“Mr. Kyle, I appreciate Ash Trading Company’s kindness, but… this seems a bit excessive.”
Aelfrie sat in the carriage, looking at me with a puzzled face.
Next to Aelfrie, there were boxes neatly packed to the brim. Anyone would think that the carriage Aelfrie was riding in was not for transporting people but for delivering goods.
Calon shook his head with a smile.
“Excessive? We can’t just send off someone who has helped our trading company a great deal. One of the principles of my company is to repay a favor tenfold.”
“Still, but…”
Is this not too much?
Aelfrie recalled the day Elize made her debut in high society.
Aelfrie was not sure how many gifts arrived the next day, but the fact that they had to be stacked in the living room was clear.
And the gifts piled up beside her now were similar in quantity to what Elize had received then.
‘It’s not the number that’s the problem. These all seem to be luxury items.’
The boxes, and even the ribbons wrapping them, all looked expensive.
Aelfrie hadn’t asked what was inside, but judging by the fragrant tea aroma filling the carriage, at least one of the boxes contained whole tea leaves.
Aelfrie knew well how expensive the tea coming from the Empire was. Elize had always grumbled that the marquis should have that kind of tea on hand.
But even the indulgent marquis couple who usually complied with everything Elize asked could rarely agree to that.
‘To fill such a large box with it…’
Aelfrie began to worry.
“Even if Nisha is the branch manager here, is it okay to give away the trading company’s goods to others so freely? What if I get reprimanded by the chief merchant later because of me?”
“Chief merchant? He’ll be fine with it.”
“How can you be so sure, Mr. Kyle? Do you know him?”
At Aelfrie’s words, Calon closed his mouth for a moment. He couldn’t say that he was that chief merchant, after all.
“…That person, he’s generous.”
Calon praised himself modestly.
When he was with people who didn’t know his true identity, as now, he often talked about ‘Calon Ash.’
Sometimes he praised Calon Ash, and at times, he spoke as if he had many complaints about him.
He had become so accustomed to talking about himself as another person, but strangely it didn’t go well today.
If Aelfrie found out later that Calon Ash was him, it would be very embarrassing.
‘But that won’t happen.’
He had come to Denerthum for various reasons and planned to stay quite a while. But he had no intention of revealing his identity.
Only a handful of people, including Nisha, in the Denerthum branch knew who he was. Other employees just thought of him as a new colleague from headquarters.
‘I’ll stay for about a year.’
He predicts that by then, his task will be complete. Once the goal is reached, Denerthum will no longer be of interest.
Whether returning to the Empire or going to another country’s branch to handle problems there.
For the unpredictable future, it’s best that Calon Ash remains a mysterious figure.
So he could praise himself shamelessly, but…
Having momentarily lost in thought, Calon realized that he was somewhat strange today.
Taking Aelfrie home was part of that.
Originally, Nisha was going to take Aelfrie home. Aelfrie had insisted that just providing the carriage was enough and firmly refused, but Nisha wouldn’t back down either.
When Nisha was about to get into the carriage, a problem arose at the trading company, and Nisha had to go resolve it.
It should have ended with just sending Aelfrie back alone in the carriage.
‘…I volunteered to take her.’
Calon couldn’t explain why he acted that way even if he asked himself now.
“Did I do it because it was fun?”
Calon, with his arms crossed, still looked at Aelfrie, who seemed awkward and didn’t know what to do.
Certainly, this woman was interesting. While others might have been busy staring at me, she seemed to be in a hurry to go back with an expression that seemed uncomfortable with people’s hospitality, without even showing interest in my face.
And then, when the conversation about an economics book came up, she came to me as if to devour me and begged me to explain.
Calon found it both fun and regrettable.
“Regrettable? Why?”
He was once again asking himself the same question he had asked himself several times today when the coachman spoke.
“We have arrived. Is this the right place?”
“Yes. It’s correct.”
Aelfrie nodded her head at my house visible through the window, then quickly hugged the paper bag that Calon had first embraced, preparing to get off.
That’s when it happened.
“Lida, you!”
Before she even got off the carriage, a piercing cry from Elize reached her ears. At the sound of that voice, Aelfrie’s breath stopped.
“Elize….”
When she stuck her head out of the window, Elize was glaring at Aelfrie as if in disbelief, arms crossed.
“Are you mad? You left in the morning, and now you’re just coming in!”
My Step-brother Is Obsessed With Me (Female-dominant)
A gentle female protagonist vs pitiful in the early stage, and a sick male protagonist in the later stage
Cheng Songer transmigrated into the body of a vicious cannon fodder female supporting character with the same name as her in a female-dominant novel.
In the original story, the cannon fodder female supporting character was inhumane, committing domestic violence, gambling excessively, being lustful, and even wanting to sell her stepbrother to a brothel for money.
As luck would have it, she just happened to transmigrate at this time.
Seeing Cheng Qingzhi biting his lip, enduring the tears in his eyes, looking pitiful, her heart softened.
She stuffed the money back into the Madam’s hand and reached out to him.
“Brother, come home with me.”
