The strength left her body that had been barely holding on. The tray fell to the floor and the drinks and glasses shattered miserably.

Stella collapsed right onto the fragments.

“Tsk.”

The person who bumped into her didn’t even apologize.

Instead, as if something dirty had gotten on them, they brushed off their shoulder and passed by the fallen Stella.

It hurts.

Her palm and leg, pierced by crystal fragments, hurt enough to bring tears to her eyes.

But more than that, her heart hurt, hurt so much.

“Are you alright?”

Unfortunately, Stella’s misfortune didn’t end there. She couldn’t even lift her head, but she heard a gentle voice from above.

“You seem to be injured.”

Kalian, who had come out from behind the partition wall, stood in front of Stella.

“I’m, I’m, fi, fine……”

In the midst of barely being able to breathe, there was no way words could come out properly. Stella’s voice trembled aimlessly.

Her mind was complicated.

What do I look like right now?

She had been working in the kitchen, tending fires for ten days straight. She must be covered with soot, grime, and all sorts of dirty things.

After work, she would go home to tend to her mother and Mary’s illnesses, and wake up at dawn to make soup for her family from leftover ingredients she brought from the shop.

On top of that, she had collapsed onto liquor and crystal fragments, so there was no way she looked decent.

“……Really fine.”

“What happened all of a sudden? Oh my.”

A few people who had followed Kalian out frowned when they saw Stella’s miserable state.

Stella’s head dropped even lower. Her body trembled with shame.

If she could, she wanted to bury her head completely in this messy floor.

So that no one would know she was Stella Ambrose.

Especially so that the man in front of her would only know her as just one dirty maid.

“Did you do this?”

“Not exactly.”

Kalian replied lightly while taking out his wallet from inside his coat. Several golden coins slipped from Kalian’s palm.

“I thought I’d bestow some pitiful sympathy.”

Splash, the coins that fell onto the liquid mixed with liquor and blood soon lost their shine and became a mess.

“This should be enough for both the liquor and your medical expenses.”

“Thank you!”

It was an employee who had been watching the situation from afar and came running who answered. The man who had asked Stella to deliver the liquor kept bowing.

“To give such a large sum! Laura will surely be happy too.”

“So her name is Laura.”

Although she was bowing her head, Stella could tell. Duke Rochester was looking her over right now.

“What a very fitting name.”

Thank goodness.

He didn’t recognize me.

I’m glad the duke doesn’t know it’s me.

Stella trembled at the thought that entered her mind for a moment.

What kind of relief am I feeling in this situation?

“Ha.”

The sound of footsteps grew distant. At the same time, the tears that had been pooling under Stella’s eyes also fell with a plop.

“Are you okay?”

When the customers returned to their seats, the employee who approached asked carefully while helping Stella get up.

“Go back to the kitchen quickly. I’ll clean this up. Before the manager sees.”

“……”

“If you get caught, you’ll surely be fired, hurry.”

The employee who had been pushing her back suddenly remembered something and pressed something into the hands of Stella, who had barely managed to get up.

It was the coins Duke Rochester had dropped for her like charity.

“I, I deducted one gold coin for the cost of liquor.”

Stella stared blankly at the coins pressed into her hand.

Coins covered in blood and liquor. If she could, she wanted to tell him to take all of this away.

She wanted to throw the coins down while crying.

“……Thank, you.”

But she couldn’t do that. Stella gripped the coins tightly while tears streamed down.

She wouldn’t be able to work here anymore anyway.

Although the manager hadn’t seen this state, surely someone would tell him.

That’s why these coins were even more desperately needed.

“I’m sorry for, causing trouble.”

“No. It’s okay.”

The man kept shaking his head. He seemed to think he was partly to blame for Stella ending up in this state.

“Go in quickly, quickly. Make sure to treat your wounds.”

At the hands that kept pushing her, Stella staggered and moved her steps.

She still couldn’t breathe properly.

It was as if she were submerged in water.

⁕⁕⁕

Did she leave?

Kalian clicked his tongue.

She really was an amazing woman. Who would have thought she’d chase him all the way here?

The accident just now must have been to catch his attention too.

Were they all crazy about marriage?

Whenever he came up to the capital, didn’t they struggle to catch his attention by pulling all sorts of extraordinary stunts?

Suddenly claiming they couldn’t breathe and awkwardly collapsing in the middle of conversations, sitting well and then suddenly saying they needed to take a walk and spinning around the room.

‘After trying everything, now she’s willing to collapse onto glass fragments.’

The woman’s appearance from earlier naturally came to mind.

Shabby attire, drenched in liquor, a woman who had dropped her head in pain from wounds and shame.

If he hadn’t known her dirty inner nature, it would have been an appearance that would surely have moved his heart in some way.

Tsk, displeasure washed over him. Kalian silently bit his cigar.

“Hey, Kalian.”

When he turned his head at the voice calling him, the guys who had been giggling and spouting nonsense from earlier were still rubbing their butts on the seat next to him.

“I heard something, ahem, I was wondering if you might know about it too.”

Without any sense, the heavy-bodied man’s small eyes sparkled.

“There was news that House Rochester is investing in the newly discovered route…… Is it true?”

Everyone was pretending not to while perking up their ears—this seemed to be their purpose for calling him here, even asking his mother.

“So that’s what you were curious about.”

Flicking the ash from his cigar, Kalian leaned toward the man. His lips drew an elegant curve.

“You seem interested in the new route?”

“Of course! When it comes to routes, isn’t it House Rochester?”

The man’s words were true.

The previous Duke Rochester pioneered new routes, bringing and selling goods faster and cheaper than using land routes.

From luxury items like silk and fur, tobacco leaves and pepper, to necessities like salt and wheat.

Countless goods entered this country through new routes, and money piled up crazily in the Rochester family’s accounts.

Could it grow even bigger?

What made House Rochester, which had been questionable, even wealthier was the current Duke Rochester, Kalian.

After his father, the previous Duke Rochester, died and Kalian inherited the business, he began to extend his reach not only to sea routes but also to land routes.

Thanks to the more organized roads, goods could move faster, and more and various items were released to the market.

Nobles got their hands on luxury items they had never encountered before, and commoners could buy necessary items cheaply.

Thanks to this, Duke Rochester’s popularity continued to rise faster and faster.

But where there’s light, there’s also darkness.

“With route and land route development.”

Hiccup, the heavy-bodied guy who kept drinking continued speaking.

“Other families’ businesses went under, but quickly escaping from a sinking ship is also an ability, isn’t it? The idiots who keep riding it saying it’ll prosper someday are the stupid ones! Isn’t that right, everyone?!”

“Right!”

The stupid guys raised their glasses and giggled. The smile on Kalian’s lips, watching their pathetic behavior, deepened.

“So.”

When Kalian didn’t give a definitive answer, as if heated up, the man leaned his upper body toward him. A stale smell of alcohol wafted over.

“Are you investing? If you’re putting money in, well, we’re thinking of slipping our feet in too.”

Wasn’t this a story about wanting to make money without bearing any risk?

Stupid fools.

If they wanted to make money, they should either beat the rock on their necks to think and come up with answers themselves, or boldly invest.

They were guys who had neither the brains for this nor the guts for that.

Normally, he would have ignored them and gotten up immediately because even the time and energy to answer would be a waste.

“I might, I’m thinking about it.”

Today, for some reason, he felt like indulging in a small whim.

“Re, really?”

Kalian didn’t answer that far. The whim was enough.

The eyes of the guys who interpreted his silence as they pleased began to roll.

“Ahem, I should be going……”

“Oh, I should go too. Mother is waiting for me.”

Having sufficiently rolled their thick heads, they began to leave one by one.

What a sight, running around frantically without even knowing where they were going.

“Hey, Kalian.”

When only the two of them remained, Egbert sat next to him and asked.

“What are you thinking? A few days ago you told me not to invest, didn’t you? You definitely said ships wouldn’t be able to move forward because of the currents created by small rocky islands.”

The story about the newly pioneered route was nothing but a scam.

It was all just fancy words.

It was certain they wouldn’t be able to break through the currents created by the small rocky islands in between.

They would have done reconnaissance with investors, but there’s a big difference between checking from afar on a reconnaissance ship and a huge trading vessel, isn’t there?

It was an investment that was sure to fail.

And Kalian knew that fact precisely.

“Just……”

Kalian smiled.

“A change of mood.”

⁕⁕⁕