I Just Raised Men for Revenge (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 9

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Those who praised Elzer’s beauty began extolling her even more fervently once she made a dazzling debut in the capital’s social circles. Thanks to this, the imperial court also started showing considerable interest in the Marquis’s household. Yet the Marquis never revealed who had orchestrated this move.

Instead, people assumed it must have been Elzer, the official heir of the Marquisate, and even lauded her sharp intellect.

‘What will happen this time? Can the Marquisate… truly survive?’

Recalling the past, Sesenia gave a wry smile and lay down on her bed.

**

Because she had already done this once before, Sesenia’s business preparations proceeded quite smoothly.

The money the steward had delivered was roughly the same amount Sesenia had used in the past to buy up all the Hepfria cotton.

Money Elzer would never have handed over if she’d known. But the Marquis seemed to have set aside this sum specifically for her. The fortunate part was that, whereas in the past she’d needed the Marquis’s permission for every single action, now she could act on her own decisions.

Previously, as the Marquis’s acting representative, the steward had handled everything for her, but this time it was Lizbet who took charge.

More precisely, it was Rohan—Lizbet’s older brother and the head housemaid’s eldest son.

Rohan had always been the housemaid’s sore spot.

Thus, Sesenia hired him directly.

‘The housemaid had already lost two of her children around the same time in the past.’

Rohan, whom Sesenia had met a few times as a child while accompanying the housemaid, had been incredibly mischievous and full of pranks. But after the age of ten, he never came to the Marquisate again. Sesenia only learned the reason for this after she became Empress.

Lizbet had hardly ever spoken of her brother back then, so Sesenia hadn’t known. Lizbet had acted as though mentioning her brother was strictly forbidden.

Rohan wasn’t actually the housemaid’s biological son. She had taken in a child abandoned at an orphanage long ago—Rohan himself, who had been unusually frail. He was the very boy she’d encountered during her charitable visits to the orphanage.

Though she hadn’t initially intended to adopt a child, the housemaid felt inexplicably drawn to Rohan and took him in.

Then, at age ten, Rohan discovered he wasn’t her trueborn son.

Worse still, he learned he was the illegitimate son of Count Azwick, famed for his swordsmanship. The Count, lacking a legitimate heir, had tracked down Rohan—born to an unknown woman—and claimed him for his own bloodline.

Thus, Rohan was taken to the Count’s estate, where he learned swordsmanship and even became a knight at a young age, yet his life became wretched.

At the time of adoption, Count Azwick had no sons and treated Rohan as his best hope. But when the Count’s new wife later bore a son, Rohan became a thorn in their eyes.

This happened when Rohan was merely thirteen. For over seven years until adulthood, he endured constant hatred—and even feared for his life. The Count, terrified that Rohan—the prodigy swordsman—might threaten his late-born heir, resolved to have him killed.

‘His anxiety only intensified once Rohan became known as a sword prodigy and even joined the Imperial Palace Guard.’

The Count poisoned him and sent him into deadly situations. Yet Rohan survived each time, and by age twenty, he returned to the housemaid—never revealing a word of what he’d endured.

But Count Azwick, still seeing him as a threat, ultimately sent an assassin to kill Rohan. When the housemaid’s life was also endangered, Rohan died protecting her.

‘Lizbet tearfully told me everything—about Rohan’s suffering, the desperate life he’d lived, which neither she nor the housemaid had ever known.’

So Sesenia immediately sought out the twenty-year-old Rohan and brought him to her side. She wasn’t sure if she could truly protect him, but she hoped that, unlike in the past, things had changed enough for him to live a little more safely.

Since the Count’s rampage had begun only after Rohan became an Imperial Palace Guard, Sesenia calculated that avoiding that path this time would minimize the danger.

Perhaps because of all he’d endured, the Rohan Sesenia met now bore no trace of his former self.

‘It pains me deeply to ask someone so naturally gifted in swordsmanship to lay down his blade—but for the sake of everything, it can’t be helped… Still, he handled the trading company’s affairs remarkably well.’

With Rohan and Lizbet’s help, Sesenia launched her trading company.

Named “Iar Trading Company” after her late mother, the Marquise, Sesenia served as its head, while Rohan—acting as steward and manager—was appointed its chief officer. Lizbet, still tied to the Marquisate, couldn’t be formally included. Sesenia immediately set her business into motion.

She spent half the money given by the Marquis to purchase Hepfria cotton and secured a well-ventilated warehouse bathed in warm sunlight. This time, she didn’t buy firewood; instead, she headed straight for the slave market.

‘For my future.’

In this life, she would break off her engagement with the Crown Prince. Yet she couldn’t do so recklessly right now—and didn’t truly wish to yet, either.

She intended to give the Crown Prince, who coveted the throne and thus refused to cancel their engagement, a glimmer of hope that he could become Emperor—only to later crush him utterly.

She would place someone else on the throne.

Prince Ian, once her friend and the Crown Prince’s rival. To ruin both men, she needed a new candidate worthy of becoming Emperor. Thus, she resolved to cultivate such a man.

She moved to bring forth not the obvious future Emperor—the Crown Prince—nor her treacherous friend Prince Ian, but another son of the Emperor whom no one even knew existed.

**

Exactly one week after launching her business, Sesenia finished the family’s weekly meal and promptly set off for the slave market.

Though her outings had become unrestricted since starting her business, she didn’t want anyone knowing she was visiting the slave market. Thus, she secretly walked there with only Rohan and Lizbet, hoods pulled low over their faces.

“Young Lady, why the sudden visit to the slave market?”

“Consider it manpower expansion.”

“No, but… buying slaves is still…”

“Right? Or… not?”

“Yes.”

Lizbet nodded vigorously.

“But what I’m buying isn’t a slave.”

“You mean you’re going to the slave market—but not to buy slaves?”

Trending

“Lizbet, the Young Lady must have her reasons.”

Rohan cut off his sister and stepped closer to Sesenia’s side.

“Brother, aren’t you worried about the Young Lady?”

“That’s exactly why I’m not saying a word.”

“…What? Seriously. You’ve been acting weird lately.”

Lizbet shook her head at her brother as if he were repulsive. Yet Rohan’s expression remained resolute—as if determined to support Sesenia unconditionally, no matter what she did.

But Sesenia still couldn’t fully trust anyone. Not after Ian, whom she’d trusted so deeply, had betrayed her. She disliked people. Yet she felt a strange comfort in Rohan and Lizbet’s presence.

Perhaps that was why, for the first time in a long while, Sesenia walked ahead with an unusually relaxed smile—though she herself seemed unaware of it. Only Lizbet noticed the change and smiled quietly to herself.

The Imperial Capital housed the slave market.

Technically legal yet fundamentally illicit, the slave market operated in a gray zone: selling war captives as slaves was legal, but trafficking citizens of one’s own nation was forbidden.

During wartime, citizens were never sold into slavery. But now that the war had ended, no legal slaves remained. Thus, those desperate for money often renounced their status voluntarily, or became slaves for other indirect reasons—and frequently appeared in the market.

Especially common was the covert practice of stealing unclaimed orphanage children and selling them there.

Since these individuals had no proof of identity, slavers could simply label them as war captives, and the state had no means to stop it. Slaves had no human rights.

Moreover, war captives bore appearances nearly identical to imperial citizens, leaving them unable to defend themselves.

And today, Sesenia had come to this market to buy a slave no one else would purchase.

“This isn’t a place for a young noble lady to visit for amusement.”

Tucked deep within a back alley, the slave market restricted entry to avoid scrutiny over its illegal dealings. The guard lounging lazily at the entrance shook his head.

Even as Empress, Sesenia had never liked the slave market. She’d visited several times hoping to expose its illicit practices and shut it down—but always left heartbroken, having done nothing but witness the slaves’ misery.

She’d eventually convinced her husband, the Emperor, to order a raid—but by then, forewarned slave traders had vanished without a trace.

“How unfortunate that you can’t tell a customer from a sightseer.”

“Heh. I don’t know what you’ve heard, but this isn’t a place just anyone can enter.”

“Just anyone? I’m a merchant myself.”

“That’s amusing. A noble young lady running a trading company?”

Noblewomen virtually never operated trading companies, so the guard’s skepticism was understandable. But Rohan couldn’t hold back any longer.

“This is Miss Sesenia of Iar Trading Company.”

Though the company had been established for commerce, it hadn’t yet demonstrated any notable achievements, so the gatekeeper merely shook his head.

“These days, young noble ladies treat founding trading companies like child’s play, don’t they? Save your pretend games for parties.”

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