Chapter 89

Chapter 89: Past Affairs

— Stefan.

Emotion filled Merkat’s voice.

But that lasted only an instant.

— Since it is a difficult situation, your older brother will understand. Later, apologize after calming your mind for having treated me like a murderer.

He spoke as if gently reprimanding him, but to Stefan, it felt no different from being treated like a child.

— Don’t make me laugh. Are you telling me that I’m… shooting in the dark right now?

— Do you really think it was your older brother’s doing?

— There is already evidence! Look at this!

Stefan pulled out the handkerchief he was holding in his hand.

The emblem of the Pascal Mercenary Company also caught Merkat’s eye.

— I know my older brother’s methods! That dirty trick where necessity creates demand! Ever since I said I would monopolize that trade route, this happened.

— Do you believe the nonsense those merchant bastards spout?

— It’s not just one person. Everyone who contracted with my older brother says the same thing, so how could I not be suspicious?!

Merkat pondered deeply at those words.

— True, maybe those people ended up harmed by their older brother.

He exuded an air of willingly admitting it, and then tilted his head.

— But where is the evidence that this older brother intervened in your business?

— Isn’t it right here?

— This flashy handkerchief? Trash like this can be made at any time.

He shook the handkerchief and tossed it onto the table.

— We have ten thousand mercenaries registered in our company and over two thousand handkerchiefs in inventory. Any of them could have swiped one and made it look like the work of our mercenary corps. You’re smarter than me, but can’t you even think of that?

— Can you say that in an imperial court as well?!

— Do you want to take it to trial? Do you want to go for total destruction? You bastard, you really are pissed off. Dragging family to the courts and all.

— Cut the nonsense about family. You only pull out the family card when you’re struggling, but at mealtime we are strangers, aren’t we?!

— Are you saying I tried to stuff my own mouth alone? Hey, Stefan. When you were struggling, I helped you plenty. I gave you conveniences, I did everything I could, so what the hell is the problem?

— Haven’t I been saying this from the beginning? Those bandit bastards you lead killed my employees, that’s the problem!

— This bastard really insists on calling my employees third-rate trash…

— Merkat Pascal.

With veins bulging on his neck, Merkat attempted to rise from his seat.

When Ferda spoke that name, Merkat realized that Ferda was watching and bowed his head to him.

— I apologize, Regent. I showed you an unsightly side of family affairs.

— I don’t care about that. I am sorry, but can you stop this conversation here and withdraw? I have something to discuss with Stefan.

— Of course. I will withdraw for now.

Merkat bowed obediently and stepped out without further ado.

Once Merkat vacated his seat, Stefan pointed at that spot and shouted:

— There’s nothing to see. It’s that bastard’s doing.

His face was red as a tomato.

— Stefan.

— We need to catch him and interrogate him immediately. Ask him if killing thirty-three people felt comforting.

— I wanted to do that, but seeing your state, I realized it wouldn’t work.

— My state? What about my state?

Ferda looked at him with cold, serene eyes and replied:

— You are no different from a vengeful ghost craving blood and vengeance.

— Vengeance. Isn’t that why I’m doing this right now?

— The problem is a vengeance that doesn’t fit the present. The vengeance you are attempting now… isn’t it dusting off grudges from your past?

— I…

He wanted to deny it, but Ferda’s words allowed him to cool down a bit.

— It seems you’re right. Honestly, I suffered a lot at my older brother’s hands when I was young.

— Tell me.

— When I was beaten somewhere, he didn’t like my guts, so he would take a wooden sword, say he would train me, and beat me half to death.

Ferda could understand that feeling to a certain extent.

Ever since his mother died, Ferda had been treated like an illegitimate child and had endured such harsh treatment on more than one occasion.

— And I… that… no, let’s stop this story.

— No. Don’t stop.

Ferda stopped him from trying to end his lament.

— Let it all out. All that anger you harbor toward Merkat.

— Huh? Why would I do that?

— It will help.

— It doesn’t seem like it would help much…

— Then I’ll make it an order. Hurry up, curse him and yell out what he did to you.

Stefan was caught off guard by Ferda’s demand.

Yet in a situation where he had no alternative, Stefan spat out that name by force.

— Merkat… you… son of a… bitch…

It started hesitantly, but that didn’t matter.

— You…

Like a dam bursting open, the emotional outpouring turned violent instantly.

— You damn dirty bastard!!!

Stefan’s eyes rolled back and he began screaming wildly.

— Curse that son of a bitch! I prayed for your ruin and you pull this shit on me! Did I look that fucking easy to you?! Huh?!

— …

— I’ll do the same to you! Just as you shattered my bones when I was a kid, I will shatter every single bone in your body, too!

After that, he continued screaming at the top of his lungs about all the accumulated grudges of the past.

About ten minutes later, Stefan’s voice gave out.

— Cough! Cough!

— Have a drink.

— Cough, cough… thank you…

Stefan sat down in his seat, drinking tea.

He slumped down like someone whose energy had been completely drained away.

— Do you feel a little better?

— Yes, thanks to you, Regent… I think I’ll avoid a fit of rage.

— Then your eyes should be open now. Let’s continue the conversation.

Stefan corrected his posture again, and Ferda spoke to him:

— In conclusion: it doesn’t look like Merkat Pascal’s doing.

— …Huh?

Just a moment ago he was brandishing the mercenary company’s handkerchief, asserting that Merkat was the culprit, wasn’t he?

Yet now he’s saying he isn’t?

— Then why did you make me curse my older brother?

— It was so that you wouldn’t get trapped by the resentment you harbor. Weren’t you keeping things stuck in your head that could cloud your judgment?

Ferda’s words were bewildering, but on the other hand, he was right.

Had he ever cursed and screamed like that, venting it all?

As a child, he would shove his fist into his mouth and cry as if it were natural; as an adult, he would only sip liquor hidden in a corner of the desk drawer and weep bitterly.

Right now, he could pour it all out in the castle.

— You said that hiring the Pascal Mercenary Company is no different from hiring a demon, right?

— Yes.

— You knew that from the beginning, didn’t you?

— That’s right.

— Then you could have suspected your older brother Merkat Pascal from the very start. Yet you never showed me that suspicion.

Ferda inquired calmly:

— What is the reason you didn’t do so?

— The reason I didn’t do so was that at the time I wasn’t in my right mind…

— Is that the only reason? Did it simply not cross your mind?

At Ferda’s question, Stefan shook his head as well.

It wasn’t just that.

Stefan thought:

Why hadn’t he suspected Merkat in the first place when this happened?

“Merkat Pascal.”

Family and enemy.

Since childhood, he couldn’t control the boiling blood overflowing within him.

Merkat took advantage of that temperament to become a mercenary captain.

He has charisma and leadership.

Having leadership means knowing the weight carried by an executive, which small-time thugs lack.

Like a merchant analyzing another commercial operator, he judged everything about him as facts backed by data.

Then the answer emerged with surprising clarity.

— …The possibility was small.

— The reason?

— If my older brother takes retaliation just because someone doesn’t contract with him… honestly, that’s practically a superstition. It was them digging their own graves. The truth is that most hired cheap mercenaries, ventured into dangerous zones, and ended up screwed. They just bought cheap rice cakes and blame… other innocent people.

Seeing only what you want to see, believing only what you want to believe.

Trapped by emotion, Stefan had overlooked even such basic concepts.

— So with just a handkerchief… my suspicion cannot be certain, that is my current opinion.

Even upon concluding it himself, Stefan couldn’t believe it.

Just a few minutes ago, he was certain it was his doing and was thinking of exacting brutal revenge on him.

He had judged with emotion, not reason, and had been blinded by that emotion.

If Ferda hadn’t snapped him out of it, he would have had to fight Merkat.

While Stefan swallowed his emptiness, Ferda listened to his response and spoke to Ruri:

— Show Merkat Pascal in again.

Merkat, who had been waiting, took his seat, and the three-way confrontation resumed.

Unlike before, when emotions ran high and were on the verge of exploding, a calm current flowed.

— Merkat Pascal. I have finished speaking with Stefan, but give me a final, definitive answer.

— Speak, Regent.

— Can you swear that you had no involvement whatsoever in the attack on Stefan this time?

Ferda inquired with enough coldness to freeze anyone’s blood.

Merkat raised his index finger and spoke:

— I have a principle. Just as my family is precious, other people’s families are precious too. My employees and I take up swords for money to protect others. If we take up swords for money, wouldn’t we be just like third-rate thugs and bandits?

— Good, thank you.

Ferda, hearing Merkat’s words, gestured with his chin toward the handkerchief on the table.

— If this handkerchief has nothing to do with the mercenary company’s involvement, then someone tried to drive a wedge between the two of you.

— Between my younger brother and me?

Merkat’s eyes widened.

As his face showed, he was genuinely furious.

— What bastard had the guts to touch my family?

— I think I know who.

Now calm, Stefan replied.

— Who?

— My younger sister, Tilda.

Another familiar name came out of his mouth.

— On the surface, she acts as if the Dandolo Company is enough, but she desires the Pascal Company more than anyone. Interfering subtly and persistently. And the only one who benefits from my older brother and me growing distant is that bitch.

— Right, that bitch would definitely do this and worse.

Merkat, who had a strong attachment to family, agreed upon mentioning his younger sister.

It was an odd thing.

— Tilda Pascal is your family, isn’t she?

— Don’t even mention it. She’s a bitch who can’t even be called family.

Merkat suppressed his momentum, answering calmly despite his indignation.

— When my wife was pregnant with our first child, do you know what she tried? She sent poison to my wife under the pretext of congratulating her on the pregnancy. Luckily, I ate it without knowing and suffered the consequences, but if my wife had eaten it, she definitely would have miscarried. She was an annoying sister without a single tender bone in her body, but that time she crossed the line properly.

Stefan was the one surprised by those words.

— Did that happen five years ago?

— I wasn’t sure, so I didn’t tell anyone. Making a fuss would only have made that bitch happy.

For Stefan, who thought Merkat’s personality would obviously flip tables and go into a do-or-die frenzy, it was seeing an unexpected side.

— Anyway, a bitch with no talent but full of greed. Since she can’t prosper on her own, she hooked the bachelor Henri Dandolo to devour the Dandolo Company and then devour my father’s company, probably.

Merkat clenched his fist with a hand the size of a pot lid.

His veins bulged horribly.

— So what will you do, Regent?

inquired Merkat.

— We can turn things around right now and drag that bitch here.

— Wouldn’t that worsen the mercenary company’s image?

— Nothing to worry about. If I can send that witch-faced bitch to the blazing pyre, I don’t care about becoming a demon. If she laid hands on family, she must pay the corresponding price.

Anger burned brightly.

As a mercenary who had rolled through rough terrain, he knew very well how to use anger as vitality.

— You shouldn’t do anything that directly harms her.

The one who said that was Stefan.

— What? Stefan, you idiot!

— Think about it. Using violence is not good. The fact that she started with such wicked acts means her plan has definitely begun. In the worst case, the entire Pascal family could collapse.

— Mmm…

Given that both knew what kind of person Tilda usually was, the persuasion didn’t need many words.

— Malice is a persistent bastard. Until we have confirmation that it’s Tilda’s doing, we shouldn’t touch her brazenly.

— Then what do we do?

Stefan calmed his racing heart by force and spoke:

— First, we return without resolving this misunderstanding. Let’s give them what they want. Then the plan will surely proceed as intended.

— So we catch that bitch by the tail that way.

Merkat slapped his knee.

— Good. Agreed. Let’s drag that bitch out properly.

— Understood.

The two brothers who had almost become enemies united in spirit before a common foe.