Chapter 95
Chapter 95. The Rose's Invitation (2)
"Right this way, please."
Cutting straight across the vast garden that would surely take a full thirty minutes just to explore in its entirety.
Led inside by the butler, the interior of the Rosemore estate was magnificent from the very lobby.
"My, my......"
A ceiling height so towering it made one wonder how on earth the chandeliers were ever cleaned.
A floor laid with marble that could only be of the finest quality.
The tapestries on the walls recording the history of the Rosemore family were entirely removed from the latest fashions, and for that very reason looked like display cases showing off a long and venerable tradition.
As if to say, 'Who dares presume to judge Rosemore?'
"Where's my sister?"
"Lady Clarisse is expected to return home late this afternoon. The young lady's room has been prepared exactly as it was, so that she may first recover from the journey."
"Understood. I'll wait in my room."
A model of a well-trained butler, if ever there was one.
The old butler, who had answered Penelope with a manner that was deferential yet free of any servility, regarded Jurgen steadily.
"Might I ask the guest's name?"
"Jurgen — co-representative of Y&P. I brought him to introduce to my sister."
"Very well. I shall send an attendant to the annex in the West Wing to have it prepared."
Jurgen and Penelope waited in the reception room while their quarters were being readied.
Maids approached, offered black tea and light refreshments, and quietly withdrew.
They too were well-trained maids.
Not a word of personal conversation, not a flicker of expressed emotion — they simply carried out their roles in silence, as though they were instruments.
"Quite a magnificent house."
"Isn't it? I used to play a lot of hide-and-seek here when I was young."
"I imagine the seeker was at an absolute disadvantage."
"That they were."
Jurgen looked around and spoke in the vast reception room, where each word echoed back.
Including the sofa they were currently seated on, every piece of furniture in the reception room felt as though it carried at least several decades of history.
Even from this much alone, the character of the Rosemore family could be read.
Tradition and discipline.
The concentration of rigid formality was no laughing matter.
By that measure, Penelope was an awakened young noblewoman of a calibre almost impossible to believe had come from a family like this.
Of course, saying such a thing to her face would be rude, so he kept it to himself.
"Let's set aside idle talk there...... Right then, let's do a mid-point review."
Having taken a sip of black tea, Penelope opened her mouth with composure.
"First of all, this is a tremendous opportunity."
"I expect so."
"No — it's more than you understand. You probably only grasp half of half of what will happen if I regain the family's recognition. Let me explain how the family's business actually operates."
"Please do."
Jurgen himself was far more versed in high society than Penelope could imagine, but an explanation here was necessary.
Every family ran things differently.
"First of all, Rosemore's business is divided into two branches. One is the Internal Business, and one is the External Business."
Penelope picked up the fountain pen from the reception room table and continued her explanation.
"The Internal Business is what the family directly manages. Operations are naturally handled by family members, and the profits don't go to individual members — they flow into the 'family trust.' In return, dividends are distributed according to performance."
"Essentially a directly-managed operation with incentives?"
"Something like that."
Jurgen nodded in full understanding.
"For example, 'Northgate,' which holds a monopoly on mining rights in the Labyrinth Demon Realm; 'Greenfield,' which manages the large northern farms; 'Silk Road,' which handles warehouse leasing and logistics distribution across the kingdom — these are the most representative examples of Internal Business."
Northgate, Greenfield, Silk Road.
The businesses themselves leaned heavily toward B2B and focused on infrastructure monopolies, so ordinary people might not recognise the names.
Yet every single one of them was a company of enormous scale.
It would be fair to say that every food item that made it onto a Britannia dinner table had passed through the hands of at least one of these three at some point.
"The hotel that Miss Penelope manages as well?"
"That's right — The Richfield is also an Internal Business. In my case, the incentives I receive are barely enough to maintain a minimum standard of dignity, but. In any case, family members are basically each assigned an Internal Business. The specifics differ depending on whether they're a collateral or direct line, and how much recognition they've received from the family."
"Then the External Business would be something like Y&P Trading Company."
"Exactly."
The External Business, on the other hand, carried a slightly different nuance.
"The External Business is something a family member has built individually on their own — with no direct connection to the family. Even so, the family actively invests in External Businesses."
"Venture investment, then."
"......!"
"If it succeeds, the feeling is that it gets absorbed into the Internal Business?"
Penelope looked at Jurgen as though genuinely startled.
It was plain she hadn't expected him to cut straight to the heart of it in one go.
"Th, that's right. The External Business is like a scout ship for new ventures. Most of the current Internal Businesses have grown too large to attempt new things."
If an External Business failed, that was the individual family member's failure.
Rosemore would only lose a modest sum of investment.
On the other hand, if it succeeded, a new business could be expanded in a stable, supported manner.
"Quite rational."
"Yes — there's something for both sides to gain. Now imagine Y&P receiving full-scale investment from Rosemore in this kind of situation."
Massive capital investment sufficient to establish hundreds of CCC Franchise branches and Bottling factories nationwide right away.
Priority rights of use over the logistics infrastructure to back it all up.
Blanket access to the counsel of the capable lawyers and administrators belonging to the Rosemore family.
A political and administrative umbrella under the banner of the family name.
It wasn't quite on the level of an Internal Business, but it would amount to a solid red carpet being laid out toward success.
One question arose, however.
"Hmm, there's something I'm curious about...... who decides this 'recognition'?"
"Simple. You receive a silver ring."
"A silver ring?"
"This gets complicated if I explain it in detail too...... Rosemore determines hierarchy through family heirlooms, you see. For example, when a family member comes of age, they receive a silver-crafted piece engraved with a rose motif. You can see this, can't you?"
Penelope pointed to her own earlobe as she spoke.
It was the earring adorned with a rose decoration that she always wore.
"This one, honestly, everyone and their dog receives, so it doesn't carry much meaning. But once you earn the family's recognition, they give you a ring. At first, a silver ring engraved with the family crest; rise higher, and it becomes a gold ring; and at the very end, the heir's signet ring."
Penelope said this while sheepishly tucking away her long, slender fingers.
Come to think of it, he couldn't recall ever seeing her wear a ring.
To summarise:
In order to receive support for an External Business, a silver ring was required — and that was the family's formal 'recognition.'
'Feels rather like a pyramid scheme.'
Well — that was simply how thoroughly it operated on meritocracy.
"There is, however, one thing that gives me pause. If Rosemore were to try and absorb Y&P Trading Company into its Internal Business......"
Penelope shook her head firmly.
"Don't worry. Y&P will remain an External Business to the end. All I need to do is pass on the earnings from my stake to the family trust. Everyone does it that way."
As their conversation was drawing to a close.
"I shall escort you to the annex."
The butler had returned.
"I'll show him the way."
"Young lady, we will——"
"It's fine."
The butler hesitated, bowed his head, and stepped back.
"Wouldn't it be better to rest?"
"There's nothing to do anyway, is there? I'll give you a tour of the house. It's not a place one gets to come to very often, is it?"
It was Penelope as usual, but Jurgen dimly sensed that she didn't want to be left alone.
The fact that she didn't say so plainly was......
Simply a habit of someone who had spent half a lifetime concealing her vulnerabilities.
"Then I'll take you up on that."
Jurgen and Penelope walked along the corridor leading to the West Wing annex.
Penelope pointed things out as they came into view, explaining them like a curator.
"That statue is Alexis Rosemore, the founder of our family. He wasn't quite on the level of Sir Hanbin, but he was an 11th Rank Alchemist, apparently."
"See that corner of the window frame over there? The material is slightly different, isn't it? My sister and I broke it while playing ball when we were children."
"And over there in the North Wing, the family holds a gathering twice a year. Family members running the Internal Businesses come together to discuss key matters."
Tromp, tromp.
Just then, a figure appeared from the far end of the corridor.
An old man with silver-white hair swept back behind him.
But the solid build that showed even through his suit and the blazing intensity of his eyes made clear he was no ordinary figure.
Judging by his even, powerful stride, he was military.
In that instant.
Jurgen felt Penelope draw in a sharp breath and pull her shoulders inward.
"Great-Uncle Hector, it has been some time."
"Penelope — what brings you to the main house?"
"I received an invitation from my sister and have come to attend a dinner."
"Clarisse did?"
"Yes."
A gaze full of displeasure.
And then — addressing Penelope, a direct line of the main house, with 'What brings you to the main house?'
He might have been a fine soldier, but he was far from a fine great-uncle.
This time the knife-edged gaze turned toward Jurgen.
Hector, who had been scrutinising Jurgen intently as though examining a sword, brightened up.
"So you've finally found a way to shed that nuisance status of yours. Have you brought yourself a groom?"
"Wh, what?!"
Penelope, who had shrunk in on herself, snapped her head up and her voice cracked.
Paying it no mind whatsoever, Hector asked:
"Well-trained physique. Where are you from?"
"I come from a merchant background. As co-representative of Y&P Trading Company, I have been building the business together with Lady Penelope."
"Your family?"
"Th, that——"
"I was not speaking to you. Penelope."
Penelope, who had been trying to interject, closed her mouth again at the sharp rebuke.
"I have no particular family to speak of."
At Jurgen's declaration of commoner status, the whites of Hector's eyes filled with contempt and disappointment.
"I thought you might have grown up a little — yet it seems you're still off making a fool of yourself."
"Gr, Great-Uncle. I have risen to the 5th Rank as well, this time around. I am now a proper member of the family who——"
"Silence!"
The great shout cut off Penelope's protest.
It was a lion's roar powerful enough to make the glass windows along the corridor tremble.
"It is the level any Rosemore of the direct line ought to have achieved as a matter of course. Your sister reached that ground at the age of ten — and now you have only just managed it, and you think you have something to boast about?!"
"......"
"Not only are you entangled with a commoner, you bring him to the main house! Are you intent on disgracing the family register to vent your spite? I shall have you put in a convent before I witness that spectacle. And you——!"
Hector, veins standing out in his neck, turned his head and fixed his glare on Jurgen.
"If you are harbouring some foolish delusion, you would do well to fold it away neatly and let it remain a dream. You are a guest of the family for now, so I will let it pass at this."
Hector bore his killing glare into Jurgen a moment longer, then swept away down the far end of the corridor.
It was the first time Jurgen had ever seen that bold, indomitable Penelope so utterly unable to move a muscle.
The expression stained with humiliation and shame, as though stripped bare, was a first too.
But in no more than a few seconds.
Penelope scoffed.
"Penelope......"
"What an ugly sight to have shown you. Honestly — what an old fossil."
"......"
"I'm fine. I'm used to it, besides. You got yelled at for no reason because of me."
She did not cry.
She laughed, pretending nothing was wrong.
Only — it was a smile so thoroughly bruised, like an apple battered all over, that it was difficult to even offer sympathy carelessly.
"My great-uncle is ex-military and stubbornly set in his ways from the start. He's an old man who can't even understand why Rosemore came to be the Rosemore it is today."
"......"
"Once I run the External Business and produce results, his attitude will change too. Well."
The two arrived at the annex without a word between them.
"Then — rest up. See you again this evening."
"I don't mind staying here as well."
"Mm."
Penelope shook her head.
"I want to rest too."
Jurgen let out a heavy, troubled sigh as he watched Penelope leave as though fleeing.