Chapter 56 (2/2)

“Diana-sama… is it okay?”

“It’s fine. Goshujinsama is an oaf.”

“Why am I suddenly being dissed?!”

“…After what happened, I was secretly watching goshujinsama and Hetty talk. Then I asked Hetty what she had been talking to you about.”

Diana was saying some scary things without hesitation. The fact that Hetty-san had asked if it was okay meant she had been forbidden to speak about it before.

“So something like that happened… Then that was when the two of you met for the first time?”

“That’s right. I talked to Diana for a while—and had a change of heart.”

Hetty-san bowed her head. However, I still didn’t really get it.

“You wanted to interfere, erm… you wanted to interfere with Diana’s guidance, correct? Does that mean Hetty-san knows what Diana’s guidance is? Huh? Wait, am I the only one who’s clueless about it?”

The ones who had told me that the contents of guidance should be kept secret were only Jephthah and Diana, after all. There was a possibility that this information was actually not really a secret.

“I know it. But only after I’ve met Diana and spoken to her.”

“Eh?! T-That can’t be right. Guidance are absolute secrets, I haven’t told Hetty or anyone else!”

Diana became agitated at this revelation. From the state of her panic, it seemed that it really was a secret. I wonder what critical information she had let slipped, for it to be seen through so easily.

More like, if Hetty-san knew what it was, I wished she would let me in on it as well, secretly.

“It… might be an exaggeration to say that I knew it. It’s more like, I ‘have an idea’ of what it could be, to be precise… Though my intuition about things like this has never been wrong before.”

Hetty-san said it, nonchalantly.

Diana kept denying it for a while, but backed down after Hetty-san said, “Well, it’s just my own speculation.”

“So, at first, you didn’t know the details about her guidance, but came to Erishe to interfere with it anyway, then after you’ve found out what the guidance is about, you reconsidered and decided to cooperate with us… Is that how it is?”

When I summarised everything, Hetty-san affirmed that the general idea was correct. Which means that, in the end, it was all because of Diana.

“Though, thinking of the possibility that Hetty-san could have become our enemy sure gives me the chills.”

“It might have been pus.h.i.+ng it to say that I would have become your enemy. I was only thinking of eliminating every possible factor that could have contributed to the success of Diana’s guidance.”

Scary… Hetty-san is scary…I must have been really close to being eliminated. Well, even I had considered the failure from that night awful beyond belief, so that result was probably for the best. All’s well that ends well.

“But the fact you changed your mind makes me even more curious about Diana’s guidance. Well, since Diana seems to want to keep it a secret, you don’t have to say anything.”

“That’s true. I didn’t know Hetty was a daughter of the Solo family, but I’ve heard so much about how she hated her father. Something really must have touched a nerve in Hetty, I guess? For a girl who hated her father enough to create a mercenary group to have a change of heart.”

It seemed like Rebecca-san was curious about that part too.

So that was the reason why Hetty-san created the mercenary group… What a woman of action…

“It wasn’t that I had a change of heart, Becky. It’s just that I decided to cooperate with Diana-sama and Jirou-sama. …Because the two of them were just so cute.”

Cu…te… you say… Was that because I was a virgin…?

Come to think of it, I was teased when we first at the guild too.

After saying that, Hetty-san turned back to Jephthah and made a declaration.

“—So, that Mildas guy, was it? There’s no need to bring that macho guy here anymore. I’ll support these two myself.”

Ooh, how dependable. So a macho guy was meant to come, huh. That was also a relief, in a way. If a bulky, macho man were the one to have appeared before me, I wouldn’t have been able to speak out as much, and it might be possible that I wouldn’t have been able to get the mansion renovated yet till now.

Upon hearing Hetty-san’s declaration, Jephthah held his head in his hands and sighed, before responding in an exasperated manner.

“But Neesan. You said you didn’t use the family’s money, so how did you make it until now? I believe Jirou-san’s mansion required repairs.”

“I could pay for that much with what I had on hand. Don’t look down on me.”

“You couldn’t have had more than 10 or 20 thousand on hand though… What are you doing, Neesan…”

“It’s fine. I’m doing it because I want to. I’m awful at managing my money anyway.”

“I’m more than familiar with Neesan’s sloppy budget management. …Well, that’s fine then, I’ll just repay you for all you’ve spent until now.”

“I don’t need you to.”

I was shocked by the conversation before me.

Even though I was being so selfish with my demands, she was paying them out of her own pocket…

“U-Umm… Hetty-san. I was very selfish in my requests, and had you buy three horses for me, on top of all the mansion repairs… umm…”

“Jirou-sama, you don’t have to feel sorry about it. This was something I wanted to do. You could call it a hobby, in a way.”

“Hobby…”

“That’s right. The hobby of a rich daughter. Besides, in the end, there’s no difference to it since those are still money from the Solo family.”

I felt like she was twisting her words to make me believe her, but was it really alright? If the person herself says it’s okay, then is it fine?

The president of my old black company had once said that those below should gracefully accept when those above offer to treat them to something. Well, I guess it was fine to pay her back slowly. If business continued to go well, it’d work out in the end. It also made me feel better to think of it as having a debt to Hetty-san herself, rather than the Solo family.

All’s well that ends well! …I’ve been saying that a lot recently. Was I dancing in the palm of Hetty-san’s hand?

“Henrietta-neesan.”

“What is it~? Taa-kun.”

“Stop calling me Taa-kun… Neesan, you said you’d continue to support Diana-san’s guidance from now on, but—the situation has changed.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Mildas was meant to be brought here as a support personnel, but things happened… and Uncle Dida is replacing him.”

“Geh! Really? How did it end up like that? Does that mean that person will support the guidance? The commander-in-chief of the Balbacro Trading Company himself?”

“That is, he said to leave it to him and then forced his way… He should have arrived at Erishe before me, so we were meant to meet here today.”

I had a bad feeling. Although… the world was narrow yet wide, so no matter what, it would be too much of a coincidence…

At that moment, the guild doors opened and a familiar man entered, followed by his numerous groupies.

“Ah, just on time. Wha- Neesan, where are you going?!”

“I’m running away! Jirou-sama, I’ll take my leave for today. I will visit the mansion again.”

As soon as she caught sight of the man, Hetty-san threw some parting words and escaped through the back door as if a switch was flipped.

“Hmm, I knew Henrietta-neesan hated father, but I guess she did say she was ‘instinctively incompatible’ with Uncle Dida in the past, too…”

Jephthah said while watching Hetty’s retreating figure. Meanwhile, my attention was drawn by the chubby young merchant who was making his way towards us with a huge grin plastered on his face.

The strong musky smell. It was the third time I’d smelt it…

“Oh my, oh my, oh my, this is a surprise. If it isn’t the cloth merchant with a penchant for the Turk tribe. Does it mean, as I think it does, that you’re together with that boy?”

“…Regretfully, yes.”

The chubby man swayed on his feet as he spoke, the grin never faltering in the slightest. He may have used an expression of surprise verbally, but there was no way he was surprised. That smug face!

Things that happen twice can happen three times. That was what the encounters with Chubby were like.

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