I’m Quitting Everything and Selling Cola

Chapter 132

Chapter 132. Turning Point

After dealing with Viscount Thornton, who had been taken in by the dark mage's enticements—the journey home.

In truth, the attack by Gilbert Thornton itself was nothing to make much of.

The Erosion was fearsome only when wielded by someone who could handle it properly. Viscount Thornton had been nothing but an empty husk.

To stand against Jurgen now—far stronger than he had been in the thick of his clashes with the dark mages—one would need to bring at minimum a Cardinal-class opponent to the table.

The aftermath had been handled cleanly as well. Vivian had been unconscious, and so it had been put down as Penelope using her quick thinking to finish Gilbert off.

Thinking back carefully later might raise some eyebrows, but for now the Ashford Marquisate was running around busily to put the attack incident to rest. There was no concrete evidence even now, but by the time anyone thought to look more closely, there would truly be nothing left to find.

And yet.

"……"

Penelope, who whipped her gaze away the moment their eyes met. The entirety of conversation since boarding the limousine amounted to: 'Shall you have some water?' and 'I-I-I-I-I'm f-fine……'

'Hmm…… I did know a day like this would come eventually……'

How would Penelope take it? He genuinely had no sense of it at all.

Not telling her he was Hanbin had been a decision made with various considerations in mind, but that was Jurgen's situation to account for. If she took it as a lack of trust in her partner, he honestly had nothing to say to that.

"Ahem, we've arrived."

For the time being, they reached the townhouse and set down their things.

"We can talk in detail after we've had some rest. Isn't everyone tired? It seems likely to be a long conversation, so."

No one had any objection to this. Had they not been awake through an entire night, and on top of that, had rather a lot happen in between? Both Serena and Penelope had dark shadows beneath their eyes.

And so Jurgen went into his room, and—

"Aaaaaaah……. I'll be heading back now too."

"Serena, a moment."

"What? What? Why?"

Serena, who had been watching the mood and trying to slip away with an exaggerated yawn, found herself grabbed by the sleeve and dragged all the way to Penelope's room.

Penelope's room. True to her nature, a room of restrained elegance, neatly composed.

In complete contrast to that. Inside Penelope's head, there was utter pandemonium—a cacophony of every kind of noise. It was because a whirlwind of every conceivable emotion was churning in murky disorder.

To think that Jurgen, whom she had grown so fond of, was in truth Hanbin, whom she respected most of all……

She couldn't believe it even having seen it with her own eyes. And yet.

Why Jurgen's ability to articulate Y&P Trading Company's vision was so remarkably outstanding. Why someone who had been nothing but a commoner was so versed in politics and law. Why, whenever Isolde and Penelope had found themselves in crisis, Hanbin-nim had appeared out of nowhere to save them.

All the parts that had seemed puzzling until now—slot in the piece of 'Jurgen = Hanbin,' and everything fell perfectly into place.

Now that she had accepted the parts that made no rational sense, the next order of business was to endure the mortification.

Penelope possessed a remarkably rich anthology of embarrassing episodes.

'This commoner…… just when exactly is he going to stop speaking so casually to me?'

The attempts at establishing dominance in the early days, which had started with that very thought.

'There's no need to be so disheartened. My talent is exceptional—it doesn't mean you're lacking.'

Lecturing on Alchemy in front of Britannia's greatest Alchemist.

'Now, you listen too. The thing about the noble world is, you see~'

Discoursing on the world of politics in front of the Minister of Internal Affairs.

'Don't worry. I'm here, aren't I? You're safe. I'm a 5th Rank Alchemist, you know.''If it gets to be too much, it's alright to lean on me. I am……'

And so forth. Penelope crumpled up the memories that were replaying themselves of their own accord and shoved them away.

And after the reality check and the retrospective, the questions came without fail.

Why on earth had that great Hanbin-nim helped Penelope? Why was he running a venture like the Culinary Revolution at the Y&P Trading Company?

And above all else……

"Why did he hide his identity?"

"I wonder……"

Penelope, who had been muttering away with a troubled look on her face, stopped and looked at Serena.

"What's this?"

Something about Serena's manner was suspicious.

"You. When did you find out?"

"Pardon……?"

"That Jurgen……, is Hanbin."

"I, I didn't know……"

Serena's head suddenly swivelled away. Her lips puckering out as though she were about to whistle. A clear and unmistakable display of playing dumb.

No wonder she hadn't seemed particularly surprised! Right there, Penelope found confirmation for her hypothesis.

"You—! You—!"

"Eek! Eeeek! What are you doing! Why are you suddenly doing this!"

"If you knew, you should have told me! Why were you keeping it to yourself!"

Penelope, overwhelmed with hurt feelings toward the two of them, grabbed Serena and shook her vigorously.

"Ha, Hanbin told me to keep it a secret! How was I supposed to say anything!"

Serena was at a complete loss.

***

Having been up through the night, Jurgen was still perfectly alert. A constitution forged through years of perpetual all-night overwork wasn't about to go anywhere.

The reason he had suggested giving Penelope and Serena time to rest before talking was because there was something a little more pressing to attend to first.

"Well?"

Aiden—former subordinate and rogue agent—shook his head.

"There was no other suspicious movement."

For this event, Jurgen had assigned Aiden to shadow-guard from behind. His own eyes could cover what fell within his field of attention, and so he had entrusted Aiden with watching for any untoward activity from outside.

The moment the Magic Receiver's signal cut off, Aiden had discovered the annex entirely emptied of people, and immediately treated it as the work of a dark mage. He had searched the surrounding area, but found nothing.

"Those dark mages are extraordinarily vicious, aren't they? And to think it's them again. Like cockroaches that make your skin crawl……"

"What are you planning to do?"

"Honestly, I want nothing more to do with them. I'm not active duty anymore, and my condition isn't what it used to be. I'm thinking of leaving soon."

Aiden looked genuinely repulsed, his face all despondency as he watched Jurgen's expression for a reaction. Well, anyone who had ever been entangled with those people would react just like Aiden—that was the normal response.

"And you, sir?"

Having his help would be reassuring, but he couldn't force the matter.

He didn't believe he had the right to.

"……"

After all, Jurgen himself had thrown aside his key role in the nation under the pretext of a Culinary Revolution and made his escape.

In the past two years, he had been entangled with the End Order four times. A frequency suggesting it was fair to say the ones whose roots had never been fully torn out were resuming their activities.

Jurgen despises dark mages. He had lost many comrades to them—Vic among them. And at the same time, a deep and weary fatigue made his eyes ache with heaviness.

The Culinary Revolution was right on the cusp. And yet, to have his ankle seized by those people again now of all times. It wasn't something he felt inclined toward.

"What do you think?"

"About what?"

"What do you think I should do?"

"You say that kind of thing too, sir."

Aiden studied Jurgen with an expression that said he couldn't quite believe it.

"It's not as though I'm on active duty either, is it."

Jurgen gave a bitter smile. Aiden scratched at his temple for a moment, then spoke.

"Knowing you, sir, I think you'd regret it no matter which you chose. Don't you always take too much on and push yourself too hard?"

"I only do as far as my eyes can reach."

"That's what pushing yourself too hard means. Ordinary people won't bother with something even when it's right in front of their noses if they can't be bothered."

At the end of a quiet exhale, Jurgen reached his decision.

"I'll have to return."

There are priorities. Deciding what to place first, and what to place after. The Culinary Revolution was certainly something Jurgen had long anticipated, a cherished endeavour on the very threshold of flowering.

But that did not make it more important than suppressing the dark mages who had begun to stir.

"Sir, in that case—what if we do it like this?"

"Mm?"

Aiden, who had been watching Jurgen with an unsettled look, opened his mouth.

"You seem reluctant, and they haven't exactly started moving in earnest yet, have they? Let's wait just a little longer. And if it really starts to seem off, we move then. If it seems like there's no need to step in, we carry on as we are now."

"No, at the very minimum, some level of surveillance and tracking is necessary."

"With this incident having happened, surely the royal family or the Church will dispatch someone regardless?"

"That alone won't be sufficient."

The royal family had many strong individuals. But peace had lasted long. Those adept at dealing with dark mages had retired or risen to senior positions. Rather than entrust something dangerous to fledglings……

"Then I'll re-enlist. If nothing else."

"Re-enlist? You?"

"My body's been feeling a bit restless anyway. Good timing. And above all, doesn't it work more in our favour for you to keep your identity concealed when it comes to catching those people by the scruff of the neck?"

What Aiden was saying amounted to: he would personally take command of the personnel to be dispatched to Nortaris.

There was no other reason for Aiden—who had shuddered in revulsion at the mere thought of being entangled with dark mages—to reverse even his retirement. It was for Jurgen's sake.

"What are you staring like that for? Isn't this a fine opportunity to strut around in front of the juniors and loosen up the body?"

"When did you become such a good sort?"

"Come now, a man tries to do something generous."

Watching Aiden awkwardly avert his gaze, Jurgen's lips curved upward.

***

Late at night. The moment of reckoning had arrived.

Penelope, who had ultimately not slept a wink, turned her feet toward Jurgen's room.

"……"

This was not her first time going to his room. She had stopped by occasionally when discussing business with Jurgen as well.

But now, the sound of her own heartbeat was loud enough to ring in her ears.

Penelope knows Jurgen.

He understands faith and duty. He is not blinded by money, and harbours no great ambition for power. Whenever Penelope had been in pain, he had been the sturdiest pillar standing at her side.

And so Penelope had trusted Jurgen more than anyone in the world. Later—truly much later—if everything resolved itself well…… It was with such thoughts that she had even issued him a 'Penelope's One-time Wish Voucher.' With the hope that he wouldn't go and waste it somewhere pointless in the middle without reading the room.

And furthermore. Penelope knows Hanbin.

He is the great Alchemist she respects most, the man who had brought Penelope to the very threshold of the 5th Rank with nothing more than a single book. He is a war hero who distinguished himself in the war against the Alcand Empire, a hero of the Great Subjugation, and the Minister of Internal Affairs who had brought revolutionary change to Britannia.

And he is the Queen's watchdog.

Even now, some nobles still shudder at the mere mention of the name Hanbin Ainsworth. How many nobles had he thrown behind iron bars, and how many had he brought to ruin?

In truth, the great majority had been crushed beneath the weight of sins they had brought upon themselves—yet still, among the nobility, those who shuddered at the mere sound of the name Hanbin were beyond counting.

And that man had concealed his identity and approached Penelope. A wholly insignificant, utterly shabby, graceless, and powerless noble young lady.

Penelope intended, from this moment, to ask of him his purpose.

After a polite knock.

"I'll come……in."

"Come in."

Mixing in awkward formal speech, Penelope opened the door and saw the back of Jurgen—of Hanbin.

Fear crept in.

Who would she be meeting from this point forward? Jurgen, or Hanbin? If it was Hanbin—she felt as though the existence she had known all this time as Jurgen might scatter away into nothing.

Penelope was gripped by an anxiety that threatened to suffocate her.