Chapter 3
At the adjutant’s remark that treated the Bardo Trading Company as a single entity, Lionel raised his eyebrows.
It was because a girl he had met in the past at the Bardo Trading Company came to mind.
It was an abandoned building in the backyard of the trading company.
It was encountering a girl dancing under dim lighting.
The way she moved freely with her toes straightened upright was so intense.
Perhaps that’s why. At this moment, the reason her face comes to mind.
“Her name was… Agnes, I think.”
“Do you know Agnes Bardo, Colonel?”
Lionel, who had unwittingly muttered, frowned.
It was because of the surname ‘Bardo’ that came from the adjutant’s mouth.
“What did you just say? Agnes Bardo?”
Lionel repeated in a low voice and raised his head.
His long, narrow eyes folded sharply.
“Yes. It’s the second daughter of the head of the Bardo Trading Company.”
At the adjutant’s words, Lionel’s gaze wavered.
“Unlike her older sister Chloe Bardo, she doesn’t show herself much to the outside, but the stories I’ve heard are even more than Chloe Bardo.”
According to the adjutant, Agnes’s name had only become known outside about three months ago.
Because she was an illegitimate child, her existence had been hushed up until then.
“She’s said to be indulging in the vain dream of becoming a dancer, squandering the trading company’s funds recklessly.”
Dancer.
With that single word, Lionel had no choice but to be certain.
Both the name and the dream. The girl in the abandoned building in his memory and Agnes Bardo matched perfectly.
Though it was a brief connection from childhood, Lionel clearly remembered his first meeting with Agnes.
The day his father, upon hearing that he wanted to become a pianist, said not to even dream of such idle, vagabond-like things and ordered the servants to smash the piano.
In rebellion, Lionel had recklessly run out of the mansion and rushed to the Bardo Trading Company to buy a new piano.
At that time, the Bardo Trading Company mainly dealt in musical instruments rather than weapons.
But the trading company was too large to wander without an attendant, and eventually, the place Lionel, who had lost his way, entered was inside an abandoned building.
And there, he had first seen Agnes.
He had become interested in Agnes’s appearance as she danced, killing even her breathing to avoid others’ eyes.
Because it seemed similar to himself, who secretly played the piano behind his father’s back.
Perhaps that’s why.
Or, because Agnes was the only one who didn’t dismiss Lionel’s dream as a childish young master’s whim, or as an escape chosen out of fear of taking responsibility for the family.
After their first meeting, Lionel would often visit the Bardo Trading Company with trivial excuses. To see Agnes.
It was a relationship that started from a strange sense of kinship.
And that relationship continued until right before he became a soldier.
However, at that time, since Agnes didn’t reveal her surname. He only thought she was just a member of the trading company.
“Bardo.”
Ha.
A dry smile hung on Lionel’s lips.
“It’s said there are dozens of businesses alone that were started and ruined in that short period. The trading company is already in deficit, and supplies are always delayed!”
The adjutant burst out in anger, saying that Agnes Bardo had greatly contributed to that deficit.
“While some are dying from lack of supplies, she doesn’t bat an eye. Isn’t that too much?”
“……”
“It’s even rumored that she’s embezzling supplies for profit.”
Lionel’s lips closed in a straight line.
With each word added, he wondered if this Agnes Bardo was really the girl he knew.
The Agnes he remembered wasn’t the type to do such things.
She was foolishly kind, if anything. She wasn’t the kind of person who would harm others for her own benefit.
Perhaps, there might be some misunderstanding.
However, that thought soon faded.
“Well.”
A mutter like a hollow laugh escaped from between Lionel’s lips.
“More than ten years is enough time for a person to change.”
Even he himself had become a completely different person from back then.
There’s no reason Agnes would be different.
Moreover, the time he had seen Agnes was only a very small part of her life.
If she was a member of the Bardo family, the current stories he heard might suit her better than the appearance he had briefly seen.
Or, perhaps his judgment of the Agnes in his memory was wrong from the beginning.
Memories tend to be beautified, after all.
“S-Sorry! I said something unnecessary-!”
Noticing that Lionel’s expression had hardened. The adjutant finally shut his lightly chattering mouth.
“It’s fine. We’re not particularly close anyway.”
“You’re… not close?”
“We just ran into each other a few times long ago. That’s all.”
Lionel pushed the letter he was holding into his inner pocket and took out the supply route map.
“More importantly, have the supplies arrived?”
“W-Well, about that. Colonel.”
The hesitating adjutant frowned.
“The entire supplies… have not arrived.”
“Again this time?”
Lionel’s hand crumpled the edge of the map.
He didn’t know how many times it had been. Supplies not arriving on time.
In other times, it might be okay, but the situation now was not good.
The Sercadia 5th Brigade. The enemy’s last remaining forces were making a final struggle.
They, who had started advancing faster than expected, were breaking through Lionel’s unit’s defensive line.
If weapon supplies were delayed further here, he couldn’t guarantee the unit’s safety.
And this concern eventually became reality.
Because the unit members fighting on the border were carried in on stretchers.
“W-Wounded soldiers are arriving!”
At the urgent shout, coming out of the tent, screams poured from here and there.
From those clutching legs embedded with shell fragments and rolling, to those who couldn’t even groan and just gasped.
Amid the tangled mess of wounded soldiers, black hair darkened further with blood caught his eye.
The one panting with a pale face was Cedric Alexio Valheim.
None other than Lionel’s younger brother.
“A bullet pierced Major Cedric’s abdomen! The bleeding is severe!”
On Lionel’s usually stoic face, a clear crack appeared for the first time.
“Ugh, hyung.”
Cedric, who spotted Lionel, tried to raise his body but swallowed a groan.
“What happened?”
“During the battle, we ran out of gunpowder and live ammunition, so, keuk.”
As he spoke, force went into his abdomen, and blood gushed from the wound.
“Damn it, and those Sercadia bastards used strange shells…!”
“I understand, so first, stop the bleeding.”
“Ah, if we just finish off those 5th Brigade guys, our family will be reinstated. It’s not that easy.”
Despite his face looking like he might faint at any moment. Cedric deliberately spoke playfully.
“To make up for it, if I get discharged, I should just play and eat for life. Since you’re going to become a duke, hyung, you should at least do that much so this hardship pays off, right?”
At Cedric’s appearance, pretending to be immature to ease his worry, force went into Lionel’s jaw.
Reinstatement. Yes, that damn reinstatement.
If not for that, he wouldn’t have enlisted in this cursed army.
At that moment, a messenger came running with a document stamped with Bardo’s seal.
“Colonel, a document has arrived from the Bardo Trading Company!”
A moment later, upon checking the document, sparks of anger flew from Lionel’s eyes.
『Request for Readjustment of Supply Unit Price Due to Changes in Local Situation』
***
“Oh ho.”
Among luxurious ornaments crafted in gold.
Under slick platinum hair heavily gelled and combed back, well-groomed eyebrows twitched.
“It seems the financial state of the Black Iron Knights is better than it looks. They’re willing to pay this price.”
The owner of the Bardo Trading Company.
Adrian Bardo fondly stroked the military voucher densely filled with ‘0’s.
Then, narrowing his eyes sullenly, he looked at the daughter sitting across from him.
“Since we’ve received the money, we need to send the goods. You go deliver the supplies yourself, Agnes.”
Buried in a pile of documents.
Confusion appeared on Agnes’s face as she was writing the accounting ledger without noticing the ink stains.
“You promised to exclude me from trading company work after the last delivery, Father.”
Adrian Bardo glanced at Agnes with flat eyes.
“Who said otherwise? I’m asking just this one more time. Once this is finished, I’ll send you to the Imperial Academy.”
“……Really?”
“Yes, this is truly the last.”
At Adrian’s firm assurance, Agnes reluctantly nodded.
A small desk full of the smell of paper.
She was tired now of imagining the stage while confined there all day.
How many times had opportunities to debut as a dancer arisen in the meantime, only to be sabotaged by Adrian.
But this time, since it was a direct scout offer from the Imperial Academy’s dance troupe. No matter how much Adrian, it would be hard to change his words.
“Okay. I’ll do it.”
“But!”
However, Adrian Bardo was a man who surpassed Agnes’s imagination.
Adrian added commandingly while signing the military voucher.
“Instead of the Black Iron Knights, transfer the goods to the Thalia Trading Company.”
“What?”
“The Thalia side has requested a large quantity of supplies to arm their company escorts ahead of the new continent exploration. They offered double the price.”
Agnes stood up urgently without noticing the ink spilling.
“But the Black Iron Knights are currently-!”
“Be quiet. If they needed it, they should have offered a higher price first.”
It’s absurd.
The amount written on that voucher alone far exceeded four times the market price.
Agnes’s small hand gripped the document.
If it’s like this, there’s no choice. This time too, she has no option but to secretly send supplies to the north……
“If you’re thinking of secretly diverting goods to the north again this time, forget it.”
“……!”
Agnes’s eyelashes trembled as she was planning in her head.
“Why are you so surprised?”
Looking at such Agnes, Adrian snorted as if it was ridiculous.
“Did you think I wouldn’t know? That you’ve been sending weapons to the Black Iron Knights behind my back?”
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