DTBTHS Chapter 30

She smiled slyly with curved eyes.

"I've already heard everything from Father."

"Yes. Should I show you the Elixir first?"

"Before that—should I speak as your aunt, or as the Garcia Trading Company owner?"

"What's the difference?"

"The difference between kind lies and friendly lies?"

"...Isn't there an option without lies?"

"When a merchant says they won't lie at all, it means they're about to rip you off from now on. Is that what you want?"

"No..."

"Then you'll have to distinguish the lies yourself. Though I'm being considerate enough to offer you the choice since you're my niece. So, which will it be? Aunt? Company owner?"

"...I don't really understand the difference between kind lies and friendly lies. Could you explain?"

"I can tell you specifically, but hmm, doesn't it occur to you that while explaining, I might guide you toward what's more advantageous for me?"

Rebecca smiled brightly. Ariadne was at a loss for words.

She'd had some preparation, but after just a few exchanges it all flew out of her head.

'Honestly, I'm not confident about this sort of thing.'

She didn't have the confidence to properly negotiate with someone who ran a continent-wide trading company.

'I asked to speak alone because I wanted to quietly request something in exchange for distributing the Elixir, but should I have just left it to Uncle and Aunt?'

As she worried, she suddenly felt something odd.

'Wait, I'm eight years old. Did Rebecca Garcia really come here to seriously negotiate with me?'

She herself sometimes forgot her own age.

But the other party sitting across from her, looking at a young child's face, could never do so.

'Besides, the request I made was clearly to find a trustworthy person who would manage the Elixir distribution according to my plan.'

It had been a request made with Rebecca Garcia in mind from the start.

In the original work, only the words "Erich Weaver's aunt" appeared. There was no way to know what kind of person she was.

Nevertheless, Ariadne had thought it would be fine if she was Uncle's younger sister, Mother's older sister, and Grandfather's daughter. That she could trust her to some degree.

In reality, the Archmage had immediately introduced Rebecca.

'Grandfather introduced her with trust. She's also Mother's blood relative. Wasn't she someone I could trust from the beginning?'

Only after thinking that far did Ariadne finally realize.

'...Am I making this difficult again by being suspicious first?'

She raised her head, which she'd been seriously lowering, and looked at Rebecca across from her.

Rebecca was resting her chin on the table, observing her with a pleased expression and interested eyes.

The smile on her red lips was peculiarly mischievous.

Ariadne lacked trust, but she wasn't oblivious.

Besides, Rebecca didn't seem to have much intention of hiding her intent. It was blatantly obvious.

Ariadne furrowed her brows and asked.

"Aunt Rebecca, you're teasing me right now, aren't you?"

Rebecca's lips twitched. She hastily covered her mouth with her hand.

"N-no? Would I tease my counterpart at a meeting for such a tremendous business deal as a company owner? If you let your guard down like that, I might clean you out completely, dear niece."

She spoke brazenly while covering her mouth, and her eyes were curved as much as possible.

She was teasing. She was definitely teasing. That was absolutely the face of an adult delighted to be playing with a child!

'Right, thinking about it, there's no way she'd con me in this situation.'

She'd been unnecessarily suspicious. The strength drained from her.

The child became sulky without realizing it.

"You are teasing me. I'm not stupid, Aunt."

"Puhaha!"

Rebecca finally burst out laughing. Watching her laugh while sprawled over the table, banging it repeatedly, Ariadne sighed.

'She's unexpectedly easygoing though.'

"...Are you done laughing?"

"Yes, yes, my dear niece. I was a bit worried you might be an inhumanly brilliant genius, but you're unexpectedly cute."

Rebecca dabbed at the tears from laughing with her fingertips and asked.

"I like you, niece, but what do you think of me?"

What did she think? Honestly, a bit annoying. She also felt embarrassed for having acted so serious by herself.

Ariadne pressed her lips together tightly with a slightly reddened face. Then Rebecca leaned toward her and poured out words like rapid fire.

"I actually came to interview with you, niece. Did I pass the interview? Do you like me? Can you trust me?"

"...You said you're a liar, Aunt. I can't trust you."

"No, actually being a liar was a lie. Your aunt is a very, very truthful person. Especially toward cute and clever children like you, I only speak the truth. See these sincere eyes?"

"I was told that anyone who asks you to trust them by looking at their own eyes is definitely a con artist."

Rebecca's expression, which had been all smiles, became subtle.

She looked at Ariadne with blurred vision for a moment, then asked in a soft voice.

"Who told you that?"

"M-Mother told me."

"I thought so. I knew it."

"When we were young, whenever I played tricks and asked her to trust me by looking at my eyes, your mother would always argue back like that."

Rebecca smiled. Unlike a moment ago, it was a deep, warm, sad smile.

The atmosphere made it difficult to speak. Ariadne quietly kept her mouth shut.

After watching her for a while, Rebecca smiled brilliantly again and pulled out a bundle of papers.

"This is a contract. It also includes the specific distribution method I drafted after hearing your plan."

It was quite thick. When Ariadne received it, she added:

"Look through it slowly, discuss it with your uncle and aunt, and just decide before I leave. Since I'm here anyway, I plan to rest comfortably for about ten days."

"Th-thank you."

"And this is an order form. You just need to write down everything you think is necessary for mass-producing Elixir. Land, buildings, even people."

"Ah, yes."

Looking at it, she could see a complex format. With her past life's experience, she could roughly understand it, but it still didn't look easy.

As if anticipating her confusion, Rebecca pulled out more papers.

"Lastly, these are résumés."

"What? Résumés?"

"Do you know what a résumé is?"

"I know, but..."

"You're starting a business now. An enormously huge business at that. At this scale, even an adult would need a secretary, and you as a child need one even more."

"Then these are..."

"I've selected trustworthy and capable people who can attend trade meetings and conferences in your place, handle miscellaneous tasks, and help manage the business. Take a look and see if there's anyone you like."

This was help she hadn't even thought of. Looking through the résumés, even at a glance they were remarkably meticulous and detailed.

Rebecca winked.

"If you need anything else besides these, just say so."

"Ah—"

Ariadne, who had been dazed by the sudden pile of documents, came to her senses at those words.

She set down the bundle of résumés.

"Aunt, there's something I really want to ask you for."

"What kind of thing?"

"Garcia Trading Company has branches all across the continent, right?"

"Of course. Our company has branches even in the middle of deserts. And it's all your aunt's. Your aunt, you see, can do just about anything."

Rebecca answered playfully. Ariadne smiled a little, then took a deep breath and made her request.

"I'd like you to find someone for me."

"Hm? What kind of person?"

"Someone I want to sponsor."

"...Sponsor?"

Rebecca's head tilted in puzzlement.

Axel Valentine was terribly hungry.

The lawless city was located upstream of a narrow river.

The river water was extremely filthy, but if he boiled and cooled it, he could somehow quench his thirst.

However, he couldn't obtain food on his own.

The area near the lawless city was an unpurified contaminated region, so it was difficult to obtain food through hunting.

That said, he didn't want to beg. Petty theft was an act that dishonored what his father had taught him.

'I need to earn money.'

The possessions the boy had were all things he couldn't sell.

His father's keepsake sword, the spirit lamp his father had given him as a gift that had saved his life. Besides those, only rags that barely qualified as clothes.

In the end, all he could sell was his own labor.

The problem was that no one would pay for his labor.

Positions as errand boys or servants were hard to find. Such work was given to children with definite parents, not orphans.

Even when there were occasionally kind-hearted people who gave work to orphans, they gave it to other children rather than the boy with eerie red eyes.

What remained was the path of earning money as a mercenary.

He had some confidence in using a sword and dealing with weak monsters. He wasn't afraid of blighted regions either.

He had originally lived with his adoptive father alone in the small patches of decent land between contaminated regions.

He'd learned directly from his father's side since childhood how to fight monsters.

After his father died to a monster, he'd had no choice but to wander alone between blighted regions.

Nearly a year of such desperate struggle for survival.

By age twelve, the boy was already accustomed to fighting monsters.

But no one believed it.

There were plenty of people paying for mercenaries.

However, there was no one anywhere willing to hire as a mercenary a twelve-year-old clutching only a single worn-out sword.

He couldn't even enter the mercenary guild entrance before being chased out. They said, how dare some beggar brat crawl in here.