shark properly take in the face of the noble young lady beneath the shaded Parasol.
Eyes that swept upward with the ferocity of a big cat, and irises red as blood like some kind of beast.
Strikingly beautiful, no question, but……
Her personality was clearly catastrophically broken.
"…………Uh, um…… Um……. No. But…… this is a legitimate right, and……."
"There is one thing you're mistaken about."
A gentle smile played at the corners of her lips.
Yet her eyes, entirely devoid of warmth, pierced straight through the Loan Shark.
"You receiving your money is a legitimate right. But trying to fix the outcome of a royal competition — that is not your right."
"No no no no! It isn't! What I was trying to do was……."
Use the debt as leverage to force an early withdrawal from one commoner finalist……!
……That was match-fixing, wasn't it.
And on top of that, this scene had been witnessed not by some powerless commoner, but by a fellow finalist who was a noble?
Could this actually be a very big problem?
As the Loan Shark stood there swallowing a dry gulp, a cheque was suddenly thrust right under his nose.
"Here, take it. You told me to pay her debt on her behalf, didn't you."
"Pardon? Pardon? Ahaha…… No. Would I have dared to proposition a lady of such lofty standing? It was only a manner of speaking, just a manner of speaking."
"Take it, it's fine. Legitimate rights, you said?"
At the tip of slender fingers, a white cheque swayed gently back and forth.
A powerful gut feeling — that the moment he grabbed it, it would become the ferryman's fare to the afterlife.
"P-, please, rather than that, if we could continue our conversation just a little……."
"Why would I have a conversation with you? Are we close?"
"No, that's not it……. I think there may be a mutual misunderstanding……."
"Take it."
"No, I'm, I'm quite alright."
"I'm telling you to take it."
In the scorching summer sun, the Loan Shark felt a fear cold enough to freeze him.
He needed to somehow keep the conversation going and get across that he had absolutely no such intentions.
But the young lady before him, far from lending an ear to his explanations, was only trying to press money into his hand.
He could not take the money.
Because if he did, there was no telling what the young lady before him would do.
But he couldn't simply ignore her and turn to leave either.
Because if he rubbed the wrong way a young lady whose personality looked spectacularly rotten, there was equally no telling what she would do.
Thud!
In the end, the Loan Shark dropped to his knees.
"What would you have me do……"
"You know, don't you?"
As if she had been waiting for it, Penelope held out her palm and smiled brightly.
"Hand over the money."
***
In the end, the dim-witted Loan Shark shed tears in streams as he pressed 5 Crowns into Penelope's hand.
And he tore Brigitte's debt document — bearing the lunatic Monthly Interest Rate of 28% — to shreds before Penelope's eyes.
He would have had no choice.
Had he tried to play clever, he would have earned the rare distinction of being a Loan Shark who'd had a private audience with a royal investigator.
What that fool should have done upon learning Penelope's identity was not try to negotiate — but run.
"Thank you so much! I was saved because Penelope happened to be passing by! You were so, so incredible! Are all nobles as magnificent as Penelope?"
"Nobles as magnificent as me aren't common."
"I knew it! I thought as much!"
Brigitte continued to heap praise upon Penelope for the entire walk back to the Odéon kitchen.
With those bright, wide eyes that looked rather like a princess locked in a tower gazing at a white-horse-riding prince.
To be honest……
It was quite embarrassing.
What she had done just now had not been the same kind of good deed as Jurgen would have done.
It was closer to overstepping out of nosiness, because the image of a helpless Brigitte had overlapped with her own past self.
She had thought it was foolish right up to the moment she stepped in.
Yet.
"I truly am grateful. No matter how long it takes, I will absolutely repay this debt."
Earlier, it had been the instant Brigitte was slapped that she'd boiled over and stepped in without thinking.
But with her head cooled down and thinking it over — this could actually be an opportunity.
It had happened somewhat accidentally, but while she had rescued a competitor, she had also placed Brigitte — someone she had wanted to recruit — in her debt.
In that case.
Could this not be the opportunity to recruit Brigitte, the cooking prodigy?
Even as recently as yesterday she had been fretting over whether Brigitte joining Y&P would mean losing her own place to stand……
But it was different now.
To Jurgen, Penelope was a dependable enough partner to be entrusted with standing in at such a crucial competition — one with the Royal Warrant on the line.
If Penelope were the one to pull off the recruitment of Brigitte, which even Jurgen had half given up on?
An increase in standing.
An even more solid partnership would be forged.
And so Penelope forgot the quality of a hero that had taken shape when she saved Brigitte.
What remained was Penelope the businesswoman with a clear and calculating heart.
"You want to repay the debt? How do you plan to do it?"
"I'll give Penelope 50 Crowns! With 28% Monthly Interest Rate!"
"No, that takes us right back to square one…… Even after seeing all that, you learned nothing?"
Penelope was appalled by Brigitte's breezy line of thinking.
"Instead of that — how about coming to work at Y&P Trading Company?"
"Pardon? Ah…… Ahh……. That's……. Hmm…… Hmmmm……."
Brigitte, who had been looking up to Penelope as her savior just moments before, immediately showed reluctance.
"I am truly, truly grateful to Jurgen for making a similar offer……! But I think it would be difficult!"
"Why exactly are you hesitant?"
"It's just that…… I think Y&P and I have different aims……."
"In what way?"
It wasn't as though she had done it expecting anything in return, but seeing Brigitte refuse to come to terms even so was, just slightly……
Off-putting.
Given Brigitte's personality, she probably would have helped regardless even if their positions were reversed — 'of course I'd help!' — so perhaps that was why she was behaving like this, but……
"The restaurant I'm running now was inherited from my grandfather. I made a promise to my grandfather that I would absolutely make Brigitte's Dining the finest restaurant."
……That was unfair of me to think, I'm sorry!
Penelope offered an inner apology and a small measure of reflection.
She had been wondering why she was digging in her heels so stubbornly, and it turned out she had her own circumstances.
Dragging her over to Y&P like pulling a cow was bound to result in absolutely no integration.
In that case, what should be done?
She had to persuade her.
"Alright, then let's do this. How about making a bet with me?"
"A bet?"
"Brigitte, it's true that you're able to participate in the main round because of my help, isn't it?"
"Yes!"
"And it's also true that you had steeled yourself to give up everything in life if you didn't place? If that had happened, the restaurant would have gone under too, wouldn't it?"
"Yes……."
"If it's Y&P and not you who wins the Royal Warrant — instead of giving up on life, how about closing your eyes and working under us for just three years? After that, you can do as you please."
"Just three years?"
"You accept the bet in exchange for repaying the debt. That's fair enough, isn't it?"
"Hmm……"
"It won't be a loss for you either. If you lose to Y&P Trading Company, it means we have that much to teach you, doesn't it?"
"Hmmmm……"
Brigitte tilted her head, mulled it over, and answered.
"Alright!"
In truth, by leveraging the fact that she had done Brigitte a kindness, she might have been able to drag her along by sheer force.
But even if it was a bother, she believed this was the better way.
To employ a person, win their heart first.
One of the things Jurgen had taught her.
***
Time passed, and two days later.
The night before the first Royal Culinary Competition, in the Minister of Internal Affairs' office.
The hour had grown late and everyone else had gone home, yet one person remained at their post.
The acting Minister of Internal Affairs — Lily Fontaine.
"……"
She was not particularly doing any work.
She was simply gazing down at a document placed on the table for a long while, as if in meditation.
[Y&P Trading Company, Crispy Crown Chicken (CCC)]
It was one trading company's entry documents for the Royal Culinary Competition.