Ines had already asked her father for a favor when she escaped from Landhill.
It was about establishing Mondrei Bank in the empire.
Recently, she learned that a four-story building in the largest central market in the capital had been purchased under the name of the Swenden family. Her father could not resist the request of his daughter, who had fled to the capital against his will.
Charlotte immediately nodded, but Kacey’s face showed skepticism.
“Ines, what’s the relationship between you and Mondrei Bank? Can I ask what this is for?”
Kacey’s question was natural. The connection with Charlotte had been built over a long time, but it wasn’t the case with Kacey.
Most people in the future would react like Kacey, so she was one of the many individuals Ines needed to persuade.
“It’s difficult to give a detailed explanation right now. Mondrei Bank will soon be established in the empire. I can only tell you this much for now, but I can tell you one thing. All of this is for the empire.”
“For the empire…?”
The current state of the empire’s economy was on the verge of collapse. Moreover, due to Ines’s intervention, the timing of everything happening within the empire was gradually advancing.
So, a big change was about to come to the country soon. Whether it would be a headwind or a tailwind depended on how well they prepared.
“Absolutely. And the foundation…”
“Foundation?”
Ines closed her eyes for a moment, lost in thought. Unless the world turned upside down, a proper foundation could not be established without Carson. Kacey waited for Ines’s answer in silence.
“Um, Lady Ines?”
At that moment, Charlotte called Ines quietly.
“Yes?”
Ines opened her eyes and soon displayed an affectionate smile.
“Are you saying that it would be for the empire if I go to the market and buy fruits with the banknote?”
Ines nodded with her ever-smiling face.
“If it doesn’t circulate properly, it’s better to make it usable in as many places as possible, right?”
“Right.”
“I’ll do my best to help. Anyway, I don’t have much to do right now.”
Ines nodded with a smile but noticed that Kacey’s face, unlike Charlotte’s bright expression, couldn’t be entirely cheerful.
“Ines.”
“Speak.”
“I don’t know how much of an impact my words will have right now.”
Kacey took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly.
“Or… are you trying to become the owner of the palace where I stay?”
Kacey had become a palace maid a long time ago. Moreover, she became a close maid to the Crown Princess at a relatively young age.
There had been a time when Ines heard that her younger sibling studying mathematics at the academy was older than her.
Given the speculation, Kacey’s age is likely more than 5 years older than Ines. So, predicting how the experienced woman would handle the situation in the palace, even if she didn’t know about other places, was not a difficult task.
“Yes.”
Ines answered without hesitation. A tense silence filled the reception room for a moment. Charlotte’s mouth opened wide as she belatedly understood.
“So, Charlotte, and Kacey.”
Unlike the two women whose eyes shook like boiling water, Ines showed no sign of fear in her eyes.
“Will you get on my ship?”
“…”
“Sometimes, there will be giant storms. You might hit unforeseen reefs. Some days, the sun may be too hot, making your throat parched.”
Ines felt camaraderie similar to that of Charlotte and Kacey.
No, perhaps it was even more profound trust. The term “camaraderie” was too light for those who had endured hell together.
The three of them spent a very long time together in Romfield.
In the time they couldn’t remember, Ines confirmed and reconfirmed the resilience of Charlotte and Kacey.
In the life in Romfield, where everyone went crazy or avoided death, the two women endured, preserving their humanity as much as possible.
“But when we arrive at our destination, everyone will gain things they have never tasted before.”
If there hadn’t been confidence in the two women, Ines wouldn’t have brought up the story about Mondrei.
“Okay.”
The response came first from Kacey.
“If I hadn’t met you, my family would have collapsed, and I heard I would have gone to Romfield.”
Charlotte’s eyes widened more than before at her words. The words of the woman who had experienced the same thing as her struck Charlotte’s heart directly.
“But you sent me to the Empress’s Palace instead of Romfield. What else can I call it if it’s not fate?”
Charlotte nodded her head unconsciously. To Charlotte, too, Ines was a person like destiny. Ines exchanged glances with the two women alternately.
“Thank you, Kacey. Thank you, Charlotte.”
Kacey extended her hand as she did in Romfield. At that time, Kacey’s fingers were trapped in frost, and only eight remained.
Even with such a hand, she grasped Ines and Charlotte’s hands. She touched Ines’s back of the hand with her rough palm, saying they shouldn’t lose their fingers.
But warmth overflowed from the complete hand they held now.
It was Ines’s first step toward the Emperor.
Male lead is a Divorced Husband
She said to him: “Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change it!”
Liu Changning transmigrated into a female cannon fodder character in a female-dominant novel.
After reading the first half of the novel’s plot, the first thing she did upon transmigration was to divorce the Pan Jinlian-style male protagonist she had just married.
She indulged herself, pretending to be ugly and poor.
But as time passed, the way that man looked at her became more and more unusual…
Liu Changning was dumbfounded: Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change!
――
This lifetime, Pei Yuanshao was rejected by the same woman twice!
The first time, she drove him away. Forced by the situation, he endured the waves of anger in his heart, yielding and humbling himself.
That person lay slanted on a rocking chair, her sallow face emotionless: “If you don’t want a divorce, go cook!”
Pei Yuanshao’s face was dark and gloomy: “You!”
The second time, after the crisis in Jinling City was resolved, the new emperor sent someone to pick him up. He turned around, stammering: “I… I have to go. If you keep me…”
That person lay on the kang bed, her back to him, as if she had long anticipated this day, crisp and clear: “Goodbye!”
Pei Yuanshao was so angry his fingers trembled: “You… you!”
The mission of family and country made him restrain himself, averting his eyes and turning to leave this broken household.
Two years later, they met again. Seeing her ethereal face, his body shook like a sieve.
“She was originally a ‘she’!”
At the Qionglin Banquet, the top scholar of the imperial examination, a talented person with exceptional speech and conduct, all the unmarried young gentlemen from aristocratic families looked at her with shy and timid eyes.
The peerless imperial official Pei Yuanshao felt the anger in his heart erupt. He pointed at the woman surrounded by the crowd at the Qionglin Banquet, his thin lips slightly curled: “Little sister, I wants that person to be the wife-master of my Mingde Prince Manor.”
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