I’m Quitting Everything and Selling Cola

Chapter 133

Chapter 133. Turning Point (2)

His room was always even more immaculate than Penelope's. The faint lingering scent of ink, the neatly arranged books—spotless, without a single speck of dust.

"Good day, Hanbin Ainsworth."

Penelope bowed her head. Jurgen and Penelope were partners, but Hanbin was a personage so great that Penelope could barely bring herself to look up at him.

"First, my sincere thanks for saving my life twice over. Ah, if we include the undertaker incident, it may in fact be three times."

"Why are you being so stiff?"

Jurgen waved a hand, looking awkward.

That sight was identical to the Jurgen Penelope knew well.

Yet when she had come to learn that Jurgen was Hanbin— The very first thought that had come to Penelope was this: That he had approached her with political motives in mind.

On this point, Serena—who knew the full details—had spoken in Hanbin's defence.

'I did ask him about it before……. He didn't seem to have any particularly ill intentions.'

'If anything, he said he kept his identity hidden so that Penelope wouldn't get caught up in needless political strife.'

'I, I, I swear it's absolutely not because I was promised a good position or anything like that.'

Serena was no fool, and her perception was surprisingly—staggeringly—sharp……

But Penelope was more cautious than Serena. Put uncharitably: yes, she had a suspicious nature.

Because the world had always, without fail, done nothing but betray Penelope.

A noble must wear a mask that shifts and changes to suit every circumstance. One must know how to calculate profit and loss with cool precision, and things like human emotion are nothing more than weakness.

That is the quality and calibre of a noble.

One who stands at the very apex of that—someone at the level of the Minister of Internal Affairs—might already be a being beyond Penelope's comprehension.

Perhaps all the time and bonds they had built together until now were a fabrication. Perhaps even that wry smile he was wearing was a performance.

"May I ask you just one thing?"

"Of course. If there's something you're curious about, ask me without reservation."

"What you said to Serena—is all of it true?"

Jurgen was silent for a moment, then nodded.

"I'm sorry for not telling you sooner."

"Truly……! That's exactly why you should have said something sooner……"

Penelope almost let a grumble slip out before clapping a hand over her own mouth in haste. She understood it in her head, but the figure in front of her looked like Jurgen—which made it awfully hard to calibrate the proper distance.

"I intended to tell you when the time was right. But if I told you carelessly and you got swept up in some undeserved trouble, what then?"

"Really?"

"If you press me that persistently it's rather frightening, I must say……. Of course, I acknowledge that I failed to earn your trust, but haven't we been on good terms up until now?"

A small impulse rose within her.

She wanted to simply trust him. In truth, she wanted to believe that his detached manner and breezy way of speaking, that slightly sheepish smile—all of it was genuine. She wanted to go back to their everyday lives.

……As if it could be that easy.

Penelope thought of Jurgen in a way that was truly, profoundly special——to a degree he could never have imagined.

And that was precisely why……

She had the audacity to think herself deceived.

Her feelings had spiralled all the way to a paranoid delusion: that he, the partner she had thought shared her innermost feelings, might have been secretly laughing at her—watching Penelope in all her arrogance—all along.

'Hmm, isn't that going a little far……? Sssss……'

Serena had been right.

'Well, I mean, concealing your profession and getting married would be grounds for annulment.'

……That one was nonsense, so she'd ignore it.

'Even so……. I don't think Jurgen, Hanbin, is that sort of person. I really don't.'

At any rate, Serena's words were on point.

"I know it sounds ungrateful. Giving enormous success to a young lady good for absolutely nothing, saving her life, and now in return asking whether there was some hidden motive behind it all."

"That……"

"I know I look dreadful for it……. But, I'm so terribly confused……. And honestly I'm mortified to death at having been fooled all this time……. But then when I think about Jurgen—the one I knew—disappearing, I get frightened all over again……"

Penelope's voice trailed inward. The pale veins on the back of the hand gripping her skirt hem stood out in sharp relief.

Her nose had just begun to sting— And before she knew it, beads of water were dropping, one by one, onto the back of her hand.

"You……are you crying again?"

What Penelope felt upon hearing those words was— Of all things, the kind of deep, blazing irritation that made a vein throb at her temple.

"Because of who—!"

Penelope jerked her head up, and found herself looking straight at Jurgen, who appeared thoroughly flustered.

At a complete loss for what to do. An expression not of Hanbin, but of Jurgen.

"……It's your fault……"

Even as she said it, she caught herself. He wasn't someone she could speak so freely with anymore.

"You could have just told me. Instead you kept it hidden and made a person feel strange……. Honestly, you were laughing at me, weren't you? Pretending to know everything when I knew nothing, putting on airs when you had absolutely no ability to speak of."

And yet.

"It's such a terrible hobby! You could have at least dropped a hint! Are you trying to make me look like a fool? I showed you everything—you saw me crying my eyes out, you even saw me in my swimsuit!"

Once the floodgates opened, her mouth refused to close.

She just wanted Penelope to throw a senseless tantrum, and Jurgen to scramble around apologising—and for the fact that Jurgen was actually Hanbin to disappear as though it had never happened at all.

And so Penelope arrived at the most absurdly ill-advised resolution imaginable.

"……I'll take you at your word. Whatever scheme you have, whatever you're planning to use me for. Just give me enough reason to accept it, even a little……"

Then…… Even if it turned out to be a flimsy excuse, a lie, a paper-thin falsehood—

"I'll believe you."

If she could stay by his side, none of the rest mattered much. Red eyes demanding truth turned toward Jurgen.

At this point, Jurgen was somewhat caught off guard.

He had anticipated that Penelope would feel a degree of betrayal. And like Serena, he had thought she might harbour some misunderstanding.

But the reaction he had pictured in his head when his identity was found out was……

Penelope shrieking, 'Aaaaaaaahh! You should have said so sooner!' and then, unable to bear the shame and embarrassment, smashing straight through a window and bolting out.

He simply hadn't anticipated a genuinely serious atmosphere like this.

And so, looking at Penelope with her eyes brimming with tears, the feeling of remorse weighed on him all the more. Because it made him feel, all the more acutely, just how much she treasured her bond with Jurgen.

"Penelope. First of all……. I'm sorry."

She tried to act unaffected, but her shoulders went rigid with a start. The tremor within her bled through, plain to see, over those slender shoulders. Penelope's eyes trembled finely with the shock of it.

"I thought too simply about how you would react. It was never my intention to hurt you. I mean that sincerely."

Jurgen chose his words with care.

"The fact that I am Hanbin Ainsworth is true. But the one who built Y&P Trading Company with you, who made Cola, who fried Chicken—that was Jurgen. And Jurgen's goal has always been the Culinary Revolution."

"Hiding my identity was not in order to use you. As you're likely already aware, my enemies are not few, are they?"

"The moment my name became known to the outside world, I worried you would be caught up in it too. I had no intention of deceiving you. On all my honour, this is the truth."

Jurgen rummaged about in his breast pocket and produced something.

"I rather think this is the right moment to use it……"

Jurgen, somewhat awkwardly extending toward her the One-time Wish Voucher that Penelope had given him just the day before.

"Will you trust me?"

Paradoxically, that sight gave Penelope certainty. That the person before her right now was none other than Jurgen—no one else.

Penelope found herself smiling without meaning to.

"Put that away. I gave it to you for when you really need it."

The atmosphere eased. Jurgen's expression softened too.

"Do you……still admire Hanbin?"

"Not anymore. That person has a truly awful personality."

***

Several days passed.

Nortaris was thrown into an uproar.

The End Order's attack on the charity event was an incident that announced to the entire world that the Order—which had been buzzing about like flies—had once again begun operating in the shadows. Of course, given that the End Order's danger was incomparable to any mere fly, the Northern nobles were placed in a state of extreme emergency.

"They say security work is quite the honey pot these days."

"It's not often you get a chance to earn money while lounging around at a noble's manor. Maybe I should take a break from the Demon Realm and head that way?"

"Oh please, do you think they take in just any riffraff?"

Those with some means hired adventurers and posted guards, the Church dispatched a steady stream of high-ranking clergy, and word even spread that an investigator from the royal family would soon be sent.

For the core members gathered cosily at Y&P Trading Company, it was all happening in another world entirely. They sent a donation to the Northern Noble Alliance's End Order counter-fund, and that was that.

If there was one thing to grumble about……

"Hmm, it's a bit of a shame that the impact of the Braised Ribs got muddied."

"That's true."

"It'll be fine! Delicious things always come back to mind quickly! Once everything settles down, people will be asking after the Braised Ribs in no time!"

The Braised Ribs they had served at the event banquet with such effort had been overshadowed—that was a little regrettable.

"Ah, here you all are. I've brought back something extraordinary from the Demon Realm today!"

Just then, Jurgen walked in wearing a broad grin. In his hands was a basket heaped full of earth-caked mushrooms.

"Mushrooms? Is that really something to be that pleased about?"

"Not ordinary mushrooms. These are Pine, Pine mushrooms. So they grow here too, it seems."

As Penelope went trotting over, Serena—ever quick on the uptake—tugged Brigitte toward her and hugged her snugly.

"Sister Serena?"

"Hush now. Penelope has found out about Jurgen's true identity. I need to observe how things are between the two of them."

"Please don't……stir things up……"

Fully in spectator mode. And that was understandable—on the day Penelope and Hanbin had their candid conversation, Serena had regrettably been unable to be a part of it.

She was desperately curious as to how things had been resolved.

"How are you supposed to eat these? And first of all, are they safe to eat? Isolde said you shouldn't go around picking just any mushroom."

"That's certainly the rule. But once you eat these, you'll find yourself digging up the ground every time you see a pine tree."

"That good?"

"Wait and see—I'll go give them a proper clean."

"I'll help."

"I'd be grateful for that."

What Serena was carefully watching was the distance between the two of them.

"They're completely the same as usual."

"Hmm……"

It seemed they had decided to simply carry on as though things were the same as before. As Jurgen—the commoner representative of Y&P Trading Company—and Penelope, not as Hanbin.

In fact, Penelope would look at Jurgen now and then and smile to herself, and their fingertips would brush ever so lightly from time to time. To Serena's eye, it was absolutely deliberate.

If anything, they seemed far closer than before! Jurgen, too, treated Penelope with the same warmth as he always had.

Well. Was Hanbin bound by any family obligations, or did he have anyone whose opinion he needed to worry about?

He was a superhuman who had carved out everything on his own strength alone. Was there anyone who could object if he said he intended to take the second daughter of Rosemore as his bride?

From the very start, social standing had never been a constraint that governed his conduct.

And now that the 'shackles of status' that had once held Penelope back were gone—it was as if an eight-lane highway had been laid wide open all the way to the wedding hall for the two of them.

"Haaa……"

Serena gazed at Penelope and let out a sigh full of envy. When a friend found good love, one ought to celebrate it wholeheartedly……

But surely there had been an opportunity for upward marriage for Serena too…… no, wait. This was beyond mere upward marriage. This was a transcendent-class upward marriage opportunity.

"Ah, I should have worked a little harder at it in the beginning. A true life reversal was actually within reach……"

"Sister really is such a good person, but at times like this you're honestly a bit—"

Brigitte looked at Serena with an expression of mild distaste.