“It seems you should be feeling nervous, right?”

Arianna Valois, with her flowing red hair adorned with excessively ornate jeweled pins, laughed merrily.

In her hand, she held a list of people who had applied for this business selection.

She giggled as she scanned through the names on the list.

“Viscount Vermerian always seems so clever. He always has at least two contingency plans, doesn’t he?”

Her chattering voice was full of excitement.

She was referring to the fact that besides Jenit Trading Company, several other people from Vermerian’s side had also applied for this business selection.

In case Jenit Trading Company wasn’t selected, they were probably trying to gain some benefit that way.

One might expect her to be angry that things weren’t going as planned, but what was making her so happy?

Watching her act so intrigued, as if she had discovered an interesting book, Lloyd snorted.

“You seem to have forgotten, Lady Valois. If I’m not selected this time, our deal is off.”

“Oh my. Of course I know that. But this is even more enjoyable.”

Despite Lloyd’s chilling words, she just kept smiling as if delighted.

Anyone watching would think she was enjoying a pleasant comedy.

Lloyd clicked his tongue softly, thinking this.

“Isn’t it more enjoyable to get what you want?”

“Even if I don’t get it this time, you’ll still need me, Viscount.”

Among those many opportunities, success will come someday.

She spoke innocently as she put down the paper she was holding.

Should I say it’s nice that she’s so carefree, or should I just call her stupid?

Lloyd gave a hollow laugh as he looked at one of his assistants.

“That’s quite some confidence.”

“Would you call it extremely realistic? I simply trust the conclusions I’ve drawn from collecting purely factual information.”

And when it comes to the Viscount, I’ve never been wrong!

As if she knew him extremely well, she lifted her chin slightly with a triumphant attitude.

Finding it both amusing and pathetic, Lloyd burst into laughter.

Her act of seeming to know everything about him hadn’t changed, then or now.

Lloyd pondered how to deal with this arrogant behavior as he rested his chin on his hand.

Arianna Valois was quite a useful card.

The precious daughter of Duke Valois, and a woman with quite an extraordinary mind.

She was someone who could fabricate any persona to achieve what she truly desired.

At the same time, she was also someone who best understood her own value and knew how to fully utilize it.

Lloyd found this aspect of her quite appealing, yet somehow vexing.

That would probably remain unchanged now, just as it had before.

With his chin still resting on his hand, he tilted his head slightly and looked at her with emotionless eyes.

“Then what will you do if you fail in this business selection?”

“If we fail, what can we do? That would be due to your and my lack of ability, Viscount.”

“That sounds like a very irresponsible thing to say.”

“But it’s the truth.”

Arianna shrugged at Lloyd’s words.

Her face was innocent, as if to say it really couldn’t be helped.

Every time he saw that face, his blood boiled from an unknown place.

She had said the same thing when Amelia died.

‘What can we do? It’s our lack of ability for not recognizing how necessary she was. Can’t be helped, right?’

When things Amelia had built up started crumbling one by one after her death, Arianna had said that to him as he grieved.

Saying it was just a lack of their own ability, who could they blame?

Wasn’t it that things that can’t be helped should be left as such?

Now that Amelia was gone, joining hands with Duke Valois to expand his influence was absolutely necessary.

However, he still very much disliked Arianna Valois.

If it weren’t for that woman, perhaps he wouldn’t have stupidly lost Amelia.

If only she hadn’t whispered at his side that Amelia needed to disappear for the sake of a perfect empire.

Even if he had to see her wings clipped and legs cut off, bleeding profusely, he could have kept her by his side.

Lloyd let out a small sigh as he looked at Arianna, who he still disliked but who was quite capable despite that.

“Lady Valois. Lack of ability is also a sin.”

“My, I didn’t know you were such an emotional person, Viscount.”

“I didn’t realize this was related to emotions.”

When Lloyd replied in a calm voice, Arianna tilted her head and said, “Oh?”

Then, flipping her flaming red hair back, she smirked.

“Viscount, people who judge lack of ability as a sin are emotional.”

“…Ha.”

“If you think about it rationally, lack of ability is beyond a person’s control. You should either not entrust tasks to such people at all, or assign tasks with that in mind.”

Arianna calmly expressed her opinion.

If Lloyd hadn’t visibly sneered while listening quietly to that story, she might have continued spouting such nonsense.

Lloyd opened his mouth with a face full of derision.

“That’s sophistry, my lady. If one lacks ability, they shouldn’t take on tasks. According to your words, isn’t it emotional to act without knowing the extent of one’s own abilities?”

And if you can’t admit that and still insist on taking on tasks, isn’t that even less rational?

Arianna Valois was like that back then too.

She spouted nonsense about judging rationally when he tried to take her life to hold her accountable.

Lloyd looked at Arianna with cold, sunken eyes and said,

“Instead of arguing about reason and emotion, why don’t you properly assess your own abilities first, Lady Arianna Valois.”

Failure is also part of one’s ability.

Lloyd repeated this fact to himself as he spoke coldly.

To Arianna Valois, who had already failed once and was arrogant on top of her lack of ability.

“There won’t be a second chance. If you come out with that attitude again if we fail this time…”

Then, the deal is off.

Lloyd thought.

If they failed again this time, he would surely end that arrogant woman’s life with his own hands.

Before the regression, his deal with Arianna Valois was purely because of Amelia Vermerian.

He thought he needed a worthy opponent to keep such a capable and promising woman in check.

To hold onto a woman much smarter and better than himself, he needed someone who could keep her on edge or grip her by the back of the neck.

It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Amelia, who blindly followed him, but he felt that as her influence grew, she would become harder to handle.

At the time, Lloyd thought Arianna was suitable for that role.

He thought she could hold Amelia back.

It was a desperate attempt to use Amelia as his chess piece forever, somehow.

But unlike Amelia, who only thought of putting him on the throne, Arianna Valois had her own dreams.

‘I want to prove that my father is wrong.’

Arianna Valois was a woman with great ambition.

She dreamed of the absurd goal of proving wrong her father, who said a woman’s only use was to meet a good man and be of help to the family.

In fact, Duke Valois had once proposed that Lloyd take his daughter as empress if he became emperor.

Arianna wanted to show her father that women had uses other than marriage.

‘It’s not difficult to send you to another country. Helping you avoid marriage is also possible. But you must be of equal help to me.’

‘Of course. If you just promise me that, I’ll make people believe I’m the kingmaker. I’ll make sure the name Amelia Vermerian is forgotten in everyone’s memory.’

Recalling a conversation he once had with Arianna, Lloyd closed his eyes tightly.

He had clearly intended to use her as a counterbalance to Amelia.

No matter how hard she struggled, Arianna could never hold Amelia back.

No, she couldn’t even keep up from the start.

Perhaps that was why.

Arianna decided to get rid of Amelia.

She chose to willingly remove the obstacle to her goal.

‘Back then, I thought I liked that about her.’

Lloyd thought as he sank into his chair.

Yes. Back then, he thought he liked that about her.

That it wasn’t bad to see her trying so hard to achieve what she wanted by any means necessary.

But now he knows.

How short-sighted and narrow-minded that view was.

Amelia is a person with overwhelming knowledge and experience.

A completely different dimension from Arianna, who grew up like a hothouse flower and refused to see anything beyond what she already knew.

Just look at how the pillars supporting the empire crumbled as soon as she died.

Amidst the helplessly collapsing affairs, Arianna panicked, and Lloyd regretted killing Amelia, beating the ground.

He didn’t know her irreplaceability would be so glaringly obvious.

Thinking about it now, it was extremely natural.

“She was the one who made the impossible possible in the first place.”

Lloyd murmured as he exhaled deeply.

Support for the current imperial family was higher than for any emperor in history.

An emperor more honest, upright, and devoted to family than anyone, more modest than anyone.

And a crown prince who resembles such an emperor, warm and kind, always thinking of the people first.

An imperial family with no reason to be disliked, no matter how you look at it.

So if you just solve their livelihood issues, the thoughtless people would follow and like them so much.

Amelia was the person who overturned all the reputation of such an imperial family and put him on the throne.

She spared no time, effort, or wealth to make it happen, and willingly carried out all that labor.

How could someone so ignorant of the world keep up with such a person?

Lloyd let out a long sigh as he watched Arianna rejoicing childishly.

“I’ll say it once more, Lady Valois. There will be no failure. If you fall in this selection, I’ll send you back to the territory you love so much.”

At those words, falling heavily and firmly, Arianna, who had been humming softly, stopped her song.

She erased her expression and stopped moving, staring at Lloyd before smirking.

“I’ll return those words to you, Viscount. I won’t fail. I was prepared for that much when I left my territory.”

Her face as she said this was so confident that Lloyd almost mistook the outcome of the business selection to be in her hands.

“It seems you have some method in mind?”

“Well, it’s not just you and I who share the same intention for this matter, Viscount.”

Arianna smiled brightly as she put down the paper she was holding and stood up.

Then, with a meaningful look, she continued as if reciting lyrics.

“You know that saying, Viscount? When many people’s intentions come together, even the heavens can be moved.”

“Is that really applicable to us right now?”

“Who knows? We’ll have to wait and see, won’t we?”

Joy once again settled on Arianna’s bright face.