Chapter 132

"Good morning, miss."

I greeted Serena warmly.

Serena also nodded her head.

"Want some bread?"

"I'd love some."

I quickly chewed on the chewy bread and my eyes widened.

Oh my God, this is...! It was black olives.

The olives embedded in the bread added to the texture and flavor, making the morning feel even more like morning.

"What about Mr. Amethus?"

"I sent him off for some work. Thanks to that, I can have this bread all to myself."

"Leave some for him to share."

"I will."

I ate the bread as if I wouldn't leave even a single crumb.

"You said you'd come in five days, but you're here after just one."

"It was hard to wait."

"Does that mean you're excited?"

I chuckled.

Serena did not smile.

Instead, she looked at me without wavering.

"Alright. Five days from now or today, it won't make a difference."

As I opened the door, a tinkling sound was heard.

"Come in, this is not a conversation to have outside."

I led Serena to the deepest part of the Art Gallery Lamponé.

After passing through the bookshelves and going down a secluded staircase, a reception room decorated with only the finest goods appeared.

There was an even more deeply hidden place, but I thought it was too soon to show it to Serena.

I sat in the reception room and put a lozenge in my mouth.

I offered one to Serena, but she declined.

I didn't hide my disappointment and pulled out a chair for her. We sat facing each other with the table between us.

"This should be alright."

I sat with my legs crossed.

"I happened to have something to show you as well, miss."

I put my hand in my pocket and took out a document.

It came out endlessly.

Taken out from the Mana Armor Valziart's sub-space, documents filled the table, spilling out one after another.

I took out a pile of documents the size of my body, but Serena wasn't surprised.

She was already used to my peculiar behavior.

"What do you think this is?"

"I don't know. It looks like accounting documents."

"It's a ledger."

The Regressor Prince gave a faint smile.

"The Del Conti family's secret ledger."

"......!!!"

Serena's eyes widened in disbelief.

Why would Del Conti's secret ledger be with me?

I considered explaining what happened in the sewers but decided against it.

The cockroach fiends, the head of the technical department Meh who used to work for Mushat, Onseu Om feigning his death... It would take too long to explain each one.

Instead, I placed my arms on the ledger.

"Miss Serena, the Del Conti family holds the power in the great city of Merion, do you agree?"

"...How can I not agree? Half of Merion's money is in their hands."

"But this ledger is saying something a little different."

I had examined the ledger with Amethus.

It took half a day, and the results were so surprising that even a regressor like me was shocked.

The Del Conti family was much bigger than I had thought.

"If the contents of this ledger are true, the Del Conti family is hiding a power great enough to control the entire Bururade Peninsula, not just Merion. Even the Guidone in the south are under their influence."

"Guidone...!?"

The Guidone of the south, the former Bururade royal family.

In the days when the Bururade Peninsula was a single kingdom, it was a name that stood shoulder to shoulder with Maesh, Erta, and Schmeizen.

But for a new family like the Del Conti to be able to control the Guidone... She couldn't even guess how such a thing was possible.

"I've summarized the particularly large secrets of the Del Conti family."

I held out a list.

Serena was so surprised she almost fainted.

There were a lot of names that she knew well.

There were seven super-large businesses from other cities, and a countless number of large and medium-sized businesses.

There were even several famous mercenary groups.

"With dozens of large businesses, they managed the waterway of the Bururade Canal and kept thousands of private soldiers disguised as mercenaries. Were they thinking of establishing a nation?"

"......"

"He dreams big, Kukulo."

I chuckled quietly.

"Miss Serena. A day has passed, so there are now four days left until the promised day."

I confidently held out my palm.

"I'll take all of this from them by then."

I held out my open hand to Serena.

She did not take it.

"And I'll give it all to the Vercello family."

"Why...?"

"Because it was originally the Vercello family's."

The Del Conti family was born by taking away the Vercello family's businesses.

So now it's time for them to get it back, that's what I was saying, but Serena couldn't understand.

"...No. That's not an answer. I didn't ask that."

"Then what do you want to hear?"

"Your secret."

She firmed her resolve.

"I have to hear it today, Shion."

***

"Why did you come to Merion? Why was it the Vercello family? And..."

It was a question she had suppressed since we first met.

"...Why me?"

The last question hurt her.

"There's nothing sweet about me that you would be interested in, Shion. So why..."

"No. There is something sweet. I'm not a fool who moves without gaining anything."

I put my index finger to my lips.

"I'll brag a little. I have some assets."

"I know."

"It's probably much more than you think, miss. The word 'capital' would be more appropriate than 'assets'."

I had made many preparations during the past seven years in the West.

One of them was the accumulation of wealth.

"Do you know how to make a lot of money in a short amount of time?"

Serena did not answer, and I didn't expect her to.

"It's very simple. You just have to repeat risky investments and never fail even once."

You put all your assets into an investment. You succeed and get several times the amount of money.

You invest all of that money again.

You succeed again and get several times the amount of money.

If you repeat this, you can quickly pile up a mountain of gold coins.

"...That's a method only a person from the future could attempt."

"Is that so?"

The Regressor answered with a laugh.

It was only possible for me and Amethus.

Shion Pollinglight is a regressor.

I came back 19 years in time, so I know what will happen, and what businesses will succeed and fail.

Amethus had the nickname 'Diviner.'

Even a regressor is human, so there could have been one mistake, but Amethus's intuition didn't allow it.

"At first, I was an art dealer. I found works by artists who weren't well known yet and sold them for a high price."

I used this as seed money to jump into all kinds of businesses.

The knowledge of the future was added to a god-given intuition and with a martial power that could even defeat an ancient god, nothing in the West could stop me and Amethus.

"When I came to Merion, I had already sold off most of my businesses and kept them in safe assets. Things like land and mines."

I counted on my fingers.

"Two Mana Stone mines, seven silver mines, and three gold mines. As for land... I think there were two mountains in Konland, one island in Schmeizen, and a small fiefdom in Maesh."

"...You were a great person."

She spoke calmly, which was all the more surprising.

I was saying that I was the wealthiest person in the Bururade Peninsula.

But it didn't sound like a lie, and it wasn't.

I had already accumulated more wealth than the entire Del Conti family combined.

All for my destiny, to bring down Cordis.

"Then what is it that you would find sweet about me?"

"Just one thing."

The corner of my mouth turned up.

"The name of Vercello."

"......"

Serena understood my meaning and fell into a short silence.

Her raspberry-colored eyes wavered nervously.

"...There are two ways for you to get the name of Vercello. You can't buy it with money."

She was able to part her lips only after a long time.

"Either you become an adopted son of Vercello, or you marry into the family. But I'm the only Vercello left."

"I can't very well become your adopted son, so only one option remains."

Shion Pollinglight looked at Serena de Vercello.

He looked into her eyes with his blue ones.

They were a beautiful raspberry color, so beautiful that it made me want to cry without realizing it.

"You asked why I'm being so nice to the Vercello family. The answer is here. What would I not do for the person who will become my wife?"

"......"

Serena bit her lips.

I was already talking as if she and I were a married couple, as if she couldn't refuse my proposal and she probably really couldn't. It was a vicious coercion that pretended to give her freedom.

"...Shion, are you not so different from Kukulo Del Conti after all?"

"Why did you think I was different?"

The Regressor Prince was shameless.

"From the very beginning, I intended to swallow Merion, the Del Contis, and the Vercellos."

Merion, this charming city, these charming people and above all, the charming Serena de Vercello, whom I could never let go of.

"You can refuse. You have the right to refuse this rude proposal, miss."

I put my arm on the pile of ledgers.

"However, if you accept, I promise you a very sweet future. I will give you the Del Contis and all their possessions as an engagement gift."

My tongue was smoother and more enchanting than ever.

It was because the time I had been waiting for had come.

"The revival of the Vercello family, isn't that what you've always dreamed of?"

"...Can the Vercello family remain the Vercello family?"

"It will be more of a Vercello family than before."

Serena had no other choice.

It was a proposal that she had no choice but to accept.

If that was the case, there was no reason to hesitate.

"Alright."

Serena was the head of the Vercello family before she was a nineteen-year-old girl.

If she could save her family, if she could fulfill that long-cherished wish, what could she not endure?

"I don't know how I've come to say this, but do as you wish. Have me, Shion."

"That's exactly what I wanted, miss."

I whispered.

"In four days, we'll be preparing for our wedding."

***

"Amethus, how did things go?"

"How did things go on your end?"

"It was a proposal she couldn't refuse from the start."

I wiggled my finger.

"The Vercello family fills the void left by the Del Conti family. It's natural since it was originally the Vercello family's place. And the Vercello family..."

"Becomes yours, Shion."

"Let's say it becomes ours. You're my only confidant, Amethus."

We were underground. It was the deepest secret place beneath the Art Gallery Lamponé.

"So, what about the work?"

"It's all done."

Amethus spilled several documents all at once.

"I threatened them with the secret ledger and tempted them with a huge amount of money. I've taken over all the businesses the Del Conti family had hidden in other cities."

"All of them? I thought you wouldn't be able to take over one or two."

"There were some of those, too. But not anymore."

I didn't ask how.

Amethus's double-edged sword is sharp.

It's harder to find something that's impossible for him.

'Hmm.' I casually looked over the documents.

He had swallowed up all the profitable businesses that the Del Conti family had cultivated for a long time.

It was worth it to go down to the sewers to get the secret ledger.

I had to use a lot of cash, but it was only about a tenth of what I had.

"Does the Del Conti family know that their arms and legs have been cut off overnight?"

"They'll know tomorrow. The woman, Tibel Bartole, is quick with information."

"I saw her myself when I was invited to the mansion. That woman is from Cordis."

"...Really?"

Amethus bit his lip.

The name Cordis made him feel a renewed sense of hatred.

He hated the empire that drove Aretion to despair so much that his chest suddenly felt as if it was on fire.

But he made an effort to hold back, thinking of the master who held an even greater flame than himself.

"It must be the disaster you mentioned before, Shion."

"Yes. I checked. The Empire is preparing a disaster for Bururade. We need to make Merion ours quickly."

"What will happen to Kukulo Del Conti, who has had his arms and legs cut off?"

"He'll flee. To find his mouse hole."

The Del Conti family's mouse hole is obvious.

"Let's go there and wait for him first."