We Talked About The Store With The Bad Reputation
“Now… Don’t even think about taking the herbs and running away.”
“I would never do such a thing! I know what terrors you are capable of! Besides, to defy the duke would be to throw my life away!”
They were nobles… A beheading could be waiting for him if he wasn’t careful.
That being said, these terrors he spoke of…wasn’t that more about Leo than me?
In any case, I believed his words and sent him away.
If he did anything strange, Leo or Sebastian would catch on, so it should be fine.
“Mr. Takumi. Let’s eat lunch!”
“Tilura. Is it that time already?”
Just as I was thinking about returning to the back garden in order to train, I bumped into Tilura.
Apparently, the herbs had taken up more time than I thought, and it was already time for lunch.
And so I headed towards the dining hall with the hungry Tilura, and Leo and Sherry, who always had the greatest appetite.
“Lady Claire, Mr. Takumi. About the store that’s been causing trouble. I’ve gathered enough information to make a report.”
After we finished eating lunch, Sebastian came to the dining hall and started to talk about the malicious store.
“Am I allowed to listen to this too?”
“It does concern the herbs. And so it would be best for you to listen, Mr. Takumi. It may be that you will have to do something.”
As it concerned the family business, I wondered how involved I should be as an outsider. But Sebastian assured me that it was fine, and Ms. Claire nodded.
But what did he mean that I might have to do something?
I couldn’t do anything outside of Weed Cultivation.
“You might have to prepare some Ramogi, Mr. Takumi.”
Did he mean that the illness was spreading more than expected?
“The appearance of this store happened to be very close to the spreading of the disease… And it seems like the store was aware of it.”
“It was confirmed in today’s reports. This store was responsible for buying all of Ractos’s stock of herbs and medicine. And Ramogi was the first thing they started to buy.”
“And after what we saw at the orphanage, there is no doubt that it is effective with the disease that is spreading. And so we must assume that they knew that it was spreading, and what would heal it.”
So not only was the timing the same, but they had bought the Ramogi first.
Surely that meant they knew about the illness.
“However, when it first started to spread, the people of Ractos tried to buy other kinds of medicine. This was because they did not have any knowledge about the illness.”
“Yes. Ms. Anna also seemed like she didn’t know what medicine would be effective.”
And so she had followed the advice of the store, and ended up buying the medicine that had been weakened.
Ms. Anna had been tricked into buying it because it was cheap, while the store made an extra profit.
“And then the store started to buy other kinds of medicine as well. And they started to sell them. I suppose they decided to take advantage of the fact that people were ignorant. It seems like they’ve been making a profit this way ever since.”
“They are deceiving the people… This is unforgivable.”
As these people didn’t know about the illness, they didn’t know what medicine was effective.
And so even when the store bought every kind of medicine and sold it after weakening the effect, they still sold well.
It was likely that the clerks there were recommending them to customers…telling them to buy medicine that was completely unrelated… Just like what happened with Ms. Anna.
“Yes. However, in the next report…something was revealed that means the duke will not be able to deal with the matter immediately.”
“Well, the situation has become more complicated…”
“…Is it the other noble, Sebastian?”
Ah, now that I think about it. There was talk of some other noble house being involved.
“Indeed. In the last report… Well, it seems like our neighbor…the count, is involved.”
“Yes. Count Barsler is involved.”
Apparently, the neighboring lands were owned by someone called Count Barsler.
When looking at Ms. Claire or Mr. Ekenhart, it was hard to imagine nobles doing such things, but clearly, people were different, and even nobles could commit such crimes.
“Who is this Count Barsler?”
“The count owns lands that neighbor the Liebert territories. And a duke’s power alone is not enough to crush this store immediately, if it’s backed by a count.”
Weren’t dukes much higher in rank?
But I suppose things were a lot more complicated than that when it came to high society…
“And so we will not be able to take immediate action.”
Indeed, it was a very troublesome matter.
“And you’re sure of this? If you know this much…why can’t you just submit the evidence…?”
“But it’s still mostly speculation based on circumstantial evidence that was gathered. We still haven’t found anything solid. As the medicine was diluted, we don’t know where it was originally sold. And the person who bought them has already left the town, so they cannot be caught.”
“And how did you acquire all this information?”
“Most of it was from an old informant of Ractos. We’ve also been questioning residents. And there were eyewitnesses of this person entering and leaving the stores…”
“The person who left?”
“We don’t know where. But it’s still just eyewitness accounts, and cannot be used as evidence.”
So they didn’t know where this person was… Well, that was certainly troublesome.
And as Sebastian said, the words of some random residents would not be considered as strong evidence…